ROCfest 2013

ROCfest 2013 was held at Rock Over Climbing in Manchester on Saturday 2nd February. There was a great turnout, with competitors throughout the categories and also many spectators.

As I'm 15 years old I entered the junior category online (under 16), however when I arrived at Rock Over, Molly and Gracie decided to move into the seniors and managed to persuade me to do the same. Since most of the Senior Bouldering Team were competing I didn't expect to make the finals as only the top six from the qualifiers would go through.

We had three hours to climb 30 problems, with the Juniors starting at 11am and the Seniors starting at midday. The problems were really well set and tested all styles of climbing (technique, power, strength etc.) The only issue was that it was very crowded so three hours didn't really seem like a long time!!

Reading the problems in the final

I ended up with a score of 221/300 (if you did a problem 1st attempt you got 10 points, 2nd attempt you got 7 points and 3rd attempt you got 3 points). Each problem also had a bonus hold which was worth one point if there was a draw between two or more people. I ended up qualifying for the finals in 5th place - which I was surprised but pleased about!!!

Also qualifying in the Seniors were Alex Puccio, Leah Crane, Mina Leslie-Wujastyk, Diane Merrick and Naomi Buys.

In the finals we had 4 blocs / problems, where we had 4 minutes to climb each one. We could have as many attempts as we liked within that time, but the less attempts the better!

Since everybody else in the final was quite a bit older than me, I wasn't nervous at all - instead I was really looking forward to the climbs.

Me on Bloc 2

I took one attempt to top the first bloc which put me in joint 1st with Alex and Mina. On the second bloc, I didn't top it or get the bonus hold which moved me down to joint 2nd with Mina (Alex was first). I managed to top the 3rd bloc in three attempts which meant I was in third (Alex was first and Mina second). On the final bloc I took two attempts to top it.....which meant I was third overall!!!
Full results including the senior finals are here

I was really pleased with how I climbed and thought the competition was really well organised and had a great atmosphere.

Also, I'd like to say thank you to Rock Over and all the people who were involved with organising the competition.  :-)

Thank you to Rock Over climbing and photographer James Goodwin for the images.