I entered a climbing competition today and my arms and fingers are so tired I can barely write! The 'Boulder Jam' was held at The Beacon Climbing Wall and was great fun, well attended and not too serious. Thirty different 'problems' had been set in the bouldering areas and each entrant had a maximum of three hours to complete as many as possible, scoring more points if you climbed it within your first three attempts.
I'd spent the day in Liverpool, so arrived an hour late to the competition, but had had an interesting and informative day, taking some students to do some 'indoor urban climbing'! The views from the top of Liverpool Cathedral are pretty good!...
And the inside is even more impressive!...
As part of the day, we had some interesting discussions about the similarities of big spaces in the Cathedral and the 'wide open spaces' of the great outdoors. It was all very tranquil and quiet inside...
I arrived at the wall to find the complete opposite! The place was jam packed! There was pumping music and everyone was trying to climb as much as possible. Having arrived a bit late, I made the mistake of climbing some really steep routes early on and getting so pumped, that I lost a lot of energy from just the first few routes! It was great (if a little frantic) fun and super sociable. It's amazing how much longer you can hold onto a tiny hold, with a whole crowd of people cheering you on! I made sure that I avoided some of the more strenuous routes, or ones with weird twisting moves, after watching a few climbers, 'over strain' themselves - buoyed on by the cheering it was easy to push yourself into an injury! I was there to enjoy it - not get hurt! In the end, I came 32nd, which having never competed before, I was quite pleased with. Great fun...
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