Posts Tagged ‘competition’

Via Twitter I spotted this Best of British World Cup video. It was an event at the Biscuit Factory last weekend.

Nice competition and the setters have delivered a great job. The climbers are strong and the problems look awesome and challenging even for the females.

The video was posted on the website of The Arch Climbing wall, which by the way looks nice too!

Hey folks! I’m back from a long holiday in Asia.

I’ve been gone for 2 weeks, some of you may have noticed the photos which I uploaded on Facebook. Anyway I’m well rested and enjoyed the hot weather which was up to 30 degrees every day. I didn’t climb at all because my knee needed some time to recover.

I’m doing good at the moment. I’m still in the recover period though but well motivated to climb again! I have been climbing for a few times since I got back. I felt weak but I hope I can get my strength back on such a short notice. So far my knee is holding up pretty nice. I’m still being very careful with heelhooks on my left so I rather avoid those moves.

When I look at my calendar events, I see the lead nationals will be held next Saturday November 10th at Mountain Network Amsterdam. I’ll climb just a few more times this week to see how things end up. If everything goes well, I will compete and try to enjoy this competition!

> competitors
> program
> order tickets

Click here to see more information about the lead nationals. See you next week!

Last Friday I woke up at 6.30 AM and went back to sleep for another hour.

At 8 AM I had breakfast on the first floor. In the breakfast room there were a lot of Austrians too. Nikki and Wouter were already having breakfast.

After breakfast we went to pick up Tabitha and drove to the climbing venue. The routes were set outside in the big overhanging gym.

There were a lot of new holds, which made me curious!

The first for me was a yellow route and the second route was a black route. The first part of the route went well and I managed to climb until the roof.

From there I had a pocket with my left hand, clipped a quickdraw and went to another pinch for my right. I changed my foot position and crossed under to another pinch. From here I had to slab to this huge hold with a hole in it. But I didn’t get that far, cause I slabbed next to the hole! I thought the tickmark was going a bit more to the left. It was such a pity, cause I know I could do so much better than this. So far my first route. I had to make up for this in my second route.

At 3 PM was my second route with black holds. It was set on the right side of the climbing gym. This route looked funny. I was relaxing and climbed my way up until I got my right hand on this sloper hold.

It was only the 8th hold I think. I matched it quick and placed my left foot on this huge hold. From there I figured I should go dynamic to a pinch which was quite reachy. It didn’t work out for me. During my movement I suddenly stopped. I don’t know why. I was mad at myself. It went so good until this far move.

I should have locked off my right arm and I know I could have reached it with my left hand but I didn’t. I was copying this Korean guy I saw before and it didn’t work for me.

I ended up last in the ranking. This was a performance to forget very soon! I don’t know what to do. I do feel super motivated to train harder now. The rest of the event was nice. Nikki and Jorg advanced to the semis which was a good performance. Jorg even made the finals and ended up 6th!

Check my Facebook page to see the other 80 photos of the event. After the finals I had some free dinner and played some soccer with Jorg and the Austrian team I do have a note on how to improve the competition next time in Puurs. I think the speaker of the event should either work on his speaker style or turn off the microphone. The rest of the event was super!

It’s been a few days that I’m back home again. Last Thursday was my climbing day and I’m going to tell you all about it.

I had to wake up early. According to the climbing schedule, I had to climb 4th in my second route.

In the morning I was having breakfast with Tom. It was only 7 AM and I got a nice mini croissant with tea. After breakfast we left to the arena. Our hotel was nearby the arena, took us 15 minutes by foot. It was nice to walk outside and really wake up.

When I arrived at the arena, I had to show my pass to get in. I took a quick look at the wall to check the routes. I saw Jorg Verhoeven as well. He informed me about the blue routes. There were 4 routes set in the wall. I had to focus on the blue routes.

Behind the wall was the warm up zone. It wasn’t big nor high. I always find it difficult to warm up on a small boulder wall though and then climb a hard route. Perhaps I should standardise my training this way to get the feeling of it.

Anyway, I was placed in group B which had a total of 51 climbers. Group A also had 51 climbers. I’m not used to compete against so many climbers though.

I changed my clothes and started to warm up. When I felt a bit pumpy, I focused on the flash route. It was recorded on video behind the wall and repeated over and over.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to the route, just the sequence. I knew where the holds were set and took a look in front of the wall. I was visualizing how the movements would feel like when I will climb the route.

It was almost time to climb. I didn’t feel nervous yet. I was putting on my climbingshoes backstage and prepared myself to climb. I had to wait until it was my turn. The first part of the route went really well. I expected this route to be much harder. The holds were nice however the clipping the quickdraws wasn’t nice. Anyway, no hard moves so far which could have scared me off. At that moment I was believing in myself, enjoying the climb and I could could hear my team members supporting me. I can’t remember the music or anything else. The route was really nice.

Although I didn’t climb all the way to the top, but I was kind of surprised when I fell out of the route. From a sidepull I had to cross over with my right hand and grabbed an undercling with my left hand. I can remember this guy placed his foot on a far foothold and so did I. The next hold was meant for my right hand and as I went towards the hold I felt I didn’t get my fingers properly on the hold. It was small though, but that was the moment I fell out of the route. I wasn’t too happy about that but also I wasn’t too disatisfied about it. The climb went okay I suppose. I just wished I didn’t fall out at that spot. My left arm was starting to get pumpy but I wasn’t tired yet.

My second route was much later. I was placed 29th in the first route. I had to wait 2 hours, which gave me the opportunity to watch other climbers in the routes. From this point of view it looked like the 1st route was set harder than the route I had just climbed. Once in while I was walking backstage to traverse on the wall. Usually it feels easy to stay warm after one route. I memorized the route and was ready to climb.

Just before it was my turn, Michiel and Hans showed up. They were just in time to watch me climb. When I started my second route, I heard them supporting me. Actually I only heard my team cheering for me and nothing else. The moves looked hard but once again I expected it to be hard but it was all okay.

The roof had good holds and getting out of the roof was a crux for me. I knew it was hard to go to this sloper. I placed my left heel behind on the module and I knew I had to cross over with my left hand. It didn’t feel right though, so I went with my right hand to this sloper.

I wasn’t even close to this hold! Perhaps because of my feet placement it didn’t feel right and therefore I got punished.

I knew right away this score wasn’t enough to advance to the semis. I ended up 51st from 102 lead competitors. Just in the middle, what can I say about that? I’ll leave that to you.

I had a brief feedback session with Wouter after my climb. It was good to talk about it and listen to his point of view. I enjoyed climbing though! To be here for a whole week was great. Walking among the best climbers gives such positive energy. The semis and finals were great. The tickets were all sold out which means there were about 6000 spectators to see the best climbers in the world in action!

Below you can see a few photos from the whole event.

I didn’t stay at the arena all the time though, but also went sightseeing with my team. We went to Blocbuster for a few hours and had dinner together.

The other days I have visited Bastille, Les Arches, Arc de Triomphe, Pompidou, Notre Dame and many more venues.

Today I had a restday.

I was up in the morning to work on my blog.

As you can see, I have selected just a few photos.

Anyway, this morning I bought breakfast in a bakery shop.

I picked some nice pain aux raisins. I love those, especially when they’re still warm.

At the arena I explored a the different areas. The boulder area was quite small compared to the lead area. Of course lead climbing is way more fun than bouldering. My first impression of the wall was the hidden overhang. It looks huge, but actually it’s about 20 meters high.

Nikki climbed her first route in the afternoon. Her second route was about 2 hours later. I took a few photos of her second route. She climbed really well. She ended up in the semi final, so we’ll see her in action again on Friday!

The Dutch boulderteam was there as well. The problems looked hard with many sloper holds. Not my cup of tea though. Such a pity none of the men advanced to the semis.

After the competition we went back to our hotel. I got a leg massage from Tom, cause I felt a bit sore from the long walk. It felt good!

In the evening we went out for dinner. We searched for several restaurants but none of those met our standards.

Eventually after half an hour of walking we ended up in a nice restaurant.

Our toast went out to Nikki and her awesome performance today. I had a nice duck fillet with Orangina and some crepe du Nutella as desert. It was so delicious, makes me feel good yeah.

Now I’m back at the hotel. Once again updating blog, working on photos and catch up on the Dutch elections. By the way, I tweeted it before but I’ll repeat it here again. Tomorrow I’ll start climbing 4th in my second route and 29th in my first route, which means I’ll be climbing at approximately 09:10. I don’t feel the World championship climbing tension yet though, I feel quite relaxed.

It was good to check out the wall today. I was impressed by the paraclimbers though. Some were blind or missing a leg or arm but nonetheless they managed to top the route!

Anyway, check out the live stream tomorrow!

I just set my alarm clock: 06.30 AM on my phone. I’m going to brush my teeth, take a shower and get some sleep. I wish you goodnight from Paris. Bonnuit!

Yesterday was another national competition: Boulder 2.

Last week I decided to join this competition. I signed up last minute, but my name didn’t appear on the start list when this competition was announced by the NKBV.

I made a phonecall within my network and tadaaaaa! My name was on the starting list. Yesterday It took me 2 hours to get to this venue in Amsterdam. This boulder contest was held in a new climbing gym from Mountain Network.

I arrived just on time. My planning was to arrive earlier though, but I got delayed. I don’t trust internet anymore. I planned my trip to arrive at 11.00 but I arrived 45 minuter later at my destination.

Anyway, I enjoyed the sun and Amsterdam. And when I entered the climbing gym I received a sticker number 72 and a green topoguide.

The entrance is the climbing gym is on a different floor. You have to go by elevator to floor nr. 6! I saw a few photos on Facebook before and I was wondering if it was really that big.

My first impression of the climbing gym: Hmm I thought this gym was humongous. Obviously not, but I haven’t climbed a single route yet though. The funny thing is, when you look outside the window, you can spot the old Mountain Network building! Check it out haha.

I warmed up on a vertical wall and was wondering where everyone was bouldering. It wasn’t crowded at all! I looked on the topoguide and saw another floor plan with a boulder area. The stairs was hidden behind a wall to go down to floor 5.

I walked down the stairs and saw a boulder area. This place looks like Neoliet Tilburg boulder area but bigger. It was crowded and dusty. How am I suppose to climb when it’s so crowded? I was going explore the problems among the crowd.

I believe we had 4 hours 3 hours to climb 6 hard problems. There were lots of hard problems but many of them were morpho in my opinion. Again this was a test to see if I’m getting back in shape. I needed time to warm up proper. The holds were quite rough and new, which made it painful to climb long. I climbed 6 problems in 3 hours 2 hours and took an hour extra rest.

I knew this score was enough to advance to the finals. 8 people is a lot in the finals. I ended up 3rd ex-equo with Elko. He managed to climb exactly the same problems.

Casper was curious and decided to check the new Mountain Network gym out. La Sportiva was present and it was nice to see what kind of shoes they have in stock.

In the meantime I received a Monk shirt from Dirk. I’m part of Monk, so I’m happy to represent it during the finals!

The isolation area was the boulder area. This time the boulder area was open to finalists only. I thought it was summer, but in here it was cold. I needed to keep myself warm and stay focused.

Later we had a short briefing by a judge. He shared the rules and told us we are going to use the 4 minute system. This system works okay if we were with 6 climbers. Now I can get extra rest when my time is up.

The first problem was morpho. I couldn’t even reach the third hold which is lame. I know I had to jump but the footholds were set too low. Not to mention, jumping to a undercling is just lame. I didn’t like this. No matter what I tried, nothing helped. Stupid boulder!

I think the second problem was challenging. Big volumes and only 6 blue holds. I tried different methods in this problem, however the volumes are so not attractive. We were having discussions before we started to climb. It’s a fact that you shouldn’t paint a volume twice. And I think what happened here is that the volumes are repainted twice, which makes it really smooth. In this condition it was really hard to get hold of the volume. Plus the volumes weren’t set proper and it’s skin / arm unfriendly. But the idea was nice though.

The third problem seemed hard but it actually was nice. The final hold was hard to match. It was the crux though. I skipped the bonus hold and jammed my knee between two holds and managed to match the final hold in my second attempt. Finally a small success during this round!

The last boulder problem was hard or missing footholds. Crossing over above your head into a sidepull was just odd. Not meant for me. I tried different methods here, but it’s not my kind of problem. I only got a bonus here.

When I drew conclusions after the competition, I thought that I would end up 5th. Elko seemed to have exactly the same performance. So when I left home, I figured to check out the results on the webpage. Hmmm I ended up 3rd ex-equo with Elko! What a surprise haha.

Oh well, I’m spending more climbing hours lately and it seems to pay off. Although not in the right competition yet, but I’ll get there. Check out the rest of the results here.
Check out the photo set taken by NKBV by clicking on the photo below.

Source: NKBV