Page 20 - 2015 AMA Autumn

Sgt Demitri Munoz makes it look easy
The European Military Climbing Championships 2015
An impressive sounding title, but what was it all about? This event was a combination of the Inter-Services Climbing Championships, as well as a heated competition with climbers from the Belgian, French, Irish and Spanish militaries all hoping to be crowned the European Military Climbing Champion.
There were to be 84 of the best climbers from their respective Armies, some of which had the reputation of being ‘a bit good.’ For example, the Spanish representative Sldr David Lorden was reputed to climb at a sport grade of 8b – which is considered good for a top level competitive climber that wasn’t employed by the Army!
The competition was held over 2 days at the Beacon Climbing Centre in Caernarfon, which features walls reaching up to 17m high. For the unpractised, there was definite scope to run out of stamina
Team Army getting Psyched
half way up! Given the level of the competition, it was estimated ladies should look to climb at 6c and 7b for the men to qualify for the Semi-Finals of the International Mens/ Ladies competition. As it turned out, there were to be no female international competitors, so the ladies focused on the Inter-Services Championship and the Men were conducting both the Inter-Services and the International Competition concurrently.
The qualifiers were on the first day, as well as a bouldering competition. The format of the qualifiers was that there were 6x climbs and you had to pick 3 to attempt out of a grade 5+, 6a, 6b, 6c, 7a and 7b. You had one attempt on each of your chosen climbs, but there was a small catch. For example, if you attempted the 6b and fell off, you could not climb any harder climbs, you could only go down a grade; you could only progress onto a harder
Team Army plus trophies
The Semi-Finals are Revealed
18 ARMY MOUNTAINEER