Well somewhere along the line I've made it onto a climbing team. I'm now (along with a few of my friends) on the Never Descend Climbing Team (check out their website here). I'm definitely not the hardest climber in the world but I am pretty active which is probably why I've ended up on there.
Never Descend is a small climbing company that's been set up Sam Morley. He's really keen to develop products that climber use and need, rather than are mass produced to meet some marketing criteria. So far he's been asking us (being a large group of climbers from the stoke area, via facebook) about different bits of kit that just aren't out there on the market.
I've finally managed to get myself a laptop of my own sorted. This is a pretty big thing as not having a computer has felt a little like I've been missing a limb some days. It also means that I can start shooting short climbing films again. I've even managed to borrow a small HD camera and second tripod for my trip to Devon next week. With Stuart bringing along his camera as well and 3 days of sea cliff climbing, it should make for some pretty good footage and hopefully a half decent short film. It's nice to have something to work on.
As I just mentioned above I'll be climbing in Devon next week, if all goes to plan (and by that I mean it doesn't rain!). The plan has stemmed from another friend trying to organise a roadtrip down through Devon, round cornwall and then back along the south coast to finish at Portland. This would have been an awesome trip, but sadly he never really got round to organising it in full. It's still in the idea phase. Undeterred, but a little strapped for time Stuart and I hashed out a plan to go climbing in Devon, based around him wanting to do Kinky Boots. I don't know why but I've been looking forward to this trip so much recently. It'll all be sea cliff climbing and the Culm coast has a bit of a reputation for being loose, which is something that I highly value in a route (probably thanks to Soames; "the 4 qualities"). The current plan is to start south, at Bude and one of the cliffs around there and then work our way up the coast, finishing at Baggy Point. I've been to Baggy before and loved it. That trip resulted in "A Cornish Adventure" part 1 & part 2. It is literally only now I've realized that we weren't in Cornwall. I've pretty much been wanting to get back down to Devon since that trip.
To make this a little more interesting, we've no camping booked. The reason being that it's bloody expensive to camp down there. Both of us would rather spend the time cooking on the beach and then having to find a roadside to sleep at. It's pretty much how we operated on our alps trip (which was with Dan and not Stuart) and it worked out well. And as I've mentioned the alps...
I'm going to Ecrins with Soames on the 18th! Soames, who've never done any alpine climbing before asked me in January I think if I'd like to go to the Alps in the summer. He fancies doing some longer routes, right in the mountains. With little snow and ice experience, we're leaving the crampons and tools behind in favor of some sun-kissed rock, baguettes and french cheeses. Flying has was never really an option for us and be both pack a little heavy and enjoy a little more comfort (we even have a camp table) so we were going to train it over. Now car has replaced train and I'm not looking forward to the 12 hour drive. I'll be happier having the car though, as it'll give us some more options to move around. We're going back to the same area in Ecrins I went to last time, La Berade so at least I'll be going somewhere that I've been before.
So the next few weeks should be good!
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