UKC

We have been asked to do the filming at the North of England/Sunderland Drytooling comp in February.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=488525

As I haven't done any indoor DT comp stuff myself I was reviewing how stuff goes down...looking at the Paul Diffley (Hot Aches)wee film of the Scottish series the competitors are wearing rock shoes.
For this event the rules are:
-rock shoes for the artificial tool (schmoolz/fig4)event/comp
-B3's for the ice tool event
Apparently Scottish series has gone over to B3 boots? Wondering what the reason for this is?

In reply to simondgee:



You could always ask Pete Hill. I am sure he will give you an answer

In reply to 9WS9c3jps92HFTEp: do you have his contacts? From a competitor perspective which were most preferred I assume that rock shoes confer all the usual advantages? Im guessing thats just that its more akin to 'real' drytooling with b3's

S

In reply to simondgee:

Try this:

The Scottish Tooling Series is co-ordinated by two volunteers Neil Silver and Pete Hill

Registration questions, Sponsorship Enquiries etc
neil@scottishtoolingseries.co.uk

Route Setting , Scoring, Venues, Equipment etc

pete@scottishtoolingseries.co.uk

In reply to simondgee: I'd guess because crampons don't onto rock boots very well? http://www.northerntoolingseries.co.uk/rules.php#CRAMPONS

In reply to iksander:

Pete got back straight away with their experience

'Rock boots are all that we use, I’ve never had mountain boots as an option so I don’t know where that came from. Even the STS comp last year changed to rock boots after the first few years with big boots – I thought it was time for a change and it’s gone down really well. You can do so much more with rock boots and they are more like climbing with fruit boots than clumpy mountain ones.'

In reply to simondgee:

I guess its a good way of bringing out those with good big boot technique and makes sense if you have option of doing an artificial tool route the same day in rock shoes.

In reply to simondgee:

people new to the genre dont always have access to B3 boots so it opens it out to a wider audience.

its easier to set routes knowing that people are using rock boots rather than B3's. you can smear in rock boots which means less foot holds to bolt to a wall.

thats two of the main reasons i've come across anyway.....

In reply to tom290483:

My local comp, Keswick, is big boots, trainers, walking boots etc are tolerated. The whole idea is ridiculously artificial anyway so why not. The problem with competitions is that they become too competitive and folks get hung up on rules and regs taking the fun away.

In reply to 3leggeddog:
Funny that is just what I have just put in an email. I was a comp organiser for quite a few yeaaars ago and the emphasis was on having fun with your mates. The Newcastle Berghaus series used to be called Boulder of fun. Im not into dry tooling myself but I think with the right feel they can be great fun and good leveller. The interviews on that film of Paul Diffleys suggest the Scottish series did regain that 'us against the wall/route setter' rather 'me against you' competition feel. Who was it that organised the Keswick DT stuff?

In reply to simondgee:
Keswick climbing wall run the DT event. Their details are on their website: http://www.keswickclimbingwall.co.uk/

In reply to simondgee:

I think you may misunderstand me, the Keswick wall comps ARE great fun, well organised and not taken seriously at all. Having read the long list of rules for the nts, that all looks very serious.

Comp climbing started out as a daft thing to do with your mates and look what that has become. At the moment DT comps are very inclusive but how long for?

Like I said earlier, the trouble with competitions is that they get too competitive