Wednesday 11 March 2015

Points and Prizes.

Me and The Girl
We were both on our feet.
Come On!
Fingers stretched towards the crimp on the volume...
Come On!
Shouting at the small screen
Come On!

Watching Dave Barrans on the last Men's Semi-final problem in the Climbing Works International Festival.

In retrospect it was very like watching England vs Germany in a world cup final penalty shoot out.

All the hope and aspiration boiling up, too scared to watch, just in case.
Hiding behind the cushion

Come On! Just reach the bloody hold, Come on Dave................... !

With one thing and another this winter has seen a lot of climbing competitions for us, we didn't get the weather timed right/missed the boat/got it wrong.

So in time honoured tradition we have been making our votive offerings at the houses of mental pain and muscular correction.

Dipping in and out of four bouldering competitions has been fun, lots of climbing, feeling pretty fit, pulling hard.

But it leads to this every year, feeling hopeful, entering a national competition, no false hope of doing anything than just being better than before.

Pulling on, the shock of realisation as to how hard the problems are, trying hard, feeling beaten up and pleased.

But then watching the semi finals and finals at home with a warm recognition of the people and surroundings and slowly chilling out.

Stretch for it! You can do it! 

Dave came off, the penalty over the bar, the fans silent in the stadium. Crashing down. Emptiness filling the gap left .....litter blowing through the empty rows

Hang on ! This isn't mere football. This is climbing, this is where everything is possible.

This time is different, He made it through.

The final was spectacular.

This time the shots hammered home, full in the net. The crowd on fire. Heads held high.

He did it !

This was a glorious time to be a climber.



(Well done Dave)