Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunshineeeee!
Rob and I collided in thought and I got a phone call yesterday, saying, 'I can't be bothered to work, fancy a ride up your way?' Yes I did. Good ride bowler, and shame about not being able to hit Wales this weekend...
Weds night sessions...
This is from last weds, at Woburn, but I've been insanely busy as always!!! Here's the gist:
Del had one of those stupid slow last run crashes and managed to break his arm. Shit luck, get well soon, mate.
Its been hot in them lids lately...
Mark stepping down on Moto
Charlie on it, he hit it to flat later!
Liam on the same.
Del had one of those stupid slow last run crashes and managed to break his arm. Shit luck, get well soon, mate.
Its been hot in them lids lately...
Mark stepping down on Moto
Charlie on it, he hit it to flat later!
Liam on the same.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Via F*^$%ing-hell-eratta
Post from Mountain Spaces except I didn't include that fact that parts of the route where f%^&*ing scary, Kelvin brought a beer bong to the campsite and we all got hammered! Anyone coming out this summer has to come an do this route, it is amazing. Have never ever been that exposed before.
Have also been climbing the elephants nose up the road, again is amazing, needs an IBFC crew to give the 3 pitch climbs a seeing to! Think French grading is a bit kinder than English grading as I lead a 5c/6a yesterday which frankly I don't believe can be the same as an English 6a as I felt like right Malco on bits of the route. Anyway Via Ferrata post, enjoy.
C
Well the snow's all gone and the lifts aren't quite open yet for biking so in between some cross country biking (although I did make it to the top of the Pleney downhill yesterday for a blast down, rough as old boots) and a bit of road biking we thought we've been exploring some of the via ferrata in the Haute Savoie. With snow still lingering around at 1800m we headed down to Thones, near Annency as the route is challenging but not at thesame altitude as Avoriaz for example which still has patches of snow kicking around.
Parked up at the bottom, you can see the entire route from the hotel car park at the bottom. Total Route time 3hrs15
The walk in to the bottom of the climb, it's only about 10mins up a hairpin track and gets the blood goin before you come to the start of the route.
Jamie reflecting on having bought a helmet with 'CAMP' written across the front.
It's not the easiest thing to get the camera out en route, so we've already made it over a 15ft wire bridge (literally one wire to walk on one wire to hold on too at shoulder height across a 60m drop!)
A rare spot with everyone comfortable enough to get a picture, pretty much the whole route is this shear or overhanging.
A tricky little traversing section with not much in the way of footholds.
What can I say......
Kelvin on the overhanging ladder at the end of the route, looks out to a 250m drop or the other side of the valley depending on whether you look down or not!
Jamie tackling the overhang section that runs parallel to the ladder, not particularly technical but really, really tiring especially as it's right at the end of the climb. As usual the pictures don't quite show how much of a prolonged overhang it was.
Me just coming into the steep part of the overhang, with a 250m drop straight down, exposed doesn't quite do it justice.
I did have to restrain myself when Robin said smile, not exactly the emotion I was going through!!
Robin topping out.
A well earned rest at the top.
View from the car park, if you look carefully at the top you can just see the almost vertical line of the final ladder.
All topped of with a night in the campsite on the lake.
All in all an awesome day out and the most exposed mountaineering I've ever done, even if it is reasonably well protected climbing the overhang is still like tackling a lead climb with the potential of a x 3-5 fall. Can't wait for the next one, probably Avoriaz when the snow melts.
Have also been climbing the elephants nose up the road, again is amazing, needs an IBFC crew to give the 3 pitch climbs a seeing to! Think French grading is a bit kinder than English grading as I lead a 5c/6a yesterday which frankly I don't believe can be the same as an English 6a as I felt like right Malco on bits of the route. Anyway Via Ferrata post, enjoy.
C
Well the snow's all gone and the lifts aren't quite open yet for biking so in between some cross country biking (although I did make it to the top of the Pleney downhill yesterday for a blast down, rough as old boots) and a bit of road biking we thought we've been exploring some of the via ferrata in the Haute Savoie. With snow still lingering around at 1800m we headed down to Thones, near Annency as the route is challenging but not at thesame altitude as Avoriaz for example which still has patches of snow kicking around.
Parked up at the bottom, you can see the entire route from the hotel car park at the bottom. Total Route time 3hrs15
The walk in to the bottom of the climb, it's only about 10mins up a hairpin track and gets the blood goin before you come to the start of the route.
Jamie reflecting on having bought a helmet with 'CAMP' written across the front.
It's not the easiest thing to get the camera out en route, so we've already made it over a 15ft wire bridge (literally one wire to walk on one wire to hold on too at shoulder height across a 60m drop!)
A rare spot with everyone comfortable enough to get a picture, pretty much the whole route is this shear or overhanging.
A tricky little traversing section with not much in the way of footholds.
What can I say......
Kelvin on the overhanging ladder at the end of the route, looks out to a 250m drop or the other side of the valley depending on whether you look down or not!
Jamie tackling the overhang section that runs parallel to the ladder, not particularly technical but really, really tiring especially as it's right at the end of the climb. As usual the pictures don't quite show how much of a prolonged overhang it was.
Me just coming into the steep part of the overhang, with a 250m drop straight down, exposed doesn't quite do it justice.
I did have to restrain myself when Robin said smile, not exactly the emotion I was going through!!
Robin topping out.
A well earned rest at the top.
View from the car park, if you look carefully at the top you can just see the almost vertical line of the final ladder.
All topped of with a night in the campsite on the lake.
All in all an awesome day out and the most exposed mountaineering I've ever done, even if it is reasonably well protected climbing the overhang is still like tackling a lead climb with the potential of a x 3-5 fall. Can't wait for the next one, probably Avoriaz when the snow melts.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Tuesday night at Rogate
Well, I finally got the bottle up to nail the big double at Rogate. Took my full face lid for a bit of extra confidence, had a warm up on the 2 smaller doubles and the step up then had it. First one was shady-no style and I hung up but by the 4th I think I had it sussed, gonna try and get some style out next time! looks small on film as usual! paced her out at 5 1/2 bike lengths
Parapenting
Here's me strapped on like a sack of spuds-great fun. Little bit scary running at a cliff edge 20 feet away!!
San Sebastian Olidays
It's catch up time-yes I'm doing all my posts at once just to well and truly screw up the timeline!! haha
We have also just been on a lovely 2 weeker to Itzi's home town of San Sebastian. I must say I was very impressed-2 awesome beaches, 1 very clean, cultured and hip city, surrounding by mountains between 500 and 1400m resembling the lake district in appearance-Shame it's 400,000 for a 2 bed flat!
We had the Pompey crowd over for the easter weekend which mainly involved 5am nights out, loads of Ron and then mucking about on the beach. Even felt lively enough one day to get out on a board-which fairly quickly saw me frozen and full of water!! Me and Itzi then did a bit of biking, a bit of beaching, lots of eating and visiting friends and family followed by a jump off a cliff on the last day-strapped to Itzi's mate Musti and his parachute of course!!
thats me in the middle about to get munched-haha!!!!!!!!!
We have also just been on a lovely 2 weeker to Itzi's home town of San Sebastian. I must say I was very impressed-2 awesome beaches, 1 very clean, cultured and hip city, surrounding by mountains between 500 and 1400m resembling the lake district in appearance-Shame it's 400,000 for a 2 bed flat!
We had the Pompey crowd over for the easter weekend which mainly involved 5am nights out, loads of Ron and then mucking about on the beach. Even felt lively enough one day to get out on a board-which fairly quickly saw me frozen and full of water!! Me and Itzi then did a bit of biking, a bit of beaching, lots of eating and visiting friends and family followed by a jump off a cliff on the last day-strapped to Itzi's mate Musti and his parachute of course!!
thats me in the middle about to get munched-haha!!!!!!!!!
Very late Lakes post!!
Right here it is-few weeks back me and Itzi went up to Gav's secret cottage to catch the last of the snow. In summary amazing cottage, and a very hectic walk up Scafell. Went up the foxes tarn path from the Eskdale valley which was beautiful until we got to the steep chute up to the tarn-glad I took the rope, crampons etc-thats all I'm saying! Then rushed round and down from the summit as it was freezing, a complete white out and blowing icy wind in our faces....Cracking stuff. We followed this with a very chilled low level walk and a pub lunch the next day :-)
Ronnies!!!!!!!!
Ronnies!!!!!!!!
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