Month: January 2009

Dave Macleod has been busy over the holiday period, attempting and finally climbing James Pearson’s Walk of Life, an E12 at Dyer’s Lookout on the coast of Devon. In Dave’s blog he covers the ascent as well as the grade.

I was knocked back recently for some comments that I made about James ability to grade. However despite never having seen the route other than in pictures I find it quite interesting that many of my ‘guesses’ were reasonably right. With The Indian Face as a benchmark for E9 where you’re gonna die, it seemed ludicrous that a slab can get E12.

I have seen The Very Big and The Very Small a F8b+ slab being attempted and there simply aren’t many holds larger than two matchsticks thick. It is extremely easy to fall off even after lots of practice. Interestingly if grade tables are anything to go by would make it necessary for an E12 to be F8b+ or harder, and be bold.

Now given that Dave MacLeod didn’t wish to grade his route on Ben Nevis, Echo Wall which for a few weeks was dubbed the hardest trad route in the UK, until James ascended and affixed the E12 tag to his route. Rather than idly gossip online about it Dave got in his car drove the length of the country and set about repeating ‘The Walk…’ downgrading it to E9!

Despite downgrading the route Dave concludes his blog, “A huge thanks and congratulations to James Pearson for his brilliant effort of climbing The Walk of Life…I enjoyed doing the walk tremendously, and I wouldn’t have had that were it not for James’ effort.”

However having seen a string of down grades for Jame’s routes in the past few months The Groove, The Promise and now The Walk… I can only guess as to the answer behind this. James will talk of not using pads, however some of the routes have been judged to be 2 or even three grades out. So whether its is a genuine mistake or a method to attract media attention and sponsorship who knows. I jokingly looked at some research into personality and climbing a few weeks back that could be interpreted to give a comment on over-grading.

I also found it interesting that when Dave was talking about some modern desperate test-pieces he said… “it’s my opinion some of them have been overhyped when they are not as hard as others hard routes that have been there for a good while such as ‘if 6 was 9’ or ‘Widdop Wall.”

Llion looks out over Llanberis, whilst sipping warm coffee as the sunshine disappears and the arctic shivers return.

Well for the first time in ages I managed to get out to touch real rock, in the sun trap of Vivian Quarry, in Llanberis. As we started up the sun had just come onto the face and made it not just bearable but pleasant to climb, even in just a hoody. After Llion and I climbed Full Monty a 30 metre F6a between the Dervish slab that has no bolts, and the Conscience Slab that has run-out designer danger bolts, the sun went in and it returned to feeling Arctic. So after a brew we head to the Beacon Climbing Centre for some bouldering that was almost as chilly!

I guess living in Llanberis me and my friends are lucky, we can be out on the rock even in the the heart of winter, and grab the sunshine at a moments notice. Nipping out to do a classic route like Comes the Dervish is a common occurrence. I am probably around the dervish level several times a year, looking out on the world of llanberis. I remember the outrage a few years ago when someone added the following graffiti to the area. Now it just reminds me of times past, both good and bad.

The View Across at the summit of Snowdon

Having lived in and around Llanberis that is at the foot of North Wales’ highest and most famous mountain, Snowdon for over 14 years. Even before I moved here I had climbed some of the classic scrambles, however in the years since becoming a ‘local’ I have become extremely intimate with the mountains, and know some like old friends.

As such I have favourite climbs, scrambles and walks that I simply love to do time and again. Whilst Snowdonia isn’t the highest mountain range in the world, the alpine terrain on a mini scale make it perfect for day trips.

For me one of the most perfect days out, and a route I have guided several people round is what I refer to as the Cwm Glas Horsehoe. Most of the route makes up the most exciting part of the more famous Snowdon Horseshoe however the added start and finish route make for an exciting day out.

Jammed Boulder Gully

You’ll need Steve Ashton Scrambles in Snowdonia for this route but essentially you start up Jam Boulder Gully (Grade III) which does exact what it says on the tin, you climb a slippy gully up to a boulder the size of a semi-detached house and then chimney up behind it. From the top it is possible to walking over to the base of The Parson’s Nose (GradeII/III) a fine ridge with some very interesting rock formations. It is one of the routes that you feel like you are travelling through geologic time.

Cresting the ridge after the main difficulties are over on the Parsons Nose

This lands you on the main Crib Y Drysgyl/Crib Coch ridge (Grade I) which despite only being a grade one scramble is a serious place that takes about 3 lives a year, where people simply stumble and then they are gone. A an example of a Knife Edge ridge created by glacial erosion there is none finer north of the Chamoix Aguilles.

Scrambling along Crib Y Drysgyl looking towards Crib Coch, the route heads in the opposite direction to the people scrambling in this shot

Follow the the ridge to the end of crib coch, the masses will head down towards the PYG track, however to complete the horseshoe and return directly to your car you need to take the North Ridge (Grade II). This less travelled route is looser than the main descent, however it is manageable with a little caution. As well as adding more scrambling to the route on a good day the views down the pass towards my home town of Llanberis are simply an amazing way to finish a day on the hill.

Looking down from the Knife edge ridge of Crib Coch

FOOTNOTE: This is a very serious route. This blog is mainly aimed at experience climbers. As such they have the skills to safely use ropes to protect themselves. As a experienced mountaineering instructor and member of the local rescue team I can’t recommend more highly that any scramble that is Grade III will have at least one section on it that will require some kind of ropework. If you are not able to use a rope and basic climbing equipment consider hiring a guide or doing an Advanced Scrambling course before attempting such a route as described here.

Crib Coch

Just before Christmas Andy Kirkpatrick set off on to solo the Harlin Route on the North Face of the Eiger, leaving behind his wife and kids. Now whilst I find it hard to criticize someone for soloing a hard and dangerous routes as a climber myself, it is important to remember that this wasn’t just a passionate climber out to test himself against nature; by offering an online blog updated via his phone, did Andy turn his ascent into a media circus. A death defying stunt of Dave Blane proportions. The fact that people engaged with this type of media is as screaming indictment to our morbid fascinations.

Like Ice cube man Dave Blane though, Andy is a professional and with that comes a responsibility to prepare properly. Andy will have done this through years of experience and good judgement. Having soloed Big Walls in Yosemite, and winter climbed prolifically on paper he certainly has credentials. So surely as a professional Andy will have trained up mentally and physical for this trip, however from the outset it seemed a little over ambitious. “Feel tottaly bolloxed after a real slog of an approach with 70kg of gear (did it in relays, breaking the load into 3 for the 200 metres up to the first real climbing).”

I have to admit that I am not the biggest Andy Kirkpatrick fan, mainly because of Dru stunt he pulled off a few years ago. Where if you are not aware the media declared his aided ascent of a route on a similar line to a route Jean Christophe Lafaille as ‘the hardest route in the Alps’. Now the claim probably came from the fact that JCL declared his route ‘the hardest route in the Alps’. Now my problem with that ascent is that to me it was misleading as whilst I certainly won’t be operating in the levels of hardest route in the Alps, as a climber I consider aid climbing a form of cheating. For instance where Andy K might tell you the hardest route on El Cap is the old school A5 Reticent Wall, I might choose one of the many free climbs like the El Nino, etc… If you’d like a quote then I choose Stevie Haston who at the age of 52 has just climbed F8c+ who several years ago made a snipe at aid climbing by saying that ‘Anyone can climb A5!’, the same can’t be said of hard free climbs.

As such I see Andy as a someone who is very adept at gain media attention for feats that really only show how much he is willing to suffer for his ‘Art’. I do however respect the man as someone successfully making a living out of climbing. Now personally having only seen him once live several years ago, and back then he had an air of comic genius about him, something that climbing desperately needs. However as a climber I am not sure that I can respect him for various media stunts.

In this latest escapade he appears to have barely gotten off the ground, on UKC well know and probably one of the few Brits capable of climbing the real hardest routes in the Alps, John Bracey commented that the hard climbing doesn’t start until you reach the gallery window. Interestingly in Andy’s penultimate blog installment puts him below this point where the going gets tough.

“Climbed 250 metres today. Boring/scary snow then 2 pitches of undrytoolable rock and thin 80 deg ice. Hauling my bag took a lot out of me and wasted a lot of time.

Finished in the dark below the gallery windows”

So I await to see the spin that Andy Kirkpatrick puts on the outing, and whether any media organisation picks up on the story that if it was me would ready. ‘Well known climbing comic Andy Kirkpatrick, made a joke of himself by publically attempting to solo the Harlin Route on the North Face of the Eiger. Fortunately for those who like his stand up act he came down before he hurt himself (ego aside).’

I am sure he’ll turn the whole experience into a very humorous aside in his act, and we’ll all be lining up to watch him. You never know he might be on Richard and Judy’s New Position next week.

A piece in the local News Paper has highlighted the concerns I expressed a couple of days ago about the cleaning of Ivy and Cotoneaster from Craig y Forwen, near Llandudno North Wales. The piece quotes from the Environmental Enforcement officer and the Protection for Rural Wales. Whilst totally one sided and inflammatory we really only have ourselves to blame for giving Mr Webb ammunition to come at us with.

Hopefully this situation will be sorted by the BMC and CCW soon.

There is a further article giving some more info on the situation and some pictures of the crag is available here on my site.

There are many ways we can injure ourselves that will affect our ability to climb over the years i have sprained ankles, torn tendons and pulleys, strained shoulders, prolapsed discs as well as a few other random injuries. All have had an effect on my climb to a greater or lesser extent. Some were caused by climbing other weren’t, whatever the cause the main issue for any climber is getting back to climbing and then back to their previous ‘match fitness’. One thing that I would say is that eventually you’ll get there, although the road might be a rocky one.

Having accepted that you are injured the first thing you need to do is rationalise how it is going to affect you as a person. In simple terms think of it as listing how it might affect your climbing and your life, by listing all of the things you did before the injury that might be harder or even impossible in your current situation. Then list all the things you would usually do that won’t be affected or you could still do after the injury. If your lists are too big then consider consolidating it by choosing the ten most important factors in you life both climbing and non-climbing that the injury has effected.

For each activity rate out of 10, where you feel you are now, where 10 is the level of activity/fitness/strength you had before the injury. If its going to be a long recovery then repeating this process every week/fortnight/month will let you see how much you have recovered, even if it is a small amount. Often sport scientists will give this a graphical representation by drawing pie type chart and filling in each week the progress towards full fitness.

Have established you base line fitness during the injury period then there are several things you can do to work back up to fitness. As from a sport psychologist point of view one of the key things is to maintain a positive outlook, and use some psychological tools to aid you in this. In a recent study of imagery use in the recovery of an elite gymnast by Nicky Callow it showed how the athlete along with there sport psychologist used imagery to aid the recovery process, by progressively changing the focus of the imagery.

If your injury is acute then you might want to consider imagining the part of your body that is injured having lots of blood running through the vein, capillaries and arteries, imagining it warming up, and as you feel the warmth and blood flowing through the injury start to imagine your body starting to heal the injury, visualise it at a cellular level. You want to practice this type of visualising the body repairing the injury site until you can start to use it to a limited level, like all imagery use it for around 15 minutes a day. At the same time as this also consider doing very light work that exercises the area as much as possible, again all your really trying to do is promote blood follow, so even gentle massage and stretching will help, as will general CV work to get the heart pumping the blood.

Once you feel you can that the injury is getting to the stage that you can climb all be it extremely cautiously, then change the imagery to imaging the weakness getting stronger and stronger, along with visualising yourself climbing again. At the same time consider that you can also start to climb again, but very gently. I think there are two ways to go about this, one is very easy routes, which although requires little strength can often lead to you being committed to a hard move that might cause you to reinjure yourself if you are lead climbing. So either be very cautious or only top rope routes so you can lower off at anytime. The alternative is bouldering, as you can let go at any moment should the climbing prove too hard (unless it is a bad back, or lower limb injury your suffering from then consider the roped climbing options).

The final stage of recovery the imagery should be changed to visualising yourself climbing, but adding the seeing yourself climbing confidently to help bolster your confidence ready for when you start to climb at you previous level. Also make the imagery as real as possible by imagining yourself climbing real route from bottom to top. Accompany this with noting down mentally how strong the injured area feels, your body is a great feedback mechanism, if after a training session it hurts rest it for an extra day or so. Remember that a softly softly approach is key, as even after you think you have recovered, the injured area will still be weak for weeks if not months

Often staying away from certain types of activities will also stop reinjury, be it crimpy holds, bouldering, hard shouldery moves. Whatever your injury is consider identifying how you caused the injury, and how you can avoid reinjury. If the injury does prevent you from climbing then consider that there are other form of activities that will help you keep up a level of fitness. In the past I have join a JJB gym, where I could go and do some CV work, Light weights, stretch, swim and even do the odd Yoga session. Whilst it wasn’t climbing it still got me out of the house and doing something constructive towards my rehabilitation.

As climbers you could also take up hill walking, scrambling, mountain biking, surfing or any form of activity that got you into the great outdoor. As whilst it might not be climbing getting yourself out and active will help keep the injury blues away.

After receiving many nice comments about the photo article I put on UKC, I have decide to try and sell a few of my images. As a poor artist I have opted for an Ebay Sale, however I like people to know that if they like any of my photographs and would like to purchase any of the images then I am looking at charging £30 an image to be printed at 12×8 by an online source on fuji high quality paper.

Mike Hamel cruising up the better finishing pitch to Mojo, P2 of Freedom, E2

Access to this amazing crag was banned for twenty years, mainly because climbers behaviour at the crag. In particular climbers cars blocked what until last month was believed to be the landowners drive on the day of a family funeral. As you can imagine Mr Webb was distraught and is far from over his anger at climbers.

With Mr Webb banning access to his land there was little the BMC could do. Then at the end of 2008 another land owner said that no, Mr Webb didn’t own the land and was willing to provide a parking area and access. My guess is that he will be paid a certain amount of cash by the BMC for the parking area, as that is the modern way (We don’t pay for access, just for parking). It is important to remember that the deeds show that Bob Jones owns the land at the top of the crag, the crag and a ten metre strip of land at the bottom. However Mr Jones doesn’t own all of the crag, with another landowner owning the right hand side.

Bob Jones chatting to the assembled climbers

If you visit the crag then look out for Bob Jones he is and extreme friendly and approachable guy. The sort of farmer who when he accosts you, will preceed to chat to you for hours. The day I meet him a Davy Jones pointed out he had his first lamb (It was the 3rd Jan), so after feeding his flock, he collected the new born and came back for another chat.

Despite this new agreement it was not long after the ban was lifted publically by the BMC that reports were coming in locally that Mr Webb had appeared at the crag and was intimidating those climbing, burning bails of hay at the bottom of the crag in an attempt to smoke the climbers off, and generally trying to drive climbers away.

A few locals had been going along and clearing off vegetation, after verbal consultation with the Countryside Council for Wales said that clearing Ivy was acceptable. However this was ammunition for Mr Webb and recently he turned up with the Local Wildlife Enforcement Officer, who whilst unable to intervene for Mr Webb on the civil matter of alleged Trepass, was more interested in the vegetation clearance. As such local climbers were advised to minimise gardening until we can get written permission from the CCW, like we did at tremadog for the gardening days at Craig Blwch Y Moch.

Limestone Pavement at the top of Craig Y Forwen

Now Craig Y Forwen lies within an SSSI, which means it is a protected habitat, fortunately for us it would appear the the status is linked to the limestone pavement at the top of the crag and the bat population at another crag called Craig y Forwen on the map. As such we should be able to gain that written permission, and consultation with the CCW at Craig Blwch Y Moch lead to funding for a woodland management plan through the Better Woods for Wales grants.

However if that permission isn’t granted, and the Environmental Enforcement Officer decides to prosecute, then the land owner Mr Bob Jones and a climber who had his particulars taken down will be the ones in court. I just hope that the BMC sticks by and supports both if it comes down to that, as their cut and run approach to the opening of this crag, left many uncertain of what the situation actually was.

So whilst at present you can access the crag via the new approach described here, and have a PDF guide from the Climbers Club. The chances are that you may well get some hassle from Mr Webb. My advice is to be as courteous as possible and say that Mr Jones has granted us access to his land, and if he would like to contact the BMC over this issue then please do so. Until this issue is sorted out access is still there just be aware that you might have someone shout at you.

Tony on The Ultra classic Mojo, E1

At a meeting yesterday I heard many arguments over the on going access to this crag, that were many, and included getting planning permission for the creation of a car park. One of the arguments that kept coming up was that climbers have a good relationship with people like the CCW and RSPB, however the rapid clearance of this crag, which although is only ivy has left a obvious mess as to the amount of work that has been carried out, may well damage this.

Whilst the BMC work in gaining access to this crag is great I do wonder why somebody didn’t questioned the land ownership issue earlier. Also after we gained access the BMC have come out with nothing on the on going issue of Mr Webb or further environmental and local issues. Given the status as an SSSI, and the issue of the need to remove ivy, why didn’t the BMC simply wait until written permission was granted before basically setting forth the masses on extreme gardening. Obviously I am using 20/20 hindsight, however there are several other banned crags that the BMC will endeavour to gain access to, when and if they succeed will the BMC have taken on the lessons learnt at Forwen? After all if a site is sensitive enough to be banned, then simply lifting it and disappearing whilst the climbers from all over the UK wade in with dogged enthuisasm seems a little short sighted.

At a meeting of 16 of the Key activist at this crag several Key issues were raise that have not been publicised on the BMC site:

· Keep the noise down – it travels very easily in this valley.
· Go to the toilet before visiting the crag (or bury it at the very least please – the woodland around the crag is used for firewood collection by the land owners)
· Only park at the designated location it was thought that this could cater for up to ten vehicles, the gate has been re-hung and at present the parking site is in good order though this needs monitoring. To reduce the number of vehicles here, consider parking at Castle Inn quarry and sharing cars. It’s probably best not to park at the top of the lane (village green) so as not to antagonise locals. If parking is full go elsewhere (Castle Inn and the 70 Degree’s Crag are under five minutes away!)
· The Crag is loose, proper trad, wear helmets. It is not suitable for large groups of novices or those with little or no trad experience.
· Keep gardening low key; no power tools
· Descent; there are some ab stations and Staircase gully or the left-hand end.
· We agreed it was inappropriate to replace existing bolts because of the noise issue. Fixed gear should be replaced like for like, but, on a route by route basis there may be routes that don’t need fixed gear now. Please use tat in neutral colours.
· There is no access from below the crag.

Steve Long on Snotty’s Arete, E3

I first met Bill Baker several years ago now on my first big trip, to rather over ambitiously try to climb the Troll Wall in Norway. Whilst we both try and failed on Troll Wall, but the alpine cragging we achieved was great. With the evenings being filled with many of Bill’s tails from mountaineering in the greater ranges and Wales.

Although he always has a story to tell, I found out a few things about Bill over the years that even he didn’t admit to face to face, not only had he made it up to 8000m on Everest without Oxygen, but a few days ago in Pete’s Eats I stumbled into an old High Magazine article on his first ever paragliding flight off the summit of Mt. McKinley. The guy is a legend, a salty sea dog of the mountaineering World.

I had one close encounter whilst on that trip with Bill, four of us had headed out on the wall and got to a bivi above the intro slabs. After spending a night up there, we decided that we were not up to the challenge so started the gripping abseil descent, in full line of fire of rockfall from the upper cliff.

We all arrived after some rather suspect belays, where Bill taught me the great skill of unclipping from the belay! ‘You Don’t want to follow them down if the belay fails, youth’. At the bottom I stayed and coiled the ropes with Bill, and as we started our journey across the long tongue of semi-glacial snow when an almighty crack came from above and an large block fell from high on the face, hitting the upper snow slopes where just hours before we had been abseiling.

From our position we could seen the large engine sized block careering towards us. I ran for cover and was amazed to see Bill, just standing there, watching that moment longer to see its final trajectory before he moved. It must have been only metres away from him, and Bill looked totally unshaken.

Dave Halton said this of Bill “I tried three times to get to the top [of Everest] in 1993. I lived thanks to Bill Barker for his wise words in a storm which would have killed me if i had ignored him.”

Here a short video I made one day out climbing with Simon Panton the author of the Stone Circles feature in Climber Magazine. The day also involved myself, Mark Katz, Dave Rudkin and photographer Ray Wood.