CWIF

Hard to believe another year has passed by and the CWIF was back for the 9th time! Whats even more hard to believe is that it has already been a week since it was all kicking off The Works.

I was mega keen to get involved again with this comp as it is always a great weekend of hanging out with friends, meeting new people and just generally having a real good time of it. Last year was the first time I'd entered in around 3 years and with it I achieved my best result yet, amongst a very very strong field, narrowly missing out on the semi finals.
This year I was determined to try and step it up a notch and try to get through to Sunday when all the action really starts to heat up. Qualifiers went fairly well for me, with a good mix of weird, powerful, techy and utter nails problems that the route setters had drummed up. I handed my scorecard in with a total of 248 points and figured that might just about enough to get me through to the next round.
All that was left to do now wait for the afternoon session to finish and then keep an eye out for the results coming in...

It was super close but later that evening I got the word that I had JUST snuck into the semi-finals by the skin of me teeth! I was buzzing and quickly headed off to bed for an early night hoping to feel refreshed and fired up the next day.

 ©DomWorrall

I will try to not go into too much detail with how Sunday panned out but after arriving at The Works and a slow, steady warm up we were all ushered into isolation ready to begin climbing at midday. By qualifying in last place it meant that I'd be first out on the comp wall. Something that can be an advantage but also a little nerve wracking at the same time! I fully expected the problems to be pretty tough and definitely made sure to be prepared for the bizarre and whacky.
They needed to be tough though considering the strong field that had made it through. Megos, Barrans, Jorg, Tito, the uber strong Swiss brothers, just to mention a few. The setters had to split us up some how, with the top 6 making it through to the evenings final.

Bloc 1 for me could not have gone any better, with a super quick and fairly straight forward flash. Phew. Nerves settled and I instantly felt at ease. I had topped a problem and anything else that happened now would just be a bonus from my perspective.

Men's Problem 1

©DomWorrall

 ©DomWorrall

The remaining 3 blocs were definitely a step up and did the job of splitting the group up nicely. Two techy power problems up the middle of the comp wall, with problem number 4 being a nightmare balancing act up the far slab. Suffice to say only one us managed to get the top on this. Desperate!

The slab.

 ©DomWorrall

It was all over so quickly and I was then able to sit back and enjoy watching everyone else giving it their all. Before getting slightly stuffed on burgers from the famous free BBQ!
In the end I came home with 11th place which I'm pretty stoked about! I will be the first to say that I am definitely not a comp climber but I do like to dabble every now and then and this has for sure spurred me on to enter some more comps in the future!

©AlexMessenger

Those that watched the final were treated to some serious take down action in the form of eventual men's winner and german powerhouse Alex Megos with Shauna Coxsey leading the way for the women and defending her title in the process. Congrats to those guys!

Massive thanks and big up once again to The Climbing Works who absolutely nailed the whole thing, as they always do! It is so great that these guys are prepared to go to so much effort and lengths to put on such a cool event for us all to enjoy. Already hugely looking forward to next year, especially as it'll be the 10th year! I am sure they have big things planned...

The one and only! On hand to give out the prizes!

©DomWorrall

Meat meat meat!

Big thanks also to Dom Worrall and Alex Messenger for the sick shots. Cheers boys!
Check out www.domworrall.co.uk/dom/cwifsunday for a full blown gallery of all the action!

In other news, I am flying out to Spain this Thursday. Heading to the pocket, sun kissed limestone heaven of Margalef to be exact! It'll no doubt surprise many that I have, rather embarrassingly, never actually stepped foot into Spain before... I am beyond psyched to finally get the chance to climb over there and I really cannot wait to get stuck into some deep mono action!
Flicking through the various guidebooks I have been blown away by the amount of routes and crags on offer within such a confined area. My tick list is huge but to be honest I am just massively looking forward to getting away from the UK, heading out and having a fun time climbing somewhere totally new and different. I am confident its gonna be rad!