The Linz EYC

The Linz EYC - 28th June-1st July 2012

This was the first European outside of the UK that I had been to which resulted in a lot of anticipation of what the trip would be like.  I was very excited to compete and climb to the best of my ability after my disappointment at my result in the Edinburgh EYC when I came 19^th having slipped on the second route - I could have got much further.  As well as this, I was just as psyched to get away from the miserable British weather as the weather reports of 30 degrees in Austria sounded very appealing.  The plane flight there and drive to the hotel went smoothly and when we finally got there the sun was glorious! 

The first thing we did was get settled into our rooms which were awesome because the lighting in the bathroom was green!  Then came the challenge of attempting to translate the menu.  After 5 minutes or so we mainly all had some sort of beef steak thing from the barbeque which we had fun chewing - it was tasty nonetheless.  We had a bit of a look around the pool before deciding that the sauna was a better option for the evening.  The sauna seemed like a great idea right up until the moment when Jim, Johnny, Molly, Charlotte and me were sat in it regretting the decision but unwilling to be the first one to get out. A lot of sweat later we bailed out.  Eventually we retired to our beds.  The next day was occupied largely by the swimming pool, a trip to the shops and going to find the climbing centre.  

Finally the first day of the competition came and soon we were sat at the wall reading through our routes and getting psyched to crush the climbs.  My first route looked very pumpy but other than that none of the moves looked too hard.  My second climb on the other hand was a flat wall but covered in terrible holds and 2 polished wooden volumes which looked horrific. Despite my negative description of the second climb I knew it would be the one that suited me better because I wouldn’t get very pumped and it was just a matter of good foot placement and focus.  I was mid-field on the first climb so I had plenty of time to warm up and get to grips with the route and where people were falling.  Angus and William both fell off around 2 thirds of the way up with Angus getting a couple of moves further, this gave me the idea of where the first crux was and where the benchmark would be.  My attempt came and I pulled on feeling good.  I went through the first section relatively easily, although looking back I had my feet off a bit too much in one section which was not very efficient. I reached a bit of a rest just below the first crux feeling fresh until I pulled round the corner and instantly I felt the lactic acid creeping into my arms, it continued for a few moves before the pump beat me and I fell in the middle of William’s and Angus’s positions.  I wasn’t too disappointed with where I had got until when I was lowered to the ground and I was informed that my foot had smeared on an out of bounds bit of wall and I had been marked down to almost last place. I was not happy! 

Knowing that I really needed to redeem myself on the second route I pulled on quite blind as I was early on and hadn’t seen much of the route.  I climbed confidently not feeling sketchy at all and I felt good all the way with the wooden volumes not being as bad as they had appeared.  Suddenly I looked up to realise I was on the last move.  Careful not to lose my focus I went for the last hold and caught it. I just had time to begin to feel the elation of topping out before my right foot slipped and I was airborne.  My anger at slipping was reduced when it turned out that I had in fact timed out 2 moves below anyway and topping out would have made no difference to my finish. By the end of the competition qualifiers I felt that I had climbed well and that my finishing position of 28^th didn’t represent that at all. I couldn’t help but be disappointed at this despite how happy I was with how I climbed.  Fortunately this was forgotten in a water fight with the other competitors and a good bit of sunbathing in the 30 degree heat.  By the end of the competition Johnny Stocking had qualified for the final and a number of others had been very close. That evening we went in the pool with some of the other teams, mainly the French and then had a much more pleasant meal of wienerschnistzel.



Johnny Stocking on the Junior Male Final Climb



The next day was another early start to get to the wall. It was an impressive final with Johnny climbing well to a very respectable 8^th place.  From there we had lunch at the hotel before heading off to the airport. The trip there was interesting in both cars as we went different directions, one of them being caught in a hail storm which was breaking car windows! The other getting lost for 15 minutes and lapping a roundabout about 4 times. We reached the airport to discover that the flight had been delayed for 40 minutes and as we were early anyway we had a lot of waiting to do. Que Buster and Jim, unofficial team jokers. Eventually we got onto the plane and by the time I was home it was 12.30am.

Overall a good trip.  I climbed well despite not finishing in a good position but just as importantly we all got a break from the terrible weather and managed to get a tan!

 

Link to full results here:

 http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php?page_name=resultservice&comp=1424