VauxSquad 3.0.0

That time has come again, the VauxSquad Selection! The past year, this team has been an absolutely fantastic team to work with, with so many psyched kids that can just climb mega hard and that have come a long way since they started the squad. I cannot wait for the next team to start!

Friday, myself and the beast that is Ed Hamer set the Green/Pink (Grink) circuit. The plan was to set 25 problems overall, making 20 boulders for the younger 10-13 category and 20 for the 14+ (5 harder problems and take out 5 easier climbs). With grades ranging from VB-V7, there was plenty for all ages. Along with this we also had to set a circuit (starting at F5 going up to F7a) and a traverse (F4 up to F6b) to test their endurance.

It's always quite difficult to gauge the reaches of the kids, yes I know how far they reach, but whether they are strong enough to push to that reach. I know that a lot of the current squad don't enjoy dynos or coordinated blocks but it's always good to test this movement. Personally I hate climbing running coordinated problems but love setting them, the same with really delicate slabs. Maybe I'm just an evil setter that likes to see people struggle 😏

Nice early start for me to get into work. Found out the night before that I was going to run the day and had to prepare my spiel to say to the kids. Got in taped up the starts and prepared for the day. With it being the holiday season not many booked on or registered but nevertheless, we still started. With a brief introduction to who the judges of the day were (including Tricky), we began with a joint warm up to kick things off. With all going well, the crushers got crushing.




With strong starts by some and shakes starts by others, everything seemed to be going pretty well. Plenty of flashes to begin with to build confidence and get used to the set and then they Iris led the way onto the harder problems. One problem I set on the slab in the café was fairly study up until the last move which was this balanced heel hook to finishing on this no hold at the top. She spent ages trying to work it out and finally had the right idea. She got the heel and one hand to the finished and was slowly moving her other hand over but just lost balance last minute, agonisingly close. This then psyched everyone else up to giving it a go!

As the day progressed, these guys just seemed to get better and better, pulling things off I never even thought they would. One of our guys, Johnny, ran the show by flashing most of his problems and then getting a few on his 2nd go. I can't remember the exact number but I think he only left 1 or 2 problems which were pretty tough. He ended with the highest score not only in his younger age category but overall!


Really impressed by everyone that turned up with the squad making new friends and working together with brand new people it was fairly clear who was going to be selected. With the day wrapping up, we debrief the juniors, do a little prize giving and the judges head off to Nando's to make the deciding votes. I can't reveal who we selected but I can say that the team we chose look incredibly strong with a lot of potential to become great and that I cannot wait to get VauxSquad 3.0 started!

PSYCHED!