Competition climbing - Isabelle Cooke

Isabelle has now been climbing at the centre for over two years and has managed some great competition results already. In 2007/08 Izzy entered the SIBL (Southern Indoor Bouldering League) competition and after six rounds at different centres she managed a very impressive 10th place. Not bad for a first competition. Izzy then tried her luck at the BMC Youth Climbing Series in 2008 and came third overall to secure her place on the South East Team who went to battle it out against the other regions teams at Rathro in Edinburgh were the south East team won first place in her category. Izzy kept up her good form in the 2008/09 SIBL were she finished 7th overall.

Izzy managed to get her best result in the first round of 2009 BMC Youth Climbing Series by climbing to 2nd place. She managed clean accents of all three lines
up to 7a. Not bad for 11 years old. She managed all but one of the boulder problems falling from near the top. There are two more rounds left and to reach the final Izzy must finish in the top three competitors. I will update the blog as news comes in of her results

Revolution would like to say a massive well done to Izzy and good luck for the next round!

Peak Trip Feb/ March 09

Well, I have just got back from a trip to the Peak District with a couple of guys from the centre. We started of by driving the five and half hours to Almscliff and spent the day bouldering there getting up to V5. The next day we spent a damp session on the boulders at Caley which were certainly very impressive but the large majority of climbs we had come to do were not in condition so we made do we what was available and had an easy morning on the lower grade climbs round ‘The playground’ area climbing up to V4. We then visited Ilkley on the same day and viewed some of the impressive trad lines and the newly climbed ‘Getty’ which stood as one of Grit stones last great problems. We finished off by driving the hour or so south to Widdopp which proved to be a very isolated crag on the edge of widdopp reservoir. We had the whole place to ourselves and I pleasantly surprised to find the boulders in good condition.

Sam on the V5 eliminate at Almscliff

Next stop was Stanage and time to get the trad gear out. Conditions went good with very strong winds and some small outbursts of rain so we passed the day climbing some of the three star routes up to VS.
The next day conditions were not good again so we passed the day by visiting some of the other crags for a look around including Cratcliff, Frogatt and Cubar. We managed to squeeze a few climbs in but again conditions weren’t that confidence inspiring and the friction was not as good as we wanted to try some of the harder lines.

The weekend was clear and at times sunny (a first for me on grit climbing) and we were finally able to get to Stanage and climbs some the E1’s we had come for. After a bit of practice we managed to climb Elephant on a dog house which is graded E1 5b. Rich later went onto solo the route which was very impressive. We finished the trip off with a session on the Plantation boulders at Stanage with ticks of the Green traverse V6 and very close attempts on Deliverance being had by some of the guys.

Sam On Sunset Crack, Froggatt

All in all a good trip and everyone went home happy if not with sore Grit bashed hands. There are some photos of our visit on the Left hand side of the page.

Success!!

So, finally managed to get the V9 problem finished about a week ago. As for the grade im really not too sure. The Crux more is a blind semi dyno round the corner of the overhang and although a hard move in itself its made harder by the fact its blind and I find I do it quite inconsistently. For me id put it about v8 compared to other routes I have done. Im just not that sure that it is V9 as although it has taken me longer to complete than other v8’s I think that’s down to the fact I am inconsistent on the blind move and that’s not because it’s a V9 move its just because its blind. It has had other repeats by some of the guys working it and grades have range from v7 to v9 but most agree its around v8. Anyway, onto the next creation. Route setting should be completed in the next week so no doubt our setters can come up with something equally as hard.