Winter Bouldering League Round 3 11th December

Its that time already!!  This time of year is so bad for remembering everything.  I have my excuses and i'm sticking by them ;) 

So come one come all to the 3rd Round of the Winter Bouldering league on Friday 11th December.  Registration at 18:00 for a start at 18:30. The usual hilarities, fun and challenges are on offer along with a few nibbles and loads of great prizes kindly donated and provided by MAMMUT and Craigdon Mountain Sports.  They are well a look/visit!!!

See you there!!!

New routes book

In the last couple of weeks we have decided to start recording our new routes in our new routes book



It is tied on to the big lime storage box. So if you haven't been for a while check it out and see whats new.

Also feel free to leave comments and what you think the grade is if you think its different to what we have suggested.

Hope you enjoy all the new routes.

Boulder Comp Round 2 Pics

So here are a few of the brilliant pics Ryan took on Friday. there are loads more and i've uploaded some to Facebook since its easier... Also check out our Web album on Picasa (click on the slideshow on the left column).

We unveiled our new Extreme Dream Holds; Basalt and Sandstone ranges. They took a bit of getting used to but are absolutely brilliant to climb on (when you've got chalk!). There's a couple of routes up or away to go up on the main walls with them as we kept just enough back form the comp for those of you who are getting the routes in.

The Bleaustone screw on's came back out for some rather interestingly technical problems if not a bit fingery!

It was as always a successful night due to the hard work put into getting it organised and most importantly the competitors. Without you guys us route setters would have nothing to do!

The new 'Ramp' saw its debut on the 10 degree board with some really interesting problems including my 'Dilemma' that was worth £30 for the first ascent. Ally Coull was the winner this time; who's going to get it next month with some craft climbing? The 'Ramp' still needs finishing touches and painted but has a mix of problems at the moment to have a go at.

Scottish Drytooling Series Round 3

Last Saturday Pete, Anna and I headed over to Aviemore for the 3rd round of the Scottish Drytooling Series. Waking up at 5:50am I rolled out of bed, got my stuff and headed downstairs where Pete and Anna would pick me up. We got across feeling surprisingly awake had a look at the routes and tried to teach Pete all he needed to know about drytooling as he had never done it before. We listened to the briefing and then started on the routes. Pete was psyched to go first as he thought he had nothing to lose and he could tell myself and Anna where the good bits on the holds were.

The qualifiers ran for about 3 hours in this time there was 2 boulder problems one of which was a figure four fest along a long horizontal campus board and another involving swinging logs. There was also 9 top roped routes involving a mixture of laybacks, stein pulls, swinging axes into logs and even a crack made out of wooden beams that you needed to torque!!!!

At about 1pm the qualifiers ended. By this point my lack of sleep had caught up with me. I was starting to feel really tired and wasn't looking forward to the final route. Big stein pulls up to the roof then leading across the whole disorientating length of the roof!
The finalists were called out Anna was currently in first place after the qualifiers but had very close competition in Fiona Murry. Fiona went first getting very far along the roof and along with her commentary on how hard it was I think Anna was getting a bit nervous. Fiona fell about two thirds of the way along the roof, up next was Anna. Anna looked impressive but fell just short of Fiona to come 2nd.
In the mens comp Pete and I also made it in to the final. Not too bad as Pete had never tried it before. Pete went first out of the two of us feeling tired after the qualifiers he didn't look forward to the start which involved a couple of strenuous lock off moves to get to the roof. He got to the top had a little shake out then preceded onto the roof looking strong until he got confused, clipped the wrong quickdraw and couldn't correct it. He fell soon after although happy he got further then Anna. As Pete untied I walked over to see what he thought as I was next up. He told me the worst part was the start then for the roof you just had to keep going till you couldn't hold on anymore. I managed to get slightly further than Pete and then fell off landing me in 3rd place and Pete in 4th.

I'll let you know how we get on at the final 2 comps so keep checking the blog for more stories and pics!!!

Price Changes

Just a wee notice to make you all aware of our current prices

Bouldering League Round 2 Results

Photo's and comp round up to follow in the next few days. thanks again to all who came along and those that helped out.

Credit to Ryan Slater for the photography.

Round 1 and 2 results will be posted in the climbing centre.

Here are the results:

Men Elite (*Veterans):
Ally Coull 195
Marcus Bean 170
Neil Morrison * 167
Wayne Sherry 166
Merlin Kassab 154
Alexis Roussel 129
Dave Cowan 127
Pierluigi Di Giovanni* 124
Ben Woodward 119
Hamish Fraser 94
Robert Mackenzie 90
Ben Lownie 87
Hjon Meehan 71
Jinhan Lim* 69

Female Elite (*Under 18):
Anna Wells 182
Abbey Niven* 154
Caroline Sham 140
Lucile Franoux 130
Joan Love 114
Pujos Juslino 98

Junior Girls:
Fionidi Parker 79
Kirsten Berry 50

Junior Boys:
Angus Crowley 187
Jonathan Mann 175
Duncan Anderson 155
Thomas McGrath 150
Ollie Banks 147
Rhys Maslen 137
David Mann 128
Jamie Henderson 123
Bruce McKay 121
Scott Field 87
Andrew Hainsworth 62

Fun:
Chris Allam 197
Gareth Yardley 197
Roman Kutlak 184
Maart??? 184
Martin Kutlak 180
David Hainsworth 161
Steven Wallace 159
David Bruisson 154
Steve Taylor 138
Scott Gourlay 125
Callum Johnson 108
Iain Cackette 105
Mike Jennings 104
Nina Luber 103
Rod Cowe 102
Sarah Woodward 77
Kevin Morice 70
Brendan Campbell 60
David Anderson 57
Nicola Rae 47

Bouldering Wall closure 9pm 5th November

The bouldering wall is due for an essential freshen up to brighten those dark corners that hide those all important holds.

With it being completely re set for the bouldering competition the next day we plan to re paint it late on the Thursday night. As you can imagine this is no east task: strip all the holds, clean the super good ones for the comp, strip the volumes and then we can get to the painting.

An added bonus is the new mega volume will be going up on the wall. It has been named 'The Ramp' mainly from the fact that it used timber that was originally intended to be used to make skate ramps. Just don't tell the skaters!

To save us from being here all night the bouldering wall will close at 9pm for the works to begin. So get in early to finish off those projects!

Price changes

Ok folks jsut a wee note to inform you all that Transition is in the process of reviewing its prices and will implement them as of the 9th of November. The new prices will be posted in the centre and, website and the blog on the 9th.

Don't forget about the 8 months climbing for the price of 6 offer available between 1st November and 1st December!!! Fabtastic value!

Scottish Dry Tooling series round 2

This weekend saw round two of the Scottish Tooling Series take place, this time hosted by EICA Ratho. On the way down, Ash, Suzana and I (Anna) stopped off at Dundee to take part in their bouldering comp. Well, unfortunately Ashley was unable to put a climbing shoe on as he had “accidently” kicked a piece of wood (three times). There was a strong Aberdeen contingent, with about ten Aberdonians taking part. The routes were fun and varied, including some swinging logs that got us psyched for the tooling on Saturday! I managed to bag 1st place, and we all managed to leave feeling slightly stiffer than we would have liked! Results were in; Ashley was joint 2nd with Robert Mackenzie, and therefore through to the finals! An awesome effort given that there were 23 strong competitors in his category! I also made it through to the finals in 1st place, for the first time ever ahead of Fiona Murray! The final route involved a no hands start which was a true test of balance. The route went left via some swinging logs, and then up the wall to the right of ratho’s “Sardinian pillar”. It was a fun-filled day, and an exhausting weekend! We are looking forward to the next round already :) (big thanks to Katherine for taking all the photos).
Words by Anna Wells

Is it a ramp? Is it a volume? Is it a new wall?

Well; its kind of all three...

You may have heard the buzzing of saws, banging of hammers and whizzing of drills. And no doubt seen me wandering around with glazed eyes after inhaling some pretty damn good fumes!

I've been working away at more additions for the climbing wall. The picture above shows the larger of the efforts. It's a curved section that will be used on the bouldering wall and on the main wall at competitons. It measures about 8 feet by 4 feet and is going to be awsome wherever it is put.

Ash is working on more volumes for the main walls to make the vast plywood expanses a bit more interesting. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks whilst these are put up.