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By Chris, April 12, 2011 1:56 pm

Today was my first meet with the Innominata climbing club and apart from the broken glass all over the floor the routes at this place are great.  Steeper than I’m used to but with positive edgy holds, good gear and stake belays at the top.  No pictures this time but here’s the route list..  Seconded The Harp (HS 4b*), Gideon (Hvs 5a), Sunshine Superman (E2 5b*), Parkers Eliminate (Hvs 5a***).   I  Lead Crewe’s Route (Vs 4c***) and Epitaph Corner (Vs 4b *) and Top Roped a couple of high E’s with Mark and Jonny which I kept falling off!

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By Chris, April 10, 2011 3:06 am

My latest crunch at work has just finished so my Dad dragged me out climbing at Idwal Slabs to recover.  I’ve never been a fan of the “Easy Descent” so today’s  objective was to find a route through the upper walls so we can use the alternate descent that goes off to the right.  We started up the slabs on Faith (vd) and finished Continuation Wall on TheArete (vd) but Holly Tree Wall got slightly complicated.  We actually climbed the first half of the first pitch of Ordinary Route (vs 5a) but I veered left onto the second half of Wall Variations at the same grade.  Instead of doing our intended second pitch we actually climbed the final (and easier) sections of Enola Gay (E1)!!  The slabs by themselves aren’t very interesting but linking all the routes together makes for a great day out and today is the first tick from my Classic British Climbs book  We found the descent on the right without any trouble so all in all today was a great success!  The only thing that worries me slightly is that there’s a photograph of me doing the crux move of Original oute… shouldn’t you have been concentrating on something else dad!!?

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By Chris, March 28, 2011 3:20 pm

Winter climbing conditions looked amazing this year so I couldn’t resist a trip to the Cairngorms for a bit of mixed fun with Ron and Fi.  Most of these pictures and videos have been stolen from Ron’s or Fi’s blogs and more can be found on their posts for the day! Thanks to Ron and Fi for another brilliant trip.

We started with Pateys Route, a grade IV,5 chimney which I think “Mad Dog” broke his ankle on years ago!

On Tuesday we did Invernookie, a grade III,4

Wednesday we did Mirror Direct, grade IV

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By Chris, January 4, 2011 7:04 am

This years Christmas and New year break was superb and we all enjoyed oodles of gorgeous food, nice wine and fantastic company despite most of it being French.  A massive thank you or perhaps  a super grand merci beaucoup to Marina and Gabriel for again being fabulous hosts… as always they made me feel very welcome in their home.  There was a dump of fresh snow when we arrived which got the snowboarding  off to a flying start and the conditions were so good that even Alex and Yannis decided to ditch the skis and go mono for half a day!  That’s the board Dave, not the brow!  Videos of this will follow shortly but unfortunately there aren’t as many falls as I’d like because they both actually did very well.   The same can’t be said about me though because this year I took the term Christmas break a bit too literally.   I got over excited on Boxing days fresh snow and cracked a couple of ribs trying a front side 180 of a massive (tiny)  jump.  But that’s a good thing isn’t it..  pain is just weakness leaving the body right?  Happy new year everyone!

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By Chris, December 13, 2010 8:15 pm

Sierra De Toix is described in the guide book as one of the main reasons to go sport climbing in Spain and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed!  My dad and I did almost every climb in the small Oueste section which were short and easy routes but the good rock and fantastic setting provided an idyllic day of sun, sea and perfect climbing.  The incredible views even inspired my dad to start leading and he cruised La roja quatro (3) and then made El endo (4) look even easier!  My leads included Presto (5+) which I think was a little hard for the grade. My favourite for the day was Energico (6a+) and was the steepest route I’ve ever led.  The true angle wasn’t apparent until I was lowered off a good two metres away from the base of the route!  I think this is my new happy place