Month: September 2010

Well I am just outside a very hot Joshua Tree NP. I plan to spend the night and maybe get a quick boulder in this evening as well as tomorrow morning. Looking forward just to seeing this area which is meant to be awesome. It is a shame that it is so hot, otherwise I would have like to stay longer.

Hopefully have some pictures for you guys tomorrow. I have to say rather begrudgingly so as they are set to take over the world, that Starbucks is a great place as every outlet has free wifi. So blogging is something of a looking for the Starbucks sign. Although I have managed to find a few real local places as well, the coffee might not be expresso, but the service in those small places feels less of a sausage factory.

Well I sent Llion and Katie to the airport at 2am. Been for a breakfast at the Omlette Parlour on Main. Now about to get back into the saddle and drive north, in search of cooler climes!

Well we have arrived in La La Land. Staying at the Bayside Hotel where we finished the trip last year. I have some time so have sorted through a few of the photos.

Well I have recieved an email asking for a postal address to send my book “How to Climb Harder” to, and therefore assume that the book is out at last. It might take a few days to reach the shops, but hopefully it will be there for anyone who wants to buy one this weekend.

Until then please visit Pesda Press to have a look at the sample pages. Hopefully you’ll all enjoy it and find it helps you to do what it says on the tin!

Well having been fried alive in the Neddles, we headed south to Taquitz and climb a lovely route Angels Fright. Again the walk in was hell, the climbing superb and then the hike back round to the base was equally hellish in the mid day sun. Still at least there are showers on the campsite and the coke cold in the Idyllwild Coffee House.

I have to say that Idyllwild is a great place to hang out, and I will probably call in here again before I fly south. Again I will put the pictures online later. I am literally still sweating as I type!

Just got down from the Needles, an awesome place, but rather alpine as you have an arduous approach and retreat. We nearly dried ourselves out in the heat as well. I will have to go back there at some point.

We are now heading to just south of LA, meaning we will have to drive through it. Llion and Katie fly out on Thursday morning leaving me for 12 more days before I fly out!

Anyway will add pictures when we get into LA on Wednesday, as I will have time. I am about to try and change me flights back from the US.

Well, we finally got to Lover’s Leap, not before having to drive into South Lake Tahoe. A total change due to the number of people. We spent a couple of days climbing. Making a evening ascent of Bear’s Reach which I think was made famous by Dan Osmond when he soloed it in under 5minutes. Unfortunately the team in front of us took longer than that to get their rock boots on, so we managed the route in about 3 hours, and got off just before sunset!

We then climbed the line of the crag, called The Line an amazing 5.8, which was as good if not better than bears reach.

We are now heading down, via numerous small town america destinations to hopefully end up at the Neddles sometime this evening. A long way to go, on a not so big road!!!admin

Well since I last blogged, I jave jumar 200m to retrieve our fixed rope, left Yosemite Valley and headed to the beautiful Toulomne Meadows. The Meadows is situated at about 2700m, with the climbing being at around 3000m. As such we have been breathing heavily in the rarified air.

The climbing here is superb though, and the campgrounds quieter and the rangers far more accommodating. So far we have climbed several three star routes. Furstly the North West Books on Lembert Dome, as well as what we thought would be a run-out 5.7. I went wrong and missed the only bolt by some 10m, and instead did a very runout 5.9 of unknown name and origin to its right. Fortunately there was some gear!

The next day we went to the Stately Pleasure Dome, and climb West Coutnry a *** 5.6, but before that to avoid waiting behind the slowest climbers known to man. There ascent could be measured in geological time.

On the third day we nipped back up to Fairview dome and climb a fantastic 5.8 called Magical Mystery Tour. It was run out to the moon. If you think that slate is run out, think again. Both Llion and I did some great climbing on chickenheads, that saw us running out 30m of rope between runners.

We have also discovered the joys of cooking Sweetcorn on the open fires, which are essential as the temperature up here is considerably colder than Yosemite Valley, making it much nicer to climb, but very chilly of an evening.

Anyway we are now driving up to Lake Tahoe!

Well, I spent yesterday with Llion fixing to Sickle ledge on The Nose of El Cap. EVerything went swimming well to a point. The climbing was awesome and the weather good. Then we heard a blood curdling scream from the Dolt Hole, a climber had fallen and I believe broken their femur. So from the photos you can see that it was an interesting rescue for  YOSAR. I had hope to get away from such things in my down time from the LLMRT, but no such luck.

Half way through the rescue whilst Llion was leading a pitch we heard another scream, this time those imortal words “BELOW!!!!!!”. I looked up to see a large dark rocks plummeting from below the great roof on what looked like a collision course. I could just look up in horror attach to the belay, as the rock gathered momentum. In that split second all I could think of was at least it would be quick! Follow by relief as the rock smashed into teh wall above us, and then obliterated into more survival chunks. I got my head down as we were straifed by some small debris.

We got to Sickle and Today Llion and I decided that it was an objective danger too far. We don’t alpine climb because of rockfall, I don’t go winter climbing in scotland for avalanches. So Big Walling had seemed ‘Safe’ from such unpredictably. With so many people on the route, thier were 10 teams fixing to sickle when we were their. So we are heading to Touloumne Meadows for some more relaxed cragging. To hell with the Nose!

Well we finally arrived after an epic journey, first the planes TV/Entertainment system was down, hard to get tech support for their server at 35000ft! So I have read near a whole book, a big one at that. We then had a very near miss on landing. I could see the tarmac runway, when the pilot engaged turbo thrusters and pull out of his landing after a very bumpy approach. He then went on to tell us that there was aircraft still on the runway, planning on taking off!!

Then I was given the third degree by immigrations, had to go to a secondary questioning. I thought I was about to miss the flight. So sent the others on, and said I’d meet up if possible. The flight to LA was then delayed due to thunderstorms, so eventualy we made it to LA at 11pm, and then drove through the night to Yosemite, where I am now enjoying a lovely breakfast!

Llion and Katie are trying to skype families so I will jog on.