World Youth Climbing Championships I

A glimpse of another world, and a first ever visit to the EICA at Ratho. A fabulous climbing venue and worthy of hosting a world championship. I was surprised how easy it was to get there by bus, catching a 48 at the top of the street all the way to Ratho and a short walk along the canal. Today was the second day of qualifying, with three routes in use on each of the two walls. Occasionally that meant there were three climbers going up together, like this moment. The climbers try and get as high as possible within the time limit with the top 26 in each category over the two days of qualifying going through to Saturday's semi-final. Climbers from all over the world, including the team from Ecuador I saw on my bus to college earlier in the week.