Imst World Cup!!

Ed----
In between the outdoor climbing I did 3 competitions, 2 Europeans and 1 World Cup.

The first of the competitions was in Bulgaria. It was the 2nd EYC competition. I managed to come 4th place (my best in a European!!)

The 2nd of the competitions was in Austria, this was the 3rd EYC. I managed to make the final again but did not climb as well and came 10th at the end.

10 days after this it was the main event, The World Youth Climbing Cup, again this was held in Austria in Imst. It was a fantastic competition. This is by far the best competition result I have ever had!! I managed 2nd place in the final! VERY SYKED!!!! Before this my best World Cup placing was 17th!

Here's a stash of photo's from the comp, Check em out!!

2nd leg....Austria

We are now in Austria chilling out in the little town of Imst in the Tirol region. We left Ceuse now over two weeks ago, stopping off at Arco in Italy for 3 days on the drive over. Ceuse ended awesomely with loads of people sending ther projects and getting some great end of trip photo’s of the routes. Arco was then fun on the way over where I had a few sessions up at Massone. It was awesome but way too hot for that time of year! Was much nicer to hit the pool at the campsite and have a celebrated Italian ice cream in the town!







Austria now is much different, a totally different scene over here. We have had a few days out on the rock in the Zillertal, Otzal, and Neiderthai checking out some wicked new areas and a few we had been to 3 years ago. The climbing here is so different from what we had got used to over in the South of France! Its all much shorter, more bouldery, pretty crimpy, tough on the skin and on ‘Gneiss’ rock!! Ed competed in the European Youth Comp in Imst a couple of weeks ago where he came 9th and has just qualified for the semi's in the Wold Cup this weeknd. Venga Vamos!!!!

CEUSE!!!!

Was up everybody.....
We are at Ceuse and have been here for over 4 weeks now!!! We have had an amazing time out here doing loads of incedible routes, meeting some amazing people, doing alot of walking up and down the infamous hill and alot of chilling out in the sun!
What a beautiful place to be!!






Here are some of the incredible routes we've done so far:

My Ticklist:

La Femme Noir 7c (os)
Galaxy 7c (rp)
La Chose 7c (rp)
Berlin 7c (rp)
L' errance d'une Passion 7c (f)
Hyper Mickey 7c (rp)
Vagabond d'Occident 7c (onsight)
Blanches Fesses 7c (os)
Corps etranger 7c (os)
Les Rodhodendrons 7c+ (rp)
Teuchipa 7c (os)
Tenere 7c+ (os)
Privalige de serpent 7c+ (os)
Makach Walou 7c+ (os)
Mirage 7c+ (os)
Le Migicien de Riga 7c+ (rp)
Carte Blanche 8a (Redpoint)
Bourinator 8a (Redpoint)
Petit Tom 8a (rp)
Coulur du vent 8a (rp)
Les Collenetts 8a (rp)
L'ami Couette 8a (rp)
Dolce Vita 8a+ (rp)
La Femme Blanche 8a+ (rp)
Seurs Froids 8a+ (2nd go)

Ed's Ticklist:

Monnaie de singe 8a 3rd go,
Berlin 7c onsight,
Rodhodendrons 7c+ flash,
Galaxy 7c onsight,
Le privilege du serpent 7c+ onsight,
Mirage 7c+ onsight,
Petit tom 8a flash,
Radote joli pepere 8b 2nd go,
Blocage violent 7b+ onsight,
Dolce vita 8a+ 2nd go,
L'errance dune passion 7c onsight,
La couleur du vent direct 8a+ 2nd go,
La chose 7c onsight,
Le colenette 8a onsight,
Le magicien de riga 7c+ onsight,
Bibendum 7b+ onsight,
Bourinator 8a flash,
Carte blanche 8a flash,
Suerus froides 8a+ onsight,
Vagabond d'occident 7c onsight,
Blanche fesses 7c onsight,
Correspondence imaginaire 7c+ onsight,
Corpes etrager 7c onsight,
Violent illusion 8b 4th go,
Queue de rat 7b+ onsight,
Makach walou 7c+ onsight,
L'amie de tout le monde 8b 2nd go.

Ed goes today for a comp in Bulgaria while me and Ethan have a few more days left at Ceuse. Then Ethan heads home on wednesday and I head over to Arco for a few days then onwards to Zillertal in Austria for all of August. Super Pysched!!!!!

Yorkshire Hit & New Van!!

ED’s POST!!!!! -----------------

Just had a 5 day hit up in North Yorkshire at Malham and Kilnsey for my half term! This was to try out our amazing new van and see what were the good sides and bad for the up-coming euro road trip. We drove up on the Saturday morning and climbed everyday up to Wednesday evening. We were also treated with an amazing ascent of All Out 8b+ by Chris Savage!! The weather was not great to start off but gradually got better as the weekend ended. Our ticklist over the last week of climbing from Yorkshire and peak area included-

Ed-

The Jekyll (7c+ on sight)
Dead Calm (8a 2nd go)
Le Lapin (8a 2nd go)
Cold Steel (8a 2nd go)
Mid-Ledge Spread (8a+)
Soft Option (8a+ 2nd go)
Brick Top (8b)
La Connection (8b 2nd go)
Brief Encounter (8b)
Massala Martyr (8b)
Austrian Oak (8b)

Sam-

Myra Hindley (7c onsight)
This is the sea (7c+)
Zero Option (7c+)
The Jekyll (7c+ 2nd go)
Cold steel (8a)
Le Lapin (8a)
Dead Calm (8a 2nd go)
Soft Option (8a+)
Hot Flushes (8a)

Time for Lime

Well since getting back from Spain a few weeks ago, its been all go on the Limestone sport front! Ed's been knuckling down to some hardcore training at the wall to get him ready for the Competition season to kick off. While I've been hitting the crags. Have had some great days out down at Chee dale, WCJ cornice, Dovedale and Malham. Ticks down in the Dale have been the short and sharp Entree 8a and desperate Unleashing the Wild Physigue 8a. Both routes being completely different styles and pretty tough for the grade.
Last week I had a quick hit trip to Malham with two other crushers being Caff and Ethan. We were lucky enough to be there the exact same time as the best climber in the world, Mr Adam Ondra! It was all abit surreal to be honest. We were camped right next to his tent at the campsite and I was on the same route as him (well, the easy first part anyway!!) All quite funny really. Anyway saw him warm up on Connect 5 8a+ and slip off the top of Overshadow! He made Overnight look about 7a!! Prett damn amazing. So yeh, we did manage to do some climbing ourselves with me ticking Overnight Sensation 8a+ and Yosemite wall. Caff did Connect 5 and onsighted Minimum Fuss 7c+ and almost did Power Ranger and Ethan nearly got Raindogs. A good couple of days.




Yesterday we all ventured down to check out Dovedale with Ethan, our local tour guide. First on the send train was Ron's amazing Eye of the Tiger up the centre of Ilam Rock. We decided to climb the route in a sport trad style as most of the gear is in-situ anyway from old pegs, threads and stuck wires. I got the route 2nd attempt after a quick abseil inspection. Its a fantastic route with a 'Big' feal about it topping out on a proper summit! Its relatively safe but still has some spicey run outs and definatly not a sport route!! As for the grade E6 6c seams fair, with about french 7c climbing. We then went further down the dale to check out Reynards arch. This is anouther amazing rock feature containing one of the best 7c+'s around, Arch Enemies. After doing a new 7a to the left we got stuck in to the main event with both me and Ed nailing it 2nd go. A brillinat find!
Right, thats it
Enjoy all the amazing dry crags out ther!

Margalef Magic

We have just returned home after an amazing 11 days in the pocket paradise that is Margalef in Northern Spain. Along with Rodellar, this is the best place we have climbed at. It really is that good (as long as you like pockets!). It is that awesome that we want to make a pilgrimage back out there every year from now on!
The climbing conditions were pretty much perfect, being cool in the shade and bright and sunny when you needed it with only the odd shower and one very heavy down pour, luckily it dries mega fast!
So anayway, we were staying at the chilled out Refugio in the village of Margalef run by Jordi and Miguel. From there we then visited all the best crags and tried tick off some of the incredible routes out there.

Here are the amazing crags we visited and the awesome routes ticked:
-Cova Soleida
Ment en Blanc 8a (Me 1st Rp, Ed flashed it)
Dr Feelgood 8a (Ed onsight, me 1st redpoint after falling from top!)
Esau Diresta 8a+ (Ed 1st Rp)
Anarkoreta 8a+ (Ed Rp)
Un-named groove 8a+ (Me Rp ard!)

-Espadelles, The Ceuse of Margalef!
Telemaster 8a (Ed onsight, me redpoint)
Transilvania 8a (Me 1st redpoint, Ed flash)
Brageutasso 8a+ (Ed 1st Rp)
Batuka 8b (Ed 1st Rp)
7c and 7c+ onsight from Ed

-El Laboratori aka The Lab!
Dawin Dixit 8b+ (Ed Rp)
Photo-shot 8b (Me Rp)
Zona 30 8b (Ed Rp)
Sarau Nocturn 8a (Me Rp)
7c and 7c+ onsight from Me














-Tenebres
Sativa Patatica 8a (Flashed me and Ed!)
2 7c's onsight

-Finestra
Flash Over 8b+ (Ed Rp)
Nina Mala 8b (Ed Rp)
Cubata+chupito 3euros 8b (Ed Rp)
Sargantana Killer 8a+ (Ed onsight!)
El Fustigador 8a+ (Me 1st Rp)
Dando brea 8a (Ed and I 1st Rp)
Aeroplastica 8a (Me Rp)
7c+ (Me Rp)
2 7c's, 3 7b+ (Me onsight)

It really was an amazing climbing trip. We even brushed sides with the likes of Sharma, Andrada, Camargo and a German 16 yr old who had just done his 1st 9a!

I've decided that with all these blog postings, that it's alot more interesting to have loads of inspiring photographs for people to get psyched by and abit of writing, than write alot of boring shit about every route and every move!
Its the Photographs that get people psyched to get out there!!
Enjoy...