So, on saturday (the day this winter wonder hell started), I was comparing for the biggest event of the year in British Dry Tooling, the Scottish Tooling Series (Could've been named better). I had been in regular contact over the past 8 weeks with Neil Silver (organiser or the event) who had asked me if I wanted to compare at the comp. He had heard me comparing for the worlds last September and thought I sounded ok (I don't think he was listening for very long). Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, once again will my loud and very cocky voice be heard by the masses!

Unfortunately I didn't get to see too much of the qualifiers as I was coaching the CCT (EICA: Ratho Competition Climbing Team) for the morning, but I was looking from afar and getting regular updates from my friends competing and working at the event. My good pal Greg Boswell (winter hero and general all-round gimp, I mean wad) had route set for the comp and was giving me the low down for the final (and super final if need be). He reckoned that it would have been hard enough, if the flippin' euro wads hadn't shown up! Thats right, the Dutch team decided to take a trip and compete in the event as well. There was only two of them, Marianne Van Der Steen (Senior Female) and Dennis Van Hoek (Senior Male), but they were seriously fierce competitors and have a lot of experience competing in this type of event. Both of them are seasoned competition ice climbers and dry toolers and know all the tricks in the book!

Anyway, it was awesome to watch these guys in action! I have little to no experience doing this kind of thing, I won one round last year because the routes were burly and only required that you pull hard, but when Greg sets you can bet that there will be trickery involved. I watched as all the Brits in the final attempted the route, first out was junior boys and girls. They all climbed outstanding, I was a little disappointed not to see my tooling hero Stevie Addison amongst them but he was away competing for the British Team at a trials event. Young Ruaridh Macaskill and Rory Cargill gave an impressive performance each for the Junior title, but the winner was Gregor McGilvery in the end with an awesome battle hitting as high as a lot of the senior finalists!

Competing on her own was young Sophie Harper in the Junior Females, despite this however she put on a good fight and deserved her title for it! Next up was the Veteran category (over 40's). These were a rowdy bunch of proper lads, tough and ready for action! We had two local lads in the fight for the title, Bill Davidson and Tom Buggy, both who put in good performances, unfotunately for Tom though his axe pick popped off right at the start and lost him a much higher place he certainly deserved, he was left in 4th position. Bill however battled his way up the wall, wildly throwing his axes at hanging logs and powering his way through the crux he showed the category that no one messes with a lad from Kirckaldy!!! Bill left satisfied with 1st place...

Now into the serious competition, the Senior categories. First up was the females, and regualar competitor Karen Mcintyre was eager for a 1st place to see her series champion goal finalised, however Marianne from Holland had qualified strongly in 1st position and showed no sign of backing down. Watching both of them in the final was proper good fun and each of them put in a good fight, but Marianne was just that little bit stronger in the roof and came out on top only by a few moves.

The exciting finale for the Senior male category was next and two men in particular, Malcolm Kent and Dennis Van Hoek were tipped for the top two positions on the podium, but which way round would it be? Malcolm was up first and seemingly cruised most of the route up until the final head wall, he looked a little uneasy at this point but managed to hold it together and top out to the crowds applause! Dennis was up next and being in isolation had no idea what had happened, he had qualified in first place and would have to top the route to win. From my point of view, it was a gamble on who would go home victor now... Malcolm was in the best position he could be (far from qualifying in first), but Dennis was qualified in first and all he had to do was top the route to win! The climb was awesome and Dennis showed no sign of hesitation on any move. Don't get me wrong here as I don't claim to be an expert in dry tooling, but I do know comp climbing, and I can say that Dennis was awesome! He wasn't physically as strong as Malcolm but his technique was flawless and his approach to the competition and the climb was unmistakably that of a pro... he was for sure the climber of the day and the worthy victor! Dennis lowered to the ground, topped out on the final route and the new Senior Male Scottish Tooling Champion!

Funnily enough, it wasn't over here! There was still left, a super-final for the Series Champion in the senior male category! As Malcolm and Dennis had only competed in round 5, they didn't rack up the cores necessary to be crowned the series champions, so this was battled out over by Steve Johnstone and Pete Rhodes. Following the awesome climbing in the senior male category earlier, I didn't think I'd see anything as good, how wrong I was! Pete climbed out of his skin and his determination was unmatched by any I had seen yet! Falling only inches from a good rest he was lowered to the ground to much applause from the crowd! Next up was Steve, when I saw this guy win last year event, I was in awe of his skills with an axe and in the year since, i can only say, I hope I never get on his bad side because he could do some pretty serious damage to me with those things! Steve shot up the first part of the route comfortably and showed no sign of any weakness, as he approached the point were Pete fell, he effortlessly made the lock into the rest and continued to a massive eruption from the crowd. Even though he was timed out, he continue climbing to the top and failed short of clipping the chain, broken but happy, Steve was the new Scottish Senior Male Tooling Champion for the series!

What a day that was. I can only say just how impressed I was with the organisation of the event, Neil Silver and all those involved did so much to see this thing become a reality, I have never witnessed a National event like it and I really hope one day we will start seeing the other disciplines of competition climbing follow with events as good as this one! If BLCC's were like this, then every bloody climber in the country would compete!

Hats of to you guys, Good comp...

(All Photos courtesy of Will Carroll - Courtesy means me stealing them from his facebook account : P )

Check out Will's website here!