NIBL Round 2

A good number of our team headed over to the Climbing Works in Sheffield for round 2 of the NIBL. The weather was pretty grim so we weren't missing prime conditions on the grit!

The problems were all on the comp wall which caused a bit of a traffic issue and getting on some problems was a bit of a nightmare due to crossing lines and people just jumping on without looking across.

That aside, conditions were primo once you ran about and got some blood into the fingers and toes. The heater over by the campus board was the perfect method for avoiding frostbite during rests.

In comparison to round 1, the problems were a fair bit trickier with a lot more steep stuff and a fair bit of dynamism required. There were some heinous volume only creations and precarious slabs on poor footholds which caused problems for most of the competitors.

Rich managed 6th place in the mens which was won by a fair margin by Dave the guns Barrans. In the womens Becki took 3rd place and Laura 4th.

Andy won the mens vets for his 2nd win out of 2 with Merseyside legend Ian Hoppo in 3rd.

In the junior boys Michael took 1st place with Charlie 2nd and another Hangar youngster Matty Travis in 3rd to make a clean sweep of the podium places.

In the junior girls Olivia took 3rd place with Megan just behind in 4th.

The next round will be over at City Bloc in Leeds in Mid January and we will hopefully get another good turnout.

NIBL Round 1

Saturday gone saw the first round of the Northern Indoor Bouldering League held between 6 walls (The Hangar, The Works, Climb Newcastle, City Bloc, West View and Rockover).

There were seperate problems for the Male Seniors and the rest of the categories. Some problems were shared by all with the stiffer ones solely for the Men's comp.

There was a good turnout, a lot of banter and a bit of money raised from t shirt sales to help Andy Earl with his rehab treatment.

After the dust had settled Rich managed 7th in a fairly strong Mens field as did Laura in the Womens, both narrowly missing out on 6th (the top 6 climbers from a minimum of 5 rounds are due to compete in a super final at the last competition in Manchester). Becki took 9th place and Andy won the Vets category.

Our juniors faired a bit better with Michael winning the boys, Charlie 2nd and Dean in 4th. In the girls Megan and Olivia tied for 2nd place just behind the strong lass from up Newcastle way.

I think a few of us managed to fall off a fair few easier problems and could have done better, so hopefully we can be more competitive at future rounds in the seniors and our juniors can keep up the good results!

More Cave and Comp action

PARISELLA'S & STOKE COMP

With dodgy weather affecting most of the North, Rich and Laura headed over to Parisella's cave.

Rich had a project close to completion and Laura was trying to work on improving at the steep stuff!

Laura managed to casually dispatch Bust Lip (7A+) looking at total ease high up in the roof and Rich finished off a bit of a nemesis with In Life (8A+) across the whole back arch of the cave into Left Wall traverse.

With a successful cave session complete, they headed over to Stoke for the Winter bouldering round 1.

Rich took 1st place in the Men's and Laura 2nd in the ladies (both feeling slightly worse for wear from the efforts in the cave)!

COACHING SESSION

On Sunday. We had Nige Callendar travel down from Newcastle to run a day's coaching session with the team working on specific goal related training, eradicating obvious weaknesses and core conditioning.

We were suitably tired after the 3 hour session and came away with some useful ideas to work on and plenty to think about in terms of structuring our training a little more efficiently.

Young Master Hopkins Crushes Lou Ferrino (7C+)

One of our junior team members made a good bouldering breakthrough last Friday with an ascent of the super classic ribline of Lou Ferrino in Parisella's cave.

Michael has been trying this on and off over the last couple of months with infrequent trips and had gotten close numerous times but with the benefit of a double rest day, he dispatched it with consumate ease for his first problem at this grade!

May there be many more to come :)

WINTER COMPS

Michael also attended the Awesome Walls Winter bouldering league round 1 at Liverpool and finished top of the Junior category after a close battle with another of our juniors Dean. Rich and Laura both won the Senior Male and Female categories respectively.

The following day, young Michael was still at it, travelling over to Rockover in Manchester and taking first place in the Winter League Round 1. Charlie finished in 2nd place making it another good showing for our junior climbers.

HANGAR WINTER LEAGUE ROUND 1

The first round of our home wall winter bouldering series kicked off with a bang on 21st October with a big turnout and some good results for our team members.

In the adults category Rich managed 328/350 to finish in 2nd place from a dark horse who has never been seen or heard of before or since! Mike put in a decent show in 4th. In the womens Becki put in a strong showing to win with 238 and Laura took 3rd place.

In the juniors Michael won the boys with 295 (5th in Men's) and Charlie came in a comfortable 2nd. Megan won the girls with a score that would have put her 2nd in the seniors.

Hopefully everyone can keep it up over the next few events and we can all be in with a shout of holding a shiny trophy aloft come February! :)

Recent Days out

 As well as our regular Monday night team training sessions a few of us have been fortunate enough to make the most of the recent sunny weather and get a few things ticked off in Wales and the Lakes.

August Bank Hol

Back in late August we had a trip over to the Lake District for the bank holiday.

Rich pulling on to Slapstick 7C, Bowderstone

We had a first visit to St Bees South as well as a return to St Bees North for many of us and finished off with a couple of days at the Bowderstone.

Laura had a good trip ticking through a fair few things at all of the venues including a rapid ascent of The Crack Direct and almost managing the Super Direct (both at the Bowderstone).

Michael on Black Hole sds 7B, St Bees South

Mike crushing Picnic Sarcastic ss 7B

Michael got the Kraken and Black Hole sds at St Bees South ticked off in no time and also a good flash of Headbanger at St Bees North. He then did Picnic Sarcastic at the Stone in a couple of goes and the sitter first try. He got agonisingly close to Impropa Opera but dropped the last move about 8 times!

Rich flashed a fair few 7A-7B's and managed both Killer Bee and Slapstick 2nd try at St Bees and the Bowderstone respectively. On the last day he also finished off Grand Opera on the ladder face and got close to XXXX on the back roof but couldn't get enough of the lip to finish it off.

South Lakes

Rich and Mike went over to Woodwell and Trowbarrow last Monday and managed to tick off a few new 7's. Mike did Angel Deelite in the wet and also the burly Funk Phenomena at the Shelterstone. Rich flashed Footless Marathon at Tom's Roof and managed his first 7C after yet more shoulder injury rehab with the Buccaneer at Trowbarrow.

Laura on Beastmaster 6C, Warton

A few days later, Rich and Laura went up to Warton Pinnacle on a scorching hot Wednesday afternoon. Laura got some good ascents with the steep overhang of Beastmaster and a quick ascent of Totally Focussed from a stand.

Rich nearing the end of Ebenezer Goode 7C+/8A

Rich managed to fall off the end of Ebenezer Goode when trying to put the kneebar in on the end of the lip but returned the next day on a solo mission and finished it off before it came into the full sun.

Wales

Laura and Becky headed out to the RAC boulders yesterday as it was a bit too hot to do anything desperately hard. They had a lovely day out doing a lot of volume and Laura managed a casual flash of the Pump Traverse. They were both sporting wonderful tans by the evening whilst the rest of us worked on our cave tans indoors! :(

Becki looking relaxed on the Pump Traverse, RAC

An escape from training!

We have collected a little bit of footage from some trips to Parisella's cave and our good friend Mark Young has kindly put it together for us into a short film! Hope you enjoy it :)

Scousers in the Cave

End of Summer Bouldering Comp

The first of what will hopefully be many End of summer bouldering comps took place at our own homeground of the Climbing Hangar yesterday afternoon.

Andy cruising the P.E. Roof problem

There was a bigger than expected turnout, no doubt helped by the terrible rain storms sweeping across the North West.

In the Men's category, Rich won by the slimmest of margins, scoring 273/300 and edging out the visiting youthful beast Nathan Phillips by a mere 3 points.

Becky won the women's category with 181, with Laura taking 2nd place on 162.

Becky on the very droppable techy corner

The Junior Male saw a super tight finish with Michael finishing joint 1st with Sam 'sheepy' Williams on 254. This meant a super final climb off for 1st place, which was a timed lap of the Orange linkup route. Sam's route climbing background and high levels of stamina made all the difference as he won by around 10 seconds from Michael who has lately been focussing more on weights at the Pro Flex gymnasium and table football ;)

His table football skills paid off though as he won the open table footy tournament and hence a shiny new Core fingerboard.



Rich finishing the hard groove into steep wall problem
for a crucial 3 points



In the Junior Girls our team members dominated again with Olivia finishing in 1st place just ahead of Megan.

Michael speed climbing to 2nd place

The comp went smoothly and raised the bar for future events at the Hangar. Hopefully a new longer format of Monday night team training sessions will help us push on a bit and perform to a higher level at the various winter series being run later this year.

Many thanks to Sara Walters for the images!

Some swiss Footage

In April a couple of our team members (Rich and Sean) along with friends from Merseyside, Sheffield and the badlands of Rotherham, visited Chironico, Cresciano and Magic Wood.

With unexpected high temps in the high 20's/low 30's there were still some decent ticks. There is a vast amount of high quality bouldering to be found in Southern Switzerland on some amazing rock and I'd definitely recommend a trip if you've never been.

Hope this inspires someone to make a visit!

Switzerland bouldering April 2011

Magic Wood report

A couple of our Hangar team members were fortunate enough to escape from the intensive Monday night training sessions and spent a couple of weeks over in Magic Woods, Switzerland.
I had been to Magic Wood a few times, so wasn't quite as awestruck as Laura who was visiting here for the first time. The Woods are a hectic maze of boulders and trees strewn across a steep hillside in a narrow valley which is dissected by a very chilly glacial river (that doubles up as the daily icebath with no shower facilities on the campsite!)

I had set out to try and get Unendliche Geschicte pt I done as I'd climbed the second part before but as always I got sidetracked into trying other things and with the high temps, it was better to be up in the hills anyway rather than down on the smooth rock of the Bruno block (which is in much better condition on cold rainy days!).

The trip highlights included finishing off an old nemesis Master of the Cow in a couple of attempts as well as a single session ascent of Rythmo and both Octopussy and Nothing Changes in a couple of short sessions.

The ones that got away included UG Part 1 in 2 halfs but no link and Body Count which I did in 2 halfs and from a couple of moves in but not on the link due to painfully thin skin and not enough rest! I had a brief play on Muttertag in high humidity but never got back on it with too many other things to try. It's always a bit of a gamble on short trips getting on harder problems as if they don't go down fast in a single session, you are loathe to take too many rest days incase you return home empty handed. With this in mind, I climbed nearly every day dropping the level a bit to get some 7's in the bag.

Laura hadn't been climbing outdoors for quite a while and had just gotten back into her climbing recently with the opening of the Hangar but her progress has been impressive. She managed to flash nearly every 6C/+ she pulled on to and managed both Kameltrophy and Gulliver kante in 2 attempts. She also managed a couple of rapid ascents of more 7A/+ with Slab Jack and Blindflug. She came really close to the tricky technical testpiece of Grit Deluxe and the committing highball rockover of Verbotene Frucht but thin skin and greasy conditions proved too much on both of these!

 

It was good fun to test out some new shoes throughout the trip with my courier Laura bringing over a pair of  Evolv Talons fresh from the Hangar, just in time for the last 10 days. They took a bit of getting used to as the heels are a bit wider than on the 5.10 shoes I usually wear but they worked well after a couple of sessions use and should be good for comps as they smear well for a toe down shoe.

It's a bit gutting to get back to the UK after climbing in an amazing area in glorious weather and it seems to be pretty standard on a trip to be leaving just as you are adapting to the climbing style. I'm sure everyone would always love that extra week to be able to take sufficient rest to grow back skin and finish projects that are left tantalisingly out of reach!

Rich's ticklist highlights:

8A

Octopussy

Nothing Changes

7C+

Master of the Cow

Rythmo

7C

Schnee Brett (flash)
Intermezzo (flash)

Gollum

Laura's ticklist highlights:

7A+

Slab Jack

Gulliver Kante (2nd go)

7A

Kameltrophy (2nd go)

Blindflug (2nd go)

6C/+
Big Cheese (flash)
Mexican Seafood (flash)
Jenny (flash)
Riverblock arete

Bloc Party 2011

On 11th June, City Bloc in Leeds held its annual summer bouldering comp and despite the amazing sunny weather, there was a decent turnout in the mens open competition with 5 British team members and eventual winner and local beast Tom Newman in attendance.

Due to a lot of people being on holiday or committed to family events after turning out at Manchester the previous weekend, only Shauna, Rich, Michael and Mike managed to get there.

The 40 problems were the same for everyone regardless of category and ranged from very easy to super hard world cup style.

Michael did well in the Under 16's finishing in 2nd place on 311 behind Nathan Phillips who would have been joint 7th in the adults category!

In the Adult Male, Rich finished 7th on 357 (missing joint 4th and a final berth by 3 points) and Mike came joint 13th on 320.

As expected, Team Hangar beastette Shauna finished in first place in the Adult Female scoring an impressive 347 points in the qualifiers and then completing all 3 of the final problems for a comfortable victory.