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sawylA fun first day at this year's Exeter Deep Water Solo competition, with the morning dedicated to the women's comp with the afternoon focusing on the men. Unlike last year, where the sponsored team climbers joined at a later stage, this year's format required everyone to climb in each round — a response to the large numbers of very strong climbers who did so well that they ended up in the semi-finals.
The first of the women's comp problem looked relatively straight-forward and everyone seemed to cruise up it with ease:
The second problem was far harder, with a ball a couple of feet in diameter and featuring a couple a handholds dangling from a chain in the middle of the set. The official beta involved hooking a heel on one of the holds below the overhang and before sitting on the wrecking ball — as it inevitably got called by the commentators!
The whole section was extremely unforgiven to anyone who inadvertently cut loose, with recovery only possible by building up enough momentum to swing back on to the wall:
The final problem was extremely hard, with small crimps from the start and a pull up over the first overhang using the orange volume:
Once past the overhang, the next move was up to a sloper and a couple more crimps before an extremely delicate move to the final hold:
Christine Lowry was one of the few to complete the problem:
As was Emma Twyford, who obviously wasn't enthusiastic about the state of the water in the dock:
The first of the women's comp problem looked relatively straight-forward and everyone seemed to cruise up it with ease:
The second problem was far harder, with a ball a couple of feet in diameter and featuring a couple a handholds dangling from a chain in the middle of the set. The official beta involved hooking a heel on one of the holds below the overhang and before sitting on the wrecking ball — as it inevitably got called by the commentators!
The whole section was extremely unforgiven to anyone who inadvertently cut loose, with recovery only possible by building up enough momentum to swing back on to the wall:
The final problem was extremely hard, with small crimps from the start and a pull up over the first overhang using the orange volume:
Once past the overhang, the next move was up to a sloper and a couple more crimps before an extremely delicate move to the final hold:
Christine Lowry was one of the few to complete the problem:
As was Emma Twyford, who obviously wasn't enthusiastic about the state of the water in the dock:
