First Time to Fontainebleau..

Beautiful scenery as we were getting lost! (JR)

During October half-term, I travelled to Fontainebleau with some friends for 9 days of bouldering. It was my first time going to Font, and my first trip abroad specifically or rock climbing! After a long journey we arrived at our place, almost opposite the lovely palace of Fontainebleau.

On our first day we headed to Bas Cuvier where the aim was to have a nice intro to Font style climbing – only 6's, no 7's. That lasted about half an hour; Aidan and Luke quickly dispatched L’Aerodynamite, a 7c classic. So the day changed to trying as much as we could in Bas Cuvier. I was amazed at the rock; not only was it beautiful to look at, it was so nice to pull on!! I really

Will holding my favourite hold in Font (right hand)! (CW)

enjoyed Bas Cuvier, and found it the best area for me out of all the places we visited over the course of the week. 

Spotting Kitty on Holy Moly (JR)

The first of my 2 favourite problems was Carnage – a name I’d heard before I visited Font. It was my style and I really enjoyed it's moves. One of my favourite things about this bloc is that at the beginning it had felt above my limit and I didn't think I'd be able to work out the right feet placement for me. But after working it for a while I managed to find a way. For the second move of the stand, I couldn’t lock it like the boys with a low foot, and couldn’t lock it with a high foot. After quite some time, I gave up trying to find some foot that would work for me and just flicked the move, catching it to my surprise. After a few more attempts trying to link the problem I managed to do it. The rest of the group had started working on L’hellicopter, another bloc I’d heard about before. I thought why not and joined them on it, but and falling off the last move, and watching everyone else take some interesting falls I decided that my one go was enough for me that day ha!  

My other favourite boulder, and the one I was most pleased with doing was Holy Moly, again at Bas Cuvier. It was something that took me quite a while to get, a problem that I knew I could do but just wasn’t doing! I have a short temper and short patience so I don’t really work things very often. It was good for me to practice this skill as I’ve learnt it’s something very important in outdoor climbing! It was a great problem and I eventually managed it with everyone's support and encouragement for me to keep at it!

Watching Aidan send Big Boss (CW)

The rest of the week I watched the boys send a lot of hard stuff, ate some baguettes and pulled on a few boulders. As much as I wanted to climb lots of hard stuff, I knew Font would be hard, especially the first time I was there and it would take some time for me to get used to climbing there. As well as this, I needed Font as a psychological break from competitions and training. The months previous to Font had been pretty heavy, hard and tiring and I was pretty done with the competition season. It was nice to be away with no pressures or stress and just enjoy climbing with friends!

Crew (CW)

Overall, the trip was great fun and I really enjoyed my time in Font. It was always impressive watching the others walk up things I'll return for one day! Thanks for a great trip guys!

But a massive thanks to my sponsors who've been the most amazing supporters this year!

Lyon Outdoor
Berghaus
SportsAid
Sport England
Natoora
NuLine
Michael & Lauren Clancy

And thanks to Carys Whomsley (CW) and Jo Robbings for the pictures (JR)... here's a few more of theirs!

Sale Gosse - Roche aux Sabots (CW)

Always smiling in Fontainebleau! (JR) 

Learnt how to do some of this... (JR)

Jo throwing shapes at Bas Cuvier (CW)

Getting stuck on Professional Killer - Cuvier Rempart (CW)

Noir Désir - Cuvier Rempart (CW)

A little bit of everything.

I haven’t blogged at all this year… hopefully this blog will make up for it. I haven't gone into much detail, just a brief summary.

Part1: Injury & Comps…

Me looking like I'm enjoying the final route in Imst (Tanya Rose)

JBBC Bristol final bloc 2 (Sandy Carr)

It’s been a busy year, not exactly in the way I had hoped as we moved into 2015. I was feeling really motivated for 2015 and loving training until my finger started to hurt. After countless visits to physiotherapists, doctors, team trainings spent watching everyone else climb and an MRI, the start of the season was getting closer and closer and I wasn’t even able to climb harder than a jug ladder. I missed the first EYC… it coincided with exams so that softened the blow, but it was my first ever EYC I’d missed.  It wasn’t long before I lost almost all motivation to keep on going, I couldn’t really do anything without this pain. After having some Shockwave treatment at Optimum Performance Sports Injury Clinic and seeing a physio at Appi Health group my finger started to feel like it was on the mend – I just want to say a huge thanks to these guys for all their support! Eventually, I started to push my finger and entered a number of comps including two Europeans where I placed 7^th and 16^th, and I entered 2 Junior British Bouldering comps which to everyone (and my own) surprise I managed to win. The injury taught me a lot… I was putting far too much pressure on myself to be perfect 100% of the time, I finally started to enjoy the actual climbing rather than be a robot and do competition after competition only thinking of those steps on the podium. This was quite a big turn around in my climbing. Competitions are no longer the be all and end all, just another part of climbing! I’m way more excited for rock climbing too!

Part 2: Kilnsey…

Comedy, Kilnsey (Jim Pope)

Last week I was lucky enough to get the chance to spend 3 days at Kilnsey with Ian Dunn and Jim Pope. It was great to watch these guys climb; they looked so experienced and comfortable on the rock, something I am yet to acquire! ;) Kilnsey was perfect for me – steep, a practically non-existent walk in, smooth holds! It took me a route or two to get into it but I really did love it. Ian gave me routes to try, saying I must get on a few of the classics! I managed to do Comedy, Dead Calm and Truth Drug to name a few but also was able to try a few others such as The Bulge (which Jim effortlessly topped 2^nd go) and Dominatrix. I thought I'd leave the harder routes for the big boys to try! But I definitely want to go back soon!

To end, I thought I’d list a few things I’ve learnt from my little taste of outdoors:

1.     Routes take (me) absolutely ages to climb (in the eyes of a 6mins max comp climber). I still don't see 'holds' as such when I look at a rock face.

2.     Exact beta helps… a lot.

3.     The toilet situation is never going to be comfortable!

4.     You (well I!) will be pumped pretty much most of the way up a route.

5.     Everyone is mega friendly and helpful at the crag!

Now I'm back at The Westway training hard for the next EYC in Mitterdorf this weekend and the World Youth Championships in Arco at the end of August.

A huge thank you to all my sponsors for their support this year!

Lyon Outdoor

Berghaus

Natoora

NuLine

Westway Development Trust

Michael and Lauren Clancy

Sports Aid

Sport England

Thanks for reading :)

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