Our Grand Day In event on Sunday 26th Oct was a roaring success, with climbers travelling from as far afield as Bournemouth, Sunderland and even Australia to be here. Everyone had a great time and agreed that it was one of the friendliest comp days ever.
To document the event our resident photographer, Luke Spiers, was joined by Simon Hipperson and Climb Magazine’s own Dave Simmonite. We’ll be posting pictures as soon as we get them; watch out for Dave’s pics in Climb Magazine and on their website.
Over 150 people got involved in the bouldering, leading and speed climbing, as well as 300+ entries on the sponsored routes. The competitions saw some fantastic efforts by many people and for some of them it was their first ever comp.
First place in each category of the Bouldering and Leading Comps won a Masterclass with Neil Gresham to be held at Redpoint. Neil was on hand all day and wasted no time in finding the sneakiest way up Mirf’s fiendish competition route.
Andy Kirkpatrick finished the evening off with his brilliant, hilarious and inspiring lecture, Winding Stairs, a hair-raising account of his ascent of El Cap with his girlfriend, who has been paraplegic since a climbing accident 15 years ago. Andy is currently on tour with another lecture, When Hell Freezes Over, which is much recommended. Tickets are still available – to check out his blog for your closest venue: Click Here
The Competition Winners were:
Male Bouldering
Joint 1st Dan Bradley & Alex Fry
2nd Chris Whiteman
3rd Sam Cox
Female Bouldering
1st Sarah Daniels
2nd Charlie Kelly
3rd Vun Lim
Under 16 Bouldering
1st Orrin Coley
2nd Tara Hayes
3rd Jez Etherton
Male Speed Climbing
1st Dan Bradley
2nd Chris Whiteman
3rd Dom Sellers
Female Speed Climbing
1st Maya Holding
2nd Charlie Kelly
3rd Adele Greenway
Under 16 Speed Climbing
1st Orrin Coley
2nd Will Smith
3rd Tara Hayes
Male Leading
1st Dom Sellers
2nd Alex Fry
3rd Lance Finlay
Female Leading
1st Charlie Kelly
2nd Emma Hanna
3rd Maya Holding
Under 16 Leading
1st Will Smith
2nd Orrin Coley
3rd Tara Hayes
Spot Prizes were also awarded for
Aerial Nudity - Dave Rose
Best Lob - Dan Bradley
Bravest Under 16 Lob – Liam Henderson
Antipodean Persistence - Jess Van Lunenburg
Gurning - Brian Rogers
Hands off rest - Louis Boscence
Winners of the Sponsored route prize draws were
Sportiva – Dany Jones
Redpoint – Charlie Wells
Climb Magazine – Maya Holding
Rock On – Adrian Samarra
All the routes and problems will remain up for anyone who wants to have another go or see what they missed. Meanwhile we will be having another routesetting blitz this week, so there’ll be lots of new reasons to come down again soon.
If you took part in a Grand Day In, please feel free to post your comments below.
Finally, the competition took a huge amount of effort to organise, and it’s only fair to thank everyone who took part in the organising, stripping, setting and running the event on the day… Climb Mag, Lyon Equipment and La Sportiva, Rock On and its staff, all the Redpoint staff, Chris Rose, Dave Field, Geoff Dell, Rory Buckland, Rich Cole, Sarah Daniels, Mal Nicholson, Luke Spiers, Simon Hipperson, Dave Simmonite, Neil Gresham, Andy Kirkpatrick & Karen Darke and Sue’s Café next door. Apologies if we forgot anyone!