This year has been fun-filled for our climbing squad up north at Parthian Manchester. Outdoor climbing sessions, pizza parties and competitions – what more could we want?! Representatives from our Junior, Development and Senior Squads have been at all four rounds of the BMC Youth Climbing Series this year, and each one of them have made us proud!
The Competitive Edge
The first round of YCS took place close to home for us at Bloc Haus Bouldering. This was the first time competing for a few of our newer squad members and they had a ball. Bloc Haus have a weekly comp that lots of our squad have continued to enter and, if I’m honest, they are putting lots of us (their coaches) to shame!
The next round was a route climb at Summit Up in Oldham. Tall walls and pumpy routes are our forte at Parthian Manchester! A new centre, new holds, and lots of new people, can always make for a stressful competition experience. Some of our more experienced Senior squad members were there to support the Junior and Development squad and offer friendly advice. They helped us coaches run a group warmup and made the centre proud both by representing Parthian as role models and by climbing to the best of their ability on every route.
The next weeks that followed hosted two other competitions that some of the Squad attended. Battle of Britain at Depot Manchester and the Junior British Lead champs and Big Depot Leeds. This comp season has been a tough one, having the tenacity to enter yet another comp midway through the YCS session deserves some definite recognition!
Grit Camp
We had a break from comps the following weekend when the Manchester Team and Squad attended the Parthian climbing grit camp. Peak District Grit is our natural climbing home here in Manchester and the staff (myself included) were very excited to share that with our strongest climbers! In classic peak district style, it appeared it would be wet for the entire weekend. Miraculously, the weather turned and we had an excellent weekend. Everyone who attended had a ball climbing some classic gritstone routes and boulders. Fingers crossed, we will have some budding new trad climbers soon enough!
The Finals
Then came the final YCS round – routes at Preston wall. The climbs were short and bouldery, not the perfect style for our squad but they performed nevertheless. I am immensely proud of everyone who entered this season and know that each climber is already motivated for the next! Sienna managed to make national finals at Southampton Parthian and we are all incredibly proud of her!
We’ve had a lot of people join our squad throughout 2023 and we’ve watched everyone mature into very dedicated climbers. The coaching team would like to take this moment to thank all the hard work of our squad kids and extend that thanks to all the parents for supporting their development throughout the year. We’ve been hard at work planning for 2024 and look to continue to level up our squad so that everyone involved can be sure they are receiving the highest standard coaching service available in Manchester!
There are still some spaces available on our January NICAS term, but they’re disappearing fast! Book now to avoid disappointment!