July 2009 - Page 2 of 4 - Life In The Vertical

New Blog Site

Well I have had some great help from two of my readers Scott and James, both of which have helped me immensely in setting up a new blog on my own website. There are few things still to do but for now I will still be using this one, although probably not for too much longer.

I would be interested to hear what you guys all think either here or over on www.lifeinthevertical.co.uk soon to be .com as well. I have also moved my Snowdonia Mountain Guides site there as well.

Hopefully over the next week or so I will get everything on the blog sorted and i will start to develop the site further. if there is something that you would like to see on the site i am open to suggestions.

Marathon Training

Yesterday I fancied a bit of a run, but at the same time also wanted to have a nose round the quarries to see what is happening in there, as over the last few days the machine that is a big hollywood production has rolled into town. It is like they have brought there own everything with them. Including fancy dress camels!

So I head up through Vivian quaary and ran to the top of Australia, where I started my run down through the quarry with my camera. I got away with it for a while, however someone must have spotted, me and sent the crack security unit after me. Four quads and a came flying up the inclines towards me. So I took a leaf out of Bravo Two Zero and started to leg it. I ran up the stairs leading to Australia East, and pretty soon the chase seemed to be off.

I then had the place to myself as I circled round to take up a commanding position above Serengheti. A few snaps and I moved down towards the main track. I got a few nice pictures that show you the craziness that is going on up there and they haven’t even started filming.

Anyway I was kind of trapped, so came up with the idea of just running the gaunlet. So I headed down the incline near seregeti and jump the fence and went down main track. Again the security guards had me in there sights, however in the time it took him to get of his fat arse i was past him and on my way to freedom. In the process I manage to smuggle these images out of the set.

On a serious note you could easily climb on Rainbow walls and Australia, at the moment if you access them from the top Garret road or the vivian zig zags

Serengeti

The Camel Stables at Bus Stop

Part of Planet Hollywood Dinorwig.

Nominated for an Award

A while back someone suggested that I register my blog for a the above award. I found out today that I have been nominated for ‘Wales in Words’ competition. Which is a rather satisfying, seeing that I was suppose to suggest one article, instead I just gave them a link to my whole blog saying that it is all pretty much about Wales.

Anyway, interestingly they have given me a badge so i can say that I have been nominated, however I can’t actually fit it anywhere on my blog! Ideally it would be 120 pixels across, as that is a pretty standard sidebar width.

I will try and squeeze it in somewhere, until then you

"There’ll be no guides to follow"

I met up with a friend who had just got back from a little trip to Europe where they did a bit of mountain biking, some Via Ferratas and spent a night at a Alpine hut near the Eiger. They told me about a couple of British mountaineers who had arrived at the hut after two days coming up the glacier, they had failed to find some gas for there stove so took Baguettes and Cheese instead. Great however I wonder how they melted any/enough water?

What was really funny was that when it came time to go down the weather was bad so had to make a decision make the 500 meter walk to the train and fork out for the ride, or make a return journey down the Glacier, with the big point that “there’ll be no guides to follow”. My friends were amazed by these people attitudes, but I had to explain it is common.

Many times I have been up on Glyder Fawr in total pea soup and driving rain teaching people to navigate. As I have stopped to get my group to relocate and plan the next leg, I have regularly been join by more and more people, who tag along behind in the hope of a route off the hill. I have taken in recent time to letting my group walk off and then standing in front of the new recruits and saying that they are welcome to follow me, but the people I am teaching have paid good money, and don’t want you to effect their learning.

Most people accept this, however on one occasion I was teaching bearings and one of these followers asked how does he do that. I was a bit pissed off, so in front of everyone said, these people have paid for my input and advice, so if you want me to answer that question i suggest that you give everyone in my group £10 to compensate them. He didn’t ask another question, just followed along quietly.

It is amazing though that so many people seem willing to put themselves in positions that they can’t get themselves out of when the going gets tough. 999, “I am afraid of steep slopes can you come and rescue me!”

It is just ridiculous, anyway, if you’d like to help support Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, respond to many of these idiots then you can by sponsoring me to run the Snowdon Marathon in October, either here or click the donate button on the sidebar.

A day at the office

I was at work yesterday, and had to do a double take as I entered the Plas Y Brenin dining room to collect my lunch, yes it was a well known Olympic gold medalist. apparently after climbing with the BMC at Stanage she has been bitten by the climbing bug, so has come on a Rock Climbing Course, so watch out at the crags!

I was there to help out on the ML ropework day, and spent the day over the road on the Ricks and Racks, and spent the day looking at confidence roping, emergency use of the rope for the mountain leader, including the ‘classic’ abseil. Now for most mountain leaders they will never ever have to use the classic abseil, apart from on there ML training and assessment. I however seem to do a lot of the ropework days so end up doing about one a month or more on average. I wonder whether it will effect my chances of ever conceiving a child (although my personality often seems to be a big enough barrier!).

The day had a small amount of downtime in the afternoon, so I picked up the staff copy of the Daily Mail, and flicked through. Now seeing that I enjoy a good headline I found a couple of great stories.

“My Helicopter Hell”, was a prime example of Daily Mail readership worries. An old lady had her neighbour landing his helicopter anything up to 4 times a week, and once it landed 4 times in one day. I mean it must be a living hell for her. Image if she lived next to a Motorway or Main Railway line or even over the Heathrow flight path! I mean in Snowdonia we are constantly buzzed by RAf training Helicopter or the Big Yellow Rescue Taxi.

An even funny headline was “Millionaire Mansion in Sex Orgy Party”, where a upper class family had hired out there mansion house for a weekend party, and having seen all the guest turn up in very posh cars and then watch at the stroke of midnight as it turn into a deprived sexathon. The quote was ‘I counted at least four couple at it against the Bannister’s’. Sounds like an amazing party to me!

I have been trying to do a bit of school work today, and finally got onto SPSS, which is a sick computer program design to do statistical analysis, it is an arse to use, and even harder to interpret. Anyway it looks like my relaxation protocol has a significant effect within a minute, which is a relief. I did try and see my supervisor today, but it is graduation day, so he’ll be in the pub all day I suspect.

Free Coaching Sessions

As part of a MSc research project into imagery and climbing, local Mountaineering Instructor and Climbing Coach Mark Reeves is offering places on a free Coaching Seminar for anyone who is willing to volunteer as a participant in the research.

The experiment requires about two hours of your time and you will be asked to perform four boulder problems four times, at the Beacon Climbing Centre. As well as climbing the problems you will be required to complete a few questionaires and to wear a heart rate monitor. Prior to completing the final two attempts of each boulder problems we will get you to listen to a relaxation tape or cycle to a set level prior to imagining and then climbing each problem.

All data will be kept confidential, and you are free to withdraw from the study at any time.

Whilst we can’t pay you for your time on the study, you will get free entry to the Beacon Climbing Centre for the purpose of this study, and the opportunity to attend a Coach Seminar with the investigator who is a qualified mountaineering instructor and climbing coach.

Whilst every effort will be made to ensure participants safety there is a level of risk that bouldering involves and every participant should be aware of the BMC participation statement:

“The BMC recognises that climbing, hill walkign and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury and death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their oiwn actions and involvement”

If you would like to find out more about the research or the coaching seminars then please feel free to contact Mark via here.

Free Coaching Sessions

All data will be kept confidential, and you are free to withdraw from the study at any time.

Whilst every effort will be made to ensure participants safety there is a level of risk that bouldering involves and every participant should be aware of the BMC participation statement:

If you would like to find out more about the research or the coaching seminars then please feel free to contact Mark via the links on here.

Are the BBC On Thin Ice with Country File

Country File where the emphasis is on Cun……..try has over the years tried to introduce a few ‘new’ otudoor past times to the general public. A particular favourite was racing a mountain board behind a horse. Because we can all do that. I mean let me just go buy a horse, learn to ride it and there we have it a ‘new’ sport.

Now years ago I got asked politely by a policeman if we could stop pulling our mountain board behind the car at Black Rock sands where the BBC sends Top Gear to tear up the sand. The policeman was trying to explain that the rules of the road still apply, whilst I was explaining that as we were below the high tide mark, the land was actually property of the crown rather than the local council nad there fore the by-law wasn’t valid.

Just as the debate was getting interesting one of the wanna be presenter of Top gear shot past in their SR Nova, doing about 70 mph, so the policeman jumped back in his car before the situation about landownership and road law had finished. Now I would argue that a car and mountain board was way more fun than having to own a horse.

Now on todays Country File, which seems to be the dumping ground of Blue Peter and other childrens TV presenters, was Gill Scrambling, introduced like it was the latest thing. However Gill Climbing has been about for some time, and it is arguable that it has an environmental impact that the programme didn’t touch on, and also some of the more manage venues I have used I and every centre I work for insist on helmets and Bouancy aids, as some of the pools are deep.

Interestingly, several instructors and clients have been injured engaging in gorge or gill scrambling. Often having jumped into a pool that was deep when they last jumped in, but a storm has washed a log to below the surface. In jumps little johnny and snap goes his pelvis. Remember to look before you leap.

The most amusing ‘New’ outdoor sport was Nordic Walking, I’ll be honest it was just walking with two walking. Seem that a few rambler I have seen over the years have been engaged in Nordic Walking for years. I wonder whether they have anymore great ‘new’ sport up there sleeves, maybe Andy Kirkpatrick should get onto them with his Scram-packing, a cross between scrambling and fudge packing apparently.

Interestingly later that evening we got to see some proper Nordic Walking when Fogle, Cracknell and Coats finally got to Antartica for there race. Like ‘Come Hell or High Water’ on Ice, you’ll love this mini series if you liked there last adventure, as they prepare for and then race across to the South.

I do have to say that Ben Fogle cries like a baby way too many times in each programme, it makes me worry about his mental wherewithal. I mean he was like an emotional 14 year old girl who’s boyfriend had just screwed her best friend.

Anyway, the jury is out as to whether these Antarctic racers are better than Bear ‘Oh I broke my Collar Bone and the BMC insurance’ Grylls. I was interested to here that the flight from South Afrca to Antartica cost £250000 each way, I think Bear tried to charter it on his rescue!

Anyway for a Sunday night in the BBC did me proud Country File, Top Gear and On thin Ice back to back. At least it kept me from Lie to Me, House and Bones repeats on Satelite.

Bear Grylls, The BMC and Us

I have known about this story for some time, and have toyed with trying to write something on it for a bigger media outlet than my own blog, as there are parts of the story that as a climber and adventurer I personally find a little bizarre to say the least. I can’t really say where the story came from, I can’t say with 100% accuracy what actually happen. I can share with you through the wonders of hyperlinking where I got my information from, and how I pieced together the story from a throw away comment made at the BMC AGM.

The story starts back at the end of last year, Bear Grylls and his friends (I assume it was he film crew, as he uses the same small team of specialist for his Born Survivor Series) had arranged an expedition to Antarctica there were several ‘aims’ of this expedition some more overt than others. Amongst those objectives was scaling an unclimbed peak, promoting a venture capitalist company specialising in Bio-Ethanol Fuel, and raising £1/2 million for charity. (Most of the information can be found on the expedition website.

Now whilst I would now way criticise an expedition to scale an unclimbed peak, I feel that this was perhaps just a small add on to try and give the expedition some credibility. As Antarctic exploration in my opinion is one of the last great frontiers. However as you will find out as we go on Bears has tried to turn it into little more than an amusement park. After all, when climbers usually go to these places they don’t take a jet ski, an inflatable dinghy and motorised Power gliders. (Again see the mission statement and equipment list they took on the expedition website)

This photo is stolen from the Expedition website. Why are they sleeping in a portaledge, when there ropes go to the top of the cliff. It just strikes me that they were pretending they were being more Extreme than was actually necessary.

One of the biggest things about this expedition was the probably cost, on their website they mention that they went with a company called White Desert who sell themselves as the only company that can take you to the interior of Antarctica in “Luxury and Comfort”. Their cheapest ‘package’ is £23000 per person, based on four people that is instantly near £100000. Given that their expedition probably wasn’t a package, it may well have cost even more than that considering the ‘extra’ equipment they took!

A recent story in the mirror, looked at ‘Celebrity Charity Balls’ that basically spend most of the money raised on the event, so it works out that sometimes only 12% or less of the money raised actually goes to the charity. Given the stated ambition to raise £1/2 million for Global Angels, Bear manage to raise £20000 ‘offline’, but only £280 online. Compare that to the money spent on the expedition and the charitable nature of the expedition becomes a little more questionable.

Now given that Bear’s trip looks like it was funded by Ethanol Ventures, probably due to his ‘celebrity’ status, his programme Born Survivor is as popular across the Atlantic as it is in the UK if not more so. Like any sensible person Bear needed insurance for his expedition, it would appear that he went to the BMC for it, when you read this installment of the expedition diary.

Now this came to light because Bear manage to break his clavicle in a kite-surfing accident, which sounds horrible, but a friend broke his ‘Collar bone’, and all he got was a sling to pull his shoulders back, as there is very little that you can do for such an injury. Bear however was medi-evac from Antarctica back to the UK.

Now given that many people every year need assistance through the BMC travel insurance scheme, it seems a little harsh to single Bear Grylls out. However given that his rescue would have potentially cost 10’s if not £100000’s of pounds, it was potentially a lot more expensive than rescuing someone from Europe or America.

At the BMC AGM the representative from Perkins Slade underwriters of the BMC insurance talked about having to raise the premiums next year, and that the BMC won’t be getting what has become a regular £100000 cheque, from the profit sharing that they have with Perkin Slade. The question is was it Bear’s Grylls rescue that cost the insurance scheme so much that it not only destroyed the profits but also resulted in an increase in its cost?

I also heard a rumour, and it is a rumour that the BMC will no longer insure Bear Grylls, I just hope that he wasn’t covered by BMC insurance when he was subsequently rescued from Vietnam, after he tried to cut his finger off with some bamboo!

I will let you guys draw conclusions from this, but as a climber who has gone on expeditions, it just seemed to me that Bear Grylls’ Expedition has a few to many bells and whistles to be what I consider to be an ‘climbing expedition’. Far better an effort might be Ben Fogles and Ben Cracknells On Thin Ice on BBC, where they are attempting to race to the South Pole, pulling there kit with them.

Anyway my ambition is to raise more money online than he did, when I run the Snowdonia Marathon for the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team. If you want to help me beat Bear, then please click here or on the donation link in the sidebar.

UPDATE 2012 – Bears Website for the exedition is down, there is a new link to the cached pages in the comments below

Homegrown

Well what with the recession, growing your own food seemed like a good idea, however an ounce of DNA from Alan Titmarsh, or the smallest hint of green fingers would help to make sure you grow some nice big succulent fruit or veg. My house mate and I appear to have neither as above is the biggest of the three tomatoes we grew!

We’ll try not to eat it all at once!