Here is an insight for all you budding competitors on what it is like to compete abroad. Robin writes about his experiences at the Kranj event on 17-18 November 2007 and also why he thinks competitions are a good thing for climbing..

It’s not everyday you get the opportunity to represent your country, so getting up at 4am, spending a day travelling from Glasgow to London, changing flights, flying to north east Italy and then driving 2 hours across the border into Slovenia seemed a small sacrifice to make in order to be part of the British Climbing Team. Alongside Alan Cassidy and Adrian Baxter I competed in my first international competition at the final event of the 2007 Climbing Lead World Cup in Kranj, Slovenia. After 12 years of climbing and two years of training hard in between full time work I was keen to see how I would fair against the world’s best. I felt it was important to have a realistic objective to aim for and this seemed simple – don’t fall off the first move and don’t come last.

Another early start after travelling wasn’t the best preparation but faced with an isolation room full of professional climbers that have spent the summer on the competition circuit, achieved the magical grade of 9a and onsighted 8c, the feeling of fatigue was the last thing on my mind. Before I knew it I was stood underneath a 20m high wall, steeper than any in Britain wondering how exactly I was going to remember 30+ moves involving numerous rotations, multiple volumes, three connecting walls and a horizontal roof with just 6 minutes viewing time. It might not have been so bad had it not felt like I’d spent 5.5 minutes making sure I’d figured out the first hideous arete move that the route setters had so kindly created. In the madness of climbers waving their arms at each other Al, Aid and I had just about come up with a plan of what to do from bottom to top before we were herded back to the depths of the sports hall.

Back in the isolation room the realisation that there were 35 odd climbers in front of me each with 8 minutes to climb the route suddenly dawned. I now had 4 hours in the basement of a sports hall with nothing but a 10m long 2m high warm up board to share with 100+ other climbers and the thoughts of that first move running around my head. Discussing moves, tactics and climbing in general with Al and Aid helped ease the roller coaster of emotions I was going through. Warming up calmed me down, particularly when we found holds we recognised on the route and the remaining time was spent trying to focus on what needed to be done and trying to think of it as just another day at a wall. Finally after what felt like days, with the route seemingly perfectly memorised in my head; my name was called out. Immediately all that time calming myself down was out the window and it was into fight or flight mode. In the midst of adrenalin and nervousness, the like of which I’d not really experienced before, I tied in and went through the route one more time. This was it, just one chance to climb as well as you can.

Waiting to climb is always much worse than when it actually happens and the first move was fine which settled my nerves, always good to at least get off the ground. Unfortunately by the fourth move, it was clear that my perfect memory of the route wasn’t quite so perfect. I found myself spending about three times longer in each position than I’d imagined. Holds were either better or worse than I expected and although it may sound odd, even a hold better than I was expecting was strangely unsettling. In reality the difficulty was staying relaxed and calm enough to select the right foot quickly and efficiently. A jug at half height gave a brief respite before it was time to move in to the really steep stuff. Moving through the roof started fine but then I was out of footholds so without thinking I stepped my feet up into the roof and lunged for a two finger pocket……………. that was it, game over.

Back on the ground I could instantly see that I should have looked 90 degrees to my right faster than I did and I would have seen a great big volume to stand on much sooner. I was both pleased to have at least got past the first move and beyond halfway but also annoyed that I’d not fallen off pumped but had just rushed moves and made a mistake. At least I could relax and discuss what went wrong with Al, who had climbed before me and Rhi, my fiancé. She had patiently watched all the climbers before us, so we knew exactly how we did when we came down. Thankfully I established I hadn’t come last and ended up placed joint 46th out of 51 competitors. I’d at least achieved my objective but like always when I fall off not pumped, I was sure I could have gone at least ten moves further on the route which would have moved me up 10 to 15 places. Al had done well getting 39th and we watched Aid narrowly missing the semi-final by one place ending up in 30th.

Now I could sit back and enjoy the experience of representing my country, watch other climbers do their thing and see what Slovenia had to offer. After watching the semi- final and final it was evident that the level of support for other European teams was amazing. The teams were large, consisting of support staff and multiple sponsors which allowed them to arrive a few days early and have a number of competitors with a range of experiences competing. Although many of the competitors were no stronger or technically gifted than members of the British Team they seemed more relaxed from having the support and experience of consistently competing at this level. It was also interesting to see that even the pro’s can make mistakes, with both Patxi Usobiaga and Ramon Julian making errors low down in the semi-final. Even with this uncharacteristic mistake their consistency through the season was enough to give them first and second place in the overall standings. Although competitive climbing is hard work in terms of the training, travelling and its unforgiving nature; it’s great to find out how you as an individual perform in such an environment and I’ve learnt a lot from just this one opportunity. It was also fantastic to be part of the Slovenian crowd who made the final a real spectacle and got behind every climber right from the ground.

Having dabbled at bouldering, onsighting sport and traditional routes, headpointing traditional routes, redpointing sports routes, deep water soloing, multi-day big mountain traditional routes and competing this was an incredible experience for me and I thank the BMC for giving me the opportunity to represent my country which few people get to do. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to compete again and repay them with a better placing. I know that topping out on a route would be as good as any feeling I’ve had from climbing before. For me the world cup lead series is the ultimate test of a climbers nerve, ability and consistency. There is often a lot of bad feeling about competitive climbing within Britain but I think it’s a truly inspirational event to be involved in and as significant as any other aspect of our diverse sport. With the majority of climbers spending most of their time in climbing walls, it’s also perhaps the most easily accessible aspect of the sport providing those keen enough with a tangible aim. Most of our top level climbers have competed at one discipline or another and it should continue to be supported by all in the sport to encourage a new generation to get up and have a go. The competition was conducted in an extremely friendly and supportive manner with every climber encouraged to do their best and supported by fellow competitors and crowd alike. Competitions provide further motivation to keep training and improving, whilst taking nothing away from the enjoyment I get from climbing outside in amazing places with good friends. Thanks to Al and Aid for their advice and encouragement and a special thanks to Rhi for her continued support everyday.

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