Winter Wonderland

Atop Striding Edge

A little late with the blog and the photos will be even later, but what a fantastic day Sunday was. Allan and I were back in the Lakes, Glenridding this time. Breakfast in Kilners Cybercafe is to be recommended. Could do to open a bit earlier but we were still off up the hill by 10 o’clock. At £7:50 a day, the pay and display is less welcoming. However, out of season, it’s OK to park on the adjacent coach loop for free.

The plan was to do the Helvellyn horseshoe scramble with a slight variation. We extended the normal plods up and down to include Catsycam and Birkhouse moor and also did it anti-clockwise. This makes a nice 8 mile trip with 3 Wainwright’s bagged for the day. The snow line extended all the way down to the shores of Ullswater and we encountered a fair few cars slipping and sliding their way up to the ski club hut. It looked like it was going to be a busy day on the Raise ski tow. Surprisingly, there weren’t that many walkers and climbers about given the brilliant conditions.

Allan ticks Wainwright No 30

Although Allan has done winter walking before, he has never actually ‘tooled up’ before. This was to be his first experience of technical winter walking using ice axe and crampons. As he does not intend to graduate to winter climbing as such, he was reluctant to invest in B2 / B3 footwear and technical crampons. I was equally reluctant to take him on the edges in summer footwear. We could both see the validity of each others view and needed to find an acceptable solution.

The solution was to borrow a suitable axe off a friend and Allan popped off to Hathersage and invested in a pair of Kahtoola MicroSpikes. These were about 10% of the cost of a B2/C2 combination and transformed his bendy boots into useful footwear. Apart from cutting a couple of notches for added security on the steep bit of Swirral, they provided perfectly adequate traction for the whole trip and didn’t require the usual moving in crampons learning curve. In fact, on the final part of the descent where my 12 points became a bit of a liability, I was a bit envious of his effortless progress!

So, I managed two cooked breakfasts, three Wainwright’s, two classic ridges, found a nice solution for introducing people to winter walking economically and experienced virtually alpine scenery. Not bad for a Sunday stroll.

Short Night, Cold Toes!

Last night, I took a friend out for a bit of rock climbing by head-torch. I introduced him to rock climbing a couple of years ago but now he lives 'down south'. Anyway, work has brought him back to the Peak, mid week at least. Having read some of the mountaineering epics, he fancied getting a taste for climbing in the dark and cold.

Scot by Lamplight

We headed up to Windgather. A clear night gave us dry rock but falling temperatures. The air temp was about 1 degree, but the windchill soon had us with cold toes & numb fingers. As the temperature dropped, so did the illumination levels. The cold took out my rechargeable batteries in no time (note, use dry cells in winter).

Anyway, one route was more than enough for him to get his 'taste', so we headed off down the valley to a nice warm pub.

Long Day, Big Grin

Yesterday found me at Redpoint climbing centre in Birmingham. Bit off the beaten track for me but that was where my CWLA assessment was booked, so there I was. Unfortunately, the day's other candidate had been forced to drop out. So that left me one on one with my assessor, Joby, for about 6 hours.

Nail biting is how I would describe the experience. Kind of like doing three or four driving tests in a row but having to wait right till the bitter end to see if you had failed the first one!

Anyway, it all went well. So thanks to Joby, Martin the Redpoint leaper and Beth, Tash and Holly, my three willing students for the day.

Right, who wants to learn to lead then?

Seven Summits

Quality mountain days is a much used phrase in mountain leader circles. You have to log them to get your ML and lead them to get on the MIA. They have to be long days up high, with an element of adventure.

Glaramara Summit

So yesterday saw myself and Allan heading up Glaramara on our 'Seven Summits' day. He wants to bag all the Wainwrights and I need people who want to push the mountaineering boat out a bit. The promise of trying for 7 Wainwrights in 7 hours, including the two highest ones and the classic Broad Stand scramble on the way had him hooked. Glossing over the fact that at the end of the 7 hours we would be at the top of England, 5 miles from the car and on top of a crag helped.

Well we made it, nearly. 5 summits over 900m and 2 more around the 780 mark in just over 7 hours. Had Broad Stand been dry we would have made it. As it was it was wet, very cold and just a bit epic, it took a little longer.

The 'Precarious Pinnacle', Lord's Rake

As for the descent down Lord's Rake followed by a race to get as far back down the corridor route as we could before dark. Well, that became a quality mountain night!

Coaching Progression

Obviously, when you work part time at a climbing wall, unlimited free access is a bonus. Better still though is seeing some of your students really progress.

A couple of weeks ago I was working with some of the 'Rock Gods'. These are kids who just come to the club sessions, maybe once a week or less for two hours. They all lead at least 6b and and boulder at V5 or more. It really makes you work hard to to try and keep up with them!

At a more relaxing level, I was working this week with a brother and sister doing some of their early leads. I taught them to tie knots about a year ago and now I'm helping them work as a team leading 5's on the top wall.

It's all very satisfying.

Day of the Long Drops

After many months of waiting, my CWLA training session finally arrived. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Andy, an MLTA friend, was also on the course. We were also joined by John from Harrogate way and the whole show took place at the Foundry under Danny Brown.

It was all good fun and various things were covered such as games to improve belaying and clipping skills. A top rope 'baby bouncer' for the faint of heart was also tried but the real fun was of course the 'rippers'. Take a dose of slack, a bit of altitude and Geronimo.

Hopefully, the assessment in a couple of months will be equally stimulating then I can get down to the serious business of looking for clients. Watch this space.

Night of the Long Buses

It's a funny old job, earning a few bob in the 'great outdoors'. I found myself getting up an 2 am on Sunday and breaking camp by torchlight. I tried my best not to 'jingle' my pegs and poles as it is very, very quiet on a camp site this early.

So was I heading for an alpine route or wanting to get a photo of the sunrise over the clouds? No, I was heading to Nant Peris car park to marshal mini buses and check safety kit. Asthma UK were doing a 3 Peaks charity walk and I was working for the event facilitator. Whatever your views on this, you can't deny the participants make a big effort. A few of them had to make more effort than most and won't forget the day in a hurry, so a big up to them.

As for the mountain marshals, well they have a shorter but pretty heavy day too. 10 hours on the hill (or in a car park) is still a good stint. Hopefully we helped it run as smoothly and unobtrusively as can be expected and everyone got off the hill OK. And Asthma UK, well they are many thousands of pounds better off than they were on Friday. Job done!

Bank Holiday Madness!

It was back to Wales this weekend and over to North Stack.

For the second time this year I found myself climbing with MLTA collegue Jez. Fantastic day for it but getting down to the ledge on a high rising tide made for a wet traverse in. The ropes were in the washing machine this morning and all my hardware in the shower!

There is certainly one thing to be said for pumpy routes like Britomatrtis, it slows your second down. You get plenty of time to ponder all the things you could have planned for and didn't as you hang off a rusty old peg and a few little wires. Wonder what the seals made of it all?

Fancy a Little Sport

I will happily admit to being a Trad' rat but sometimes a change can be nice. Maybe retreating from Coral Seas in a full on thunder storm a while back wasn't so great, although it was memorable but some recent trips to Horseshoe have been good.

The current highlight of the trip tends to be newt watching but the climbing is good too. Plenty on main wall to go at, some esoteric multi-pitch over by Barney Rubble (aptly named, you've been warned) and even a family friendly beginners area up in the top quarry.

Enterprise Wall is a good place to make the transition from climbing wall to rock sport. At 6m or so the climbs are probably going to feel hard for the grade, especially compared to the wall. But with 3 clips to a lower off on a slightly less than vertical wall, what a great place to learn the tricks of the trade.

Below is my daughter Cally doing a top roped practice lead on Uranus (3+ or maybe severe to a trad rat)

Hurray for Climbing Walls

Well, weather not too bad today but can't say it's been too good in March. Absolutely no outdoor instructing action and not much on the personal front either. I'd hoped for a few requests for navigation courses but it seems people are waiting for better waether for that too. Rather defeats the object of the exercise though!

Still, at least we have the climbing walls. I've been busy down at Rope Race with assorted guides and scouts. At my more regular haunt of Awesome Walls, I have been doing a few lead climbing intros. Great fun but pretty intense work. Looking forward to doing the CWLA in a couple of weeks. It will be nice to get away from the 'site specific training' and put this sort of work into my freelance portfolio.

Watch this space.

Back on the Rock

While many people were still messing about in the snow Jez and myself headed for Gogarth on Sunday. Everything looked good, the forecast, the recent conditions and the tide table. We were not disappointed, nor were a couple of other teams out on Castell Helen at the same time.

<< Looking down pitch 2 of LH Direct

It was cold in the morning and the cafe was shut. By the time we had finished Lighthouse Arete Direct my feet were freezing and I was hungry. Sitting in the sun with a packed lunch soon fixed that and we were off again to do Pel. Both were good VS climbs and Rap looked really good too, so I guess we'll be back quite soon. See you there?

Soon be going live

Hi blog world!

Hopefully this weekend will see this blog thing incorporated into my website and the first rock trip of the year completed without incident.

Look out for a posting on Monday with fun & games from Castell Helen.