Autumn holiday - climbing in Turkey!

Hey again:) Right now I'm in Turkey (Geyikbayiri) for the third time, climbing  It's so nice and relaxed. I'm down here with my dad, but many other danish climbers are here too. We stay at JOSITO-climbing camp, and I can really recomend it. The rocks and people down here are amazing!
We've been here for five days now, and still have until Sunday:-)
I decided that I didn't want to use my holiday for project-climbing too much, but rather train some onsighting and do a lot of nice routes. And that I'm doing :-) The first day I climbed some easy sixth-graded routes, to get used to the rocks again. I quickly started to climb harder grades; alot of 6c to 7a+ onsights, one 7b onsight, a 7b and 7b+ in second attempt, a 7c in second attempt and an 8a in third go! :)
I really enjoy it. The rest of the week, I think I'll try to onsight some more seventh-graded routes. - Climbing in Turkey is my heaven <3

PLØKS Open

This weekend I partook in a rope competition in Pløks climbing club in Skovlunde.

The RopeComp is a Cup challenge spread over four competitions – called Volumes - held at different climbing clubs in Denmark. This competition was the third volume. The first competition Stine Østergaard – the Danish Route Champion (adult)  - won , and I came in second. The second RopeComp I won, and she came in second. So it would be interesting to see, who was going to win this third leg.

The competition had twenty-seven routes in different graded categories: cat. 1 to 4, where cat. 1 was the easiest (approx. 5c) and cat. 4 the hardest (approx. 7b/7b+). You gained different points depending on whether you flashed or redpointed a route. The routes were furthermore divided into zones having 2 zone holds, which would provide a lesser point amount. It was only the eight highest scores that counted, and of course the hardest category awarded most points.

I tried not to use too much energy in the qualification, and thought that being fresh in the finals would be the most important thing. Therefore I didn’t try all the hard routes and only climbed eight routes: flashing /onsighting all six category 3 routes, one flash/onsight on a category 2, and a Zone 2 on a category 4 route. After that, I hung around chatting with my friends, and resting for the finals.

I was ranked second after the qualification. Stine was heading the field with just 9 more points than me out of around 5000 points. In the female finals the six best women would compete. At about 17.00 we were sent into the isolation area. I really looked forward to climb the final route. Quite rested after not having climbed very hard and nearly a four-hour break, I felt quite confident that I would climb well.

The final route was presented to us, and it was an overhanging route on red holds. It looked quite hard, but also a lot of fun. Then it was back to the isolation with the five other girls/women and begin warming up. Fifteen minutes later the music was turned on, and the first competitor was called for J. The atmosphere was nice and relaxed. About twenty minutes later on, it was my turn. I entered the gym, took a short look at the route again and began to climb. The route had good holds, although some of the moves were a bit technical, but nothing really hard. I happily topped out.

After me it was Stine’s turn to climb, and she topped out too. As she was first after the qualification, she won this round.

Even though I was a bit annoyed with myself, that I hadn’t tried one more hard route in the qualification and earning just a few more points, I was satisfied with my climbing efforts. I personally think I climbed the final route with good technique, and hadn’t found the route very tough.

After the final volume next month the overall winner of the RopeComp Cup  will be found. Looking forward to it!

-          A nice day in Pløks J

Hey again:)
I'm in Aahus visiting my grandma, and of course the best climbing gym in DK! :) yesterday I climbed together with Asta from ÅK and had some nice onsights. Some 7b's and a good attempt on the white 7c+. Really great climbing they got here.
Now it's soon autumn holiday, and that means a lot of nice rock climbing with my old dad in Turkey(antalya). Looking so much forward to it. It's really the best place I've ever been and I can recomment it for every sportsclimber. I hope that maybe I'll climb a 8a more down there.

Danish Bouldering Championships 2011 - NJK

Friday afternoon my friend Cille and I took the bus from Valby to Aalborg. We arrived late at the climbing gym, where we were went straight to sleep around 22.30. After a good nights sleep we woke about eight o’clock, and said good morning to all the other juniors from the other clubs (and of course also from my own club). That was a nice way to begin the day. After eating some delicious breakfast, I hung around chatting with all my climbing friends. At nine o’clock the registration began.
     We were going to climb ten qualification problems. I was in the girls-under-sixteen group, and we were only six climbers. Despite the number of competitors in my group was not very big, I knew that I would get some strong competition anyway. I especially expected competition from two of the girls from Aarhus and one from Roskilde. As we would be four going to the finals, I was quiet sure that I should at least reach the finals. We started climbing 10.30 and I was a bit nervous, but nothing special. Every climber in the junior team I’m a part of (from Copenhagen Climbing club), had got these really cool bracelets from our trainers. It was a karma spreading bracelet. On it was a illustration of Spiderman.
     The gym was full of good energy and everybody cheered each other on and provided beta. My qualification went very well, and I managed to flash all the ten problems. I was ranked first and now it would be the finals that mattered.
     After some hours, we went to the isolation. We had to climb five different problems, and after the problems were presented for us, it was back to the isolation and start warming up. I thought that some of the last problems they had shown us looked very hard. One of them - an orange one -  we had been shown, none of us could read. It had a lot of holds, but not all of them looked very good.
     After a small half hour, it was my turn to climb the first problem in the finals. It was built on an outdoor boulder mushroom, and had grey holds. It was not very difficult, and I onsighted it. The second final-problem was with red holds, and also built outdoors but on a small overhanging wall. I also onsighted this problem, as it wasn’t so hard either, even though the last move was a bit reachy. The third final-problem was the strange orange problem. I was a bit nervous when I was going to climb it, because I didn’t know what to do. I fell down twice, but the third time I found the correct beta and topped. The fourth final-problem was technical with black holds. I also onsighted this problem, and now only one problem remained. The last and fifth final-problem had green holds, and a technical start with quiet bad holds. The last move was a long move from one jug to another. I happily topped this one in first attempt too, and I was satisfied with my own climbing.
     I won my age category, and retained my Danish Championship title. It had been an enjoyable day with all my friends and a lot of good bouldering.

World Youth Cup 2011 in Imst, Austria

Last Thursday to Saturday the World Youth Championships was held in Imst, Austria. We were eight juniors competing for Denmark, and I was one of them. I was going to compete in the Female Youth B group (the youngest group for girls born in 1996/97).

We arrived at München airport Wednesday evening, and drove directly to Innsbruck to join the rest of the Danish competitors at our hostel 60 km from Imst. After a good - but probably a bit too short - sleep, I was ready to compete against the world’s best Youth B girls. The first qualification route was presented at 9AM. All competition routes were placed on the outdoors competition wall and my first route had orange holds. The route started out with about five meters vertical climbing and then the wall became steeper and steeper. It looked like some nice and technical climbing. There were about thirty climbers before me, and I watched many of them climb, observing beta. Many of the girls came quite far up, and therefore I thought that it might not be a very tough route. After an hour of warming up, I was ready to climb. I had my nerves under control, and knowing that I was in my best climbing shape ever, I was quite confident when it was my turn.

The first holds were quite good, and I climbed fast with a good flow. When I clipped the fourth quick draw I thought that this might be a very good attempt, about four meters up. No pump or tiredness. I put my foot up and reached for the next hold. Suddenly my foot slipped and I was dangling on the rope. I was very frustrated and sad. I was ranked 70 out of 72, so bottom three for the first route.

The second qualification route would be Friday, but with my very bad ranking from the first qualification route, I knew that the semi-finals (only the best 26 climbers in every group) would be unreachable.

After some time I managed to change my mood, and enjoyed the rest of the day watching the other climbers and cheering my team mates on. I told myself that tomorrow should be a day, where I could show that I was not in the bottom three. After a long, sunny and hot and humid day, we drove back to our hostel.

Friday morning we drove to Imst again, to climb the second qualification route. I was very motivated and was looking forward to show not only my trainer, friends and dad, but mostly myself, what I was capable of. My second route had orange and red-holds, which looked pumpy with some long moves. It started with vertical climbing in two sections – the first a few meters of slightly overhanging wall, and after the two sections it was overhanging climbing. The holds looked quite bad, but luckily many of them were crimps (my favourite kind of hold).

I was first going to climb as number 66, so I had a lot of time to watch the other climbers.

Finally, after many hours it was my turn to climb. Many girls had fallen in the lower section of the route, and it was only a few who had made it to the top overhanging section. I was quite nervous after what happened the day before on the first qualification route. If I made a mistake on this route, I had not only failed one time, but twice.

I tried to tell myself that I could and would do good. Now it was just to climb, learn and have fun.

The first vertical section was not very hard, and suddenly I found myself climbing through the second section, where many girls had fallen. I started to get tired, but forced my body further up and up. When I reached the start of the top section I fell of, just managing to touch the first hold.

Quite satisfied with my attempt, I knew that the result on the second qualification route, would better show me my position compared to the other competitors. It turned out I was number 14 out of 72, and that was a much better result than I had dared hope for!

All in all I was positoned number 32, and knowing that I could have done much better I now feel confident to compete at international competitions again.

Actually I hope to participate to an European Youth Cup this November in France.

You can see some pictures from the event here: WYCH2011