SUMC - Swansea University Mountaineering Club

On the 10th February Swansea Uni Mountaineering club competed in the 2nd annual Welsh Universities Bouldering Competition, a.k.a. 'WUSA' (The Welsh version of the national BUSA event) This competition, set up by our club last year, is a practice competition for all Welsh Universities to prepare for the BUSA Climbing competition held at various premier climbing centres around the UK. This year's WUSA competition was held in Swansea's Dynamic Rock climbing centre that recently celebrated its first birthday.

First I'll educate you in what bouldering actually is; bouldering is essentially climbing a short distance above the ground so that you can safely jump off without the need for a rope. The challenge is in the technical difficulty rather than the height. It can be done indoors at climbing centers or outdoors on a crag. The WUSA competition used the same format as the upcoming BUSA competition - 25 bouldering problems, the fewer amount attempts you have at a problem the more points you get, with a maximum score of 10 per problem. The problems ranged from powerful overhanging problems to delicate slabby problems which required accuracy and balance.

After the snow we received on the Friday before the event, we were concerned if the other Universities would be able to travel to the event but luckily for us the snow cleared off the roads and all the teams made it. The universities competing were Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Swansea Institute and Swansea Uni, with each Uni entering three mixed teams of three. After winning 2006's WUSA the Swansea teams were keen to replicate the success again.

The problem that received the most attention was the dyno route (technique that requires you to use your legs and arms to spring and literally jump to the next hold) A lot of competitors didn't want to risk losing 10 points on missing the finish hold, so a lot attempted to use the sidewall and walk their feet up closer to the finish hold. This was fine for the tall, but for the short this still involved a leap of faith to the finish hold, resulting in some big falls to the mats below. A handful grabbed the bull by the horns and flew through the air to catch the finish hold and a round of applause from on-lookers.

After 3 hours of solid climbing everyone was pretty shattered, so the competitors handed in their score sheets to find out the results. For the second consecutive year running our first team took a clean sweep of the male, female and team categories. Jon Freeman our club president came first in the males, and Jacky Tyrie beat off the competition to become first in the females for the second year running. Not only that but we also achieved second place in the male and female events, Olly Buxton and Beck Holland doing the club proud. Our second team also came third beating off a lot of other Universities first teams!

Thanks to all that attended, special thanks to the route judges on the day, I know it's not an easy job! Watch this space next month to find out how our teams do in the national competition at the brand new bouldering centre in Sheffield. Hopefully we can improve on last year's result of 3rd at BUSA...AVE IT!

By Stuart Llewellyn
http://www.uwsmc.org.uk