16 year old Shauna Coxsey has had a great trip to Spain, climbing Watermark F8a at Sella. She climbed the route on her 4th redpoint attempt after two very short sessions working the moves.

Gaz Parry, who is based in Spain for the winter, filled us in:

"Shauna recently spent the week with me in the Costa Blanca where I gave her the tour of Orihuela, El Bovedon, Forrada and The Wild Side. She was really keen to have a play on an 8a and was psyched to look at the 8a that Hazel Findlay had done over new year."

Hazel Findlay climbed the F8a routes Watermark and Mediterraneo on a short trip to Spain earlier in the year (UKC News Item).

Gaz said:

"I thought Watermark would be perfect for her as it is a really technical climb with no big or stopper moves. I knew all the moves on the route as I had onsighted it the previous week, so I passed on all the info and she got involved. Her sequence was exactly the same as mine and Gav Symonds who was also with us, strange really as Shauna is 5'3", me 5'9" and Gav is around 6'1"! "

Shauna doing Watermark: video by Gav Symonds.

Watermark from Gavin Symonds on Vimeo.

Shauna is operating at a high level indoors, winning the 12-15 female category in the BMC leading ladder in 2008. There is a brief interview with Shaua in this UKC Article.

Gaz Parry is one of the UK's most accomplished climbers and he considers the lack of UK routes in this style to be a limiting factor for climbers like Shauna:

"After bolt to bolting the line Shauna had an initial redpoint and to our amazement she managed to climb smoothly through the crux only to fall when her hand slipped. The next day we were back and she sent it really fast. I was totally blown away with Shauna's climbing and it has just made me wonder what talented UK climbers like this are missing out on in the UK. She was only out for 5 days, just imagine what she could achieve if she lived there."

Gaz had quite a good week too, managing to fit in a quick ascent (first redpoint) of Watermark Extension F8b, plus an on sight of an F8a+ and an F8a, bundled in with a F8a+ flash and another F8a+ first redpoint.

Other UK climbers hitting the Spanish limestone include Naomi Buys who had a good start to her week with a flash of Ya Somos Olimpicos F7b+ at the Wildside on the first day of her trip.