Mr Olympia

Over the last few weeks I have been working on Mr Olympia, a V10 at the Bronx, Turakirae Head. Mr Olympia is an extension to my first V9, Pumping Iron, itself an extension to a V7, Toast. I have been going out to the Bronx twice a week and when I first started working on it I couldn't do the hard start sequence.

On Sunday 12 December I got up at 6am in order to get out to the Bronx before it got too hot. After warming up I hopped on Mr Olympia and sent the problem first go of the day. Mr Olympia is my first V10 and the first V9 or higher I have done since I did Pumping Iron in April.

Here's a video of me sending the climb:

Whanganui Bay - 7-9 November: Day 3

Tuesday 9th

Dad and I got up at 6:30 and had a one square meal bar on the way to the rock.
I warmed up by attempting to repeat Childhood's End but I took a rest on the rope half way through. I then had a go at Trilogy and fell off on an easy move just after doing a hard move where it splits from Trinity. On my next attempt I sent the climb! I was really stoked.

I offered to belay Dad but he had a sore shoulder and back so didn't feel like climbing. We went back to the campsite and had breakfast. Then we packed up and left.

Whanganui Bay - 7-9 November: Day 2

Monday 8th

Dad and I tried to get up and get to the rock before the sun was on the rock but by the time we started walking to the rock the sun was already on the top half of Trilogy.

I warmed up by onsighting Picked the Wrong Week to Give Up Chocolate Marshmallowpuffs, grade 25, and then worked on Trilogy for a bit. Dad got all the moves on Kafunka... and then we went back to the car and had lunch.

At the campsite we met a couple of Austrians and they recognised my top I'd been given in Austria for a competition there, and we let them borrow our guide book for a bit.

In the afternoon Dad and I went back up to the rock and I worked on Trilogy and managed to get to the top with only one fall. Dad got all the moves of, and took lots of falls on, Schneiderburner, a 21 he tried last time we went to Whanganui Bay.

We planed to get up early the next day and have a One Square Meal bar on the way to the rock instead of breakfast.

Wanganui Bay - 7-9 November: day 1

Sunday 7th

Dad and I had breakfast and packed the car and left at about 9am, an hour earlier than we planned. We stopped in Taihape to have lunch and made it down the road to Whanganui bay. It was about 2:30 when we arrived so we put the tent up before we went climbing.

We went up to the plateau and I warmed up by putting the draws up on Trinity, a grade 29 project of mine I'd worked on last time I went to Whanganui bay. I went for the send on my next attempt and I and got up past the crux but I fell off on a hard move near the top. I wasn't very happy and I let out a big scream of frustration as I fell and then yelled 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'. I went back up and found a sequence which made the hard move not very hard at all.

I belayed Dad on Kafunkafunakfunkapteschew, grade 25. He took a big fall between the second and third clip and he and I collided.

After that I had another go at Trinity and fell off low down because my foot popped. I went up again and this time I sent it, my first ever 29.

On the way down Dad convinced me to try Trilogy, a grade 30 climb which combined the start and crux of Trinity with the hard part of Up For Grabs, a 27 to the left of Trinity. So I put the upper draws of Trinity on Trilogy.

Dad and I listened to some of a story we were listening to on the way up before we went to bed.

13-15 September

We got up early, tidyed up our cottage and left about an hour later than James said we were leaving the night before. When we were at the airport we had to wait a while before we could check our bags in through to Auckland. After we went through security we had another wait before we could board our plane.

Once we were through security at Heathrow James gave us money to buy ourselves lunch and we spent a while looking at different food places until we found a mini supermarket. When we were finished lunch we played cards with a pack of quilt shaped cards Josh had bought until we boarded our flight to Korea.

When we got to Korea we had to go through another security check before we were in the duty-free area. Once we were in the duty-free area I tried to find a lounge where I could rest but the ones I saw were for people with first-class or premium-economy tickets.

When we arived at Auckland airport we had to pick up our bags and go through customs before we could meet our families. Me, Sarah and Mark had another flight to catch so we walked to the domestic airport and I worked out that you had to cross the road before the blue and white line started so thats why I couldn't find it last time. We played cards for a bit then went through to our gates.

On the the plane one of the flight attendants gave me this sports magazine and I found an interview with Kilian Fischhuber and his partner. Kilian is the IFSC number 2 world-ranked competitor.

When I got off the plane I met Mum and Dad and they drove me home. Tessa wanted to come too but she had to go to school.

Sunday 12 September

We went to the gym and watched the speed finals. I traded tops with the Equador competitor, and some of the others went into town with friends and relatives. Me and Chase went on a big walk looking for a place to put up his slackline he bought, but we didn't find anywhere. In the afternoon we all went into town and some of us put Chase's slackline up and played on that for a while then everybody met up and we had fish and chips for dinner. After dinner Speedy and her mum left for their holiday in Europe and the rest of us went on a ghosts and ghouls tour.

By time we got back to our cottages it was about 11pm and we still had packing to do. I went to bed at about midnight but some of the others stayed up drawing pictures in my book of paper. When I asked in the morning what happened to the book Jesse said they used up all the paper :)

Saturday 11 September

We didn't have to get up so early, but we had to get to the gym early enough for Sarah to have plenty of time to warm up. Sarah climbed realy well and ended up coming 21st. In the evening we watched the finals. It was pretty cool to watch all the top competitors especially when Sebastian Halenke topped out. During and after the finals I arranged to trade tops with an Equador competitor the next day, and traded tops with a Japanese competitor.

Friday 10 September

We had to get up really early so we could get to gym an hour before demonstration because some of us were climbing early. I was the last New Zealander to climb and I started warming up too early. When I was on the climb I got up to the first hard move and put my heel on my right hand hold, and when I moved my right hand up to the next hold I knocked my heel off the hold and fell off.

At the end of the qualification round our results were:

Junior Male
Jesse: 46
Chase: 47

Youth A Male
Mark: 31

Youth A Female
Sarah: 24
Speedy: 35

Youth B Male
Josh: 36
Wiz: 46
Penut: 55
J.J.(me): 63

Youth B Female
Tayla: 46
Alex: 54

Sarah was the only one us to make the semi-final the next day. The top 26 make the semi-final.

In the evening we had the speed qualification. We all climbed fast but none of us made it to the next round. 16 people go to the next round and they do a knock out competition like the fifa world cup. About An hour before the speeds I cut my foot on the ground. Glenda taped it up for me and put antiseptic stuff on it and it really stung. It hurt to step on it but I don't think it had any impact on my speed time.

Our placings were:

Junior Male
Chase: 30 (18.72)
Jesse: 33 (20.86)

Youth A Male
Mark: 35 (19.56)

Youth A Female
Speedy: 25 (28.43)
Sarah: 29 (she didn't hit the buzzer hard enough both times!)

Youth B Male
Josh: 26 (20.30)
J.J.(me): 27 (20.75)
Penut: 28 (21.52)
Wiz: 33 (34.08)

Youth B Female
Tayla: 21 (33.79)
Alex: 25 (48.16)

Thursday 9 September: World Youth Champs

We got up, had breakfast and went to the climbing gym. Josh and Mark were both up first in their grade, Mark for the second year running! My first climb wasn't that good: I wrapped a hold the wrong way so I couldn't clip a clip and I fell off. At the end of the day our results were:

Junior Male
Jesse: 36
Chase: 48

Youth A Male
Mark: 33

Youth A Female
Sarah: 27
Speedy: 33

Youth B Male
Josh: 39
Penut: 45
Wiz: 46
J.J.(me): 58

Youth B Female
Tayla: 43
Alex: 45

At the end of the day James said that we climbed like we deserved to be here at the World Youth Champs, even if some of us didn't climb as well as we could have.

Wednesday 8 September

We spent most of the day playing tennis and jokgu, a Korean game that we saw in Korea which is like volleyball but played with the feet.

Tuesday 7 September

In the morning we had breakfast, put our last things in our bags and tidied our rooms; I did the vacuuming. We were ready to go about an hour before our bus arrived so we hung out in Imst and bought food from the bakery. When we came back our bus arrived and we travelled to Munich. We checked in at the airport and had lunch. On our flight to London I managed to sleep for about an hour.

It took a while to get through customs because there were lots of people. We caught our next flight to Edinburgh and once we arrived we picked up our rental van and Glenda drove us to our accommodation. James didn't drive us because he had forgot his drivers license. Our accommodation was a cottage for Mark, Chase and Jesse; a cottage for the rest of us guys; and the girls were staying at another place. We had Indian for dinner and went to bed.

Monday 6 September

We went to the gym and tried some of the competition climbs. When we were finished trying comp climbs some of us did speed practice. In the evening we packed our bags because we were leaving the next day.

Sunday 5 September

We went up a track to the alpine coaster like last year and had fun going down the luge. It was much more fun on my last ride when I didn't have slow people in front of me and I didn't have to brake the whole way except at the end. I don't understand why some people don't go as fast as they can; the whole reason I went down the luge is so I could get excitement and enjoyment out of going down the track, so wouldn't going down faster mean someone has more fun?

Saturday 4 September; Austrian National comp

We went to the gym in our NZ uniform and when we got there we got given competition t-shirts that all the competitors had to wear.

My first qualifier went up a slightly overhanging wall with a little roof at the top. It then swung onto a flat wall facing the first wall and toped out.

Wiz and Josh topped out but me and Peanut fell off near the top.

Our next qualifier went up a gradually steepening wall then onto a massive roof with a 45 degree headwall at the end.

Me and Peanut fell off just before the roof, Josh fell off on the roof and Wiz climbed really well and fell off going to the headwall.

The top ten climbers in each category went through to the final and those of us who went through were:

Junior Male and Youth A Male (all one category)
Jesse

Junior Female and Youth A Female (all one category)
Speedy
Sarah

Youth B Male
Wiz (coming 3rd!)
Josh

Sarah had gone to the supermarket with Mark and Glenda and would have come back in time but the final was moved forward an hour. James told me to run and get her but I think it was too late by then and I couldn't remember where the supermarket was and ran past it. By the time I got back to the gym the finals were starting.

Wiz didn't climb as well as he did in the qualifiers and came 8th. I think Josh came 4th or 5th, I think Jesse came 6th and I think Speedy came 7th, 7th= or 8th. Sarah came 9th, I came 12th or 13th and Peanut came 15th. I can't remember where Tayla and Alex came and Mark didn't compete because he had an injured finger.

After the finals we did Speeds; the route was the official route but with the top hold spun around. There were just two categories, Male and Female. In the qualifiers I had the fastest time out us NZ guys, but in the round of 16 Jesse got a faster time than me, 19.12.

After the prize giving, in which some of us got prizes, we played at the play ground by the gym for a bit. Someone had thrown Tayla and Alex's jandals onto a weedy bank. When we were about to leave I went and collected them but when I thew one of Alex's jandals off the bank it didn't quite make it past the weeds and I looked for it again but I couldn't find it. We all searched for ages but couldn't find it. When me and Alex looked for it again the next time we were at the gym we still didn't find it.

Friday 3 September

We did some home work in the morning and went climbing in the afternoon. We packed for the next day in the evening.

Thursday 2 September

We went for a wander after breakfast and I found a soccer ball. We did lots of climbing after lunch then went back and had nachos for dinner. In the evening we went for a walk up a steep road passing the ball to each other on way and having to get ourselves and the ball out of the way of cars going up and down the road.

Wednesday 1 September

We got up, had breakfast and packed our bags. Some of the others went for a wander but I didn't because I was still packing. We caught a train to Munich then another train to Innsbruck, Austria, and one final train to Imst followed by a taxi to our accommodation. In the afternoon we went to the climbing gym and did some climbing.

Tuesday 31 August

We had breakfast and then packed our last items. We caught a bus to the airport and checked in. We wandered around and some of the others had lunch.

I had a good flight. I slept for a bit and caught up on my dairy, no food problems this time.

When we arrived in Frankfurt we caught a train to our hostel, had dinner and went to bed.

Monday 30 August

Very different weather to the day before: it was so sunny I got sunburnt! we watched the men's final and the women's semi-final then some of us went to the market for a bit. Then we came back and bouldered for a bit before all non speed competitors or women's finalists were told to leave the warm up zone. We watched the speeds and women's final then did some more bouldering before the awards ceremony.

In the evening we went to the closing ceremony and packed our bags.

Sunday 29 August

We watched the semi-finals in the rain and got soaked. The women's route got wet so their semi-final was postponed to the next day and would be on a different route. We all had showers when we got back to the resort.

Our results from the qualification round the day before were:

Male:
Jesse 36
Mark 37
Chase 40

Female:
Sarah 28
Speedy 30

The top 26 make it to the semi-final so none of our guys went on to the next round.

Saturday 28 August - Wiz's birthday

We got up and ate breakfast then played cards in Wiz and Peanut's room. We then caught a bus to the World Leisure Games event, which the climbing comp was part of, and then had lunch. We watched the qualifiers and bouldered when the warm up wall wasn't crowded. Some of us were late to dinner and they had none left so we had to wait for more to come.

We then went to the opening parade of the World Leisure Congress and Leisure Games. We waited outside the stadium for a while and then went into the stadium along with lots of other countries' athletes. We walked around the stadium and then onto the field in the middle. Some of us sat down and we listened to lots of speeches made by important Korean people with a fireworks display at the end.

Friday 27 August

We got up and went down stairs and waited in the lobby for a bit. Then we went with a guide to a different resort for breakfast and most of us ate too much. We hung out and wandered around for a bit then we went back to our rooms and did homework.

In the afternoon we went to this great big swimming complex and I spent all my won on the entry fee. We had to wear life jackets and we didn't go on the big slides because the queue was about two hours long! We had lots fun in the wave pool which made great big waves that we tried to body surf and in the extreme river which used waves to move us along.

In the evening we went to the opening ceremony of the climbing competition and had dinner there.

Thursday 26 August

We got up when Wiz's alarm went and got all ready to leave. It wasn't until we were about to head outside that Josh realised it was actually 2:15; Wiz's cell phone had NZ time. So we went back to bed and got up at four.

On the plane I had trouble with vegan meals again and I think I got given vegatarian meals instead of vegan ones. My second meal was covered in cheese but me and the flight atendant managed to sort out a meal with a mixture of the vegan stuff from the vegatarian dish and the vegan stuff from a meat dish.


When we got off the plane we had to wait in a long queue in order to get through customs.

We met up with Mark and got on a bus especially for world cup competitors. We then had a really long bus ride to our accommodation. We had pizza for dinner but I had watermelon and chips instead because the pizzas had cheese on them.

Wednesday 25 August

We got up and ate breakfast. Then we caught a bus to the train station and Chase got told off by a securaty guy for walking on a chain. We took a 50 minute train ride to the Villa Wood climbing ym and climbed there for a while. At the end of our session I practised speed climbing on a copy of the official speed route. When we got back to the hostel we had to get all ready go at 4:15 the next day so we set our alarms to 3:45.

Tuesday 24 August

I got up really early and got to the airport ages before my flight so I could check my bag through to Sydney. We used the spare time to find a photocopier and photocopy the pages I was going to use for homework fom my textbooks so I didn't have to take the textbooks with me. When I got to Auckland I couldn't find the path to the international airport so I caught the bus. I then met up with the others and got given my uniform. Then the others checked in but I didn't because I had checked in through to Sydney in Wellington. We had lunch then went through to secrity and then on to our gate. While we were waiting for our flight James got us to work out what our numbers were and they were:

No.1 Sarah
No.2 Mark (who would join us in Korea)
No.3 Jesse
No.4 Speedy
No.5 Me
No.6 Wiz
No.7 Chase
No.8 Alex
No.9 Josh
No.10 Tayla
No.11 Peanut

What number someone was was based on how many years they had been to the worlds before and then on how old they were. I was called up along with some other people to have my boarding pass swapped for a new one because the planes had changed.

On the plane I didn't have a vegan meal prepared for me because it wasn't pre-orderd but it was ok because someone had ordered a vegatairian meal but changed their mind so I got it.

Once we were in Australia we caught a taxi to our accommodation, Glebe Village Hostel, and unpacked. We then caught a bus to the climbing gym. The gym was massive and really busy. We climbed for a while and had dinner there, and when we got back it was really late.

2010 Trip to the World Youth Championship

This year I went to the World Youth Championship again. The following posts will be an account of my trip away.

Live Streaming 2010 World Youth Champs

Climbing in the first qualification round of the 2010 World Youth Champs lead competition is about to start. Josiah will be the 27th climber in the Youth B category! All categories are climbing at once.

Live streaming.

Start lists and results.

Competition programme and other information.