I had a pretty full on day at the TCA in Glasgow where I competed in the second round of their Winter Bouldering Series.

In the morning I headed over to pick up friends of mine who were also competing, Neill Busby, Eddie Barbour and Lisandro Defays. Eddie is probably for lack of a better term (and possibly the most accurate one that comes to mind right now) my rival :P In a friendly way, but he is a good guy for me to try and beat as we both tend to climb at a fairly similar level, in quite a similar style and Eddie always tries really really hard, so you know it’s going to be a good challenge!

When we arrived at TCA, I went for a quick mosey around the problems to check what the setters had prepared for us. The competition format allows for everybody to try the same problems but with each successively higher hold gaining you more points than the previous. It’s like a route competition more or less but on boulders :PChris Everett on the campus move of one of the hardest qualifier problems - Photo by Jonathan Bean

I really like the format, especially on the Onsight days when you are only allowed one attempt for each problem. This basically means that you can’t screw up on your first attempt, as it’s the only one you are going to get. The best thing about this format - because you only try 20 x problems, 15 of which for the top 3 competitors shouldn’t be too hard, everybody is fresh for the finals allowing for a proper fun final battle to see who comes out on top.

The problems looked excellent and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in – so much so that I totally ignored the first 13 and just did 14, 15 and 16 straight away! I then went about some of the easier problems, getting a total shocker at No.8 which was totally sandbag for one of the first 10!

Once I felt up to it, I headed over to the top 3 problems to finally give them a good attempt. It was really funny though, all the strong guys were just looking at the problems and not trying them… Most of them were waiting on somebody to step forward and try first. Some of them were being attempted but nobody was getting really high, so for the guys who were aiming for finals it wasn’t giving a lot away as to the sequence. Eventually, I stepped up to try the middle of the top 3, in doing so, the boys behind me started to shout in jest - an possibly also to put me off a little :P

“Mr Phillips is getting on it now! EVERYBODY! ROBBIE IS GETTING ON THE HARD ONE!”

This definitely set the pressure as I was one of the first to try this and now I had a good crowd behind me watching intently to see what I did. It was a really cool problem actually and I didn’t do too badly on it.Edwardo Barbour on that damn heel hook problem! - Photo by Jonathan Bean The first 5 moves where very easy after which you had a tricky sequence coming out onto the volume and then a slap around it to reach a really positive sloper. The next section caught me a bit by surprise as I didn’t expect the lock off to be as hard as it was, but luckily my fingerboard training has been paying off and I managed the lock all the way to the crimp. It was here I got a bit stumped and made quite an out of control catch to the next pinch and came off. Not a bad attempt really, and well enough that nobody managed to get any higher during the rest of the day.

At the end of the qualifiers I had racked up a good score, dropping only 2 out of 20 problems and still scoring very high on them. This was more than enough to make the finals alongside Eddie Barbour and Mikey Bleausard.

After watching the juniors compete and seeing some impressively strong performances by the next generation, it was time for Seniors to step up to compete in the finals. We all walked out to view our problems, a fun looking black set. The left hand one was techy on small crimps and volumes, the middle was a horror fest on snake-like lapis crimps and the final on the right was a totally bewildering sloper test-piece on volumes.Me on the middle snake crimper problem in the finals! - Photo by Jonathan Bean

I had unfortunately suffered a very bad split on my left middle finger directly on the pad! This was really painful throughout the whole competition and by the time finals came along, it was starting to bleed slightly.

My first problem was the snake holds, this was really sharp and crimpy and it took all my effort not to let go in pain as I pulled. Luckily I topped it quickly, this gave me time to rest. If my finger had not been in so much pain, I am positive I would have flashed this quite easily, the power screams I made as I climbed were not due to the difficulty of the moves, more just trying not to think about my sore finger…

The second problem was the horrendous sloper on the right side. I got a little shut down on this, more to the point though, I had to quit early on it too. As I was climbing, I heard a loud crack come from my right knee as I rocked over on my heel. Following the crack was a sudden rush of pain and instead of pulling any further, I just dropped off. I lay on the ground in agony for what felt like ages… Everyone was asking how I was, I knew that I could walk but the pain was so bad that I didn’t want to. Eventually I just got up and walked out of sight so I could stretch and test what my knee would take.

Me again on that snaky crimps problem - Photo by Jonathan BeanBasically, any heel hook felt like my knee was going to explode… the next problem required a really hard pull on my right heel which of course was not ideal for my current situation. In the end, I had a decision to make, either give up and place 3^rd in the finals, or take a risk and see if my knee holds up on the climbing. What I did was stupid and not in any way reflective of what I would advise as a coach, but as a competitor, I wanted to win. I decided that one attempt would be all that it takes to top this and if my knee was too sore then I could just drop off…

I pulled on the first two holds, a couple of tiny slopey screw on crimps. The fact that my finger was now also gushing blood from the pad wasn’t helping and  the crimps felt like daggers in my finger! The second I pushed on my right foot I felt the pain rise up through my leg… I withstood it though… The next move required a high heel hook and a lock to reach a big sloper. I crimped down on the slopey crimp and felt the blood run out and slide along my finger, the heel was causing my knee to burn and I felt sick from the pain but I just locked harder on my arms and tried to pull as little on the heel as possible. Thankfully, I got a seat on the volume and this took the weight of my heel – thank god!

The next moves were all very easy and I could more or less leave my right leg hanging completely limp as my left leg did all the work. I crimped down on some more slopey crimps and yet more blood ran down my finger… It was pretty grim but I topped it regardless.

After I had topped, I jumped off and landed in a heap on the ground… down climbing was too much like hard work. I crawled away to sit down and didn’t even look at how Eddie or Mikey where getting on with the other problems, I just needed to rest and focus on stopping my leg from pulsating. I came back 10 minutes later to find out that somehow I had won? I was confused with this (and still am to a certain extent) as I was positive that Mikey had climbed better than me. Both of us topped 2 problems but because I had made it higher on the first attempt on problem 3, I won… Eddie was 3^rd and Mikey was 2^nd. Dave Macleod himself gave me my prize and I got to shake his hand… covered in blood :P

Anyway, massive big up to the setters of the fab problems throughout the competition. The qualifiers were great and the finals superb, can’t wait until the next competition in January. I hope I am fully recovered for the final competition – a 1^st and 2^nd place in this years winter series is not too bad for a route climber and it’s looking good for a series win if I can pull out another top 3 position. Just need to make sure Eddie doesn’t win another :P

Sunday

So, I awoke in Aberdeen around an hour after I went to sleep unable to move my leg without a shot of pain from my knee to my big toe. It seems the adrenaline of the competition and travel has worn out and the knee crack which at the time was very sore but afterwards had dulled down to a minor ache was now a deep throb and sore with only the slightest of movement.

Regretfully but unavoidably I had to cancel my coaching plans in Aberdeen and get the next train home so I could get to Hospital for a doctors opinion. Turns out, the doctor thinks it might be a damaged meniscus but there is no sign of any damage on the bone after an X-Ray. Theresa Tait at EICA has a few ideas and she gave me a good little massage to ease some of the tightness which already has given me a lot more freedom of movement without pain. 

I have a physio tomorrow at 3, so we will see what he/she thinks and hopefully an ultrasound will show up anything more sinister deeper within the knee if it's there... Hope not though...

This year, TCA are hosting 4 bouldering competitions across the winter months. I am going to use these as personal goals to focus my strength and power training over the winter. I did well in the last two events held earlier this year and late last year - placing 1st in the Onsight and 2nd in the Redpoint event.

Today I took part in the first of the four events. This one being a Redpoint event allows for the climber to have as many goes on the problems during the qualifying round as they want with the number of goes not affecting the overall score, only the height you achieve when starting from the bottom.

I was climbing well in the qualifying round despite noticing that my skin was peeling off in copious amounts. I think this was from doing a lot less climbing than I'm used to recently, so skin built up into callice on the pads and began to peel off in waxy flakes! 

EURGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The qualifiers were set by Paul Twomey and Joe Day. The problems were really well set, with interesting funky sequences and a good selection of hard problems to split the field. I find that I always do well in the qualifiers thanks to the length of some of the harder blocs. If the hardest problems where shorter then no doubt some of the stronger boulderers would cruise them and I'd be scuppered, but I always come through strong when the hard problems are long enduro fests :D In fact, I don't think I have lost a qualifying round yet?

This round I won the qualifiers based on three blocs in my opinion:

TCA Board Red Bloc

This beast of a problem was around 13 moves long in total and where most where just getting tired and falling off, I could keep going. 13 moves doesn't sound like very long, but it was powerful, upside down and very beta intensive! My style basically...

I managed to make it all the way to the last move, sticking the second last hold only just but failing when my feet cut sending me hurtling into the crowd behind me :P Almost killed several kids!

Endurance Board Traverse

There was a tricky bloc to the right of the circuit boards. On this one I managed to make quite a high flash attempt just skimming 48, which we all took as 46 due to ourdynamic slap and sudden dismount. I was lucky on returning about half-way through the comp to almost get a top just missing the last hold three times! At that point I decided to call it a day on this problem... Funnily enough I ended up returning later on and making the last move but not from the start!!!

Cobra Rood Red

I knew I would get high points on this for the pure fact that it was around 20 moves long! I never actually got past my 2nd attempt high point which was on the crux moves about 15 moves into the problem. I made this high point but other competitors I saw where only making a few moves lower than mine.

These three problem secured me a strong 1st place lead in the quali's, but I did feel that perhaps my eagerness to place high in the quali's might set me up badly for the finals. The finals was a tussle between me, Eddie Barbour of Ireland and local boy Chris Everett.

To be totally honest, Eddie wiped the floor with us! He topped all 3 problems in awesome style and I'm actually pretty upset with the whole experience :P How can I lose to an Irishman! I'm competing at ILCC's (Irish Lead Climbing Championships) next month so I can't let him beat me again. After the comp we discussed what might have gone wrong with some of our performances and why Eddie did so well. I think Eddie is just going stronger than me at the moment to be fair, although a few things to take note of for future comps that I felt held me back was:

1. On the first Bloc (No.3), I made the silly mistake of doubting my own sequence when it failed first time round. If I hadn't I probably would have topped that one on my 2nd go...
2. In the 2nd Bloc (No.1), I made a very bad route reading error of not noticing a really good heel hook that would have given me the ability to make two moves further and potentially given me another top!
3. The third problem (No.2) by then was totally smeggin' greasy. The sloper at the start was hideosuly greasy. Couple with the fact that my body temp was probably above 40 degrees and I was bucketing sweat didn't help. Realistically, that problem was only do-able if you where: a) strong enough that sweat wasn't an issue b) lacked sweat glands or c) had it as your first problem and therefore not already piping hot!

Basically, what I have discovered from this competition is that I need to sort out my Boulder route reading skillz before the next comp, I need to up my power enduro a bit for the finals, I need to make sure I am recurited to max strength and power and  finally... I need to drug Eddie before the next comp just enough so it looks like he's just weaker than me and not too much that he's having to bail... because that would just feel like a hollow victory now wouldn't it  :P

Also, big well done to the Edinburgh juniors Fraser Mcalwraith, Eilidh Vas Payne, Claudia Charlwood, Kirsten Gray, Keira Farmer and Jodie Brown for a great display of awesome climbing the whole day!