The Climbing Works Schools’ preliminary round

The Climbing Works Schools’ preliminary round - Tuesday 7th January

On the Tuesday the 7th January, 18 students (from year 5 and 6) went to the Mini Climbing Works and competed for a chance to get into the final of the Climbing Works Primary School Bouldering Competition. 

There were 12 different rated climbs with 1 being the easiest to 12 being the hardest. To start you needed to have both feet of the ground and both hands on the start holds/hold. The start and ending holds were marked with two strips of blue tape whilst the bonus, was marked with two strips of red tape so you could tell the difference. The bonus holds were usually halfway between the start and end, but not always. We could only use one set of black and yellow holds ("Wasps") to advance up the wall. If you used any other colours you wouldn't be able get the maximum score for that wall. 

Scoring was organised so that you got 3 chances to get to the end or “finish” the climb.

First try: 10 points

Second try: 7 points

Third try: 5 points

If you didn’t finish the climb within your 3 goes but you got to the bonus you were awarded 3 points. The competition was a team effort but you could also win separate prizes such as 

girls or boys first, second or third place (out of all the schools competing), and the overall winning school

Tess:

I climb regally with my family so I found most of the walls quite easy because I have had a lot of practice. I did find walls 11 and 12 tricky though because of the big reaches and small holds to pull yourself up. A lot of HBJS pupils found different walls challenging but it was great to see everyone helping each other out and giving advice (especially Ella who fractured her leg but came down to support us as one of our most experienced climbers).

As we were one of the first schools to complete our qualification round, we won’t find out if we qualify for the finals until March but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.