The countdown for another world cup.
We have been in Innsbruck for two weeks now and although its great to be back in Innsbruck, its been a rough time.
Unfortunately I have been feeling sick.
Alex and myself have come down with some crazy bug and we have been unable to do much besides watch movies and chill out over the last week. Some might think sitting on a couch watching movies does not sound like a bad way to be spending a week but when you are trying to prepare for a world cup its not what you want to be doing.
We were meant to spend a couple of weeks bouldering in Switzerland but the weather was not great down there and as we both had this crazy sickness coming on so we thought it best we head back here to Innsbruck and chill.
It seems like we are not the only ones suffering with sickness though as it seems most of Innsbruck is complaining about not feeling 100% with this sickness.
I had my first session today after 3 days of doing nothing and unfortunately I still felt crap so fingers crossed I spark up soon.

After the comp is done here in Innsbruck, Alex and myself are off to America to compete in another Bouldering World Cup in Vail, CO.
I did really well last year in vail making the finals and finishing in 6th place so hope I can better that this year.

On another note, I have bought myself a rope again and i'm getting keen to tie back in and get pumped.
It will be interesting to see what I can do since I have a good base of bouldering strength now.
I know ill have a lot of work to do to get my fitness level back up but Im super motivated to do it and I know a few of my mates back in England will be keen to get on the fitness bandwagon with me when i'm back in UK.

Enough talking about getting on a rope for now, time to start focussing on feeling better for the comp this weekend.

Another blog another country.
This time i'm here in Vienna, Austria. We are here for another World Cup round, my second of the season.
Last weekend was the Slovenian World Cup where I ended up placing 23rd.
I was relatively happy with how I climbed as I just missed out on Semis but as you can imagine I was disappointed not to be in Semis and have a crack at the finals.
I was one of only two climbers to climb 3 boulder problems and not get through due to having 3 attempts to many. So close but no cigar.
So as I already mentioned i'm here in Austria for another crack in another World Cup.
Its great to have another Australian climber here competing with me in the World Cups, James Kassay and its been nice to hang out with an old mate. After the comp is over here we are all (Alex, Clair, James and myself) heading to Switzerland for a couple of weeks bouldering on real rock before we have another comp in Innsbruck, Austria.

Photos: The World Cup In Slovenia and Alex competing In Vienna last year where she made 2nd

This blog is very overdue, I have lots of things to write about.
I probably have had the time to sit down and write a blog but sitting on my computer mashing keys is not something I have wanted to do lately.

The biggest piece of news and most exciting news in my life of late is my engagement to Alex. I asked Alex to marry me and thankfully she said yes :) so needless to say we are both very happy.

On the climbing side of things.
After returning back from USA I got straight back into the training.
I have been obsessed with training for the World Cups this year.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I entered into a comp here in Sheffield called the The CWIF, I made it into the finals and I was really happy with that but unfortunately in the final I tweaked my shoulder on problem 1 and I was forced to pull out. The next day I woke up and my shoulder was hurting me a lot and did not feel good.
I went to my Chiropractor, Steve Bond. Steve has been treating me a few days a week since.
Steve is absolutely amazing and i'm confident without the help from Steve I would not be able to climb right now. I really recommend Steve to anyone who has an injury or is just not feeling 100%. Steve not only makes sure your aligned but does massage and acupuncture. Steve is a climber himself so he can understand our needs. Thanks Steve. www.bondchiropractic.co.uk

Anyway its now been a couple of weeks since my shoulder tweaked and I am back into the training again. I have had to pull out of the first Bouldering World Cup in China due to my shoulder but i'm getting in shape again fast.
I did manage to get out on the rock yesterday and did a boulder called Superman 8B. Superman is a bit of an eliminate but its rich in history and I was very keen to do it. Superman was defiantly not in the best conditions when I did it so i'm sure it will feel easier when I try and do it from the sit start.

I also did my first Slideshow last week and it went really well, there was a good turn out of about 200 people, turns out public speaking is not easy.

On another note, Im pleased to announce that I have signed on with La Sportiva UK.
Im very happy to be wearing the best shoes in the world.

So right now i'm training hard for my first world cup of 2012 in Slovenia.

Im now back in sunny UK. USA as always was a great trip. It was great to catch up with Alex family and go climbing in Hueco again.
I don't want to sound like a spoilt little shite, but this time i was not very motivated in Hueco. My focus right now is the World Cups and going on a rock climbing trip is not really what i should have been doing. Saying that, i did manage to do a fair amount of training in Hueco and the last week of my trip was spent training in Dallas before flying back here to UK.
Alex is still in USA, she stayed there to compete in the American Bouldering National. Alex won the comp and will be back in UK this weekend, i cant wait to see her.
I have been back in Sheffield for just over a week now and Im straight back into the training. I am happy with how im going with everything and im working really hard.
Im very happy in knowing that when the World Cups start, i could not have trained any harder than what i am now.

I have been getting back into road riding again and its a great way for me to keep fit as i hate running.

So i'm back here in England now, working and training my ass off and everything is good.

PHOTOS: Alex and myself in Hueco and sitting under Desperanza about to have another burn.

A few more days in Hueco have past.
After a half rest day we headed out on a tour to East Mountain.
We had a great crew. James, Shauna, Alex, Will, Grant, Jon, myself and our tour guide Corey.
I had a great day out and although I did not manage to come away with any big prizes I did manage to climb three V11s, Lee-Ann, Mo Mojo and Sunshine. The Highlight of the day went to Alex with her ascent of Full Service V10.
The next day we had a half rest day. I started the morning off in Martini Cave and managed to do a nice V10 called Left Martini but cut the day short and rested half the day as I was feeling tuckered out.
Today was another great day, a little warm but still a great day.
I managed to do Desperanza second attempt of the day.
Desperanza was first climbed by Daniel Woods and is graded V15. It is a lower start to an existing boulder called Esperanza V14. Im not sure if the full grade of V15 is correct for this boulder, but being that is a tad harder than Esperanza maybe V15 is correct? I don't know?
Alex and myself finished up the day with Theatre Of The Absurd V10 and I managed to do Chior Boys V9,Ii could not do this boulder last time I was here due to it hurting my shoulder to much, so I was happy to get it done today without any pain.
Such a great day.