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Comp in Cuenca
The journey to Cuenca was not as quick as we thought it might be, it took about 2.5 hours on the windiest, roughest roads I’ve seen in a long time. When we got to Cuenca we had a cheeky cheeseburger starter at McDonalds and then headed to the wall. We got there a little bit early because they don’t open until 17:00 in the afternoons. When Rodrigo turned up he met us in his usual supremely enthusiastic way and said we were welcome to climb for free while we here. We had a good session at the little wall and Rodrigo invited us to his house for the evening. We met his sister, girlfriend and his sister’s boyfriend and had an intensive Spanish lesson for about 3 hours. This was our first experience of the crazy times that the Spanish do things, for example they cooked dinner at about 00:30 and said that this was normal and we ended up going to bed at about 03:00am madness!
Unsurprisingly we were pretty tired when we got up but we went to climb at the wall anyway which is where we met Rodrigo’s business partner Scott a kiwi who moved to Spain a few years ago and never left. He invited us to stay at his house which was awesome because it meant warm showers and a bed in a room that wasn’t freezing cold.
When we went back to his house we met his wife Christina who is lovely as well and the two of them invited us out to a bar in town that gives free food with every beer! Apparently that is how Tapas used to be but the tradition was lost in most of Spain and the only places it has stayed is Castilla-La-Mancha and Granada so we made the most of it. The food was ridiculous! With each beer you get a small cup of chicken and ham soup and a plate with quails eggs, jamon, bread, honeyed courgette and a big salad all for free, genius.
On the way back from the bar they offered us a bed for the whole week so we’ve stayed here everyday and they even gave us a key so we could come and go as we liked (you know you’re in good hands when you meet fellow climbers). Living here has really given us a good idea of the life of a Spaniard, they never sleep, they are lazy hell and they openly admit it. They have a slow but very good quality of life here and we can only imagine how much slower (and better) it is when the summer kicks in and it’s too hot to actually do anything.
Two days ago we climbed on some routes here and were pretty amazed at what we found. The rock is pretty poor quality and all the routes are held together with large amounts of cement and glue. In some places where there’s blank sections of rock they’ve drilled pockets and chipped crimps into the walls to make the climbs possible then on top of the drilled pockets and crimps they finish off the edges with more cement to make it a nice smooth hold. Can you imagine that on Stanage! We weren’t too fond of the falseness of it all so lost interest in the routes pretty quickly, there is a hell of a lot of rock here but it’s just not very high quality. Friday and today were rest days so we would be in shape for the competition on Sunday and hopefully I could grow back some skin by then and wear a bit less tape to hold ourselves together. Lucky for us we were informed of Neusc and given some by Rodrigo at the wall. It’s a bit like climb-on balm but not so natural and hippy so in theory it should work a bit better (like the rest of modern medicine). After two days of using it my finger has started to close up already which is awesome.
We just got back from the wall having met Pavi and his mates from Madrid who look like an annoyingly strong bunch and the problems are looking awesome, particularly with the inclusion of the blue volume from Holdz in Sheffield. Hopefully the comp will be a good day with the lots of Spanish craziness and some winning for at least one Brit.
It’s the morning after the comp and we did pretty well. Simon came third behind Pavi and a local Cuenca climber in the final and I won the final. That’s a first and third at a Spanish comp and new crash pad for the trip. We’re not sure where we are going to put it yet because we have no space and it’s massive but we’ll find a way. The day was really good with a decent turn out and we went for a beer afterwards (accompanied with more amazing free food) and got bombarded with Spanish for a while trying to pick up anything we could (not easy when you only know about five words). Once we had finished at the bar we went back to Scott’s where he cooked us Thai green curry (he’s a trained chef) which was much needed.
Today we are off back to the land of Albarracin and hopefully the weather will be like it is here, warm and sunny. We’ll be pretty disappointed if it’s naff again but we need a day or two rest after yesterday so it’s not so bad.
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British Championships 2009
Now it was time to train for The British Bouldering Championships, probably one of the only comps that I get slightly nervous in. I put quite a lot of pressure on myself to win this comp and the past two years of it haven’t been the best coming 4th and 2nd. It’s not good enough for me. I put in quite a bit of training and prepared myself for it. I was hoping this year not to win the qualifier. I seem to have a knack of winning the qualifier then not doing too well in the final. Thankfully I came second. I never know what to expect in the final, the route-setters throw something new in each year. I did the first 3 problems first go, in my opinion they were too easy but they were starting to split the field already. And then for my nightmare, problem 4, a horrible reachy problem, not working in my favour as my opponent was very tall. My legs were hardly long enough to span the gap that I was doing the splits in and I simply couldn’t reach the next move no matter how much the crowd cheered me on.
I then did what I could on the last problem. Completely exhausted from the problem before I made my high point. All I could do then was watch the last competitor for the last 5 minutes, the longest of my life! She couldn’t do enough. Finally, I’m the British Bouldering Champion!
Leah Crane winning the 2009 British Championships
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Plywood Masters 2009
Next was The Plywood masters, an annual comp held in Boulder UK in Blackburn. I couldn’t make this comp last year and this year again I was feeling strong. The qualifiers was probably the best one I’ve ever had, doing all the problems first go apart from one, which I got second go. I had been through a bit of a bad patch with competitions, narrowly missing on winning, so this comp I was more determined than ever to win.
The final was also the best one I’ve ever had, again doing all the problems first go apart from one which I got second go, clearly winning. Finally!
Leah Crane in the Plywood Masters 2009
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Almost over…
Comp season not quite over so I thought I make a change and decided to travel down to London to do a comp at The Castle. Again it was a friendly comp and I don’t think they expected someone to travel down from Sheffield for it, but I really enjoy doing comps and especially when it’s somewhere new that I’ve not really climbed there before.
Really good comp and really good atmosphere. Overall good trip down south, I won the women’s and my friend who I went with came second in the guys. (Though if I’d have entered the guys I’d have come second overall.)
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Berghaus Bouldering League
And finally the last round of the Berghaus Bouldering League and also the Sheffield Walls Bouldering League held at the Climbing Works. The usual crowds turned up for a good comp. The strong guys jumping straight on the men’s cash prize boulder for the first to complete and they set a women’s one this time as well but they set it on pinchy tufas through a roof so none of the women got it. Once again a good set by Percy and Sam.
I won this round as well which now makes The Berghaus Bouldering League 09 champion and it means I won the Sheffield Walls Bouldering League to so I am now Sheffield’s indoor bouldering Champion.
So now its down back to training and get stronger!! I’ve got a sport climbing holiday coming up in middle of march so I’m focusing on stamina training at the moment plus the Sky Masters which Berghaus sponsors as soon as I get back so….. Wish me luck!
To find out more and to see the full results table visit here.
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