I have been meaning to write a blog for a while but haven't got around to it. When I got on to the GB climbing team recently, I decided that it would be a nice idea to start now. On the 21st November I went to the Leeds Wall with my mum to climb in the British Youth Open Lead event. Having come 3rd and 2nd in the previous two Lead Cup rounds, I was eager to place highly, even by pipping my record and winning. I got to the wall roughly 2 hours before the climbing started to give me time to look at the routes and demos and get warmed up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my first qualifier was a nice vertical route with a combination of crimps and slopers and no especially huge reaches. I watched the demo and warmed up on lead, probably too soon as I was climbing 12th and the first climber hadn't gone yet. However, what concerned me the most was my inability to stop shaking with nerves! When it was my turn to climb only one girl had topped the route and I was starting to d...
Competition climber, Hackney girl