World Cup's so far...

Half way through the world cup whirlwind now and I'm not finding it any easier! Will write more at a later date but here's a few photos to give you all a flavour of the last couple of weeks - it's been pretty full on. First stop was Cheongsong in South Korea - what an amazing event - so well organised, great venue and we were all well looked after - the only thing not ideal is the time difference and the lack of a bed…….. floors all the way and that's in the hotels!

Opening ceremony - amazing!

The structure - not too steep but still tricky!

Ice sledding - AKA a way to break the climbers!

Ice sculpture

Some interesting food choices in Korea but tasty.

South Korea saw just Harry and I headed out and it was Harry's first World Cup - he was brilliant did really well and looks like he'll be a bright prospect for the future (damn these people with youth on their side!)
We even managed a bit of training at a climbing gym in Seoul before we came home, so hopefully not de-training too much.

Less than a week later and with a stopover of around 12hours at home it was on to Busteni in Romania.  A bigger team this time with Harry and I being joined by Stevie  and Anna - Anna's first world cup and she has an injury at the moment and was only climbing with agreement from her physio that she would just do the one comp. Would you believe she qualified for the sam-final - what a great start to a World Cup career!!
I had a frustrating qualification getting to within a move of topping out the route, which is what was required to go through - even more frustratingly I'd climbed fast enough to be almost a  minute ahead of the person who did go through in the 9th spot - ARGH!! So whilst happier with my performance than in Korea - annoyed with myself for blowing it so close.

Was great to have a team out in Romania and we all hung out together and even had a day at a local crag on the sunday. The local climbers had been super keen for us to visit the crag and get on their project, which we duly did and I managed to send it too - I called it "Grandad" after the guy who sent us to the crag as this is his nickname and it seemed appropriate!

Sharpening!

Nearing the top of the qualifier - i.e. the long quickdraw just to the right with a blue hold.

Team GB -Romania

Harry on what became Grandad

Harry climbing

Enjoying watching the finals

The best thing about the Romanian comp was the men's result - the top 2 places were predictable with Maxim Tomilov and HeeYong Park, but the last spot on the podium went to the elder statesman of the Ice World Cups Sergey Tarasov at the grand age of 47 he took his first podium position - there's hope for me yet!