Wednesday 12th November saw the first ever Scottish Students Climbing Festival take place at Transition Extreme, Aberdeen. This was organised by Scottish Student Sport (SSS) and supported by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS).

The event involved a bouldering competition followed by an evening lecture with Dave Macleod, with drinks, snacks and loads of raffle prizes! The plan was to gather together students from around Scotland who share a passion for climbing, and also to provide an initial “competition” experience for more novice climbers prior to the SSS Championship taking place in February.

55 students from around Scotland got involved, with many making a 200+mile round-trip to take part. The setting was done locally by Darren Wisniewski and Jay Carr, who did an awesome job at creating a fantastic spread of boulder problems, including a couple of high-balls with extra mats and a “world-cup-style” running jump problem; and of course, a few things that were totally nails! Jamie from the MCofS had set up a stand to promote the MCofS and talk about their opportunities for students.

Dave Macleod came along early and joined in with some bouldering. It was very inspiring to see him cruising all the hard problems, and really added to the atmosphere! In the evening, with everyone relaxed and feeling filled-up with climbing and food, we sat down to listen to Dave Macleod talk about his recent climbing trips in the Alps and the Dolomites; It was a fantastic end to a fantastic day, and I think that everyone went home feeling full of motivation!

Top 3 results in each category were as follows:

Female:
1st Place: Anna Wells, University of Dundee, 164 points
2nd Place: Ajda Remskar, University of Edinburgh, 145 points
3rd Place: Elle Hopkins, Strathclyde University and Clara Vergez, Edinburgh University, 117 points

Male:
1st Place: Euan McFadyen, Strathclyde University, 184 points
2nd Place: Alex Chapman, St Andrews University, 157 points
3rd Place: Chris Chan, Robert Gordons University, 147 points

A massive thank you must go to everyone who helped make this event a success, and I really hope we can do it again next year! (thanks to: Dave Macleod, everyone at transition extreme especially Darren, Jay and Veshengo, Jamie and Kev at MCofS, Tim Gomersall, and everywhere that donated prizes to the raffle: Tiso Dundee, Cotswold Aberdeen, MCofS, Tiso Aberdeen and Craigdon Aberdeen).