We left for Colorado on the 24th May from London and arrived that evening in Boulder, tired (our body clocks were 7hrs forward) but glad to be off  planes! We spent our first day sorting out the van we bought out here, a 1992 GMC van, a beautifully brutish thing. It was surprisingly easy to do actually, you need insurance, a smog test and then new plates – all do-able in half a day. We were too tired to head out so we rested up and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park the next day.

Our Van!

We headed up to an area called Emerald Lake which sits at about 10,000ft. The walk in was beautiful, about 40 mins fairly uphill and we took it steady to get used to the altitude. The area seemed pretty small but with some good climbs. We warmed up on a nice V5 called The Kind before going to try Wispers of Wisdom, a really cool looking V10. I won’t go into moves but this is a great problem, it looks good and the climbing is fun and powerful. Neither of us managed to do it but I am psyched to go back and finish it. After trying that for a while, we went over to the Large Boulder and tried a V9 called Tommy’s Arete. This was a nice surprise, fun climbing followed by a slightly nerve racking top out! We both managed to do it, with some serious huffing and puffing (the altitude really gets you when you put more than 3 moves together!).

  Dream Lake, on the walk up to Emerald Lake (RMNP)

Tommy’s Arete

The next day we went with Jackie and Chris (who we are staying with) to an area called Wild Basin. This has a relatively flat walk in but we did some boulder searching on the hill so a fair bit of walking! When we settled at the main area it looked pretty disappointing to begin with but ended up being pretty fun. I don’t think it’s the best rock around but it made for a good day out. David and Chris tried a hard looking V12 called Mini Compressor while I spent some time working a steep V10  called Macho Man which is long, with some big moves. Really fun to try, I would like to go back to that one too! At the end of the day we both did a nice V9 called The Hamburglarer which was pretty fun. I would post a picture but we forgot to put the battery in the camera…….

So rest day today and then I think we will head to Mount Evans tomorrow……

Where do I start? After a bit of a shoddy performance in Slovenia, I decided not to do the Vienna WC, to give myself a break. I spent the month between Slovenia and Innsbruck doing lots of things; running, swimming, climbing, finishing off uni work, training in my cellar and looking at the mental side of climbing. I won’t go into too much detail but working on the mental aspect of competition climbing really helped me. I don’t really struggle with it outdoors, something is different there. But at competitions, my head really got in way. After doing some mental training and prep with two friends, I felt much better prepared for Innsbruck. My goal for the competition was to enjoy it, avoid negative self talk and to be happy with myself whatever my result. I managed it, I thoroughly enjoyed the competition and I even did ok too, ending up in 24th. Definitely some silly mistakes in there and I felt I was strong enough to do better, but that’s good – I can work with that!

It has given me what feels like a new lease of life in competition. It is much less intimidating knowing I have the tools to stop myself spiraling into a negative pattern of self loathing. I feel like I have just decided to be a bit kinder to myself – well worth doing . My Mum always used to say “be kind to yourself” and I think that, although I knew what she meant, I have only just (at a ripe 25 years…) started to do it. Well, better late than never I suppose!

In terms of our team, it was a great event! 3 Brits in the final and Shauna on the podium again! Well done everyone

I’m back at home now, packing for a summer in Colorado! Starting the trip with the BWC in Vail, we will then stay in Boulder for some long awaited rock climbing! Can’t wait for both the comp and the rock.