Scottish Tooling Series 2011

See the results, Picture Gallery and videos on the STS website HERE

Round 1

The first round of the 2011 Scottish Tooling Series was held at the Ice factor in Kinlochleven and was a sellout Success. 60 competitors along withsupportersand staff had a great time on a number ofchallengingqualification problems including two routes in the Ice Cave.

Route-setting was headed up by Kev Shields now resident in the Fort William area.

The men’s and Women’s Categories were won by last year’s overall winners and now regular visitors from Denmark: Denis Van Hoek and Marianne Van Der Steen. They have produced a great wee video which is on the STS site that gives a real feel of what the competition is all about.

The Vets was won by Steve Lynch, whilst evergreen Bill Davidson can 4^th.

Round 2

The second round of the 2011 Scottish Tooling Series was held at Glenmore Lodge two weeks following the first round. The route setting was headed up by Mark Chadwick who with the help of Glenmore's Night watch team put together a great selection of pumpy and technical routes. The Lodge has facilities which allow climbing with crampons and axes on their outdoor granite towers. The exposure to the elements and the real rock makes this a unique event in the STS calendar.

The final held on the indoor tooling wall saw the finalists tested to the max with Thomas Buggy coming out on top in the vets, Gemma Gwynne Stevenson in the Females and Steve Johnstone in the Mens.

The day was completed with a fantastic lecture "Mixed Ambitions" by Greg Boswell. Greg talked about his amazing 2010 winter season.

Round 3

Transition Extreme hosted this round.

This round was well attended and the familiar faces were joined by a good number of first timers. Pete Hill was the master route-setter for round three with a great deal of assistance from the team at TE including Duncan Paterson and Tom Stork. The finals were a good contest as ever and it was nice to see spectator interest at this round from the general and climbing public. This support gives encouragement to the climbers including a few first time finalists as they come out of isolation to tackle the final route.

See a bigger report on the UKC website HERE

Round 4

The final round was held at Glasgow Climbing Centre and this also crowned the series overall winners: the men’s, the women’s, the vets and for the first time the International category:

STS 2011 Final: Glasgow Climbing Centre

Report by Neil Silver

The Final Round of the 2011 Scottish Tooling Series was held at Glasgow Climbing Centre (GCC) this Saturday the 12^th of November. This event is made possible by the strong support of the MCofS. Although winter is still to hit in the hills a great crowd were involved at the GCC to settle the bragging rights for this pre-season tooling championship. The competition as well as being a round in its own right provides a conclusion to the Series which has been fought out over four venues across Scotland over the last two months.

The warm up supported by Schmoolz training tools allows the competitors to get ready for the qualifiers and allow the other non-tooling climbers at GCC to get a look at what is to come for the day. The climbing arena was closed to the public from 1pm to allow the start of the qualifiers.

The competitors each tackled fifteen qualifying problems including a mix of long traverses, campusing pumpy long routes, technical bridging and bells but no whistles. For the second year running the STS competition has attracted an interest from international climbers and this year we had guests from France and the Netherlands including the fantastic Jeff Mercier who is a leading protagonist in the area of sport mixed, competition and alpine climbing. Jeff and his friends got right into the problems and although they had no easy time of it they spectacularly showed us that a flash of 150 points was possible on the day.

As ever the STS faithful rallied together giving tips, comparing notes and cheering each other up the qualifying routes which did do a great job of spreading the field.

The Finals got underway following a briefing and route inspection by the finalists at 7:30 pm. The Veterans out first made the first forays onto the steep leading wall and into the barrier of hanging logs barring entry to the prow above. Simon Yearsley came out on top for his first STS round 1st place beating his series rivals Bill Davidson and Thomas Buggy into 2nd and 3rd respectively. Thomas had however done enough to claim the Series Prize with his third place finish!

The Females came out next with another important final with real bearing on the series prizes! On the day Louise came out on top beating Fiona Murray into second place but still not giving her enough of a margin to take the series prize from Fiona who claimed her 2nd prize on the day and defended her title of STS Adult Female Champion.

The Males was not all over but Stevie Johnstone was in a stronger position than at the 2010 finals however he climbed with good style and made sure that everyone could see why once again he would be crowned the STS Adult men's Champion.

Finally it was the turn of our international guests who displayed the Strength and technical abilities that come from international competition training and climbing. The display was impressive as it was in the finals and for the whole of their trip to Scotland. Jonathan Joly took home the bragging rights with an impressive fighting effort which saw him force his way onto the prow and into a high position before peeling off after making the large Dyno move at the top of the lead wall.

The event sponsors for the GCC event were Petzl along with La Sportiva and Beal who along with the other prize sponsors (Black Diamond, MBC and Schmoolz) provided great prizes for all of our competitors.

One prize of note supplied by Petzl was the prize given to the most promising youth competitor. A Pair of Ergo Technical dry tooling axes means that the winner Gregor Macgillvray will be able to continue his development and training with the best possible equipment and support for the future!

So with the final competitive event, the series comes to an end for another year just as the early winter season starts to blow in. The STS at Glasgow finished with a prize giving and party which left all the competitors and spectators making plans for the season to come.

The STS prize-winners will be together on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of December for the "STS on the Ben" weekend organised in association with Big Tree Campervans for more information about this event and how you can join in see the STS website.