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NEWS * REPORTS
After Three Rounds
By Pauline Sanderson
If the first three events of the Scottish Series are anything to go by, there are going to be some seriously winter fit climbers on the hills right now. The series has been a great reason for people to get training early.
The banter and fun that has been had at the first three events has been building momentum and far from being an intimidating ‘hard core only’ driven affair, it has shown that climbers can have a great time supporting the newcomers as well as cheering on the veterans and fully hard core climbing gurus. Anybody who has been to the events so far will all have walked away with a feel good factor for climbers, axes and tooling. It has been GREAT!
Each venue has been very different from the route designs to the scoring systems. Avertical in Dundee kicked it all off and set the standard by having a great variety of problems that challenged the experienced and newcomers. Ratho had a scoring system where you could get 5, 7 or 10 points depending on where you got to on the route. This was great for those of us who were only able to get to the top of 4 of the 12 routes! We did not feel cheated on ‘effort points at all’. Xtreme Dream had an array of hanging logs and boards that made the climbs varied, fun and a great spectator sport. How often do you see people upside down on a logs and swinging between obstacles with axes. It was fantastic.
Each event has great prizes from the sponsors but the excitement is now growing for the Scottish Series Title as there is starting to be a short list. The Junior category has some amazing climbers who can grunt and power scream better than most adults –and funny enough climb better than most adults. 
Dillan McKenzie, Steve Adisson, Ellen Barbour and Nicky Addisson are amazing role models for their ages!! The mens sports category is the largest and with some great biceps and techniques between them. They are showing all the signs of world class potentials. Rob McKenzie and Malcolm Kent fought it out to the edge on Saturday. As for the women, there are not many but they seem to be enjoying it a lot judging from the squeals and laughter. Fiona Murrey is leagues above anybody else but is not taking the title for granted and has performed like a true professional at all 3 events. The other ladies are now grappling for their guaranteed top 10 position, yes that is right, there are not many women. The same can’t be said for the men’s vets with George McEwan, Bill Davidson, Ruairidh Mackenzie to mention just a few who are running neck and neck.
So what next?
This weekend (Dec 6th) is the 4th event and it is being held at Glenmore Lodge. This will be different again as it is on granite towers outside and all the competitors need to wear crampons. Andy Turner, who has made his name this year as a leading mixed climber, will also be there running beginner and master class workshops and presenting a slide show on ‘The Secret of Tooling’.
The following week (Dec 13th), the Series Final being held at The Ice Factor which will be great and followed by a suitably timed party to celebrate the end of the first Scottish Tooling Series.
BIG THANKS to the Scottish Tooling Series Sponsors: Tiso, Marmot, Grivel, Petzlcharlet, Climber Magazine, La Sportiva and the support of The MCofS.
For full details of both events visit http://www.glenmorelodge.org.uk/ and follow the link to the Scottish Tooling Series from the home page. Places are limited so to book on please call 01479 861 for Glenmore and 01855 831100 for The Ice Factor.
Scottish Mixed Masters @ Extreme Dream Aviemore
Scottish Tooling Series
By Alan Davies
The Scottish Mixed Masters now in its 6th Year also became round 3 of the first ever Scottish Tooling Series at Aviemore Indoor Climbing Wall on Saturday 29th November 2008.
Competitors from across the UK had travelled to take part in the all-day indoor event and an electric atmosphere prevailed throughout the day. There were vertical sketch-fests, overhanging lactic-nightmares and crazy hanging logs and panels to swing on. Not your average day in the Northern Corries!
In the Men’s competition the father and son team of Ruairidh and Robert Mackenzie took the Veterans and Senior honours respectively. Robert had recently competed in the Youth World Cup in Sydney and put his training to good use crossing over onto tools with ease.
Steven Addison aged 13 and the youngest ever Ice World Cup Competitor last year in Switzerland, took the U16 male title in style with an epic upside down journey across the huge roof wowing the crowd. Steven is a member of the Extreme Dream Junior Climbing Team based at Aviemore Indoor Climbing Wall and has also just signed a shoe deal with Boreal. He is currently looking forward to the 2009 Ice World Cup season and this proved to be the perfect training exercise.
In the Women’s competition Edinburgh legendary Fiona Murray romped to victory in the senior category whilst Extreme Dream Team members Ellen Barber and Nikki Addison had a close battle for the U16’s category, with Ellen just piping Nikki to the post by one move!
Centre owner Scott Muir, one of the innovators of Sport Mixed in the UK and the creator of the Scottish Mixed Masters said “The Scottish Mixed Masters has steadily grown year on year so it’s great to see Tooling taking the next step and the Scottish Series looks like its here to stay!”
Round 4: Glenmore Lodge
By Pauline Sanderson
| “Tooling over the last couple of years is becoming more respected. This Series is great training for Scottish winter so people can appreciate the skills you can develop to open up a spectrum of different climbs.” Andy Turner |
The Glenmore Lodge event was the 4th of five rounds in the Scottish Tooling Series. The sun was shining; the competition was on granite walls outside with a backdrop of the Cairngorms in perfect winter conditions. The big question was, were people going to come to the competition or go on the hill? The answer was a short one. They came to the competition. Out of the 54 places available, there were 45 taken and 15 attended out of a possible 18 for the beginner and master class workshops run by Andy Turner.
Jon Jones and Phil Sanderson set the routes on the granite towers with all the extras a competition needs, like wooden posts at ridiculous angles etc. They managed to create very realistic challenges and having to wear crampons added yet another element of variety. The loud music is an obvious ‘must have’ to keep it real and it was going all day.
Steven (12) and Nikki Addison ( 10), are a tribute to the team from Extreme Dream who put so much effort into their youth team. Steven is intending to attend the World Championships again this year. They were managing to embarrass most of the adults by making some of the hardest routes look like child’s play!
At the other extreme, were the over 40’s who show that age is just a number. George McEwan and Pete Hill who took the top two spots for their category, were pulling moves that any yoga expert would be proud of.
Then you get to the ladies, there aren’t many, but boy do we have a good time! Emma Holgate said “the good thing about being a woman is that there are so few who enter, you are guaranteed to be in the top ten”.
The senior men’s category is the largest and never fails to disappoint with ability. It is great to have so much talent to look and learn from. Rhyss Dobbs said “it has been a great arm pumping, lactic burning, and muscles of death experience. The diversity of the venues has been ace and meeting new climbers who are here for the banter and the challenge is fantastic.”
· The lecture theatre was full for Andy’s talk after the event. So what is the big pull?
On a Q&A session in the lecture theatre I was asking attendees why they are so supportive and what they have enjoyed. It came across loud and clear. The main reasons are:
· climbers meet other climbers regularly and do what they do best, climb and talk about moves, venues and climbing
· new climbing buddies have been made at their own levels
· the banter is great
· novice to six-pack-gurus attempt the same problems and have a laugh
· there are routes for every level with no prejudice between categories or standards
· important for climbers who have never tried tooling and didn’t want to look stupid by entering a competition
· its a great learning ground
· going into winter fine tuned is a strong head set to have
· the series gave more of an incentive to get strong and climbing fit
· there are some very strong climbers making the most of the winter conditions because training started early
· the atmosphere although competitive is more friendly and festival-like than serious
Final Results Report
Series Results:MALE JNR: 1st Stevie Addison / 2nd Dillan McKenzie FEMALE JNR: 1st Ellen Barbour / 2nd Nikki Addison FEMALE SNR: 1st Fiona Murray / 2nd Anna Wells /3rd Rachel Hutchison / 4th Mel Hayes / 5th Emma Holgate / 6th Louise Humphrey /7th Pauline Sanderson & Lesley-Anne Kirkland /9th Jenny Munroe MALE SNR: 1st Mark Musgrove / 2nd Rob McKenzie / 3rd Malcolm Kent / 4th Micheal McGee / 5th Rhyss Dobb & Kevin Shields /7th Neil Silver / 8th Andy Clark / 9th Miles Hill / 10th Dominic Scott / 11th Ashley Dean / 12th Ashley Dean / 13th Alan McDonald / 14th Mark Chadwick / 15th Tristan Fox / 16th Nathan Fulwood / 17th Mike Jowett / 18th Neil Musgrove / 19th Sam Doyle MALE VETS: 1st Ruaridh Mckenzie / 2nd George McEwan / 3rd Peter Hill / 4th Bill Davidson / 5th Julian Barbour / 6th Paul Donald
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By Pauline Sanderson (Glenmore Lodge)
The final of the series was held at The Ice Factor at Kinlochleven on the 13th December.
Dave Macleod and Andy Turner were two of the entrants to the final event in the Scottish Tooling Series which was held at The Ice Factor on Sat 13th Dec. They both agreed that if they had been in the country over the last months, they would definitely have taken part in more. The atmosphere and challenges were great.
Fiona Murray said, “Absolutely brill! Different venues with different styles of problems, different people, old friends and so sociable. It has been really well attended so it is obviously what climbers want.” Fiona took part in four of the five events and was an outstanding contender and duly won her category.
Sam Doyle and Miles Hill have been travelling up from Wales each weekend just to take part. When asked why, they said, “We have been coming up for the Scottish winter but these comps have been fantastic and great training for those icy cracks!”
Jamie Bankhead co-ordinated the day at The Ice Factor and it consisted of five hours of boulder problems, top rope problems, ice problems and of course they got the swinging logs in there too.
The finals were a spectators dream and everybody stayed to watch Dave Macleod and Tony Stone fight it out in the super finals. Dave won but Tony was on his tail and got some full volume support from the audience. Stevie and Nikki Addison wowed the crowds with their power screams and ability to make this sport look almost elegant (both under 13 years of age!). The vets were like gladiators in their competitive spirit, tempered with huge banter and good sportsmanship. In the series Ruairidh McKenzie came first and George McEwan came second.
Everybody stayed for the Prize Giving as there were prizes for the one day event but also for the Series. Pauline Sanderson from Glenmore Lodge, who co-ordinated the Series, awarded the prizes on behalf of the sponsors. She thanked the venues for putting so much time and effort into each event. It is a well know fact that these events are not run for the money, they are run by people who want to support and develop the sport.
George McEwan said “The whole series has been a tremendous success. It has given climbers a forum to show that they are a great bunch of people of all ages and abilities having a laugh doing what they love best - climbing. As well as that, I now feel more ready for winter climbing than ever”
The series has welcomed novices to professionals and all of them have, learnt more, made more climbing friends and enjoyed it. A small community of climbers has left this series feeling inspired by other climbers. Perfect!
We hope to have another Scottish Tooling Series next year as long as we can maintain the support of both venues and sponsors. Without whom it would have been impossible to organise.
For more comment and individual round scores see the Glenmore Lodge blog at: www.glenmorelodge.org.uk/blog/blog.asp
