Chamonix 4.5 (Thoughts on Frendo Spur)

Looking back: Thoughts on Frendo Spur.

[If the terms “Engineer” and “Artist” make no sense then that's ok. It means you'll have to read through a book by Mark Twight called Extreme Alpinism. Other than being full of useful information based on his own experiences, it's full of stories and opinions in a blunt and witful style that makes it a fantastic read, especially seeing as it could be quite a boring textbook on alpinsim]

The Engineer

It's seem like all the route we've done up to this one have been training for Frendo. I'd like to think when I look back that Frendo itself was used a training for bigger and better things. Through out each trip into the mountains I've been doing little things like keeping an eye on how much gas we've used so that I don't over prepare, making note of what gear was actually used and what was just left in the pack (like my down jacket, which was left behind) and how much I need to keep on top of a mirad on little things that don't seem important at the time, but in the long run are important... like drinking and eating.

We did almost everything right on Frendo down to spending weeks before hand training up on other routes, constantly getting used to different snow conditions throughout the days, carrying almost only what we needed. We're almost on first name terms with the guides at their office in Chamonix (they have a funny smile, which seems to say “oh no, here come those British Lads again” every time we walk in) after going in over and over to ask about conditions and routes. Hell, this was my 5^th proper alpine route and Andy's 4^th and he's ony been ice climbing since Easter this year! We were lucky with our ascent, not because we needed to be but because we prepared for it correctly.

I don't think it was all a fairy tale ascent though. We didn't drink enough water (barely 1.5 litres each) throughout the day and by the end of it we were both lagging and suffering with dehydration. It also meant that we had to force loads of water down our necks at the bivi. Eating was another issue, but in an odd way. We had surplus food by the time we'd finished which meant that on both days we'd not eaten enough during the day. I know day one seemed to consist of a couple of bars of chocolate, some goats cheese and half a pack of Frites (the cheapest of sweets from Super-U). Day 2 wasn't much different after we'd had breakfast as it was back to the frites from me and virtually nothing for Andy. It's just a small thing to remember for next time I'm climbing. I'll make sure I'll put me food and water in the top of my pack so that I have them ready to hand at each belay or whenever we stop.

I know some people will think it quite sad that I do this after each route, sit down and analyse the climb to see what I could have done better but I don't care. I like to think of each climb as a learning experience (some can be a lot of steeper than others!) and being able to do this might just make me a better performing, safe and faster climber.

The Artist

Looking back how was the route; what did I enjoy and what didn't I enjoy? The first isn't hard to answer at all. The ice on day 2 was my favourite part of the whole experience, made all the better after spending the night on the ledge and watching the sun go down. We'd spent hours deciding whether to go left or right for days really, but in the end right was the obvious choice as far as I was concerned, it stay in the shade till later and was longer, longer being important. I don't get to climb as much ice as I'd like so when I do I'll take the opportunity. Climbing ice is so unbelievably simple, from climbing it to belaying on it to everything about it (ok, I know it's not actually “simple” but compared to technical rock climbing it is). Everything in my mind quiet, like some form of bizarre meditation where all I can here is the screaming of my various muscles (mostly my calves). The screaming sounds like the noise at the end of a tunnel though, it doesn't realy bother the solace in my mind.

The other side of it is when the ice meets the rock. Then the mind is focused, so much on a point (literally sometimes on the point of my axe or crampon) that everything is still silent. I have no worries, no cares, no concerns . Whatever is going on in the rest of my life. The climbing is suddenly engaging, like climbing a steep slab where at any moment your foot could go... but instead it's somethings all your points of connection. Working out how I'm going to haul myself up some steep groove with weird cracks and small amounts of ice just mentally sandblasts me. It feels like my mind has been cleaned out and all the little things don't matter.

Sadly you can't stay up there forever and sooner or later the rope pulls tight at your waste. It's the end of the line and the pitch is over. In the smallest way it's back to reality but you know there'll be another pitch. When the climb is over is when I get really sad. You just don't know when the next one will be.

Oddly enough it was the rock climbing on the first day that I enjoyed the least. There is plenty of rock in England and I get to climb on a lot of it but there's not much ice and mixed. I spent most of the time thinking “once this rock is over then it'll be back to ice and possibly mixed, just keep climbing and waiting”. That's probably quite a sad way to view it but it was just a means to an end. I like rock climbing when it's challenging. 

New DMM stuff...

It seems that every blog I've read over the last few days has has news of the new kit that DMM is producing. There's a link to a low resolution PDF here and I feel I should write at least something. I've had a good look at the PDF and discussed it with quite a few friends and I've come to a few conclusions about all this new kit. 

It's not all that new, which isn't such a bad thing. Maybe they've done a lot of market research and have come to the conclusion that producing products tailored to the need of people is the best way forward... I mean they are trying to make some money at the end of the day. So we've a load of new axes, which look a lot like some models already on the market (one looks rather like a Petzl Nomic) or following a general trend (like people retrofitting pinky rest's onto their DMM flys). I think that the coloured screwgates are just simply a nice idea. They sort of go against a few things I follow when buying gear (like buy nothing for a specific job and try to make sure everything has more than one use). But having brightly coloured 'biners could make arranging clustered belays better. Something simple like having one person attached by a red 'biner and another by a blue. I figure that they'll probably be more useful for people workin' in the outdoor industry that you're average weekend warrior bumblie.

As for the Demon Cams, well what can I say? Shamelessly filling the gap left in the market by WC not continuing to produce WC friends, but with a little extra in the way of an extend able sling. Hell yeah! In fact the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. There are a lot of people out there who'll like the idea of being able to buy a replacement size cam when their Friends tire out, especially when it'll be the same size cam lobes. I know they look a little crappy, but DMM must have loads of lobes left over and there seems to be a split in what people buy (single or double stem cams) and DMM have covered both of these markets.

I do like the look of the terrier and if I climbed enough in winter I'd be buying one. It does scream a little of something Andy K said a couple of years ago, just sayin' like.

waiting for winter...

This time last year I'd actually got a few routes in before one of my yearly trips to scotland. I have to say that I'm still pretty psyched to get out enough if I've spent most of the winter season so far climbing the frozen waterfalls of my mind. I'm getting a little frustrated. 

I've cleaned all my winter climbing gear. The other day I got my crampons out to give them a service, inspection and a sharpen. They really needed it after last winter too. My Super12's sadly are showing some pretty bad signs of wear & tear. I did buy them off the UKC forums for £25 posted about 4 years ago, so I can't say they've 1 had a bad life and 2 or that I'm disspointed in them. They've seen me up various different routes from all kinds of different grades. I like them because they're light and simple, great for throwing my my pack when I don't expect to encounter any hard or mixed conditions. It seems like they'll be retired for a few weeks now until I can effect a repair that'll work. In the mean time it looks like I'm be bumbling around on my G14's, which despite being really heavy are pretty bombproof. Thing is I've got them set up on monopoints and I can't a arsed to faff around changing them. 

I also packed up my pack for a couple of days winter overnighting this year. The plan for this years scotland trip is to bumble up to scotland, and they travel from pub/climbing area and have a bit of a road trip/chasing the decent conditions out of the back of my car. With 9 days to play with and only 2 of those actually with a definite roof over our heads it'll be an interesting trip to say the least. I think I planning on packing something like 3 sleeping bags with me.

But I packed up an overnight bag with full winter rack, tent, stove and sleeps stuff (you know all the crap you need) into one bag just to see how much it would weigh. After carrying it around the house for 5 minutes I came to the conclusion that it needs to be lighter, much lighter. So I'm going through each item and seeing trying to work out if I'll need it or if there is a lighter option. Gear is something I can get really hung-up on and I find this to be really sad as it takes away from climbing and mountaineering for me. I know this is almost a social faux pas in alot of climbign circles, where what gear you seem to be using is as important as what you're actually climbing (I know quite a few climbers who seem to operate the other way round on this point). All the b/s surrounding gear in general seems to increase tenfold in reference to winter gear!.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter that I've not got the lightest, most ergonomically designed axes, or the lightest crampon/boot combination. I simply can't afford to pay for the lightest climing gear out there. I prefere something that'll last more than one season (especially when the price tag is so normally large) opting for indestructable gear, which has easily replacable and repairable parts rather than something that super fast and light... and gets destroyed after an impromptu sack haul. 

So below there is a photo I took out of Alpine Climbing: Techniques to take you higher. I'm probably breaching copyright by it's too good not to share. I think what I'm trying to get at is that climbing should be about the climbing an experience, not what gear you've got.

Offsets and tri-cams...

I wrote a post a while back about DMM alloy offset nuts and whether or not I was missing out. In the weeks since I've borrowed my partners set of 5 offsets and made a real effort to look for placements and place them. For the short period they stayed on my rack (before they had to be returned) I tried to turn to them first and found myself using them all up on most of the pitches of mountain rock I climbed.

I figured that I better report back as to my conclusions at this moment in time. Before I had a set of offset nuts, I never really found myself wanting and needing to place them. I know there are some devout (some would consider almost zealous) followers of offset nut's who'll tell you that you need them on your rack and that for every parallel sided placement there'll be an million offset placements but thats simply not true. I will accept that there are tonnes of offset placements out there, but (and this is the crucial point) if you don't carry offset nuts (or normally carry them) , or are used to parrellel sided nuts you and you're good climber who is used to using thier own rack, you'll simply bypass offset placements in favour of one that you're rack will fit.

Now this would seem obvious. If you don't use a piece of gear, then how are you supposed to get (or at least understand) the benefits that piece can bring. When I returned said offsets I did for a while keep looking for offset placements and then had to bypass them in favour of one that my rack would fit so there hasn't really been a loss in this experiment. But there has been one significant gain, a change in my opinion.

About 4 years ago I read about tri-cams for winter climbing. I then aquired a set and took them out during my first season. Needless to say I was unimpressed. I found them fiddly and awkward to place and they never turned out to be my first choice piece of gear. I've got a couple more winter seasons under my belt now, and I find myself missing out on the cam placements I bypass in winter alot. Coming into winter from a rock climbing back ground means that I do really miss out when I'm carrying a smaller rack. I'm just used to so much more gear. Carrying cams is something I really miss out on in winter, but I just can't justify the weight of them and time needed to place them.

There is of course an obvious solution. Actually there are several obvious solutions, the first being to stop whining. There were people climbing the routes I've done with nowt but a single alpenstock and homemade crampons, so what am I complaining for. The other solution is to find a camming device that is light weight and supposedly better in iced up cracks... tri-cams.

So I've been carrying them on my rack for the past few weeks doing the esotertic routes with Rachel and took them with us this weekend to wales. It takes a real effort to force myself to actually place them because I'm just so unused to using them but I can say that they've been a astounding success so far. I've been using them both passively and cammed in an effort to sort of intergrate them into my rack and I hope they'll get alot more use this winter too.

The New Slate Guide... finally!

Long have I been waiting for the new slate guide to come out. Long enough actually for me to appreciate how good my old '92 slate guide is... and it's additional purple folder! Allow me to explain. I'm only a youngster when it comes to slate. To be honest I've only been climbing for the last 9 years or so of my life (climbing has seemed to dominate those years though) but I've been climbing on the slate for something like the last 3, but I've loved it. I actually recently fell out of love with that series of big purple-hued-grey holes in the ground that surround Llanberis because I'd reached bit of a ceiling. It wasn't that I'd climbed all the routes in there that I could climb, but more like I wasn't inspired to climb them. Soames a few months ago came along and changes all that by getting me the crux of Khubla Khan (I got rained off and I've not been back). But my love of that slatey goodess is back.

When the new guide was announced last week, Soames was the first person to tell me about it.I followed the progress of V12 in getting the order and when a chance came to head to wales climbing for the weekend, I jumped at it. My first impressions of the guide after a brief flick through were that I was impressed. It was clear that a lot of work had gone into this book, and judging by it's thickness (compared to the last guide) there would be a host of new routes and topo's in there. But wait a minute, why has it taken so long for the slate guide to be released. I think that there are a few reasons, well two really. There has been considerable development in the past couple of years throughout the quarries. If you've been following the slate wiki then you'll have seen routes going up all over the place. I guess that they've been trying to grade check all of them. The other reason for the held release date, I think, is the access situation. During the filming of "Clash of the Titans" we can all remember the quarries being closed. Also there was a few incidents with Dali's Hole. This eventually calmed down once the fence went up and the low grade sport routes were taken down (I still think this is a good thing). 


Sadly quarry access is something I've been following with a little interest (primarily because I like climbing there and don't fancy the idea of being banned) but seeing as a lot of investment (both financial and time) has gone into this guidebook, it makes more sense to release it when the access situation is good. Seeing as winter is coming and autumn generally has rather poor weather the quarries will take a beating this time of year. With the release of a new guide, how many people do you think will flock there? I just hope that access is sorted.




Things that hit me straight away are the excellent photographs throughout the book, seemingly the same construction (and therefore quality) as the Gogarth North and North Wales Rock guidebooks. The guidebook construction is something I'll tackle later and good pictures don't make a guide. Having said that I was so please when I opened it and started reading. The best place to start is the beginning and the opening sections about what slate it like as a rock type and what gear to carry I thought were very well put (it did recomment skyhooks as fair gear but mainly useful for bailing in the rain). Then each section is well described (like each area of the quarries). The maps are well drawn and seem pretty simple to use (although this might be a little biased as I know my way round the quarries pretty well). I plan on testing this when I go slate climbing with someone who not been there and make them find the route.


What really impressed me was that the main wall of Twll Mawr, Gideon and the Nant Peris quarries (heaven forbid you'd want to climb there!) had decent topos and frank but excellent descriptions. Twll Mawr really does come across as the very dangerous but equally fascinating place to climb and the Gideon Slab actually looks like I'll be able to climbing on it finally (I've never been able to work out where any of the lines go based on the old descriptions). 


The grading seems to be pretty good throughout the quarries. There haven't been that many grade revisions or changes (from sport/trad etc) but the ones that have I've ran over with Soames (who may as well own the quarries as he's climbed there so much) and he agreed with them. Interestingly there's routes in there graded with British Trad, French spot, Drytooling, Aid climbing (mit peggage) and Clean aid climbing. There's still a good few routes as the magically enticing grade of XS and they've still include the obscure alpine grade of ABO for one route. I don't know why but I like this. I really seems to show the broad diversity of climbing in the slate quarries, which is something I like about them and should stay. I think there's enough rock in there that you don't need to retrobolt every route going. The specific style of traditional slate climbing is so important to maintain and (and I'll make a big claim here) so unique to the British climbing scene. 

Next along the line of things I feel the need to comment on is the historical section. If you read anything I've written about guidebooks before then you'll know my stance with regards to the historical sections. They are important. They stop climbing being reduced down to a number and a grade and keep the flow of stories and history behind each route alive. Since the slate quarries are relatively young (with regards to a lot of the mountain crags in North Wales) they're history is 1, quite well recorded and 2, quite brief and 3, a lot of the people around in the original boom are still alive. The guidebook itself doesn't really have a dedicated history section, instead preferring to spread the history out over the book. These come in the form of "Diary of a Slatehead". These little diary style entries look back at how little sections of the quarries were developed and who put up what routes. Coupled with a sort of "Character Profile" of prolific slateheads throughout the book this gives a great overall history of the quarries and an insight into the driving force behind their development.


Wow! that's a lot of writing about one guidebook but I guess you can imagine that I've been waiting along time for this to come out. Slate climbing is something special and I think on the new guidebook they've done a really good job!

DMM offsets. Am I missing something?

My rack consists of a hodge-podge of gear, especially my wires. I mean they seem to consist of a wires picked up from here there and everywhere. I think something like a third of them have actually been found rather than actually brought. I think the problem began when I first started buying a rack and I brought something like 1 or 2 nuts each week in a effort to build it up with each paycheck. At the time I didn't really know any better and a nut was a nut as far as I was concerned. Over time my rack grew and I eventually forked out for a set of decent nuts, metolius curve nuts. Not the lightest nut on the market (at the time) but they looked different and I was willing to try them out (plus they came with a free nuts key, back when they were cheap). Having used both DMM wallnuts and WC rocks before it was a welcome change to use the curve nuts.

Over time my rack grew still. I doubled up on a few sizes of curve nuts and replaced things a I dropped, bailed or welded them into place. Eventually my defining feature for what nut I'd buy was the price because well curve nuts had gone expensive and wallnuts/rock were cheap. My rack of wires now sits at around 40 depending on the last count. At least 9 of these nuts have been found over the years and at least 9 are also small wires, either made in brass just really tiny (that are sub about 3kn). 

I actually own a few specifically offset nuts, 3 brass offsets (the smallest sizes) and a yellow alloy offset. Again price was the defining feature in thier purchase (alloy) and because I couldn't find anything smaller (brass). But I've still never found myself wanting an offset nut. What am I missing? Offset nuts seem to have a sort fo cult following in the British climbing world. I know quite alot of people who swear by them. In fact it really annoys me when people start recommending them to new climbers, raving on about how awesome they are. I think part of the problem (my lack of offset nut love) comes from having WC single wires (slightly offset in shape) and the Curve nuts that make for the basic of my rack. 

I'm still not sure whether I'm missing out of something revolutionary, but with 40 wires on my rack (that I can't seem to trim down) I can't really afford to add another 5 heavy offsets. 

Helium Friends? were they worth making?

Since the patent came up on double axel cams there seems to have been a minor revolution within the cam market. It seemed very much 5 years ago that the British market was dominated by DMM 4cus, Wild Country Tech Friends and then BD camalots. This wasn't a bad thing as each offered a significant difference when compared to the others. 4cu's had extendable slings, useful to those hardcore trad climbers but wanted to save weight. BD camalot had increased range and there for usefulness. Tech Friends it seems just sort of set the bar as to what a decent cam should be.

Then the patent went [on double axel designs] and it's sort of opened the doors for a wide range of new cams. It's not just the patent going world wide either, but little things like CCH Aliens which stopped being shipped to Britain leaving a gap in the market place for the microcam market to develop. Wild Country Zeros and Metolius Master Cams have a new lease of life and seem to be doing well, but it's DMM who really hit the nail on the head.

BD camalots are good. No-one can ignore it. They have a smooth action, they are reasonable stable. They're made with hard wearing components. DMM dragon cams are just even better. They have the same smooth action, but are lighter. The metal and plastic components are hard wearing but the slings are made of dyneema. Is this a big problem? no! because DMM have offered to resling the cams as and when needed. They also have an extendable sling, something that is a real benefit for trad climbers in Britain. At places like gogarth where routes wander all over the place, lessening rope drag is a real bonus. I like dragon cam, I think they are a really well though out product.

I thought I was a die hard wild country tech friend advocate. I've got like 11 of them, all battered and scratched, most with repaired cables (one with a paper clip) and 1 with a tied cord as the sling worn out. I thought that I'd never replace them, until a climbing partner left one in a belay and it was never seen again. I'm not laying it on, but it was my favourite cam. It was my red size 2, the one I'd carry everywhere. I can still see the pattern of scratched on the lobes of the cam. Meh, it's gone but instead on missing n old friend (literally!) I took this opportunity to try something new, and cheaper. 

I brought a red dragon cam. It's awesome, simply awesome. I don't need to say anything else. When I retire my tech friends, or loose them, I'll just replace them with dragon cams. It is really that simple. They are also light enough I'd carry them in winter. 

The thing is, DMM have clearly put alot of thought into the dragon cam. BD clearly though long and hard about the Camalot and the old tech friend just sets the bar for what a good cam should really be like. The new helium cams just look crap. They don't strike me as a great step forward in cam production. For the same weight you can get the equivalent size Dragon. They feel clunky and heavy. They don't have such a smooth action and the thing that is most annoying? It just looks like Wild Country have just on the hot forging band wagon (following DMM) and made forged cam lobes and then stuck them on a BD camalot stem. 

All I'm saying is, was it really worth putting the money into developing them, let alone trying to sell them?

bitter and twisted...

It's been an interesting weekend, and seeing as it's sunday and I'm blogging then you'll probably be able to guess that 1, it's raining and 2, I'm not out climbing. This isn't a bad thing as I don't mind taking weekends off climbing (especially for other fun stuff, walking, scrambling, friends birthdays etc) but this weekend I decided that a session at Awesome Walls in Stoke would be appropriate, hell I just needed to kill some time and catch up with alot of people who I've not seen for ages. 

The session was going pretty well. I've had a twinge in my third finger (left hand) that I've been watching of late and I've kept taping it up when I've been bouldering and climbing indoors. I say being careful but clearly I wasn't being careful enough as it snapped. Thats basically the sum of it. I was on a pockety route and cranked really hard on pulling up on 2 fingers (one obviously being my bad finger) and there was a grotesque snapping/breaking sound and I promptly fell off ( I was like a ft off the floor too because it was a sit start). The pain was immediate and strong. It felt like I'd snapped a bone in my finger. I muss have looked in pain as even Toaf stopped bouldering and we went and got some ice. Since then it's been iced and strapped to my other finger because I don't know what to do about it... Well I didn't until I spoke to Soames. So it'll be off to the docters tomorrow morning for me and then hopefully to hospital for an x-ray and they'll tell me that I'm just being a big jessie.

So for the moment I'm feeling very sorry for myself, but on the upside I'm actually quite psyched because having a painful finger will put shot to any obessive hard climbing and grade chasing, something I could probably do with. I had an awesome time the other weekend just climbing was was (for me) easier routes but being out in the mountains and spending time biving and walking. I think just being in the mountains and chilling out might do my finger some good.

Annoyingly I did pick up some 60metre Beal Icelines which are practically new. They've been used for 1 route (Idwal Stream) which I did with Holloway the guy I brought them off. They are a much needed replacement for my current Half ropes, a pair og Mammut Genesis. These ropes are far beyond being decomissioned but they are starting to show some wear and are about 4 years old. They've had a good life, and hard use and I'd recommend anyone wanting a do anything (from grit outcrops, mountain routes to sea cliffs) to invest in a pair. 

So much for a summer of climbing hard, eh?

more smocks...

About 2008 I brought a RAB VP trail jacket. At the time I was mainly bumbling around in the mountains training for my ML and single pitch climbing. I didn't really know what a soft-shell was but I knew that something soft, warm, water-resistant and windproof would fit the bill. This is how I ended up with a VR jacket, up until I brought a Paramo Smock this has been my single most useful outdoor jacket. 

But times change and my use for a piece of mountain clothing has differed. I like a smock because I spend most of my time in a harness and in a single item of clothing. I'm not too big on the whole layering thing and taking off layers when I'm hot and adding them when I'm cold. This stems from a couple of things. One reason is because I just don't carry a host of fleeces, base layers, windstoppers, jackets and waterproofs out in the mountains. This leads onto the second reason, you can't carry a flippin' change of clothes up routes with you. At most you can carry a belay jacket and this luxury is reserved for winter rock climbing. Instead if I'm hot I unzip everything and vent (something the paramo jacket is good at) if I'm cold I zip everything up (de-vent) and snuggle down in what ever jacket I've got on, hell I might even add a scarf and a woolly hat if it's really cold.

So seeing as I stay in a my outer layer pretty much all the time the paramo jacket has been great. It's warm, really ventable and really hardwearing. That hasn't stopped it getting trashed in the 6 months I sort of constantly worn it like some kind fo second skin. Its been caving, cragging, sea cliffs, dragged dropped, sat on, used as a pillow. It's had a good life and still has years of life left in it.

But I got a new smock the other, and I paid well nothing for it. A friend of mine has a VR smock (in "breaking and entering black") which he never actually wears because he dislikes the smock format. I have a VR jacket that I've retired because it's been surpassed by a new smock. A trade was done and a new smock was aquired! It's like recycling but better!

So a new jacket and a new day's climbing. I spent at 2 little locations in the Peak. The first was Aldery Cliff, which was the subject of a UKC forum debate a few weeks ago. Apparently the entire crag is too overgrown, the lower off's are old and dangerous and the whole place needs the loose rock removed and a good garden. The poster wanted a clean up of the crag and then instead of tied lower offs on trees and spikes new double bolt belays or sport style lower offs should be put in place. But wait there is more! He also wants the "poorer" trad lines to be bolted as this will encourage people to do them and make the venue more popular.

I'm not sure if people are familiar with Aldery cliff but it's a small place on the inside of a bend. It has traditionally been worked for aggregates (it's a limestone quarry) so there is a little loose rock and the right hand side of the crag is reasonably unstable but looking past these little problems what you've actually got is an excellent litle cliff with several mid grade trad routes on, on slabby limestone. Something of an oddity in the PD me thinks! Having been there this weekend I'll conceed that a crag clean-up might be aappropriate as there is chest height nettles all over the place. Several of the walls needs garden and a but of a scrub but all in all it's in pretty good nick. As for the lower-offs, well there are as good as can be expected. If you're trad climbing there anyway you'll be using them as abseil points, instead of lower-offs and if you're capable of climbing up to them, then you should be able to rig a backed up abseiled to test the old tat. 

As far as bolting the "poorer" lines goes to hell with that. This place needs no bolts. I don't see how bolting a poor climb will improve it. 

Other than that I had an excellent day climbing with Simon Holloway and Matt Snell. I lead Ash Tree wall (VS 4c) and avoided as much of the looser rock at the top. Matt and Simon had never been on a climb with loose rock such as this before so it was a learning experience for them to not just yard up on any old block, but to spread thier weight across as much terrain as possible and test everything (It's really not that bad either). Snell then lead the HS 4a next to my route, but had a little bit of a runout start. It had him stumped for a moment but he then just climbed on through it making good progress. He was rather high before he got what I'd have called a "bomber" piece of gear in. I seconded this and enjoyed the climbing, especially the final groove/corner.

We then bugged out (after all its not a long walk to the car) and headed to the Roaches as the weather had made a turn for the best. After a quick solo on Yong (with approach shoes and full packs) to avoid taking the stairs. Simon then lead Left Hand Route (HVD or HS, depending on the guidebook) in his approach shoes, which is a good effort on all accounts. He actually made it look pretty easy and placed good gear all the way up. I've not climbed with him before but I look forward to getting out on some mountain routes with him later this year! Thenm we nipped off to the third cloud but never made it. Instead Snell managed a quick solo of Communist Crack (VS 5a), a route he called me mad for soloing about 3 months before. 

Sadly the rain killed our fun for then on so it was back to the cars and home for all. A good day by all accounts though.

Budget Hill Gear?

After reading a post here, I'll have to say that this has inspired me to try some cheaper climbing gear options. So on a recent trip to asda I picked up a so called "insulated food storer" thus enabling me to carry soup, stew, cassarole or even tarka Dal out onto the hill, the crag or at work with me... and it'll stay hot. I've been jealous of Soames cracking out a giant insulated flask/pot/thing and eating hot soup everytime I sit there with a little bar of something tat resembles birdfood.

Will it work is the big question as far as I'm concerned. I've been pretty dissapointed with several flasks over the years until I received a decent thermos flask the winter before last. This works for about 10 hours, even in winter and provides me with a hit of hot vimto when I need it most. Today is a monday, and I work on a monday but this doesn't stop me from attempting to field test some of this kit out, so at 0740 this morning my flask was pre-heated with boiling water (as per instructions), emptied then, filled with a cassarole that I cooked the day before (hot obviously). 

As flasks go it's around the same size as a normal nalgene water bottle, which considering I carry a 50 litre pack pretty much everywhere shouldn't really be an issue for me. I've been braving all my work gear and carrying it around in my bag all day too. This will assure me that it gets bashed around as I try and make my way through a crowded school. I guess I just need to wait until lunch now. 

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Lunchtime has arrived! And the cassarole is... hot actually. I joke you not, the food is still warm inside the flask. I think pushing it a few hours more might be asking alot, but at the moment it's still warm. I think considering the flask cost me the grand sum of £1.25 that this is a confirmed win for this item of budget hill gear!

Resoling...

With the current economic crisis and the sudden price increase in shoes I'll be honest and say that I cannot sustain going through 2 pairs of shoes a year. I know the price increase is only around £10 but it puts most shoes over £100 now. So I set out to find an alternative, as I'm sick of retiring shoes because my toes have busted through the end... enter the resoling market.

After a little research I went with Cheshire Shoe Repairs (here) simply because they where cheaper. My other option was Feet First, who do offer discount when you send multiple pairs but you have to pay extra for toe-box replacements. Cheshire Shoe Repairs include toe boxes in the price and are slightly cheaper. To make things even better I got to have a good look at a pair of resoles shoes (by Cheshire) before I sent them off. Needless to say they looked good. 

I'll just point out that if you've managed to put a hole right through the end of your climbing shoe then you'll be needing a toe box replacement. This means that they'll replace the whole front of your toe therefore covering up said whole. I'd managed to do this (in a big way on one shoe). I actually sent off 2 pairs of shoes to them. My La Sportiva Muira's and a pair of Boreal Pyro's belonging to Killian. The Pyro's themselves had a good amount of rubber on them, but Killian hates it as apparently it's not very good, plus I've been raving on about stealth rubber for a while. As for the Muiras they are very good shoes, but the rubber seemed to wear out really quickly. I fid them so comfy that I really didn't want to get rid of them, but managed to put hole through both toes, hence the resole. Cheshire do offer 4 different types of rubber, but personally I would use anything other than 5.10 stealth rubber. 

My first impressions are that they are really good. The toe shape has changed a little and is more similar to my 5.10 anasazis. When I actually put them on you can tell at the front where the new rubber has been applied but they still fit like a dream. They've not really changed in fit and are still as comfy as ever. I'm really looking forward to see how they perform at the weekend on the Lleyn Penisular.

Petzl Gri-Gri 2: first impression

After Petzl produced the gri-gri about 20 years ago I think it’s safe to say that they created a pretty iconic produce there. I mean it’s not just a belay device (although it is a pretty good belay device) but for anyone who’s done much route setting, jugging up and down ropes or general hanging around and rigging I think it soon becomes a pretty indispensible piece of kit. So what if It only takes one rope.

Abseiling on 8.5mm half rope

Time passes and ropes have got some thinner making the old gri-gri which only took 10-11mm rope a little out of fashion, or at least a little less useful. Also in this time other devices have been produced to encroach on the gri-gri’s market (namely the Trango cinch and Eldrid Eddy). I guess it was time for an update.

Having used an Eddy and found it useful for jugging up and down ropes but not very good for much else (I wouldn’t like to belay on it) and it’s really heavy and seen had really good reviews of the cinch how did I end up with a gri-gri? Well it works on a variety of rope diameters, it’s light, it’s pretty obvious how to use it and I got some discount on it! 

My initial impressions are pretty good. It works just like a smaller more compact gri-gri. So far I’ve been lead belaying on it, jugging up rope and abseiling on it, plus plenty of belaying too. After watching the video on how to lead belay (here) off the petzl website, it makes sense and is pretty easy to use. I found it works fine. Jugging up rope it’s great for and belaying in general it works really well. I used it on 11mm to 8.5 half ropes and it’s been great.

My only complaint is the handle length. I know this might seem quite silly but I find it digs into my palm when I’m lowering someone off or abseiling. But it’s not a big gripe and I’ve used much worse kit.

First ice of the season (for me at least)

The picture above should be a regular view for any weekend warrior*. It's the sunday night view of a untidy car boot full of gear. It's a view I'm used to as well, as well as the sunday night sorting and drying of gear from a weekend away. Sunday night is never an easy night.

This weekend was my first ice of the season. I know it's not the first ice of the year and routes have been done on the Ben and in Wales for the last few weeks but it was my first ice of the year. The problem with being a weekend warrior is that there are so many other weekend warriors who'll be out at the weekend. Normally this isn't a problem but with a week of winter climbing and good reports coming in about North Wales and Idwal in particular being in condition it already looked like I'd need to book and ticket to get on some ice.

However I did have one idea...

I floated the idea of walking in to Idwal on the friday night with Holloway, my climbing partner for the weekend. I contacted him last week after a walking around Idwal and seeing that everything would be in condition soon. I didn't expect him to actaully agree with my plan, let alone think it was a good idea! He did though and I spent all week packing and repacking trying to make my bag lighter whilst taking the maximum amount of stuff with me. Personally I packed a little on the heavier side taking a little more food and kit with me on the understanding it would be better to get a warm night and leave things cached in our bivi for the night while we climbed.

Things started off interestingly. I managed to pick him up from Stoke (making it there in record time during the rushhour!) only to them side the car off the road and into some snow abotu 500 metres from his house. After pushing it out we managed to get to Idwal with no other problems arriving at the grand time of 10pm... it was warm.

Ok well it wasn't warm, but it wasn't exactly the coldest temperatures I was hoping for. As we walked in I actually thought it was going to rain at one point! It didn't but we had a load of snow and mizzle** before we reached our spot for the night. We actually bivied somewhere I'd scoped out the week before in the boulderfield that flows out from beneath devils kitchen. It's a simple overhanging rock with a little bit of a wall built around it. There was another spot we could have bivied, but it was literally a small cave that I'd not looked into properly. When I arrived I noticed that we already had "guests" sheltering under our rock but never fear for I snowballed the goats till they ran out. They came back later but more snowballs seemed to sort that problem out.

As I said I wasn't as cold as I was hoping for, not that I was looking forward to a night my sleeping bags as it was, but it was actually star to get a little damp rather than frozen and icey. I still put the kettle on and melted a load of icicles for my evening brew before settling down in my 2 decathlon sleeping bags and trying to find somewhere to lie without a rock sticking in part of me. The actual night itself wasn't so bad and I only woke up about 4 times, once however to find I'd tossed and turned so much I was out of my sleeping bag wondering why I was cold. At 6am my alarm went off and I added more icicles to my jetboil to make a brew. It was at that moment that Holloway reported a few head torches already making thier way along the side of idwal. Christ! It almost seemed like spending the night out might not get us to the ice first after all.

After speed packing I was off through the snow to get to the bottom of our route. As it was Holloways first time out climbing with me in a few years and seeing as he was so psyched for it we were heading for Idwal Stream (grade II/III ***). As it's a classic route and on Baggy's blog he reported it in the best conditions he'd seen it in for years I knew that there would be masses of people heading for it. I know it's not all about getting there first, but I wanted to be there so we had some time to do the route without the pressure of the another team behind us.

As it happened as we geared up another team joined us at the base, 2 lads called Pete and Tim. We ended up climbing in parallel for most of the route and got chatting to them. They'd both packed in thier jobs to climb ice all winter, which was pretty cool but they seemed to already be uncertain about the future. They'd not got as much winter experience as our team, but they were swapping leads as aposed to block leading so they moved a bit quicker, but it  was nice to have another party to climb with.

Crag congestion... and this is at 0730

As I said I took most of the technical pitches of climbing, but Idwal Stream is a broken route. It's escapable (if you need to) but also not a series of technical pitches one after the other. There was some easy ground and a good stance after each pitch which suited us fine. I took the inital groove and climbed parallel to Tim which was probably the hardest pitch on the route (certainly the steepest) and started off with some thin ice so it was a while before I got a good ice screw in. I climbed leashless with my modified DMM fly's which worked fine as normal, but I didn't use the lanyard and just relied on not dropping a tool.

Pitch one was fine. I took me the whole pitch to get used to climbing ice again and making usre than everything was placed in the ice properly and securely. We walked the next slope and rebelayed at the base of the next cascade. This was long but less steep and had been drfrosting a little more. Instead of front pointing my way up I was able to take adventage of various ledges and step al left behind from previous parties, whislt avoiding the water spraying out. Infact the most technical part was the top out as I tried to keep my feet on ice and not scraping on rock. At this stance I used the one and only piece of rock gear on the whole route despite the fact that I've brought what was a sizeable mixed rack up with me. I guess it's better to have it and not need it etc.

Sadly out of focus

Holloway was climbing pretty well and as a team we seemed to be moving pretty quickly. The next pitch was the longest pitch I lead, almost 60 metres but in all fairness the difficulities were short lived. The first 20 metres of the route was another iced up groove before a difficult step up and right to easier ground thenit was a semi-snow/ice gully till I found something good to belay off (a load of good ice). Moving quickly over such ground was a absolute joy. Then came the final pitch of real ice. This was a 10 metre cascade with really only a little bit of difficulity on it after topping out and bringing up Holloway we dropped the ropes and coiled them got rid of any other gear for the final gully. This was easy ground which we covered leisurely enjoying being out. The weather wasn't exactly like the met office and MWIS had predicted. It was more overcast and now snowing rather than clear skies.

Eventually we could leave the gully and head off right to fine the descend down the track that would lead us back to our bags. We had planned to do some more climbing but walking down we saw that the cues had formed and it seem a long wait before we could get on the screen or the ramp. Instead we consoled ourself with a brew back at the bivi and then the joy of repacking the bags, before a gentle walk out. It actually even stopped snowing for us on the walk out too.

All in all I don't think thats bad for my first ice route of the season and coupled with walking in the night before and sleeping out it turned it into a proper adventure. I was considering new axes (nomics or quarks) but after this weekend I decided that there's nothing wrong with my flys at the grade I'm climbing. I'd still say go leashless thought. Holloway decided that he hates his leashes with a passion. It seems like he'll be replacing them with some clipper leashes instead. And I was impressed with my sleeping bag system (a lightwieght down bag and a lightweight synthetic over the top) whic kept me warm, however I could do with some tabs so that they hold thier shape whislt I'm in them (I invariably wiggle out of one bag when sleeping).

As for sunday, well we'd bailed by Saturday night. We didn't have anywhere to stay saturday and alot of kit was wet. After checking all the weather reports we could find and Holloway contacting a friend at RAF Vally to ask what the weather was going to do it didn't look promising. As it turns out it looks like the temperature dropped again. I guess thats the winter game though, because you know if we'd stayed it would have just rained all day.



Devil's Kitchen, in all it's winter glory



*weekend warrior; a climber with a monday to friday job, only getting out at the weekend.

**mizzle; somewhere between mist and drizzle. A form of precipitation.

Goretex or Event? Whats the deal?

I've managed to get away with only owning 2 lightweight outershell jackets over the years. Both have been the cheapest deal I could get away with so I've not paid over £160 for either. My first was a RAB latok Alpine. You could almost say that Outside gave it to me to test as they put it through the till wrong and sold it me for £1.60 instead. I didn't notice at the time, only after when they sent me a polite note asking for the grand sum of £158.00 for thier mistake. I didn't pay.

RAB Latok Alpine

When I first got the Rab jacket I was very impressed. It was cut well for use as a climbing jacket (I prefere it a little larger) had nice big pockets and was dry. Having a dry jacket was new to me. Because I didn't really know any better I didn't see many faults with it. It did all I asked of it. 

Then it stopped being dry, so I cleaning it and retreated it. That didn't seem to do much, so instead I cleaned it off and tumble dried it (as per instructions given to me by a RAB seller). This also didn't work. The jacket soon became worn less and less and subsequent rainy adventures stopped being undertaken. It was quite sad, but I also completly lost my fair in Event. The same thing happened to my friend Latok alpine. Maybe I was asking too much of the jacket? Maye it just wasn't up to the use I was giving it? either way it sucked.

Outdoor Research Yellow Thing

Then I snagged a Outdoor Research jacket from V12 at Half price. I've only got a few items of OR kit but they've been really werll designed and simple. The Vert Work Glaves are excellent in winter. Turns out I'd managed to get thier flagship do all winter, alpine, superalpine etc jacket. It was made of Gore-Tex Proshell and a nice yellow colour (a bright colour is of most importance). It was made of stronger fabric than my old Latok. The seams sealed better, pockets slightly better designed and a hood that really does work with my helmet. I've plowed it through crap wet britsh storms, days of scottish winter, digging snowholes and occasionally wearing around school when I have to do a duty in the rain (this kids already think I'm an odd teacher)

The big difference for me is that the jacket is still water proof. So what if the sleeve leak a little, thats acceptable, I get heavy wear there. The Goretex Fabric is pretty good to say the least. It's breathable, waterproof and yellow.

So Goretex or Event? Goretex everytime I think for me... or maybe I should try paramo?

god dammit!

I always remember reading somewhere that climbing was a relatively inexpensive hobby. Now at the time I was buying one nut a week with a little of my paycheck from the pub where I worked and was looking horrified at the price of a rope. Eventually it dawned on me that maybe climbing was inexpensive. Once you have your rack, it should last you at least 10 years.

Ok so if you climb close to home then climbing is a relativly cheap sport. However add winter climbing, alpine climbing, trips to all parts of the country each weekend and it adds a little more on. I'm not sure where this rant is going but I finally had to replace a cam sling.

Well infact it wasn't a good weekend for my gear. In transit too and from crags I've managed the damage 3 trigger wires (3 seperate cams) so they've had to be replaced. Replacing the trigger kits is obvious but it's still pretty hard work requiring a hammer and a pair of decent piles. With those repaired it was time to look at the sling on the size one cam. I've had the thing for 6 years now and its had a alot of heavy use and for a while the sling has been overly furry and generally looking a bit knackered. I did look into sending it back to Wild Country, but its £15 and they'll get it back within 3 weeks! 3 Weeks? I can't be without such a cam for that long! Well, instead I looked reslinging it myself.

After looking into various ways of reslinging and checking the BD website for thier lab tests on stuff like this, I narrowed it down to either a thing tape or dyneema. I was put off by the dyneema as I thought the knot would be massive and chunky (you need to tie a triple fishermans knot) so opted for some sling. As it happened the sling material was too thick and I ended up with the dyneema! The knots isn't actually that bulky at all and it works just fine. I was worried that I would worry about using a tied piece of gear, but it gives me no bother. All in all I'm happy with it.

POD Black Ice, first impression.

This is not a full review, far from it. I've carried the sack around for one weekend? hardly putting it through it's paces but I wanted to write up my first impressions anyway. 

It's a size 3 POD black ice. POD are famous for bombproof simple packs tha really stand the test of time. This pack is no different. I did already own a Lowe Alpine pack, but it literally hurt my back so after 3 years of good use I've decided I don't want another winter of backpain and thought I'd upgrade. I've been thinking about packs quite a bit recently and decided to try a POD sack under the premise that I'll probably end up with one anyway. My choice was between the new style sack with the roll top closure and the old school Black Ice. The deal clincher was the heavy, stronger fabric that the black ice is made from, meaning it'll be more hardwearing. 

It's a big sack, about 50 litres. You can remove the lid, the waist belt and back frame should you ever need to. All are really simple to do. Normally I cut off everything from my pack that I don't need but I'm struggling to find something to cut off this pack. I can fit everything I need for a days cragging, plus a belay jacket for staying warm in winter and double ropes. I've also packed it up with my normal winter pack and low and behold... it all fits (that includes crampons in the pack too!). But when it's been emptied down the sack compresses quite well and seems fine for carrying whilst climbing.

How did it fair this weekend then? Well tramping to the sea cliffs of Gogarth with full rack and double ropes was no problem for it (unsurprisingly). I even managed to snuggle down in my belay jacket with my flask of coffee to wait at the crag. Seeing as we moved from crag to crag trying to find somewhere that wasn't rammed full of people we walked for about an hour and there where not problems carrying it. As for Sunday walking up to Pant Ifan across the boulders field and scree terrain there was no problem with the packs stability.

So far it's living up to expectations.

Re-slinging cams

In the good old days people would sling thier nuts on rope, tie thier own sling for extenders and probably climb in stout boots. I guess that how most the the members of the Wrekin started out.

Today however people just don't (apart from a friend of mine called Matt who ahs a rack that a museum would be proud to own. I'll definatly get a photo of it. He's go more cordage holding it together than I've got ropes!

My old wild country tech friends (to give them thier proper title) are now 6 years old. That 6 years of hard use and the slings on them are starting to show some wear. The size 1, 2 & 3 have been absolute work hourse pieces of kit, used pretty much in all my climbing. I've fallen on each more than enough times and they are still trucking.

But the sling it getting pretty worn on the size 1 especially. I've been throwing around whether to resling it on dyneema tired with a triple fisherman knot or some strong webbing with a tape not. I've got some beal 16kn tubular tape that I going to try I think, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Alpkit Gourdon 25l... first impression

Ok, so I'll admit it. I probably don't need another sack. I've already got 2 as it is (both Lowe Alpine sack that seem pretty bombproof), but the chance came up to aquire one of this little drybag-come-ultralight sack jobbies I thought I'd go for it. My first impression is that it's very well made. The previous owner hasn't treated it badly, or looked after it overly so it's had general use. I don't think the thing is completly water tight anymore, but who cares? I'm not not going swimming with it!

I've managed to pack out a cragging sack with a whole rack, harness, water, food, waterproof jacket, belay jacket, first aid kit and then the helmet and ropes on the outside of the bag. I was suprised that I managed to get it in all, but I did some careful packing. As a cragging sack for somewhere where you only need a small rack then this would be perfect. It would make a pretty good day sack for a fast and light day out in the british mountains if you've got a good weather report for the day.

To be honest I've been after one of these sacks for ages. It's a small and light pod shaped sack that seems pretty much perfect for carrying on mountain routes where you need food, water, shoes and pretty much nothing else. I'll see how it goes over the next month and see how hard wearing it is... but I've got high hopes!

Superlight Rocks...

There's been a bunch of reviews written about superlight rocks since they came out. I'd like to say ever since the days of sharing a rack with my friend I've loved these nuts, but that's not the case. When I first found them on his rack I was pretty dubious about them. A single wire? really? Also they had a pretty odd shape. Eventually I started to carry them and then used them regularly. I've been pretty much using them every weekend for the last 2 years and then on all my trips and during winter. So are them any good?

Yes, Yes they are. You get 6 nuts for the weight of a pack of peanuts. That's pretty impressive in itself. But how do they perform?

As with all nuts I think if you carry them then you'll find a place for them on your rack, but I think these come into their own for the mid-grade climber (HVS - E4ish). An extra 6 wires on those long leads can really come in handy. Because they pretty much wild country rocks cut in half any Rock user should be able to find a place for them easily. Having said that they are rocks cut in half, they're actually cut at an angle giving them a little bit of an offset shape. This I think increases they're usefulness. On more than one occasion I've found them to be the only thing that will fit in a placement.

Of course with everything there is a downside. I've found 2 limitations. The first is visible when you inspect the nuts. Sizes 1 & 2 are rated to 4Kn, Sizes 3 to 6 are rated to 6kn. Now seeing as the average fall has been calculated to between 4 - 7kn, you've got the be a little careful where you use these. Having said that I've fallen on them a couple of times and they haven't broken. The second problem is what I'd tend "cable bend". They are pretty prone to having the cables bent through over enthusiastic cleaning. I've always just bent them back but over 2 years of use they have started to show a little wear. Actually I've noticed a wire fray so I'll be replacing this as soon as I can. Also the head of the smallest wire became loose at one point. This was easily remedied with the application of some epoxy.

These little buggers are a great addition to any rack, but as I already said I think the mid-grade climber would benefit most from them. They can take an absolute beating when it comes down to it, I've used them week in week out, and sat on them aiding, hammered them in place with ice axes, fallen on them and god knows what else... and they've survived, then again I've got 1 wire fray from over use and glued back one head. I would still recommend them highly, with the amount of abuse that I give them I'm not surprised they've suffered a little.

New shoes? suit you sir...

Ok so I finally did it. I'm a dinosaur when it come to new things. When I Last replaced my harness I found a DMM renegade to be perfect for my uses, however it took me about 6 months to actually convince myself I should get one. Change is something slow.

I've been wearing Quechua Vuarde rock boots for the last god knows how many years. I have about 4 pairs squirrelled away in my "gear corner" of my room. They are simple, well made and wear out in about 3 months with the amount of climbing I do. Toaf was buying new shoes the other day so I ended up sitting in Rock On in Redpoint just trying on a few pairs. After a pair of Katanas that sucked horribly, I tried on some 5.10 Anasazi Verts. I've tired a pair before and they fitted quite well. The short story is that I brought them. So have I regretted spending £87.99 on a pair of rock boots?...

The answer is a pretty definitive, hell no. I must have had them for a while now. I've used them indoors quite a bit boudlering and top-roping stuff, but even 5 days into buying them I set off up Vector at Tremadog (my happiest lead ever). They've worn in pretty well now, as in when I brought them I found them a little painful to begin with. I was assured that this would pass and it has. The fit is snug. Not too tight now they've stretched a little and not too loose either. I can climb in them really well without bothering to tighten the laces up and the heel fits very close. If I do bother to actually lace up my boots then they just become more precise.

Bad points. Well nothing is perfect and I've only one small complaint about the shoes. The thing it that this bad point isn't really going to affect my climbing that much. It's the heal fit isn't perfect, in fact it's just plain not great. The boot themselves are awesome, but heel hooking on anything that isn't quite large I find a problem. But like I said, trad climbing I hardly heel hook at all so this isn't much of a concern.

I think that fact that I had my boots fitted properly and for what I plan to use them for (mutli-pitching hard trad routes). They work well as a "do everything" boot, or have been so far. I'm already a little worried about the rubber, but I'm actually looking after it. It mght wear out, but then I'll just have to test out some of this "resoling" buisness I've heard about.

Also I can actually walk around in them. I'm a very big advocate of wearing climbing shoes that don't hurt your feet. I know too many of my friends who squeeze thier feet into shoes that make them want to cry after about 5 metres of climbing. One is this just plain stupid as I climb just as well in shoes that don't hurt (most of them are technically better than me) and two, this has got to be doing some damage to your feet! So I can wear them all day long, walk around in them when I top out of routes, its just makes more sense.

So all in all I'm probably just raving about having a pair of shoes that really fit well and make climbing that little bit more enjoyable. I would have happily carried on using my old shoes, had I not been paid the day before but I'm really glad that I've brought a new pair.(smearing in my verdes on archangel, a route I didn't actually complete)