HIGH climbers from Portland have ascended to a regional competition.

Eleven pupils from the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy took part in the 12th South West Inter-Schools Climbing Competition held at Bristol Climbing Centre.

Two teams represented IPACA Edgemasters Climbing Club, consisting of boys and girls from year six to year twelve in a junior and senior team.

Each team had to decide who would compete in the different climbing disciplines based upon where they felt their strengths as a team were.

Every member had to compete in two out of four climbing categories with their points counting towards the team total, as well as their individual score.

The categories included speed, in which each climber made two ascents against the clock with points awarded on the average of both times, and a technical challenge, where climbers tackled two roped climbs which got progressively harder with the crux at the top.

The other two categories were a bouldering challenge, in which climbers attempted four ‘boulder problems’ and were scored by how far they got, and a circuit challenge in which each climber had one attempt at a 40 move circuit without any rests and were given points depending on how many moves they completed.

The competition followed strict rules which meant climbers were not allowed to practise the climbs and only had one attempt at each challenge, meaning the skill of visualising the sequence of moves prior to attempting each discipline was crucial to success.

Out of a total of fifteen schools who entered the competition, IPACA placed sixth in the junior team event and seventh in the senior team event.

Neal Burton, outdoor education manager at IPACA, said:“I am very proud of the Edgemasters Team, they gave 100% on the day and supported each other well.

"Given that most of the other schools have their own climbing walls to train on, our team performed extremely well in this unfamiliar environment. We are looking forward to the competition in 2016.”