Sunday
7th August saw the launch event of BLOCFEST at the Castle Climbing
centre in North London. A new generation of bouldering festival to hit
the South and transform competition climbing in the Capital and
surrounding areas.
With the head setters from two of
London’s climbing centres- Mike Langley from The Castle and Alex Lemel
from Mile End (both founding members of the notorious London Mafia
climbing team) alongside living legend
Gaz Parry and rising star in the route setting game Kornelija Howick,
The Blocfest team are set to take over in the South.
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| Yann Genoux on the Custom Volumes |
With an aim to launch a series of
festival events that combine the best blocs at the best walls with the
best vibes, the Blocfest team created a circuit of 20 blocs throughout
The Castle using specially designed
and made volumes fresh from the Blocfest workshop and a comp set of
holds from official Blocfest hold sponsor- Holdz.
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| Jon Partridge on Pumpfest |
With something for all from kids to
experienced climbers everyone had a brilliant time. The blocs ranged
from technical slabs to wrestling with "The Guvnor" - a huge custom made
volume hanging off the top of
a steep wall. Not to mention the very popular "Pumpfest" - a 72 move
circuit set through the horizontal Catacomb roof with a
see-how-far-you-can-get-before-you-get-pumped-out-of-your-mind concept
which only saw two full ascents. There was also a "Hangtime"
challenge which invited people to see how long they could hang off of a
cleverly placed volume. Time to get your guppy gurn on! So after such a
successful launch what else do the Blocfest team have in store?
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| Junior enjoying a slab |
5 festival dates at the premier walls
in London and the South and they are only going to get bigger and
better with showcase finals, live music, mad giveaways and much much
more - Blocfest is about to hit the
South in a big way.
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| Tom Arnold filling out his score |
Results
Winners of the blocfest launch event challenges and free entry into the first round of the series are;
20 bloc tour
U16 boys
Cameron Mcloughkin
U16 girls
Eugenie Robinson Lee
Male
Jon Partridge
Female
Air Forbes
Volume Hangtime winners
U16 boys
Torbjorn Thorpe Brandt
Female
Victoria Henry
Male
Rob P
Pumpfest winners
U16 Girls
Eugenie Robinson lee
U16 Boys
Cameron Mcloughkin
Female
Ellie Barnes
Male
Yann Genoux
Draw prize winners
5 limited edition blocfest t-shirts
Alex Fry
Air Forbes
Ana Lei Ortiz
Eugenie Robinson Lee
Louis Parkinson
5 Revolution Bouldering Gear and Holds bags
Ellie Barnes
Cameron Mcloughkin
Jackie Wenham
James Pollard
Graham Giles
1 hour free masterclass with Gaz Parry and Epic Adventures
Chris Arnold
1 Hour free personal training with New Heights Fitness
