Considerations for the Injured Climber
Below is an article I wrote for the Arc'teryx Bird blog in early 2019 when I was recovering from a badly broken…
Kalymnos: returning to climbing after injury
In January 2019 I broke my wrist in a lead fall. A comminuted, displaced fracture of my ulna and radius right through…
Rock and Ice Article: Everything You Want to Know About Fuelling for the Send
Rock and Ice Contributing Writer Mina Leslie-Wujastyk grills performance dietician Rebecca Dent on all the…
Arc’teryx Bird Blog: Dancing with the Devil
MINA LESLIE-WUJASTYK REFLECTS ON NOT SENDING Words: Mina Leslie-Wujastyk Photos: James Turnbull It’s…
Glorious 30s – Rock and Ice article 3
Despite what you might expect from the title of this piece, I was not psyched about turning 30. I really thought I’d be…
The Tipping Point: A Tale of Slack-Faced Sport Climbing – Rock and Ice Article 2.
You know the look: It’s your friend’s or perhaps your own face in the mirror. The face is tired, drained, somewhat…
A Norwegian Summer
Our trip to Norway was supposed to be a two-week bouldering a trip. David and I had planned the trip with two friends…
Spring ’18: Rainshadow and Voralpsee
It’s been a hectic few weeks and finally, on a 9-hour flight to Canada for the 2018 Arc’teryx Rock Academy in Squamish,…
Strawberry Pencil Pick Me Up – Rock and Ice article 1
Can you spot Mina resting beneath the roof on the monster 230-foot 5.13d route Totally Free II? Photo by David…
Returning to the Red
The Red River Gorge is somewhat of a Mecca for sport climbers. Beautiful sandstone crags hidden in a forest, the area…
Smith Rock
The first image I saw of Smith Rock was a giant tower. It stuck out of the landscape like a monument; a humungous…
A Tough Day at Malham Cove
“Feeling strong, moving up from the undercut is solid, readjust the left hand, pinky up, eyeball the pinch, hold it,…
South Africa 2017
I got a bit stuck trying to begin writing this blog; I didn’t really know what to write. In some ways this was one of…
Projecting: Round one with Rainshadow…
After a winter spent training I worked on Rainshadow for 12 sessions, about 6 weeks: it’s gone so fast. Slowly piecing…
So much training….
Since we arrived back in the UK after our trip to Australia and New Zealand, I have seen an awful lot of the inside of…
Video from The Valley of the Giants, Grampians, Australia
Mina Leslie-Wujastyk in the Valley of the Giants
New Zealand, the land of camper vans and seriously big hills.
It seems strange to be back in Sheffield already. I’m sure many experience this (and I’m sure I have when returning…
Australia 2016
Going to Australia was always going to be more than just a climbing trip. I mean, they have kangaroos for goodness…
Trying to see things as they really are….A blog about Vipassana and climbing.
The last blog I wrote looked back at new things I had experienced or discovered in 2015 and now starting this one it…
2015 – A YEAR OF NEW THINGS
When I wrote a blog in early 2015, I was recollecting how 2014 had been a year of changes and adjustments. So I suppose…
Waterval Boven and Wow Prow
Sitting in Johannesburg airport with Katy as I begin to write this, I’m wondering how I can best sum up the trip we…
Learning to Enjoy the Fight
This year has gone so fast, I don’t really know where to start. I started the year by going to India for a month – see…
The Science of Achievement vs the Art of Fulfilment.
My gut feeling about 2014 was that it was a testing year in my climbing, but when I look at what I achieved one might…
Katy tells my tale and I tell hers….
The British limestone is very unique to say the least. We don’t have the massive 50m lines of tufas and the golden rock…
South African Summer
Once again, summer came around and it was a no-brainer. For bouldering, the summer time is somewhat more limited in…
World Cups and a Missing Mojo
It feels like a long time since I put pen to paper (despite being a bit inaccurate it sounds much better than fingers…
CWIF, Tierra Boulder Battle and a Crowd Funding Venture!
Writing this now, the CWIF seems a long time ago! I was looking forward to it this year and I was also nervous to see…
Hueco Tanks
Hueco Tanks: where climbers go to crimp, turn 360 in a roof, knee-bar, toe-hook, heel-hook and power scream. Where we…
Southern Sandstone in the US
This trip to the South East was part of a deal between David and myself. I have been hankering after a trip to Hueco…
Unfamiliar….
Hanging out, bouldering at Stanage Plantation it is impossible not to look at the giant, imposing arête that is…
CAC Calendar thoughts…
I wanted to write a blog to give a bit of background on the CAC Calendar. I know there has been some criticism out…
Video from Rocklands 2013 – Part 4: The Amphitheatre (V12).
Rocklands Part 4: Mina on The Amphitheatre
Pushing it
What do you understand by trying hard: training for a climbing trip or getting up early to try your project? Going out…
From Stuttgart to Vastervik…
We arrived back in the UK from South Africa on Tuesday the 10th of September and by early Thursday morning I was back…
A Summer in Africa
Six weeks has flown by and I find myself sitting in Cape Town airport wondering how I can put down in words what a…
Squamish Mountain Festival
I have travelled a lot lately but this was the first long trip I can think of where I set off completely solo. I would…
British Bouldering Champs
The British Bouldering Championships come around every year and every year I sign up with a mixture of psyche, hope and…
The other side of the pond…..
Very quickly the time arrived for our GB Bouldering team to venture further and cross the Atlantic to compete in…
Pack and unpack, pack and unpack….
These last few weeks have been a manic series of packing and unpacking; travelling and waiting; climbing up and falling…
Kitzbuhel World Cup 2013
Kitzbuhel by Team GB, Photo Victoria Newlands Another World Cup over, another mixed bag of emotions. It was my best…
From China to France to Sweden…with a little bit of home in-between!
Since I last blogged I have been all over the place! If going to China wasn't adventurous enough, the GB team then set…
IFSC Boulder World Cup Chongqing
I had debated whether or not to go to the World Cup in China this year and I had decided against it. I went last year…
CWIF 2013
The CWIF weekend was exhausting! The day after I felt like I was in some kind of trance, propped up by coffee and…
Careless Torque
I have to say, I thought doing Careless Torque was a bit of a pipe dream. I have bouldered 8A and 8A+ but gritstone…
RocFest and GB Team Trials
Competitions. What a world of trying hard, excitement, confidence, slips, mistakes, triumph and disappointment. Those…
Siurana – A boulderer on a rope…
Siurana boasts a beautiful landscape; a tiny village situated on a hill top, surrounded by magnificent cliffs of orange…
Back to training….
Since my last blog we have returned from the USA, Christmas and New Years Eve have gone past in a flurry and now it is…
Yosemite
Yosemite Valley is awesome. Full stop. The tall granite boulders make for great lines; interesting climbing, impressive…
From Bishop to Yosemite
Since my last blog we have changed our tune once again. To pick up where I left off, I was trying to finish off…
Climbing, American chocolate and some seriously bad skin.
We have been in Joe's Valley for just over 2 weeks now and the weather is starting to get cold...good conditions are on…
Joe’s Valley
Joe's Valley has not disappointed. It was a long (by English standards) drive from Boulder, Colorado to Utah; a drive…
A little chapter from my mind….
So, we have been in Colorado for two and a half weeks and it had been a mixed bag. We have had good weather, bad…
Hello America!
We arrived in the US on Wednesday, landing in Philidelphia before catching a connecting flight on to Denver. Our…
The Battle, Lillehammer.
What a weekend! My trip to Norway has been great. Most of the competitors arrived on Thursday, coming from as far as…
Mecca
It took me a while to muster up the courage to try Mecca; a classic, short, power endurance route at Raven Tor. If I'm…
Munich World Cup
Arriving back into the UK after the Addidas Rockstars event I suffered a momentary lapse in memory at the passport…
Addidas Rockstars Event and a few hot days in Fontainebleau
I'm not sure where to start....Addidas Rockstars was a new thing for me, I didn't do the event last year so I wasn't…
A Whirlwind Trip to Magic Woods
What a week! Jen Randall (http://alloureggs.wordpress.com/tag/magic-wood) is making a film about female UK climbers and…
Off to Magic Woods!
Just a quick blog.... I have just got back from a weekend in London. It is buzzing down there with talk of Olympics and…
From hot and sweaty Colorado to rain soaked Sheffield
A lot has changed since I last blogged. Colorado continued to heat up and it started to get unbearable (for us English…
Colorado Climbing
Since I last blogged we have been out in Colorado, climbing as much as possible! We have been staying in Boulder and I…
Vail WC and a day at Lincoln
Having arrived and spent a few days in Colorado, I was really psyched to climb on rock so it was a bit strange to put…
Disappearing into thin air
We left for Colorado on the 24th May from London and arrived that evening in Boulder, tired (our body clocks were 7hrs…
Innsbruck WC
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…
Slovenia WC
Where do I start?! The last couple of weeks has been pretty heavy with a trip to China, a flying visit home, a funeral…
It’s a long way home from China!
This year I was given the opportunity to go to China for the first World Cup event of 2012. Originally I wasn't…
Weekend in the County and a spot of fitness testing!
On Friday morning David and I packed up the van and drove to the County for the weekend. We decided to head to Hepburn…
CWIF 2012
After lots of training, I was excited for this year's Climbing Works International Festival. I guess I was hopeful that…
Team training and some beautiful days…
I'll start with team training. Our most recent one was at Boulder Uk and it was a really good day. I'm sure there is…
Power Endurance Training Begins…
I have just come to the end of my power phase in training; a 6 week block that has seen me doing assisted one armers,…
Cold Temps and Bad Piercings
The temperatures have dropped in the last few weeks here in the UK, giving us brilliant conditions. However, although I…
Font
After the joys of a decadent festive season in London I headed out with friends to Fontainebleau to celebrate the New…
Training!
The last few months have been training, training, training. I come from a background of not really training at all,…
From Cressbrook to Rocklands to Training
I haven’t written a blog entry for sometime now. This is partly due to being busy and partly due to not quite knowing…