Page 13 - 2017 AMA Summer

Come climb with us
Capt Emily Palmer
Just under a year ago, a couple of months into my first posting in the army, I arrived in Cardiff on a weekday evening ready for the Army Climbing Championships. I was nervous because I didn’t know anyone, other people seemed to know one another, and there were a lot of them! Who knew the army had so many climbers? Luckily, the girl in the bunk next to mine was super friendly and offered me a lift to the wall the next morning. I was happy I had someone to arrive with, and from then onwards I forgot all about not knowing anyone. I noticed groups of people wearing red ‘Army Climbing’ t-shirts and my ambition was to come away with one: I wanted to be a part of it. We climbed routes on top rope the first day, eight of them as far as I remember, starting very easy and gradually getting harder. In the evening we went to the pub opposite camp, and participated in a pub quiz. If you’d like a challenge, try participating a pub quiz with a whole round on darts and,
and another on football, with a group of climbers... needless to say we did not do very well! Luckily no one seemed to mind.
The next day we were divided into novice, open and elite categories for the finals. The novices had a top rope final, the rest of us lead climbing. Everyone watched and cheered in the friendliest way possible, which was both pretty cool and pretty intimidating! I climbed well enough to earn my red shirt and came away delighted and full of enthusiasm.
Since then I have attended a number of Services Climbing events. The Inter-ser- vices, which we won; several Army climbing team training days where we have profes- sional coaching; three of the six rounds of the winter bouldering league which are held all in various locations in England and Wales and which keep us entertained and motivated during the winter.
I also got to experience the Climbing Works International Festival, which is a bouldering competition held in Sheffield. It’s nails, and it was both frustrating and inspiring to see people climbing at that level, especially as a lot of the people climbing really hard in our round were teenagers!
Most recently I spent a week in Kalymnos training with the Army Climbing Team. Kalymnos is hands down the best climbing venue I’ve visited, a chilled out Greek village with as much climbing as I could want or imagine stretched out behind it, all well bolted and with a sea view. We climbed every day, swam in the sea, did yoga on the balcony, and ate fresh fish in the local restaurants where the owners had a habit of bringing us free dessert, and sometimes free wine. We even spent a couple of hours in Athens on the way over, making
the most of a long layover to see some of the tourist sites.
All in all a great year, and I remain delighted and full of enthusiasm. If you have any interest route climbing and/or bouldering please come along to events, you may leave feeling the same way! As a team we are particularly short of girls, and of guys under 25. I have met girls who climb but are anxious about competing. Come along anyway. I realise I had an advantage being new to the Army Climbing scene as I was already an already experienced climber, but I think regardless of that we are a very friendly group. Competitions are always aimed at a whole range of abilities with routes or problems starting very easy and progressing from there. And hopefully, as I did, you will soon feel a part of it.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 11