So its been a while since we flew home from Tenerife, and so much has taken place. As soon as I returned I had to make the long drive a to North Wales ready to deliver a presentation for the BMC. For several years the BMC have been running a Symposium for climbing coaches, and for my part I have given presentations on various subjects. This year I was to talk about the use of ‘Drill’s’ to teach techniques to climbers. This is something I have done for years, and can vouch for the success of using drills at the right stage of learning. After delivering the presentation multiple times during the day I was pretty shattered, but so happy with how well the concept was received.
So when I left the symposium I felt quite smug, I have just returned from a great holiday and the presentation that I was nervous about delivering to my peers went well. Unfortunately from this point on things fell apart quite literally. Having a quick boulder in the pass before leaving home seemed to be a good idea, and indeed it was until I went to leave and my battery appeared flat. A push start and I seemed to be on my way, but very quickly I lost all electrics (lights included) and broke down beside the road. After contacting my breakdown cover, Greenflag, I was informed they could not find a tow truck for me. Instead they offered to take me to a local garage and get it repaired in the morning. After a night in the carpark they also offered to pay for a new alternator and battery so my luck seemed to be turning.
Tow truck fun
all I wanted at this point was to get home, and see my husky, Tufa. I had been away for 10 days, and I always miss her. As soon as I got home we dashed over the beach, we made it about a mile when as I reached down to pick up a stick I suddenly found myself collapsed on the sand. My knee had given way from under me and to cut a long story short I had torn my cartilage out of my left knee. This had left my knee locked at 90 degrees and unable to weight bear. A mile of crawling and hoping got me home from were Liz drove me to A and E. After all the normal NHS issues a MRI scan showed a bucket handle tear to my miniscus which led to surgery a week later and 2 months on crutches!
Fresh from surgery
The Injury was a double blow as I was meant to boarding a flight to Kalymnos to work with Positive Climbing on one of their coaching holidays. This had been something which I had been looking forward to for some time. It was horrible having to phone Adrian (a good friend as well as my employer for this trip), and tell him that I would be letting the side down. Fortunately for me and the trip, a replacement coach was found at short notice and every one had a good time.
But there was little or no time for being injured back on the home front, as it was also the Welsh Championships. This is a competition that I have been running for 6 years, with help from other climbers around Wales. For 2014 I had decided to run the event at Boulders climbing centre in Cardiff (I try to rotate around the available walls in Wales). One of this biggest challenges in organising the event is preparing the routes. With climbers in all categories tackling 5 routes we needed around 40 routes to run the comp, and gauging the difficulty right is a hard job. This year Myself, Anthony Williams, Ben West and Fred Nash took on the task and after 2 days it felt as if we had reset the entire centre.
The Comp started on saturday morning and having not done online entry we had no idea how many climbers would be taking part. But as Paul Walters ( my buddy with whom I first started the event) used to say, ‘Build it and they will come’. Indeed they did, with over 160 climbers taking part from all over the UK and Ireland, making it the biggest event so far!
Welsh Champs 2014
The day was a massive success, and many thanks go out to the local climbing community, who rallied around to help run and in turn make this amazing event. DMM and Serious Climbing were on hand as our sponsors and they gave away some amazing prizes and some novel trophies!
On the Photography front it has been a struggle as I have simply not been able to get out to the crags due to my injury. So as soon as I could walk with out those dreaded sticks it was a relief to get out with my camera and to start shooting. First on the agenda was Oxwich, as I have been working on a Topo for some time. Richard and Cai met me at the crag and it was fun to get the flash gun out again with two climbers eager to have their picture taken. The day was pretty overcast with short blasts of rain, but for a short hour of blue sky when we quickly pounced on the opportunity, and I’m very happy with the results!
Richard climbing at Oxwich Bay
With the help of local strong man Liam Fyfe I hope to finish the Topo over the christmas period, although it is turning into an epic job with so much bouldering being discovered. This being said I feels like we have found a good system so keep your eyes peeled for the next free topo for our region.
I have also been to the cinema a bit, turns out its a good activity for some one with limited mobility! Firstly Hunger games the latest instalment is SHIT! don’t watch it, nothing happens! But Interstellar is amazing, and after watching it I spent a few nights checking out the night sky. If you have never bothered checking out the milky way, get outside on the next clear night (prefrebaly away from any city and with no moon) and you will be amazed!
Gower Milky Way
My full time job is coaching young climbers in South Wales, and this last year has been fantastic. With so many of them seeing gains from there training and reaching new PB’s its been great to be a part off. One climber who is on fire in terms of performance this year is Emily Philips. Her constant desire to work hard and push her limits has payed off, having just been selected to represent Team GB for the up and coming season. She has been a delight to work with and hopefully will be the tip of the iceberg. With so many young climbers performing to previously thought outrageous levels following in her footsteps, I believe we should see a ground swell of climbers from South Wales putting on the GB top and competing at the highest level in the not to distant future!
Emily winning the Youth Open