Starting the winter tan in Glen Coe sunshine

Donald mentioned some steep bits of ice that had formed nicely right of the slit on the Aonach Eagach side of Glen Coe. This morning we strolled up some nice unclimbed icefalls to the foot of a wall of hanging fangs. It was pretty baltic in the katabatic winds of first light and -13 at the car. But things soon warmed up nicely in the strong January sun, and I was eager to get to the top of the pitch before fangs started to drop from the sky above us. A brilliant pitch of VI,6. 

We climbed the left hand icefall of this wall.

Back at the car Donald spied that the Excellerator was looking formed on Aonach Dubh, so we threw our boots back on and fired up to that and Donald made a fine lead despite a nauseous bout of hot aches and some nasty dinner-plating in the cold temperatures of the north face shade.

Hmm more of the Coe coming soon I think...

Finding your own voice

Ian Parnell on Against All Odds VII,8 Glen Coe

It’s been an interesting time over the past couple of weeks for me. I’ve been mainly ill and unable to climb, which is weird during our little arctic blast here in the highlands. I’ve managed to get out and do a few easier routes as these have been in the best condition and I’ve wanted to do that anyway to get into the flow of climbing smoothly on mixed terrain again. 

I did have one nice day out in Glen Coe with Ian Parnell. We did Against All Odds (a grade VII). It was one of those days where there is only snow on ledges but not plastered everywhere. It was interesting to do a route in that nick again. I had in my my mind a massive discussion I has at the foot of Sassenach on Ben Nevis with Tim Emmett and Will Gadd a couple of years ago. It looked acceptably snowy from the approach and everything else on the mountain was too dangerous to get to. But standing at the foot of it and looking up there wasn’t much whiteness to be seen. Will thought we (Scots) were completely mad for passing up a good route for the sake of a couple of bits of white fluff stuck to it, that we scrape off again anyway. Tim was not far behind (in the end the turf wasn’t frozen anyway so they didn’t do it). I had maintained that it was indeed important that the routes were at least reasonably wintery because that helped to make it a richer battle. It’s the whole experience that makes Scottish winter climbing ‘something else’. So this time we strolled up Against All Odds with no problems, and sure enough, it was nice but not memorable for the climbing really. 

Anyway, after that and another few days of trying to get healthy again and doing some messy jobs at home involving septic tanks, I’ve been preparing to get back out on mountains. 

I’ve had a nearly constant battle in my mind to devote my time to climbing whatever seems a good idea at that moment, or the big project. It’s so true that you have to sing in your own voice to experience the strongest rewards, but at different times I love both approaches to climbing. I spent the summer doing easier routes quickly like Present Tense and Durorband. But as the project guru Nick Dixon always said, the ‘need’ comes around for the big project. And so after one more day tomorrow of doing easier things and just swinging tools into ice, I’m declaring it time to apply tunnel vision for the project and start venturing up the Ben Nevis path again for the season.

The Aonach Eagach Ridge in sunset

Going for a look

First light in Surgeon’s Gully

Yesterday early doors myself and Donald took a wander across the river Nevis to see how frozen Surgeon’s Gully on Ben Nevis was. Sadly, despite just about everything else in Scotland being frozen solid, in the depths of this impressive ravine there was still water moving earthward. It actually seemed to have an amazing micro-climate in there - warm and sheltered. Not good for ice gullies. 

So after climbing some pitches and coming down, we deferred to messing about. First, we did some nice ice bouldering with no crampons. And then danced across some thin ice on the river Nevis (don’t worry, it was only deep enough for wet feet underneath). Wee youtube below:

North West wanderings

Blade Runner Pitch 1, Sgurr a Chaorachain

Peter and myself missed out on our traditional Christmas eve climb due to the combination of work overload and my illness. But today we ventured out which was a good way for me to see if I was feeling healthy enough to look at a mountain again. To be honest I still felt pretty rough, but keen air, crisp snow and a stunning view from the Bealach na Ba raised the psyche levels for a bit of ice bashing on Sgurr a Chaorachain.

I’m lucky enough that the amazing winter cliffs of Applecross are about 90 minutes drive from my new house and I’m keen to throw myself at them more. I know a lot of people glamourise long walk-ins in Scottish winter climbing, but I have to say I’m there to climb hard, not make a lot of potholes in the snow, so I’m loving the stroll across to the quiet cliffs from the top of the Bealach na Ba.

With no snow on the rock on the cliff we went to, options were limited to ice but we climbed the excellent Blade Runner IV,5. Excitable Boy also looked formed and no doubt both of these will stay that way for the foreseeable. Getting moving on the ice and mixed again feels good but strange after several months of hard bouldering. I’m trying to get my gear setup tweaked just right for trying my project later in the season. Several new additions to my winter kit are proving themselves invaluable.

New years resolutions

Richard McGhee swims up a gully in the Mamores

Nearly every year these days, things come to a head...cold. It’s the third year running I’ve done almost exactly the same thing. I work way too long hours, try to train on top of that, and then on my first winter climbing day of the season, make myself ill.

And so oops I did it again. Idiot. After a nice first day out in the snow with Rich I got ill and have spent the past week blowing my nose 10,000 times per day and shivering. The work has been worth it, even despite running myself down in the short term. Sometimes it is better to break yourself for a while, so long as you take the recovery afterwards just as seriously. 

After this routine of hard work, results and consequences around Christmas time, my new years resolutions always take the schizophrenic form of resolving to do more things, but work myself less hard. Will I ever solve the balance?

Patience and impatience in equal measure seems to be good for long term health and making good things happen like hard climbs done, books published and good times enjoyed. The trouble is that impatience is my default setting.

Scottish fresh snow

Meall na Teanga looking nice with its fresh coat of snow yesterday from my house. Hills looking great right now and a cold forecast for Scotland.

Reviews: Progression, Welsh Connections, Winter Climbing Plus

I’ve been meaning to post up reviews of quite a few important new items I’ve been enjoying/using over the autumn. So below are some short reviews of the Progression and Welsh Connections DVDs and Winter Climbing Plus. We’ve just added Winter Climbing Plus and Neil Gresham and Libby Peter’s Get out on rock DVD to the shop. We figured it makes sense that we sell all the best resources for improving at climbing out there. Get out on Rock has all the skills and techniques knowledge you need to go from beginner level and gain entry to leading on trad and climbing safely and confidently on trad cliffs.

Progression

Starting off with the biggest climbing film release of the year, I was very impressed with Progression. In fact I think it’s high in my top five climbing ‘content’ films I’ve seen. When I say content, thats all I can think of to describe the Big Up climbing film style. There is no story, and no thread worth mentioning that draws the different climbs and climbers together, except they are all giving it everything. Lots of people call the Big Up films ‘climbing porn’. It seems unfair to call this one pure climbing porn. There are a handful of momentary interesting snippets where we see a little deeper than tanned muscle pulling down. Watching Patxi Usobiaga slip and lose out despite the gruelling training he shows us affirmed in me why competition climbing has never interested me. Yet his dedication and athleticism is brilliant to watch. We even get shown a tiny bit of Chris Sharma showing a human side of frustration and pressure. Although it would have been more convincing if we’d have seen more. The sport climbing action, especially of Adam Ondra and Sharma in Spain is brilliantly filmed and inspiring to watch. This will always be the highpoint of the Big Up series. Seeing more of Adam Ondra and a little less of Sharma would have been even better. Go on Big Up, be bold next time round and show us a little more fresh content in with the mix! The DVD extra of Ondra was superb despite it’s simplicity. A real education in fast agressive climbing. The worst aspect of the film is it’s predictability, the same folk on the same crags. There is more going on in climbing than this. However, it’s a commercial product so I guess it’s hard to break too far from a safe mould. Bishop highballing just doesn’t seem that interesting, but that’s maybe personal. Despite losing out on depth it could have easily explored, and a touch of predictability, it’s still a must see and there are very few climbing films that rival it except previous Big Up works. Highly recommended. It’s in the shop here.

Welsh Connections

Dave Brown and Lywen Griffiths have obviously worked hard to bring us a snapshot of the spectrum of Welsh climbing and it’s cutting edge right now. Like about a third or so of this type of climbing DVD, that brings us a selection of climbs from one country or area over a year or so, it would probably have been much better if they’d made it over two or three years instead of one. However, thankfully Welsh Connections is worth getting for it’s highpoints. It has a couple of really special moments in it. The bouldering sections were most disappointing with not much memorable action, not helped by some irksome music. I most wanted to see Pete Robins on Liquid Ambar (sandbag 8c). This was interesting but the filming angles weren’t fantastic. The trad, as you might expect was far and away the highlight. McHaffie was great to watch, gripping with runners falling out and loose rock at Gogarth. Shame there wasn’t more of him and to see more of the person as well. The best moment of the film goes to the Emmett who absolutely lives up to his own ‘go for it’ ideal. Tim’s adrenaline junkie, ever laughing gun blazing persona is certainly larger than life. But as Muhammad Ali said “It’s not bragging if you can back it up” and he certainly had our DVD watching team out of their seats and oooing and ahhhing at the gripper lead he goes for in Hunstman’s Leap. Worth the watch just for that. Outside of the local climbing population, it might have been more consistently good if this film had been given time to grow into something with more hard hitting chapters. A good effort and a good watch nonetheless.

We just got our second batch of stock of it for the shop here.

Winter Climbing Plus

I was in Ian Parnell’s car on the way to Torridon at the end of last winter when he was telling me about how much work he’s put into his and Neil Gresham’s new book on winter climbing skills, tactics and technique. I’ve just got my copies in for the shop here and I’m very impressed with the book. As is normal for the Rockfax publications it’s a very colourful book with absolutely loads of pictures that make it a very inspiring book to flick through as the winter season gets going. It will really fire you up as well as inform you. Speaking of the information, it’s ‘dead-on’: succinct, down to earth, highly practical but fairly comprehensive at the same time in dealing most aspects of the entire winter climbing challenge. I’d say there must be very very few winter warriors walking the earth who don’t have something to learn from the combined experience of these two authors.

Black Diamond new Fusions review

I doubt if there is any piece of climbing equipment more readily drooled over than whatever  newest model of ice tool is released by Black Diamond. It’s no accident that for decades their ice tools have not only been hands down the most effective on the market but also aesthetic ‘things of beauty’. Everyone in the chain of ice tool design, from the athletes team providing feedback like myself upwards simply love talking about, appreciating and improving ice tools.

The first generation Fusion was the definitive leashless tool for several years. The ice climbing community has been waiting with baited breath for the new model which has been extensively revised and looks quite different to the old orange model.

Arriving home from training in Spain, one of the first pairs of the new ‘greens’ was sitting on the floor of my training room. I’ve only had a chance to try them out dry tooling on a board so far, but hopeful in a matter of days I’ll have them out on the real stuff and will update this review. 

The new model has a series of additions that neatly solve the limitations of the old version:

A detachable spike on the end of the shaft

A rubberised top handle

A more angled upper shaft for more room to hook over bulky ledges and ice bubbles

lighter than the old model and better weighted for swinging in ice

There also some more subtle changes that will make the tool more durable such as a one piece beefy head with small fixed hammer, a metal tipped upper handle nose and a nicer arrangement to extend the lower handle with spacers for bigger hands. For the trad climbers one potential downside might be that the heavily angled upper shaft might make it a little more difficult to place pegs. But overall I’d still prefer it this way due to the greater space to hook over bulging features. It’s great to see the tool a little lighter too. Weaklings like me got a little weary after clearing snow and rime for hours on end overhead with the old tools.

So how do they feel to use? Brilliant. Comfortable for the hands - some other tools like the Petzl Nomics are a bit brutal on long steep bouts of climbing. The handles seem a good size for holding with little energy, the axe feels great to wield and accurate in fast and neat placements. I’ve yet to notice any bending on super high leverage sideways torques which is reassuring. The only negative thing I can think of to say is it would be nice to have a small patch of ‘grippy’ rubber extending over the inside of the hook at the base of the lower handle. That might add a bit of cost to manufacture?? But it would make them perfect. I’ve never seen or used a better ice axe.

In summary, the new Fusion is yet another thing of beauty that sits rightfully at the top of their range, and therefore the rest of the ice tool market. They will be the pride and joy of any ice climber’s kit.

9 out of 10 climbers has arrived

Stock of my book has arrived with us and we are dispatching it now. Hope you enjoy the read and it helps get you to the next level in your climbing!

Some of you commented on my last post asking how long copies take to arrive in the US. We dispatch by Royal Mail (via airmail if it’s outside the UK). Their estimations for delivery times are here. They quote within 3 working days for Europe and within 5 for the US. It’s always an estimation of course. We are dispatching same day right up to Christmas.

9 out of 10 is in the post to us

Our of stock of my book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes has been shipped and on the way to us, with any luck the DHL man might be at our door with a pallet soon. Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered already!

(click on the pic for a bigger image of the cover jacket)

After I posted the contents list a couple of days ago, various comments on the post were curious and eager for me to give more details on what a couple of intriguingly titled sections were about. Briefly:

To anonymous commenter - The book is definitely about climbing, but improving at climbing goes fastest and farthest when the climbing fits well with many other parts of life. A lot of improving at sport is about setting up the right circumstances, attitudes and approaches to clear the path in front of you. So I wouldn’t say the book is about life, but it does make several observations about the elements of life that lead to good performance in sport. Some them are extremely subtle or small, but have huge effects. So many books on training, sport science, coaching, sports medicine and other aspects related to sport miss what seemed to me the biggest single thing I learned from 6 years study of sport science - that the athlete is a person, and to improve in sport there is no area of the person’s life that does not influence the performance.

To second anon. - ‘The first thing to understand’ section is about change in any aspect of your routine, be it massive (like your career or base) or miniscule. It describes how climbers and people in general deal with change or the possibility of it, and how this accelerates or stunts their progress.

‘The truth about famous climbers’ section is clears up a massive misunderstanding about top climbers that is extremely easy to make without seeing more than we normally get to.

‘Fingerboard rules’ is a comprehensive run down of good practice, routines and common errors in using fingerboards, who they help and in what circumstances, and how some simple errors kill off the potential benefits.

‘How to get light without pain’ refers to the correct way to lose weight to reach an ideal body composition without the constant hunger, frustration, dejection and ultimately failure that accompanies most attempts to adjust weight downwards.

Haston is a very old (in athletic terms) climber performing at world class level and Oddo is an extremely young climber performing at a similar level. This doesn’t happen nearly so much in other sports. I’ve explained why it’s this way in climbing, and how you can take advantage of this.