A leaving gift for you all

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I know it is a little early, but I am so excited about the latest website I have been developing that I want to tell you about it. The site is still under construction, however there is enough content on there for you to see where I am heading. The site is basically the work I had managed to do so far on a selected guide to North Wales. I was very close to signing a deal with the guide, and I have to apologise to the publisher for letting them down.

The future for me seems very bright, and I am not sure whether I will return to the UK for long enough to complete the project, so rather than have a half finished book that sits on my computer, I thought that I would buy a dot com and offer it out to the public. Who knows one day it might well become a book. If not I hope it becomes an excellent resource for you guys to enjoy.

I can hear the CC, RockFax and Ground Up fearing the idea of an online guide and I await angry phone calls (please note I am working this weekend so will be unavailable to rant at until after 7pm). I however see it as a fantastic opportunity to put North Wales on the Map, as well as promote the growing number of excellent guides to the area. I also believe that an online resource is no replacement for a paper and ink guide. It is however another form of information that rather than just telling you about an area like virtually all other online resources, this site actually gives you the instruction to experience it and write your own stories. The site contains many of my favourite routes, and I will undoubtably add to the site over time.

What this site is not is a wiki, I can allow selected people to ‘author’ and ‘edit’ the site, and given my spelling and habit of meaning right and typing left, means that if you are a devoted north wales climber with a computer maybe you can help out? I am also short a few crag shots that if anybody manages to take whilst they are out and about, I would be extremely grateful for the images so I can turn them into topos’s. I am also keen to see if any manufacturers, shops, magazines, distributors or heaven forbid publishers would like to come on board and help support the running of the project by advertising on the site.

To see the content you’ll need to set up an account, and I am insisting on real names I am afraid, and will block users who don’t abide by this rule. The info is there for you print out for your own personal use only, under no circumstance should the images be replicated in anyway in print or online form, unless you want a bill for £500 per image. Basically I don’t want you cutting and pasting my work to your own site, as taking the photos and turning them to topos has taken a considerable length of time. If you want online/digital media, then look at this site as my CV, as I am available for freelance photography and writing.

I do have to give a massive thanks to Scott, who has done some amazing work, if your saw my blog post recently, then I can admit now to spending three days trying to get joomla to run on my hosting server. I was totally at my wits end and Scott offered to help, and about 30 minutes later it was up and running. About 12 hours later, and I had virtually broken the site again, and Scott clicked a button and made it work. He has probably kept me from hitting my computer with a large stick, as time after time the ‘computor says Noooo!’

V12 Outdoor: Massive Bank Holiday Sale

I have seen signs spread across the length and breadth of Snowdonia for the sale of the century. One inparticular was on a footpath sign just by the Brenin. It was so small that I doubt any motorist saw it, as cruising past at a walking pace only 1 of my group of five saw it!

Anyway they are talking of 95% off items that are in the sale and 50% off other stuff. I can’t remember if there was any small print. Even so there is obviously going to be some serious bargains. Unfortunately I am working!

A quick hit

Just ran up the starting five pitches of Sunchaser wall in Vivian. It was good to shake off the cobwebs from a month of near continuous rain. Was great to touch real rock again. May well go to the wall this evening with Katie for more pre-Nose training, unfortunately the Welsh Summer has really put a dampner on climbing (pun intended!)

Saddle Sore

Well, in the last few days I have been trying to improve my fitness for El Cap, the weather has meant that I haven’t been able to climb that much. So I have done a few short runs, and yesterday I went for a Mountain Bike. We headed up to the paraglider take off on the Garret Road, and then headed down in a rather quick fashion down to the Main Track, before heading down to Brynrefail via Cwm Y Glo and then back home in time for tea and cakes.

Later on a small peleton of riders headed up the pass to the Vaynol for a couple of beers and a social, before heading back. I borrowed a friends bike on both occasions, and had a good time playing on a full sus MTB and a nice road bike. I am somewhat saddle sore now, and turned down another ride this morning mainly because I feared that I would be unable to sit down!

The plan is to hit the quarries later today and finally get some climbing done.

For Sale: A selection of Stuff

I am having a clear out over at LITV Towers, trying to lighten my load when it comes to stuff I have accumulated over the years. All the stuff is located in Llanberis, and pick up can be arranged, if you live further afield then I am afraid I will have to charge postage and packaging on top of this.

Ford Transit Van – Long Wheel Base – High top S reg – £700 ono

This is a great van for spending time away in, although it needs some work, the back has been converted to a basic camping standard, it also features a webasto deseil heater that would be worth almost as much as the van. It does need a new leisure battery.

12 Assorted Sizes of Quickdraw slings – £5

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A selection of Nylon Slings – £15

1x240cm, 3x120cm, 1x60cm – barely ever used

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4 Drive in – Screw out Ice Screws plus DMM Bulldog- £15

Suitable for up to grade III/IV ice and mixed climbing.

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2 Black Diamond ATC – £5 each

1 x DMM Bug Belay Plate – £5

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2 x DMM Vapour Axe – £30 each

The DMM Vapour axe is a fully T rated ice axe, that is lightweight and designed for ski mountaineering.

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A selection of Steel locking gate carabiners – £15

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A selection of Pegs, Copper head & Hand drill for Petzl bolts – £20

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Slacklining Nylon tape – 20m aproximate length – £20

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Random selection of wires – £20

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When will I learn……..I am not a computor programmer!

Well a busy day for me, I had a two hour search with the rescue team, although I had a leisurely start after missing the first text message. I then set about sorting out a new site I have finally decided to set up. The problem being I set up a joomla site via a sub domain, and the site won’t display.

Tech support say, no you have to set it up on the domain name not the sub domain. Interestingly the one click easy app they offer doesn’t do this. So I had to delete what I had done and start again setting up databases, and reinstalling the software. I attempted this manually but the computor said no! I have to say that they haven’t made the process easy at all, not for a techno twat like myself.

Anyway, deleting everything again and then I am going to upload everything again and start again. The joys!

Photo Success, but how?

Well i have finally managed to get photos to publish onto the website. I have absolutely no idea how I managed it. Mainly because I have done and undone so many things in an attempt to rectify the problem that I am no longer sure what actually worked. A programming equivalent of a fluke!

I will no doubt try and get a few on y recently images up here for you to hopefully enjoy.