Page 11 - 2002 AMA Summer

The BMC and Entre Prises Festival at Climbing
By Mike Smith
The BMC & Entre Prises Festival of Climbing (FOC) is a biennial cel­ ebration of climbing, hill walking and mountaineering and is staged in the impressive National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. The three- day event hosts a massive array of lectures, films, videos, practical workshops and activities, exhibitions and art, and high performance climbing. Not to mention a retail village with tons of clothing and equipment at give-away prices. The main retailers last year were Snow & Rock, Outside, Mountainshack.com, Entre-Prises, Greenshires and Solo Mountain Sport.
There were a total of six separate competitions over the weekend and I was lucky enough to be involved in the Snow & Rock World Bouldering Cup. I was invited to the event at fairly short notice to judge the qualifiers on the Friday and the finals on the Saturday. Other competitions held over the weekend were the UIAA-ICC Beal & Petzl European Youth Cup, the Snow & Rock International Masters, Outdoor Designs International Dyno Competition, the Cotswold Outdoor Open Bouldering Challenge and the Scouts Climbing Championships (organised by Paul Smith who is an AMA member).
This was a rare but excellent opportunity to get real close to the action and I wasn’t disappointed. Over the weekend I judged the female qualifiers and finals and the men's final. The first event was the female qualifiers. It was incredible to see just how good the climbers were. Each climber only had six minutes to complete each problem, most were able to complete on the first attempt, although my problem was one of the easier ones. The female competition was eventually won by Sandrine Levet from France, who was streets ahead of most of the other competitors. The best Brits were Claire Murphy and Katherine Schirrmacher who finished 19th and 20th.
With the mens competition there were big hopes for a British qualifier although with the likes of Jerome Meyer FRA, Daniel Andrada ESP Mauro Calibani ITA, Thomas Oleksy POL and Salavat Rakmetov RUS it was going to be a tough competition. The final included Malcolm Smith who finished fourth but Mauro Calibani went on to win. Christian Core ITA although second, drew on points in the final. The final result was decided on the scores from the qualifying round.
Spectators had a chance to attempt the mens final problems on the Sunday with the Cotswold Outdoor Open Bouldering Challenge. There were also another twenty problems to try. Yours truly attempted and completed about half of the problems but didn’t get off the ground with any of the
mens final problems.
The event is now outgrowing the NIA and plans are for the FOC to move to the National Exhibition Centre in 2003. The BMC is always looking for volunteers for the event with the perks of free entry, free meals and a chance to shop at the retail village before the queues start. AMA members are encouraged to visit this amazing celebration of
British Climbing
All photos by kind permis­ sion of Ian
Parnell.
Gareth Parry 14th place.
Mike Smith Judging the female qualifiers. Climber Katherine Schirrmacher.
C ftHMV MOUNTAINEER 3