CWIF 2014 and climbing in Sheffield

I have wanted to attend the Climbing Works International Festival at Sheffield already for couple of years. This year, I finally got the opportunity to climb at this special event.

The competition itself is made by special 'open' qualifications format. Everyone can choose and climb 30 qualifications boulders within a 3.5 hours time limit with  3 attempts available for each. Results are calculated by achieved points. The top  20 female and 20 male climbers continue into the next round. The semifinal and final is made by classic IFSC competition system (4 problems, with isolation and 5min/4min+ time limit).

I really enjoyed the qualification format. The boulders were very nice, a lot of technical, slabby and overall interesting climbs (set by local setter including Percy Bishton and others)... Also climbing the problems together with other team mates was great and really fun! But still, there was a bit of pressure with only '3 tries'. It's really interesting how sometimes little restriction like this can create a big change in your climbing. First go, you put (or try to put) out your maximum. Ok, if it doesn't go or you slip, you still have another try... But then, only one chance is left. Now, you HAVE to do it! Otherwise, it's gone ... :( While it is stressful, I really like the point of system and have found it very valuable for competition and mental training. Definitely something to try and do more of :)

Next day it was time for semifinals and evening finals, and a switch back into 'classic' competition system. Warm up, prepare and set myself back into 'competition' mood, but for first time in this year - uhhhh :)  I was excited, but kind of worried about keeping it all together. So, in the semi-finals I did not start really well, but managed to catch up in the later problems, and got into evening finals with 3 tops in 5 attempts. It was also really close for Katja Kadič and Domen Škofic, who both showed strong climbing and good performances, but because of some little mistakes and too many tries unfortunately just missed the finals.

Evening finals went pretty well for me. I was happy to compete again and to have a chance to fight for CWIF's crown of 2014 among other 5 strong girls and cool looking problems. At the end, I finished all 4 problems, just missed the win in last boulder while spending too many tries at first move. But still, I was satisfied with my performance and feelings during comp and climb.

Congratulations to everyone for their strong performance and 3^rd CWIF's title to Shuana Coxsey and for 3^rd place to another Mina, Mina Leslie-Wujastyk. In the mens category, the win went to Tito Caleyron with 4 flashes - congratulations!

After the comp, we did not head home, but stayed for another couple of days. We spent a day or two climbing outside on the local classics and great gritstone of the Peak District. I did not try anything very hard, but it was a very good experience and am definitely looking forward to come back soon and also try some harder stuff there.

all (and more) foto at: Slovenija climbing team FB page (here and here)

Other days we spent at the Climbing Works gym, training together with other teams (Netherlands, UK, ...) on problems set especially for us. It was very pleasant experience and for sure, good training.

At this point, I would like to thank the gym, the route setters, coaches and all others involved for this great opportunity and climbing week! :)

New Slovenia climbing team gym and first training camp

At the beginning of March, we received a new and incredible gift - our own, new and very good Slovenia climbing team training gym! :D

It is the result of the work of few a committed people and of course, strong sponsor support. So, right away, I would like to thank to all who made this project possible and helped to realize it.

Soon after opening it was time to put the  gym to a 'serious test' with team training camp week. This time, thanks to the new gym, we didn't need to go abroad, but could enjoy all the benefits of hard training and working out together, just a few kilometers away from home. I have to say, that I enjoyed this training camp very much, maybe most of all the that I have ever done (which is quite a lot).

I have recognized the benefits of bouldering gyms in past years, when after some time at such gyms my performance and climbing on boulders usually made a big leap in a few days. Sometimes just playing on larger amounts of already set boulders was enough to get a feeling of 'open' and high wall, bouldering on slabs or other similar styles to competition walls and conditions.

I was definitely very pleased when I got an opportunity to have it near home. And not only this, but also to have chance to cooperate with great coaches and setters who know how and what to do and have desire to help and share it with you. With working on boulders, sometimes set specially for you, you can definetly target your weaknesses and points which you may work on. Really incredible achievement for improvement! I am also very happy for all youngsters, who will have chance to enjoy it right from the start. I just hope we all will use it and keep it at its best! :)

All (and more foto) from here: Slovenija climbing team FB page (part 1 and 2)

I am really looking forward to spending many nice, quality climbing and fun days at this place. Can't wait! :)