Team training.

Last weekend I organised a get together at The Works in the Lake District. The idea being to get folk that were interested in dry tooling and potentially competition climbing. Although this wasn't publicised widely (we all know what happened last time!) the network of Facebook etc saw an amazing turnout.
Saturday saw around 20 people at the crag, some having a go for the first time and with, the usual suspects who train there a lot and a strong contingent from north of the border too.

Photo Andrew Rutherford
Addressing the team!

It was a great event and gave everyone the chance to catch up, meet keen like minded people and to get some more information on the competition climbing scene. Judging by the reaction it's looking like Team GB Ice Climbing could have a bright future. Great to see some of the youth climbers getting involved with Emma Powell and Tim Miller looking like strong contenders for a trip to the Youth World Championship in Champagny.

Big thank you to everyone for turning up and supporting the event and hope it's got some of you fired up for having a go.

More photos on Andy Rutherfords flickr account here.


Also in attendance was Steve Ashworth from MOViE iT who has put together this film which tells you a bit about the weekend and the competitions generally - thanks Steve and enjoy!





Dry Tooling with Andy Turner. from MOViE iT on Vimeo.

Olympic Dream

Anyone that's been on Facebook may have noticed that I have been selected to go to the Winter Olympics in Sochi in Feb 2014 - which is pretty amazing and super cool.
The slight spanner in the works is that these things cost a whole heap of cash, and anyone that knows me at all also knows that's not something I have! (Yes, alright I could do more work, but that would mean less training, smaller guns and no place at the Olympics.)
So, I'm currently in the process of trying to drum up some sponsorship from any and all available sources. Ramon and Ruth have put together this to help the cause along, so feel free to share as much as you can and recommend me to any of your rich friends! Massive thanks to Lukasz, Andy, Ian, Tony, Sam and Ray for the photos too.

If anyone would like the file sending over then please get in touch here, via Facebook or e-mail me at andyturnerclimbing@gmail.com

Cheers folks :)

 

Just in case you've been wondering.......

Hello all, it's been a while since I sneaked in to write on Andy's blog. He's up at The Works today hiding in a shady (probably midge infested) cave, so I thought I'd just share some things with you all.
He's mentioned that he's been training with Tim Budd - in the torture chamber/garage but he hasn't really explained what that means so here's a few snaps ........it's probably a good job we aren't married or divorce might be on the cards!! ;-)

And as you can see at the moment not much of it actually taking place in the chamber - enjoying the sunshine.

I'd like to thank Lynne for these pictures - don't even need to take them myself anymore - result!

Awww bless - bit tired Andy?

Fatty ;-)

Blackpool Tower....and ice axes!

It's been quite  while since I wrote on this blog, sorry!
The events at The Works in the Lakes have pretty much left me speechless and I don't feel like I want to get involved in commenting on them. I'll restrict my comments to being disappointed and angered by what happened but strangely buoyed by the response and the speed with which everything was repaired and put back into action.
Since finishing the World Cup circuit my focus has been on getting better for next season, I know it may seem like a long way away, but it's never too early to start. My training has been a long-term focus, so rather than just climbing I've been doing other sessions. At the gym, on my bike, down the local park and in the 'torture chamber' that is the garage of friend and massage therapist Tim Budd. Tim has written me a plan for sessions that involve kettle bells, a slosh pipe, pull-ups, planks, squats, burpees.....you name it, he seems to have it in there. He was caught researching on the internet whilst chuckling and saying things like.."Oooo, Andy's going to kill me.."
So far he's still breathing, but I can't guarantee that'll last forever!
However, the biggest obstacle to training for the Ice World Cup is having a suitable structure to train on. there are a few climbing walls who have trialled a dry-tooling area in the past, sometimes as a permanent area, sometimes as a time restricted area, which is great. But usually the sort of routes set or terrain used is not very similar to what happens at the World Cup - so it's a great facility for people wanting to try the sport but not much good for training for the events.
So, I decided that I needed to make it my mission to try and rectify the situation. There were several ideas buzzing round my head, the smallest of which was to try and persuade a local wall to give up and area that was more suitable, right through to trying to get funding to build a purpose built structure to my own specification. After some research and asking some questions a potential option came up.....The Blackpool Tower!

No, not that one not sure getting permission to swing around on axes would be easy to come by! But there are some free standing tower structures that were built by BNFL as some kind of art to welcome people to Blackpool and later were acquired by the council and the leisure centre to turn into a climbing wall. I knew that dry-tooling had previously happened there and with a bit of help from the BMC I went along to meet the managers of the facility to put an idea to them.
Access for dry-toolers at specified times......but rather than the usual first thing on a weekday morning slot, how about a weekend day and an evening.
The folk at the Towers were brilliant - and were super keen to get involved. The towers are outdoors and with the British summer being what it is they don't get all that much use, so for them to get some traffic and activity was something they were really excited about.
This was the initial meeting and sounding really positive - the second trip I had up to talk was even better. I talked about setting routes and the possibility of having plywood pieces fixed onto the structure to get people used to kicking into it......."No problem" they said. How about getting to use  the wall on a Saturday? "OK" they said.
I couldn't believe it! OK it's not exactly in my back yard, but it is closer than driving to The Works, and it's more like the actual competition routes - 22m long and 30 degrees overhanging. This could be the perfect training venue to get in the zone for World Cup climbing.
I headed up at the weekend and got started on some routes, 2 up so far but plenty of space to set some more - the only limit is the enthusiasm and commitment of myself and other climbers.
What needs to happen is that people make use of the facility now that it's available and repay the trust that has been extended by the people at Blackpool Council. I'd like to say a MASSIVE thank you to them, to James Mitchell who has donated a big pile of holds (more are welcome...), to Matt Pritchard who came up to help the setting begin and the BMC for getting me in to see the Council people in the first place.

So people - please make use of this facility - on Saturday's from 10:30-4:30pm and Wednesday evenings 6-9pm.
It's 10 minutes from the M55 and easily accessible.
Other times may be available but we need to get enough people together to make it worth while them opening up for us.
Information and directions are on this website http://www.sportblackpool.co.uk/page.aspx?id=110

Starting again

Cascade

The World Cup season is over and winter is surely on it's way out for this year. Easter weekend brought a rare opportunity for ice climbing in N.Wales, so I took advantage of the Oracle's advice (thanks Tim) and nipped over for the day with Ruth, Matt and Lukasz to climb Cascade - Tim had promised that it looked climbable although he didn't think anyone had climbed it. There were reports all over the internet about conditions in Cwm Idwal and it was Good Friday so we took the chance and were rewarded with not only a route in condition but only 1 other team at the crag. Admitedly they were in front of us but then we had hardly made a lightning start, meeting Matt at Frodsham at 8:30am.
So a bit of a wait followed with the team in front having a bit of leader swop on pitch 2, which was their pitch 3, and then as we were climbing as a 3 it was a lengthy process. Not least due to none of us being the swiftest of climber - particularly Ruth - the bike rider who hasn't pulled on an ice axe at all this winter and not been rock climbing either - to say she was pumped would be an understatement and there was a full range of squeaking and grunting going on!
It was great to get the Cascade climbed having previoulsy done Central Icefall and Chequered Wall - crag ticked!
Unfortunately it did seem to have the effect of doing something strange to my forearm which I am now nursing and treating with the old hot and cold treatment! Typical!


After a couple of weeks to reflect and recharge from the World Cup season I've decided to dedicate my efforts to doing better next year. I've had some help putting together a general training plan from Tim Budd at Global Therapies who is more used to putting me back together after I've been training - that man has evil elbows! I'm trying to go in with a more scientific approach and work on everything rather than just the usual climbing type training - so it's
gym rings, kettle bells, running and swinging around on the kids playgroud monkey bars or the rash of outdoor gyms that councils have put in to encourage people to get active. The one closest to home mostly seems to be ignored or the local youth have been trying to set fire to it - which I suppose does involve some kind of exercise so maybe it's working for them?!

I'm going to try and keep some kind of record of what I get up too so check back for more updates once I've fixed my forearm, currently being quite gentle with myself and "Coach Budd" is going easy!

From Russia with Love.

The final round of the Ice World Cup took place in Kirov, Russia. Where is Kirov? A flipping long way away. The competition organisers had it all sorted, the competitors arrive into Moscow and then hop on the trans-siberian express train overnight and arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed in Kirov to compete that day....which all seemed a bit rushed to myself and Lukasz and Si, so we arranged to go a day earlier.

Arriving in Moscow is like arriving on another planet - we couldn't understand anything, not a signpost, not a word of what people were saying - nothing! By some fluke we managed to negotiate our way to meet up with Pavel - our man in Moscow who took us to the right train, got our tickets and set us off on a  long journey. Now, I had all kinds of romantic ideas about the train journey, no doubt fuelled by old films and James Bond. You can imagine my disappointment when Lukasz and I slid open the door to our sleeping carriage to find two large old russian blokes in their underpants! Illusions well and truly shattered, I then realised I was going to spend a night in a rabbit hutch with 2 fat blokes and Lukasz!

We arrived in Kirov and despite reports of minus 30 degree temperatures it was a positively balmy -8 although the biting siberian wind wasn't helping as the days progressed. We hadn't had chance to see a lot from the train as it had been dark almost the whole journey, but we now had the opportunity to do a bit of sight-seeing - if you can call it that! Russia mostly seems to be made up of power stations, grey buildings, snow and be populated by Lada's. This may be a sweeping generalisation, but around Kirov there didn't seem to be a whole lot else! Kirov itself is dominated by an ENORMOUS ski-jump! We walked around to the landing area - they must be completely bonkers to throw themselves off it. Alongside is a series of smaller and smaller jumps and the stars of the future were already there learning at about 8 years old, they must look up at that big jump and be terrified of what awaits them!

The world cup structure is built underneath the ski jump so it's quite  cool and dramatic setting. The competition was also run on a slightly different format too. This time there were 2 routes for the qualifiers and no isolation. Some poor chap had to come along a demonstrate the routes - which was hilarious on one of them it took him about 15 minutes to climb the route with a rest approximately every clip and the second route he had to lower off half way and go back up half an hour later due to being so pumped!! The routes were long, but the time allowed was only 4 minutes which meant that it became a bit more of a speed climbing experience. Even the big guns like the Tomilovs and Heeyong Park didn't top out.
I did OK in the qualifiers, I climbed much better on the second route I did, and got to the same hold as many of the climbers that went through to the semi-finals - but having not done so well on the first route it meant I ended up in 26th place. Once again a few more holds and I'd have managed to qualify. The qualification went on late into the night, poor old Si was climbing his second route at 11:45pm by which time it was absolutely baltic!!
The other change to the competition was that it didn't cost extra to enter the speed competition - so we all decided we might as well give it a go for a giggle. Hmmmm, well I'm sure it was a giggle for anyone watching my attempt! I'd like to think it was my massive power that ripped the tools out of the ice - but frankly I think my speed climbing technique is a bit shoddy - or it was for the approximately 2 metres of climbing I managed before falling off - ooops!
 The atmosphere at this final round was great - everyone has become a bit of a family and the fact that we then all travelled back on the overnight train together rounded it all off brilliantly. As we were leaving Kirov the organisers appeared in the hotel with boxes of who knows what Russian alcohol - vodka, champagne (or whatever the russian name is), something that looks like brandy.....so the troops were well provisioned for the ride home. I have to say I was a little worried that it might get out of hand and that this grumpy old man wouldn't have anywhere quiet to sleep - luckily everyone is like a proper athlete, so after a couple of hours they'd all gone to bed!! Not exactly hardcore partying!

So that was the end of the World Cup series for 2013 - and I can honestly say that I've enjoyed being involved, I feel like I've learned a massive amount and despite having been ill for all except the final round I don't feel like I've made a complete fool of myself. So, now it's time to get thinking about the next season which rumour has it may well start in December and in a new venue.


Better get training!

Competition Climbing....

Retiring Legend Markus Bendler

The last few months has been quite an eye opener, I've become increasingly focused on competition climbing. A bit of a departure from my usual Scottish winter fare, but in some ways quite a welcome one.
Training for Scottish winter has always been a bit of a dark art, it's very difficult to taper your training to an completely unspecified date. Conditions being what they are, my dream route options are rarely in condition and never when you want them to be which often leaves frustration. Being based down near Manchester compounds the problem as it's not as if I can just nip out on the off chance, and with petrol prices being so high it's almost cheaper to fly out to the Alps than it is to drive to Scotland!

So this winter has so far been a mixture of the World Cup events in Saas Fee, Rabenstein (Italy) and Busteni (Romania) and sneaking routes in between. Unfortunately this winter has also seen me come down with a proper good dose of not being able to breathe and mostly coughing my lungs out! So far the coughing has gone on for nearly 4 weeks, I'm on my second set of antibiotics (stronger ones this time apparently!) and the training regime has gone to pot! It's difficult to try hard when breathing is an effort. I'm also taking my own advice from past experience, training with a chest infection is only going to make it worse.

I've learned heaps over the last 3 rounds. I've learned about how to look after myself - Travel Kettle essential! I've learned about route reading.....the main problem being that I've almost always fallen off at the point where I stopped trying to work it out in the preview time. I think this is mostly due to my own lack of belief about how far I'm going to get, and maybe a little bit to do with my drawing skills not being quick enough! So on the shopping list is also some better binoculars to get a better view. (And no before anyone suggests a camera, they aren't allowed!)

Rabenstein Structure

Lucie Hrozova winning her first World Cup

It's been really inspiring to see the top competitors climb and again has given me a chance to pick up tips and techniques. Sadly Markus Bendler has called time on his competition career, but it was a real privilege to be there at his last event in Rabenstein - what a legend. Wonder if he wants a job as a coach??? Feel free to get in touch Markus....

Busteni last weekend was a real step forward in terms of performance, I actually felt like I climbed somewhere near my ability. The final round is in 3 weeks in Russia and I'm determined to have full lung capacity and do myself proud. 

Bring on Kirov and 2014.

Fingers crossed I'll get something done before Russia, come on drugs do your stuff!