Back home behind my computer to catch up on emails from the past week.
What a radical change to last weekend…
Scott Miur organized together with Redbull UK a unique competition: Climbing on the huge chalk Cliffs on the Island of Wight. And it was such a great adventure! Me and 9 other worldclass climbers where invited to scale the chalk cliffs. Over 2 days we practiced to climb on the chalk. A medium that is somewhere between solid frozen glacier ice and super crumbly rock. The first 2 days we got used to the swinging and hooking on the 100Meter+ overhanging wall. On day 3 it was time to see who was the fastest.
Getting “ready” picture by Calum Muskett
Sandy Allen was running the safety of the whole competition together with Scot Muir, Mark Diggings, Alan Kimber, and Eric Pirie. Pete Hill, Duncan, Nathan Richy and Scotty had the honour to belay us around the clock. It’s been great to see the super solid set-up for me as former industrial climber. It was a very great feeling to be secured by these guys following industrial safety standards including double rope belays. Especially since the Flint stone embedded in the Chalk is super sharp and when climbing beyond my limits the waves underneath my crampons it’s great not to worry about the 100Meter+ depth.
Scott Muir communicating with the climbers on the wall (Picture: Marianne van der Steen)
The night before the competition we all went through the rules and it was decided that it was not allowed to make any falls and the fastest climber up would be the winner. This was putting some more pressure on us since we made loads of falls during the practice days and the chalks cliffs are not very known for its durability.
Will Mayo climbed first and set the bar high with a 21 Min run but Alexey managed to be even faster and climbed the line in 16:28 minutes. I was very afraid that I was going to fall off since my arms where still pumped from 7 days of climbing in a row. So I decided it would be smart to start slowly and try to keep pace and climb in one steady flow all the way. This worked out fine for the first 50 Meter of overhanging chalk. Than my arms were already so pumped that I couldn’t keep pace and had to shake the lactose away every other move. Somehow the route didn’t seem to end. Move after move. It made me feel like climbing a hard multipitch WI7 waterfall but than linked into one single pitch. So on the final slab I was so pumped I could barely hold on to my tools. With great relieve I rang the finish bell after 26.23 minutes of climbing.
(Picture source: Red Bull Content Pool)
The other nine climbers made a great effort and Jeff and Will showed it is all about experience and age is not that important.
2 Jeff Mercier, 1 Alexei Tomilov, 3 Will Mayo (Picture source: Red Bull Content Pool)
It was a great Experience and I want to thank Red Bull, Isle of Wight, National Trust and all the guys who made it possible to enjoy this adventure.
Redbull white cliffs
Back home behind my computer to catch up on emails from the past week.
What a radical change to last weekend…
Scott Miur organized together with Redbull UK a unique competition: Climbing on the huge chalk Cliffs on the Island of Wight. And it was such a great adventure! Me and 9 other worldclass climbers where invited to scale the chalk cliffs. Over 2 days we practiced to climb on the chalk. A medium that is somewhere between solid frozen glacier ice and super crumbly rock. The first 2 days we got used to the swinging and hooking on the 100Meter+ overhanging wall. On day 3 it was time to see who was the fastest.
Getting “ready” picture by Calum Muskett
Sandy Allen was running the safety of the whole competition together with Scot Muir, Mark Diggings, Alan Kimber, and Eric Pirie. Pete Hill, Duncan, Nathan Richy and Scotty had the honour to belay us around the clock. It’s been great to see the super solid set-up for me as former industrial climber. It was a very great feeling to be secured by these guys following industrial safety standards including double rope belays. Especially since the Flint stone embedded in the Chalk is super sharp and when climbing beyond my limits the waves underneath my crampons it’s great not to worry about the 100Meter+ depth.
Scott Muir communicating with the climbers on the wall (Picture: Marianne van der Steen)
The night before the competition we all went through the rules and it was decided that it was not allowed to make any falls and the fastest climber up would be the winner. This was putting some more pressure on us since we made loads of falls during the practice days and the chalks cliffs are not very known for its durability.
Will Mayo climbed first and set the bar high with a 21 Min run but Alexey managed to be even faster and climbed the line in 16:28 minutes. I was very afraid that I was going to fall off since my arms where still pumped from 7 days of climbing in a row. So I decided it would be smart to start slowly and try to keep pace and climb in one steady flow all the way. This worked out fine for the first 50 Meter of overhanging chalk. Than my arms were already so pumped that I couldn’t keep pace and had to shake the lactose away every other move. Somehow the route didn’t seem to end. Move after move. It made me feel like climbing a hard multipitch WI7 waterfall but than linked into one single pitch. So on the final slab I was so pumped I could barely hold on to my tools. With great relieve I rang the finish bell after 26.23 minutes of climbing.
(Picture source: Red Bull Content Pool)
The other nine climbers made a great effort and Jeff and Will showed it is all about experience and age is not that important.
2 Jeff Mercier, 1 Alexei Tomilov, 3 Will Mayo (Picture source: Red Bull Content Pool)
It was a great Experience and I want to thank Red Bull, Isle of Wight, National Trust and all the guys who made it possible to enjoy this adventure.
Related