On the climbing front there's not much to report, the bouldering qualifiers didn't quite go to plan with Dave finishing down in 27th and out of the semi's. Dave also competed in the Lead event, a first for him and something which he really enjoyed. The nerves were obvious on the first route both for him climbing and me watching but he climbed really well and performed amazingly on the second route, always likes to surprise! Although I don't think he could have climbed any faster if he had tried! Dave finished 26th in his group and 51st overall not bad considering there were over 130 competitors taking part.
The men's lead final was very special with what must have been 1000's of people packed into the climbing area to watch. Quite simply, this is how it is done. Watch out for the pictures from Alex Messenger, the pidgeon was flying about so there's bound to be a few good ones!
Next was a week of climbing, how to sum up? Amazing massive tufa's, cool steep 7a+s, Dave on-sighting 8a's putting the clips in, me getting more scared than I've ever been before, smeary, shiny black footholds, perfect weather, technical!
The last stop before home was to Area 47 in the Oetztal valley near Innsbruck where the Adidas Rockstars Invitational comp was being held. The rubbish weather threatened to make me very grumpy as did the massive air of elitism that surrounded the whole thing, but the free food and beer more than made up for it, and I think the climbers actually enjoyed being spoilt at a comp for once! I competed in the (very!) early morning open comp and finished 13th it was entertaining, I had forgotten how hard international level problems really are! Dave made semi's and climbed really well getting painfully close to topping the 3rd boulder that would have seen him make the finals.
Back home now, and we are most definitely route psyched although if the rain doesn't stop soon I might give up and head back indoors for a little bit of sneaky training :)
Happy holidays everyone!
Dave and Ellie.
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