Scottish Tooling Series, Round 4

On Saturday morning Ashley and I (Anna), headed to Glemore Lodge to take part in round 4 of the scottish tooling series. We were to be competing in the third and final time slot, meaning we had a leisurely start to the day.

The glenmore lodge round is unique as it takes place on their outdoor rock pillars, and the competitors must wear crampons. As we kitted up and got ready to go, we felt the first few drops of rain fall upon us...
We strategically chose our first route; it had a board of wood that was almost destroyed, and an ice block that was 3/4 gone! Better now than later we thought!

By the time we both completed this route, the heavens had opened and there was a pretty torential downpour going on!

We both managed to flash the first six routes, and then we arrived at the harder stuff. By this point, we were drenched to the bone and very cold from the wind! we fought hard, and succeeded and failed on different routes to one another.

Finally, we were at the last route. Ash made light work of this. As I reached the second last hold, Ash said "watch that hold, its sketchy!". What is he talking about, I wondered, this is bomber! suddenly, wham! my axe popped of and went straight into my lip! I lowered down, and quickly started to try again within the time limit. However as I kept going, I could taste more and more blood so i thought i should bail! We went back inside to clean up and dry off. Unfortunately my parents had come to visit, and seeing me with blood all over my mouth has not given my mum a good first impression of drytooling!
Results were in, and I made it into the finals in joint 2nd. Unfortunately Ash did not make it through this time, I think we can put this largely down to "the conditions"!!

The final route had a horrible balancy start, that spat off more than half of the finalists! When it was my turn, I came out of isolation and had a quick look at the route. I took the start carefuly, and made it onto the overhanging bit, before falling off from a sketchy hold. Fiona was last out in the womans, and she was spat of in exactly the same place. It came down to speed, and as the slowest climber in the world, i finished in 2nd :-)

despite the weather, we both had an awesome day (i think) , and we really felt like we deserved our fish and chips on the way home!