April has been a really busy month for me - but in a good way! I’ve contested in different national and international competitions in all but one weekend of this month. All competitions were bouldering comps.   On the 6th of April I brought my strongest junior girls near Copenhagen to a city called Lyngby to contest in this year’s first round of the danish bouldering competition called Bloc Comp. The competition consisted of a qualifying round and of course the finals. With twelve out of thirteen possible tops, most of them flashes, I was in the lead position for the finals. On the first problem in the final round I made a huge mistake. Not just one of the sloppiness alike “oh why did I just crimp that hold when it's much better as a pinch?” climbing related or technical mistakes, but one of those big, big fails that one simply can’t do during a bouldering final. Completely distracted by whatever, I went out to the first problem in the final. I placed both hands around the edge that consisted the start position, looked down on my feet and on the gigantic foothold. But this is not where I started to fail. Because even though the fail itself was enacted over only a few seconds, it all began inside my head minutes before the actual act. Inexplicably, I had convinced myself that somehow it was a great idea to imagine all of the things I had previously done wrong while competing, in order to prevent myself from repeating them. Worst. Idea. Ever. My last thought before I placed my right foot instead of my left on the start foothold was: “How typical it would be if I slipped off this foothold while changing my feet.” And guess what happened. In less than two seconds I had ruined my flash attempt because I slipped while changing feet. I hadn’t even done a single move?! However, I did the problem easily in my second attempt and went back to the isolation room, blushing with shame, knowing that I was no longer leading the competition. But instead of letting my trembling start get to me, I pulled myself together and started to focus on other stuff, positive stuff and experiences I’ve had, like of some of the times I have won competitions after having done mistakes. So I flashed all of the remaining problems in that final and won the competition - which, by the way, was a very fun, well built and proper organised competition that I think everyone enjoyed. [caption id="attachment_6682" align="aligncenter" width="590" caption="First problem in the finals"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6680" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Qualification round"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6681" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Preparing for the finals"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6683" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="Finals"][/caption]     The next bouldering competition took place on the 20th and 21st of April in Norway, Lillehammer. It was the Nordic Championship in bouldering and I held the title as champion from the previous two years to defend. In the qualification round I did a completely wrong warm up and I was far from satisfied with my performance when my time was up. With just 5 out of 8 possible tops I was ranked 3rd before the finals. Ranked 2nd was the swedish girl, Katrin, and ranked 1st was, not surprisingly, Tina Johnson from Norway. And I was not the only danish climber to be a bit disappointed after the qualifications. My homeboy and climbing buddy through all times,Thomas Blaabjerg, didn’t have his head completely in the game either. But after having shared a bit of chocolate a done some mutual coaching (whining), we concluded that he was ranked 4th, I was ranked 3rd and there was nothing we could do about that besides shifting our focus and prepare for the finals. Flashing two problems out of three possible I ended up taking the second place right behind Tina who flashed all three problems. Thomas also did a great job and was placed 3rd. [caption id="attachment_6684" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="Thomas and I on our way to Norway!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6685" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="The qualifications - doing both a heelhook and a kneebar at the same time "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6687" align="aligncenter" width="383" caption="The first problem in the final"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6688" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="The qualification round"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6690" align="aligncenter" width="511" caption="Due to my bad warm up I had to shake the pump out of my arms whenever I could "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6691" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Sara Engquist (3), Tina Johnson Hafsaas (1), Katrine Vandet Salling (2)"][/caption] The third and last bouldering competition this month was the second round of the so called Annual Cup located in Copenhagen Boulders on the 27th of April. Since I was pretty satisfied with my performance in the first round back in January, I was really looking forward to this competition as well. It was a very fun and challenging competition and I had a very fun day. Feeling not as satisfied with my climbing as after the first round, I was really happy when the results were published and the ranking updated and I found that I had won again. That means that I’m currently still ranked number 1 in the game. One more round is left before it all ends up in la grande finale. [caption id="attachment_6692" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Me and the young guns"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_6696" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="The current top 10 ranked females in the competition"][/caption]   Right now I have got about 14 days left of school before the exam race really begins. I’ve got many plans for the summer and all of them involves climbing so you better stay tuned and keep climbing - at least that’s what I’m trying to do.