I saw this on facebook, and couldn’t decide whether it is real or viral? I want to believe it is a fake, as that is just rediculous. Surely not real? Although if it is real, that is some F$£@!!!!! incredible flying. It is obviously linked to this site.
It is on this guys Youtube page though, class A nutter for sure! Respect!
I have to admit to having quite a bad weekend, as friday and saturday I failed to find a climbing partner, so went for a bit of a boulder both days. On Saturday it was the RAC, this is a palce I haven’t been for what seems like ages, as I used to work in Joe Browns, many, many years ago now. When I was in their shop in Capel Curig I used to get a sandwich, and go for a boulder every lunchtime. I used to be able to lap nearly every problem there, eat my sandwich and then do it again, before i headed back to the shop.
A few years older, and a lot rustier it took nearly that time to do all the problems, and aprat from the long pump traverse. I got everyone first go, I have to admit that I failed to redpoint that one problem, gutted, but there will definitely be a next time. Although I now mostly go there with students on rock courses, doing some great caoching movement sessions with them.
Anyway Sunday was an ML assessment day, me assessing a couple of very nice people, we headed into Cwm Glas and up to Blwch Coch, before heading along the ridge to Carnedd Ugain, and back down the Cryn Las ridge. A lovely day with t-shirt weather on the summits.
If you rewind back a month or so in my blog, you’ll remember the hideous Winter ML assessment I was on, well after we returned from the ming. I met up with the MIC training course, who had had a lovely time climbing. One of those was a Tom Chamberlain, he is a good freind with several of my colleagues at Plas Y Brenin. However I have never climbed with Tom, and we hatch a plan, a very drunken plan to get climbing together this year.
So last night I met with Tom, and a few friends for a BBQ by the Lake in Llanberis, and then we went out to Gogarth today. The 9.30 start in V12 Outdoor, wasn’t the best, as it was raining hard. A quick check of the webcams, meant we were sure it was currently raining at Holyhead. However teh rainfall radar had the weather clearing from just after 9.30.
Our mission was to make a long 100m abseil into the Hustler Area. Tom had managed to get a long rope from his school, where he was told he could cut the 200m rope in half to make us one 100m rope. So V12 supplied the rope cutter and only as I was coiling one half did the doubts hit me, this was an extremely light 100m abseil rope.
It rained all the way there and armed with a arial phototopo from here, we found the block and I went to abseil in 55m down on a ledge, I looked down and saw our problem, of lack of length. We had turn a 120m rope into two 60m! I made a quick belay and we then faffed about with first one then two ropes to make the abseil to the base of routes. All of this was probably taking longer than we thought as we enter the twilight zone of Main Cliff.
After pulling wet ropes, one of which was at one point swimming like some giant sea serpent out to sea, Tom set off on the first traverse pitch into Mestizo, he managed to belay in the wrong corner, so I lead through, and he then did the alleged 4c pitch. It felt more like 5a, although the rock was a little damp. I then lead the 5b pitch, which was rather full on, featuring sustain 5a/b climbing, with big high steps onto good foothold, and mostly on layaways.
It was interesting, as it was my first Gogarth trip for over 8 months, and I have lost that confidence that Gogarth needs. Facing a long swim, or me manning up and topping out. I tucked my skirt in, and powered up placing gear above my head at every, and I mean every oppotunity. Until I had a grasp of the finishing jug, where I was fight to fiddle in a wire as my arms felt like they were about to explode, my whole body shaking, as I threw my leg onto the last hold and rocked over back into a world of walking.
The time check had it at 2.30 in the afternoon, our initial plan had been to do a few rotues, one would have to suffice, so we scrambled up and out. My word, my fitness is awful, although I suspect the 8 months lay off from the gogarth weirdness counted for a lot of the nerves, as I definitely remember the fear as I stepped up and off the belay ledge towards that steep final pitch! Great route, and great day!
Alex Messenger: Climbing from alex messenger on Vimeo.
This is the first in a series of posts on outdoor/climbing photographers that have inspired, entertained and enthralled me with their images of ascent and mountain based activities. Alex is first simply because he managed to get the interview back to me in a rediculously speedy time. The above film has been seen over 11000 times after it was posted on UKC, and features lots of Alex’s work.
To give you some of a background, Alex Messenger is the editor of the BMC Summit magazine, by default of being shipped to all the 70000 members of the BMC, it is the most read of the UK print based climbing media. More than that though the covers of the Magazine have been truly inspirational over the years, as such Alex has a great breadth of knowledge about photography, which I shall try to pick through a series of questions.
I first met Alex on an international meet through the BMC, I was hosting, drinking and taking a few images, and Alex was doing similar, just less climbing and more of the other, taking photos that is! Over the years I have seen a great many of Alex’s shots in print, which really do show his ability to capture the action of ascent and some even show his humour.
Alex has both a website with a few of his shots, and a photobox gallery where you can buy some of his images as well. I haven’t put any of Alex’s images here, but encourage you to read through the interview and explore the links
What or who inspired you to get into photography?
Absolutely no idea, which is weird. Normally people say things like Ansel Adams at this point, but until my mid-20s I wasn’t into photography, just climbing. Something must have happened. Anyway, one thing’s for sure: I’m better at taking photos than I am at climbing.
Have you done any formal studies in photography, if so how has it helped you?
A few courses. Nothing serious. If I could go back in time I’d do a Photography degree, that’d be a blast. Maybe not at £9,000 a year though.
What’s best Digital or Film, and why?
This debate seemed so important a few years ago but slides are dead now. I loved slides, everything about them: the colours, getting the sheets back from processing, the slight worry of lugging five week’s worth of exposed slide film around. It dictated your whole climbing photography style too: you had to use Velvia 50 to get those saturated colours and make your shots stand out but you also needed the late evening or early morning light. Climbing photography basically came down to hoping that your 200mm f2.8 lens wouldn’t be blurred at 1/60s or less. Most of the time it was, but out of 20 slides one would stand out as a winner and you’d send that off to a magazine…by post. Now they’re gone, but that’s OK. A whole new world has opened up in their place, a world of multi remote flashes, crazy wide-angle lenses, seemingly infinite low-light capability…and no more sticking slides in the post.
What has been your favourite photoshoot, and why has it stood out for you?
Bishop in 2007, when I managed a total rarity: to climb OK (well, for me) and take some good shots. So easy when the weather’s perfect.
You have an impressive collection of published images, which are you most proud of?
Perhaps the series of portraits for the That’s Me section of Summit. Portrait shots are harder than climbing shots; you’ve got to deal with what you find. Like the shot of Johnny Dawes in Summit 61 – taken in a dirty alleyway on a rainy afternoon in Sheffield with a distracted friend acting as a lightstand.
What style best describes your photography?
No idea, I should have done that Photography degree then I could tell you. It’s not so much about the climbing – it’s about distilling the form down and using light and shapes to evoke feeling.
If there was anyone in the world dead or alive you could photograph who’d it be and why?
Dunno. Dan Osman on El Cap with a load of FHM models?
What do you look for in your images?
In the days of slide: a climber, and if I was lucky, a climber in focus. Nowadays, something that stands out. Sometimes you get it, usually you don’t. The easiest way is to leave the shots for a few weeks then go back to them. You’ve got less attachment to them and the good ones stand out.
Are you a chimper?
Nah. Taking thousands of photos a day at events like weddings soon cures you of that. You look like such a geek with your head down; it totally doesn’t inspire confidence.
Any top tips for the next generation of snappers or the keen amateur who is looking to improve their climbing photography?
There’s no simple answer. Well, there is: gear is so good these days that there’s no excuse for taking technically bad shots. The hard bit is developing your own take on things. And to do that you’ve just got to get out there and wear your shutter finger out.
What’s your next project?
To finish my DIY marathon and re-enter the land of the living.
How is it juggling editing the BMC summit magazine and finding time for taking your images?
That’s not a problem, it works pretty well. It’s all the other stuff that gets in the way: other work, climbing, life, DIY…
The cover shots of summit have been outstanding as the editor what are you looking for in a cover picture?
Thanks. Well, it needs to be practical (right orientation, work with the masthead, relate to the content, be seasonal). But if those boxes are ticked it needs to just say wow. It needs to be a stop-and-stare shot. You don’t get many of those. I like the one on the latest issue – makes me want to pick up the mag even if I have written every (very exciting) word.
Any tips for people trying to get there images published? Or what annoys you the most with picture submission?
To get published your great hi-res photo just needs to be in the right place at the right time. But this is easier said than done.
Climbing and outdoor magazines don’t have picture editors, or editorial assistants, they just have one or two people pulling everything together and a frantic designer stuck behind a mac at the printers.
Really good shots will always get published, but to stack the odds in your favour, you need to make it easier for everyone involved. If you send in a CD they won’t have time to look at it, if you send a website link they’ll forget they’ve seen it, if you send in a load of average jpegs by email they’ll just delete all your future emails. What works for me are people sending in a handful of high quality pics by email with a bit of thought (i.e. don’t send winter pics in July even if they are incredible) and then just send a few follow-up emails to jog my memory.
Pick your five best shots, email them to the magazine and ask them how they source photos. They might have a mailing list you can join, an ftp site you can dump stuff on, a flikr pool.
Pick your target though. The more specialist mags are easier to get into. Magazines like Trail have a staff photographer and the mass market mags will just use stock images. If you do take a once-in-a-million shot (like a basejumper, a wild canoe waterfall shot, ice climbing in London, polar bear eating you) then you can try to sell it to a picture agency for use in the mainstream media.
And finally, just remember:
You probably won’t get as reply unless your shot is being used but don’t take it personally. No one does.
Nothing’s 100% in until it’s printed.
…but it’s great when it is.
As a visual person, I simply love to look at a good climbing or outdoor images. Most people who look at a shot will often think wow, that climber looks amazing. They may read the caption and see what the route is and maybe the grade. I am a bit of an anorak, and will try and work out what type of lens was used, wide, mid-range or zoom, how the depth of feild effected the shot and most importantly who pressed that button.
If sponsored climbers live and die through there media coverage, then with the internet and print media, their deals can potentially be in the hands of the snappers who steal those images. How a photographer captures that split second in time is part science and part art. The science comes down to an understanding of what you can do with the focal length of a lens, the depth of feild, the exposure and the focus. However whilst this maybe part science, the art comes by how the photographer utilises these variables and frames a shot.
To be a great photographer, requires just as much skill as climbing, albeit less physical, as virtually everything is achieved through controlling a camera with a finger and thumb on one hand. What I am wanting to do in this article is quite literally focus on the photographers that have both inspired, entertained and enthralled me with their images of ascents over the years.
I have already manage to get a few of my favourite photographers to agree to be interviewed. As I recieve them back I will put them up online here. If you want to see just who’s been done so far then I am going to tag the posts ‘Focus On’, which should pull up all the posts in the series.
So far I have hopefully got Alex Ekins, Alex Messenger, Ian Parnell and Adam Long. I have asked a few others and I am waiting for the response. If you have any other suggestion or would like to be featured as a photographer, then please comment or email me.
I have been interested with teh quarries for a long time and spend much of my time enjoying the legacy of the 1980’s pioneers, as well as looking at the history of the time. This looking back at the history surrounding the quarries is interesting, as it really helps put it into perspective just what was going on at the time. I would expand on it here, but I have penned a piece on the quarries for UKC, and don’t want to spoil the surprise.
However I was today up on the conscience slab, so called by the main protagonist behind the development of this slab, as his conscience was rather troubled by the placing of the bolts on his routes. Which by today’s standards is rather odd, as bolt protected lines in the quarries are extremely common, given the recent move to grid type bolting and excavation of new routes.
When Mike Raine developed these routes, bolting was a rather new thing, something that was still raising an eyebrow or two. In placing those bolts he was stuck between the trad ethic of the time and the desire to climb this stunning if slightly overlooked wall. Anyway today the routes have seen a little bit of a renaissance, after he re-equipped them and added one bolt to a route where the previous wire placement had blown out.
Today I climbed Is it a Crime?, a simply lovely E3. Don’t believe guides that make it out to be E2, as if this is E2 then the Dervish is E1. The route feature some fine run-out climbing on easy terrain and then some nice thin crux moves next to bolts. We then went onto climb Never as Good as the First Time, another great E3, although Simon manned up and climbed the 6b top section of Sweetest Taboo.
The joy of this slab is that it is only a few minutes from the car, and you can get up and down these routes pretty sharpish, I think Si and I were only there for a little over an hour. It also gets the even sun, and was out of the rather brisk wind.
Well I nearly fell over when I went down stairs in the Beacon last night, mainly because those stairs are so steep and damp last night to be honest, but also because an international climbing wad was in there bouldering. Stefan Glowacz, was throwing shapes at the Beacon, and making a damn fine display of it as well. To me Stefan was one of those climbers that somehow has always managed to stay in your mind, I think because he is a genuine all-round, but also he has had his image taken against some of the most impressive backdrops in the world by some of the best photographers.
I guess he is probably a bravarian Twid Turner, in that he has been almost everwhere and done a new route or repeated a hard line. So I was a little excited to climb in his presence, as North Wales isn’t exactly the epi centre of world climbing, so rock gods and super heroes are as rare as rocking horse shite.
Anyway, Stefan was a nice bloke, a few of us pointed him at some of the beacons toughest problems, which he dispatched fairly effortlessly. Then just as Llion and I were getting up to speed we went for a link up that I did a few weeks back, that has now become part of the Beaconeering Circuit. I managed it again, it is a great link, two great up problems then down an easier one, to link the two. The second problem is harder than the first so like all good routes the crux is at the top.
Next thing Stefan is walking up and then down the same link up, and just to hammer home the ease he was footless on the easy descent route, although he might not have been able to see the footholds! He then fell off the final problem. He later came and said he liked the link and thought it was tough. To which I replied, yes, but I have spent the entire winter trying to redpoint it, you were one foothold away from flashing it!
Anyway, alway great to see greatness especially when they are so friendly. I think Stefan was over with with either Wild Country or the company he founded Red Chilli or Both
Kath Wills a member of the LLMRT has written a great article on Llanberis Mountain rescue team for UKHillwalking the new sister site to UKC. Kath has years of experience on the team, and is currently working on a first aid book aimed at outdoor enthusiast in conjunction with Pesda Press. The article offers some sound advice, as well as some intersting facts like the 180 callouts the team had last year!
Kath runs a first aid training company ‘Active First Aid‘ offering REC First Aid, which are essentially industry standard for outdoor instructors, as they concerntrate on delivering first aid solutions in teh field rather than a urban enviroment.
The Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team is a registered charity, that is run by volunteers. If you’d liek to support the team then you can donate via there website using justgiving.
I have for sometime now been paying off my student loan. I think I started in 2005, and have slowly but surely been paying my £90 per month, mainly because I got bored of doing all the paper work for deferring payment. Interestingly I have never earned over the £14000 threshod per annum that make payment madatory.
I guess I should be grateful, as I spent the money on holidays and climbing equipment, however it was the most expensive rack I have ever brought given that I graduated in 1998. I just remember the other day looking at my bank statement and seeing that I was paying them still, and having moved and forgotten to change my address I have not recieved a statement for years, and then I phone them up, and find that last month was the last payment I needed to make.
So what am I going to do with my extra £99.06 a month? The answer is I am probably going to drink it tonight!
A couple of years ago I set out from Llanberis and made a pilgrimage that was for me one of the best short trips of my life. Having quested half way round the world in search of classic rock climbing, I have ticked some of the worlds best rock climbs. The Old Man of Hoy is one of the few routes that has managed to remain in my favourite routes of all time.
The first time I climbed it was quite by accident, as I was working one day with a paddler, and we both had 4 days off. A mission to drive up and climb it was hatch over a cup of tea, and tat 7pm we headed off north. By 9pm the next day we were stood on the top of the Old Man of Hoy. We were extremely lucky with the weather, and on our way back ticked off the Old Man of Stoer. Above is a video of the trip.
I have just recieved a text from a friend who is keen to head up there this summer, we have set the dates, and a small team of my best friends, those people you see in my photos, are heading up. I have checked with them and they are happy to have a couple of people along on the trip to enjoy this summit of a lifetime. The dates are 8th to 12th June, if you are interested the route climbs up a 200m high sandstone sea stack, the crux is an traverse into an E1 off-width crack, as such you need to be very happy on that grade and I will want to know the routes you have lead/seconded recently as a form of vetting. I am sorry but this is a route of a serious nature.
The cost will be £600 per person, and several of these days may well be sat around waiting for the weather. We can arrange to pick you up anywhere between North Wales and The North-East tip of Scotland. Accomodation will be in either the bunkhouse, tent or Bothy (The tent might be useful if we climb the route quickly and need to head south rock climbing through Scotland!), and you will enjoy my great homecooking.
This is a climbing trip where you will be guided up routes rather than an instructional or coaching course.
I happened to miss this programme on the TV last night, but thanks to the joys of BBC iPlayer, I managed to just watch it this afternoon, whilst the rain is coming down in Llanberis. Now as a devout cragrat, and non-mountaineer, I was worried that a progamme on the North Face of a Mountain that I am very unlikely to ever be bothered to climb because it doesn’t even rank in my list of rotues to climb before I get too old, would be uninteresting.
However, as a piece of TV it was a very engaging piece of a modern perspective on the mountain put into the context of the history of teh wall. At christmas time I watched the Nordwand, a kind of german version of what may or may not of happened on the face on one of the main tradegy’s, but because it was a film it had a massive chunk of ‘artistic licence’, in fact it was almost all make believe except a few key facts and the names of the climbers.
What Eiger – Wall of death did was take that history, and tell it through the words of very important british mountaineers, who have so absorbed the stories and accounts from books, first hand encounters with the wall and meeting the great and the good of Eiger ascentionist, that the story almost came alive.
It was in my mind a shame that they missed one trick which was the inclusion of the story of the Eiger Solo, a great film that was made about the Eric Jones solo ascent. Despite this ommission, the programme was entertaining, and it was great to see Kenton Cool and Neil Brodie getting paid our licence fee to sit around below the Eiger and say, “No, weather too bad for us to go otu there!”
A real must for any climber who wants to know a littel more about the hstory of our great game!