One Christmas present from Lucy was an hour's ice climbing. Amazing fun, but very tiring. The sense of climbing on nothing is incredible, just the tips of the axes and the points of the crampons.
Highly recommended !
Recently in climbing Category
I've decided to start running properly again, as I've recently come back from two weeks in the Alps and am feeling a lot stronger and fitter. Running is a good way to get fit, but how to combine it with climbing?
I've set myself a target of a 10k at the end of August, a slightly hilly one in Sussex.
The problem is that every training programe assumes that running is your only sport, more schedules from raw beginner through 5k, 10k and on to marathon.
However I really enjoy climbing and I'm using running to get fitter, not as my sport, it is my second sport. So I wanted to know how to modify the programmes in a sensible way, so that I was still improving as a runner, but also able to climb. Fortunately, the people on the forums at Runners World are a helpful bunch. I asked about combining running and climbing and got a range of helpful and very useful responses. The advice is best summarized as use running as a second sport to boost fitness, do not expect to excel at it, but use running as recovery exercise for climbing. Balance intensity of running against climbing so that you do not ruin your climbing. Modify the 5k 10k training sessions so that they fit your existing climbing pattern, but do use the speed work tempo runs etc to build your running strength. Don't just go out and run your hardest each time. Do read the thread though, as there are some interesting programmes and ideas in it. I then posted it on ukclimbing and got some climber feedback too.
I'll post my eventual programme on here in a later article.
The hateful midge, small biting menace, that irritates you and flies in your face. Whether camping, hiking, cooking or climbing they are a right pain, especially in July through September. According to anecdotal evidence on the ukclimbing forums, Avon's Skin So Soft Fresh is the formula to beat them. See below for how to buy.
Touching the Void is coming out on DVD in early April. I've said before that this is an excellent film, well worth the Bafta it won, which was British Film of the Year. I saw it at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in November and then again in London, when it came out on general release.
The DVD has the film, plus a documentary of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates on their return to Suila Grande. I've already ordered my copy, it is also available as on VHS.
If you have no idea of what I'm writing about, then read my previous article. Or read the book film tie-in edition or the original edition, there now appear to be many reprints of this book, given its success as a film.
Cairngorm was the first Munro that I have climbed, on the way up we saw these pretty patterns caused by the forming rime. Rime is formed as the water condenses out of the air onto the colder surfaces of the rocks at higher altitude, an interesting fact is that the rime always grows into the direction of the prevailing wind, even though it looks the other way around.
Sir Hugh Munro created a list in 1891 to classify any mountain that is 3,000 feet or higher, the list was never finalised, so there is some argument over the exact number, but many accept 284 as the total. The Scottish Mountaineering Club, I think have the right to alter the list, which happens slowly.
I've now climbed three Munros, Cairngorm, Ben Macdui and Sgor Gaoith (pronounced skor gui), I've no plans to do them all, but those are three nice mountains. If and when we go back to the north of Scotland, then Braeriach, Sgor Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toui are definitely on the list, plus a trip to Torridon, which has to be of the most photogenic places in the UK.
Lovely weather and some nice snow, as you can see in Lucy's picture above.
Collected and commented mountain weather forecasts for the Aviemore area with some webcams, here is a map of area.
Webcams
View of the ski base station
View of Ptarmigan Bowl area
View of Cairngorm from Glenmore Lodge
Thanks to OutdoorsMagic for some of these links.
Weather forecasts
Ptarmigan level weather forecast, approx 1000m
Mid level ski forecast, approx 850m
Aviemore general forecast on the BBC
Geoff Monk and Associates have an Eastern Highlands forecast, as a PDF.
This is good and very useful, especially when combined with the snow conditions in the SAIS forecast below.
SAIS Avalanche forecast, in case you are unsure Aviemore is in the northern cairngorms.
Finally a overview of the Snow condditions on CairnGorm from winterhighland.com.
I'm off next week with Mountain Innovations, who are based in Boat of Garten, home of the ospreys. Hopefully you'll see the webcam pictures full of snow next week.
I got paid by amazon and google recently and at the weekend I bought myself some things with the cash. The google cheque, being in US dollars will be a faff to cash and the exchange rate is rubbish at the minute. Still, all in all, I have covered the hosting costs of last year, so there is something to the google ads and the amazon links. I decided to ignore that sunk cost and instead bought myself something I have wanted for a long, long time, an ice axe.
All this is in preparation for a Scottish Winter mountaineering trip next week, see scary picture of me all kitted out for the highlands. More in subsequent posts.
In 2006, there is going to be a new climbing wall in London, in Herne Hill, at the Herne Hill Velodrome, see Streetmap for location. They have a total estimated cost of £6 million for the whole complex. The indoor climbing wall aims to have a central 7.5 metre "mountain feature", bouldering wall and traversing walls.
Last June, Southwark's Planning Committee gave approval to the outline planning application to regenerate Herne Hill Velodrome. This saves the whole site which had been under threat.
See some pictures of the site and drawings of the plans, plus some older pictures of the site from the last century.
This new climbing wall will mean that there is a decent wall in all four corners of London, with the Westway, the Castle and my usual Mile End.
Prompted by Euan writing about climbing, I found this quite raw post on the experience of climbing, unfinished from July.
climbing is a personal experience, it is difficult to impart the feeling and thoughts of lead climbing in an intelligible manner.
So, despite having said that, here are some thoughts and a narrative description of climbing the route Ringo, which I posted a picture of earlier.
there is a rythm to climbing and an order
setting up the belay
tieing in to the rope
checking one anothers harness
checking the rack
eyeing up the moves
getting to the first position
climbing
first gear above head height
finger jams
the bulge
leg jam rest
horizontal break
then layback / rockover to the rest
fiddling the gear
getting pumped and resting
gear in teeth to hold it whilst wrestling to choose the right size
last piece and feeling safer
make the move and haul over to the top
then set up the belay at the top and let your partner second it
