Fire

Why are fire alarms so loud at 3 am. You just have to get up, grab a coat, and some trainers, and go for a wander.  How well trained we are. We were evacuated to the car park for 15mins whilst the fire brigade came, and then allowed back in. I was ready to get back to sleep. Morning came soon and it was time for the BLCCs.  It’s my first year in A age group, we were climbing the same routes as the juniors.  The first route was on the old comp wall which I have found hard before. However, it looked ok and I topped it out along with the 3 other GB members. 

Second route was on the hanger wall, this route was good fun with no clipping disasters from me this time.  Only 3 other boys topped this. 

Of the 3 that had topped both routes I was the first out of isolation, a tricky looking route up the middle of the hangar wall, all went fine until I messed up by not pressing out of a foot hold enough to hold a volume.  I was spat off.  The next climber fell foul of the same move. Then it was a tense wait to watch the last climber, who did not get as far. With the new rules in tie break, as we had both topped the qualifiers, time is looked at.  I was the quickest by about a good minute.

Next day I had decided to enter the seniors, just for fun, well we had travelled all the way up to Ratho and it was an opportunity to climb on more comp routes with the seniors!  I was fairly early up on the first route, mini jugs and some crimps on the old comp wall.  I was a bit cross with myself for only touching the final hold.  This put me in joint 7^th with 6 others.  The second qualifier was tricky, I watched many climbers fight their way up it. Somehow my brain just gave out on me and I made a mistake.  It was a really good experience to climb with the seniors.

Connor Byrne