Alex Waterhouse

Alex had never really climbed until he went to secondary school – just three years later he was a member of the GB training team and taking part in competitions all over the world.

‘Adventurous’ and ‘competitive’ are two words that really spring to mind when Alex describes his childhood. Growing up, he loved the adrenalin rush of racing go-karts, pitting himself against his father and brothers to reach the finish line first. When he started at Devonport High School for Boys, he joined the climbing club and discovered a natural affinity for the climbing wall, enjoying the physical challenge of working out the best route to the top. However, it wasn’t until someone mentioned the existence of climbing competitions, that his interest was really sparked. Three months into climbing and showing early promise, Alex entered a regional competition and came third. He started visiting The Barn Climbing Centre in Milton Abbot once a week with his father. Initially roped in purely as a ‘taxi’ driver, his father had no climbing experience, but soon graduated from drinking coffee to learning how to belay for Alex, to climbing himself.

Just a year after Alex started climbing, he came fourth in an open national competition. Realising then that he ‘could do this’, he started researching training methods on the internet - the once-a-week hobby quickly became a five-times-a-week passion. He was fortunate to be able to train with the youth climbing club at The Barn, coached by Mikey Cleverdon, an inspirational south west climber who fought hard to regain his previous climbing form after suffering a stroke. After just two years of climbing Alex took first place in the regionals and came second in the national final. He continued training and entering more and more competitions, until at the age of fourteen he was selected for the GB training team and started entering European competitions.

Alex explained to me that climbing competitions focus on three main events – lead, speed and bouldering: ‘lead’ is an endurance test to see how high a climber can get on a route; ‘speed’ measures the time taken to complete a set route; ‘bouldering’ involves trying to get to the top of up to four ‘boulder’ problems in the fewest attempts in a 5-minute timeframe. To begin with, Alex concentrated on lead competitions but as he entered more of the European competitions and moved up an age category, he transferred into bouldering, enjoying the variety of solving different challenges. He was selected for three World Youth Climbing Championships, starting with Canada in 2013, followed by New Caledonia and then Italy in 2015, where he competed across all three disciplines of lead, speed and bouldering to achieve an incredible 6th place in the overall world rankings. This was the first year he had competed in speed, and training had had its challenges - the nearest speed wall was in Sheffield. Fortunately, with a little ingenuity he had managed to recreate a close replica of the route at the High Sports Plymouth Climbing Centre, where he was sponsored. In the same year, which was also his final A-level year, he became the UK junior bouldering champion and the senior speed champion, as well as captain of the GB junior bouldering team.

Having finished school and successfully applied to study at Dartmouth College in the US, Alex took a gap year to spend a few months travelling in SE Asia, obviously incorporating several opportunities for bouldering en route. On his return, he had his work cut out to catch up on training and try to make the selection for the 2016 World Youth Championships in China. Needless to say, he managed it, even though he had already started studying in the US by the time of the event.

Alex could not have achieved any of this without hours of training, incredible determination and the unfailing support of his family, particularly his father who has attended all his competitions. He still has many ambitions including becoming a British champion, bouldering in the Himalayas, a first ascent of a mountain, and the pinnacle of achievement would be to take part in the Olympics, now that climbing will be included as an event from 2020.

Alex has just spent a month with friends in South Africa doing what he describes as ‘chilling out in the best bouldering problems in the world’. For now, he is concentrating on making the most of all the opportunities open to him, trying to balance his studies with enjoying a social life, exploring a new country, planning more climbing trips, adapting to the American style of climbing and competing in the American Cup series. I think he is probably already living the dream, but I suspect he will also fulfil many of his other dreams in the years to come.

Rosemary Best