A Good Idea at the Time?

Gear

2011-06-09T23:22:00.001+01:00

BMC International Meet

2011-06-03T18:21:00.004+01:00

So this is the driest spring on record! There has been sunny weather for months. Then when I commit to try a bit of climbing………. it rained. (actually the other time I tried to climb in the UK in 2011 it also rained which, on that occasion, precipitated prussiking out of the Ruckle! Twice! in one evening)

But this is my story of the international meet……. Sunday: as I drove West along that flat straight section of the A5 the sun was setting behind moody cloud shrouded Snowdonian peaks reminding me of a scene from Lord of the rings and giving a premonition of the apocalyptic weather waiting in the mountains.

True to form it was a wet Monday morning so my Finnish guest, Perttu, and I headed to the North coast on Calum’s advice, thanks, you saved us the soaking most of the other climbing teams got. Sport climbing from the beach of LPT was good and we got a couple of routes ticked before the tide chased us back up to Marine Drive where I dug deep and enjoyed a 6c retro-flash.

Perttu at LPT

Tremadog. I had never climbed there before so when we arrived I, as usual, didn’t have a clue what to climb so finding a route called Helsinki Wall in the guide was obviously a good omen. Strolling to the top of the crag to start climbing was unusual and more walking than I would have preferred but I finally located the descent gully and some extremely unappealing looking rock that must have been Helsinki wall. Brilliant! Perttu had travelled all the way to North Wales for me to show him some sport routes and a chossy looking gully wall. Worse was to follow……. as we were now at the foot of the crag I instigated plan b and tried to locate the second pitch of Stromboli, to my embarrassment this actually resulted with me climbing a tree, slinging a branch for protection as I ascended loose rock and brambles to reach the grass. Cool. Later on Perttu made short work of the good E2 Plastic Nerve but that’s not so surprising considering he has climbed Fr8a on gear (~E8).

Alex on the Ramp

On Wednesday all the climbing teams swapped round and I was with a different guest. Alex had led a handful of routes on gear before the meet but had been happy on an E1 he had strayed on to! so I pointed out Gauntlet on the upper tier at Gogarth and he was psyched for the lead. No dramas with this line or The Ramp so we had a go at Central Park, as Gogarth cracks don’t exist in Serbia to practice on Alex had been training on a campus board. Maybe this is why he had a bit of a moment as he quickly learnt about rapid down-climbing for a shake out. From my hanging belay below I was trying to explain about my aversion of shock loading any gear when Alex stepped back up and finished the awkward crack in good style.

Alex on Central Park

I had a good week, I hope the guests did too!

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Bad Landing

2011-06-03T18:15:00.002+01:00

As I was driving I saw a strange thing:
From the trees blew a leaf that bounced off the radiator grille and landed in the middle of the bonnet with a thud that was slightly too loud to be the noise of a leaf landing on a bonnet?
Still driving, I squinted through the windscreen at the leaf caught motionless in that eddy caused by the sleek Landrover streamlining, once stopped I cautiously prodded the bat hoping it was not bleeding (or would make me bleed in revenge for driving in to it then poking it). Happily nothing other happened than the furry matchbox shuffled its wings back in to order. Studying it by the light of a torch beam I could see a delicate transparent membrane poking from below its nose, the membrane was part of the bats precise ultrasonic echo location, I guessed. Incorrectly. As the bat came to its senses it finished chewing the insect it had been chasing and ate the wing that was hanging from its mouth.
Unblinking, it fixed me with tiny black crystal eyes then maybe because I had just blinded the nocturnal creature it started off on a circuit of the bonnet moving with a surprisingly efficient shouldery crawl on its elbows (wrists? or some other anatomical adaption). After I picked up the bat its hooked ‘feet’ helped make rapid and determined progress up my arm until I couldn’t hold my nerve any longer and scooped it off my shoulder. I’m not sure what passing drivers thought about the figure standing in the dark with one arm raised like a Nazi salute but the bat hung upside down from my finger for a while then flapped off back in to the trees.

Normandy House

2011-04-29T10:33:00.000+01:00

10 days away in France and I didn't even see a cloud! The trip started fiery hot when Graeme persuaded me to try some chili sauce, Dragons blood or something. Extreme, and that was just a trace of a taste, luckily the dangerous Naga chemicals were forgotten back in the car and didn't have to be explained to any customs officials looking for chemical weapons. Waking up the morning after the drive south it felt good to be back in springtime Font and I was sort of keen to try some problems, when I did find a suitably easy problem to attempt it was, as I expected, hard work. Several months away from climbing was bound to lead to a drop in performance so to try and get back to climbing at somewhere near my previous level I left Font and headed to the Normandy coast.

While I was away Pete and Graeme set about some good problems and projects, Graeme getting fingers that are more used to plastic a bit thrashed on his projects while Pete went for mileage on his 7a quest. When I returned everyone was happy with the problems they had climbed but I'm sure their wafer thin skin was deeply happy that the chili sauce never made it over the channel.

My west coast training consisted of large streak barbecue's, beer, sitting around and, although I'm usually not a fan of sea food, very tasty scallops. It was cool to see my family and afterwards, luckily, there was enough time to get back to Font and give my fingers some exercise. The weekend I arived back in Font was a bank holiday and lots of UK boulderers had descended on Isatis, Sabot, Cuvier etc, car parks were full with GB, D, B and E plated vehicles but few French! Lots of chalk had been slapped over the usual problems and not brushed off, I hope this level of use is sustainable. Luckily we could still find some quieter problems to try and I enjoyed hauling myself up a 6c.

(for hi-res slideshow click above and view @ Flickr)

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Ansteys Cove

2011-04-02T15:18:00.003+01:00

Ansteys Cove in the sun, fantastic! Andre, Dan and I headed to the coast for a quick Sunday/Monday blast, them climbing, me snapping away........

Andre quickly ticked Cider Soak (8a, 3rd rp over two days) he also red pointed Just Revenge 7c+ and "flashed" Empire of the Sun 7b with a tiny amount of beta (not forgetting the interesting looking 7b slab event).

Dan got his project route Just Revenge.

On Sunday a couple of other teams were providing me with some entertainment.....
The Dawson brothers (12 and 14yrs) warmed up on Empire then worked their projects: Cider Soak and Fishermans Tale (8b). Not bad!
Tim and Grant were going well, as were the Castle team.

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Brands Hatch

2011-03-21T00:20:00.004Z

Well this is different.

It was a steep learning curve trying to pick Matt out from the other riders with enough time to be able to get him in the centre of my cameras view finder then keep him there while Canon works its magic. The grindingly slow autofocus of my 100 quid lens (mainly brought for it's macro ability!) didn't really help but just as the shadows extended across the track I had some shots that looked ok on the camera.

Unfortunately, fortunately? I have never ridden a bike so I'm not sure what subtle details to try and capture on film and maybe something that I've photographed because it appeals to me will not look good to a rider? sorry! I do know that getting your knee down is a good thing...........

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A last couple of shots

2011-02-23T21:36:00.001Z

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No fondue

2011-02-19T18:17:00.010Z

After the initial flip upside down he kept falling.

W.t.f.? Am I actually holding the ropes? I remember trying to take in slack to stop his headfirst fall - unsuccessfully.

Miraculously when Ramon did eventually stop, upside down, on a sloping snow covered ledge he was completely unharmed. Apart from not moving. As he lay there with his eyes open I enquired after his health? No response. This wasn’t quite the finish I had imagined for the second pitch of our new route.

The 55m first pitch had kept me amused for a couple of hours, a turfy un-protected start followed by some slightly loose sections with ok ledges to stand on and dig protection from the frozen mud clogged cracks. After that our chosen line steepened in to a long curving flake crack that Ramon traversed to the base of then disappeared up and out of view for hours, and I mean hours! When I eventually saw him again I was surprised that he was without his right crampon (it had been removed for an inventive smearing move) but I was even more surprised when he tried to put it back on in the middle of some fairly technical climbing. After the crampon was hung back on his harness and some awkward looking upwards moves were completed the ledge on top of the flake beckoned. I have a sharp memory of three solid looking swings of the left axe in to what must have been turf followed by that move all winter climbers know, when a downward pull on a hold starts to receive an outwards component as height is gained. I was closely watching this sketchy climbing and saw immediately when the left tool ripped. I also saw when Ramon was quickly flipped upside down by the rope. I heard the semi instinctive warning shout to the belayer change tone as the fall continued.

“Sit up Ramon, sit up Ramon”

Part of the gear ripping fall of about 15m had been hidden from my view but I had watched as Ramon had hit a snowy slab head first and not done much since. After lowering him a couple of meters back to the narrow ledge level with the belay I was encouraging him to sit up - without success.

“sit up Ramon” I shouted again.

Tie off ropes (easily done as they were not very tight).

“Sit up Ramon”

Escape system.

“Sit up Ramon”

Belay myself across ledge.

“Sit up Ramon”

“I’m trying”

OK, good I thought, a coherent reply, not one hundred percent perfect but at least it was an improvement from laying upside down looking at the sky. By the time I had traversed 10m right to Ramon he had put his crampon on and was looking at the big slice in his finger.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Your top tool ripped out of the turf. What hurts?”

“My finger. I don’t remember anything”

“We have to get back across to the belay” I said.

“Is that my blood?”

“Err? yea, from your finger”

“Where are we? I don’t remember anything”

here we go………..

One hour later the Swiss doctor advised a light dinner and specifically no fondue!

Three hours later and guess what Scott and Nic had prepared for dinner.

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M12

2011-02-16T15:18:00.001Z

Virtually no low level snow has made a couple of trips up to the Breitwangflu easier than normal partly because no skis are needed and partly because it is possible to drive up some of the forest track. Of course there are the obligatory little driving moments such as sliding backwards then sideways down a hairpin bend, always good to get the heart started at 6 am on a dark morning - at least the corner was one of the few that wasn’t edged with a precipice. Compared to the approach the climbing has been fairly non-eventful which is good and bad, good as we have avoided any epics and bad as the top of the Breitwangflu has remained elusive. One trip up there to attempt one of the best lines I have ever seen (Flying Circus) left me relieved that I wouldn’t have to try and Jumar any ice pierced horizontalness. A couple of days later we tried Alpha Saule, a route that is shown as an ice line in the guide, however we had seen that the crux pillar was missing and an alternative mixed line looked possible. With virtually no information about the route, apart from advice from a friend to take pegs and encouragement from another to do the line completely clean, we started climbing. After we had slowly, too slowly, finished three deceptively long approach pitches of smooth brittle ice Ramon set about the crux mixed pitch steadily hooking and crimping his was on to an ice rib. Seconding this superb little pitch of good rock holds, interesting moves, heavily featured ice (with stiff elbows) was fun for me, it would have been better to lead of course but not that day. As it turns out this obvious line has seen a bit of traffic and remained largely free of fixed gear, one old bolt on the belay ledge and some good wires relatively close to the ground protect the start of the pitch, more good wires and one conveniently placed peg entice a leader on to the ice. Then? sprint up the steep ice rib to a ledge or hang around and place a [probably] ok screw, the choice is yours. After this? the second half of the route remains - three pitches of ice, I had looked at the vertical ice festooned with brackets and chandeliers, running with water and unhappily given up. Ramon gamely took a look round the corner and cleverly decided on the less featured ice of an alternative line. After the snow had been falling for a while I started to loose my unconcerned attitude to driving back down the forest track in the dark, after the freezing water had run down to Ramon’s armpits his resolve wavered. At this point on the route, with the technical crux finished (by Ramon), team motivation slipped out of reach. Not something that would have happened previously.

Making an escape from the snow

How to escape from the snow

The real action has been going off at Uschinen over the last few days – Ramon did Pink Panther. Kristoffer Szilas has been working his way through the routes on the Pink Panther roof all around the grade of M10+-#! (check his Blog for details - link on left). Kris has been putting in the hours training with Malcolm Kent at Malc’s wall in Cobenhavn, lucky for them to have such a good facility to train at and credit to Malc for building it. Alex (http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/) has been recording events and I even got some shots I like when M12 was ticked by a British climber for the first time in years.

Alex

Kris and Jim

Kris on the sucessful red point of Power Bat

I first met Tom and his dad Jim at Kiental where their van immediately caught my attention for several reasons: 1, it was British (unique at Kiental I think) and 2, it looked like they were camping in it, and Kiental gets very cold at night! So as it turns out they are camping in the alps for the winter while Tom pulls the place down. Later while walking up to Uschinen I saw a tent (also unique for me) and guess who was camping there? After a couple of weeks Tom has now climbed most of the routes at Uschinen and added a couple of new lines and link-ups.

Tom ticking Vertical Limit

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My weakly round up for Jan

2011-02-16T14:14:00.063Z

some more (Kiental) photos……

Wet ropes, wet hands, standing on a loose block held in place by ice?

Ramon and Pete on genuine WI6

This is the way to climb ice: sitting rests and bolts.

(photo Pete Collins)

Putting an ice screw in with my teeth or something?

(photo Scott Swalling)

Pete Collins

Mr C

Tommy Harris

Mr H

Scott Swalling

Me (photo Pete Collins)

Me (photo Tommy Harris)

Me (photo Pete Collins)

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Back in the saddle

2011-02-02T21:05:00.004Z

The classic (ph. Pete Collins)

Kandersteg is one of those clean cut Swiss Alpine villages, sheltered in a valley between steep mountains large wooden chalets and a handful of expensive looking hotels spread out along the narrow road. Nordic skiing is big business with miles of pisted track for weekday pensioners keeping fit and weekend races. There is a long tradition of tourism and travel at least partly due to a hundred year old railway tunnel connecting the Northern towns to the ski resorts South of the mountains. The fondue and chocolate producing cows have their winter chalet near the village centre and children are transported by their parents using sleds rather than buggies. But beneath this precise Swiss exterior a dark secret is brooding (well it’s not really dark or a secret but…..) by some quirk of fate one of the highest concentrations of ice and mixed routes in the Alps is found dripping from the cliffs overlooking the family toboggan run. Getting to Kandersterg from London takes the same time as driving to Fort William even if a Sea France sailing is required. The route that avoids the French toll roads goes via Luxembourg where a full tank of fuel should be brought to make the most of the low tax rate. Reliable ice is found for 2 – 3 months most years (even if the ice is a bit lean this season) and liberally scattered within two hours walk are steep overhangs that grow hanging daggers of ice for intense mixed routes in the M8 – 10 grade range, most of the pure ice routes really get going at about WI5 but guides and groups still find enough to do at places like Kiental and Stock. I have been ice and mixed climbing in Kandersteg for 5 years and still only just scratched the surface (we even did a new route last week).

Ramon on Rise and Shine *** mixed line 20min from the centre of K'steg

Ramon and I have been in Kandersteg for about a week now and somehow don’t have a long list of routes ticked as only only one of our two man climbing team is anywhere near the required standard, as Ramon only narrowly avoided on-sighting ALL of the pitches of the brilliant Rise and Shine M7/7+ he must be climbing well. We have been out most days and tried lots of routes but as often happens with routes near the limit some loose their appeal after the on-sight is blown and others were found to be out of condition after closer inspection. A couple of days are easily spent working on the line of a new route but the main reason the slow start to this trip is mainly I’m not hungry enough to take the sharp end of the rope. I’m not sure exactly why leading feels tricky for me now but I’m putting it down to several factors: a) a fall b) lack of training because of a) and c) ‘Mirrors of the Unseen’ an awesome book about travel in Iran. After reading about the history of an ancient civilisation (in a hot country) faffing about halfway up a frozen cliff really seems a bit pointless! I did recently repeat an M9 I had done years ago (without spurs this time!) so that was a step in the right direction.

Ramon on the alternate top pitch of Reise N Reich

Ramon on P1 of Training. Rope soloing this later was a learning experience.

Why climb?
It seems that ticking well know routes or getting photos doesn’t motivate me, if I’m not enjoying climbing well I don’t have a reason to climb……… what does really motivate me for climbing though is to retrieve a pair of axes some knob end left half way up the Breitwangflu, some string tied Grigri roped soloing soon solved that slight hitch (good news Danny!)

"Rob, don't forget your axes"

Why walk?
The relatively mild winter has meant that a lot of the approach walks (2 hrs to Breitwangflu, 2 hrs to Uschinen, 1 hr to Gasterntal) can be significantly reduced with careful use of good tyres, throttle and momentum. Driving two tonnes of 4x4 that can take on a mind of it’s own when friction fails (why does it always depend on friction?) has taken some getting used to and maybe some more practice in the UK could be useful. Snow chains on all corners would also be nice but none of the Swiss climbers seem to use chains and I was startled to find a Skoda parked half way up a mountain until I saw it’s Synchro badge and heavily treaded tyres. I guess if I lived in a country where Snow can last for a third of the year then I’d be better at driving in it.

Why no British?
Considering the amount of good winter climbing here I can’t understand why there are so few climbers from the UK here, although I have met some keen parties in the last week, mainly the dedicated father and son team who deserve full credit for camping in their tent and van throughout the winter. Not only that, they have been climbing the local test pieces and adding some new routes of their own.

Ramon on the new route.

I spied the cracks from the toboggan track and Ramon

tried the direct start (r of rope) but it is poorly protected.

The LH groove (out of shot) lead me to the crack just

below Ramon. Where I lowered off, tired and out of cams.

Using the in-situ gear Ramon got past my high point

then lead the crux of the route. P2 - interesting mixed

by me. P3 - good looking ice by Ramon.

As it was getting dark I didn't 2nd P3.

A good route. Just about acceptable style!!

Technically easy climbing - no bolts, unusual for K'steg

Ramon on P3

Provisionally named new route, inspired by the

nautical wood panelling of the basement apartment.

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Saas Fee 2011

2011-01-22T12:40:00.005Z

A great competition as always!

I decided a few months ago not to splash out on the earlier rounds of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup (luckily as it turns out - a broken ankle would have made it impossible to compete) I almost didn't even climb at Saas Fee. I'm so glad I came to the comp though, competing gives a slightly different buzz from onsight trad or bouldering but just as much fun in its own way. Sadly though my performance level had been decided months ago by a summer of mainly trad slab climbing followed by UK mixed which does not give a good build up for the powerful 6 minute sprint of a competition - that was before a month of demotivating sitting around with a damaged ankle. I climbed ok but no where near what I'm capable of and will probably finish about 40th out of 70 (I usually place around 20th) Next year, is the annually repeated mantra. The feeling of having not enough strength to do the moves of the qualifying route highlighted to me how much training I had been doing previously, not a structured training routine, more like regularly getting out on steep ground with axes and trying hard.

It was cool to hear from the other competitors how well respected the Ice Climbing World Cup is around the world - there were 400 individual competitors last year and the total prize purse for this years Korean round was over 30,000 Euros.

Maybe next year?

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Starting another hobby

2011-01-07T01:47:00.007Z


Looking back to last spring.
Day Tripper, Lands End, BMC International Meet

Today I picked up my axes for the first time since I broke my ankle and went for a fitness test on the chalk. FAIL.
My ankle has been improving steadily but the pace of improvement has slowed recently and I was starting to get a bit more bored and unmotivated. An x-ray two weeks after the break showed that the bone was healing well but the fracture was still clearly visible and some foot movements make me jump. Also on my mind is knowing that an x-ray doesn't even show anything that might have happened to tendons, ligaments or cartilage.

Thinking about the powerful style of world cup competition climbing leaves me knowing how badly prepared I am!! Blasting up the steep routes for 6 minutes requires strength and power, even before the weeks of break induced eating and drinking my training had been long walk-ins and hanging on for days placing wires in icy cracks rather than one armers. Oh well, I've got the memory of the highest UK finish (10th) in the world cup since the early days of the competition, with some support there is no reason why another UK athlete could not challenge for a good finish. I'm not totally giving up as there is another couple of weeks before the World Cup starts for me so hopefully I will be able to at least climb to my current potential and maybe part of the competition will be placing a cam behind an icy flake or driving a warthog in to a blob of frozen turf.

At least I can walk sort of normally on a level surface now and even kick gently with a mono point so that's progress but any ankle twisting makes me flinch. I have been doing some stretching but the best physio was walking uphill from the pub with an alcohol anaesthetic. Today though, trying to actually climb on chalk was like learning a new sport.

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going nowhere fast

2011-01-04T01:47:00.003Z

Sofa surfing and eating has been keeping me amused (just).

The highlight of my Christmas has been a book randomly picked from a pile of paperbacks in a club hut.
An Unexpected Light: Jason Elliot.

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Arrived at nowhere

2010-12-22T19:53:00.004Z

Simon heading towards the slab I landed on later

Jumping out of bed on Sunday for an early start didn't happen. I did meet Simon on time but was about the last thing that worked out right.

Some things were avoidable: the forgotten head torch, the second attempt at driving up any icy slope, the hex placed sideways.

Other decisions might not have been necessary in different circumstances: should we carry on in the dark?

Whatever decisions that were made during the day all built up to me falling off the last, crux pitch of the route. Maybe it was just bad luck? or good luck to get away with just a little chip off my ankle?

or maybe sometimes a few risks have to be taken to get to the top?

the biggest most memorable risk I took on Sunday (well Monday at 3 am actually) was balancing on one leg and a crutch on top of the wall trying to get indoors to get some sleep.

A great pitch and all for nothing! (photo Simon Frost)

Road to nowhere

2010-12-22T18:26:00.000Z

Right from the word go shit was happening.

I only had two things to do on Saturday and somehow snow managed to turn them in to drawn out ordeals. It is fair to say that there was an unusually large amount of snow sitting on my Land Rover roof when I decided to leave, earlier than planned, for the 10 minute drive to Uxbridge. I had washed my down sleeping bag the previous evening and now it needed some time in a laundrette tumble dryer. As I crossed a bridge over the M25 I tried to see how the traffic was flowing, maybe the alarm bells should have started ringing when I couldn’t even see the M25 but it was only midday and there was no rush to get to Wales. A little further along the road, covered with a foot of snow by now, then….. “what’s this, a traffic jam?” then I remembered, the humped back bridge over the Grand Union Canal! On the road leading up to the bridge twenty drivers were patiently waiting in a queue to drive up towards the bridge, wheel spin for a few minutes then turn around. The look on peoples faces when their normally well behaved autos turned in to unwieldy toboggans was interesting. Engaging the diff. lock on my Land Rover I got sweet revenge on all those car drivers who wouldn’t let me out of the slow lane on the motorway. But this level of smugness is bad karma as I found out later.

Now, with a dry sleeping bag and no snow falling I tried to leave Uxbridge and get on the M40, this was not as easy as I hoped when I was quickly stopped by more traffic. I soon worked out that there is only one route West out of Uxbridge without a hill and everyone was now heading for it. Change of plan. When I got to the steepest longest hill out of town people were still trying their luck in the slush, and failing, then amazingly one guy got out and started putting chains on (he was driving a rear wheel drive Beemer so wasn’t out of the woods yet). Any cars with low ground clearance or rear wheel drive were worse off and I saw several Porsches going nowhere fast. Once on the M40 the action really hotted up………….

Carnage everywhere. I glimpsed the M25 as I crossed it again and realised it was going to be a loooong journey as I saw lorries skidded at all angles across the carriageway. Cruising north in the snowy 4x4 only lane things didn’t seem so bad until inevitably all lanes ground to a halt and everyone queued to pass uncontrollable lorries and abandoned sports cars. The worst of the snow was South of Warwick and further North things got a little easier. Fair enough, the UK is not used to snow but I still couldn’t believe how few people had snow chains and I don’t know what the snow ploughs on the motorway were up to, I saw a few gently redistributing the snow, one was even ploughing it off the fast lane and launching across the central reservation on to the other fast lane! The rest of the journey went pretty smoothly apart from walls of dense fog reducing visibility to 10m around the Nesscliffe area, good fun when the white lines are covered by snow. I arrived in Llanberis before midnight, just.

What just happened to me????

2010-12-15T00:45:00.000Z

It always seems to shock me going to l'Usine. Every route I look at requires that I turn around to see the lower off, never a good omen.

See the end of this post for a slideshow

Jeff Mercier

Pavel Dobrinskiy

Jehan-roland Guillot

Benjamin Bucci

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A rare view from a top out

2010-12-08T20:00:00.015Z

Tuesday

Pete on his and Miles' route Travesty Direct (IX 9)

Wednesday
Not too sure why I’m writing this, I suppose it might jog my memory one day. Here it is anyway……….

Somehow the early start didn't materialise and it probably wasn't far from mid day when Matt and I walked up to try the line I had seen on Tue. I had made a load of assumptions about the route most of which turned out to be wrong, I’ll put that down to a lack of experience of mixed climbing on gear. Expecting either a quick success or failure in good style I was disappointed to find myself wanting to do a lot of down climbing to recoup arms and head (sculpting ice runners is time consuming). This was ok but I had hoped to be a bit more decisive, when I eventually neared the point of no return it was decision time. Lack of time and appropriate gear were all the excuses I needed. [Down climbed from roof cleaning all gear]

Next time I’ll commit to the moves and see what happens (if it’s still in condition)

Thursday
Climbing with Simon (a link to his blog on my previous post)

Simon finding a line. Chris Parkin has previously been to

the ledge on Simons right.

Beta.
Small pieces of information that are used to gain knowledge about a route to make it easier.
Even just knowing the (approximate) grade helps. At least a grade indicates the climbing above is possible.
None of this information is available when trying a new route from the ground.

So when Simon suggested trying a new winter line I was keen to give it a go and I wasn’t disappointed!! A bit gutted that circumstances didn’t give us a route we could finish this attempt but wobbling up blobs of turf frozen to compact rock with poor tied off warthogs for protection was surprisingly good fun. I think this is my first real new route attempt although quite a lot of winter lines I have been on have a large element of uncertainty attached to them so it wasn’t a completely new experience.

Bring it on.... (obviously enthusiastic when I was writing this!!)

Simon about level with the peckers wedged behind what

looked like a loose block frozen in to the corner.

More climbing above, but how hard?

All of this lot above was written at the time, now I'll finish off the diary.

Friday
rest day

Saturday
Got a better start but still worried that someone had beaten me to the route, it was ok though, they only wanted to throw themselves off Travesty!! But someone had been on my preferred route as there were a couple of wires visible near the grassy ledge. I put in gear to the start of roof crack. Back down for a rest.

Went for it and was pretty happy to step on to the ledge and clip the others gear. Went for it again and got in to pod. Now the wheels started to fall off, as I tried to get out of the pod I used a small rimed dish up and left that gained some height but did not allow me to get any decent placements in the crack above the pod. So I gave up! and lowered off a hex removing all of the gear apart from a wire near the ledge.

Sunday
Tired just walking up the hill then made a half hearted attempt at Travesty Direct, it was good climbing but not for what should have been a rest day. Somehow which ever direction I looked, up or down, dislodged rime ended up in my eyes............... hmmmmmmm ............... bouldering in Font.................

Monday
Rest day

Tuesday
Last throw of the dice as had to leave Wales that eve. Simon agreed to me taking another look and a good start got us to the crag early. Having been on the route previously made climbing up to the ledge not too bad, getting in to the pod again was a different ball game but eventually I was relaxing in to that comfortable niche.

Unfortunately a Mountain Equipment photo of the route had been discovered in a magazine on saturday evening and the memory of this combined with poor holds in the crack above sent me searching for invisible holds out left above the pod. From the belay Simon shouted up and assured me that the line followed the crack direct so (after some swearing) using a small edge uncovered near the dish I could reach back up and right to get a good torque and some blindly placed gear in the crack. Bunching my feet below me then turning the torque to an strenuous undercut I reached up and hooked something covered by rime on the blunt arete left of the crack, committed I moved up and left until I could drop a large wire in to some shattered flakes further left. Following the rib now, I clipped a jammed number 6 wire and mantled on to a good ledge. Top quality entertainment on a very good route.

Me climbing (photo Simon Frost)

Thanks Matt, Simon, Pete and Miles

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Welsh Mixed Attempts

2010-12-05T20:57:00.000Z

here is one of the routes that I haven't climbed yet!

http://simonfrost.blogspot.com/2010/12/prospecting.html

more photos to follow.............

A flurry of new routes

2010-11-30T21:33:00.004Z

Some potential new lines have been in the back of my mind for a while now so it has been satisfying to tick a couple of them off the list.

White Goods had an obvious gap on the main wall in between Doorstep and Jaz, now that gap has been filled by the route White Goods M8+. Matt and I bolted the route top down, somehow I got the easier angled head wall to bolt, however I had to clean a lot of loose blocks off the lip. Matt then did some strenuous bolting from the roof down!!

The bulk of the climbing up to the roof is provided by good cracks and ledges which I managed to on-sight before running out of ideas and enthusiasm at the roof. White Goods should provide a good intermediate between Jas and Tumble in terms of difficulty.

Will at the top of Guava Half

Down at the Kitchen.... Will and I cleared some ivy from the wall left of the tree to give 2 lines of similar difficulty as Apples and Pears (M6/7).
Just left of the tree is Guava Half that got it's FA by Will after Pete and I persuaded him to give the route a go. I bet that deadpoint to the flatty was exciting!!

Will demonstrating one (good) way

up the bald headwall of Guava Half

Moving left again is Agent Orange that featured a hands on rock crimp and axe head mantle rock-over move during my ascent (possibly cheating but good fun).

The most interesting line is the obvious crack that was lead on gear (next to the stepped corner crack - a project for someone with big cams?). It goes at about M5 and I strongly recommend stepping right to the Agent Orange lower off instead of topping out. Apocalypse Now.

Over on the Slate I completed my project on the wall left of Ibex to give the friendly little line Bambi M9.

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Following our placements...................................???

2010-11-15T13:00:00.001Z

the real big drip saw a few ascents in 2010 (less snow made the approach easier than usual??)

This vid, filmed around the time of our ascent, gives me a great reminder of the conditions Ramon and I encountered.

BD grassroots athlete Jesse Huey on The Real Big Drip (M7 WI 6), Canadian Rockies from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

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the obligatory random photos..................................

2010-10-29T01:21:00.001+01:00

The End

Dave on another good new problem at one of

those cool coastal venues that are spread along

the north shore.

Seriously missing my RAW editing software!!!!

The End

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Some Summer Shots

2010-10-18T23:00:00.002+01:00

Adrian Baxter on Iron Man 8c the morning after

his impressive last red point attempt success.

An early start was needed to get this photo as

Adrian was leaving and the crag is shaded later, it

was just a case of attaching a rope to the

easiest bolts then some intense speed jumaring.

Helena Coates on Coco Loco 7a+

Nicolas Durand

Ella and Ramon Marin with the 7c of cakes

My favorite climbing. 1 climber 5 viewers.

Ramon on Egocentrismo 7c after the successful

redpoint after the successful 7c cake

Lots of nature in Devon.

Cows might be Heifers, Bulls, Bullocks or Calfs.

And they can easily out run me.

Nic Dill on the good Cry of Love E3 5c at Maer

Nic

No Trick Pony

2010-10-01T19:06:00.004+01:00

Not so long ago I thought that I could climb trad, sport, winter routes and boulder averagely well, unfortunately this summers climbing has shown me otherwise.

Rodellar: I should have learnt that it takes time to swap from one type of climbing to another after I had a bit of a schooling on the Cornish granite in May after spending the winter hanging on axes. But I forgot this lesson and thought that good practice for Rodellar would be some slopey bouldering and trad slabs. Wrong! but where in the UK can I find 50m 45 degree roofs to climb on?? aaaannnnyway, no excuses I was well out of my league as I had done no training (I had guessed how I would climb in Spain in the heat of August anyway). On a more positive topic, I was blown away by the scale and quality of Rodellar's routes, massive lines through huge roofs..... WHY have i not climbed here before??? oh yea! I've been on massive lines, huge roofs all spiced up with axes and hanging ice. None of this Rodellar style red pointing in the sun with a mullet, a reefer and a crowd. One day I might get fit and climb there though, definitely maybe.

So having justified my crap sport climbing performance I went back to what I thought I knew. Trad.......after a couple of good sport routes at Portland (vertical routes!!!) with Andre who is impressively collecting 8a's. My highlight was managing to crimp and mantle my way to a redpoint of Dumbfounded 7b fairly quickly.

Back to the trad then..... a trip to Swanage with Dan who is collecting an impressive tick list of onsight E5's all over the country. Unfortunately Lean Machine was still on Dans 'to do' list so I found myself abseiling an increasing distance from the Lean Machine wall to the boulders below. Once we had touched down on the boulders and set up a belay I used Sirius to warm up on, in fact I warmed up so much that I had to sit on a big fat nut half way up. Nice! E3 5b was beyond me. To further impress Dan (who has recently climbed the Nose in a day) I then spent a long time aiding up Lean Machine to clean the gear after his solid lead. A slight recovery of my ego was found on Brisingamen E5 6b which I managed to do ground up, albeit this was the second visit after an earlier trip with Pete.

By this point in the summer I was slightly missing Devon and its nice quiet slab climbs, however I had agreed to help Lukasz out with some photos and had planned to recruit a strong climber while I settled in to belay duty but it didn't quite work out like that, everyone was busy (or saw the forecast). So during the long trip north to Nesscliffe I had a long time to think about all of the routes that had beaten me during the previous month. When I reached the big sandstone quarry that used to hide highwaymen my only hope was that Pete would be keen to get amongst the pegs and run-outs but he was on a mission to tick 8a, 8a, VIII and E8 in a year. He said that so far 8a, 7c, VIII were in the bag and he was planning to check out My Piano for a headpoint. To warm up Pete had lead Red Square E2 so it was up to me to climb something different for the cameras which only really left E5 or harder. Putting my previous aid climbing to the back of my mind I gave Cones and Current a try and was happy to get to the top. Less happy after I studied the guide and it gave Cones and Current E4/5 (rather than E5 on UKC) I think E4 6b is about right but I didn't know that when I pulled off the ground.
Then it rained.
At this point it looked like I had delayed returning to Devon for a fortnight just to do an E4/5! I did have a 'Plan B' though; a pair of wet weather dry tooling axes were in my Land Rover. Simon was also ready to get the winter season started so the following day spent at White Goods justified the fuel bill a little bit more. Returning to climb at The Goods for the first time since 2009 (i think?) reminded me what an awesome route Power Pact is! however I'm a bit worried how little time on the axes I have had this year.............. maybe I can get some training started soon.........

But before I reverted to winter climbing I had some important business on the Great Wall. Darkinbad. Obviously I have known about this route for years but it had been too hard for me, now it felt within reach. Belayed by Stu (who has been unassumingly ticking lots of hard routes for years)

I set off from the boulder.

Unfortunately this story does not end happily for me, a lichenous slip combined with tired forearms to tumble me embarrassingly on to a small cam I thought almost too poor to place. Oh well, plenty more Darkinbads to try and onsight.

Summer Holidays

2010-08-26T17:49:00.001+01:00

Rodellar.
Cool.
Hot.

It's half way through my 2 week trip to Rodellar and I've done not a lot of climbing but have no skin (familiar problem)! Think it might be something to do with the 35 deg temps? Been having a good time catching up with my relatives after far too long and taking a few photographs, including Adrian Baxter on his 8c tick Iron Man. Impressive climbing!!

Helena Coates on Coco Loco 7a+

Ramon Marin on Egocentrismo 7c

Harry Pennells below Egocentrismo

Action packed traverses

2010-08-07T11:31:00.005+01:00

Here are another couple of problems on video. Both of them are top quality lines with awesome moves although I made hard work of climbing them when I forgot the sequence!! Typical.

The slopey traverse at Pentire (The Brazilian Traverse) seems to be a new line as the rough brittle holds took a few pulls to stabilise, I was happy to tick that problem (as you can tell from the video). As for the traverse at Blackchurch, it's another good one that might have been climbed some time in the past (both Martin Crocker and Si Young have climbed routes on the other side of the bay). Probably not in its current incarnation though as it seems that problems below the high water line change quite quicky if the beach is high or it gets battered by a storm. I'm not really bothered if it has been done previously as the moves are ace. Thanks to Stu Morris for the camera work and inventing the route name.

Must be climbing ok now as this evening I managed to tick a problem at Blackchurch West (proposed name Metamorphosis and I'm giving it 7b). I have had 4 or 5 goes on this spread over a couple of months during which time holds have fallen off sometimes making moves easier somtimes harder. After a warm up consisting of carrying mats to the beach I pulled on to the starting holds and proceded to haul my way up the problem which felt like grade 6 something!! why can't that always happen? but true to form I found myself embroiled in a wobbler trying to get my foot on to the final hold. Another very good route I have had the pleasure of climbing.


dull photo! sorry. The chalked line is Evolution 7a. Metamorphosis starts on the same holds goes left and up to mantle on to the slab.

Pentire

2010-08-05T08:23:00.002+01:00

After hearing about some new North Cornish problems (Psycho Cowboy and Dollies Death) on Javu I visited the area with Rowan Spear-Bulmer and added some new lines. Well, some of these must have been climbed previously!! but there is no topo so they felt like 1st ascents.

Rowan has finished his traverse now.

And I have added a slopey 7b traverse to the area.

when rains stops me from holding rocks

2010-07-31T01:35:00.004+01:00

i try and hunt out something interesting to photograph. I spent ages looking through a wet windscreen at Polzeath beach rammed with what looked like fish out of water learning to surf (and a very few others riding long waves across the shoreline) deeply envious of how much effect the rain was having on their sport. As the sun dropped lower I wandered across the gently sloping sand thinking of some type of surfer sunset shot then I met a group of people holding long L series lenses at the waters edge. Luckily my lens was too short to get any surfing shots.

(a Flickr Set on my blog)

Beautiful Istanbul

2010-07-31T01:20:00.003+01:00

north coast

2010-07-31T00:00:00.004+01:00

here are a few climbing shots that i have accumulated over the last month or two....

Justin Timms on Diamond Smiles at Sharpnose

John Mcshea on Out of the blue at Sharpnose

John cruising Culm to Mother
(North face, Middle Fin, Sharpnose)

Me on the north coast (Rob Butcher)

Pressure Drop at Spekes Mill Mouth behind the photographer
(cheers Rob B)

Ramon Marin on a new/re-discovered line
.....UPDATE.....climbed previously!

Rowan Spear-Bulmer after a cool ascent of
Black Magic at Pentire

Rowan getting amongst

Rowan on a new problem (probably?)

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Video - north coast 1

2010-07-17T00:44:00.001+01:00

hopefully there is going to be more bouldering videos soon......

north coast 1 from rob gibson on Vimeo.

Cross Training

2010-07-16T22:48:00.000+01:00

So this is it ...... I have bitten the bullet and hired a personal trainer. After years of messing about climbing I have decided to take it really seriously. Following on from this winters holidays I wanted to get in good shape for climbing rock during the good summer conditions. So after much deliberation I decided to sell my car, scrape together my remaining funds and move to the hub of UK climbing: Devon. I have invested my last savings to attend the Kirby fitness and well being spa in the certain knowledge that the guru in charge of this establishment will make me climb harder.

Ian

Taking Ian's sound advice I have been doing huge amounts of cross training, not your standard running or weights, oh no. This is much better. Scrubbing tiles, digging drainage, lifting slate floor slabs etc. Ian has told me that to convert the finger power that I have developed during the winter by holding on to axes in to much more useful shoulder stamina for the North Devon slab routes I need to keep busy renovating the farm. Not that I have had much time or energy to get on many routes after all that cross training.

Ian and I moved the three hundred kg slate tabletop from it's brick base by hand but when 4 of us couldn't carry it from the old dairy he was finally persuaded to get some mechanical assistance.

Fingers re-exercised

2010-07-15T18:58:00.002+01:00

Sometimes good things happen..........

(a Flickr Set on my blog)

Finger exercises

2010-06-06T19:03:00.001+01:00

after watching the seals watching me.......

I like this shot. If you look closely you will notice two things: first the image is sharp and there is surprisingly little reflection from the surface of the water. Second there is a smirk on fish face!
The reason for the grin?
My lens was in the rockpool

font

2010-05-30T01:31:00.001+01:00

good climbing as always.....
some new areas.....
ready for next time.....

trying to find cool conditions one morning

Pete Collins on Renversement Dialectique 7a at Franchard Isatis

Ian Kirby on Renversement Dialectique

Duncan Bull on Petit Toi 6c+ at J A Martin

petanque

2010-05-30T00:58:00.004+01:00

as my skin isn't compatible with warm rock I need another hobby....

(a Flickr Set on my blog)

BMC International Meet - Cornwall

2010-05-19T20:18:00.001+01:00

Gurnards head. A team is on the first pitch of Right Angle
on the face above the breaking wave (bottom rhs)

I think I was disturbed from my sleep by the pain in my finger tips, then the sound of rain and wind battering my Land Rover slowly brought me fully awake. As I lay there sheltered in my Land Rover I suddenly remembered that I had piled all of my gear in to a two second simple tent, brilliant though these tents are they are not designed to endure wind blasting directly from the Atlantic. After continuously banging my finger tips while struggling to find my head torchtime I was relieved to see the tent intact in the lee of my Landy. Crawling back in to my sleeping bag I was rocked to sleep by the swaying Land Rover happy in the knowledge that routes would be too wet to climb and I could avoid forcing my fingers in to those flared granite cracks. My plan almost worked too, sadly granite dries quickly in the wind.

The reason I have been jamming my fingers in to unbelievably rough granite cracks by the sea was the BMC international sea cliff meet in Cornwall which I have been at. Not too sure why I signed up for that! as I was not even that impressed by the area when I last visited years ago. But the last week has been awesome even though my fingers and ego took a battering from the routes here. Acting as a host I tried to point Matteo, Simon, Jan and Jacek at suitable routes at several different cliffs spread around the Deep West. The climbing standard of the thirty international guests has been inspiring and the people I have climbed with were able to onsight sport routes in the 7c/8a range. Despite not have a background of UK trad leading my guests were quickly onsighting E4/5/6 and I equally quickly struggled to keep up!! It was a little disheartening to be offering tips to someone about how to use wires in the morning then not being able to second their lead in the afternoon. Some of my guests were totally happy to rely mainly on cams for protection (not that many of them either) quickly placing gear then moving on, a useful lesson maybe? I was interested to hear from a guest that some European bolted granite cracks have had their bolts removed. Apparently they were quickly replaced but maybe this is the thin end of the nut? Or maybe not!

Madaleine Sorkin at the belay above pitch two of The Dream

Matteo Della Bordella on pitch one of The West Face E5 6b

Matteo crusing on pitch two. I was completely suckered by how easily
Matteo lead this corner, when I tried I was soon pulling on RP's

French climbers Simon Remy (in green) and Max Bonniot
above The Great Zawn

Simon Remy on pitch one of The Dream E3 6a

Apart from one stormy night the weather was perfect, cool breezy sunny days which allowed me to visit a bunch of brilliant cliffs. The Great Zawn - great!, Carn Barra, Lands End and Gurnards Head, I'd visit them all again. I also heard good things about: Carn Vellan, Carn Les Boel and St Loy. Freedon Zawn, Pordenack, and Cribba Head are possibly worth a visit. I didn't even make it to the main face at Bozigran or Chair Ladder! Next time.

Simon on Pyjamarama E4 6b ***

Max on the brilliant Day Tripper E4 6a

Max on Pyjamarama

I realised near the end of the week that I was focussing on trying to find good venues for my guests and I hadn't really had my climbing head on. This was to be expected really due to my slightly shaky knowledge of the area but on the last day I lead a couple of routes at Gurnards and finished on a good note (if I ignore the schooling I received from the 17 year old Jacek Czech from Poland at the sidepull fest that is Cheddar Gorge)

Jan Sofranco topping out Black Magic E2 5b at Gurnards.
After this he made a cool ascent of Tropospheric Scatter
another good (and tough E4)

Dave Pickford and Max at Gurnards on the belay at the start
of Dave's new route What Kind Of Voodoo Do You Do? E5 6a

Jan and I used the same start for Leviathan E4 6a then finished
up the crack of Mastodon E3 5c in one 45m pitch

Thanks to Becky and Dave at the BMC and the CC for organising the event.

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Winter Returns

2010-04-20T02:00:00.037+01:00

It is strange how things develop a reputation. Media or rumour rightly or wrongly influence how the majority of people perceive something.

What has been printed about climbing in Margate is not correct. Margate is a great place, go there!

The first ascent of Rock-a-bye Baby Wi6 on the RHS (yes right!) of the arch

Photos by Lukasz Warzecha

The chalk at the Northern tip of Kingsgate Bay is unlike any other I have encountered: it is pleasantly soft, with a couple of blows I was able to bury an entire pick. Other plus points: there is good access for hours either side of low tide and there are plenty of belays at the top of the routes. For anyone living in the South East who wants to climb ice routes then this is the best training available in the UK. And the routes are three star experiences.

These cliffs have been climbed for years, I re-discovered them while working on planet Thanet a couple of years ago and did some bouldering/soloing then a couple of routes with Toby Dickens. When I first saw the cliffs I noted pick/crampon marks and fixed gear, which must have been from climbers doing routes that topped out. When we were there this weekend one of the many interested walkers turned out to be a 75 year old chap who had climbed at Kingsgate and Dover 40 years ago.

I had been intending to return to Kingsgate for some time and when the opportunity arose to go back with Toby and Lukasz it was all systems go, well.... dig out a couple of stakes and some rusty Warthogs from the bottom of a cupboard. The purpose of the trip was to try and onsight some new lines and hopefully provide something interesting for Lukasz to shoot. To do this we had to coordinate light, tides and routes, this turned out to be extremely taxing as we had to wake up painfully early saturday AND sunday morning. At least we had time to sleep in the afternoon before an evening session of hammering stakes, soloing slabs and moving flashes.

Soloing the Right Hand Slab

During one solo I climbed to 2/3 height and clipped in to a solitary Warthog while Lukasz took some shots. As I waited attached to the Warthog I must have lost concentration and it was truly disconcerting when I had to climb again and solo the top section of the route.

Narrow Slab Wi5. This route had been climbed by
someone else before we did it

Climbing at Kingsgate is fairly straightforward all that is needed is about half a dozen Warthogs and a decent hammer. I don't think any axe hammer is up to the job of driving a hog in to chalk, it can be done but using a real hammer is a 1000 times easier. The top outs can be a bit crumbly so it is worth getting a couple of good pieces before the top and maybe a belayer with a soft catch would be useful if things did go awry. I was using Nomics this visit and even with head weights they felt too light to easily get good placments in the chalk (and obviously they are useless for hammering) I remember the orange Fusions feeling like they penetrated better (heavy DMM tools might be good here??!).

About two thirds of the way up Sweet Dreams

Toby and Lukasz stood above Sweet Dreams Wi6-
Lukasz couldn't use a lot of the shots from this route
because my eyes were either shut or very wide!

Sweet Dreams, note the rubble on the beach and Toby hiding

grrr

See UKC for map

no ice - nice

2010-04-13T15:33:00.003+01:00

Classic Swanage. What a treat to relax in the sun and belay, no drips of water and no fear of falling ice (still prudent to belay below an overhang though!)

Later... on some E3 I was trying to find holds that felt like big juggy axe handles then I accidently found myself comitted above some small RP type gear. The rock had turned a bit nasty and I could only see these shattered flakes split by thin cracks and no jugs in sight. The real pisser of the situation was that the ab rope was now within reach!! I had already watched as my hand briefly held the rope, surprised by the almost involountry movement I snatched my hand away and re-examined the route ahead. Then the gear. A few nanoseconds later I was tying a prussic one handed.

I must either get some self control or keep the ab rope well away!!

Classic Swanage 2

Ramon Marin nice and steady on the start of one of those cool E1's by Gypsy at the Ruckle.......

Strongbow; I have done this route before apparently! (with Neil Adams in 07)

Iron Mind

2010-04-07T02:05:00.020+01:00

During the last four days I have immersed myself in some deep deep holes in the ground, the reason for this insanity? they are slowly filling with climbable ice.

Kris jumaring with his breath hanging in the still air

I'm writing this after a few relaxing strong Danish beers, well deserved beers after the physical and mental exertions of the last few days. Since friday I have experienced some very dark abseils, gnawing wet and frozen jumars, long boring waits for someone to finish ascending the rope and some of the absolutely craziest ice climbing that I have ever done. Maybe not the hardest climbing or the purest lines but top marks for adventure.

Malcolm Kent had planted the seed of an idea for visiting the ice mines and had been patiently nurturing it for probably as long as I have known him (since 2007). Inspired by a film featuring Will Gadd that Dave Brown had worked on. Malcolm succeeded in pulling a team together for a visit to the mines during the easter break, happily I was able to scrape together the last of my savings and fly out to meet Malcolm in Copenhagen. We drove to meet photographer Lukasz Warzecha and Gory writer Thomas Mazur. Danish alpinist Kristoffer Szilas also made a flying visit for the last couple of days to set some quick times for power jumaring and repeating our routes. As the team congregated so did the equipment that we needed to access the mines. About 400m of rope, a dozen ascenders, half a dozen axes, 20 screws, slave flashes and a drill were transported by various means. Additional baggage allowance was purchased from the budget airline con artists....

"Do you want to pay for this ticket?"

"Yes"

"Ok, that will cost you another 5 pounds!!!"

Malc testing the water

Lukasz and Thomas near the new route Feathers

The vast mine system had several slightly innocuous looking entrances, each hole in the ground was lined with granite blocks and a few birch trees surrounded the fenced off holes. On closer inspection "1817" could be seen carved in to a block and the heavy wooden timber that once supported roofs and platforms over the holes looked like it had been decomposing since 1817. Between the holes the vaulted roof of the cavern was smooth rock where fire was used to mine the ore, deeper down shot holes are found from blasting. During this visit our maximum depth was about 100m (with 70m free hanging abseils at a couple of locations) though a rucksack did make its own way down to 120m.

A huge consideration when down these holes was safety, as soon as we arrived (well, as soon as Malcolm set foot in the mines to be accurate!) ice was falling from the roof and not just small stuff either, massive chunks that could be heard ripping through the air then blasting in to the floor. Extremely atmospheric when confined in a cavern with nowhere to run!!!. Every day we were there something big fell although on the last day it was the rucksack (luckily still tied on) making an impressive noise after a 40m fall.

As no one in our team had actually been down the mines before we guessed the best access point, took a deep breath (in case of gas) then Malcolm and Lukasz went for it. Once they had touched down we heard over the radio that the subterranean scenery was just as outrageous as anticipated. Now that we knew that the rope system was ok and the climbing/photography objectives were worthwhile it was full steam ahead with the new routes.

I had spied a reasonable looking mixed line with sensible access and set about climbing this, unfortunately thin brittle ice and super compact gear unfriendly rock required that a couple of bolts were placed for protection (and a 6mm aid bolt and a single bolt lower off and belay) all drilled while backed up by a rope from the surface, nice! I redpointed the first ascent of this route (Feathers) first go to give a 25m M7 Wi5 then later it was onsighted by Kris (even if he did mutter about it needing a couple more bolts). The route has an interesting start on thin ice then some cool mixed moves through the niche with some slightly disturbing ice to finish. The final Scottish mixed layback flake crack pitch to top out is unclimbed.

Me on Feathers M7 Wi5 (photo Thomas Mazur)

Malc then set about two amazing photogenic lines he had seen (Lukasz had been getting shots all the time we were there), the first route attempted was an overhanging ice line that would probably get M7/8 if it was bolted rock. I have no idea how ice forms like this but it was probably originally some kind of mushroom then the aerated chandeliery stuff has melted away from below leaving an impending wall. Or the entire 1000 ton blob has tipped over??

Me abseiling. The overhanging M grade water ice

can just be seen top centre of the photo

Thomas and Lukasz setting up for photographs

Malc on steep ice

Then Malc climbed the crazy iron stained pillar from a hidden col and Malc, Kris and I squeezed on to the summit for a photo. As we balanced on the narrow ridge half a dozen screws and a birds nest of slings secured us to the top of the ice/mud tower, Lukasz had a list of requests as we held our poses in the failing light but I was thinking about the life cycle of these enormous towers as they grow heavy, melt away from the rock walls and crack!

Kris abseiling down the hole (look closer!)

Malc starting the iron stained pillar (photo Kristoffer Szilas)

A view down from the final jumar

(the iron pillar is top left)

I had to shield the camera below my jacket because

so much water was dripping from the hole above

After we topped out on the iron ice pillar a soaking 80m jumar up iced ropes was required to get back to normality, I pulled my hood tight to insulate my mind from the surreal danger outside and watched the rock walls slowly turn and descend. During this dream I saw a small round hole in the rock that had been boarded over some time in the past.

Lukasz's Blog
Malcolm's Blog

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Dont look now it's the cops!

L > R me, Kristoffer Szilas, Lukasz Warzecha, Thomas Mazur and Malcolm Kent.

French Mixed

2010-03-28T12:18:00.003+01:00

After a quick blast in Font I have been getting some reminders of a good winter.

Photos Lukasz

not such a good day out. Thanks for the photos Lukasz

good work Manu

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Les Conquistadores

2010-03-26T12:46:00.001Z

Hitomu Moriura, Daisuke, Imasi and Sam Read

A Flickr Set on my blog

Last Minute

2010-03-24T14:24:00.005Z

Sunday 7pm....... What to do this week?? maybe a trip to the south coast to get back in to some trad?? one thing is certain I'm bored of sitting on the sofa. I knew Sam Read was about for some climbing so I gave him a call..... 6 hours later we were in France on the way to Font. Perfect.

Russian ice climbing team. Blog Video

2010-03-20T13:57:00.006Z

Alexey Dengin

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Reward v Effort

2010-03-17T16:57:00.080Z

During the last few days Malcolm, Lukasz (LWimages) and I have been on a tour of Scottish cafes and I have had a lot of time to sit and ponder the relative merits of different climbing locations. The plan had been to go and tick a few good routes but the shite Scottish conditions stopped that (or maybe the routes would have been too hard?). During the spare time I have developed an equation to calculate where the best climbing can be found but more of that later.

First up was The Hurting located high up on a buttress in Corie an t-Sneachda, not the most inspiring line sadly. When we arrived a coating of rime completely covered the top four fifths of the route. Despite the rime one of our team attempted an onsight but got stopped by conditions and a lack of the correct gear then down climbed. Taking the easy option I had a go at toproping the lower 6m of the route. The climbing was balancy and tenuous partly due to not being able to see rock or fully use poor snow ice in the shallow crack. I reached the high point and made another couple of moves but found no jugs or additional gear, not wanting to test the un-inspiring gear I down climbed to the ground.

Next day we tried a line that was in nick but due to the normal logistical irregularities when attempting a line for the first time we ran out of daylight. I onsighted pitch one then we abseiled off the first belay vowing to return and try and complete the route. The next day we took a rest, possibly this was a mistake but it felt necessary and the weather forecast was just about ok for the next few days.

When we returned everything seemed acceptable, there was ice at the parking but there was a problem with the air; it was moving really quickly unlike anywhere else I had climbed in the previous three months. Deterred we carried on, arriving at the route exactly as planned (despite me having to sprint uphill wearing crampons to harpoon a jacket dropped by someone I wont name). Lukasz had taken a few images during the short approach while the weather was ok but now the clouds engulfed the crag and it started to snow. Despite falling snow the rock was blacker than 48 hours earlier so Malcolm and I had a discussion about ethics (partly to delay having to leave our gearing up shelter). A few moves in to in to pitch 1 it was clear what a waste of time the day had become, the rock was running with water from what was now sleet. Time to bugger off for more coffee, and the forecast? rain level somewhere above the summit of Ben Nevis.

So back to my equation to calculate the quality of a route, here it is:

Reward/Effort = Quality

To derive the Reward value (out of 10) consider factors such as:
- Quality of climbing
- Difficulty of climbing
- Difficulty of protection
- Aesthetics of the route
- Exposure

And for Effort (out of 10) the following should be taken in to account:
- Reliability of conditions
- Snow wetness coefficient (go to the cafe if balling plates are needed)
- Elbow wetness coefficient (running water or chimneys on the route??)
- Length of approach (gradient, path or uneven slush/ice)
- Probability of destroying picks/jacket/camera
- Reliability of conditions

Hmmmmm..... it's not looking good for Scotland as a mixed climbing venue!! The problem is during the tiny bit of climbing I have done there this year I loved sketching about on blobs of frozen moss and delaminated ice with protection that I found difficult to place and difficult to trust. I just hope good conditions return sometime and I'm about to enjoy them.

Respect

2010-03-10T13:34:00.002Z

Here are a couple of things that I've been near to this season that have caught my attention.

Carlos Buhler and Tato Esquirol de Arteaga have been working their way through Canada's finest mixed routes as too has Erik Schnack. Carlos gave us some very useful beta while we were in Canmore and I hope is suitably stoked after this seasons climbing, sorry I couldn't climb Musashi to order Crista!!

Markus Stoffer and Bernd Rathmayr's 600+m route Scharf Mit Alles. Markus showed me this line when we climbed in the Gasterntal Valley and it looked unfeasibly big!! So good effort over several seasons to get this one ticked.

Hee Yong Park at the 2010 Saas Fee UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup finals. He was unlucky to come third. Slightly poor video footage but watch out for the moves across the horizontal ice. A real demonstration of how great ice climbing competitions can be.

Busteni looking very good with the new structure.

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Scottish Mixed Taster

2010-03-09T17:15:00.009Z

Central Buttress, Stob Coire nan Lochain

I just could not resist the temptation of trying some Scottish mixed when Scott said he was driving north for a weekend blast, I should be looking for a job but I hope I can delay that for a bit longer. It was getting a bit embarrassing when people asked "have you climbed on Ben Nevis" no, I would explain that all the mixed I have done has been in the Alps or Rockies. On top of this I was seriously interested in finding out what mixed climbing on gear was really about and when the conditions are 'in' the opportunity must be taken which is what Dave, Si and Pete had been doing in Wales by the sound of it.

Actually I have tried to climb in Scotland in winter once before but things conspired against me that weekend. This trip got off to a shaky start when we arrived at 4 am saturday morning and had to pitch the tent on snow before getting some sleep (my suggestion of walking in to the crag then was ignored). Once all morning pre-climb logistics had been completed and Scott and I were stood at the base of the chosen route in Stob Coire nan Lochain it was afternoon. A quick check of pitch one by Scott confirmed that we didn't have enough time so we started wading through snow towards plan B: Twisting Gully RH.

Twisting Gully RH looking a bit steeper than reality
(Scott Swalling)

This route turned out to be quite good fun, the climbing style was pretty much as I imagined but I encountered conditions that I have not seen on other mixed routes. First was this stuff (called neve apparently) half way between snow and ice with a consistency like fresh waterlogged ice that was great to bury a pick in (and at hiding rocks). I guess you just have to accept blunt picks if you want to climb that stuff as there is no way I'm going to keep sharpening my 70 pound pair of picks. Second new experience was steep soft wet snow. Luckily a climber appeared ahead of me from the gully on my left and proceeded up towards the cornice. I placed a wire and followed his footsteps up past a hopeful screw he had pushed in to the snow (I only had a 120mm screw so didn't even bother) as the snow steepened I started to feel a little apprehensive, insecure even. How had he climbed up the snow and on to the plateau? As I stood there with both arms horizontal, buried up to my elbows and tried to drive axes in to something solid my short mono-point crampons with melon sized balls of snow attached slipped through the crumbling snow steps. hmmmm? interesting!! Eying the chaps anti-balling plates I inquired how he had got to safety? After groveling over the top I couldn't find the stake or bolts so copied the sitting belay thingy and wondered how much friction was produced as the rope ran over the snow edge.

Daniel, Nik and Giles

Sunday: an early start got us to the foot of Central Grooves (VII 7) with a full day ahead of us. Scott began climbing pitch 1 and I huddled in to belay duty. After a time Scott was stopped by a difficult section and decided that it was my turn. While Scott had been climbing I was kept entertained by events in the gully to my left. First I was concerned to see a leader rocketing down the icy funnel past his belayer, ricochet off a boulder then stop several meters below the belay. As he untangled himself he laughed the incident off and the trio continued with their day. Then there was the husband and wife team who had developed a system of climbing photography calls...... "photo" then "climb on" I heard. As I turned to see what was happening now the leader arranged himself in an action pose and again called "photo" after his belayer had taken a photo through the gloom she called "climb on". These events were almost enough to make me forget the snow that fell and immediately melted soaking our kit.

Scott nearing the crux and his high point on Pitch 1

After Scott was back on the ground I tied in to the pulled ropes and started up the groove which soon got tricky. Some of the holds weren't very convincing, and it was another new experience finding cracks choked with ice. The temperature was surprisingly warm and the rock surface was wet even though it felt freezing, A lot of the horizontal edges were heaped with poorly adhered snow ice that would barely support a pick but was difficult to clean off if I wanted to hold the rock with my hands. After some excellent climbing I reached a belay that consisted of a large gravestone size flake that appeared to be held in its recess by a rusty peg on either side.

The second pitch was quite hard work for me as I used every form of encouragement I knew to try and persuade Scott to carry on leading up the route that I had chosen. When I seconded this pitch I found what had been causing the trouble, it was hard!!. An awesome lead from Scott despite the slight rest, his ascent of this route was more of an achievement than mine.

We agreed that I would then push for easy ground by running pitch 3 and 4 together, it seemed to me that the climbing got easier but protection got worse as height was gained. The culmination of this was a good bit of Elvis leg at the top of a hanging slab. I found this section really focussed my attention as the slab was covered in a layer of crap ice that was not stuck to rock so could not be used for axes or crampons. I couldn't see any gear that was going to be easy to place and the moves were off balance. Interesting how different this could be in different conditions.

As I stood belaying at the end of pitch 4 light from a red sunset slowly faded off hilltops across the valley, the temperature had dropped like a stone, the rock had dried, lightened and looked much better from a completed route.

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Game Over (let the work begin)

2010-03-02T01:35:00.012Z

So the trip to Canada was very good and the routes we climbed were full on commitments, many had long approaches, a few we started and finished in the dark and others strayed towards unknown limits. It seems that many of the big mixed lines need lots of other skills apart from just climbing with ice tools. A huge respect to all of the guys who went out there years ago and created all of those great routes. People who made sure that they were in the right place at the right time as climbing standards rose and Canmore started to reinvent itself after closure of the mines. Now all that is needed is another wave of development as there are lots of plumb lines waiting to be ticked, not many near the road! but some great BIG fat adventures for sure.

My favorite lines were:
The real big drip M7+
Good solid leads from Ramon and I even if it wasn't all climbed onsight. A great line.
Oo la la M8
Going for it (I would have pulled Suffer Machine apart if I'd have climbed like I did on Oo)
Fire Roasted JC’s Rig M10
For some reason I was pissed that I never climbed this route 2 years ago when Malcolm Kent and I were at Haffner Creek.
Musashi
Still not climbed by me in one go! I had two days at the Cineplex this trip and got near to the finish of Musashi on my first attempt that I didn't fall off (ok, my second go!). But for some reason I had no real motivation to have another attempt at finishing this route, I guess I had proved I could climb the route to myself (again) but I wish I stuck with it and actually got up it. Never going on that route again.

Photo Kristoffer Szilas

Photo Ramon Marin

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Sunshine

2010-02-23T07:17:00.005Z

Mixed climbing holidays are very similar to beach holidays in many ways but I do miss the sun and I couldn't wait to get out of Haffner Creek and take a slow walk in the rays.

Ramon trying to find the sun.

Ramon looking for the sun.

It was the same again today, went to the plex to try Musashi but my heart wasn't in it.

Phobias

2010-02-22T07:11:00.012Z

A Page from Mixed Climbs in the Canadian Rockies, Sean Isaac

The day after Sea of Vapors we headed up north to track down Jacobs Ladder and some other stuff, by carefully piecing together all available information we managed to find nothing at all, the conclusion was that the pages for Mt Hunter area are full of errors! (maybe the map refs are helpful??)
As every cloud has an icy lining we trekked back south to reconnoiter a route that we had heard some rumours about. Cryophobia next to Hydrophobia (very cool sounding routes) had seen five or six attempts and at least three other (four, nice one Carlos and Tato) ascents this season.

The thin line on the right is Cryophobia.

The slopey, rising traverse is Dermophobia. This bouldering area in the Waiparous / Ghost is good but appears undeveloped (Ramon Marin)

There might be a Geophobia soon with any luck?? and all of these routes are only a short walk from the 4x4.

So after scoping out the approach and stashing some gear we headed home to psyche up for an early start and a crack at this awesome route. A painfully early alarm began the big day and eventually we got to the start of the route. Ramon kicked off the first hard pitch (see his blog for his view of it) then it was over to me for the crux pitch.

Ramon dwarfed by the bottom half of the huge wall.

Me nearing the crux (Ramon Marin).

I was hoping to onsight the route but on my first attempt at the crux of the crux pitch I pulled out on a flat hold above the roof and took a small fall so we pulled the ropes and Ramon tried the pitch. He got no higher than me on this attempt so we pulled the ropes and I had another try, Knowing which hold not to use I got established above the roof and calmed my forearms enough to make it up a seriously decaying dagger of ice and across a ledge that was being bombed by ice melting off the sunny top pitches. Nice!

The top half of the route was harder to correlate with the guide book description (the route was originally climbed in leaner ice conditions) so we actually climbed it in two long pitches, not so smart maybe but it worked! First Ramon took on some more tough rock and then ice that I didn't want to touch while seconding the pitch (I jumped off at one point to avoid it). The ice looked like easier climbing than the rock but at the price of no protection as the bolts were out of reach to the side. When a sensible belay was reached we later found that it was almost the start of the M6 pitch.

The boldest climbing I have seen Ramon undertake.

Then I got involved with some of the boldest climbing that I never want to do again, a 55m pitch of steep delaminated ice with 8 ice screws for protection (I clipped 2 or 3 bolts meant to protect the start of the M6 pitch). Most worrying, at two or three locations during the pitch there were wide sheets of ice maybe 5m high that echoed like a drum when I hit them. When I saw a wide horizontal crack, partially re-frozen, I hooked the axe over the bottom edge then when I looked in was unhappy to have confirmed what I had previously suspected; that there was a wide gap between rock and ice.
No pro.
Tired arms.
No choice.
Push on.

Eventually I stepped on to a good ledge at the top.

That shrinking feeling

2010-02-22T06:31:00.014Z

Climbing plans during the last few days have been hit and miss, two days rest went without a hitch then we had decided to climb on the Terminator Wall (or Trophy Wall) the following day. During the approach to the routes my 3 year old, super comfortable boots wore holes in my feet. It seems that the warm air central heating was enough to shrink my boots, so after visit to the ski boot fitters for a stretch we were ready to try for the Terminator Wall again the next day.

"Now where did I leave those axes"

My outing on the Terminator Wall was not perfect either as I began with an attempt at Haunted by Waters. I know where the hold over the roof was meant to be (the photo in the guide is not a red herring) and the route has been done since the first ascent, but not many times judging by the condition I found it in. I can only assume that verglas had put the hold beyond the blind scratchings of my pick.

Me clipping the bolt in the roof (Ramon Marin)

As I didn't want to waste time trying to redpoint Haunted we moved on to plan B: Sea of Vapours by the Postscriptum start and Original Traverse. To start Ramon carefully picked his way up the thin, debonded and brittle ice of Postcriptum in the cold conditions.

Ramon on Postcriptium

Then I was carefully traversing from the belay when Carlos's words popped in to my mind.... There is a thin unprotected traverse on to thin ice then the only way to proceed is to climb up to thicker, protectable ice, all the time threatened by a swing back in to the corner.... It was at this time I requested that Ramon stop taking photos. Once I had placed a couple of screws climbing up little pillars and steep featured ice was good fun then as the angle eased things got less entertaining. We pressed on up featureless hard ice until near the top then as light faded decided to bail.

A mammoth retreat from the Terminator Wall was made longer by having to stomp back up to retrieve an axe that I had left in the snow (they are still going well, thanks Danny).

The Terminator Wall as we found it. Sea of Vapors starts with the thin smear (postcriptum) then joins the right hand ice line.

The Real Big Tick

2010-02-16T20:42:00.018Z

After a few frustrating days it has been good to get a couple of routes finished. Following our unsuccessful first visit we went back to redpoint the Real Big Drip: (more HERE)

The Real Big Drip; a totally brilliant route packed with great climbing.

Driving in to the Ghost Valley was not difficult as there is very little snow now, but a 4x4 or a lot of courage is required to get near to the rote (we have a 4x4). We followed our tracks in the snow from the previous day and got to the base of The Drip ready to go for it. As Ramon had put in the leg work to find the holds the previous day we decided that he should have first crack at pitch 1. This crux pitch is graded M7 in the Rockies Mixed Guide and I think this is a bit stingy! so a very good lead by Ramon got us to the first bolted belay.

Ramon near the flake on pitch 1

Pitch 2 (my lead) was meant to ramble up the ice shrooms on the left, but on closer inspection I was stopped by a rock band (the alternative, overhanging ice of the main pillar, didn't entice me!). Luckily some crimping got me to a bolt then some psychological pro in a ice bracket helped me back to more permanent ice. Now it was Ramon's turn for the M7+ pitch 3; climbing well he held on to make a cool onsight of the steep limestone wall. This pitch was physically easier than the first and holds were easier to find but it was still a good test. I followed Ramon up the small limestone edges then struggled up a rock/ice chimney with the backpack to a belay behind the final pillar. To start the final hard pitch I tapped my way up aerated vertical ice forming the back of the curtain, after clipping the tat extending from a piton I traversed left hooking a partially reformed horizontal crack that threatened to drop me and the curtain. Poor footholds focussed my attention as I turned round the edge of the curtain on to the face and some vertical ice to easy ground.

On the way round the curtain edge

Two more pitches got us to the top of the Real Big Drip as it was getting dark, on with the headtorches for some spooky abseils past weird ice features looming out of the darkness. Down on the ground we could relax a bit more but there was still the walk and drive out to complete without any trouble.

hmmmm.... I wonder if my tongue will freeze to that krab?

During the day temperatures were warm but the Drip was not thawing, this was not the case for snow covering the featureless forest floor. When we reached the trees our tracks back to the 4x4 had mostly vanished! I have got lost in Fontainebleau forest before let alone the Ghost, somehow by linking occasional snow filled depressions in the moss we found our truck and only missed one turning on the track back. Pizza at 11pm. 0700 start to collect a slightly battered Kristoffer Szillas for a look at Pilsner Pillar.

Kristoffer on his 3rd Wi6 of the weekend (2 previous routes had dropped ice on his head)

I made an attempt at Lucky Lager in the back of the cave behind Pilsner, it quickly beat me off with to many excuses to go in to here. Then, much to the disappointment of the damp Pilsner team, I set off up another mixed route on the right hand side of the crag (something in the Traditional Ale area where there are now 3 lines).

Some bolts, loose rocks, screws and pegs lead up to the hanging ice finale. (photo Kristoffer Szilas & Ramon Marin)

Leaving the Pilsner Amphitheatre to go home for a rest. photo Kristoffer Szilas

gone forever

2010-02-14T04:44:00.005Z

missed the chance of onsighting Suffer Machine (by a long way) I was totally worked by the roof!! not my usual form so guess i must have been tired from 3 days in the Parkway and one rest day was insufficient. Should have recognised that i was tired during the skin in to SM (i have done that journey 3 times now) as i was struggling all of the way.

totally gutted to have stuffed the route up. Ramon almost onsighted the pitch but even this was taken away when he slipped on the slab. Will have to summon the motivation for a red point.

another rest day

then worse to follow...
failed at the crux of pitch 1 of The Real Big Drip (partly tired still, partly hidden holds, partly didn't want it enough)
failed 1st red point (couldn't see the big hold by my nose). Will have to summon up the motivation for another red point.

A walk in the Parkway

2010-02-10T18:20:00.010Z

Since Nemesis we have been climbing every day; Bear Spirit for an onsight (and a nonsight), The Vision!, Cineplex (Musashi - 2 good attempts, the best reaching the psychological crux tork) then 3 days in the Icefields Parkway.....

Ice 9 (photo Ramon Marin)

Ice conditions seem a little lean this year and routes such as Ice 9, that I have seen very fat, are currently only thin pillars. Seeing how Ice 9 looked this year got Ramon and I to the base of the route and discussing who was going to lead the first pitch. It was obvious from the ground that to climb the pillar was going to require a confident approach, unfortunately as it was my lead I was going to have to fool myself to jump on the skinny pillar; I was only going to 'have a look'. As I climbed up the fat base to place a screw I started to get a close look at the climbing and immediately wanted to be back in the car, thick chandeliers guarded this side of the pillar, pressing on to get a good look at the front face I could see that the ice was completely different. The line to climb was heavily featured ice with lots of air pockets but luckily not those fine chandeliers that can be dug through without finding anything solid. But ... the sun had worked its evil magic on the ice and had left a layer snow/neve/frozen mush over the surface, acceptable for tools, not for pro.

As I was only climbing up to 'have a look' at the line when I reached the point where I felt that climbing down was not an option the tension built. Doubts about picks hidden in invisible ice started to crawl in my mind (lower down on the pillar deep pick placements had crunched, settled and held). Focusing on a slight easing in angle and a likely screw placement above a possible fracture line I made a few more moves to a point where I could relax.

Ramon on pitch 2. Fun in the sun with quick release ice screws

Day 2. A quasi-early start saw us beaten to Curtain Call so we went to take a look at Oo La La, an M8 two pitch mixed line on the Tabernac Wall. I had fight with pitch 1 of this very good route; it was steep straight off the ledge and me struggling with unnecessary figure 4's in big boots was good entertainment for Ramon.

a silly game!! (photo: Ramon Marin)

Ramon trying to force the route without ice.

The tenuous looking curtain at the end of the second pitch visible from the ground turned out to be no where near our route! Despite Ramon questing up to have a good look we could not finish the route.

Day 3. I was flagging by Tuesday and a 0530 start didn't help but at least we made it to the base of Curtain Call unimpeded.

The wild Curtain Call north of the Athabasca Glacier

I found pitch one easier than it looked (it needed to be!) and could weave through the crazy ice sculptures relatively easily. Seeing the screw holes at the belay there must have been a lot of teams on CC this season and pitch one was probably only Wi5. Pitch two however....

Ramon on the overhanging brittle ice crux.

After a little adventure to take a look at Call of the Curtain from below the roof and then get the ropes stuck we made it back to the car then Canmore for a rest.

Hi iso madness at the vision and other contrasts

2010-02-05T03:50:00.018Z

Starring Rob Owens, Will Mayo, Gordon McArthur, Patrick Delaney (and dry flowers!)

It has begun....

2010-02-04T05:54:00.011Z

From Calgary....

....to Canmore (well 'Stanley Headwall parking' really but it just doesn't sound the same) (Ramon Marin)

I have been here in Canada for a few days and spent a couple of days in Calgary then two days swinging the axes. Sort of warming up really but todays route was good value: Nemesis on the Stanley Headwall, apparently in Wi5 condition. Ramon and I climbed it in 2 and a bit pitches and avoided the easiest (non) line to ensure a genuine Wi6 tick (not planned this way though!)

Me skinning in to the base of Nemesis and unfortunately the approach is much steeper than it looks in this photo (Ramon Marin again, no way was I dragging my SLR up there this time)

(Ramon Marin)

Kandersteg Mini Trip

2010-01-25T20:54:00.007Z

Following Saas Fee my energy levels were flagging after all of the no climbing that I had done, the 0300 finish on Sunday was the final nail in the coffin. Following a late start Sunday morning Steve and I had a short day checking out a route then Steve sprinted up a pitch of very wet 5.

The planned ascent of Buck Dich didnt happen today but the unplanned decent of the toboggan run made the walk up the hill worthwile.

Me on easy approach ice (photo Steve Johnstone)

The first mixed pitch on Buck Dich and my high point before the pump stopped play. (photo Steve Johnstone)

Small margins

2010-01-22T16:37:00.001Z

It would be nice not so have to hunt for positives to take away from the Saas Fee competition but I'm used to it now after competing in 5 World Cup comps over 2 seasons and never making the final 8.

Today I tied with 3 others in 10th place (9 qualified from my group to go to the semi) the clip that would have got me through was clipped a couple of seconds after my 6 minutes climbing time was up. I feel it was my best climbing performance of the World Cup but clearly I need to be significantly faster/stronger? to avoid the possibility of failing by small margins.

The UIAA World Cup series has 4 rounds this year. 70 men and 25 women from 21 countries took part in the Saas Fee event. The top three climbers (Steve Johnstone, Malcolm Kent and me) from the Ice Factor (Scottish Tooling Series) competed at Saas, I'll let you check their blogs for a different take on this comp (links on left).

now..... how to get back on the real routes asap.....

4 x 4

2010-01-21T22:06:00.006Z

Shortly after taking this photo I wanted to take some other shots so followed Mac's Opal Astra tracks from the previous day in to the Gasterntal. After rounding off two corners of my Land Rover I learned that a different driving style is required for a heavy 4x4, using torque and grip is much better than momentum.

To the Saas Fee competition next.

Kandersteg strikes again......
the M10 section! of an M10 at a new area (not really Kandersteg)
Michael M9 *** 1st rp (Uschinen)
Good but unsuccessful climbing on M7+ pitch of M8+ to right of Obsession (Kiental)
Necrophilice Wi 6- (Gasterntal)
Klara Winter M8 flash/done before? Matador M11 1st rp (did start last year). Powerbat M9/10 popped off after Manu Cordova on sighted the route (Uschinen)

Necrophilice in the Gasterntal

2010-01-19T11:13:00.005Z

The top 4 pitches (Necrophilice 315m V 6- B. Rathmayr, A. Jenni)
A very good route that sees few ascents for some strange reason.

Mac chasing the sun up the penultimate pitch.

Plans changed earlier in the day and a late start on the route ensured a dark decent.

The Ни́жний Но́вгород Change

2010-01-10T15:51:00.004Z

Me in Kirov. Thanks to Dennis Van Hoek for the photo

Malcolm Kent as the tankers rolled through Nizhny Novgorod Station

The Chandelier in front of Lenin

One of the many icons inside the Moscow Metro

Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's)

The Kremlin

Is it worth the effort?

2010-01-07T21:47:00.007Z

View from the sleeper train on the Trans Siberian railway. I'm not sure how long I have been in Russia but it as been a maelstrom of travel.

The hotel in Kirov complete with Christmas lights, note Malcolm Kent and Dennis Van Hoek taking the air on the veranda (or maybe their hands have frozen to the railing).

It's great what you find out while travelling: Christmas is celebrated on the 5th (6th?) in Russia!! Knip is cut in Dutch! and written Japanese is minbendingly complicated.

-25C

I thought I had a chance of finishing the competition in the top 8, actually came 24th today (didn't qualify) wtf! Don't really know how I did so badly, the route was technical but i was positive, climbed steadily and had loads left in my arms when I timed out??? I was hoping to put on a good show for all of my friends at the comp and prove that we can climb ok in the UK. Try again in Saas Fee?

And it is totally worth the effort going to the comps.

Winter climbing in t-shirts

2009-12-28T21:15:00.005Z

photo: Toby Dickens

photo: Andre Hedger

my left foots

2009-12-18T23:01:00.009Z

l'Usine. What can i say?
It's very cool to suddenly have a whole load of new routes to try and I'm sure they will not be ticked easily. The scene down there in Grenoble seems to be kicking, I was surprised that there were other climbers at the crag 2 of the 3 week days we were there. Access to the cave was easy and as drytooling venues go! its an ok place to hang about.

After my crap journey to the comp and climbing on sat the next 3 days were spent resting and getting a taster of Jeffs nails route "Bichette Light" I was thinking it might be feasible to climb sometime in the future, then I found the correct start (not the M8 right hand start i was doing) and was suitably humbled.

Malc spent mon/tue trying "God Jull" and "l'Usine" then had to fly back to Denmark. The drive back up to Lyon airport was not too bad and luckily it gave me another chance to try and take some photos of Lyon Airport Station by the architect Santiago Calatrava. I love the building but the photos need another visit and i need to buy that lap top more than ever.

Lyon Airport Station by Santiago Calatrava

After the airport as I was in the area with my fixed skis and new boots I drove back down Alpe d'huez.

Day one was good after a slow start.
Day two was shite, my boots were giving me all kinds of grief while snow and flat light made seeing the slope impossible (don't know how the hundreds of other skiers managed) so after skiing over my other ski and twisting my knee i slunk back to the car.

Every cloud.... finishing skiing early then leaving in daylight (before another couple of hours of snow fell) made the journey back down the hairpins just about acceptable. I wish that I had found out quicker that I had put the left insole in to my right ski boot and vice-versa though. I did quickly find out that the 15 pound part worn "winter" tyres did not cut the mustard, to be fair they are better than a standard tyre but no where like as good as the chunky treads you see in the mountains. Later that night I was back to tyre worship as they did a great job ploughing through the slush laying on the A6 and getting me to the winter forest surrounding my sisters before midnight. It was an early white christmas lunch that weekend.

DTS

2009-12-14T22:02:00.018Z

That little cave is about 25m high!! (Photo: Dry Tool Style on Facebook)

The Dry Tool Style competition at l'Usine exceeded my expectations, the number of hard routes and the number of climbers able to climb them (never really in doubt, this is France) and the number spectators. Jeff Mercier, Etienne Grillot and Emmanuel Bazoge (and loads of others) put together an awesome competition with a slightly unusual format that favored anyone who had climbed on the comp routes previously!! Despite this and a travel hangover I managed to get through to the final then super final, strange what an audience can do to my climbing.

A good crowd

There are about 20 routes at l' usine with potential for more, a topo will follow here and/or on Malc's blog.

Malc watching a super-finalist working part of Jeff's Bichette Light M[14/5?] that crosses the roof. The super-final route comprised a M8 start in to the roof section of Bichette (M13?)

Boris working the same line. Later I got to about 4th place in the comp by climbing some (the easy bit) of this route. First prize nomics, second sun glasses, third a rope and I got a flask hmmmm.

Malc and I climbed well for the audience despite me choosing a M7+ sandbag for the first route. I just scraped a redpoint of "God Jull" M10+ to get in to the final then almost (i like to think) flashed "L'Usine" 11?, baulking at the final move. The super-final was a red point of one of the hardest routes at the crag at night with a lazer pointer showing the holds, interesting but I was seriously flagging by that time.

Dark Journey

2009-12-14T21:48:00.007Z

the best part of a painful journey from Kinlochleven to Grenoble: Lyon Airport SNCF Station.

Forgotten bags, missed ferries, illness and late nights

great preparation for the DTS comp.

1000 Miles

2009-12-08T12:28:00.008Z

Steve Johnstone winning the final and the Scottish Tooling Series
LWimages

Driving from Guildford to Glen Coe is a mission, it takes about the same time as driving to font. I have been to Font a lot more than i have been to Scotland.

Right now I'm crouched over my laptop in the passenger seat of Scott's van, M5 past Brum heading North. The reason for the trip to Scotland is to check out the Scottish tooling series comp at the ice factor and then, if the conditions allow, we will try and find a mixed route to climb. Recently I have spent a lot of time on the computer trying to tie together various strands of this winter. Luckily I have got time for this as I'm not working but for some reason I don't seem to have as much money as before. The money I have saved from working this summer is leaking in to visa applications (75 quid the Russian embassy wants!!) flights, car hire and I still need a pair of ski boots. I had better savour any climbing I do this season.

When I get back from Scotland I have got a couple of days to get down to meet Malc at l'Usine (Grenoble) for a competition/meet that some of the French mixed climbers have arranged. While planning this trip I noticed on facebook that Jeff Mercier has completed a 2 year project at l'Usine, he has graded it M14/15 and interestingly he seems to have done this without figure 4's. Will have to get the low down on this line for sure, no chance of me not using a figure 4 though! Following the competition Malc and I have a few days to investigate what has been developed in the Southern Alps. Finances and timing mean that I will probably have to pass on the opportunity of climbing with 2 of the darkhorses of European mixed climbing. I hope I will get another opportunity.

Christmas - bring on those mince pies

Then it's the Russian trip. So far:
The visa is [almost] sorted (fingers crossed)
Flights payed for
Accommodation in Moscow arranged
Russian climbing federation are booking the sleeper train on the Trans-Siberian railway (Unfortunately it looks like I will be asleep for the journey)
BMC registering me to compete in the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup in Kirov.

I was a little bit under-awed with the trip until I received the official invitation in Russian and looked at the tourist sights of Moscow then I got a spark of excitement for visiting a new destination. The Moscow comp falls on a weekend when Ouray, The Ecrin, and Kandersteg comps take place. It's a shame these comps are on the same weekend as they will all be worth going to. But I can't fund (time or money) getting to the IWC at Daone and then back to Saas Fee let alone round the World. Hopefully I will be able to have a week in switzerland when the Saas Fee comp is on.

Bratislava Tooling Comp

Then the icing on the cake is Canada for Feb but there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge before that dream comes to fruition.

P.S.

Now I am siting in the back of Scot's van (M40 past rain) on the way home having come second in the comp (a stupid mistake stopped me finishing higher). It was really good to see the support that the comp received and I don't think that the ice factor would fit many more competitors using the current format. There were almost 20 problems/routes of all different styles and difficulty to give a good days climbing.

Me in the final
LWimages

A whirlwind couple of days traveling between Newtyle Quarry, Bramaer Mountain Sports and White Goods (I bet Shelle and Scott would be the first people to visit Newtyle and WG on consecutive days!!!!) not the planned schedule but the Scottish weather! at least I have a pair of ski boots now. Scott made a blinding effort on Jaz and almost got it ticked on his second go. I had a quick blast on Happy Hooker, I have been on it before but it was still a good test and I needed two goes to repeat it, it felt tough for M7.

England and Wales bolted mixed graded list

2009-12-03T16:25:00.005Z

My guesses for the record........

Different Game M10 (figure 4's) - rg 07
Finnish Start M10 - rg 09
Ready Steady Hook M10 (less figure 4's) - rg 08 - Repeated by Dave

Mental Block* M9 - rg 08/09
Chain Wall M9 (drilled slate) (sustained) - Ramon 09 - Repeated by rg
Left Goods M9 (cruxy) - rg 07 - Repeated by Dave
Power Pact* M9 - rg 08 - Repeated by Ramon/Dave?
Tumble in the jungle M9* - Dave 08 - Flashed by Andy

Doorstep Challenge M8 - Dave 07 - Flashed by Andy
Jaz* M8 - Dave 07 - Flashed by Andy
Ibex M8 (drilled slate) - Pete 09 - Onsighted

Demolition M7 - Ramon 08 - Onsighted
And Pears M7
Apple M7

Adam's M5

A graded list of the mixed (dry tooling) climbs in England (1!) and Wales. The drilled slate routes are easier to read (onsight) as the placements are generally good and obvious (when they can be found!!)

And as with all lists there might be some overlap between grades and mistakes by the graders.

Tide times

2009-11-19T08:41:00.003Z

I always check the tide times before heading down to climb on the chalk as getting trapped by the sea while i'm wearing a rucksack doesn't appeal. Last night I knew it was low at 1800 and high at 2400 but that didn't really help me as I waded out from the Thunder Dome through waist deep water.

Scott and I picked up Simon on the way so probably arrived at Telscombe about 1900 then met Toby and Shelle in the Dome. The low traverse of the Dome is a good boulder problem/route with interesting moves through the steepest section. Everyone was climbing well and being entertained by a couple of flat-on-the-back ripped holds (the bread basket sized, heavy chalk blocks ripped off as a hold breaks always aim to land on the climber who broke them). Then Scott saved some serious trouble by letting us know that the tide was well on its way. I was pretty shocked when I saw where the milky water had got to, it was at least knee deep at the start of the first of two butresses we needed to pass to get back to safety. By this time It was probably past 2100 (will have to check the stopped mobiles) with choppy seas and a 6.5m spring tide. Interesting. Not quite dangerous by 15 min max.

Check the tide 3 hours past low tide.

I hadn't planned on making swimming part of my training for the winter (or sport climbing!). I spent June to September working and saving money. With weekends climbing if the weather/enthusiasm allowed. October: France/Turkey. And now I'm thinking that the comps and hopefully some Ice are not not very far away. So I have joined the gym, been running and done a couple of chalk sessions. The biggest headache is working how I am going to get around the comps (Russia, Italy, Switzerland on consecutive weekends) without spending all of my savings or doing no climbing.

Turkey

2009-11-11T11:13:00.029Z

It was a simple plan: go sport climbing with Danny.
Not a bad plan on the face of it but Danny had been distracted from his bouldering trip for a few months and I haven't done much sport climbing (my last sport trip was to Kalymnos in 2005). So I wasn't certain how the trip was going to pan out. I shouldn't have worried, it was a memorable couple of weeks in a cool location with good people.

The first hitch was what kit to bring? As it turned out I needed to take a rope, two harnesses, all of the quickdraws and some chalk. In addition to the climbing gear we had decided to camp so I also needed a tent, mat and sleeping bag. All of this kit meant my one checked bag weighed exactly the allowed 20Kg, but only if I took the draws on as hand luggage! Surprisingly I got them through the x-ray at Heathrow but then got stopped at Istanbul. As I unpacked for the Turkish security the double bagged climbing chalk grabbed the attention of the guard and as he delicately lifted the bag high in to the air with his finger tips a look of disbelief crossed his face. I'm not sure that laughing helped my cause but the photo of the climber on the bag was enough to get me on to the plane. I did have to check in my bag of quickdraws and chalk though which meant a delay at Antalya getting my bags from different reclaim areas.

After the bag delay finding Danny reclining in the middle of the floor of the empty terminal was a good moment partly because the trip had been arranged from France by text the week before. A 40 lira taxi in to Antalya, a 30 lira pension then some Efes and Raki resulted in a super late start the following day (the Kaleici (old town) is a good place with some nice cafe/bars in the maze of small streets, it's also a fantastic place to hide a pension in the dark). Now we were ready to get to the climbing campsite, a perfectly timed 2 lira Gozleme, Ayran and lots of staggering about in the sun with heavy bags lead us to the conclusion that getting to the climbing in Geyikbayiri (carefully pronounced GAYkBAYR) was not going to be easy. Dannys Turkish speaking was awesomely good but mainly extended to buying tasty food and the problem was Geyikbayiri was miles away across the other side of town from the airport. Randomly the barber who cut Dannys beard!!? was able to drive us up to the campsite for 50 lira but only after we sat around on stools in the street for ages drinking çay.

Climbing
There were slabs, walls, tufas, overhangs and some short routes but mainly longer single pitches. From the small number of routes that I tried the slabs seemed to be super sharp pocketed limestone and it was the tufas and overhanging pocketed routes that saw most of the attention from visiting climbers.

The view west along Sarkit

The Unknown Climber probably on Pusht Bush 7b+

Saxafon 6b+

Retsa 6c

When we were there at the start of November the weather was variable, some days it was blazing hot in the sun and the only place to get any shade was the north facing crag Trebenna, if it rains Trebenna is steep and also sheltered from the rain. This was a good crag but it gets busy and feels claustrophobic after a time. During our visit it rained a couple of times and a couple of days were very humid, not ideal for sending hard routes. Some Brits who were out the same time of year in 2008 said that they had five days of rain in a ten day trip. Generally though we had no problem getting out and climbing whenever we wanted and the quality of routes was excellent.

Transport, Food etc
There are two campsites close to the climbing: The Climbers Garden and Josito.

The Climbers Garden (bottom left) with Trebenna centre right

The Climbers Garden is the smaller of the two and I think slightly cheaper for chalets. There is a well equipped kitchen available for use.

Josito is the all inclusive option as breakfast, lunch and dinner can be brought (stoves can also be hired).

The local butcher is set up outside The Climbers Garden and he sells a few meals, snacks and beer. Alternatively the restaurant up the road is very nice with good food (15 lira ea.), fish ponds and tables sheltered by vines, no beer here as they are religious. Down near the market in Akdamlar (Sat and Sun only) are brilliant cafes set in the trees where we ate slap up breakfasts of gozleme with all the trimmings for 10 lira ea. Awesome.

Fresh fruit and veg can be brought at the market (oranges, onions, tomatoes, peppers were all 1 lira/Kg (or 2 lira if you are carrying an expensive looking camera)) Rice about 4 lira/Kg. The bus goes to Migros if you want nicer cheese. Cars can be hired at the campsite for 25€/day.

The pazar

All of the locals we met were friendly and hitching lifts and catching busses is sort of easy but a bit time consuming (when I left I luckily got back to the airport for under 10 lira). Learning some Turkish is very useful. We heard a story about some people paying stupid money for breakfast and the prices at the market seemed a bit variable but then the thieves at Orange will be ripping me off just for looking at my mobile when I'm not in the uk - same same.

Neptune 7b 1st rp. Geyikbayiri Games 7b+ 2nd rp. Sucker Punched 7a. No Money No Dance 7c flash. Freedom is a Battle (1st lower Off) 7a. Rattlesnake Saloon 7b 1st rp. Ahtapot 7a. Dragonfly 7a.

Hopefully I will return to Turkey for longer next time......

Turkey Shoot

2009-11-11T10:55:00.000Z

Its Not Climbing Unless There's Fire

2009-10-20T21:07:00.002+01:00

say "Arghhh"

2009-10-16T21:04:00.004+01:00

due to a sore throat that the doctor said would probably result in a cold I have done no climbing. But she did advise me to eat yoghurt, ice cream, creme brulee, that sort of thing. not been to the doctors for years but I think i'll go more now! Watch out BMC medical insurance there is a big claim for Haagen-Dazs heading your way.

not so bad - the ice cream eating venue

A Test of Faith

2009-10-05T10:10:00.013+01:00

Slate – surprising!

I first heard a rumour about a huge slate cavern from Andy while on a trip at the start of 09 but it was one of those things that I never quite got round to checking out. It was lurking in the back of one of the quarries near Llanberis and on the handful of trips I made to N Wales during the summer there was always somewhere better to go. But as winter started closing in (about August time) we got motivated for exploratory expedition. So one afternoon Ramon, Andy, Pete and I made the walk up to the top of the quarry and I got the first sight of a big steep wall. Impressively big but also, as it’s in Wales, wet and green. The approach brought us out at the top of a slab so we abseiled that (~30m) and went on a quest to get to the lower part of the cavern. I don’t think anyone has been down there since the quarry closed in the 1930’s, a few pieces of shrapnel have made the journey as the Air Ministry disposed of evidence in the 50’s but that’s about all. On the floor of the cavern everything was coated with a thick layer of moss that sort of gave the impression of stability but below the carpet there was scree, primed and ready to fire off down the slope. After the delicate mission to cross the frictionless razor talus we actually got to look up from the base of the wall. It was massive. Looking down from above had disguised its size but now the scale of the wall and its features sank in.

Ramon Marin

The back wall of the cavern seems to have been formed by a fault and then the slate has been quarried from below to leave a huge steep wall, not as steep as Newtyle but much bigger. The wall is divided in to three areas: on the left is a ‘short’ steep wall probably 20m high and overhanging at about 45deg. Here; Ramon and Matt bolted a line during the Aug bank holiday weekend. Then there is the central wall of the cavern with two caves formed by tunnelling during the quarrying days and on the right of this, the steep groove that Pete and Andy have been working on. Then further right is this hanging arête with a few chunks taken out of it, initially I thought this seemed like the line to do....

Day 1 – The plan: drop a rope down the line, bash in a lower off and a few bolts down the route.
The reality: drop a rope down the wrong line, ab off, jumar, drop a rope down the correct line, bash in a lower off, ab off in to space. Hmmm it’s steep!

It took a while to adjust to the scale of the place and the length of time things took to clean and bolt. It also took time to get used to the intimidating drops, loose blocks, razor sharp edges and, when wet (all of the time!), zero friction slate.

Click on photo for more info

After the initial exploration some psyche for the venue returned and Ramon, Andy, Matt and I chipped in for 50 bolts (and Ramon and I brought battery drills). This was clearly the time to ensure that a pure ethic was adopted for the routes and we agreed that everything would be climbed ground up. So we ground up a lot of slate and tried to climb it. Unfortunately the slate features are tiny and more friable than eggs, so unlike White Goods, holds have been drilled. Starting at the car we carried all of the drills, batteries, bolts, cable, hammers, crow bars and jacks up the quarry and down the slab (try jumering back up that f****r on a dynamic rope, in the wet with a 40Kg pack on!). Slate route bolting ethics? Anything goes. Climbing ethics? Only hands on axes, no spurs. Or for the ultimate tick, leashes and strap on duo points!

To equip the arête the plan was to fix a 2t s.w.l. sling to bolts at the top of the route then use a Land Rover screw jack to tension 50m of 8mm stainless cable down the arête. Why cable? I have tried drilling while ‘standing’ on a ‘tensioned’ static line before, it’s ok for shortish routes but this route wasn’t short.

Day 2 Bolts top and bottom, hang cable.

Day 3 – 6 The August bank holiday weekend. The back of the cavern is always dry. The approach slab was always wet.
During those 4 days I placed most of the bolts on the arête. The arête was generally straight and after the cable was tensioned I could tie it back to a quarry spike and a bolt approximately one third and two thirds of the way along its length. Bolts were placed from a top rope using the cable or 6mm bolts tied off with 2mm cord for positioning. The line of the lower section of the route was changed as some looseness and big roofs with sharp edges were encountered. Maybe a harder start at a later date? An especially memorable moment was hanging from 2mm cord horizontally below a roof using a crow bar to remove a loose block I was astride.

After stumbling about amongst the debris for a few days I wondered what it was like for the quarrymen working down there where 1 tonne of slate had to be quarried to produce 50Kg of slates.

B&W photos - http://www.llechicymru.info/

Ruckle Rufes Rool

2009-10-04T23:22:00.004+01:00

The Boulder Ruckle is one of the great places to climb at Swanage and these routes are all classic, good work Simon, not bad for a first visit!!

(In a particular order)
Silhouette Arete - A good intro to the Ruckle (VS)
Aventura - get it while you can!
Jo
Lightning Wall
Thunderball - HVS, Cool route
Ocean Boulevard - unlike the other routes it's not cruxy (and the moves are only a little bit harder than on Thunderball)

good practice for font i think

ha ha climbing sucks!!!!!!!!!

2009-09-15T13:09:00.000+01:00

quality location

2009-09-10T18:27:00.005+01:00

swanage trad climbing is a very good thing indeed

Thanks Lukasz. LWimages

Joe M getting out there

no work. what next?

2009-09-10T17:49:00.001+01:00

warming up for winter

http://ramonmarin-uk.blogspot.com/2009/09/grueling-mission.html

La Foret

2009-06-04T22:55:00.002+01:00

Long time no post! Probably something to do with the fact that I never get out anymore save the annual trip to Fontainebleau. Ian Kirby's 40th birthday celebration trip provided one such escape , just a shame the birthday boy couldn't make it!!!!

2009-06-04T22:47:00.002+01:00

Dave and Rob working the highball " L'Arete du Domino" at Roche du Paradis.

2009-06-04T22:40:00.003+01:00

Rob on the excellent long traverse in the Hautes-Plaines area.

Rough with the Smooth

2009-06-02T18:40:00.010+01:00

Time flew today as I was busy at work, hope it continues! (flying not work)
Not the best end to my climbing holiday as I took several spankings from a Portland 7b and everything in Font.

Nice work Dave
Leane @ Paradis 2nd go

Font?

2009-05-30T11:10:00.009+01:00

Dave W

Bolts

2009-05-27T17:39:00.004+01:00

I was surprised to see a rope on the Nomad wall in Llanymynech quarry as it was early in the morning and i had not seen or heard anyone, as i walked further more of the wall came in to view and the rope lead to someone practicing Nomad on a shunt. When i reached the ledge we chatted about the routes on the wall and eventually i got to asking what he thought about the bolts? 'The people who retro-bolted the wall had put in a lot of effort and the lines were never climbed as trad routes and therefore dirty' i heard.

Initially when i heard about the bolts I was surprised that a trad line had been retro-bolted especially when the lines looked to be good and unusually long. Prior to the retro-bolting I had planned (probably over optimistically) to try some of the sport routes in the quarry then have a go at the similar trad lines (as a test for routes such as Right Wall).

Continuing the conversation I found out that the routes were originally lead using 6" nails for some of the protection, something that was not stated in the guide and might have lead to a bit of stress during a trad lead!!

Having decided to attempt This Wont Hurt I set off on what turned out to be a pumpy climb, as a sport route This Wont Hurt was good; interesting moves between good rests but the easiest line (eventually taken by me of course) uses Un-broken at half height and the right hand route at the top. I didn't stop to check too much during my ascent but those horizontal breaks seemed ok for cams and there was definitely another couple of slots for good gear.

During my pumpy sport lead I found myself thanking the kind bolter and thinking "I'm glad i never attempted that as trad" but thats the point: the route is easier with bolts. I'm sure it would have been a lot more memorable for me as a trad route.

wales

2009-05-25T22:45:00.015+01:00

Comes the dervish

Another photo of Petes good side. The bad side was caused by a relaxed start to the route.

Lee loving the crimps

Ibex wall

Trouble brewing

Simon, who also did some climbing

sorry about the advertising

back to the grindstone

2009-05-20T17:24:00.006+01:00

as Canon bodged the repair of my lens it looks like its words only .....

after two weeks not climbing i received an invite to go to the peak for some routes so here i am on the grit for the first time in a few years. What an effort it has been trying to get anything done though! first thing i thought when i wandered along Curbar; is this it?! the whole place has shrunk while i was away and looked pretty uninspiring. Two days of drizzle and increasing wind didn't help either. But eventually i found myself on a couple of undeniable awesome lines. Problem was they were in the E7/8 range which was what Marcin was psyched for. I'm not sure i'll ever do a line of that gravity and as a gentle warm up in to a summers trad climbing? Barking.

To relieve the stress of top roping these grades, or worse belaying, i did a quick session on an old and very very long term bouldering project (hmmm retro flash or retro quick tick possible i wonder?) and much to my relief did ok on it. So at least i have not got any worse from 3 months climbing.

After just about ticking a couple of E2's (that had a total of about 5m of climbing on them but felt like a full pitch of WI6 each (only more pumpy)) I could see that a change of attitude was required or at least a new mantra as my old 'at least you wont hit anything' wasn't fooling me here. Maybe tomorrow will produce a breakthrough?

A small breakthrough came after finding some dry cool rock at Gogarth (Holyhead mountain so not really Gogarth) then crimping my way a respectable way. Then was getting psyched for millstone and of course it rained as i was half way up the warm up at least it was HVS jamming and i was on a second.

TOP TIP:
If you are going to hurt yourself it might as well be on an E7 rather than an E3. (Marcin P)

never did do that bouldering project either!

THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND..........

There is nothing like a good weather climbing day in the UK and today has been nothing like good weather, however the climbing has been memorable. Despite the piss pour forecast i woke to blue skies and after meeting Pete set of for Gogarth to take a look at Quartz Icicle (sans piolet). Eyeing the slab across the zawn for the first time lead me to suggest climbing Wen instead but once abbed in and gripping the rock agreed on Concrete Chimney. So as i traversed from the ledges on the wrong line unable to feel my fingers or toes with the salty spray blinding me and the wind blowing off balance i got the feeling it was not going to be an average day.

As i neared the edge of the slab something was prodding me in the ribs, looking down i was surprised to see a number 3 camalot floating about in the updraft! the tensest moments on this trip was when the wind stopped and in the quiet i would hang on doubly tight waiting for the inevitable gust. Later Pete decided that a quick trip across the last pitch of Dream was in order and set about steadily traversing above the foam packed zawn at this point the sun came round the rib and provided some slight warmth to my belay, on my turn across i looked down from the warm and sheltered final slab in to the zawn and watched the breakers roll in.

TOP TIP TWO:
If the coiled rope blows across the car park and the Coast Guard notice board mentions something about a Force 8 ..... go climbing.

back at the car a good looking wall caught our attention and I decided to take a look. The first bolt seemed a bit high and it was only when i reached it that i found out it was dodgy and now i was on a boulder problem with brambles for a mat. At least the bolt excuse allowed me to beat a dignified retreat.

As we sat in Petes Eats and watched the heavy rain we concluded there was only one place to go and climb in these soaking conditions. The Slate.
Ibex is the first Welsh slate dry tooling line (appx M8) it has been created on a steep wall on the RHS past Dali's by Owen and Rocio then, with their agreement, climbed by Pete. Good climbing on mainly drilled holds leads up the steep blank wall that luckily stays dry in the rain.

too much thinking time (From ice to Iceberg)

2009-04-30T13:12:00.003+01:00

I guess it is actually a bit odd the level of significance that climbing up a boulder a specific way becomes. A strange hobby; bouldering, in fact climbing in general is fairly inane. Now that i think about it what is the point of any sport or hobby? skiing, football, cycling, train spotting. Not too sure i care as long as it's fun.

Difficult easy mantle made harder by trying to avoid headbutting the camera and smile.

thanks Richard

It's also funny how things turn out some times: one evening Pete and I agreed to take a look at my project if it didn't rain during the night. Later, after answering that the flashes were flash photos i was surprised by thunder and enough rain for a stream to form along the path from Isatis to the car park. So no project. But the following morning the sky was clear and a quick check revealed all of the boulders washed clean of their coating of Easter punter chalk, and dry. And grippy, game on .... no luck for me that day though.

for Allyn

I see why i was told i jump like a pregnant woman

It wasn't until my penultimate day in font that i realised what a burden of expectation my project had become, how much i wanted to stick that final hold. Stupidly right from the start i had assumed i would climb this line - not an un-reasonable assumption as i had done the stand and could regularly do the traverse in to the stand BUT I kept failing on the last move; slipping heal, slipping fingers or, worse, split tips. The problem was starting to slip through my fingers and on to the list of notable failures. A list of climbs that particularly get under my skin, climbs that I could have done but haven't. Brad Pitt and Musashi top the list, luckily they ARE the list.

So on my last full day in the Forest my belief that i would tick the problem was lacking, but I felt I had to try. Best to ignore the cakes and beer that had been creeping in to my diet over the last days of my holiday. Best to ignore feeling tired and achey. On the upside I had two handfulls of skin (the 8 day old crimp slice and 12 day old ripped tip had sort of scarred over).

After a warm up I started up (along!) the line and suddenly found myself looking at the finishing hold.
been here before.
slap.
as usual too low.

Second go felt ok but as I tried to gain extra height my heel slid off as usual.

Next go felt harder.
tired probably.
and the moves didn't feel quite right.
then my hand stuck the finishing sloper. It is a better hold higher up but i didn't have hold of that part, so now my heel is on a sloper that never sticks, my left hand is on a sloper and so is my right. As i feel my fingers slipping I struggle to place my left toe but succede. And that was that! my highest number tick and biggest bouldering buzz. Now if i would have had to walk away without the tick?

good fun

Let the credits roll

2009-04-20T17:55:00.011+01:00

This is my last few days in France as i'm returning to the UK to see what is in store for the next few months (hopefully lots of trad and maybe some work). After three and half months practically full time climbing it's going to be interesting going back to a more conventional lifestyle.

Font has been awesome, it was a good decision to drop in on the way home, but when I look at my tally of climbs from 6 weeks bouldering it amounts to what a lot of climbers would do in a week(end). Luckily I didn't have any expectations of how i would climb and have ticked some brilliant problems, a couple of 8's would have been nice though! (probably never going to happen). There seems to be lots of strong climbers in the forest and I saw a serious attempt on Partage, Cochinelle ticked and various laps of Carnage - Berenzina links.

Everyone who visited from the UK was quickly ticking 7a's (even Pete who had been training by sewing the interior of his van!). Conditions have been a bit special this year, tons of ice in the alps then basically all of March was cool and dry in Font. Lucky.

One of the many brilliant things about Font is the huge amount of rock, there are so many good problems as only the best lines have been cleaned and there is a lifetimes supply of new problems if you want. It was cool to discover a striking line i had never seen before only 15min from Cuisiniere, ok it was a 14m slopey 7a traverse so not everyones cup of tea! but still an awesome line.

I hope you have been entertained reading about my trip. With luck there will be more to follow ......... watch this space ........

Thanks Andy, Stew & Sam, Ramon, Matt, Lucasz, Pti, Dennis, Marcus, Pavel, Nick, Charley, Paul, Andre, Pete, Caroline & Eden, Richard.
Rob Adie, Anne Arran.
Patrice, Helen, Lohann & Allyn.

Fontainebleau highlights: (well basically, all-lights!) .... Festin de Pierre, Angle Bens, Retour Aux Sources, Zen, La Memel, El Poussif, Bioethique, L'abattoire, Les Monos, Belle Gueule, Iceberg. Most of these were ticked thanks to beta from Paul and then ticked faster by Pete!

Lowlights: Excalibur, Breaking my camera (lens?), L'impasse du Hasard, Weeks of weak skin, Gargantoit (assis), Red 1 at Roche aux Sabot!! 6a my sandy arse

A question of style

2009-04-08T18:45:00.005+01:00

I'm not one for making tick lists but over the last couple of months some good looking or challenging lines have caught my attention and i have been making a mental note of them to try and go back to them sometime. But then I arrived in Font and there are so many awesome lines (thanks for pointing them out Paul) that I started to note them down. Now i have a some problems written on a piece of paper as an aide memoir. This is not a tick list.

On that problem again today. The rain held off long enough for me to peel my finger on the crimp on my last (and best ever) attempt. I could not have been closer to climbing it; I felt the good bit of the finishing hold with my right hand before my left slipped. At least i have found a new way to fall off the problem as it is always the right heel that slips.

Good points
- i have re-learned the subtle moves I need to use for the finishing sequence
- i can climb it for sure

Less good points
- i forgot the subtle movements i used last time for the finishing sequence
- i knew as soon as i did the stand i could climb it from a sit
- today is the 4th session working the sit
- two split finger tips now (one split on a sloper?!!)

Wear and Tear

2009-03-31T16:59:00.013+01:00

8 fingers, 3 split.
1 camera, image stabilisation unstable.

This is not a good combination of damage to deal with. As I'm trying to do something to distract me from the desperate condition of my fingers I start taking a few photos only to find my lens has taken on a life of its own.

I'm happy enough with some of the resulting photos but really want to get the camera fixed, that will have to wait till i'm home though!

La Memel

Mike almost ticking Belle Gueule Assis having done the stand.

Jeff keeping Zen

Sent

Sent

Free time

2009-03-27T16:24:00.005Z

It has been a while since i have done a bouldering trip and i'm surprised it's feeling a bit like getting in to a new sport but I'm totally enjoying the lifestyle and feeling good from all the time outdoors and exercise (even finished some projects). It's slightly Paul's fault i'm still here as his van is a good for sitting in and reading guide books and his info on and psyche for quality problems is outstanding. With a bit of rest day enthusiasm today I investigated two areas that were new to me down near Nemours, at one area it felt like i was the first person to visit and the overgrown boulders made it feel a bit more like Magic Wood than Font. At the other venue I might give one inspiring highball a go, maybe even on a top rope first! will see how it goes without first.....

Less fun has been finding why i can't boulder so much (and one of the motivations for climbing with axes) with finger trouble as my skin can't handle long periods of bouldering.

There has been some rain about over the last few days (useful in some ways as i can rest my fingers) but a bit of a shocker as we have been spoiled by about 2 weeks of cool, dry, blue skies.

Looking for boulders to clean

latest font photos

2009-03-20T18:29:00.009Z

Photo by Andre Hedger

Bizarre Bizarre assis quickly ticked by Andre after a flash of the stand

No such luck for Paul

Paul quickly slapping an ascent of Rataplat at Isatis

Richard on Rataplat

font acclimatisation

2009-03-20T17:01:00.004Z

Now that i have been in Font for a few days I have started to get in to bouldering mode and check my finger tips every couple of minutes. Yesterdays best problem included a bit of shuffling fingers about on slopers before cutting feet free to swap heel hooks, similar style problem today but if i can do the traverse start i'll be shouting (and have an icy tick). I think the best thing is lunches last a long time and today most of it was spent laying in the sun, it's also good to have people to talk to between attempts on problems. Slightly different to mixed climbing!

Over the last couple of days i have been working on some quality 7's that have been pointed out to me (thanks Paul) but right now I don't feel as strong as when i was here this time last year. This is probably the result of last seasons mixed routes being more physical than this years aesthetic atmospheric routes. It's great getting back in to bouldering and i expect Andre will be also psyched when he gets out here soon. I hope my shoulder will hold up to the strain long enough for me to get home to a physio.

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-06T13:42:00.007Z

so this is the end of my Alpine winter holiday.

After a flying visit to Cham that established it was snowing and getting anywhere near any climbing or skiing was going to cost an arm and a leg I felt that heading west is my best option. Hopefully it will not be snowing in font and I will be able to find my rock shoes in the boot of my car?????

While in Chamonix I made a trip to Le Fayet (The Dry Spa – dry tooling crag) with Nick and Charlie, although I had visited this place before I had not climbed there (I don't think i even looked up as i was avoiding the muddy puddles). It was still unpleasantly wet and muddy this visit but I was pleased to find that 3 of the 4 routes i did were pretty good (of course the best line was the one that climbed a natural feature). And the other route?? A hard, loose and insect infested failure.

The Zoo (nr. Sallanches) also made an appearance on the end of my axe and I confirmed my opinion that it's a great place to get strong. Sadly strong was not on my agenda and after the two warm ups wind and snow increased and motivation decreased to a stop 1/3 of the way up the blatantly good Hippo route.

Now at the end of a good trip with some interesting routes to remember I am burdened with a tick list that includes: nearly all of the mixed around Kandersteg & Freissinieres. The Zoo. Drylands. Law and order. Matador (another Hippo style half arsed non tick!!) and thats not even considering Stanley. OR the other end of the Rockies. OR the other end of North America.

oh yea, and the competitions.

So that was my best winter ever (actually last winter was pretty good) and now i just hope the summer is half as good.

Bring it on............

via Busteni & Bern

2009-03-02T17:55:00.007Z

A diplomatic sack

2009-03-02T11:29:00.002Z

Apparently the invitations required to obtain a visa are only available if you have a slightly more permanent Swiss residency than me! Or you get organised and get an invitation in advance or visit the consulate in your home country??? know the system.......

Lessons

2009-03-01T16:26:00.012Z

Driving out of Kandersteg for the last time this trip it felt like I was putting an end to my [natural] ice climbing season (I had decided to make a trip to Russia and enter an ice climbing competition) my thoughts were with the Russian visa applicartion form as I reached the top of the hairpin bends in the dry road . I was distracted from the visa by the rattle of ice falling from the wheel arches but then found that the steering was rediculously difficult to turn, jammed ice? .......... suddenly I remembered the frayed alternator belt. Some of this belt had split off on the way to Dione and now it had totally gone taking the power steering with it. So the Russian Consulate would have to wait while I got this replaced. Steering the car was ok, if a bit of a workout, but after a couple of corners the brake pedal turned squat thrust heavy and needed a bit of handbrake assistance. What else is powered by the alternator belt??
oh yes, the water pump. As it was downhill from Kandersteg I could turn the engine off and coast almost to the garage. 120 Francs and an hour later the car was running again.

For the last couple of days in Kandersteg I had been doing a bit of skiing and also made a visit to Adelboden (a nightmarishly busy resort) but during these days I had totally sussed the skiing. Easy, approach corner, lean down hill, whip skiis round pivoting on balls of feet, catch tip of ski on something and scrape up snow using sunglasses.

By the time I arrived at Bern in my repaired car it was 1400 and found the Consulate closed at 1200. So hopefully a visa and flights can be arranged on Monday and I can get to Paris to fly on Tuesday???

Best of all though was a day on Elementarteilchen. An atmospheric route right from the start with stacks of steep climbing. Thanks to my host Markus Stofer for giving me the crux pitch. I was also lucky also that the top pitch was 1 hit ice as my body was complaining after the days efforts!!

Seconding P3: the first mixed pitch
(P1 led to screw belay. P2 second; steep ice simul to belay)

The crux pitch (bolt on lip pre-clipped)

More P4

A special topout from P6 with burning limbs in the sun.
(the left hand finish was taken for P6)

Lukasz Warzecha Images

2009-02-22T14:30:00.013Z

http://www.lwimages.co.uk/

Busteni Photographs

Some of the awesome photos Lukasz took at the Saas Fee competition

latest holiday round up

2009-02-22T12:42:00.022Z

Day 1
Kiental - The Tuba pillar looked good from the front until ...... "you want to climb THAT?"

Day 2
Kiental - Elvis; I did not finish the top roof but then did do better with a flash of the RH start to Cabron.

This is a view of Kiental from the approach 'road'. The right hand line of continuous ice is In der wurze.... and the line to the left of that is Edel and Stark.

Pete or! Stu on Namenlos (no. 14) Photo Dennis Van Hoek

Dennis on 'No bolt no way'

Day 3
Kiental - In der wurze liegt die kurze (number 20 in the guide 'Hot ice cold rock')

Day 4
loaaaaads of snow

Day 5
Buy a shovel. Dig out Swiss. Climb Edel and Stark.

Day 6
Kiental - Back to the roots.

A brilliant little route culminating with some fine loam and a few roots (and that was just in my pants) OS. Photo Ramon Marin

Lucky Day 7
Oeschinensee - Kraftort and Kraftwerk

Photo Ramon Marin

Thanks to Markus for sharing some local beta with us.

Day 8
Back to the beginning: Oeschinenwald - Grimm/Haizafine

Good climbing with the unusual luxury of nice hooks. Photo Ramon Marin

The team (snowed in for day 9)

and thats the view from the SECOND floor window

New (ish) Routing

2009-02-21T22:04:00.005Z

The creator of this new line working the moves before getting the second ascent!! luckily he gave me the beta so i could get the third. Kraftort.

And the huge pillar? Kraftwerk: FA Ramon Marin

Photo Markus Stoffer

It doesn't get much better than this.....

Photo Ramon Marin

A 70m rope will get you back to Earth (photo Ramon Marin)