Daryl's post

Daryl went to Chamonix and will do a post at some point.


Here is the idiot himself.


Above Cham.

Word from the front line.

In a recent email, the boy Beadle wrote:

'Looking forward to some sun and getting back on the bike, trying to decide what sort of steed to get for out here, think I might keep the Kona for XC and get a monster for riding the downhills.'

What a bummer life is, living in Morzine and having a Chalet... ohh well...

Back on th bike!

Its got a bit milder this week and my mate from MK, Dave 'Dubs' Wilson has just bought a new bike to see if he likes the riding lark, after taking a back seat from high speed and dangerous skiing...



He got a Patriot, more from a financial perspective than anything else (as they are dirt cheap) and whilst not the best trail bike, it will get him started. So anyway, we headed out for a chilled little pedal at Woburn to test the new steed and see if my collar bone is up to riding again! Because its a big bike, I forgot that Dubs is new to all this and blatted off down some of the short downhills with the advice of 'don't go off the drops'. Dubs did admirably well but best enjoyed a nice bit of trail that we rode after the downhills. Orange 5 is what this lad needs!



Good to be out again and glad that I've not lost it all completely. Went for a big-ish (for me) run this morning as the Silverstone Half Marathon is a week next Sunday and the training is just about scraping together! Felt absolutely beat after it, but managed just over 8 miles in 1hr 17mins with coaxing from Ant. Knee is quite painful still...


My poor feet, about to hurt!

Flash, Bang Wollop...

What a picture. What a photograph. Sunday found Jon, Ant and I wandering around the Focus on Imaging show, staring wide eyed at all the lecherous old men wagging long lenses at anything female and going phwoaaarrr! Awful. Anyway, I've never been to one of these things before and it was a mixed bag.






Something way over there must be REALLY interesting!


Need I say more...

Good to have a look at lots of expensive stuff that none of us can afford. Geek tastic.

Auron 2009

Massive amounts of snow met us as we wove our way up the road from Nice to the resort of Auron in the Alpes Maritimes and we were met by a round about that looked like a cake.



After my recent fall, I was set to take things very easy, but after a tentative first day of riding, it seemed as if my knee was ok and Steffi and I had some really nice runs, cruising around the place. The off piste potential is huge here and its dead quiet. We kept things respectable and went really fast every where as it stayed bright and cold.







The only bummer was that Steffi's binding had an intermittent problem which caused her to go splat on her face and gave her a big nasty bruise on her leg and a stiff neck. Basically, a quick release clip to re-size the binding for different size boots was coming undone, releasing her ski and depositing her on her face. Very lucky that it happened when she was going reasonably slowly as we had been tanking around the place at full tilt. Turns out they had been recalled in the USA...






Silly chops.

Snow was deep, about 3m at the top and the normally head high signs were at knee level. Spot on.

Anyway, we all had a brilliant week and enjoyed some superb weather which burnt our faces well and truly. Last day was spent sitting soaking up the sun in almost beach like heat.

Patchy Repairs...

Snow has gone (only just) so we are off to find some more! Steffi and I are off to Auron in France for a few days on the slopes with Joy and Jerry. It will be a bit touch and go for me, as my knee is still a bit sore in certain movements - going to play it by ear and not over do things! Good snow out there apparently, with snow forecast giving 2m in the village and three at the top!

After consultation with the main man of knowledge, I've made repairs to my waterproofs following the accident. I've got quite into sewing (!) - the rip stop nylon kite tape and my secret extra ingredient have made for good repairs to the big crampon and rock rips. Big thanks to James Linford for the tip! The Big Walls Live!



Hoping to get back out on the bike after next week and also start to run again. Half marathon is on the 15th March!!!

Wow!! Snow!!! Like, WOW!!

Or something. Anyway, Steffi's school was closed today, so as we were up at the normal time, we went and played in the dawn snow before everyone else ruined it! Greedy old us.

Minou was fascinated and it came up to her tummy. We had about 4 inches in MK this morning and I had to help dig out Ant's car AND push him onto the road so he could get to work. Ahh the dis-advantage of 'working' from home.

Anyway, here are the pics:


Back Garden. Looking better than ever as you can't see the mud!


The street.


Grand Union Canal.


Confused sheep.


Freddy Mercury dropped by...


Big paws.

A little something...

Bit of camera compilation...


A lil Summuit >>

Big Thanks

One week after our accident, Daryl and I are feeling a bit more human, I think, and recovering from the bruising well - the good news is that Daryl's op went well. A massive thanks to the Mountain Rescue teams that helped us off the hill in such appalling conditions.

The main aim now is to recover and try and run the Edinburgh marathon in May to raise funds for MR. Training will resume as soon as I can stand on my heel!

Dave

Morzine New Year

After a wicked time at Christmas, seeing family and catching up with old friends, a few of us headed out to see Chris and Kate at Mountain Spaces, staying in the apartment below their Chalet, for New Year! Bob is also out there and we managed to hook up with him a few times too...

We've been away again

So, freshly back from a week in Morzine, they'll be lots of pics and stories to tell.







More posts to follow once everyone's recouped from the marathon drive back to the UK last night

Works, Burbage and Foundry...

A slightly hungover Gav joined me in MK, before driving North to Shef, to squeeze in some pre-Christmas activity of the climbing sort. We'd originally planned to climb Mam Tor gulley on Sunday, but shelved that for later, with more people.

Sat evening saw us down at the Works, having a bit of a bouldering session and me still very much recovering from my hacking cold/cough (actually have been coughing up blood and what can only be described as 'skin', or lung... not nice). Good fun as always.



Then back to see Jen and off to sleep as we were both shattered!

Next morning, we were up bright and early and at Burbage North for 09:20. Windy, and very overcast, but not too cold, so after a false start when Gav realised he'd left his rock boots in the car, we were off! The rock was slightly greasy and green in the shaded bits, but mostly ok. As a result, we were limiting our selves to low grade v.diffs and Gav had a good go at his first lead, which was almost successful, but needed a pretty bold finish for the grade, which I ended up leading - probably the fist multipitch 12m route ever!





Anyway all was fun and you really got a wind blasting as you came over the top of the routes! Then it started raining and we did our last route in waterfall conditions which was novel. Soggily, we retired to Jen's for tea and to dry off, before heading back out to the Foundry for a bit more action. Not very much, mind as we were now knackered!




Off home and it took me four hours to get back as they'd shut the M1! Rubbish! Nice one G+J good fun before Skiing next week! CAN'T WAIT!

Happy Crimbo, one and all!

This is good:

http://www.snowzone.fr/video/Vids_2008/Rockon_teaser1.mov

thats all you need to know....

Sheffield scramble.

With beautiful sunny weather and a slightly under the weather Daryl, we got out early on Saturday to have a go at Elbow ridge, a limestone diff route in a gorge in the Peaks.


Route outline of traverse in red.

Its quite a strange little gorge type affair, with a road running through it and strange limestone cliffs and stacks running up the sides. Having driven past it an had a recce, it didn't look too bad at all, but with a cold night, the air and ground were frostly and the downward sloping rock was a touch slippery, making for an interesting bit of a climb.

Pitch one was the sketchiest for Daryl, as we'd roped up in a three but forgotten the rack, so only had slings for protection, which was not really any protection, at all!



There was one crux move on this pitch, which would have resulted in a nasty fall if not careful, but Daryl got through it to a good belay and brought us both up nicely.
Then it was the start of the traverse, which was good fun, if not a bit undignified - the ridge is quite thin and its safest at some points to 'ride' it by straddling your legs either side for secure progress. Some of it was done on two legs, but there was a lot of unorthodox technique being employed!










We did this traverse in two pitches due to rope lengths and the moving in threes (which was a first for us and good practice), finishing up on a grassy ledge on the other side. After which, we avoided the v.diff continuation because of lack of gear, and scrambled up to one side of the Matterhorn Ridge, topping out for a photo and discussion of a thoroughly enjoyable route.

After getting down, it was off to lunch with the girls and hook up with Jim and Sarah, who'd come up from London on the train. After lots of pizza, the boys headed off to the Works bouldering wall, to embarrass ourselves and have some fun trying their routes. Its such a good wall, with loads of cool stuff, tea and all sorts. It very nearly got off to a bad start as paying on my card, a machine error nearly debited £65,000 of my account, rather than the £6.50 it should have been. Luckily avaided at the last mo! Price of climbing walls has gone through the roof!












Anyway, we all had a good time and polished off a few nice routes before heading back to meet Rich, Anna and some more locals for food and Wii games at Jen's. All in all, I'm absolutely stuffed senseless!





Thanks for a wicked weekend and get well soon Dr Jen!!!!

NEWS FLASH!

Watch out, 'cos we've revolutionised the look of this here badboy. We are reverting to some kinda basic layout type thingy - it may be long or short term. I'm not in control, Gav is. Basically we can now receive abuse on the comments front. Anyway, we will have a tinker over the next few weeks.




Can't wait to get out to France over New Year to see Chris and Kate and shred up the pow all extreme-like. etc.

Dave

Pedal!!

Last weekend saw the Hong Kong 24hr PedalKart race, a great event with about 50 entries competing to see who could clock the most laps of an 800m track over the course of the day. My school entered 5 trusty steeds, including our elite ride with carbon-kevlar shell and everything. We didn't win any speed prizes this year, but got the best team trophy for having the, er, best team. Cathay Pacific won overall, they were machines! But we had better t-shirts.

Looking forward to catching up at Christmas - back to blighty on Saturday 20th.