Month: February 2009

As news of another death on Snowdon comes in, I’d like to offer a suggestion that this one might not be due to the incompetence of the inexperienced. Instead this death was of a 70 year old member of a long establish climbing club, as such you’d expect him to be both experienced and capable on the mountains.

The Telegraph, also quote the LLMRT spokesman Ian Henderson as say it is not know whether the man had fallen. Making seem more likely that some form of illness, might be responsible for the man’s death. Although this won’t be know until the coroner’s hearing.

So whilst it might seem sensational news that 4 people have died in 10 days on Snowdon, only three of those deaths would appear to be through walkers either not being properly equipped or not knowing how to use the specialist equipment of Ice Axe and Crampons. At present there has been a rapid thaw low down on the mountains, however it has still been well below freezing on the summit, so the treacherous condition will still remain higher up the mountain.

I was once told by a old salty sea dog of an instructor that “Its the risks you don’t know you are taking that are likely to kill you!”. So remember to be careful, the PYG track will still be like a inclined ice rink high up the mountain, and potentially the Llanberis path above Clogwyn Coch is still extremely icy!

I am and always will be a sucker for BBC nature Documentaries especially anything coming out of the Natural History Unit based in Bristol. Over the course of my life time they have manage to bring to the small scene the most impressive moving images of natural history the world has ever seen. Even their only real rival National Geographic, seem to be hanging onto the BBC’s Apron strings. Their latest series Nature Great Events, is nothing short of the usual spectacular, in fact it is so boring to review, as its just too good.

Expect the usual amazing landscape shots, close ups, unusual angles, touching stories and making of mini-doc’s at the end. Basically it is standard BBC fair that does exactly what it says on the tin by looking at Nature’s Great Events.

I did find some of the first programme funny as well as spectacular though, probably showing my sixth or should that be sick sense of humour. One part of the programme had a Cormorant Chick fledging, and basically crash landing in a most impressive fashion, as it tumbled down a steep hillside, going arse over tit about eight times before it came to a stop. By which point I was in stitches, as if to add a black tint to this slap stick moment the next thing you see is a fox crushing it for dinner before running onto the next leaner pilot who crash landed, and so on until it can’t even fit them all in there month.

There was a serious message to the programme this even one of the rapid and most substantial thawing of the ice cap ever recorded. A one way trip to global warming. All narrated by that stalwart of the BBC Natural History Unit David Attenborough, anyway if you like nature doc’s then this is another 5 star example, if you don’t it’s probably not for you. If you missed it remember BBC i-Player, will have it for a wee while!

Well I have been working the last few days so I have been off the grid, in a Spooks kind of a way. So heading up the climbing wall tonight I heard a vicious rumour about an attempt at the title of King of the Pass, originally conceived when two teams were observed climbing in the pass back in 1986; one group on Classic rock route Right Wall the other on Classic Ice Climb Cascade. The modern re-working of this is that given the right conditions it must be possible to climb Right Wall, Cascade and Jerry Roof (which hadn’t been climbed back in 1986) in one day.

Given Cascade hasn’t form since 1996, it was an all too an obvious target for a local wad, cue Neil Dyer, who along with Pete Robins who it has been rumoured climbed Cascade on Sunday, and seeing the Cromlech covered in snow, didn’t think well the conditions are all wrong, instead they headed up to the Cromlech to attempt the fabled Right Wall.

Talk in the village is that Neil Dyer fought his way up to the girdle ledge putting in a vital rock 1 that he’d usually never place (strong and bold bastard!), and once there realised that the snow was covering the verglas on the girdle ledge. Now most of us would have given up at the road, let alone at the crag, when you realised you needed full winter clothing, socks and fingerless gloves to climb Right Wall, but not even in the face of verglas, and the sort of pump that us mere mortal gets at the top of Cenotaph Corner or Left Wall, he fought on and eventually was spat of the slippery ledge.

Now whilst for most Right Wall would be the easy option, on the day it was the hardest option, as knowing Neil he wouldn’t have struggled very much on Jerry’s Roof as its only V8+! Anyway I’d like to big up Neil for trying, and in the circumstances I would love to give him the interim title of King of the Pass, as his effort was far more inspirational than someone waiting for the right day to walk up all three routes!

In 2007 the Caldwell Extreme Everest Expedition headed out to the Himalayas to attempt to climb Everest and conduct some ground breaking research into Hypoxia (lack of oxygen). The hope is that it might help point towards why some people survive in Intensive or Critical Care situations when in Hospital, and some perish. The expedition was accompanied by a BBC film crew, and the film was first shown on the BBC in 2008.

The BBC documentary covers the expedition from both a progress and scientific background and whilst there are elements of hyping up the environment by scary statistic about for every 15 people to summit, 1 climber dies, not to mention the name “Doctors in the Death Zone”. However the tale is a compelling one of not only their adventure but there research and how we as humans adapt to altitude. All in all its a fantastic story and well worth seeking out.

The programme was being repeated by Eden TV on sky/cable today, and reminded me again of the BBC High Altitude programme that I was hoping would be an extension of Doctors in the Death Zone, however it turned out to be Top Gear on Ski’s, where as opposed to star in a reasonably priced car we got star on an overpriced adventure holiday, heli-skiing or something just as ridiculous.

If you missed the Everest programme then I imagine that it will be repeated over and over again now its on Eden on Sky!

“Remember getting to Camp 3 entails climbing the Lotse Face…. hours upon hours of slogging up an endless slope!”

Well I have spent the first of two days working on a course that Plas Y Brenin call The Budding Indoor Climber or some such catchy phrase. Meaning that I have been keep away from the killer mountain, and nice and warm indoors. I enjoy working at Plas Y Brenin as working as a freelance instructor you often don’t have time to catch up with other instructors, however the PYB staff room is a greate place to do so over the obligatory tea and cakes (how very civilised!).

Anyway I have a guy on my course that for the life of me I swore I knew when I first saw him. Thinking hard I was trying to ascertain whether he had come on another course at Plas Y Brenin or whether I had run into him elsewhere, which didn’t seem that likely given he was an anesthetist. However it turn out after a great deal of discussion that we were in the same year at the school, where I went to do my A-level. Interestingly I had done my GCSE at a rough school, where I excelled as a star pupil, however when I got sent to the Grammar School, I was the thickest. An academic riches to rags story, that I have never recovered from!

Anyway had a great day, and manage to sneak out and take a few pictures at tea break and lunch time. I really should have brought my tripod to work!

Many years ago now I was resident in Upper Bangor studying for my undergraduate degree, so it surprised me more than passing my degree that Maes Glas Climbing Wall has had so moderate renovations made, and some form of structured route setting activity. It has probably been like that for years, however it just didn’t seem like it back in the 90’s, yes I really am that old! Back then nobody made an effort to clean any holds or reset a route in the three years that I was at big school.

In fact I can’t blame them, as I recall that we used to sneak in without anyone seeing, and climb until we were busted, bored or tired. If we were bored we used to have even more fun trying to throw the best somersaut into the foam pit, in adjacent Gym. Basically I think more people went for clandestine climbing than paying the pitifully cheap £1.50 entrance fee.

Anyway over a decade later, I was there working for the Beacon Climbing Centre checking the equipment, removing the dirty holds for cleaning, and setting with a brand new set of holds. This wall has great potential now as the whole floor in matted for bouldering, I am sure some of the students get involved in some illicit ‘highballing’, so I set a great slabby yellow arete to keep them entertain!

UKC have recently had a few news items on Climbing Companies putting something back into climbing access or charity. I think it a great and noble thing to celebrate in climbing, as we aren’t a giant industry like oil or banking. Instead we are a small, and far from rich industry that seems to have a real passion about our world. Now whilst UKC this time concentrated on the bigger companies supporting a variety of good causes with hard cash. It is also important to remember that many other companies help support climbing and mountaineering in a variety of ways other than providing hard cash, and even if its providing man power or equipment, this help is just as valid as cash.

In fact if you could do a cost benefit of the support of a variety of companies in North Wales where I am based the sheer size of donation to support non-profit making activities from school raffles, right the way through to BMC Crag cleaning days and better bolts campaigns means that the equivalent of thousands of pounds are donated to good causes from companies based in Llanberis alone.

Now I am not say that one type of donation is better than another, I just wanted to make a point and highlight that its not just the headline grabbing support that is important, and neither is this an exhaustive list of the support given in North Wales. Instead it is an overview of much of the work that I think these people and companies deserve a cap being doffed to!

So the North Wales role of honor (I apologise if I miss anyone out!)
V12 Outdoors & Joe Browns for constantly supporting every local raffle from schools, to BMC events and LLAMFF. Also added to this list should be The Beacon Climbing Centre, Ginger Cain, DMM, Surf-lines, Pete’s Eats, Ground Up

You can’t forget the local guides who offer there time for a whole variety of good causes like Mountain Rescue, a few of the more notable that I know in the Llanberis team are Bryn Williams who runs Dragon Mountain Skills and Rob Johnson who runs Expedition Guide offer days of there time to help rescue people on the Snowdon. Of course other companies support the rescue teams by allowing there employees to leave at a moments notice to respond to a rescue, this list is simply too big.

However people like Bryn have also helped re-equipping the Slate quarry’s along with many individual climbers. None have offer more support than Chris Parkin, who through his company G&C Parkin have helps to manage the bolt fund and the BMC better bolts campaign. Similarly Chris has also got support from Total Access for some equipment for the North Wales Bolt Fund.

Even the big companies like Plas Y brenin support BMC events by letting its workers have paid time to organise them. This year they let Mike Raine have 5 paid days to organise the Tremadog Festival. So next time you at the crag complaining about the Brenin using it, remember because of their support there is less vegetation and more climbable routes! Similarly they also support the RSPB at South Stack helping them get a CCTV camera into position to monitor the bird life.

Anyway that’s just the tip of the Iceberg of what climbers and climbing companies are doing in Llanberis to support a whole array of good causes. I shudder to think how many thing we support as climbers throughout the UK, so don’t just thank the big companies making cash donations, remember the small ones are just as involved at the grass roots of our sport!

Earlier this week, many of us were just getting over the tragic news that two brothers had died in a fall from the Llanberis Path, whilst walking up Snowdon. The pair had fallen in a notorious accident black spot that I highlight just after the incident to help raise as much awareness of the seriousness of the conditions on Snowdon at the moment. In light of today’s news I can only re-iterate the need for not only ice axe and crampons but also a knowledge of there safe use

For today the same area of the mountain took the life of another walker. This body was only discovered after a seperate incident that resulted in two walker slipping over the edge of the steep ground, one manage to stop themselves whilst the other sustain serious injuries and was airlifted to Ysbyty Gwynedd. So we are lucky that there weren’t 3 dead at the bottom of Clogwyn Goch on Snowdon Today.

Ian Henderson spokeman from the team said “We would reinforce our safety message that if you’re going into the mountains in north Wales at the moment, you must be fully competent in winter conditions.” This means not only must you be carrying the appropriate kit, but also be a competent navigator and know how to use an ice axe and crampons.

I cannot iterate strongly enough that The Llanberis Path up Snowdon is something of serious proposition at the moment. Without the neccessary equipment it is all to easy for what starts as a very small slip to carry on for hundreds of feet over broken cliffs and end in tragedy. In fact there isn’t an ‘easy’ walk up Snowdon at the moment, its all mountaineering.

Saying that the condition are the best we have had in North Wales for a long time and if you are competent then you won’t get it better than this, there are reports coming in of bullet hard neve high up, possible one of the contributing factors if these walker weren’t either equipped with or wearing crampons. So if you do head out enjoy and be safe, please.