Volumes Chapter 2

Setting for Saturdays Fun Bouldering Competition started today which meant that our nice new batch of volumes were put up in the bouldering room. Here's a wee taster of what to expect...

Beastmaker 1000 and 2000 now at EICA:Ratho

All you fingerboarders out there will be happy to know that the EICA:Ratho now have a Beastmaker 1000 and 2000 for your pulley straining pleasure.



The guys at Beastmaker say the 1000 for those operating in the Font 5 to 7c region (VS-E4/5) and the 2000 for Font 7a to 8b (E4-E11).




You can download some really useful training advice from the Beastmaker website:

http://www.beastmaker.co.uk/products1.htm



Gaz finding out if his joinery skills are up to scratch....

Oh la la, New Volumes at EICA:Ratho!

Having worked in climbing walls for well over a decade now, the big change I have noticed over the past few years has been the introduction of volumes onto the climbing surface. Volumes really allow you to open up the variety of movement you can create whilst setting, as you no longer have to climb face on, on flat panels. You can incorporate 3D style climbing which adds so many more posibilities when setting. Volumes also allow you to constantly change the climbing surface as you can remove them and re-position them as you like.



The down side to volumes is that they are fairly expensive if bought commercially, however, if you're handy with a saw, plainer and drill the best method is to build your own, unfortunately, this isn't quite as easy as it sounds. I have built a few basic volumes in the past and have always found the most difficult part being able to keep the volume lying flush against the wall. I think I have spent a fair few hours hand plaining my volumes until they sit this way, usually with the volume decreasing in size and my usually pretty relaxed demeanor vanishing fairly rapidily....



Luckily, on the way to work this week I mentioned my volume building dilemma to Mr Gilles Moulin (french man in top pic). "I am building something like this all the time in France" was his reply.



So, with the help of a handy frenchman (Gilles) Calum Forsyth, Gaz Vincent and myself, we locked ourselves into the empty unit next to Tiso's (sorry Bruce for all the noise!) and got to work designing, building and painting some pretty radical volumes.



I'm pretty happy with the results and I really think that they'll add a new dimension to climbing at Ratho. You can see the fruits of our labour when we show case our new volumes at the EICA:Ratho Fun Bouldering Comp on Saturday the 19th February from 11am-4pm.



A special thank you has to be given to Gilles for sharing his secret french volume building formula with us. He definitely deserves a big high five if you see him in the arena!

EICA:Ratho Fun Bouldering Comp Saturday 19th Feb 2011 11am-4pm

The EICA:Ratho will be hosting a fun bouldering competition on Saturday 19th February 2011 from 11am till 4pm.

The comp is aimed at climbers of all ability levels and will be a great social occasion. We have 6 different categories: Recreational VB-V3, Intermediate V3-V5,Advanced V6+, Veteran 45 yrs+, Junior 8-12 yr old, Junior 13-16 yr old in both Male and Female. Each category will have 20 brand new problems of the highest quality, incorporating the best volumes and holds that Ratho has to offer. Basically, it's a great opportunity to have an awsome bouldering session with like minded people.

Also, there are some top prizes from our kind sponsors: Holdz, DMM, Entre Prises, Tiso and Reach Climbing Coach with each competitor recieving a free comp T-shirt and 1 free after comp beer!

Entry fee will be £15 for Adults and £10 for Juniors. You can register on the day or you can save £2 by pre-registering now and also reserve your comp T.

Pat and Chris say, "It will be a cracking good day of cranking for climbers everywhere!"

New holds+New routes=Big smiles!

It's been great to hear all of the really positive feedback from those of you that have been climbing on our recent batch of new routes. Sometimes you just get it right. This usually means a good spread of grades that follow the cleanest lines on the best parts of the wall using the tastiest holds. I guess it's also a combination of some milder weather, some awsome new holds and some dedicated route setters. All of which have put a real spark back into the arena after a abnormally chilly December! Well, if you don't believe me, here's the proof.......

This is 8 year old regular, Evan Davis (left) before attempting Calum's new Fluro Yellow 6a. Notice there is only a slight grin on his face.

This picture (right) was taken moments later. The grin has turned into an obvious smile! All because of a new route and some new Florescent yellow Core holds.....

9 year old Amelia Blunt happily leading Geeks Leading Ladder Florescent Green 6a+ on the Hanger Wall. Some people have even said that just looking at the new holds can put a smile on your face....

We have nearly finished a complete change over of routes on the Tower Top Roping wall. Luckily we have had the use of a very useful Cherry Picker that has made setting on the 27m Tower a far easier task (I have come very close to Deep Vain Thrombosis on more than one occasion whilst setting the Tower on ropes!).

Robbie giving the Tower a make over and avoiding DVT!

Unforntunately there are still some side effects to route setting all day!

We try to keep everyone that climbs at EICA:Ratho happy with new routes so we havn't forgotten all you boulderers out there. Iain Sneddon has been on a mission recently adding some really thought provoking problems to the Bouldering room.

You may want to thank this man if you've been enjoying the new problems on the back wall of the Bouldring room!

We will keep you updated with all route setting developments as they happen. In the mean time enjoy your climbing.....

BMC Leading Ladder @ EICA:Ratho

The EICA:Ratho is currently hosting a round of the BMC Leading Ladder Competition series from Saturday 15th January to Sunday 30th January.
We have been hosting these competitions for the past 3 years and they have always proved popular with local and visiting climbers alike.

The format is simple, you buy a score card for £1, you choose your category: either under 16's, over16's, Improver (F6b/6b+), Recreational ( F7a/7b) or Elite (F7c/8a) and you get to try and on-sight 10 new routes graded from 5+ to 8a. If you succeed on a route on your first attempt you get maximum 20 points, 2nd go gains you 15 points, 3rd go 11 points, 4th go 8 points, 5th go 6 points, 6th go 8 points with any subsequent attempt, however many, gaining you one point. The perfect score therefore is 200 points.

The idea is that you can travel to walls around Britain that are hosting these comps, test your on-sight skills and if you feel you have done well, enter your top 3 score sheets and possibly gain entry into the National Leading Ladder Final.

If you fancy trying the Leading Ladder at EICA:Ratho you find all routes bar one on the new Entre Prises "Hanger Wall".
Route setting at EICA:Ratho is never an easy task as the size and volume of climbing here is massive. A special thank you has to go out to a few special individuals that helped to strip and set the Leading Ladder routes all in under 72 hours. These people are:

Gaz Vincent: Responsible for stripping the "Hanger Wall" in under 2 hours and setting the Black 6a, Black 7c and the fingery Green 8a.

Mark McGowan: Old school climber with some new school ideas. Who says 6b+'s can't go through roofs?


Neil McGeek: National route setter and all round nice guy, kindly taking time out of his busy full time climber schedule to set a tasty Fluro Green 6a+ and pumpy Pink 7b

Calum Forsyth: Inspiration for the Fluro Green 7a and also on how to flash 7c routes after not putting a rope on for 2 months (not that i'm envious in any way!)

Neill Busby: Creator of the Fluro Orange 6b, Pink 6c and Fluro Green 7a and probably many 1000's more routes at Ratho over the years!

Many thanks to Holdz and Axis for the speedy delivery of some mighty fine new holds!


Dylan McKenzie cruising the Pink 6c before his Steve McLure bat hang impression!

Iain Croply crusing Gaz's Black 6a

BMC Youth Open by Calum Forsyth

My name is Calum Forsyth. I work and climb at the Edinburgh international climbing arena (Eica) in Ratho, just outside Edinburgh. I have been climbing for about 8 years now and have done many competitions, these have been mainly regional and national, including the Youth Climbing Series and British team trials. I have now competed in three team trials, in the previous two I have finished in 6th place and 8th place. the most recent team trials I entered was on the 27th November 2010, at Awesome Walls Climbing Centre, Liverpool,. This was my second trip to this wall.

Earlier this year i suffered an injury to the growth plate in one of my fingers in my right hand, at the time i was gutted, i was climbing well and all i wanted to do was continue, but, i soon realised it wasn't doing any good and i had to think of the long term effect it would have had if i continued to climb whilst not 100%. I set myself a goal of returning to climbing and aiming for the Team trials. I knew I had 6 months to get strong and fit again but I knew it wouldn't be easy and I was right! I was so determined to do well in the team trials, i gradually built up my training programme, I trained 4 times a week with Gary Vincent (Gaz) and the master as we know him, Neill Busby (Buzz). Throughout the six months I found it really hard to stay focussed but with two really great guys spurring me on it was easy to stay motivated and best of all psyched.
As the comp grew nearer my training decreased to easy climbing so not to get tired and injured. I kind off struggled with that one, i wondered why the climbing was getting easier, it didn't seem right but Gaz and Buzz convinced me it was the best way.

On the Friday the day before the comp my parents and I travelled down to the hotel we were going to be staying at. After a 4 hour journey we arrived in Liverpool we met up with a few other people who made the long travel south such as Nikki and Steven Addison (coming from Inverness 7hrs!!!!) , Olivia and Gabriella Stewart, Megan Sanders, William and Alexander Bosi,and Rachel Carr who all climb at Ratho on a regular basis.

The morning of the competition was obviously a nervous one as I didn't have a clue what to expect, the comp routine probably always the same but for some reason it never seems to workout that way! So after breakfast we headed off to the wall for registration. At the wall we were met by Rob Adie and were told what to do, sign in, collect our competition number and our t-shirts (yellow!). Then I was straight off to see what climbs I would be doing. The first route was around 18 meters high on the side wall which started off with two massive orange holds and suddenly it went into the most crimpy route I had seen in a long time and that's when the nerves got worse, bit i convinced myself as it was not very steep climbing, so I should be OK.

On the other hand I looked at my second route and it looked like it was set by the master busby as it was on the steep wave at the back of the wall it was a very awkward looking sequence but as to most of busby routes there is a hard way and an easy way the hard part was finding the easy way of doing it. I had no idea of what number I would be climbing as it was still yet to be decided on in the first route.

When it came to the first person climbing the orange I was watching closely to see how he made the moves and when he fell of I was worried about the grade of climb and then didn't focus on the other three climbers before me as I was so nervous so I went to warm up for 20 mins just trying to stay warm and not get pumped then it was my shot at the climb which had already spat of four other people so I was worried about getting started but after the first few moves I was back to my usual self blanking everything out and whistling to the music in the background as I do to focus my self there was one part of the route everyone kept falling of and I was thinking to my self I no I can't fall of if I want a good score, so I decided to not clip and get to the next good hold before reaching down and clipping and it worked for me so I fought on to the top.
I was so psyched that I had completed the route, but it was now on to the next climb. All I had to do now was wait and see how the other 16 competitors got on before seeing were I would place on the next route. After the results were posted I was only one of eight climbers to do this route and would there for climb on the 2nd one eighth as I was first to top out.

The second qualifier was an awkward looking route which was set by Neill Busby who also works and climbs at ratho. It was on the steep wave wall at the back of the church it started on the corner side of the wave on quite large holds but most of the route was on rubbish holds with a lot of awkward foot placements that were key to doing it. As it came to my climb I stepped up and didn't look at the route before jumping onto it as I just wanted to climb and of I went on this crazy looking climb that was technical from the off the first crux in this route was about five clips up were you had to traverse across this steep wall into a corner and clip then I realised that I was able to double clip which meant less hanging about on small holds trying to clip. After snacking out for a wee bit I then had to make my way across to this big heel hook to balance my self out and pull up for the next hold so after all of that I was totally pumped and was determined to stay on the wall so I fought on until the second last hold before falling off.

Despite not topping out, I was extremely happy with my efforts on this route and I think Buz was as well, he congratulated me on my effort and asked what I thought of the route I replied "it was rubbish!!!! (i told him i was only joking and it was in fact a really cool climb). So all I had to do now was wait and see were I would finish or if I would make it to the final. Once everybody had tried route 2 it was time for us to wait around 20 mins to see who made the finial. When the results were posted, there were 10 people going through and sadly the other 9 didn't quite make it. To my surprise I made the finial in 7th place and was so psyched.

Once every competitor had finished we were told we had to be in isolation for 1400hrs, if we were late we wouldn't be allowed to compete. This gave me 30 mins to get all my kit and food together before going down into the bouldering cave which was used as isolation. At 1400hrs we were told that viewing for our route would be at 1430hrs as this 30 mins gave the route setters times to change the routes a little bit. After viewing we were sent back down into isolation and told the running orders of the categories and low and behold my category was out last which gave use 3hrs in total doing nothing apart from trying to find ways to stay occupied. I think isolation should become an Olympic Sport in its own right because its sooooooooo hard!!!!

As I listened to everyones name being called out I was bored beyond belief but I also knew it was getting closer to my turn to climb. Most of all I just wanted to go out and climb (i'm not the best person to keep locked in a room for 3 hrs) I spent most of my time making up stupid boulder challenges with the other competitors who shared my pain. After 3hrs it was my turn to take to the stage on a very hard and incredibly awkward route set by none other than Tom Randell. I had climbed a number of Toms routes at the BLCC's so I knew it would have a lot of heel and toe hooks in it and low an behold there was!

I started this climb as any other, I walked straight out and did what needed to be done which was climb. I climbed the first few moves with a few mishaps but held in there as long as i physically could before making such a bad error by wrong handing myself. I was disappointed because it was a stupid mistake and not a technical or physical error it was my own stupid mistake. I wasn't going to get worked up about it as I made the finial which was already my biggest achievement of the day. After watching the other people climbing the scores were in and calculated. After the scores were posted it was quite a surprise on how closely packed the category was. As the results were posted I was named in 9th position which I thought was very respectable given the time scale I had to train for but I couldn't have had a better time competing. It was also great to meet up with people again, funny sport this climbing thing, meet and greet lots of fab people.

IMST Colors Report - Angus Davidson

Angus was recently selected to represent UK in the IMST Colors Open Competition in Austria. He was joined on the trip by fellow Scots Niki Addison, Gabbie Stewart & William Bosi. Below is a report from Angus on his first ever international competition.

Imst was great. It was a great experience right from the start. Exiting all the way through.

It was amazing exploring Imst. Visiting the centre, going to the restaurants and doing lots of walks, but my favourite thing was the Alpine Coaster. Going up in the chair lifts and going down really fast in your own personal vehicle. The scary thing was the speed, you’re in-charge of the brakes and how fast you go and I recommend it to anybody.

You would expect to have a good nights sleep but no, Church bells ring at 6:00am which woke me up early. You had to be up at 7:00 to get your breakfast and get to the wall for 8:15.Tough times. The wall was fantastic, very steep, but flat at some points and all the climbs were set already. You had to switch from different types of climbing as some were powerful, some sustained and some were just ridiculously hard. Demos were there to save us from the nerves of "how are you supposed to do that?". They made it look easy =-(.The routes had a range from 6b+ - 7b+/7c.It was very efficient up to 10 climbers climbing at once. I topped 5 out of my 6 routes and I ended up in 9th position by the end of the day.

It gave me a lot more confidence for the 2nd day which was tough because the routes were a lot harder. The easiest grade was 7a+/7b and the hardest was 7c.It was a challenging day! The good thing was there was a pizza place upstairs. They did great pizzas and it had a great view of the mountains stretching up into the clouds. A great place to go. For most of the day you had to stay focused. I was in the zone and I topped 2-3 of my routes. I was climbing the best that I could. Overall I came 9th in Europe. I am very pleased of what I have done. Finally the nerves where over and I could relax. Later on that day we went to this tiny cafe just outside Austria. My dad told me how to order a coca-cola in German, but when the order came it was a rhubarb crumble. Thanks Dad.

The experience was ended as I arrived back home, and got into my nice warm bed.

Font Trip - Gabbie Stewart

I am so lucky. Neil Gresham asked me to join him and his group for a whole week of coaching in Fontainebleau in France. I went with my mum & dad and we flew to Paris and then drove down to the gite we would be staying in with Neil and the others. We arrived on Saturday night after getting stuck in traffic around Paris, I was also very nervous because the rest of the group were all adults and I only knew Neil. Neil had two other coaches with him, Steve and Shaun. That night Neil introduced us to the group and explained a bit about what we would doing over the next week. Everyone was very excited – especially the adults who couldn’t get to sleep that first night.

On Sunday when we woke up it was raining but that didn’t stop us and we went off to Couvier to tackle our first boulders. I had never seen anything like the huge boulders we found, they were huge... and wet and slippery but we still managed about three hours climbing and it was fantastic, I didn’t know which boulder to try first. We got back to the gite and after we had our evening meal Neil, Steve and Shaun showed us the video of our climbing that day and pointed out our faults. It was a bit embarrassing but everyone learnt something.

The next morning it was sunny and I was even more excited. I ate lots of pain au chocolate and we headed for the forest!! At first the boulders were a little wet and so we looked around and checked them out while they were drying. When we started to boulder it was amazing, it is so different to bouldering indoors, I definitely prefer bouldering outside. The boulders are really technical and have REALLY small footholds so you have to be very balanced when you are on them. Before you get onto a boulder you have to arrange your crash mat into the right place depending on the angle of the problem, clean your crash mat with your towel, clean your shoes with the towel or your feet will slip off REALLY easily. Then you're off!!!!!
My climbing buddy today was Becky, who is a very good adult climber, she really nice and we give each other pointers on each problem and advice on how to tackle it. Shaun, the trainee coach, was great to work with and really helped me on the harder problems in Font. By 5pm my feet were killing me and I had to go back to the gite. I was exhausted by the time we were finished, after 5 hours training. That evening Neil showed us more video footage of the day going over general things we were all doing incorrectly and also individual points to work on.

The following day we went to Franchard Isatis and Franchard Cuisiniere, they were only a 10 minute walk in between and were both amazing!!! The problems are colour graded from white to yellow to orange to red to black to white again. I had a good morning and completed 10 red problems and nearly did a white problem (the hardest level). After about 2 hours it started lightly raining so we walked down the road to Cuisiniere. After warming up on a few slabs and trying a few red problems I asked Neil, if I could try something harder so he showed me an overhanging, reachy and awesome problem!!! I chose a sequence and brushed the holds. I was ready to try it! I had my first go and fell off just after the middle bit, it involved lots of heel hooks and big reaches. After I knew I could do the start of it I tried it from a standing start but I noticed there was a huge dyno to the next hold so I tried different places to put my feet and finally got it from standing start. My fingers were really red and nearly bleeding! Neil said I could have tried to join it all up if my fingers had been undamaged but said I shouldn’t because the skin was so thin. I still tried it because I had worked so hard on it but unfortunately fell off at the huge dyno. After that problem I climbed some reds and blues because my fingers were really sore. Not only me though, all the adults were suffering too.

On Thursday we went to a place near Noisey. It was beautiful, as good as all the other places we have been to. Although everyones fingers were still red raw and some were even cut we still had an amazing time. To warm up we did this really hard crimpy slab, after two goes I got up it, and so did Becky. It was very hard and was even harder if you had finger tape on. I didn't feel very warmed up so I tried another slab but I think I warmed up my throat more than my body because 3/4 of the way up there were two lizards, I screamed when I saw them because they gave me such a fright but I went to the top anyway and climbed as fast as I could on the way down!!! I was warmed up after that so I asked Neil for a harder problem to work on so he took me to this reachy, overhanging, juggy problem. It was a kind of traverse then it went up at the end. I really enjoyed this problem.

Since it was April Fools day, the night before Viv and I planned some tricks that we were going to play on Neil for a joke. The first one was putting flour in his chalk bag, it was really funny when he put his hand in and found out it was flour! The second one was when he was showing us a boulder problem we put big sticks and two pine cones in his chalk bag, he got a fright! The third and final one was placing a very heavy rock at the bottom of his climbing bag so he would be carrying extra weight when he lifted it up!

After all the pranks I got back to climbing and Neil set me another challenge, it was another reachy problem with no footholds! We joined in with some German women and used their crash mats. I had my first go and got to the same place as they did. My second go I got to the same place again, came off and went over on my ankle because the rocks underneath the crash mat were uneven.
I watched Neil do a very technical boulder problem then had to go home. My ankle was really painful!

Every evening Neil, Steve and Shaun would give us feedback on the days climbing, giving us individual comments and more general comments using the video footage. On the Friday it was raining and we couldn’t climb, my ankle was still sore and so I couldn’t climb anyway. Neil gave us a talk on training and diet and then we all had private feedback from the three coaches which was very scary. I was last to go through and so had to wait for about 2 hours. Because my ankle was sore Neil gave me a piggyback, they were very nice and gave me lots of helpful feedback.

I absolutely loved my week in Font and hope I can go back very, very soon. Thanks to Neil, Steve and Shaun I learned so much and would love to do more outdoor bouldering.




Gabs is sponsored by La Sportiva & would like to thank them for providing her with shoes for this trip!

2010 Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships - Saturday 6th March

These are the final details for the 2010 Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships. First of all, thanks for your patience whilst the Championships have been swapped over from Extreme Dream to Transition Extreme.

There will be two DJs playing live all day, commentary from top local climbers, and free individual event photographs available to all.

That’s not to mention prizes for every category, trophies for keeps, and of course a stack of top quality problems.

Email have been sent out to all those invited. If you know of someone who doesn’t have the info they need, please let me know.

Registration 0900

Briefing & Qualifying 1000 – 1300

Semi-Finals & Finals 1400 – 1630

Finish 1700

Registration forms available in advance by emailing – jf01@transition-extreme.com

The entry fee will be at the reduced price of £15 per competitor. Please pre-pay over the phone on 01224 626 279.

Entry on the day will be cash only and cost £20 – thanks for your help.

ð ENQUIRIES

Please feel free to contact the Event Organiser, Johannes Felter, with any questions you have – either 01224 626279 or 07896 823537 or jf01@transition-extreme.com

ð AGE CATEGORIES

Climbers will compete in the age category in which they finished in 2009.

This event is open to the Top 5 finishers from South & North regions in all three age categories, male and female. You know who you are!

ð TROPHIES

If you won one of the official granite trophies last year, could you please bring it along to Aberdeen – thank you!

ð MCofS ENDORSEMENT

Transition Extreme feel duty bound to make competitors and parents aware that this event is not officially endorsed by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. Competitors and parents should be aware that bouldering for younger children can carry an increased risk of injury due to the nature of the moves involved. Transition Extreme will use its wealth of experience and the best available advice to set problems to minimize these risks. Parents and competitors are asked to consider the physical demands of each problem very carefully prior to an attempt and if in any doubt should not attempt some problems.

All best wishes and we look forward to seeing you on the day!