Ruben is resting in the final route – Pic by Heiner Schmiedl

The European Youth Championships (EYCH) this year took place in Imst (AUT). Meanwhile Imst is very well known for a huge outdoor competition wall which offers routes consisting of around 60 moves or even more on an approximately 21 meters wall. The very sunny and hot weather required a lot of concentration on sketchy and technical slaps.

The championship already started on Friday with the speed contest and the presentation of around 28 nations overall. Afterwards we watched the speed finals and went for dinner. This day was more or less for resting and we tried not to spend so much time out in the heat.

On Saturday the qualification began pretty early which was good for the athletes because the heat at midday made it much harder to climb on the slaps. For Ruben the first qualification route fitted his style but he didn’t get the right solution for the crux considering shoulder moves on open crimps. Luckily it wasn’t too bad as he fell 2 moves higher than many other climbers. The second qualification route was a sketchy slap but didn’t make him feeling scared as his technique and balance isn’t that bad. Just the endurance and nervousness made him falling in the overhang. David’s first qualification route wasn’t that good neither. A slap at the start and crimps until the top demanded a lot of endurance. In his second qualification route he really wanted to improve his peformance and made a good try climbing high up into the overhang. Fortunately we both made it into the finals of the 10 best climbers.

On Sunday we had to warm up early again because the finals already started at 9 a.m. Ruben was in good mood and excited to climb well but as it was his first international competition after his injury and the first time competing in youth A ever he couldn’t really get the best out of him. He felt in the beginning of the overhang being pumped and finished 8th place. There was set just one single final route for all male categories so that David had to climb the same route as Ruben. He climbed safely into the overhang but had problems clipping a quickdraw from a weird body position. Finally he didn’t manage to clip it and got 9^th place.

After the competition we both were a bit disappointed because we knew that it wasn’t our best performance so far but it was anyway a good training for the WYCH in Canada soon and made us more excited for hard training. Friends from Russia and Norway are joining us now in our camping van and we’re looking forward to crush the competition in Canada.

We hope you’re all fine Greez from Tyrol,

Ruben & David