Langenfeld European Bouldering Cup

The second bouldering cup was held in Langenfeld, this was my final bouldering competition of the year so I wanted to make it my best one.

From St Leger I travelled back into England and got dropped of by my family at Stansted Airport, from here we flew to Munich and after a rather eventful car ride featuring a flat tire we arrived at our hotel at 3 in the morning!

We recovered and the competition was soon on us! I was climbing at about 11 o'clock and I did a really good warm-up with Tim involving lots of looking like an idiot but when I pulled on the wall it was worth it because I felt like I was moving well and felt like I could pull out some hard moves.

The clock ticked down to our start time and I checked out our problems, it was weird how they did the comp they made variations of the problems but essentially the same base moves for example we had a similar problem to the youth b girls but they had taken of three holds.

Right the clock struck 0 and it was time to climb, I watched Will flash the first problem so the pressure was on me to match his effort, I went for it but had to squeeze so hard to stay on and dropped it early. Another effort and I dropped the next move then someone came along and just went with the other hand and made it look easy, this did turn out to be loads easier so then I dropped 2 moves higher because of a silly slip! Fouth go and I stuck the second to last hold but then my foot slipped and I fell! Ah fifth and final go, I really had to compose myself for this and executed it perfectly it felt great!

After that I did the easiest problem, which was a proper dyno so I was surprised I could do it! Next was the youth B girls problem made harder, on my first three goes I dropped this hard press move to a pocket but then sorted myself out and managed to do a cheeky crimp in a bolt hole which isn't technically allowed but oh well and finished of the problem!

Next I tried the slab which was a youth B boys final but couldn't touch the way everyone did it, it just didn't seem possible for me so I left it, next was another dyno this one was a quick match and slap to a good hold which purely revolved around speed. I slipped on my first go and on my second stuck the move it was sick I have to say such a good problem, so after that all the problems where desperate but I tried different beta on the slab but unfortunately ran out of time for another go!

This competition was really well organised, great music, all explicit, good lighting and a great place so I really enjoyed it and I might venture to say that bouldering comps are pretty fun, and with a decent result of 25th I was pretty pleased with my trip.

Next was the finals and it was amazing watching Will crush to a silver position so close to gold, Tara finish 4th so close to 3rd! Also Max made a good effort and came 5th! Well done to all the team and thanks to the management!

Thanks to my Sponsors:
 Sports Aid
 North Devon Sports Foundation
Dewerstone