Marmot UK - Katy's Carte Blanche Hurrikan

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Katy's back from her summer over the channel so whilst we've been swimming to work under the dull light of the 2008 summer that never was, she's been sunning herself on Euro crags for over three months.....Here's how she got on in her own words.

I'm back... got back on Monday, it was very hard to leave the amazing climbing and weather out there!
We had such a good time and went to some awesome places.

We left England at the end of May and went to Frankenjura (Germany) first, which is a really cool area. The climbing is short with small pockets. We were only here for a couple of weeks so we just went to lots of different areas and did loads of routes. I also did a route called Hurrikan at Klagemauer, graded 7c+/8a. It was only short but really bouldery, I spent a couple of sessions working out the moves and sequence, then went for lead. First go fell off near top but did it next. A few days later we headed over to Fiera, Italy to do a Bouldering World Cup. It didn't go too well unfortunately and I ended up with a bad result!! Then it rained alot for a few days, so headed over to Magic Wood, Switzerland and met up with some friends.

Me on nameless 7b+, Photo: R.Pasquill

It took me a while to get used to the style of climbing here, and I spent the first few weeks just pottering around, I did manage some awesome 7b+s though. Towards the end of our time in magic wood, I started working a 7c, it was quite long though maybe about 11 moves. It took me a while to do because it was so power endurancy, and I kept falling off a really crimpy bit at the end.

After Magic we mosied on over to Ceuse in southern France, to meet up with some more friends. The only bad thing about Ceuse is that it is right at the top a massive hill, so you have to walk uphill for an hour to get to the crag! Ceuse is awesome - It has got some of the best climbing I have ever been on and althogether we stayed at Ceuse for seven weeks. It was really hard to start with, I was getting so boxed on all the routes even the 6b warm ups!! We did a lot of mileage here to try and get fit, I'm sure we must of been close to doing every single 7a/+/b at the crag. I managed to onsight a couple of nice 7b+s, and did an absolutely amazing route called Carte Blanche, 8a. It definately felt like the hardest I have climbed on a route and was quite steep and powerful (not my kind of thing!)

Me being spotted on a 7b+. Photo:R.Pasquill

It started off with a hardish power endurance start into a good arm bar rest, then a really powerful crux going over the bulge. Then just really pumpy to the top. At the last bolt there was a tricky little crimpy bit which is easy to fall off on!! Anyway I spent a couple of sessions working then did it on my 6th redpoint. After that route I felt really burnt out so did some 7b+ and 7cs, until the end of the trip. Ryan also did Bah Bah Black Sheep, 8c+ a few days later which was cool.

I definately want to go back because there are still so many routes I want to do, and get on some harder stuff.