Month: June 2009

I have just had a few friends round to view the slide from the states, was a nice evening, I borrowed Huw’s Digital projector and got some beers in. Some friend brought wine, other food. Was really nice to share the experiences of mine and llion trip. I am off climbing with llion again tomorrow if the weather holds, and his wife Elle allows him out after hearing the stories! Plus it is a 9.30 start and I still have half a bottle of red to finish!

Anyway, it always surprises me how nice my friends are, as most of them wanted to see the slides, rather than were asked!

If I find the technology to put the show online I will. However I doubt I will. (I know I can make a podcast, but how to put it online on my blog?)

Now whilst it isn’t a totally rare occurrence, neither is it particularly common to get a thank you letter like this. A few months ago I directed and delivered a Teaching the Teaching of Navigation Course at Plas Y Brenin. I remember at the time feeling rather privilege to deliver this course, as it is not the kind of course that Plas Y Brenin farm out to their freelance instructors. However my MSc which covered effective coaching seemed to finally count for something.

Anyway I had all but forgotten about the course until I returned from Holiday and my housemate asked if I had read the thank you letter at Plas Y Brenin in the staffroom. Well of course not I hadn’t worked in over a month! So he got a copy to me. Now I have read thank you letters before but this one stood out, as making my investment in my MSc totally worthwhile.

Hopefully I will get a similar response when my book comes out later this year. Interestingly most of the ideas in the course weren’t mine they were stolen, borrowed and adapted off others. But I guess you would have needed to work with a lot of people to develop that knowledge. Thanks should also go to Carlo Forte one of the Brenin’s full time staff who helped a lot with the structure and content.

It has got me thinking that perhaps I should offer my own courses in Teaching the Teaching of Navigation, however despite being able to teach people how to teach, I am a poor organiser, so prefer to freelance for bigger centres than try and run my own courses.

Well I just checked in with Andy K’s Blog he and the team are currently on top of El Cap, however I won’t congratulate them until they are safely in the Bar at Yosemite Lodge, it one of those superstitious thing that I am not keen on celebrating an ascent anymore until I am safely back at the car. Recent events have made me more aware than ever that the ascent is only half the story.

Anyway I had a chat with Andy in Yosemite where he talked about Srampacking, a feature he was working on for Trail Magazine on the combination of Scrambling and Multi-day backpacking. He had a route laid out Wales for the article, I have to say I expect to have to rescue at least one party off the BillBerry Terrace on Lliwedd. It seems ironic that Trail don’t like ropes in the photos as it freaks their readers out.

I really find this funny because I don’t think I would try and unroped scramble/solo Billberry Terrace. I would imagine that it would freak most of the reader out enough to make them wish they had a rope and knew how to use it. This ain’t a criticism of Andy, as he was approached by Trail to write the piece. But it seems mighty stupid, as in Wales you just return back to the valley, camp next to the pub and get pissed. I call it Scramlashing.

Anyway, I have been listen to Fern Cotton on Radio 1 a bit when I was in the States, the joys of Satellite radio. Anyway she is big into the combination of words. So just Chillax and take in a few of the combos I have come across. The best was a friend who was going Glamping, apparently a VOGUE phrase, brought about by Kate Moss who likes to go Glamorous Camping. Now I would like to go Glamping with Kate, but I don’t think I could take her jacking up and leaving needles in the tent!

Which brings me to the Solrun, this is not a new idea, but I have been running and recently I have combined it with a bit of soloing routes. At first it was Llanberis up to Seamstress, solo seamstress, and then back home. That grew to running up the pass to solo Rib and Slab plus a few other routes, however it was way too windy to justify soloing anymore routes, having survived the first.

Now I only solo very easy routes, however I have heard rumours of James McHaffies legendary Quarry’s Solrun, I certainly won’t be repeating that circuit. However, I am keen to develop an Extreme Scrumming course, a long run with VS climbing that you move together with a rope on treating it like Extreme Scrambling. Anyway, we’ll see how that idea develops!

Well I have seen a few post over on UKC, a major source of inspiration for this and my other blog, so if you do have a question on coaching or rope trickery then get in contact. The debate was whether using a snapgate is safe or not. Now as an instructor I often advise people starting out to use screwgates, as having it lock makes them feel a lot safer. However as you move through your climbing career you might stop carrying 27 screwgates on you rack, instead just taking one HMS a couple of extras quickdraws you can steal the snapgates off.

However with the new phantom screwgate, the old weight argument for not using screwgates is a little redundant, however I often choose not to use them, just because I feel happy. in one of the UKC thread John Arran wrote these wise words:

“You only really need to use screwgates when there is no redundancy, so for example if you have 3 good pieces then snaplinks are completely fine on each, but if you bring them all together with slings to a single clipping point then that should rightfully have a screwgate on it. Alternatively 2 snaplinks with opposing gates works a treat.”

To me as an active instructor in North Wales, I see far more worrying things than using screwgates. The main one is not weighting the belay, meaning that there is the potential for shock load. Now I weight the belay, as it allows me to lean back, and almost sit on the anchors in my harness. Now even with snapgates there is virtually no chance of the rope coming out of the carabiner if I am weighting the belay. It also allows me to see if any of the carabiner gates are compromise by rock, potentially open the gate and reducing the breaking strain, it is those that I try to use screwgates or back to back snapgates on.

Most important for the belay is that it conforms to several underlining and essential principles. In that each anchor is INDEPENDENT of the others, that the anchors are place to take load in the right DIRECTION, that the anchors are EQUALISED, and that the ANGLES are under 90 degrees, not forgetting that the anchors are SOLID. This gives the acronym:

IDEAS

Well it has been on the UKC forum for a while, the whole Mecca is falling down, we must fix it. I find it very funny and bemusing from this side of the offas dyke, and an even bigger distance in terms of talent to climb the previously require F8b+ *** Power endurance test piece that people seem to be thinking by emphasising will make it all that more impressive, and illustrate the importance of saving it from ……well the natural attrition.

So what, we loose one classic route that most people interested in climb spend their life obsessing over and falling off of. A few WAGS have probably breathed a sigh of relief, that they now have their partner back, no longer a Mecca widow. You look at recent ‘real’ news events and wonder how on earth we justify the importance we attach to our climbs, when compared to an airliner going do in the Atlantic, which is particular poignant to me as I was mid-Atlantic when this happen and flew through the same turbulence, not to mention the near daily attrition of out heroes in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where whilst i might not agree with the government sending them there, I do support the fact that they are only doing what they have been commanded to do.

So where does that leave Mecca? In the latest post Steve McClure suggests that the starting block is beyond repair, and that the route may end up harder. As for the rest of the holds, who knows what the ad hoc repair committee will come up with. I have said it before and will no doubt say it again, gluing holds even on limestone where the practice is not so much ‘common’ but at least accepted by the elite, is not going to re-create the hold in the exact way it was before. So why bother, it is invariably messy, and people nowadays wouldn’t condone chipping or our methods of creating/enhancing holds that nature or quarrymen provided so why glue it?

The biggest argument against it is of course the proliferation of the act of gluing a route together down through the grades. I climb a lot in Llanberis Pass and other mountain crags and every spring you need to watch out for the holds loosened through freeze thaw. I climbed a *** VS last week and even that had loose holds on it. I didn’t see the ‘repair committee’ drawing up plans for that route!

My opinion will infuriate the ‘repair committee’ and the people that have dedicated the best years of their life to failing on the route, as well as the few lucky souls who reach the chains or Steve McClure who climbed past them. So maybe it was the first 8b+ in the UK, so what if it was the best *** Power endurance route of the grade. Nature has taken it back in a small way, we must find a new way to climb it in time, and have a group of legends who climbed it before it fell down and after! Long live the phrase:

“Well you should have climbed it when it was F8b+”

As a climber and general lazy bastard, I often find that when I have to do some really important I manage to fill my time with something that is really not that press and often totally irrelevant to anything. Take today, I went to see my MSc supervisor this morning and started getting everything together for my Thesis, I then went to the library, then home to start work, where I managed to find a tape recorder, I can’t remember the last ‘Audio Cassette’ I had, but I needed to record the audio of a relaxation tape, I failed miserably. fortunately someone young, brighter and a damn sight more attractive also needed the tape so has done a fantastic job for me.

So after wasting two hours doing that I just got settle into writing out, and cutting and pasting various questionnaires when the phone rang and Brian ask if I wanted to run up Snowdon.

“Yeah, sure that sounds ace” (well it sounded better than doing work I really had to do)

So I ran up Snowdon, and I did it in a reasonably time one hour ten minutes up and 50 minutes down. So 2 hours cattle grid to cattle grid on the Llanberis Path. I am now totally exhausted, but hell i have set a time on the mountain, and I didn’t even set out today to go for a run, let alone run up the highest mountain in England and Wales.

We got down and rewarded ourselves a ice cold lager shandy, the drink of champions! In a garden I saw this crazy object, a concrete mole hill with real dead mole. What a fantastic practical joke, played by a old joker.

Video of Phil Packer blast off up El cap for Help the Heroes

There is a bit of debate over on UKClimbing at the moment on abseil station at Gogarth, what started as a good question about replacing the existing rope and malion with a new one, quickly deteriorated into yet another bolt debate thread. I really didn’t want to get involved with the bun fight over their. With people debating whether the Castle Helen Abseil point should be bolted.

Really? Have these people been there, if so do they have eyes, and if so are they actually using them? There are about four pegs in the belay, and it take less than two minutes to equalise another two wires (7 and 9 if I remember?) with a 16ft Sling. It is probably the safest abseil at Gogarth, and if you can’t make your own belay to get yourself down, then the seriousness of the climbing at Gogarth probably means you shouldn’t be heading down their.

Since Castell Helen is the easiest cliff to climb on, to me having a scary abseil where you need to make a decision as to whether the belay is safe, and how you can make it safe is a very good filter of experience. Its a bit like the height law at theme parks, those under 4ft can’t ride. Unfortunately there is no fairground attendant to police the rule at gogarth, so the Abseil Point becomes an excellent self policing barrier.

If you up this then you eventually get to the abseil into Cilan Main Cliff, which consists of 5 threaded rabbit warrens, and a whole brace of terror on the way down. The point is that it keeps the idiots that would kill themselves trying to climb out of the easiest route a long and serious E4, very safe at the top of the cliff, wonder how the hell you get down safely.

With the advent of climbing walls there is a growing group of climbers that are very strong and capable climbers, however they haven’t made mistakes on the easiest routes, where those mistakes are a little more forgiving, they have jumped straight onto a wild stallion, and are hanging on for there life, not actually aware of how they are going to break the beast in. If you want a get rich quick, fast food and cotton wool filled world then go for bolts.

If like many of us who climb and you want a bit of danger in your life, then places like Gogarth are our wembley stadium, they are the MCC, the twickenham or more appropriately our Cardiff Arms Park. It is where we as climbers shows ourselves that we the have courage and determination, where we use all our skills to conquer our own seaside Everest. At the end of the day climbing is dangerous, it kills people every year, and if you think putting bolts makes it safer, then think about this little observation.

I have been in the llanberis rescue team for a few years now, and since the quarries were re-equipped, and new routes that were more akin to sports climbs put up, there seem to have been far more accidents than we usually get in the quarries. So bolts make it safer, do they? What a bolt does is give someone without the experience or necessary judgement the ability to get to places they probably shouldn’t be, trespassing in the deep end of the adventure pool.

Anyway that’s my opinion on the matter anyway

Well Mike my house mate has just enlighten me to a very random music event that is happening in Harlech as well as other places around the UK. Now as a musical fan, I tend to listen to whatever I have on my iPod, which isn’t much or whatever bands are playing locally. If you are up in Wales I can recommend Dr Gonzo, a totally young and wild outfit that usually perform in some even wilder outfits. They occasionally play at the Fricsan just down the road in Cwm Y Glo, on my recent trip to America we manage to see one band on the Santa Monica Peir called the Red Elvis’.

These guys were a kind of Eastern European/LA fusion of the wildness that Dr Gonzo also have. However the band that my housemate put me onto seem a little bit weird but at the same time they will be very good, due to the line up. The band is rather a bizarre concept of Punk covers play on Folk instruments, would that be Pulk or Fonk. The band is fronted by comic Adrian Edmunson, as well as a member of the ultimate folk group Fairport Convention.

Anyway they are playing Harlech Castle in July so if anyone is interested in heading over then you know where I am.

Well, I should have remember that it was the summer, and a weekend and the weather was bad and therefore the pager was going to start buzzing at some point. I hadn’t thought about it because I was suppose to be work, but some mis-communication meant that I only ended working on Sunday. Anyway at 2.30 the pager sprang into life, and then I started springing into life as well. trying to put a hill bag together after over three weeks was difficult, when the last time i went outside it was short and t-shirts. I had a very light (under equipped sack) when I left the house.

My next mission was to remember where the hell i had parked the Van, I nearly went to the wrong place but then i remember that it was way down past V12. Anyway after all the faff, I thought I would be one of the last people there, but no. So it was up the Llanberis Path, where we managed to hitch a ride on the railway. A short walk down to the casualty from the train, and after about 30 minutes we started trying to walk them off, before eventually resorting to a stretcher after the helicopter had made three valiant efforts to get into a position to winch. Unfortunately the air was so turbulent, it almost turned the helicopter around at one point.

Fortunately the Mountain Railway had sent us up a private train (no mini bar though!), which waited and waited until we eventually all got on board, and transported the casualty down to Llanberis where the helicopter took her to A&E. Typically just as we were heading off the hill a second job started, now I had already committed to cooking some food for a BBQ, so had to disappear, however a few more jobs occurred, and in total Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team had dealt with 4 rescues, and Ogwen team another potential 8, although that figure is from the news, so could include Llanberis’ jobs as well.

The majority of those job was from the Welsh 1000 metre race, where 240 competitors race across the peaks from the coast near Aber Falls all the way to the Summit of Snowdow. Given the foul conditions, it was a lot colder and winder than it had been just the day before, and I heard reports of hail/snow/ice falling on the Summit of Snowdon, which goes to show how cold it was.

Anyway it would seem that over 10% of the runners needed assistance in someway, some within 1 hour of the race starting. Now given that in 2007 someone died falling on this race, which to me seems ridiculous as if you running that race you need to be competent to make good navigational decision and have the ability to deal with steep ground and not run over a cliff. Similarly why did so many people need rescuing just because of a bit of unseasonal weather. Again people entering a race like that should be grown up enough to look after themselves, and be able to say enough is enough before they get themselves into dire situations. I was certainly very cold on the Llanberis Path, mainly due to the fact that I could find all the clothing before I left the house, and I also lost my woolly hat on holiday.

Whilst I don’t think the race should be banned, a little screening of the competitors, might not go amiss. Simply asking them to tick a few boxes, yes I can navigate, yes I have done a fell race of this length, yes I do know it is risky…. Is all well and good, but how do you know that they can make reasonable decision, and not just go until they collapse of exhaustion and then come down with hypothermia. It certainly kept all the local rescue teams busy in Wales, they probably kept the best part of 60 to 80 members of the LLMRT and OVMRT from having there dinner, not to mentioned filled up A&E with hypothermia cases.

Of course a really big question is why didn’t they postpone the race till today, which whilst still wet, at least started off dry, and the wind had dropped. It is a shame that this race is getting a bit of a reputation as an epic event, however given that for most reasonably fit mountain people the race would take in excess of 12 hours!

I can’t complain really, as I was at my BBQ having a drink or two when these guys were being rescued by my friends. Besides I had to get up at 7am and go to work in some dry clothes, neither of which would have happened if I stayed out on the hill all night.