First off, Happy belated to Sarah Secker and Ronnie who had the last 9 days and thank you to Becki for the cake from Ronnie. It was fantasic.
Also congratulations to Chris Prescot and Matt in the competition. And heres a review on the competition by Mr. T himseld:
On Wednesday the 12th of November, the University of Derby Mountaineering Club held an open competition at Alter Rock climbing centre. Me and Chris Prescott went along to compete in the competition, so this is my review.
Firstly, finding the Alter Rock climbing centre from Derby train centre was very easy with directions from google maps. The wall consists of a bouldering section, along with lead and top-rope walls. The wall felt very welcoming as the staff were nice and friendly and the wall is clean with good routes and problems set for all levels.
The competition format was that you could either enter top-rope and bouldering, lead and bouldering, or just bouldering. I entered the lead and bouldering, whilst Chris entered the top-rope and bouldering. I flashed the first two lead routes from the six competition lead routes. However, on attempting the third competition lead route, I took a fall trying to clip the second clip. All it was, was a slip of my left foot, which left me landing with the rope inbetween my legs as it went tight. Nasty.
After rolling around on the floor a little, some bouldering was in order to get some confidence back. Some of the boulder problems were nice and simple to do, although another slip of a foot left me head-butting the wall (Why is it that I always do stupid things in competitions? Just ask about the redpoint competition for more about that). Some of the harder problems were tricky for me, and there always seems to be problems that feel impossible. However, falling is fun so might as well try them.
After abit of bouldering, I went and tried lead competition route four. It felt good but I chickened out about a quarter of the way up, rememberng how sore I felt after falling off route three. So the competition ended with more bouldering, and abit of slack-lining (which is aparantly set up at alter rock most of the time so worth a play on).
Neither me nor Chris won the competitions we had entered, however, I got a prize (T-shirt) for best lob (fall) in the lead competition, and both me and Chris got prizes ( a torch and a water bottle) for representing the SUMC.
All in all, I highly recommend alter rock, and I also recommend anyone who hasn’t done a competition before to do one as they are awesome fun with like-minded people, and help to improve your climbing as it makes you try things you maybe wouldn’t normally. Also, if another team event comes up we need female competitors as the team scores usually consist of best two male and one female score to count. If nothing else its a nice day out.
Sure Chris will be along with his review shortly. There is possibly another one at Nottingham in the near future so keep listening for news on that.
Thanks
Matt
Once again congratulations to Matt and Chris and hope ye repersent the club more. And also OWNAGE!! to Matt for the lob.
As everyone knows, there was a club meeting about various issues revolving about Christmas plans, future trips, and plannings for the wall. If you missed it you can ask people who where there you will know what you missed.
Killian is also planning a Trip to Roaches on friday for people if you intrested and also Ollie and Chris is planing for the Kendal Film Festival so you should ask them about it soon.
Matt wants to know what people think of the routes and if they want easier or harder routes put up give him a shout. Or if there is a specific move you want eg a route with dyno, a route with easier crimps, etc please contact him.
Finally, there is a possibility of some of us going to Roaches if its sunny and Red point in Birmingham via train if it rains. If anyone is intrested ask me (Ronnie for those who don’t know who writes the website) or Matt for details on it at the wall for feel free to call me anytime.