Ellen Barber Climber

Injury!

2009-04-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Its seems unreal... they are allways saying how you should be carful about getting injured but it just doesnt really redgister... and when it happend, I knew what they had been talking about the whole time! It is torture not to be able to climb! as jimmy said... its like being in a sweet shop but not being able to have any of the sweets. Surprisingly I injured my arm during swimming I wasnt even climbing! I kept hearing people say to me oh i didnt know swimming was a dangerous sport : P lol. It was odd, I was at a swimming gala (race) for school on friday and I was dived in the pool for the warm up and it was all fine and then as I came out of the water in my frontcrawl 50m I took a stroke and my arm dislodged and it was extreme pain but as i moved my arm back into the water it went back into place so I just carried on the race and managed to win but it wasnt quite right... my arm felt really sore, I then did the relay and no serious pain this time so figured it was ok. Then after school I went swimming and all was good until climbing afterwards everytime i hung off that arm it really hurt so i decided it wasnt worth the pain. We went to see the physio and she said I had a swollen tendon and i shouldnt climb for three to six weeks but she would let me have the exception of the ycs but my arm would have to be strapped up. So it was all pretty good appart from the not being able to climb part. She said it was not a full dislocation because I would have been screaming and would not have been able to carry on swimming but it was still a slight dislocation so i should be carful.

YCS round 1- Aberdeen

2009-04-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

On saturday we went down to Aberdeen to compete in the first ycs round, I came third but am really hoping to do better at the next one. Here are some photos of the day,

Me on the first boulder problem

Dad enjoying judging : P

Me on one of the boulder problems.

Cummingston

2009-03-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

All i can say about it was that it was freezing! It was soo cold!Admitedly it wasnt as cold as our last visit to cummingston but it was still quite seriously cold! We did our warm up route to begin with this didnt help much with the "warm" up part of it. So whilst waiting for the parents to set up a top rope for the prow we did some bouldering and once the tope rope was set up we all had a shot at the prow, Steven topped it and so did Ellen.

Then it was my turn and i managed to get to the point just before it starts to lean out and i started to panic because someone just before hand had said that noone should fall from there because if they did they would fall and hit the rocks underneath. So i decided to climb down because i didnt want to risk it and then. Nikki had a shot after me and she made it to that same point and fell but made it miles away from the rocks so i decided i should have a shot again and i did and i made it further but didnt top it unfortunately, i also made it further than the last time i did so i hope that one day i could come back when it is alot warmer!

Me climbing on the prow

(thanks to jimmy for the picture!)

hopefully some more pictures to come...

Skiing

2009-03-08T03:04:00.000-07:00

On febuary the 14th The whole family went out skiing, it was soo great and the snow was extremely deep. havent realy got much to say except it was great fun!

Mums amazing photographie! : P

Me looking like a complete novice!

Ummm guys? i am stuck... a little help??

After that larry decided he wanted to see how deep it was on him...

He then got stuck. : D

GB team training

2009-03-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

The day after the comp at inverness we had a training at scotts. Luckily I got the chance to go to it because there werent that many people from the team there that time so i managed to get a place even though i am not in the team. Was so pleased to take part... but the pain after training... was something quite different, even something as simple as walking up the stairs became a mission after training! It was such a great day though. We went to the beach in the morning for some seriously hard warm up! ( not even sure i would call it a warm up! ) my legs were in agony after wards. we did lots of things at the beach for example we had a rope and we teamed up in 2 and the person infront had to have the rope round them and the person behind them had to try and hold them back whilst they were running making the leg muscles work ten times as hard as normal.

Nikki being dragged along by steven!

After that we went back to the wall and had a bit of a work on our technique, this was not so bad but had some good ways to inproove heal hooks and precision. We then went on to do some work on specific muscle... such as wheelbarrow racing! we did this for a few times and we then went on to do it up the stairs... rather a dreading thought and the fact that scott kept saying dont knock all your teeth out and i had literaly just got my braces out i wasnt enjoying the thought of possibly loosing teeth! but it all went ok nobody lost any teeth. so after just normally going up the stairs we had to do a puch up and then we could move up a step, this was increadibly hard!!

wheel barowing up stairs!

After doing this we went for a session on the roof but this was not an ordinary session on the roof this was backwards. We climbed up to the point where it reaches the roof and then climb out a little bit and then we would have to turn around and then climb feet first and this was soo unbelievably hard at points it was crazy! to say the least! at the end of the day we warmed down with some streches and such. It was a great session and i dont thing i will ever forget the pain that came the day after but i think i would do it all again if i had to. Thanks alot to scott for this amazing training session!

Boulder comp at Inverness

2009-02-22T11:05:00.001-08:00

On friday there was a boulder comp at the Inverness wall, it was a great comp that had some Extremely challenging problems!! and some easier problems there was a savage catagorie (savage is NOT an understatment) we went into this catagorie at first but found it quite tricky... to say the least. So we then did the placid catagorie instead and it had some good routes. Everyone did very well at the comp and it was just a fun day at the wall it was really great! I really hope that it will happen again!

snow hits the north of scotland

2009-02-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

Snow has finally hit the north of Scotland! Finally! I haven't been on the blog to update the latest of my climbing news because i have been having too much fun out in the snow. It is really thick and there is even more snow expected! while all the snow has been great we have also been out at quite a few comps... like the inverness boulder comp, the british team training, and the scottish bouldering championships. I will elaborate on these comps in the next few blog enteries.

Practice skiing... needs quite a lot more work!!

Ratho boulder comp!

2009-01-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to a boulder comp at ratho, It was a really great comp. It was just nice and friendly and not too serious. A really good practice for all the scray nerve raking comps to come! In the end i came 4th but at first they said I was third but this was because they had missed out Jamie davidsons sheet! and she came first pushing me down to 4th but all the people i was against were really good climbers. To find out some of the other scores you can go to... http://forum.eica-ratho.com/index.php?topic=299.0 However!!! they didnt include me in the scores. This is a bit dissapointing... But just to conferm... i was 4th! :P lol. but so that you can see all the other people from inverness... they are there they all did really well! here are some pictures of the day...

Me on the tan route.

Ellen on the tan route.

Jade on the blues.

Dawn on the blues.

Ice factor tooling comp!

2008-12-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went down to kinlochleven for the final tooling comp. It was a really great comp and it was so much fun to do ice climbing for the first time! In the qualifiers of the day Nikki beat me and in the finals of the day she kicked my ass!! she did really well and was very determined! But in the end me coming first overall from all the other comps. Steven also did very well coming first overall as well! Dylan and Robert Mackenzie did well overall as well. here are some pictures of the finals!

Me on the finals route

Nikki on the finals route!

Steven on the finals route!

#

Dylan on the finals route!

British lead team trials '08!

2008-12-10T23:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend dad and I drove down to edinburgh for the team trials! Firstly I would like to say the new comp wall is awsome!! its really really nice! Well done to Ellen and Dyland and Jessica for making it into the aspirants and well done to robert keeping his position in the team! Unfortunatly i wasnt as lucky as them... I made it in 13th place. But hopefully will do alot better next year and cant wait to get training for it!

Me attempting the tans

Ellen doing very well on the tans

and again... lol

Me again trying the tans

sorry i didnt manage to get any pictures of the others i will try to next time!

Extreme dream tooling comp.!

2008-11-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Tooling comp.

Extreme dream tooling comp was one of the best tooling comps so far i reckon!! It had great routes that were very challenging and enjoyable!! I really liked this comp thanks so much to extreme dream for putting all the effort in to set such good routes and so much effort in to the comp it was great! at the end of the day all Steven, Nikki, Dylan, Robert, Rhuraidh, and mhairi.(sorry if i spelt names wrong!! let me know if i did!!) we were all in the finals in the finals. In the end I came first only Just beating Nikki by a move. Steven came first doing extremely well on the roof! Making it 5 clips out on the roof!

Me on the finals route

Nikki on the finals route

Robert on the finals route clipping the last clip from a figure of 4!

Hopefully some more pics to come!

Ratho tooling comp!

2008-11-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

The ratho comp a few weeks ago was a really good comp. with some very challenging routes and some routes on the real rock whilst still being inside the wall! Was a really great comp. thanks a lot to all the people running it I had a great time! Unfortunatly didnt get any pics because we were too busy climbing! Also the new comp wall that they have built there at ratho looks really great and i cant wait to climb on it!!

Dundee dry tooling competition.

2008-11-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to a dry tooling comp. in dundee and had a great time!! I had only practiced tooling once before the comp but still had fun! It was only me Nikki and Steven in the kids categorie! we thought all three of us would be in the same final but apparently it was boys and girls so Steven had absolutely no competition at all!!! And managed to get a very good position of first!!! (what a surprise!! :P) I came first out of me and Nikki's competition but she will beat me next time no doubt!! :P Jimmie also did really well coming in a very good 1st place and my dad coming in 4th! which isnt too bad for a first time!! Cant wait till the next comp!!

me on the block route!

steven on the second route we tried!

Nikki on the second route we tried!

Steven on the block route! he did very well flashing it!!

Cummingston

2008-10-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we went to cummingston but the weather was definatly not on our side it was on and off heavy rain but the route that we wanted to climb lucky stayed dry! It was a very good day out with some very challenging climbs.

Me climbing the prow.

Robert doing his crazy hang!

Dylan climbing the prow.

Ruthven boulder

2008-09-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Earlier today we went to Ruthven boulder. It was absolutely amazing climbing with some very powerful moves! Unfortunatly the rock really hurts our weak skin so we didnt stay very long.
Here are some of the routes we did whilst we were there!

The descent of man (Font 4)
The cheeky girls (Font 6a **)
Austin Powers (Font 5**)
The slipery slope (Font 6c **)
Builders butt (Font 5)
Outstanding (Font 6a+ ***)
The Dude (font 7a ***)
Shreddies (Font 6c)
The big tease (Font 6b)
Neil Armstrong (Font 5*)
Rock 'n roll baby (Font 5**)

Here are some of the pics;

Ardoch Wall!

2008-08-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

We have just been working on a rock climbing wall to go into our house and since there isnt much room here for stuff like that, we decided that we should have it in my bed room! So after a year of dragging these plans out we finally got round to doing it and this is what it looks like now!

This is how it was to start with:

and then when it was all done we began climbing on the awsome new Ardoch Wall!

I cant wait for the many years of climbing on this new amazing indoor climbing wall!

I would like to say thanks to dad for building it! and to mum for allowing us to acctually build the climbing wall in my bedroom!

Fontainbleau, Paris!

2008-07-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Where to start is the question. We spent the whole of the night before climbing studying the guide book for the best places to climb for a day. Unfortunatly we were limited on the amount of days we had there.

So after our long search through the guide book we decided to go to les trois pignons area and boulders 91.1 but yet, getting lost for the first time on the trip (not the last!) we ended up in ........................ but it was still great climbing, and the rocks where amazing shapes and just looked awsome! ( a picture of this is soon to come!) So we found a friendly french man who told us where we were. Also in Fontainbleau they have circuits that are coloured to a group of grades, and we stuck to the blue circuits that where really good, and i recomend them!! So we did a bleu circuit which was about 6c's to 7a's.

The french man saw as route reading and decided to come show off . and he did a very good job of showing off unfortunatly. So this man took us round all these routes showing us how well he did them and then challenging us to the route and we managed to completely embarass ourselves!

So after having the morning at that bouldering area we decided to go to the fachard area and the boulders of Isatis. This is where the trip at fontainbleau all seems to go down hill. So we parked in what we thought was the right car park but ended up to be the completely wrong one and we weren't even on the map anymore!! it didnt help that mum and larry had driven off in the car to some chateau we were stranded miles away left with only our feet! so we took our only option we walked and walked and walked till we found a street that was on the map, once we got on the map it was about a 2 hour walk from there, but this is font we are walking for we simply couldnt give up! so we walked on and we finally got to Isatis, and we are guessing that we walked about 12 km. So when we finally got to this place our feet we so tired but we climbed till about 7 o'clock and then had to head off. This place was very nice though, and very popular, there was a man working on a 8b roof and there was a 7a on the roof as well so we went to chat to him to see if it was ok if i just quickly had a shot at this 7a and he was very nice and gave me a few tips!

Since we didnt get much climbing that afternoon we decided we would go and get as much climbing in the morning as we had time for! So we went down to the cul de chien. and there were many roofs there and it was really amazing climbing i wish that we could have had more time to stay there but maybe next time!! *hint hint* :P Sorry to bore you with my very long story!!

Le cul de chien

Me climbing the cul de chien

One of the roofs at le cul de chien

Clecy, Normandie

2008-07-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

pour commencer, l'escalade en france est fantastic!! comme les francais en du chance!! I was in france for two weeks and just today got back. and i had an amazing time! the first place we went climbing at was Clecy. Clecy has some really good sport climbing. We tried this truly amazing route, called La Tardive. If you know what mechante means you have pretty much sussed out the whole route! Unfortunatly there where only 2 of us climbing so we didn't get any pictures. I really can't wait to go back!!

Polldubh

2008-07-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we drove down to polldubh to do some trad climbing! We met up with, Steven, Nikki, Jimmie and Shauna. Unfortunatly we only managed to do two routes because we were so short of time! The first route i lead was, Tyke's climb (Very Difficult). Then after that we went on to lead Three pines (Mild Severe). Unfortunatly, i was silly enough to not know my left from right and turned too early to my right and ended up leading a HVS 5a Half Sheet. This was not an easy route for placing gear, but the climbing was easy. Despite my bad navigating it was an
absolutely fantastic day out and the view from tthe top was absolutely amazing.

BRYCS final!

2008-06-29T00:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we were at ratho doing the BRYCS finals. I had an absolutely amazing time! I came 24th i feel i could have done better, but i was so nervous that on the first route i fell off three moves from the top loosing me valuable points. But despite this, i felt that i climbed well after that and i cat wait till next year!!! all my team mates did amazing as well!! Ellen Makaskill came 8th out of my catagorie. Steven addisson came 6th in his catagorie, Nikki 6th in hers.

2nd route of girls 14-16

1st boulder problem

3rd Route of girls 14-16

70ft Wall, Duntelchaig

2008-06-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

On friday night my dad, Jimmie, Nikki, Steven and i all headed down to Duntelchaig to do some good practice in leading and doing some tricky top roping. Steven also did an excellent job of leading his first E1! The view i must say in duntelchaig is absolutely amazing!

Scottish climbing finals!

2008-05-31T11:40:00.001-07:00

Today we had the scottish climbing finals, It was an excellent very well held by Extreme Dream. The Results for my competition categories were Ellen in 1st place and Jessica 2nd and in 3rd came Jade unfortunatly, i didnt do as well as i had hoped and ended up in 6th place. It was a really great competition!

Brin Boulders

2008-05-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning we decided i needed to practise some power moves so that i was more prepared for brycs. So we decided to go to Brin boulders we just spent the morning there until it began to rain, then we headed to Extreme dream to get some climbing on the roof done.

Some of the promblems that we did were:

14. Steve's Slab

Left V1

Center V0

Right V1

16. The big roof boulder

Susurrus V9 (attempted)

Project (attempted)

I would like to say that The big roof boulder is absolutely amazing. I will be coming back for sure!

Kinguissie Crag

2008-05-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

We had a training night on friday out in Kinguissie we met up with the Addissons, the makaskills, Scott, Eilish and Lauren at extreme dream then we all headed off for kinguissie crag it was very nice rock, but unfortunatly it did rain a little bit nearing the end and the holds got a bit slippery, Steven and Ellen were lucky enough to have time to do some aid climbing they said it was absolutely fabulous! Scott also set some top ropes to climb. The routes I did were:

Leftover (E2 5c *)

Left-hand crack (E1 5b*)

The Groove (Hard Severe**)

Pinnacle Crag

2008-05-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

A few days ago after school we went to Pinnicle crag, it was an absolutely amazing evening, the sight was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunatly though we didnt have much time so we only managed to do 2 routes. The 2 routes we did were:
Tapered Groove (Very Difficult*)
Right Angle (Very Difficult)
These routes were nice and easy to go ahead and practice some trad climbing. Unfortunatly we didnt get any pictures because we were rearing to get some climbing done.

Aztec Tower

2008-05-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Aztec tower it was very nice indeed! I did my first trad climb ever! I found

it hard to get used to, but it in the end i enjoyed it. It was a very nice rock to climb and especially for just starting out.

Unfortunatly i only have pictures of me and steven climbing on the last routes nikki did a great job of catching the wonderful blue sky in these pictures. I was quite pleased because for my first lead ever I did quite ann easy route and then at the end of the day i was doing a HVS trad climbing I was very pleased indeed. The routes we did were:

Sun God VS 4c

Rough Voyage Difficult

Human sacrifice HVS 5a **

Conquistador E1 5a

Farleter Crag

2008-05-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Last night Nikki, Stevie, Scott, Jimmie, Dad and I went to Farleter Crag. They have some very nice routes. Unfortunatly there wasnt really enough time to all of the routes but we did quite a few. Unfortunatly none of my pictures turned out very well and I could not download the images that were sent to me.

Moy Crag

2008-05-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

It was a very nice evening so after school we headed out to Moy crag they have some excellent routes there and the rock is really great to climb they have some trad climbing and some sports climbing. Unfortuanatly there where only two of us climbing (me and my dad) so we didnt manage to get any pictures of us climbing but i got a good picture of the type of rock you get round there.

Huntley's Cave!

2008-05-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today was an absolutely fabulous day so Nikki, Stevie, Jimmie, me, my dad, Jade, and Dawn headed down to Huntleys cave to do some routes!

Nikki on Cave Direct

Jade on Double Overhang

Me on Dead Tree Wall

Steven on Double Overhang

Dawn on Dead Tree Wall

We did hundreds: Hanging Groove (E1 5c*), Huntly's Jam (E2 5b*), The Curver (severe), Slot Direct (Severe **), Lime Street (E4 5c**), Double Overhang (HVS 5a***), Diagonal Direct (E1 5c*), Cave Route (Hard Severe***), Cave Direct (VS 4b), Huntly's Wall (E3 6a**). Unfortunatly there was green slim all over the rock and it got all over our clothes. But appart from that it was a really great day out!

Great Day Out!!

2008-05-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

The sun is shinning every one that climbs get out onto the rocks and climb! These are pictures of bouldering in Tom Riack neir Culloden.

BRYCS round 3, Leisure Center Inverness

2008-05-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

We have just reacently finished Brycs round 3 held at Inverness Leisure Center. This was a rather successfull day for me seeing as i came third for the third time running. This means that i get third place over all for the whole of north scotland just before me came Ellen Makaskill and 1st place came Jade Longworth. It was a very tough competition between Jade Longworth and Ellen Makaskill but all three of us will be going through to the british finals in Ratho (Edinburgh). You can see the scores here http://www.indoorsout.co.uk/index.htm#brycs2008results.htm

BRYCS round 2, Transition Extreem Aberdeen

2008-05-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

This was yet again a very good competition. I came in third This time coming rather close to Ellen Makaskill her only beating me by one point! and Jade Longworth did an amazing performance again. coming in first place you can find the results at http://www.indoorsout.co.uk/index.htm#brycs2008results.htm.

BRYCS round 1, Ice Factor Kinlochleven

2008-05-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

It was a very good competition in Kinlochleven. I came third and just before me in second came Ellen Makaskill and an amazing performance by Jade Longworth who came first. The results for this competition can be found at www.indoorsout.co.uk/index.htm#brycs2008results.htm.

Huntley's Cave

2008-05-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Huntley's cave has some really excellent routes but unfortunatly it was freezing on the day that we went. but we managed to do 3 routes: Slot Direct (severe **), Hand Grove (v diff *), (Hard Severe ***). Here are some pics of me Nikki and Stevie on Slot Direct.