FAO2 Photography

A reminisce from the past after an amazing surprise visit by an amazing girl

2012-02-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

And after that title, there's little else to say!

Sunday saw a far too brief rendezvous with the amazing Mina above along with, Lisa and Amanda; friends who I had the pleasure of spending many fun-filled hours with, many moons ago. Sadly given time they've gone off their separate ways and I've been awful at staying in touch. After five minutes it was clear that nothing had changed, we still get on amazingly despite the time gone by.

Exactly how friendships should be.

No more Banshee!

2012-02-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

So I've finally beaten the Trad route that has caused me to fall out the sky three significant times before!

Banshee is a straightforward climb at E2 5c. Which sits in the mid-range of difficulty (see the end of this post).

E2 5c in reality isn't very hard (I've climbed up to E4 as highball soloing), the difficulty of the climbing was something I could probably manage two years ago but placing gear and climbing that difficulty made me make some goofy mistakes and as a result I fell out the sky three times. I'm going to make excuses ...

The first day it was so cold I put one hand on top of the other, couldn't feel my fingers then desperately tried to release my 'trapped' lower hand. I fell. Whoosh! Deciding that the old adage of getting back on the horse was probably appropriate, I got back on climbed to the same point, exhausted. I slipped and fell again, then my mate Simon raced straight up and another route to the left, then rain started and we abseiled off the ramp and went home. The third failed attempt was a bad day, turning up very hung up I laid down and watched a friend and his mate climb whilst soaking up the sun, getting increasingly dehydrated. Having been persuaded to 'have a go' on my project I was belayed by this unknown guy, got half way up, started dry heaving and promptly took the same fall if not a little bit more dramatically this time, whooshing over the startled belayers head.

So several months on, after watching Ged and Charlie's day of fun, I was inspired to get on myself and try and tick my project - the easiest climb, they climbed that day!

The short of it is, I did it! Superficially it felt easy, except for one critical omission ... There's a nut placement that most people describe as 'critical', along with 'unmissable' and 'bomber' (climberspeak for very secure and safe). I missed it, my gear was far below and consisted of rusty, unbomber pegs. The situation felt a little bit critical as I arrived at a rather exciting mantel - a move similar to climbing up a brick wall and climbing over the top, you start with both hands above you on a ledge, scrabble your feet up, get over your hands and push up until you can get your foot on and stand up. I got about halfway up and slipped, dropping back down left with elbows sprawled over the ledge.

Fearfully aware that a) I could well slip off and b) if I did slip it was a very long way down and I couldn't convince myself there wasn't more rope out than distance to floor, i.e. I thought I may well hit the ground, I held on slowly slipping towards the edge. Somehow I scrabbled, squawked and managed to get myself back up and onto the horrible slanting ledge. Looking about I realised that was it - I was up.

Never has the end of a climb felt so much of a relief - I never had to climb it again, I hadn't slipped and hit the ground!

At 15 metres of climbing it's not amazingly high, but when my mate, Luke gave me back the gear out I'd placed it was a little bit of a shock to see so little, in fact I asked him where the rest was. One cam was placed low which did very little but redirect the belay to prevent the gear above popping out, then a slightly dodgy nut, then one more cam placed next to two quick draws clipped to rusty pegs. Interestingly sparse protection from there to the end (which should have been filled by the 'critical' nut placement!) ...

Trad climbing grades are funny, in reality most people could get up the climbing of a VD on their first outing, perhaps even a little higher. My favourite climb for new climbers is Idleburger Buttress at Avon Gorge which goes at VD (and has bolts at the top to create a safe top rope set up, where the rope goes up, loops at the top and down to the climber, as such if they slip they don't fall any real distance.) So having said that the climbing isn't difficult, what is difficult is getting your head together and climb up a wall with nothing attached to it already, sticking lumps of metal into cracks, clipping your safety rope to them and hoping they'll hold if you slip. This is the differential between Trad climbing headset and Sport Climbing - Trad climbing you have to think about the climb (noun), whilst Sport climbing you have to think more about the climbing (verb).

Easy (which involves little to no actual 'climbing') ...

Moderate (M)

Difficult (D)

Hard Diff (HD)

Very Difficult (VD)

Hard Very Difficult (HVD)

Severe (S)

Hard Severe (HS)

Very Severe (VS)

Hard Very Severe (HVS)

Extreme Severe (E1)

=> E2 <=

E3
E4
E5
E6
E7
E8
E9
E10

E11

Quote of the Day

2012-02-02T17:12:00.001-08:00

"When I began climbing hard I figured I wouldn't live past 26. Strangely, I survived 20 years after my predicted expiration date. I've quit counting on "no future" and learned to live with not knowing the future."

- Mark Twight -

The Ramp Challenge

2012-02-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

So the Ramp Challenge, an idea conceived by Ged and Woody after climbing Tour de France and realising the last move was probably the single toughest move on the Ramp at Seawalls, Avon. Wouldn't it be great if that was the final move of a huge bigwall, multi pitch route? Shame there's no big walls in Bristol …

So what's the solution? It's obvious right? Enchain all of the starred routes on the ramp starting from the right and working left in sequence until the final climb, Tour de France and the final move, 'that move'.

Today Ged and Charles took that plan, formed by ill minds, and put it into action. On possibly the most perfect of winter days a reasonably prompt, but equally civil, start at 9.30am led into an all day effort leading to the final climb, in the pitch black lit by a shoddy head torch with failing batteries and shining from the sidelines the brightest cyclelamp known to man.

The result? E2, E2, E5, E4, E3, E6, E5, E3, E5, E6, E3, E6. Up until the final route all routes were ticked clean on lead, with gear placement alternated between the two of them, a few slips here and there, but ropes were pulled through and re-sent. The final route was always going to be the crux and had the day started an hour or so earlier, the chance to do it in daylight and with a bit more time to relax may have made all the difference. That said Ged took the baton, tied on and despite an unenthused start soon found himself a lot further up than he expected cheered on by Gaz Parry, Joe Day, Archie, Ben and others. Just at the final moves, squelching his finger into the soggy mono at the top he popped off and took the late night lob, undeterred but unable to re-climb the lower section he pulled back on to the wall and sent it up from there to the top, it might not have been perfect style but it was sure as hell impressive. All that remained now was for Charlie to pull on and do the business too. In a similar exhausted state to Ged, he too took a couple of little falls but at the end of the day, most importantly pulled up and over to the railings as well.

If today wasn't inspirational, I don't know what is.

Good work boys.

(P.S. Next challenge for you Charlie, fatherhood …)

Follow up:

Ged Desforges: good stuff pete, cheers for sticking with us! and cheers to Gaz for the torch. And the other random people who, for a reason I still dont understand, happened to be up on the ramp late on a saturday evenin ing january.

Charlie Woodburn: Great shots Pete, massive thanks & and as ged says the moral support was awesome. Perhaps the casual 9.30 start coupled with neither Ged nor I bothering to bring a head torch was a little blasé in retrospect. But let's face it, it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun and blindly fumbling around in the dark on the crux of a E6 after 11 pitches was exactly how woody would've wanted it. The challenge is there for anyone who wants to do it. Big up mr Woods, we'll always remember you via evenings like last night.

Hopes, dreams and accelerated possibilities ...

2012-01-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

So I've rather been put on the spot by a few people recently to explain a peculiar purchase of mine ... A Himalayan Down Suit. Yup, that's right a massive sleeping bag like suit of greatness packed full of 800 fill Goose Down.

There are 14 (prominent/dominant?!) places in the world where this thing is necessary and wouldn't cause you to overheat, know where I mean? How about if I use the phrase 8000er? No, still none the wiser? Well let me explain, there are 14 peaks in the world that are over 8000 metres above sea level, the obvious being Everest, closely followed by K2 going 'all' the way down to Shishapangma at 'just' 8027m ...

I want to climb one. Well no, I want to climb ALL of them. All of them without Oxygen - as the Mr Messner says, "by fair means" or not at all. But for the moment ticking one would be superb, in credit to my heroes Simone Moro and Denis Urbuko I would like it to be Gasherbrum II (which they were the first to climb in Winter, last year with Cory Richards).

Now I need to work on saving a lot of money and getting my fitness to a very high level, I need to be able to plod and plod and plod, in the freezing cold with the utmost conviction, watch this space.

The games are a foot.

Another Bristol Panorama

2012-01-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

Sunrise

2012-01-08T09:38:00.001-08:00

Just a little sunrise panorama from Bristol, this morning.

My heroes are at it again!

2012-01-07T12:04:00.000-08:00

Denis Urbuko and Simone Moro are out looking at the 8000ers again, this time looking at the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat at the far west of the Himalayas. Good luck gents and look forward to more videos soon!

Nanga Parbat is incidentally the first and only 8000er to be climbed solo by the late, great Hermann Buhl in 1953 and like K2, G1 and Broad Peak it has yet to see a winter ascent - I can see this easily changing by the end of the season.

Johnny Dawes et al on Foula's Sea Cliffs

2012-01-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

So for the last couple of months my dad's been telling me about an old VHS tape he had at the school he works for, finally he managed to have it burnt to DVD and posted it over to me. In it a 'free style' girl climbs to the top of an African cliff face, all the time my dad told me about it I assumed he'd mistaken the commentator saying Free Solo for Free Style but it turns out, nope they're definitely saying 'Free Style', new phrase on me!

So it turns out ultimately that this clip is actually on YouTube already, it's one of Catherine Destivelle and features one of the finest Jazz Trumpeting Shamans you'll ever hear, you can watch it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N70DLM8Az_8

What was more interesting however was the other clip on the documentary, an expedition to Foula in the Shetland Islands, where my dad used to be based as a bird ringer. In this clip a plethora of fine climbers take on what was considered as possible the highest sea cliff in the British Isles. As the film developed I realised just how historically important it was, featuring non other than Johnny Dawes dancing his way up a coastal cliff slab. Having uploaded it last night it's already been viewed 217 times and I can imagine it will be watched an awful lot as word spreads, I can't recommend it enough - it's classic piece of British Free Climbing!

Climbing on Foula from Lil Pete on Vimeo.

2011 in Review - Part 2

2012-01-01T06:02:00.000-08:00

So it's taken me a little longer to pen part 2 than I hoped, but as you'll see from my intermediate post I've been keeping busy in the mean time.

So I mentioned at the end of the last post that this year had been about lots of little trips around the UK, it's taken me this long to realise how amazing and diverse the our little island is, how much there is to see. Whilst the majority of the trips were climbing related, the main focus was just to get outdoors, smell the fresh air and most importantly have fun with friends. So without further ado here's a few of the best trips, throughout the year and some photos taken along the way.

So the Peak District has been a regular destination, the idea being to enjoy the fantastic, high-friction Gritstone bouldering. That said I've yet to get up there in temperatures cool enough to experience this wonderful grip, only experiencing sweaty, slimy climbing. That said each time the weather has been amazing, the views impressive. It's testament to how different my two jobs are that I ventured up with the director of The Climbing Academy, Rich after a kind offer of a lift up to climb with himself, his son Laurie, Archie another TCA employee and the Potokars, Hamish and Jon. I can't see me going out for a camping trip with the director of Waterstone's anytime soon!

This wasn't my first trip to 'The Grit' this year, Dan, Alex and I had headed up a few weeks before and had a fun-filled day of roaming around the key locations and a good grub at the Outdoor Shop in Hathersage.

This shop is my nemesis, I was suckered into buying a pair of 5.10 Teams there and have tried for the last 8 or 9 months to use them, but always put them back in my bag and carried on climbing in my Solutions. The Teams looks so cool, but just don't climb the way I climb! One day they're going to be the perfect shoe for a certain climb, but until that day, I think they're going to sit at the back of the wardrobe!

So other than heading up north, wonders will never cease, I've even headed east. To anyone who knows me well will know, this doesn't happen very often at all despite it being where I grew up and where my parents and sister still live. Somehow 2 1/2 hours on the train now feels like an insurmountable distance!

So what was the plan over there then? Well I was a tool in my father and sister's odd pursuit - Geocaching. I was to assist with a 5/5 apparently, for what that's worth! So was I required? You've guessed it, climbing expertise, in this case abseiling to a small pot housed in a chalk cliff.

After that bit of excitement my dad and friend headed up a motorway bank to find another little pot and write their names on the roll of paper within. I can't say I'm 100% convinced by the hobby just yet and have tended to walk around as nonchalantly as I can whenever they're burying around in bushes trying to find these little things but I must admit it's a good excuse to get outside and active so I suppose it's their version of my climbing!

The trip I talked about previously, with Jim to the Black Mountains, produced a plethora of good photos - mainly because I used my photography as a reason to stop and recuperate! Here's a few more, the first showing Jim at work navigating, I was really quite impressed up until the point when we cut trail down a very steep slope through head high bracken laced with brambles and stinging nettles.

I can't believe how lucky we were that day with the weather, lightly clouded skies meaning it was never too hot and yet the only rain was a light sprinkling towards the end of the day which came as a most appreciated cool. The only spicy point was at the top of Waun Fach when we stood in a whiteout and had to navigate our way down to the valley bottom, given the geography of the Black Mountains - long rolling hills - we were reasonably safe whichever route we took down, my only disappointment is that we never saw the waterfall we thought were following!

So after living in Bristol, less than an hour from the Welsh border, for the last ten years and never venturing over, this year has been different. Visiting the Black Mountains, Snowdonia and the Wye Valley on several occasions. Just a few weeks ago my parents came over and we visited Tintern Abbey and a few months earlier a great band of us ventured over from TCA for a climb at the exciting place that is Tintern Quarry. It was a really nice day not least for the crowd, all regulars who climb on a Friday night at The Climbing Academy, along with Tris, Carly and myself the regular Friday night staff.

I think everyone in the next photo is from our team, such a nice outing, finished off with a great BBQ at Chris' house in the woods just nearby. A great end to a fun day.

The place that sits closest to my heart, this year, however has to be Snowdonia and the Ogwen Valley specifically. Ollie, a route setter at TCA, and I finally found time in our busy schedules to go for an adventure and throwing the climbing and camping kit in bags we made a rendezvous at The Climbing Academy for 10pm when I was locking up. Jumping in the car we raced off to North Wales and campsite in the shadow of the hills. However awaking the following morning I was none the wiser to the location until all of a sudden the morning cloud started to descend and out the top creeped the gnarly black summit of Tryfan. Absolutely breathtaking view and thankfully the photo I took at the time did it justice.

So after packing up the camping kit we pulled rucksacks on and headed up to Unnamed Cwm sitting alongside the Devil's Kitchen and a marvellous days climbing up Sub-Cneifon Rib and Arete. Having been fooled by Ollie's assurance I wouldn't need climbing shoes, that B2 Mountain Boots would be fine, I had some of the most fun climbing I'd had, big stompy climbing, standing on the smallest of edges thanks to the superstiff soles. Ollie on the other hand cheated and used super sticky rock shoes, just not in the feel of the route in my opinion!

Topping out we were given the spectacle of this view of the Ogwen Valley and out to sea if you squinted, whilst it might not look particularly high, a pair of RAF jets still buzzed by underneath a few minutes after this was taken - very impressive!

So having had such an enjoyable day with blue skies, fantastic climbing we vowed to make another trip as soon as possible and even managed the organisation! This time Naomi another route setter at TCA was to join us, lured by the stories of the previous adventure. Her first such trip to Wales, wasn't quite as she had had it described to her embarrassingly. Arriving at the same campsite as before, the wind was immense easily Gale Force and according to the MET office raising to Storm Force on the summits over night. The rain was buzzing horizontally and tent construction was to put it mildly, 'exciting'! The following day it was still very windy and still very wet. Climbing was put on the back burner and we drove around the corner to Llanberis Pass for a wander up to the Parson's Nose.

So the weather was more typically North Welsh, but as such the scenery looked even more spectacular. The colours in the vegetation were amazing, the rocks showing off their super menacing cragginess! As we made it towards the top of the pass it was obvious that the summit ridge was very windy and a white out of cloud, stopping at a picturesque lake for lunch we hung out, ate (fake) jelly babies and personally waded across the lack to the small island in the middle like a small child - the water damn cold, but the mission fun all the same!

With that we descended back down to the car below, before a drive around the surrounding area stopping off to look up to Snowdon. Snowdon was looking a little less than spectacular, the cloud covering her summit to approach slopes, you'd have no idea the second highest mountain was in front of us. With that we jumped back in the car and headed to Betws-y-Coed for a bit of food, then back to Bristol. No climbing was had this time but I think it's safe to say fun was had by all and more importantly Naomi assured us that she wasn't put off from such adventures in the future, which is great news.

So if you've read this far I hope you enjoyed my ramblings about rambling. Here's to a whole new load of adventure in 2012!

So there's going to be one more musing about 2011, it was a fun, eventful year, but as soon as possible I look forward to writing about 2012 adventures - hopefully sooner rather than later!

Never meet your idols? Nonsense!

2011-12-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

So around quarter to seven we pulled onto motorway and the speedo crept up and up, Tim then turned to me and asked, "So mate, have you ever been in a serious car accident?" as if it was an offer to cause one. Bearing in mind Mr Emmett partakes in the most dangerous sport in the world, BASE jumping, I held on a little bit tighter and prepared to enjoy the ride ahead. And what a ride it was to be.

Going back a few weeks Tim had seen me desperately trying to make use of my ice tools, playing on girders under a bridge, taking pity on me he offered to show me the ropes in Wales. I couldn't be more excited, taught to use ice tools by someone who stood three times on the podium of the Ice Climbing World Cup? But also it was damn good to just hang out, if ever you need cheering up, Tim is your man!

So, where to go play? White Goods - a peculiar, chossy, pair of massively overhanging caves with rocks littering the floor the size of fridges, freezers and in some cases even small cars! Further leading to the intimidation was the fact that we were meeting two of Tim's mate's there; Ian Parnell, master mountain photographer, editor of Climb magazine, Everest summiter, Patagonia gnarl endurer along with Andy Turner, who's recent achievements include repeating the hardest of Scottish winter climbs Cathedral X,11 and The Hurting XI,11 both ludicrously hard and sketchy, then seconding Dave Macleod on his monstrous Longhope Project. I know I shouldn't admit it but there was definitely a little bit of idolisation going on, these two guys are 'cool' and embarrassingly I knew a lot about their achievements and had watched a lot of videos of their climbing!

So with that we entered the lair, helmets on asap since not that many weeks ago there's been an accident when a rather large block had fallen on a guy and he was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull and vertebrate - that was DESPITE wearing a helmet; there would only have been one outcome if he hadn't been wearing one. Danger aside however, I've got to admit it was my sort of crag, secluded, imposing and chossy. Funny place!

After one more cup of coffee Tim tied on and raced up the wall through a series of small over hangs, and then a few huge looking moves into a pair of skinny cracks to the chains, on his way up describing the various holds and ways to pull on them. Lowering off he looked up grinning, "Whatcha think then mate, ready?" - Ready?! The realisation suddenly hit me, this is what I was to climb up, too! Apprehensively I tied on and looked across at the first move a backhand hook with a big reach up and onto the face, commenced from the top of a freezer sized block lodged in the ground. Looking at it I didn't think I could do it, what would I do if I couldn't even do the first move?! I slowly tottered across and stood up on the block, hooked my tool in across my chest and looked up to where I was to place my right tool, I managed it, I was on the wall. This was already cool. This was already strenuous!

I could describe all the moves up to halfway now, after a series of goes playing on the route through the day, the latter half of the route I got up the first go after some serious hang-dogging (sitting in my harness, off the wall resting in between sections). But I don't think it would be of particular interest! The finest piece of advice that Tim doled out during the day came as I scrabbled at the top trying to get up a skinny crack, near the chains. Seeing me fumbling about he shouts up, deadly serious "Only pull on the good holds, Pete." That piece of advice made me lose all sense of focus and laughing my arse off I fell from the wall whilst Andy and Ian grinned at Tim's expert coaching! The thing is after a bit of explanation it made more sense, what he was saying was to not trying and use shite intermediate holds to make getting between the good holds easier - it's better with axes to hang and rejuvenate before trying big moves between good holds then trying to do a series of little moves on closer spaced bad holds. Once he cleared that up it made a load of sense and I stuck to it at as best I could later in the day, that said the temptation to try and thrutch up rather than carefully planning an ascent is all too tempting when you know you're about to slip off the wall!

So back to the title, "Never Meet Your Idols". How wrong this advice can be - Andy and Ian were great fun and as so often with climbers, so supportive and encouraging, can't ask for a better crowd watching me bumble about trying to figure out which end of the axe was which! It was also great to see them having troubles of their own, Ian dropping a tool halfway up and having to retire to the ground after aborted attempts to catch a spare tool thrown up along with Andy clearing off leaving his tool firmly lodged at his high point (see the shoddy video at the end!). It's great seeing people this good climbing, impressive and very inspiring, I'm determined to get strong before I return for round two!

The final part of the day was the coolest thing I've seen, Tim ticking his brutal project - a traverse along the lip of an overhang before stepping out onto a dead tree and back to clip the chains - the first go saw him fall at the end of the lip, just before the closing moves. Dropping off, we planned to chill for 20 minutes whilst he got his strength together, a quarter of an hour later he was bouncing and ready to go, on he pulled and raced across. All of a sudden there was an ominous screeching noise and some serious rattling and shaking on Tim's part - his tool was stuck, super stuck! After a few more aborted attempts to free it, he was forced to back climb to relocate it in a poorer way so he could free it easier when he moved on, that he did and blasted on to the tree and the chains - utterly amazing, super brutal climbing.

I want to be that good one day!

With that we leapt back into his Audi and raced back south to Bristol and somehow to both our surprise we made it back to The Climbing Academy for me to start work at 7pm. An awesome day through and through. That said today, the morning after the day before I felt absolutely worked, I've never ached so much in my life; biceps, shoulders, the lot!

Cheers Tim, owe you for that. best days cragging in ages!

Oh and here's the video of Andy, one of the strongest climbers operating in Scotland complaining about being weak, if that's the case there's little hope for the rest of us ...

2011 in Review - Part 1

2011-12-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

So it's that time of the year again, nearly New Years Eve; less than a week until 2012.

It's a cliché I know but it's definitely been a roller coaster of emotions, swinging from all extremes, happy to sad, funny to seriously funny.

So there have been some real low moments, this year I've lost some people who I counted as very good friends. From Dan Cox earlier in the year, knocked from his bike in Dalston by a lorry driver turning without due care, fighting for days with horrendous internal injuries to Andy who just recently found out he had weeks to live after visiting the doctor with an ongoing headache. Throughout the year I've seen close friends affected by loss, Woody's sad passing affected all of the South-West climbing community and beyond. It never makes any sense, it's so hard to comprehend never seeing someone again. Personally it's given me pause for thought, for many years I've been accepting of my bouts of depression and horribly aware that for the next few years I'm my own worst enemy if I don't stay aware of when I'm feeling low.

The lessons learnt from losing these special friends have been many but most importantly for me, it's just how much impact people make on each other and dare I say it, I make on others. I don't believe selfish is the right word when it comes to suicide, but I do believe that an important part of taking ones life must be the loss of comprehension of how one's actions will affect others, because I think few people can argue that the world, their friends and family would be better if they were to be gone. That said, I know that not so many years ago I would argue that my friend Tom taking his life was entirely altruistic which I do still believe; after years of drug abuse and psychotic incidents he just wasn't the person people knew him as, people had tried hard to help that person come back, be re-born but ultimately he was gone far before far before the final act.

So, there are a few whisps of silver lining in there, it's fantastic to see just how supportive people can be; not just when they're sharing a loss but when a friend has lost someone important to them. So the first thanks goes to anyone who's helped me through the sadder parts of the year, it hasn't gone unnoticed even if I didn't know how to show my appreciation at the time.

So one of the greatest things I did this year was finally spend the money on an Annual Pass to Bristol Zoo, after countless visits at premium cost (£15 per session), too embarrassed to admit I visited the Zoo a lot I finally paid the £50 and have been enjoying unlimited entry ever since - within a month I'd visited enough to begin saving money if I'd paid each time! It's safe to say that this was a wise decision and I one I will be continuing for years ahead, not least to see how the little lion cubs grow up.

So there's been a lot of wildlife adventures this year, thanks in part to hanging out with the brilliant Bev, a climber friend from TCA who's joined me on many a trip to the zoo and a few months ago to Slimbridge Wildlife Reserve, a funny return to one of my father's haunts when he was growing up in the South-West. He's to many more adventures, little'un!

And so the 'C-Word' has finally come up - Climbing.

Climbing continues to dominate my life, and my friendships. Dominate in a good way it must be added. Work at The Climbing Academy has continued and through there I have met a plethora of people from all walks of life, and enjoyed many a mad-capped adventure and many a beer. It's great to have such a diverse set of friends even if conversation does tend to focus upon the obvious subject matter all too often!

So what adventures have been had? Well With Jim Tan and my big mouth I embarked on a twenty-something mile stomp through the Black Mountains, an awesome slog up hill and down dale. It was absolutely brilliant but I soon learnt I wasn't as fit as my partner in crime, Jim. Halfway up the first hill I was cursing his name and racking my brain for excuses as to why we shouldn't do the full route we'd planned. Meeting him at the summit, of the first peak Waun Fach all I could do was stare mesmerised by the view and continue on with the plod. It carried on like this for the rest of the day!

The relief chart shows just how brutal the route was - head to the highest point in the Black Mountains and then drop to the valley floor, aim at the next high point and head straight up it, then straight back down to the valley floor before the next ascent ... It's was an absolutely brilliant day like I said!

And to think this is just a few pictures from one trip, you'll have to keep checking for the continuation of my annual review because frankly it's bed time and I'm tired ... But to make sure you come back, check this one final photo and see if you don't recognise the mountain. Coming up in the following parts are tales of climbing (and falling) in Cheddar, Avon and very nearly in Snowdonia. Spiky things, family things, wet things, sticky things ...

My 2011 has been eventful and I hope you'll enjoy hearing more about it, soon!

P.S. The soloing photo looking down between my legs, above wasn't supposed to be so dramatically placed, it was meant as a photo of me doing something I love, not me about to jump - I didn't think about the context it was in!!!

Even MORE dry tooling!

2011-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

So today I took my favourite climbing self-portrait of late. Yep, more dry tooling, more figure of fours. Couldn't believe how well the silhouette came out, and how perfectly I had the tool positioned. Happy day.

That said, I can't believe it's still not cold, bloody ridiculous, that said it sounds like the hills are getting chilly so hopefully soon my ice tools will kiss ice.

P.S. Couldn't have got this shot with my dSLR - the self-timer is limited to 10 seconds, whereas my new S95 can wait 30 seconds before taking a photo and 10 photos at that which spread over an even longer time span again. The thing's amazing - best Christmas present ever!

Doggelganger Revisited!

2011-12-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

So I'm not sure if you'll remember Doggelganger - the canine recognition website?

Well after a friend made the comment, "haha you look like a dog who's been caught stealing food!" about the photo below, I thought I'd feed out in to see which pup I'd be paired with this time. The result's damn close - he's even got my lazy eye!

Lucky Chance

2011-12-20T15:28:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago, chatting to my mate Keith about how unfair the world can be with regards to Andy finding out he was to die within weeks, he passed on a valuable story to me about a friend of his from Australia - after a hideous BASE Jumping accident he ended up ...

"in a coma with a shattered pelvis and jaw, open fractures in his femur and foot, collapsed lungs and a serious brain injury."

Given six months to escape his comatose condition he awoke two weeks later and got on with life 2.0, with the same drive and determination he possessed before.

It seems for every one who doesn't make it, there's one who does - we'll never forget you Andy and indirectly I'm fully behind your recovery Toby (and Stunt Monkey ...)

For more of Toby's amazing story and some videos of his amazing adventures have a read of this article:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=64914http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=64914 .

Bristol Panorama

2011-12-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

So the first day out with my Canon S95 was a hectic hail and sunshine day and I plodded up Cabot Tower to look at the view and snap a few photos to see how my new camera held up.

It held up AMAZINGLY! A few shots panned on a little Gorillapod and a bit of Photoshop trickery later the following panorama emerged and to say it's proven popular would be an understatement. Selling for 18" wide (just over A3 length) at £25 and 12" wide (just over A4 length) £15 Both prices unframed, I've had trouble keeping up with demand amongst friends via Facebook!

- See here larger -

It's funny to be making money off Photography again, it's been a while since I pushed it at all and this 'happy-snap' has rekindled my love of photography and my narcissistic love of showing off my snaps!

Bit of interest in how the panorama shot was constructed, where the seams were etc. This should show you how it was all set up in Photoshop.

Firstly it's four shots (not three as I've told everyone ...) the seams aren't vertical, they're feature aware, so follow the lines of key parts of the image - you can see the masking for the four shots on the layers bottom-right.

The Curves layer is a skewed S-Curve, a very small drop in the black end to make the blacks, blacker but mainly a big boost to brighten the mid and high end as you can see on the graph shown.

Layer 1 and Layer 1 Copy are literally the gradient you see in the thumbnail bottom-right, they're set via Overlay, this has the effect of darkening the top of the image, the sky and boosting the contrast and saturation of the main scene. It looks like HDR because it means the sky isn't burnt out, but in reality, because the daylight was so bright, the tonal range between sky and buildings wasn't that drastic and my S95 captured it well. The effect is boosted by duplicating the layer, it allows me more control, you can further fine control it by changing the opacity of the second layer, but in this case both layers are set at 100% opacity.

The Final Hue/Saturation layer isn't, as you might think, to boost the colour saturation - the two overlay layers do that - it's actually to reduce the saturation of the blues in the image, because the black overlay made the blue sky look a very dark indigo and quite inky, the desaturation brings it into the same realm as the clouds.

There you go, Photoshop geekery over!

I'm going to get told off for this ...

2011-12-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

So I've been really quite naughty, Santa Claus (and my mum) are going to be very angry but how could I really resist, I opened my Christmas Present early.

I mean it wasn't like I didn't know what it was, I'd dropped the oh so subtle hint - "Can you please get me ..."

So what was it, then? It's a super cool Canon S95 camera, finally I have something to carry around with my that isn't my massive dSLR!

It came out of my climbing weight rant a few weeks back where I totalled up the weight of all my kit and realised if I took my dSLR and 70-200mm out, I was lugging over 2kg. Half the time I didn't use it because it was buried in the bottom of my bag. Now I have something that sits in my chest pocket or even clipped on my harness ready to go as and when I want to take a snap.

Now you might think that a small pocket camera would never hold up to my dSLR in terms of quality but in reality the images are great - given the four years since the 40D was released it seems a lot of tech has gone into the portable market and it shows, this thing is so cool! So whilst there's always somethings that will never be beaten by my dSLR - narrow depth of field, super-high quality zoom, frames per second and nitty-gritty image quality at low ISO. But on the flip side the best camera is the one you've got with you not the one buried at the bottom of your bag or worse still left in the car because it's too heavy and also the high ISO shooting on the S95 seems in many ways better than my 40D!

Basically I'm super-impressed and super-happy mummy and daddy ;)

Still no ice!

2011-12-14T13:16:00.000-08:00

So there's still no ice, still no ice climbing.

Instead it's time to get strong and techy in the interim, dry tooling is the name of the game - ice climbing kit used where it's all but superfluous, in my case a hidden little bridge (where I often jump off attached to a rope for shits and giggles ...). Here I've got a 9-10 foot tall, chossy stone wall with lots of hooks and slots and even the odd stein pull to traverse along it's length, I've yet to do the who length, not least because my crampon (footwork) is shoddy but it'll come, not least because the more I do it, the more the slots and edges bed in and the better I get at noticing them.

Another thing I'm struggling to improve is my arm strength, lots of axe pull-ups and lock-offs (holding the pull-up position rather than lowering back down again) and to break up these rather dull exercises I've been messing about with one of the various girders doing figure of 4's and 9's back and forth. So what exactly is a figure of 4 and 9? Well this is hard to explain, it's basically holding on to your axes and in the case of the figure of 4, wrapping your leg other the opposing forearm tying you in nice and tight so you can take the other tool off and reach further across (or up) than you ordinarily could. Figure of 9's are a technique for continuing this sideways movement, instead of unwrapping that leg, lowering down and wrapping your opposite leg over the moved the arm holding the moved tool, you can put your leg over the arm on the same side (the arm of the tool that has moved across) and lock in that way, to then bring in the tool you were first hanging on. From here you can then swing your leg back over the opposing arm, back into the figure of 4 position and carry on going ...

Clear as mud, right? It's the most cryptic thing to understand until you have a go, but hopefully this low quality iPhone video will help explain.

I don't understand.

2011-12-07T10:39:00.001-08:00

So sadly, it's time for another eulogy, it's been too busy a year for these.

This time I'm utterly thrown - the other times there were accidents or other people at fault - this time, none of that, but it wasn't age, it wasn't 'just his time to go'.

A few weeks ago my old manager and good friend well after he left the company, Andy went to the doctor about a headache that wouldn't go away. A few days later he had a scan and told he had an inoperable brain tumour, a few weeks after that his family, close friends, fiancé and her 9 year old son who he'd looked after like his own for the last 3 years, stood by each other as his life support was turned off.

That doesn't make any sense to me, that's all too quick, that's not fair in anyone's books.

And to top it off I found out via the work intranet page.

Whilst it might not be cool ...

2011-12-06T16:17:00.001-08:00

So it's not exactly cool amongst climbing circles to want to climb the famous hills, Everest is just a walk up a ski-piste, pulling on fixed lines and all that jazz.

I don't care, I love the idea of seeing the tops of the 14 8000ers. I want to know what it feels like on Everest, knowing you can't take a single step higher on the entire planet, that's got to be really peculiar.

Kit List Geekout!

2011-11-28T14:26:00.001-08:00

Spectacular geek out this evening ...

This evening, after a discussion with a colleague about weight of kit carried I decided it was time to bring out my inner geek and add up the weight down to the nearest gram of all my kit - it was a long, quiet night!

So okay a lot of the kit is superfluous for a days cragging, the tent, sleeping bag etc and for the summer Ice Axes are a little unnecessary! But equally there's several items missing off the list food, stove, first-aid kit amongst other things. All in all, I was shocked by just how much weight I carry relative to my weight.

So at a fully packed winter climbing trip I'll top 25kg of kit probably more like 26kg.

I weigh 60kg that's 43% of my bodyweight!

And the kit breakdown in detail:

BD Harness	0.410
Nuts + 2 x Carabiner	0.423
Wallnuts + 2 x Carabiner	0.495
Nutkey + Carabiner	0.072
6 x Dragon Cams	0.942

Petzl Reverso3 + HMS	0.160
DMM Revolver	0.051
5 x Phantom Screwgate	0.207
3 x 120cm Slings	0.132
1 x 240xm Sling	0.186
1 x Cordolette + HMS Carabiner	0.247

4 x Slingdraws	0.348
5 x 25cm Prowire Quickdraw	0.410
2 x 12cm Prowire Quickdraw	0.156
2 x Mammut Phoenix ½ Ropes	4.920

2 x BOA Carabiner	0.166
4 x Phantom Screwgate	0.166
2 x Ansazi Blanco	0.181

Osprey Mutant 38L Pack	1.300
Camelbak + 2L Water	2.130
Mica 12 Tent	1.520
Aleutian Sleeping Bag	1.545

2 x Asolo Alpinist Boots	2.040
2 x Rebel Ice Axes	1.300
2 x Grivel G12 Crampons	0.869
Punisher Gloves	0.178

North Face Five Point	0.492
RAB Generator Alpine	0.520
Mountain Hardwear Pants	0.445
RAB Bergen Waterproof Trousers	0.345

Canon 40D + Lens	1.356
Canon 70-200mm Zoom Lens	0.760

Beautiful Mountain!

2011-11-27T15:59:00.001-08:00

Beautiful mountain with super cool people, great filming, editing and teamwork.

The Denali Experiment from renan ozturk on Vimeo.

Plod in the woods

2011-11-27T14:56:00.001-08:00

So today was a silly, fun one. A wander in the hills and the woods and a quick play with my ice climbing kit and yes, there was no ice ... I'm getting desperate for alternatives!

It started lazy and late, with me doing my usual Sunday off doze until the afternoon trick - yes I'm really that lazy. So 1pm ish I finally awoke, an hour or more of procrastinating I decided to go out to play and reached for my B2s and then just for s & g's I packed my axes and crampons in the bag just in case ...

So I started my amble up and over Ashley Hill via the St Werburgh's allotments and then ambled down behind The Farm to Muller Road, up through Lockleaze and to Purdown. I love it there and managed to get there just in time for the perfect afternoon setting sunlight, it felt like the perfect winter afternoon albeit far too warm. Once again I was reminded that I want a techy pocket sized camera for those days I don't have my dSLR, my iPhone just doesn't cut it :(

So after a little break to take in the view I upped kit and wandered off into the woods to find a big, dead tree for the afternoon's silliness. I wasn't disappointed and soon came across a suitable trunk, one on it's last legs without being rotten and more importantly out the way so no-one would see me! It was time to arm up and see if this game would work, a quick swing of the axe and a solid placement in the wood and I couldn't help but smile, this was going to work. Crampons on, axes out it was time to have a play and have a little traverse around the trunk and do a few pull-ups - nothing silly right? That would be dangerous on my own, with no rope for protection ...

Yup as expected I soon got into the flow and increasingly confident with my placements and enjoying it no end I started carrying on up, gaining increasing altitude all of a sudden I was a good 4 metres up with no way down but to reverse my climb, rather exciting and just as I began to descend I was busted by a guy and his kids appeared walking alongside my tree, looking up you could see he was very confused. A bit of a fumbled explanation whilst taking care to make sure I didn't let go, he finally walked off muttering something in Polish, clearly not having understood any of my attempted justification!

Once down on terra firma I couldn't fight the urge to yo-yo back up and down a few more times, making use of the existing placements playing with deliberate blown placements and a few non-deliberate blown placements to spice things up a little!

All in all it was a good fun afternoon, whether or not ice climbing is anything like tree trunk climbing I don't know but the latter is damn good fun. Whether or not I go back to play I don't know, not least because I'm not sure I could find the tree I was playing with and there were surprisingly few other dead ones.

Who am I kidding I'll play again!

Round #2 in Snowdonia

2011-11-26T12:51:00.001-08:00

So, waterproof's purchased for Ollie and coffee consumed by all, it was decided that climbing was off for the day. The rain had soaked every surface of every wall it seemed and the wind was still more than a little impressive. Instead we headed to Llanberis Pass and a wander up to the shadow of the Parson's Nose.

This the small lake seen in the top of the Google Earth capture below:

Whilst nothing more vigorous than a good stroll up the hills with a bit of a scramble up a bit of a green and slippy gully, it was still a thoroughly nice wander up. With no sign of civilisation other than a couple of guys who'd got up and going far earlier than ourselves and were heading on down as we came up, it really was a nice a nice remote day out.

I soon got lost in my head, loving every minute of the solitude getting distracted with every step looking back over my shoulder to the valley below and the hill opposite. All of a sudden I was plodding quite far behind and had to up my pace to catch up with the other two. After the spectacular weather the evening before and the rapidly moving clouds above I was expecting the worst as we set out, fight the urge to wrap up warm, I stuck to base layer but still put a shell on instinctively, minutes later this was off and any concerns about windchill soon lost as the trek got the muscles working and pumping out heat. Getting to the top and out came the Rab Primaloft Generator Alpine, the perfect stopping jacket, despite the bitter wind and the lack of movement I was perfectly warm - I really can't recommend the jacket enough for this sort of belay jacket style usage. Right anyway, corporate whoring aside ...

So up top the (cheap, fake) jelly babies came out and with a bit of an effort were all consumed, I for one felt a little sick. So having put off climbing, I was feeling suitably untested and so seeing the island in the middle of the lake and a crude row of stones under the water, I took boots and socks off, rolled up my trousers and started a delicate traverse across the slimy, wobbly boulders all the while rapidly losing sensation in my feet. Needless to say, the other two didn't join me and I don't blame them, I'm hard pressed to justify it, instead I'll run with that famous justification, "Because it's there."

Socks and boots back on, it was time to descend. Given the influx of sugar I was off and bouncing down the hill ahead of the other two and before too long we were sadly at the car. To get a feel for the area we went for a little drive around the area, stopping at the Snowdon Horseshoe to enjoy the view of the United Kingdom's 2nd highest mountain. The cloud had descended, the mountain entirely hidden!

So on that final failure, we drove home via Betsw-y- Coed for a chips and then back to Bristol.

So a let down, a disappointment? Too cold, too wet, too windy? Hell no. It was a fantastic amble with great mates, whoever says three's a crowd is quite simply talking crap.

;)

Snowdonia; windy, rainy, great.

2011-11-25T16:07:00.001-08:00

So as I wrote just recently Wednesday evening was time for a trip across to North Wales and a play in Snowdonia, which is rapidly becoming my favourite place in the United Kingdom.

As before I lugged my full rack, a pair of half ropes, my camping kit and B2s to TCA, this time bringing along a few extra items for Naomi to borrow as well - including a waterproof which turned out far more useful than we perhaps would have hoped ...

So it's amazing how heavy a rack and ropes are, my kit's all pretty lightweight but it still weighs me down. My urban drag to Montpelier Train Station and across to Lawrence Hill and TCA felt like a good slog, whilst in the back of my mind I knew that this was on flat, even tarmac - not steep, wonky hills!

Arriving at TCA I was met by the usual jokes about being over-equipped for an indoor bouldering session and after sticking my kit in the boot store got down to some steep plastic pulling. Steep, plastic and unsuccessful pulling as it turned out, my indoor bouldering performance at present settled at an increasingly infuriating plateau. With that frustration aside, it was time to sit down and plan the route, check the weather forecast and chill out. Various routes pencilled in, the MET office mountain weather report checked and all was good to go - other than a high risk of gale force winds on the summits, all looked dry and under-control. Come 5 o'clock and Naomi's arrival we bundled into Ollie's car and drove to his place to pick up his waterproofs, which he had left at home - remember this fact, it's important ;)

So the drive north up the M5, cutting through Birmingham via the M6 and out along the M45 (54?) was pretty non-eventful and a punctuated by a brief stop off for food at a local-cum-motorway stop off pub. I've got to say expecting the worst, I was pleasantly surprised by how palatably my no doubt microwaved meal was and wolfed it down, having had a lot of trouble eating the last couple of weeks, this was a pleasant surprise! Once refilled we jumped back in the car and continued the drive via Betws-y-Coed towards our camp below Tryfan. At this point we started to drive though a thick fog that occasionally required the use of windscreen wipers to clear; this still wasn't 'rain' we kidded ourselves and carried on, all of a sudden entering Ogwen Valley, it was clear that it was very much raining and very much horizontally!

Yup, it's safe to say I haven't seen it raining like that for a while and the wind was impressive, struggling to pull on my waterproofs, top and bottom, was nothing compared to the next game of putting my tent up. Thankfully I had the foresight to sink a tent peg in the ground and attached anything loose to it before getting on with putting up my increasingly precious little one many tent, even taking the time to peg out the guy lines which I hadn't even untied before that night! Once up I went over to help Naomi with her tent which was to prove far more difficult to put up than my own, and ultimately with it flapping around, upside down, inside out, she decided that it wasn't worth the hassle and asked Ollie if he minded her sleeping in his car. Ollie the consummate gentleman instead offered her his tent which he had just put up in the atrocious rain, that said he had waterproofs on, right? Nope. Having been distracted by the toilet back home as he popped in to grab his waterproofs, he had then left them again!

For the second time camping with Ollie, he ended up sleeping in his car; I think he's soon going to stop bothering to bring his tent along soon enough. So bed time, and once curled up in bed I began to realise just how atrocious the wind was - it was AMAZING! My little tent was suitable buffeted and the sides whipped by the wind, but I can't say a bad thing about it, it stayed put admirably and after not too long I was actually deep asleep, albeit after finding a way to avoid the large stone underneath me that I had foolishly pitched my tent on!

I woke the next morning to hear that overnight the MET office has raised their Gale warning to Storm force that's a good bit of blowing and looking at the clouds racing overhead, it wasn't any better in the morning ... Plans needed to be reassessed, first priority was to get Ollie a pair of waterproof trousers and us all to get some much needed morning caffeine ...

- Right bedtime, more musing tomorrow! -

In the meantime to give you an idea of the weather, in the photo below is the second tallest mountain in the United Kingdom, Snowdon - yup, you can't see it at all, just thick, soggy cloud!

Mountains!!!!

2011-11-22T18:17:00.001-08:00

It's time to go back, back to Snowdonia for another round.

To say that I'm excited is an understatement - it's 2:20am on Wednesday morning, we meet up to leave at 5pm later today and then drive over to the campsite for a quick night's kip before hitting the hills in the morning and heading back Thursday evening.

Once again it's a joint effort with Ollie my partner in crime, but this time we're joined by my fellow adventurous mate Naomi. Whilst Ollie is an old hand, Na'i is a little more nervous - talking to her yesterday evening you could hear the excitement and trepidation in her voice. Hopefully come Thursday evening she'll only be smiling!

All that remains now is to get some sleep and scrutinise the weather forecast. I think it could be chilly in the morning ...

FInally time-lapse worth watching!

2011-11-13T12:39:00.001-08:00

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

The Don't Give Up Project

2011-11-13T10:47:00.001-08:00

A good little find:

The Don't Give Up Project

"In December 2009, I received a phone call that changed my world. My father had passed away; suddenly, shockingly and abruptly ...

... And this is the reason I have started the Don’t Give Up Project. It is to remind myself, and you, through illustration, to not give up, despite how barren the situation might be. I hope it manages, if anything, to shine a little hope in yourselves, even if it is just for a glimmer of seconds."

Sir Jimmy Savile RIP

2011-10-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

So sadly Jimmy Savile has passed away :(

I hope they've 'Fixed it for him 'up there.

When it isn't the zombies biting you ...

2011-10-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

So last night was the Bristol Zombie march and as per usual, once the main crawl was complete Gloucester Road was littered with straggling parties in fancy dress.

Anyway, me being me I was running late and stomping down the road past hordes of zombies. All of a sudden a short blonde girl lunged towards me hands out-stretched in front of her and clawing towards my face. Unfortunately she misjudged how quickly I was moving and I was too slow in reacting, the next thing I knew several of her fingers were in my mouth and out of reflex I'd bitten down on her hand.

All of a sudden I was in one of the most awkward situations I'd been in for a while; face to face with this poor girl, her hand in my mouth. A second or two later of just staring at each other in disbelief, I opened my mouth, she removed her hand and without saying anything further we continued on our opposite directions.

I hope she wasn't hurt!

Just a bit of loose rock ...

2011-10-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

So I nearly commented in the previous post that climbing was probably safer than BASE jumping, having watched the following video I'm really not quite so sure!

Beats the chunks Luke pulled off at Cheddar last week.

Red Bull Airforce

2011-10-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

As awesome jobs go, you can't help but think these guys have got it made ...

Red Bull Airforce were the team that buzzed through downtown Chicago in Transformers 3, which you can see in the first video below, pretty damn impressive because like he says, it could so easily have been done with CGI, but is so much cooler when you know they were clearing off the Sears Tower and buzzing down the streets between the skyscrapers!

So, I got into climbing because I couldn't afford the AAF Course, hundreds upon hundreds of consolidation jumps, skydiving rig, BASE jumping rig, wing suit et al, it's funny because these days when I look at the amount of money I've spent on climbing kit I wince.

That said the skies aren't going anywhere, I just need to save up the cash then I can learn to fly ...

Even more Sport Climbing!

2011-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

For the moment here's a quick Contact Sheet of photos of a great day out with Gav Symonds, climbing Dave Pickford's variation of Shadow Walker, Matt Cox's route straight up Lion Rock, Cheddar.

More details to follow.

Not Climbing 7a+ s!

2011-10-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

So today was I think the end of an era for Comfortably Numb 7a+ on Overshoot Wall, Cheddar.

So after a brief foray on Wednesday up to the second bolt then getting befuddled trying to move up to the third bolt; rain stopped play and a mailon was pulled off Nick's harness and the easy route off the wall taken - down!

So with a bit of free time and a festering idea that the route can't be, 'that hard', Luke and I headed back for a bit of a rematch. A few easy routes to warm up and we were ready to go, gracefully I gave Luke the first play and he instantly 'lanked out' a move that had been quite problematic on my first go on the route, thankfully he didn't make the rest of things look so easy and having clipped the second bolt he groped, tickled and stroked the rock, searching for the holds I had inevitably missed earlier in the week. Thankfully he too came up short, albeit in a tall person's way.

My turn to play, with the micro-beta of a crimp that I'd missed up high and that an undercut that I used to move right was superfluous, a much more secure pinch having been found. Needless to say I continued to use the undercut finding the pinch variation too uncomfortable, more on that later ... Very little progress on and I was up at the crimp and even had another hold up a solid side pull which again we will come back to ... Secure, solid holds aside I still ended up plummeting from the sky after finding feet lacking, and after catching my leg on the rope I found myself spun around and back hitting into the wall quite hard, a surprised gasp was let out!

So after finding a few more holds a little more altitude it was Luke's turn and deciding that the undercut method I was using seemed easier than his pinch he pulled on it and off he fell, still pulling on the pinch which he had wrenched off the wall. A return to the wall bought him to his favourite pinch and with little effort continued upwards to the crimp and solid side pull, all of a sudden and really quite spectacularly he was off and I was up in the air, whilst rock rained down on the floor - the solid secure side pull had now been wrenched off the wall and the result being Luke's prompt descent to the ground after it!

A look of confusion, coupled with a little shock and I hope an inkling of amusement spread across Luke's face as he realised that the route was probably not a goer anymore and so in true horse riding style, I made him get back on the horse - tie on and climb the easy route beside from which he could lower off and strip both routes. Several metres up the dull echo of bad rock meant that all of a sudden the easy climb was becoming a lot less easy, Luke even less calm than he was before. Thankfully he made it to the top and lowering down there was a bit of a grin, I think mainly in a, "I'm safe", way!

At that point we decided it was probably best to just head home.

Still alive.

Climbing 7a s

2011-10-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

So I had another funny day climbing yesterday, as most days climbing end up being. Somehow Joe convinced me that I 'wanted' to go Sport Climbing at Cheddar Gorge.

Now Sport Climbing isn't my favourite style of climbing, I still think of it as the bastard child of Bouldering and Trad i.e. hard, technical moves like bouldering and the rope, altitude and gear clipping of Trad but with padding moves in between the difficult moves and relative safety with regards to falling since bolts don't fail 'very' often. All this means I find it rather an anaemic form of climbing ;)

Now, for the record I'm not 100% serious about those sweeping generalisations but it's safe to say I very rarely go Sport Climbing and so yesterday was certainly a novelty, it turned out to be a more-difficult-than-expected novelty ...!

So it started with an unfortunate annoyance, Keith and Emily who had also driven up to Cheddar to join us, found that despite heading out on a climbing trip, Keith hadn't packed his climbing shoes ... A minor omission ... After a brief weighing up of the relative efficiencies of Keith, Emily or Keith and Emily heading back, they both got back into the car to return to Bristol, to then redo the journey from Bristol to Cheddar. As you can no doubt imagine, once home the most efficient plan was to not bother heading back out and so it was left to Joe and I to crush.

So route one was a 6b warmup for my body and mind, 'Ambiguously Straightforward'. It's safe to say that my body wasn't entirely warm, my fingers particularly cold making things feel a lot sharper than was pleasant at times! Coupled with a far too much time spent standing on a ledge halfway up trying to get my head around the next few moves, I finally broke out and up to the top a clean onsight albeit with less than cool composure, the odd expletive may have been muttered as I remembered why I like indoor climbing with coloured hand, and more importantly, feet holds.

It's funny I was naturally looking for gear placements on the way up, despite there being bolts firmly attached all the way up, I think as a Trad climb it wouldn't be that much worse than it was bolted as Sport. There were places to rest, so you wouldn't be gripped from placing gear, you'd just take longer at the rest points to recuperate. Which brings back to my ill-formed argument before - is Sport Climbing just lazy? If you can place gear, should you? In the European mountain routes if you're on a blank face you stick a bolt, if you can use a cam or the like in a crack you use that. But there is the opposing argument, if it's much the muchness why not open the climbs up to anyone who wants to climb them, whether they've got the mindset and ability to place gear or just know/like clipping bolts ... I don't know, I still prefer trad because it makes me think even more.

So, one route ticked and we stood looking up at a supposed F6c+ whilst referring to the guide book, sure that the route we were looking at was a lot tougher than the grade given. Eventually I gracefully offered Joe the first lead - not least because I honestly didn't think I could climb it!

Seeing him a good couple of metres up still not within reach of the first bolt I was glad I'd been so generous as to let him go first, then after some almightily grim moves around an absolutely menacing shiny, black block of rock - it looked more like slate than the limestone it was - he clipped the second bolt, avoiding what seemed an almost certain ground fall given the run out climbing and ludicrously stretchy Beal Joker we were climbing on. From there on it continued to give a good fight and ultimately Joe, who should be comfortably ticking 8s was asking me to take the rope in so he could rest and decipher the remanding moves to finish, which to his credit he did. Lowering off his face didn't fill me with joy, he looked absolutely worked, I honestly didn't want to tie in and was sure as hell not going to lead it, it just didn't fill me with any sort of desire - I would have happily pulled myself up to the anchors and stripped it, if I hadn't been given so much stick to pull on and try it.

The moves turned out to be as hard he had made them look, well not necessarily as hard, but as unreadable - you couldn't figure it out, but then when told how to go and actually tried it, the moves went somewhat mysteriously. After a couple of false starts (read falls) I too finally got up to the chains on a top-rope muttering and swearing, once again! This wasn't a route to bother to send clean, it was just a really unpleasant combination of relatively easy but unreadable moves, the technical difficulty about F6c/+ but the overall difficulty surely into the 7s?! Needless to say it was so inconsequential that I can't even remember the name.

So onto the main show and Joe, after leading the grimness before, was ready for an easy game - that of provoking me to climb my first F7a sports route. This a funny one, because for the last year or so I've been happy that I 'could' climb 7s, but through only bouldering and trad climbing, I'd never actually proved it. On indoor equivalent routes I've ticked several 7b's quite comfortably and my current indoor project is supposably graded at F8a (it probably won't go though)! It was time to consolidate these make-believe plastic grades on rock. Thankfully Joe knowing my strengths or more importantly my weaknesses, had the perfect route ready to tick - 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' an extended boulder problem going at F7a with 3 bolts and a height of 9 or 10 metres max. Perfect!

So on I tied and after commenting that the bolts looked pretty spaced and being told solemnly that I don't want to fall clipping the second because I will deck (hit the ground) before the rope catches me, I pulled on less happy than I was a few minutes earlier!

The start is a bouldery affair, good hold right, up and left then here's where it kept going wrong - my beta was up into a shouldery right gaston, match with lefthand in a form of pinch, then feet up and a bit of a chuck to a ledge ... After failing on this A LOT, it finally twigged that feet up first made it a lot more viable and that was the break through - up to the shelf, match it, bounce hand up left higher to a jug, heel on shelf and rock up and reach up to clip, all the while thinking, "I fumble this and I'm going to hit the deck." Clip made, up you stand and use a hanging dagger of rock up right to get into a lefthand gaston, shoulder move and clip the third bolt then finish up similar moves to the top, reach over one more move then clip the anchors and finish ...

I reached over for the last hold, chilled and smiling about having ticked the route then ... Well, I think the technical term is "I fucked it up."All of sudden I was dangling on the end of the rope slack-jawed smiling, scowling and swearing, simultaneously fearing for my life as I watched Joe laughing so hard that I thought he was going to drop me! Lowering down, I was wasted, flummoxed and unamused!

Now I'm a sucker for caffeine energy drinks at the best of times, but this definitely called for one, along with a suitably quiet rest as I just stared up distraught that I'd just been such an idiot! Thankfully the rage took over and up I shot and after a false start I got back on and raced up cleanly to the top the chains securely clipped before I allowed even the smallest muscle to relax.

It was done I'd ticked F7a properly, 'officially'. Needless to say I should have got around to doing that ages ago, but well, I just don't like Sport Climbing. Testament to this is that I'm really not fussed about consolidating the grade or pushing the grade to 7b or the like, I just wanted to be able to say yes I've climbed F7a and get back to bouldering and Trad Climbing.

All I really want to tick is a piddly E2 5c Trad climb called Banshee at Avon Gorge - it's not hard but I've fallen off it 3 times now which is ridiculous!

Now, enough of my waffling - enjoy the far more interesting account of ticking 7s by Maya in the excellent video collection, serialised by UKClimbing.com :

Climbing with Maya - Episode 1 from Adrian Samarra Productions on Vimeo.

Milk Me!

2011-10-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm sucker for clever marketing campaigns, regardless of the product. This time it's expensive milk, Cravendale:

Milk ... Me ...!!!!

Tough Little Muppets

2011-10-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

So life can be shite. But I think the muppets have got the right idea.

The letters make me tearful but the song makes me smile and singalong.

If I were to ever drive ...

2011-10-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

I don't drive, I don't like cars and I've fought the need to learn to drive for years.

That said if I were ever to pass my test and had money, there's only one car I'd get - a Lotus Exige and if money were no object it would have to be this matte model!

More photos at High Snobriety .

DEFY trailer

2011-10-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

So I'd heard a little about how this had been filmed with some exciting helicopter footage, lots of nice riding with boats, wires and even jet skis. That said a few minutes in, the trailer seemed to be dragging it's feet; far too much talking ...

All of sudden, BAM!!!!

Defy trailer 2. The Danny Harf project from Sean Kilgus on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Alex Honnold - Legend!

2011-10-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

So on a happier note, here's CBS's feature on Alex Honnold last night, which ties in with the soloing theme of late. Honnold is the master of this stupid game, he solo's stuff that at the moment I couldn't even hope to climb, not just because the moves are too hard but because the climbs are so long!

It's well worth watching the supplementary articles too, the first here how to go about shooting something as crazy as Alex running up the a big wall:

Then this one of just how quirky and 'mellow' Alex is:

Ultimately, I hope he got the girl because she did seem kinda besotted with him ;)

Remembering Stephen

2011-10-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

So today turned out to be tougher than expected, I came into work to find out that a friend and former colleague at Waterstone's had passed on yesterday after a protracted battle with cancer.

I don't want to write a lot, I don't really know what to write, but I do want to quickly say something. So Stephen, here's why you were great and will be sadly missed by me personally and by so many, many more.

The fact that your nickname at work was 'Dad' goes to show how we all thought of you - even when Sophie (his daughter) joined us to work for several months the name still stuck. An expert in the kitchen and always keen to offer up his creations to the team, there was many a morning I would come in to find a cake on the staff room table and later in the day be asked what I thought of it, such hardship, right?

We used to talk about rugby a lot, both of us passionate about our time spent playing.

There are two moments that I remember the hardest, firstly when at my worst - tearful and fearful, unable to cope with my depression, he took me aside at the University Branch to tell me that the priority was my own recovery and that there was no need to worry about my job, that I wasn't going to be forgotten, discarded or the like. At a time when I couldn't think straight or form a sentence without crying, his words and support were a literal lifesaver. I don't think I could ever in a million years repay him for that day, it's tough and strange to think that I no longer will be able to try.

The second incident I most remember was the last time I saw him, it was on the end of my street where we stopped to put the world to right. Debating everything and anything, but most importantly which barber on Gloucester Road was best, Francos or Vincenzos. Now this discussion went on for a very long time, discussing the service, appearance, cost etc ... That perhaps wouldn't seem so strange if it wasn't for the fact that both of us didn't have any hair; neither having had a cut of more than a few millimetres in either establishment.

You're missed. A lot.

Stupid?!

2011-10-02T14:49:00.001-07:00

What do you think?

Nightmare Addendum

2011-10-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

So if the previous post about Nightmare felt a little rushed towards the end, it's because it was - I'd started writing the evening of the climb but then saved it as a draft to finish in full ASAP. The thing is life moved on and all of a sudden it was Sunday and the roped, group ascent of Nightmare had given way to a whole new idea. A stupid idea.

Nightmare's a weird climb, it's not hard, everything's there where you need it, a little nub of rock for a toe here, a good flat ledge for a mantle up there ... The thing is, almost because it's so easy you can actually make things difficult for yourself!

Over confidence Thursday led me to be carrying quite a heavy bag up, and not placing enough gear at the critical points, whilst placing too much at other points leading to monstrous rope drag. Despite finding the climb a little difficult the other day, it was because I had made it difficult, a malformed plan emerged ...

So first of all, lose the big bag for one my camelbak sack, perfectly sized to fit the associated water sack and one of my approach shoes (the other required clipping to the outside!).

Then lose the hassle of finding gear placements by sacking off protection. As such, no need for a harness, rope, nuts, cams etc .... No need even for a belay partner!

And so Sunday morning I awoke, wondered (briefly) if I was being an idiot. Decided I was indeed being an idiot and set off up to the Downs. Up and over, down the not-so-secret path to the bottom and to the base of Seawalls and Nightmare. I'd hoped for there to be no teams near the start of the climb and fortunately there weren't, just a few around the corner. Carefully avoiding eye contact before they asked tricky questions about whether or not it was safe for me to be soloing, I tucked myself on a ledge at the beginning of the climb, swapped shoes and looked up!

Onwards and upwards ...

It's amazing how quickly you can move when unencumbered by ropes and placing gear, terrifyingly so in fact - it's so easy to get complacent; not pay quite enough attention to pulling on the holds right, not applying enough pressure with your feet etc. A couple of times I realised I was having too much fun and looking over my shoulder at the view rather than focussing on the climbing. However, with altitude this soon passed and all of a sudden I was at the shallow corner that I'd struggled with before. Without a blink of an eye I was standing up on the blocks at the back of the corner and reaching up and out of the groove and despite it being a little higher to reach than I might have liked, it was ludicrously easy in comparison to how it felt earlier in the week!

The belay tree emerged and I clambered on and up to the left rather than finish the climb prematurely. As such I was afforded views of the two teams who were now climbing well below me, despite both having been on the wall climbing before I commenced ascent.

The morning light was now getting impressively bright and beautiful, the tree glowed; it was time to move on and up.

And then it was over; I was sat atop the gorge.

Feet dangling below me, there was nothing more to do other than snap a few more pics, check I had enough change for an ice-cream and head up and over the 'safety' barrier to the 'van of victory'!

After a pleasant 99 watching the other teams slowly, meander their way up placing gear, clipping ropes, unclipping ropes, stripping gear etc. I began my wander back home, a peculiarly productive morning had.

P.S. Since my parents have been known to read this and a few of my friends fear for my safety at the best of times, I would just like to say any whimsy about safety isn't as lax as it sounds and I won't be rushing to solo the Avon Gorge 'til I fail. Honest!

Doggelganger!

2011-10-02T07:10:00.001-07:00

Possibly the greatest website in the world - www.doggelganger.co.nz/

Not least because I've always wanted a German Shepherd if I were to get a dog!

P.S. Yes I am topless, it's bloody hot in the UK and I've just got in after climbing all day and I'm sweaty, smelly and grim!

Nightmare!

2011-10-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

So once again, as seems to be the trend of late, last minute plans fell into place perfectly; the right people were free, to do the right thing in the right weather!

The people were Naomi and Nick, two friends who despite not knowing each already were always going to get on, both wanting to learn the nuances of Trad climbing and after a few text messages earlier in the week Thursday was decided upon. As the week developed it became apparent that the weather really wouldn't be 'too bad' and finally this morning I took the risk of spraying myself all over with suntan lotion - a decision very well made with hindsight - and headed up and over to the Downs to rendezvous and head down to Seawalls to pass on my (supposed) knowledge!

So with Na'i and Nick being new to the curious world of Trad climbing, the usual run down of gear was the first thing on the agenda, "This is a nut, this a cam, this a sling-draw ..." Then the usual cryptic explanation of the use and importance of half-ropes was commenced ... Then rapidly drawn to an abrupt close.

There's only one real way to learn in my opinion and that's to tie on and second a climb, see how gear is placed in the real world, pull it out, see what stays, see what falls out. So after a quick yo-yo up and down Idleburger Buttress to set up the anchors, Na'i and Nick both commenced top-roping the route, placing gear on the way up, checking each others as they came across it.

I soon came to realise how mal-co-ordinated I can be ... When top-roping you pull the rope down through the belay device, nice and easy; when you lead and place gear you feed the rope up through the device, again easy but given that the other two were practicing leading whilst being protected by the top-rope I had to do both simultaneously, I soon began to get myself befuddled. It was time to move on to something easier like just getting on with a climb ... This wasn't to prove quite as easy as I might have hoped!

So when I started Trad climbing, my first Trad climb was an evening foray with Matt up Nightmare in the rain - abseiling off the tree at the end of the 2nd pitch to avoid disaster - oh how I wish we had such wise 'time-to-bail' judgement on some of our later climbs together! That said, I remembered it being easy enough and graded Severe, it should be fine. Since neither of us had any need to come back down to the ground again Na'i and I stuffed my bag full of odd bits of kit and our shoes, Nick realising he needed a pair of shoes to get back down politely asked if he could throw his in, to of which I agreed, then to capture the day I'd bought my dSLR and of course had a full Camelbak of water since it was to be a hot day - all of a sudden my bag looked quite big, putting it on my back it felt quite heavy. This was to be of great importance soon on ...

And up! Tied on to both ropes and belayed by Nick, the plan was for me to get to the big tree set up a belay and bring up Na'i and Nick on each half rope, to save faff I planned to run Pitches 1 & 2 into one as most people do, it's an easy to follow route, just quest up at an angle then double back to the massive, unmissable tree. Soon up the face the tree became missable behind a bulge of rock, the rucksack began to feel a little heavy and more importantly heavy where I'm not used to being heavy! My centre of mass was all of a sudden surprisingly far back and on a couple of occasions I realised I was leaning back a little too far and had to make an effort to pull myself back in to the wall, gear was placed sparsely - it's an easy climb right?

Then it happened. All of a sudden I was far too far above a dubious cam placement, extended by two 60cm slings to desperately reduce drag and stuck on a ledge in a shallow corner which didn't look entirely right. After literally getting the guide book out and having a look, trying to get my bearings, down climbing rather worryingly runout and then communicating poorly with a team below who'd just climbed the route it became clear what the plan of action was. Quest on. The route went up a shallow corner with some quite solid ledges to stand on at the back and out to the side, this was fine, except the ledge in the back of the corner was so far back that I couldn't get on to it with my centre of mass so far back, umming, ahhing and umming some more I finally managed to thrutch my way up, by this point I just wanted to get to the top, placing protection was the last thing I wanted to faff around with and the climbing was visibly easy above so I kept on up, pausing every other move to wrench rope through the convoluted path of protection below, the rope drag was almost insurmountable and all of a sudden causing me quite a bit of concern as it was pulling me from the face at times when I went to pull up. Time to place more gear...

And as is so often the case after ignoring perfectly good placements for a while ... Nothing. Zip. Nada. All of a sudden I was on for a MASSIVE fall, via far too many ledges, shelves and spikes. Nothing for it but to pull through an awful lot of rope, making the idea of a fall even more unthinkable, but overcoming the rope drag problem and move on an up. Finally I found a tiny placement, the nut tucked in and tugged taut. The ropes clipped in, I was safe. Then I moved. With that the nut lifted out and shot down the rope, I was back in the same stupid situation as before! A quick assessment of the situation bought about my usual thought pattern:

F&$K this isn't a good situation => How can I make this safe? => F&$K it. Keep climbing and stop thinking about it

All of a sudden I started to recognise the last couple of moves up to the tree, a few moments later I was hugging the tree, primarily to attach a sling around it but if I'm perfectly honest to also give it a, 'thank you-for-making-me-safe' squeeze!

With that it was all back to normality, good solid belay around the tree with a token back up cam in the perfect lipped slot behind and it was time to bring Na'i and then Nick up too, it's amazing how quickly they raced up after me, I took bloody ages it seemed! Once the three of us were all secured to the bomber fir-tree it was all good and time to chill out and natter - this is what multi-pitch climbing is all about, hanging out, literally! Eventually it was time to move on and up through the last, easy pitch to the top; surprising a fox on the way.

All that remained was a post-climb pint at the King's Arms on Whiteladies Road. The day a success!

Slimbridge

2011-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

When my father was younger he grew up in the South-West and was a regular at Slimbridge wetlands centre. He then went to university, did his PhD and got a job in Kent teaching ultimately.

20 odd years later, I left Kent, moved to the South-West and yesterday went to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre.

It's funny how things go full circle. I'm becoming my father!

Sub-Cneifon Foray #2.

2011-09-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

Right then, so where was I? Oh yeh, I was wake dosed with coffee after a lovely night's sleep in my lovely little North Face Mica then, one of favouritest pieces of kit - I value my privacy and for just over a kilo it's great for having my own little base!

Ollie meanwhile was still grumbling about his tent and shoddy zipper and having awoken uncomfortable and early, was ready to go all that was required was for me to get the rack and rope out and divvy out the load. So ordinarily rack is one load and ropes the other, somehow despite deciding to only use one half-rope and as such halving the weight of the ropes, I still ended up with the full rack in my sack, already I was thinking Ollie was getting the better end of the deal!

Next step, time to put my new boots on. Having decided we wouldn't be stopping to swap back and forth into climbing shoes I needed to get these fitted right, and with them being box fresh and a litter stiffer than I am ever used to wearing I will admit now I was ready for the inevitable agony come the end of the day, compeed and strong painkillers were at the ready.

New walking poles stashed away, deciding the walk-in wouldn't be too long, it was time we began to plod. Well I began to plod, Ollie began to stride!

I don't know if I'll ever pull my finger out and do it, but I really want to join a gym and hit the cross trainers, rowing machines and the like to strengthen my quads and knees, trekking is fine for so long as long as I'm bouncing through my whole legs; quads, hamstrings, calves etc, the moment it gets a bit more abrupt, my knees begin to play up, now not majorly, I tend to keep going but it's annoying and I need to resolve it, I can only do that by punishing them! So bouncy bits fine, but we were walking up stone steps for a fair bit and that began to make them ache, I began to slow and not only was the terrain iffy, I was still trying to come to terms with the way B2s (big boots!) walk, knowing full well that in not too long I was going to be climbing in them, whilst at the moment I could hardly turn around without tottering!

Then after some bloody dubious navigation courtesy of Ollie - and a guide book giving entirely the wrong coordinates to his credit - we were there at the base of a huge rib of granite, The Sub-Cneifon rib. The game was afoot and I for one was beginning to think we might have bitten off more than we could chew, this looked a bit techy for big boots! And then it happened, Ollie unpacked his pack and pulled out his rock shoes - I don't know what sort of look I gave him but I can assure you now, it wasn't one of pleasure. I suddenly realised I'd been sandbagged, the climbing was suddenly going to be a lot easier for him than it was going to be for me!

Racked up, ready to go. I happily belayed and carefully watched how the climb unfolded, almost immediately the sticky rubber went into action, delicately smearing up the rock face. Big boots don't smear.

After not too long the rope was pulled through taut, it was time for me to get going. I carefully stomped over to the face and stepped my left foot up and on, then wobbled. I wobbled a little longer then stepped back down. Put my right foot on and wobbled some more. It was time to sack up and go for it and after a few dubious hopping, stomping foot swaps, a lot of superfluous pulling to compensate for god awful footwork I actually began to get moving and feeling happy, finding that an awful lot of the smears I'd seen Ollie use before could actually be bypassed by stepping my feet amazingly high (nipple-height at times it seemed!) and then rocking over and up. After not too long at all, I got into the stride and was racing up the wall, with only one silly slip near the top of the pitch right in front of the belay; Ollie will say I fell, I say I slipped in that I wouldn't have fallen down, I just lost my footing!

The rib continued this way, with the first pitch amazing, with a tasty little bulge to over-come, then a rock solid belay set-up, which took me a good quarter of an hour to deconstruct after a particularly effective hex decided it wasn't going to come out, finally after accepting the inevitable loss, it fell over and a quick flick of the nut tool and it came out, time to climb.

So I won't bore you any more about the climbing, we went up, it was fun and not too hard at all, even in boots. In rock shoes it might even have been too easy to feel rewarding ;)

The stand out pitch for me though came after lunch, a long meandering climb up Sub-Cneifon Arete. It's rated Moderate - easier than anything we'd climbed all day. One pitch up we decided against belaying and I coiled up a good 2/3s of the rope around myself and then tied together we raced up the route simultaneously leaving a couple of pieces of gear between us as we went in case of the highly unlikely event one of us slipped. It was halfway up here I had a funny feeling, something was odd and having moved a bit quickly and built up an excess of slack rope I stopped to look around. The cloud had descended, behind me was white, looking down the ground had vanished into the cloud, looking up yet more white - I could have been anywhere at any height above the ground, I absolutely loved the exposure. Topping out the day was nearly over, we sat back and looked back at the lake below, the glacial valley flowing away and the sea in the distance. Unpacking my bag I realised that for the last couple of hundred feet I'd carried 2/3 of the rope coiled over me and all the rack, Ollie had somehow got me to carry even MORE kit than before. All that coupled with a couple of kilos of dSLR I was carrying made my load significantly more than his and as such I the more manly man - I'm sure he'll find a way to dispute that!

Now as views go, you can't really fault that, can you?!

The descent was fantastic fun and at a good pace, after a days climbing I was far more confident in my new boots and back to moving comfortably and naturally. All to quickly we were back at the car and stripping off kit and boots, the moment of truth was upon me, just how bad would my feet be, how ripped, rubbed and ruined? Curiously however I couldn't feel any hot spots and after taking my rather stinky socks off I was shocked to find my box-fresh, super stiff boots hadn't left a mark - amazing!

So, that was it. A quick stop off at the chip shop before a quick drive home and by 10pm that evening I was home - 24 hours, 1 good climb and an awful lot of fun!

Here's to more smash and grab missions in the future.

Cheers Ollie!

Reminisce

2011-09-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

A reminisce of a long flight home from Geneva in 2008. I need to escape soon, I want to play in the mountains again. More saving required.

Sub-Cneifon Foray

2011-09-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

So as promised, here's a quick penning of my recent foray to North Wales with Ollie. After a couple of years of saying we should get out climbing together we randomly realised we were both free last Thursday, with myself working til late the evening before, himself needing to get back for the next day, a quick smash and grab mission was required and I left it to Ollie to find a suitable objective, he didn't disappoint!

So for me the day was to be a geeky kit test, in the last few months I've been picking up an array of winter/alpine climbing kit and wanted to break super stiff B2 boots in and get used to that style of walking (or more honestly see where and how painful the inevitable massive blisters would be), get the optimum packing strategy for my new rucksack (try not to bury my camera under waterproofs, food and everything else, just when I want it) and refine my walking pole technique to ease my knees on approaches and descents (yes, I've become middle-aged, if not old!); an easy VD climb which could be raced up in big boots was the perfect stomping ground. In the end the walking poles ended up staying in the car, I'll make use of them eventually, and as for the rucksack usage, I don't think I closed it once without having to reopen it and get something out or put something else back in! Anyways enough geekery, on with the day ...

So as I said, working at The Climbing Academy until closing at 10pm meant that we had a fairly late start and after a good foray down Stapleton Road we realised roadworks prevented us getting on the motorway so half an hour later we were back at The Climbing Academy and heading out for round two! A pretty uneventful drive took us north along the M5 onto the M6 through Birmingham before going this M54, A5 west and then the rabbits emerged ... What started with a twitching, pulpy mess of a lapin in the road, clipped by the car ahead, led on to a full on gauntlet of bunny suicide carnage.

One long-ear took both lefthand wheels, the car raising up with two bone-crunching bumps, looking at each other shocked and giggling nervously another suddenly appeared dead centre in the lane staring straight down at us - a messy, semi-decapitaion the grisly result. Driving on, the remains and more targets appeared all along this peculiar stretch of road, at least the local carrion wouldn't go hungry.

2am and the campsite appeared, the dark hiding the terrain. A couple of minutes later, in a mild drizzle my tent was up, the fly a little mis-aligned but up and sufficient for my needs, jumping in I was quickly ready to doze. Ollie however, wasn't ... Ollie was swearing, groaning, swearing some more and ultimately defeated by his own tent, after a catastrophic zip failure it was the back seat of the car for him, given that he's 6'3" I can't imagine it was the comfiest of nights. Myself on the other hand slept through to my alarm the next morning and awoke to be given a cup of coffee and to take in the local scenery. It was AMAZING!

Low cloud hid the surround area when I first emerged but the morning heat lifted those to crystal clear skies and with it Tryfan reared it's prehistoric spine. As Welsh mountains go, Tryfan is a looming black ridge of dinosaur-esque menace, it's amazing!

So camping kit packed and stashed in the car, it was time to get the rack and rope out and hit the hills ...

[Right I'm sleepy, this is going to be a two-parter!]

Mountains on the Mind

2011-09-17T17:05:00.001-07:00

So Wednesday night 10pm, I left work at The Climbing Academy and drove to North Wales, my chauffeur annihilating several fluffy bunnies on the way ... Thursday morning after a healthy nights sleep (for me) we hit the Welsh 'mountains' and the granite faces there, Ollie yo-yoing between hiking boots and sensitive, precise rock shoes - myself? I wore clumpy B2 boots throughout the day and had a wale of a time, getting back at 10pm that day - a superb 24 hours!

I'll pen a full write-up soon, in the meantime above is the view of Tryfan that emerged Thursday morning from behind the low cloud.

Awesome Dog

2011-09-17T17:04:00.001-07:00

check me out, i'm carrying my own stuff..!, a photo by Peter Lienert photography on Flickr.

I love this dog!

Awesome photo, of an awesome dog by Peter Lienert - check out his Flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_lienert/

Salomon XR Crossmax a few weeks on

2011-09-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

So several weeks back I blogged briefly about purchasing a pair of new Salomon running shoes - the Xr Crossmax. Now after a good few kilometres in them, mainly at a slow speed I must admit, I think it's time to give a bit of an updated assessment of them. Firstly though, I must direct you to the very 'cool' microsite for them - http://www.salomonrunning.com/uk/minisites/xr/ it had me impressed!

So then, what are they like? Let's begin with what they're for - running. Running out your house, down the road and to your cross-country course and then back home again. That's tarmac and then single track, mud, grass ... Everything, basically. That ominous phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of non." comes to mind but be that the case in comparison to ultra specialised shoes in the companies lineup, in reality to me, they are particularly good at both ends of the spectrum.

Road and tough track-wise, I love them whilst being natural and unsupportive, I worried I would more heavily pronate but it almost seems the lack of support has forced me to align and place my feet better, the natural spring of the OS Tendon really is good at assisting with this. Marketing gimmicks aside, I'm sold on those prongs of rigid material going down the length of the shoe, there's a real flick out of each step and the heel cushioning just right for a solid strike (if you're a 'barefoot runner', sod off right now ;) ) . With regards to the grip on the road, never a problem other than on a wet manhole cover yesterday where I slid all over the place whilst walking along!

Cross-country wise the shoes almost feel like they've changed to adapt to the terrain, the flex of the toe box is great and rapid downhill work is comfortable and precise and suitable cushioned to not feel painful on solid, irregular ground. I've yet to take them through muddy or wet terrain and reserve judgement as to their performance there, but hopefully the won't get too bogged down and the grip seems suitably deep for that sort of terrain.

So all-in-all, pretty good? Yeh for walking and running on and off road, great - exactly what they were designed for. But ... and it's a silly but ...

But they don't work for what I use them for, I was hoping they'd work like a lighter more responsive version of the XA PRO 3D ULTRA GTX (such a ludicrous naming convention!), but they're just a totally different shoe. I find them lethally slick on limestone and scrambling about I find them just to soft to use as a day to day shoe, I need the rigid, waterproofed goodness of the ULTRAs. Which leads to me to a quandary, how can I justify a new pair of ULTRAs after spending a fair bit on the Crossmax? Truth is, given how much I love my ULTRAs I think the answer to, "How?" is "Very easily..."

So short of it is, if you're using the XR Crossmax for what they're designed to do then they're fantastic. If you're using them for purposes they're not designed for i.e. scrambling they're not so great.

Will I buy another pair? Probably, yes I can see me running a pair of ULTRAs and Crossmax simultaneously, until I find a new favourite shoe.

Clever Camo

2011-09-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

So at the end of the day it's designed for making things better at killing people, but as a purely technological exercise, it's pretty damn neat. Not least for IBM atom moving inspired, rolling BAE SYSTEMS banner - watch and see ...

And if you don't know what I mean by the IBM Atom Moving, watch this:

9/11 and Me

2011-09-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

So here in the UK September 11th is drawing to a close, in the U.S. there are a few more hours of memorial.

So ten years on, what does it mean to me?

Well, I'm not going to comment on the Geo-Political situation Post 9/11, it doesn't mean an awful lot to me and more importantly ten years on, I can hardly remember the situation before, let alone afterwards. The reason it's of such significance to me, is that it's the last significant news story I can remember occurring back at my hometown, Staplehurst in Kent.

There are few historical events that I remember, but watching the footage of the Berlin Wall being torn down with my father was one. I remember him looking up and saying something along the lines of, "Remember this moment, it's important." He said it with such gravitas that I've never forgotten that moment! Other than that, Terry Waite (I think? or some other famous captive ...) being released, watched on T.V. on the Isles of Scilly.

So back to September 11th, 2001. It was my final summer, I'd finished secondary school and was to leave for university in less than a month and embarrassingly I was watching Neighbours. The programme finished and the news in the U.S. was announced a few minutes later, the second plane hit and I sat there for another hour or so before heading over the road to a friend of mine and discuss the situation and then turned the Playstation on ...

10 years on and of that day I'm reminded of leaving Kent rather than taking in the true significance of the event.

More of Sofia Boutella!

2011-09-06T14:10:00.001-07:00

So thanks to the wonderful شیما I came across this video of Madonna's live show, this evening. Hold fire until Sofia's unleashed from her cage - she's amazing!

Back in the Day

2011-08-30T14:15:00.001-07:00

So a bit of a doodling reminisce, at the time a "Oooh, look at that!" snap from 2004, 7 years on this is still one of my favourite pieces ever. Big, brash KYS and sub-tagged, "Know Your Self" - great colour combo, fitting in with, whilst simultaneously bursting forth from the setting. The green to yellow fade outlined in ghastly orange just works.

The photo was as I said just a happy snap, a little rule-of-thirds composition with the doorway to the left and a bit of contrast/saturation manipulation in post, whilst wandering about with my mate REWS, waiting for the floor to collapse or a crazed druggy to emerge and us both die ... We didn't and for the next few years I popped back into this building countless times, sometimes simply for the pleasure of sitting on the roof and watching the world go by in Stokes Croft, below me.

Ben Slow and See No Evil

2011-08-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

So when I started this blog, a lot of the work I took photographs of was of graffiti artists going about their day to day living, painting. Balaclava'd, hooded or face-occulded portraits of mates, where privacy mattered because what they were doing was illegal and cracked down upon by the police.

Fast forward 5 or 6 years and The Guardian has recently run a piece looking at "the UK's Biggest Street Art Project", "See No Evil" and said it, "went down fairly quietly in the national press. It's not that new or surprising any more, let alone controversial. Nowadays, doing a bit of street art is as routine as checking your emails."

It's funny how language and acceptance has changed quite dramatically in the last few years - if you're good, you don't paint Graffiti - you paint Street Art and you can paint in public with a hundred or more cameras snapping away at your unmasked face and there'll be no repercussions. Not so long ago Felix brought out, "Children of the Can", the RWA in Bristol ran a Street Art show, shortly followed by the world renown Banksy show all hugely popular and the various launch nights bringing together roomfuls of people that as far as the local populace were concerned were criminals until they stopped and looked at what they were actually doing.

All in all, Street Art can only be a good thing right? Take the best bits of the graffiti scene - the pretty paintings, bright colours, cute characters etc and put it in acceptable places for the public to coo over.

The thing is it doesn't seem to quite work, with See No Evil being the recent example for me. The work in isolation is pretty damn cool, there's no denying that I stopped and stared at each piece and said, "Oooh, that's cool." several times, but ultimately there wasn't that aggressive competitiveness that the graffiti seen had. Now, I don't mean literally the threat of another crew beating you up and nicking your cans or the BTP dog chasing you down the tracks, but just the competitive one-up-ness of classic Halls of Fame, the dark and edgy pieces with a carefully selected, limited palette - almost everything was rainbow saturated, neon pretty-ness.

I don't know, when I started writing this, I figured a lot of my trouble with the show was my lack of direct interaction with the scene and the artists, but with further consideration I think it's my lack of empathy with the positioning and the ethos of the work. I always considered the risk and the location of a piece as important, if not more so than the piece itself, the bravado of going higher, bigger than the last person. It's ironic to think that in a show where pieces are painted on the side of multi-story office buildings in the middle of the city centre, I don't feel they have the same gravitas as a lean over piece at the top of an abandoned building in Stoke's Croft ...

And just as I wind to a close on a downer, I present to you this, a piece by Ben Slow, tucked away on a doorway behind a set of stairs, partially hidden by a bicycle rack. It's location low-key, it's presence weighty; a perfect example of minimalist perfection. All of a sudden the show was good! I even went to the effort of going back to photograph this piece and this piece only.

Favourite Pose

2011-08-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

So I forgot this photograph in the other post, it's my favourite from the day, just for the incredulous position - a small hold in his left hand, smears for feet on a vertical wall and palming off the wall below with his righthand.

It would be a little bit cooler if he was looking up a little more, instead of staring at the top of his head but still the pose more than makes up for it then there's the clip hanging near his hand which it rather looks like he's holding onto.

I want to print this up soon nice and big, along with the clipping picture where Ben reaches through with his left hand whilst holding a high undercut with the right.

once you've bought it ...

2011-08-26T07:22:00.001-07:00

So the common justification for buying rock climbing gear is that, "Once you've bought it, it will last forever." That's true, it will the stuff's built to last, more importantly built to save your ass and reliably!

That said, in the last couple of years I've spent literally thousands on rock climbing kit - nuts, more nuts, full set of cams, countless quick draws, slings and ropes ... Then there's the more esoteric kit picked up for climbing photography, ascender, descender, more slings, even a sky hook!

So now, I'm happy with everything, there's nothing else I really need except a set of RPs (tiny pieces of metal attached to wires that inspire no confidence whatsoever!) and well there's always lighter quickdraws ... But basically, no, nothing left to pick up.

Except now, I've decided it's time to get into the mountains properly. It was always the sole purpose for me learning to climb, to play in the mountains. Initially I wanted to get into BASE jumping but the the thousands of pounds required for AAF course, consolidation jumps, 'chutes etc was at the time too prohibitive so I looked at exciting, slightly-dodgy pursuits I could get into closer to home. Climbing proved that pursuit ands in the long game, as I said, it would prove an entry into the mountains I love!

So all of a sudden there was a whole new kit list, soft-items trousers, expensive, breathable waterproofs, soft-shell, base layer, insulating layers, socks, gloves etc ... So many different layers all far from cheap. Whilst the hardware side of things is mostly pulled from rock climbing rack, there are also a whole load of other items, crampons, ice axes, ice screws etc ... And recently I finally picked up a pair of boots after a very fortuitous discovery in Cotswold outdoors' sale, my size in Asolo Alpinist for the low, low, low price of £140 which bearing in mind I was all ready to spend several hundred is an absolute bargain! What amused me most about them was the size, getting home and slinging them down next to my rock shoes I really couldn't believe the size disparity!

So as for the mountain plans? Well hopefully I'll have everything sorted by the new year to get out and play in January or February. The thing is, as I said at the beginning, it will last forever and so I don't mind if I don't get out this year, I'll just hold out another year and head out then. Eventually, I'll get out to play, but in the meantime I've just got to spend yet more money on kit, work on my fitness and dream. Least the last one's easy to do ...

Hard Climbing - Easy Photography

2011-08-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

So it's been a week since I went out to play with Alan and Ben. I'm that appalling about blogging, even when it comes to things that are really cool and interesting I take AGES getting around to writing about them ...

So a quick bit of background on the two 'combatants' !

Firstly Ben.

Ben West is the centre manager for Undercover Rock climbing centre, here in Bristol. He's the typical wonder kid, starting to climb early and mentored by some of the best of the best (and craziest) in the South-West. He was soon competing on the British Team but in older age, moved away from that scene to focus on just playing on rock, playing on rock HARD!

Want to here more info about him (albeit from seven years ago!) have a read of this amusing BMC interview, here.

Alan is equally a long time participant in this silly rock climbing game. Now working as a Solicitor (well on Gardening Leave for 2 months), his background is in the outdoor industry, taking a variety of groups of kids out and about on adventures and as such has accumulated an arsenal of inevitable nightmarish and amusing stories to tell. For someone with a high-powered job and the associated responsibilities, he still finds plenty of time to climb and as with Ben, climb hard!

This evening they fly out to Switzerland to play on the Granite Highballs of Magic Wood, so a week ago we finally got organised to get out to take some snaps at Cheddar after musing about it for months!

After a disastrous bouldering session at Undercover Rock myself, I was happy to relinquish climbing duties to Ben and Al' - the climb they had in mind was something that Ben had ticked a few days earlier and for which Al' had in mind to hopefully tick that evening. Will Stanton F8a+ is well out of my reach, it's a solid climb with some damn strong moves. It moves out from a suspended ledge out around a corner up to below a solid roof, where a dubious clip provides protection for the battle of the bulge, straight through the chunkiest bit of roof, once through that a small bit of serious climbing to the chains (end). The bulge, cruxy in itself isn't the end of the hard climbing as Alan was to later prove ...

Firstly though, Ben wanted to 'warm up' on a recent tick of his, a Trad route entitled "Taming the Lion" a serious affair at E6 6c straight up through Lion Rock. Two wires, the first of which easy to lift out if the belayer isn't paying attention, then a few odd pegs lead to a massive face climb, runout to the top. Whilst you wouldn't hit the deck if you fell on that last stretch, there's the possibility of hitting a slabby section on the way down which could be disastrous. Needless to say it was pretty inspiring to see the loose flapping rope hanging from Ben as he hung from the the top jugs and pulled over the lip and it was all climbed without any fuss and a smile all the way up!

So now was time for the big show, Will Stanton.

Reaching for the clipstick the plan was to put a few draws in with the intention of taking a few photos of the key parts then carrying on up to put the clips in to the finish for Al' to jump on and smash it in. Needless to say it ended up being too tempting for Ben just to get back on it and climb it a couple of times to make sure the photos came out well and just to have some fun on an amazing route. That said, if you've ever got to a bolt and thought the positioning was pretty stupid and poorly placed then spare a thought for this interesting clip:

It makes a good photo though, a block undercut with your right, smears for feet and then a long reach through with your left hand to clip. Tough!

Next it was Al's turn to tie on and pull on and taking the bulge. He owned it all the way up, racing through the bottom section, setting himself up confidently for the bulge and moving up and through, not knowing the route, I thought he had it in the bag a bit of easy climbing to the top. All of a sudden, "Whoosh!!!" and Al' was dangling, antagonised and grumbling beside me, having lobbed off the top below the chains. Bitter disappointment after what looked like an easy win for him.

Time to recuperate and get the strength back to finish the job. However, having put it all into the first effort it was sadly not to be. Utterly exhausted, from then on Al's feet didn't want to stick his hand sequences looked a little iffy at times and downright wrong at others! It's funny how that initial effort you can jump on with no real pressure the first go and all but get it, then when you've fallen off and the pressure is on that little bit more to get it done, it all falls apart. I'm sure many a Sports Psychologist has written about such pressures and I'm sure each has their own method to beat it, but needless to say, it wasn't to be despite the route being clearly well within Al's ability. Next time ...

Determined to the end, the last attempt was in all but the dark, with me resorting to a flashgun to light the scene!

As I said before, these guys are off to Magic Wood to crush the big granite boulders there, but already there's talk of what's next after their return, particularly once the climbing restrictions at Cheddar have eased, there's a very 'Savage' route there, which Ben needs to have a look at ...

Hmmm, captivity ...

2011-08-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

I really don't know about this zoo malarky ... I love the place, I love seeing the variety of animals from across the planet, the similarities, the variations etc. But then I lean a little closer and headbutt the glass and remember that they're trapped behind there.

It's sad, almost the only way that animals can ever survive in the wild these days is by showcasing them in captivity. It's a hard justification to make.

I wouldn't want to be locked up for the freedom of mankind assuming even I had the option ...

Something about Squirrels

2011-08-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

I think it's safe to say as a climber you always look at animals perfectly adapted to climb with a little bit of envy, be they monkeys, lemurs, geckos or squirrels. You can't help but think frivolously, "It would be so cool to be a lemur!"

As such a few days ago, sitting in Brandon Hill watching the world go by, I was soon drawn to the squirrels running around. Having a plentiful supply of food from a procession of clumsy people and a veritable cornucopia of trees, they've become very tame, venturing within a metre or two, looking up inquisitively at you, as you peer down equally intrigued at them. The other day, one particularly showy Sciurus carolinensis caught my eye as I wandered past his lookout and I couldn't help but pause and take a few snaps with the old magic picture box. Fortunately I had my nice zoom lens on and was able to quickly get a couple of shots, there's no doubting in my mind that he was posing for the camera, a seasoned pro of the squirrel portraiture - he got the look down the lens look nailed, coupled with a good 3/4 pose to boot. A great model to work with, better than most humans!

For techy geeks out there, I'm shooting on a Canon 40D dSLR (which is now quite old for a dSLR, at 4 years old but working as good as new) and the lens was a Canon 70-200mm f/4.0L USM IS (which if you know lenses, is a serious piece of kit costing over a grand but worth every penny). The photos were imported into Lightroom 2 for quick fixes and then post-processed more comprehensively in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Love or hate?! I really don't know!

2011-08-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

So this is a sort of review-cum-assessment of my 5.10 Teams a few months on.

These days I leave my only pair (having finally realised I didn't need three pairs in assorted sizes, I gave away a couple of pairs to members of our youth squad) of La Sportiva Solution climbing shoes at work in my locker. Solutions are simply the best indoor shoe ever in my opinion but outdoors I prefer my Anasazi Blancos a totally different style of shoe. Yesterday however I went bouldering at Undercover Rock, and wanted a good aggressive pair of shoes to climb in - searching around my place, I dug up my old 5.10 Team shoes and threw them in my bag ...

So, since I bought them I've worn them less than half a dozen times indoors and always ended up taking them off and swapping them for my Sportiva Solutions, which are a little more comfortable and a just seem that little bit 'better', this time I wouldn't have the option if I wanted to stay in downturned shoes, these were the only pair I had available. So began the mission that is getting them on, it's no exaggeration to say that these are the hardest shoes in the world to get on; designed as slippers with a single strap to hold the heel in place. The neck is the tightest elastic ever, making it a real mission to just get your foot superficially in, then begins the tug and rolling as you try and get your big toe down to the end of the toe box, then you sort of twist your foot against the shoe to get your toes to roll around the bottom of the shoe and make it semi-possible to get your heel in. So the heel too is tight, left to relax it closes up to a 20mm width so there are two rear perpendicular straps one which pulls the heel open and the other which pulls it back over your heel. It feels genuinely improbable that your foot is going to enter until the last possible moment when it slurps in and fills out the shoe.

Once on they feel precise, very precise, your toes have curled themselves out the way, rolling around partially under the foot, the toe being pushed right into the deepest darkest depths of the toe box, utterly taut and primed to stand on the tiniest nub or hook into tiny pocket, albeit one on a very steep portion of roof! There's no surprisingly effective smearing here, like you get with Solutions, these are talons for pulling and clawing up climbs and for this they are I have to admit, bloody brilliant. So you have probably already picked up my problem with these shoes, they're just not all-rounder shoes, they're a very precise tool for a very precise problem.

If you want a super sticky, claw of a shoe that will pull you up the steepest of problems with genuine ease, sharp edges to push against to maintain body tension (compression) then go for the Teams, they're great. However you need to have a second pair of shoes with you if you're going to play on a range of problems, in my case the White Anasazis are the perfect partner in crime, edgy, smeary and comfortable!

But, I will always grab my La Sportiva Solutions in preference to the Team/Anasazi combination they're just easier to use. I can see times when I will want to go for my Teams on a super specific problem at the limit of my climbing grade-wise but day-to-day? Nah!

Yesterday's climbing session was amusing, of the four of us climbing three us had a pair of teams with us, of those three, only one of us was actually wearing them; Alan and myself lasted all of fifteen minutes wearing ours, before they started to feel uncomfortable and impractical!

The best of the best!

2011-08-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

And finally here's my favourite photo, of my favourite animal of late. Bristol Zoo Gardens new lion cub ...

Super cool!

Zoological!

2011-08-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

So let's not beat around the bush, I could rudely be called a Zoophile. Albeit, I would like to clarify not in the literal sense! In the sense that I like going to the zoo, I think rather than making me a zoophile, it makes me 'a small child'. But who cares, it's great!

It's also (very much justifiably) pricey at £14 a time, I'm not denying this money isn't justified, it goes to supporting a fantastic range of conservation projects, but when you go as often as me it begins to smart! A fortnight ago I did something I should have done months ago, I took out annual membership. Now at £50 I've only got to go 4 times in a year to save money, in the the last two weeks I've been twice. It's safe to say I will cover my costs quite quickly!

So what's the attraction of watching animals trapped in cages parading back and forth?

Well, firstly can I say I'm not pro-zoos in their basic sense. I honestly believe some animals in there are psychologically fooked. For example, the only reason I got this Armadillo photograph was because he was whizzing around the pen in the same convoluted figure of eight pattern, once I realised this I was able to wait for him to come around to a pre-focussed point and snap away.

That's not the action of mentally sound animal, I don't think? But ... and it's a bit of stretch, there are a lot of kids who walk in there and go, "Ooooh, what's that thing, he's so cool!" and persuade mum and dad to sponsor an armadillo or give money to a 'save the jungle' charity and as such that one armadillo has done a great deal of good for armadillo-kind. The thing is, would I want to do that for mankind? Sit in a box scrutinised, so my fellow many could go about living their lives? There's so many considerations, it's impossible to say and the argument I laid down is hardly well formed, it's a back of an envelope sketch of an argument.

So, entrapment discussions aside, what is it about the zoo? Well as a child my father worked for the Department of the Environment and took me and the family around many zoos and raptor centres as he observed identification rings being fitted and the like. That and he pointed out every bird, flower and animal species on our many walks. At the time I'm sure I whinged, these days I point out things exactly the same way except without I don't have his encyclopaedic natural history knowledge! It's that connection to nature, that has me hooked by the zoo and it's various exhibits, their physiologies, behaviours etc.

Blogging back in Vogue

2011-08-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

So it seems blogging is back in vogue, at least amongst my climbing circle. Two of the best local climbers I know have started to muse about their rocky lifestyles:

First up Miss Hazel Findlay - http://hazelfindlay.wordpress.com/

Increasingly comfortable in her role as the greatest UK (World?) Female Trad climber, it's great to hear her musings on life, not least because she has a great written voice, suitably humorous and more importantly, suitably excitable. I look forward to hearing more about her climbing climbs that I can never dream of climbing. Hell let's be honest, hearing about her WARMING UP on climbs that I can never hope of climbing!

My favourite bit about Hazel's page is the header image, I can't find who to credit, but it's a bloody cool photo.

The other local climbing blog I've been enjoying is that of Mr Ben West - Undercover Rock's Centre Manager - http://benwest86.wordpress.com/

A solid climber and a really fun character to be around, a great inspiration for the younger climbers making use of the centre and who aspire to climb the hard sport routes in and around the South-West and Europe. I like to think if I was as tall as him, things would be as easy for me, but I think deep down I'm kidding myself!

Check them out and then once you've read about climbing a load and got thoroughly psyched, get out and play yourselves!

Pete

When a long way feels a long way!

2011-08-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

So it's a been a long time since I properly sat down and had a type, said what was going on. It's about time to get back on it, it's not like there hasn't been anything going on of late to write about, but equally it's not like I've been so busy I couldn't have put fingers to keys. I've just been lazy in a hectic way!

So what's the theme? What's the trend of my recent weeks? Competitiveness. My personal, stroppy drive to be better or at least be able to do anything anyone else can. This isn't a healthy, striving to be the best I can possibly be style competitiveness, this is old school green-eyed jealousy and arrogance coming through! Well maybe not quite that bad ;)

Either way in the last few weeks I've got myself in some painful situations thanks to my inability to say no and to raise the stakes of anything suggested. The following trek is one such example.

A good friend of mine, Jim, is moving to Chamonix in September. Chamonix, if you don't know is the home of Alpine climbing, sitting in the valley running alongside Mont Blanc - i.e. it is located 'here' as kindly pointed out by Tom in the photo below:

Moving to Chamonix is very cool and of Jim, I am very jealous! It means he can work all day then go for a run around the tallest mountain in Western Europe, on days off it is possible to jump on a cable car halfway up, spend the day ice climbing and mountaineering in one of the coolest ranges around, then get the cable car back down in the evening for a pint in town. Essential to this is fitness, the ability to keep moving quickly and confidently for very long periods, speed negates danger more often than not in the mountains.

So it came about that I suggested Jim might get homesick and would appreciate his Bristol mates coming out to join him, namely me and namely so I could get him to show me the coolest routes around. This 'plan' agreed on, we decided we should get out for some training treks before he left, a great idea. I thought ...

Now I like to think I'm fairly fit, I walk at work all day, everyday on the off days I climb a lot and I've always had a decent base layer of fitness anyway. So at the suggestion of doing a 'long one' I was fully game. "Where shall we go? Brecon Beacons?" - yup, let's do it, I thought! "25 mile challenge?" - hmm, let's do it, I thought, albeit with a little bit of trepidation now ... So the challenge was set, now the onus passed to me to find a route. A few minutes browsing the interwebs, I came across the Black Mountains Roundabout a 26 mile event, 'ran' (literally in some cases) in April and organised by the Mountain Rescue Team. We had a route, a day and a challenge!

Black Mountains Roundabout

Challenge #1: Alpine start (well nearly!) 4am rendezvous for a 5am start - at the break of dawn - to trekking - 4am pickup and it was already light. Despite this cockup the time of commencement was still on plan, until I was let loose on the SatNav. Jim doubting my ability to use it suggested we were going the wrong way. I promptly entered a different town name in, here the problem lies ... I entered the name of a hamlet near our destination, the SatNav found the town given the same name, an hour away ...

Hearing "You have reached your destination." when you are in the middle of a housing estate, expecting to be in a wood, isn't ideal. I then put the first destination back in and we headed directly to where we wanted to be. If only we'd trusted it in the first place! Time of walk commencement? 6.30am

- Click to enlarge and see the route -

So the route? The route takes the route of most resistance between high (and low) points in the Black Mountains, starting with a slog straight up Waun Fach the highest point in the area at 810m. From there on, it's a full on fight, yo-yoing around the hills in a crude circle.

It started badly, the first indication of an inclination and my legs started to ache. Several metres on, they started to agonise and a little further on, they started to fail! Jim on the other hand raced ahead looking perfectly comfortable! we topped out Waun Fach to a full on white-out descended (or ascended) cloud covered the rubbish summit - an open expanse, with a slight mound in the middle, which manages to look lower than every hill around! Bearings taken it was on directly to the valley bottom and up the next hillock! From here we looked across to a looming black wall in the distance, referring to the map we realised this was coming up later, a lot later and it looked bad!

It's funny how accurate the name, 'Black Mountains' is - they really do look suitably dark and menacing, despite being covered in vegetation.

Early morning after the descent from Waun Fach, the cloud cleared and the sun came out and it started to get hot ... So it's common practise to 'start cold', i.e. put far less clothing than you want on and get moving quickly to warm up, it's massively counter-intuitive and despite knowing it, I never do it; today was no exception. Starting in a base layer top and shell because it was a bit windy and chilly, within two-minutes, maybe three I'd stopped stripped to my base layer, the shell retired to the bag for brief use later at the lunch stop to retain heat. By the end of the day I'd spent several hours with the legs of my trousers pulled up over my knees, looking ridiculously cool ...

So back to the wandering and I won't lie, I really was suffering. Very early on I'd got into the 'left foot-right foot' method of ascent for the uphills, I was weak, slow and useless; Jim on the other hand was confident, fast and racing ahead.

Ordinarily in a situation where someone is far better than someone else and they show it off, I think it's human nature to feel a little offended, a little grumpy at the 'show off'. For me it doesn't work like that, I get angry at myself! I wish I had recorded my complaints. Even better than my outer monologue, I wish I could have recorded my inner monologue; dear god did I give myself shit for being useless and in full on third-person - "Why the fuck are you so fucking weak, it isn't that fucking hard to walk up a hill. Sack up Pete ...".

Now I don't know what Jim thought, but I know I whinged a fair bit to him and to his credit he didn't tell me to shut up once. Secretly I think he quite liked seeing me suffer, more importantly he never gave in to my offers ... hell pleas to shorten the route!

So it was we came to the bracken, I mean THE Bracken ... From the top of one peak we were to descend down a path to the valley bottom, it should have been pretty prompt, the path clear. We missed the path and started through the bracken, after all it wasn't that high. The thing is as the hill dropped away, the top of the bracken remained the same height, all of a sudden it was taller than my head and becoming increasingly dense. Then the stinging nettles started to appear, subtly camouflaged and infinitely more potent than any nettles I've ever been stung by before. So a bit of bracken and the odd stinger, no real problem? Then the brambles appeared, interlaced with the stinging nettles, which interlaced the bracken. All of a sudden what had been a hassle, became a struggle, what had looked like about fifteen minutes of slog, all of a sudden became an hour of plowing.

All of a sudden just when it couldn't get any worse, I found myself tangled around a barbed wire. fence. It was the most joyous barbed wire entanglement ever - it meant we'd reached the field at the bottom of the hill. The bracken was over! Climbing over the fence, we found ourselves in a private garden and after a quick cross-garden jog we were back on track and looking at our last major hill and a couple of hillocks to find our way back to the car.

The last hills were the best, not least because they meant the trek was drawing to a close, the mission nearly a success! But more importantly, they were aesthetically nicer, good obvious summits and good views. Dark clouds rolling from one side and a clear view of the rolling hills and valleys that we'd ambled up and over unfolded below us. That last pinnacle felt bloody brilliant to ascend.

So with that we headed back to the car, the route taking in a lot more road than either of us expected, bloody miles it felt, we both agreed. It turned out to be just shy of two miles - next to nothing relatively! After the walk we'd had, our perceptions of distance weren't quite as accurate as they had been earlier in the day. The car was a happy sight, tucked away behind a tight, blind bend it just appeared out of nowhere our chariot awaited!

All in all, the lessons learnt were thus:

I'm not fit enough or as fit as I thought I was.
Jim is a legend who can deal with a slow, whinging walking companion
Jim's navigation can go a little bit askew and both of us are too stubborn to back down when we know we're heading a stupid way, i.e. down an hours worth of steep bracken meshed hill.
I love hiking and walking and can't and don't do it enough.
My knees hurt!

Nice reminisce!

2011-07-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

So I remember watching this reel years ago, I'm not sure if it wasn't even whilst I was in Uni halls a decade ago?! Whenever it came out doesn't matter, I've never seen anything better.

Rodney Mullen, the flatland skateboard legend!

2011-07-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

So I was reminded the other evening of a badger related event from a couple of months back! I don't think I mentioned it at the time, so here goes ...

If you don't know Bristol, here's a quick description of the location! 'The Farm' pub is, as you may have guessed, a pub based near to a farm, in St Werburgh's at the bottom of the hill from where I live, to get to it there's an unlit, very steep footpath that meanders up through allotments to emerge at the road above.

Drinking late into the night one evening with friends it finally became time for me to head off, being the only one living uphill, I set off alone, music blaring in my ears. Once on the steep footpath I bumbled along a few missed, drunken steps perhaps at times. Halfway up, seeing the end in sight, I suddenly became away of a really disconcerting noise, a rumbling, growling primordial noise, this whilst listening to pretty loud music at the time. Taking my headphones out, my imagination ran rampart what beast was about to emerge and savage me?!

All of a sudden a pied snout appeared racing at full pelt across the path, I was shocked to see that whilst it's snout had vanished across the path and into the opposing hedge, it's body was still appearing from the other side. Badgers are, I'd forgotten, huge! Then all of a sudden as quickly as he'd emerged, he'd gone off on his merry badger way leaving me pumped with adrenaline, natural history awe and alcohol.

What else was a grown man to do? I drunkenly phoned my mum to tell her!

Another photo!

2011-07-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

So here's another photo from last weekend's trek. It's another HDR processed image i.e. it's three photos squashed together to make sure there's detail in the bright bits, the mid bits and the dark bits.

As with the other two photos, if you can see a bulge, we stood on it!

Black Mountains Marathon

2011-07-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago I was chatting to a mate about going for a hike, bravado entailed and I somehow agreed to a 25 mile challenge. My first challenge to find a suitable route, browsing on line I came across the Black Mountains Roundabout a circular route around the highest points in the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons ...

I'll write more soon about it but suffice to say, I'm not as fit as I thought I was but I can still plod along when I need to!

In the meantime, here's a few photos to whet the whistle as it were!

Not a Royalist, but ...

2011-07-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

So personally I'm rather indifferent to our Royal Family, I would hardly be seen rushing to see them if they visited nearby, I'm not sure I could even construct a family tree of the Queen's nuclear family. That said I can see their importance as a part of our nation identity, I think we need the continuity of 'leadership' they provide, particularly given how wet and homogenous our political party leaders are of late; Milliband, Brown, Cameron, Blair ... They all strike me as much the muchness, there's no Obama-esque charismatic, calm, confident, hope inspiring leader in any of the major parties, hell there's not even any Sarah Palin-esque gung-ho, mental leaders.

Anyway I digress.

What has impressed me most about the Royal Family recently, or more importantly, whom; Prince William and Kate, not in a dreamy, beautiful wedding way. They - and I hate to say it - are cool. They're my age, seem to be living contemporarily and their recent Canada trip shows that. The PR machine has done the job with me, I think they look fun!

The best thing I've seen - and the reason for this meandering post - was Prince William's recent 'Waterbird' landing of a Seaking helicopter on a lake, I'm mightily impressed, I didn't even realise you could do that, I honestly assumed it would have sunk ...

Twitting on Twitter ...

2011-06-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

Lilla_Pete is on ...

So I finally fought the urge and joined the 'Twitterati' ... I've not got to grips with it, so don't expect anything too insightful!

- LiLLA_Pete -

LiLLA Dots

2011-06-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

Surprise!

2011-06-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago I received an anonymous jiffybag package in the post. I rarely get post and I was really quite surprised, so much so I left it there for the day whilst I went out and pondered what it could be!

On my return home, I opened it up and I have to say I was really quite taken by the present within - a block of Kentish chalk and a touching message from my sister, as you can see below.

Now I don't head home very often, it was just shy of two years this time, it's things like this that make me think maybe I should more often!

Artwork and Photography I've Loved of Late

2011-06-18T08:10:00.001-07:00

S/T. Técnica mixta. 2011, a photo by joseba.eskubi on Flickr.

Absolutely amazing mixed media paint work. Some of the Flickrstream is a bit hit and miss, but the hits are awesome!

The hundredth of a second caught so precisely that the motion is continued from the picture indefinitely:, a photo by pastaboy sleeps on Flickr.

"The hundredth of a second caught so precisely that the motion is continued from the picture indefinitely:"

The title of the photo is almost as creative and beautiful as the photograph itself!

Bit more suffering!

2011-06-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

"So you probably can't see us, but our portaledge just collapsed. Very scary."

COLD!!!

2011-06-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

Curious and bizarre as it might be, this is why I want to go into the mountains. It might be the ultimate hardship but once you're back down safe, wow!

COLD - TRAILER from Anson Fogel on Vimeo.

it's (not) grim 'Up North'!

2011-06-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

So I alluded to it a few posts back, but recently I headed 'Up North' after a passing offer by one of the Directors of our climbing centre, Rich.

Now, one of the things I most looked forward to when I dropped to part-time at the bookshop to spend more time working at the climbing centre, was the extra flexibility it gave me with regards to long weekends, swapping one shift meant I had four days free in a row. This was how it worked out the other week, getting picked up from work by my boss we headed up north and a few hours later we turned up to the quaintest little campsite. Setting up camp I remember noting a reasonable slope, but then I totally neglected it and pitched my tent along the contour of the hill leading to a nights sleep perpetually fighting the roll down the hill!

So, Thursday morning brought the happy anticipation of a new day, that only a nights camping can provide. Sitting about boiling up a pan of lemon and ginger tea, munching on bacon and enjoying the sunshine, the more I was ready for the gritstone climbing ... Alarm bells should have rung then!

Gritstone for those who don't know, is a peculiar rock type that sits up in the Peak District, a very dense rock, with a very particular high-friction surface micro texture, climbing-wise it's amazing, more often than not you're not pulling on holds and stepping on edges to climb; you're using the high-friction and sticky rubber of climbing shoes to stand on absolutely minimal nubs, using subtle dimples and deflections on the rock to hold onto and work your up.

The problem is, however, that high-friction is very 'condition' dependent, the hotter it gets, the worse the holds get, the more slippery the footholds. This trip was to prove most un-productive. That said, as trips go it was damn fun!

The advantage of the climbing conditions being poor was that I got snapping, fortunately the others were more committed than me and continued to climb on so I had subjects to snap!

Here's to a baltic cold, windy productive climbing day up north soon, but this time I was glad that it was sunny and still because it was a really nice day!

Five Ten Teams

2011-06-12T10:46:00.001-07:00

So during last week's unsuccessful climbing up in the Peak District I picked up a pair of 5.10 Teams since they were going cheap in Outdoors, Hathersage.

Firstly I was very surprised at how large a size the shop assistant gave me, UK7s, after I told him my other shoe sizes (5.10 Anasazi Blanco V2 - UK5.5 & La Sportiva Solution - UK4.5) but after it honestly took me about 15 minutes to wrestle my feet in, the slipper collar being super taut and the shoes being ridiculously undersized, I was happy to bow to the assistant's expert advice!

So first impressions? Well late, warm afternoon later on Peak District Gritstone I lasted about 2 minutes of climbing before they got agonising, time to take 'em off and return to the comfier Solutions, except disaster struck and after getting the right off, I tugged at the tighter left, all of a sudden it slipped off but as it did so, it ripped a flapper-cum-blister off the side of my little toe. Team's are a lot narrow than Solutions, it seems.

A week on I've stretched them out, my toe has recovered and I've tried to climb on them, albeit only indoors. Let's not beat around the bush, I don't like them indoors; at least I don't like them compared to my Solutions. The toe is massively downturned but unlike Solutions is flat across the bottom, with a razor sharp edges that would stand on the tiniest scrap of edge, but with no definitive point where your big toe is aimed, Solutions on the other hand have a good lump at the toe which when placed on a hold can be spun around, pivoted upon confidently. For indoors climbing on holds this design is for me, far better.

So does this mean I'm never going to use them? Far from it, in fact I can see them being amazing outside - nothing beats 5.10 rubber and the rigid edges look and feel like they'll be perfect for macroscopic edges and features, the large toe area, I lamented for indoor climbing look like it should swallow rock and stick perfectly.

Basically, I'm excited to use 5.10 Teams outside, but will only be using Solutions inside. Simple as that.

Oh, yeh and they're quite down-turned!

More of me!

2011-06-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

So last night was time for head shaving and playing with lights and camera.

As companies go, Redbull is 'cool'

2011-06-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

http://redbullairforce.com/2011/05/a-shot-we-got-from-kirby-camp

Desperate Measures

2011-06-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hamish, taping his poor, sore fingertips during an unsuccessful trip up north to the Peak District.

Gritstone needs cold, breezy conditions and lovely as the hot, still conditions were and great for just chilling out, they really weren't receptive to high performance climbing ;)

Two of my favourite things!

2011-06-06T11:13:00.001-07:00

Transformers and Wingsuits. Amazing!!!

You’re watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Clip No. 1. See the Web's top videos on AOL Video

Mark Healey - Legend!

2011-05-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

So sometimes you have no doubts that what someone is doing is ridiculously stupidly, almost entirely unjustifiably dangerous, but ... But, you just can't help but feel that they're experiencing one of the most amazing moments ever and so it is with Mark Healey, a big wave-surfer who's moved on to yet riskier pursuits in the ocean, moving from surfing waves, to surfing GREAT WHITE SHARKS.

So yeh, absolutely nuts but on a totally primordial level, beautiful.

Ever thought you were good at Tetris?

2011-05-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ride out the 'slow beginning', maybe skip halfway though ...

What the hell have I done!

2011-05-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

So my life is slack, I can't deny that - I have two really nice jobs; one I talk about books with people, the other I talk about climbing!

The other reason my life is slack, is that because of the part-time nature and evening shifts of my work, I usually have four daytimes free a week.

For the next few weeks however, life is about to get a lot busier, having volunteered to do a whole load of cover shifts, whilst a colleague is travelling around the U.S. - see you in a few weeks, hopefully I won't fizzle out!

Mentalists ...

2011-05-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

So two very interesting psychological pieces have passed my eyes in the last week.

Today's piece was courtesy of Jon Ronson via The Guardian - "How to Spot a Psychopath" - a brilliant sample from Ronson's (of men staring at goats fame) new book. Here 'Tony' talks about how he managed to make it into Broadmoor ...

"I'm Tony," he said. He sat down.

"So I hear you faked your way in here," I said.

"That's exactly right," Tony said.

It's a brilliant expose on a peculiar assessment process, the Hare assessment for Pyschopathology and the people who score a little too highly!

The other piece was the return of Louis Theroux with a look at Miami's Super Jail, still available on iPlayer, here.

A weird limbo state where people are imprisoned before seeing trial. A hotch-potch of terrifyingand mild, soft and ridiculously hard people thrown together into a melting pot of madness and brutality ...

The person who scared me the most? The most mild-mannered seemingly scared young man who turns out to be more than a little bit scary!

Climbing. An uphill struggle.

2011-05-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

So what's happening with my climbing of late, why have I been so quiet about it?

Well mainly because I've not been enjoying it that much, simple as that! I'm bouldering pretty hard, I've ticked in the last month or two problems harder than I've ever ticked before. I'm feeling strong and fierce when it comes to bouldering, this should be good, right?

Except it isn't, I don't care about Bouldering at the moment all I'm thinking about is routes, getting outdoors and climbing high and hard, I'd even be partial to a bit of Sport climbing if necessary, but mainly it's Trad on my mind. And here's where the problem lies, my stamina is shot - it's absolutely minimal, every muscle in my body is tuned to grip hard, pull hard and not let go, great for bouldering, where that's exactly what you want a short, sharp burst of climbing over tough, techy moves. For route climbing, however it's less desirable or at least less of a priority. For routes I need to be able to take it slow, efficiently through the areas of easy climbing, relax as I'm doing it, find time to shake my arms, take the weight off etc. and then have enough energy to fight through the genuinely difficult 'crux' sections.

So what needs to change? Well that's it, right there - I need to change. Change what I'm climbing on and how I'm training for it, for climbing rock routes I need to climb more rock rather than plastic indoors and when I do have to resort to plastic indoors I need to move away from the bouldering and onto stamina training, I need to do a lot of circuit training, a lot of dead hanging (hanging by your fingers til you feel dead ;) ) and complementary exercises on the side.

It started today with a reasonable reintroduction to circuit training, but it was humiliating how feeble I was, struggling to string together a series of easy(ish) moves. But looking on the positive side of things, I wanted to improve and I hung around trying it again and again, until ultimately I gave up because I couldn't try anymore, rather than my usual boredom!

So that's great for indoor training but what about rock time? Well first of all, I've got to get more sociable and climb with more people, more regularly but in the meantime, I've picked up a new toy, a Petzl Shunt, a clever little device that means you can climb clipped to a rope that is attached at the top and if you fall it locks up and you don't plummet to your death below. The advantage of this is that I can go out on my own to Avon Gorge and get time on rock, get my head back in to what it is possible to stand on, what holds look like etc. This may sound silly, but after a winter of putting my feet on bright coloured footholds and holding the same shape resin handholds, I really need to get back to nature and play on some random, real world walls!

All in all it's not too bad at all, it's just my mentality and priorities have changed but my physiology hasn't. Yet!

Blast from the past - Sofia Boutella

2011-05-22T18:36:00.001-07:00

So wasting time on Facebook late into the hours it came up to say that my afore mentioned friend had Liked 'Sofia Boutella'.

I'm not sure how many people will remember her, but when Nike launched their Nike Woman campaign about five years ago, there were a series of short viral videos of various very cool women doing their thing, one of the best was this pretty unknown hiphop dancer, Sofi Boutella. The clips were all 'very Nike', super polished production, not a light out of place, but still with an edgy dare I say it 'urban' feel. I was really impressed at the time, but then totally forgot about the girl until fast forward a couple of years on she was featured in a Nike catalogue looking as per usual very cool!

Well recommend digging up video of her performing.

Also whilst nosing about to see what she'd been up to since, I came across this video of her and a few other female athletes featuring one of my favourite songs, ever The Fire by The Roots from last year. Still looking very cool, it's amazing what you can still do at 28 ;)

"I don't believe in shortcuts because you don't earn anything. You have to earn it."

Yes, I'm afraid it's me topless.

2011-05-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

But ... I think it's excusable, when playing with my new lights!

All really fun playing with different lighting angles, some in front, some behind etc. Thing is I couldn't expect anyone else to suffer with me playing about relentlessly, moving lights, looking at results, moving again, looking again ...

Iran. Solid, aggressive.

2011-05-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

So last night I asked a friend of mine about a photo of her climbing, wondering where it was. It turned out to be back home for her, Tehran, Iran. It looked amazing!

It got me thinking about how little I know about Iran, hell it wasn't until a few weeks ago I realised quite how mountainous a country it was, Tehran itself surrounded by huge, snowy mountains - commenting on this to Shima her reply was fantastic:

"The landscape is very much solid if you know what i mean?"

Having to admit I wasn't entirely sure what she meant, she followed up by saying:

"Aggressive it is all ROCKS."

Not only did her follow up amuse me, it also made me think - this summed up everything preconception I had about Iran as a whole, not just it's geography.

Iran, a country that was very much 'solid and aggressive'. The thing is I just don't know anything about the place to think that other than the media driven, ultra Islamic, nuclear weapon developing country led by crazed dictator Ahmadinejad who's determined to destroy Israel and move on to destroying the world. And after a few cursory reads of this amazing blog, I am quite rapidly considering how interesting a place it would be to go and spend some time there. Get some climbing in and see an amazing, unusual culture whilst I'm at it. It's only a flash in the pan idea, but one I might have to pursue further ...

In the meantime, nabbed from the afore mentioned blog, here's an amazing photo of Tehran.

New toys, new learning!

2011-05-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I was lucky enough to have a pair of studio flashes dropped off by a friend of the family who no longer used them. A pair of Photax White Interfit flashes, a 3200K and 5500K for what that's worth - one big, one small!

So I'd always put off studio lighting techniques and the like for the simple fact that I didn't have a studio and was always out and about when taking photos, a lone 430ex Flashgun fired off camera is the limit of my lighting setup, that said the few times I have had to take portraits for people, particularly indoors the low level of light has always been a nuisance and ISOs have been high and exposures pushed to get a bright clean image. No more is this to be a problem!

Despite this new found plethora of light, as you can see above I still resorted to my usual style of heavy shadowy, low-key photography! But things will soon change, well as soon as I can find someone willing to sit about whilst I fiddle with lights, camera settings etc. I think it's going to take a while for me to understand them!

Testament to my naivety, when I first got them I couldn't even work out how to trigger them - one had a socket marked as 'additional trigger', a test button and a on off switch for the flash and modelling light respectively, the other didn't even have that - nothing but a mains plug! Sitting about with them both plugged in, I played about with the test button on the larger flash blasting light left, right and centre all of a sudden I noticed something a bit peculiar - the smaller flash was flashing too ... It finally made sense, they're optically triggered - all you need to do is flash! Rummaging in my kit drawers I dug up my flashgun and set up the two studio lights either side and tapped the test button on my little flash - Pop-Pop - both flashes instantly fired lighting up the room. Amazing!!!

Now the biggest problem I have is that I live in a tiny place and can't move the lights very far away (remembering my inverse square law etc) from any subject (at the moment, me!) so even at the lowest ISO, I'm still shooting at f/16! Madness, I've never had this much light to play with! It's great.

Next step is to start taking some high-key photos of myself, then finally I might even just take some accurate, well exposed images but for the moment the extreme ends of the exposure spectrum are more fun. I also need other people to snap, I'm very much bored of my ugly mug!

So if you love wildlife ...

2011-05-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

And particularly if you enjoy Wildlife Photography, this is the greatest video you'll ever watch.

Zoo!!!

2011-05-16T14:45:00.001-07:00

So most people know I love the zoo, I still haven't bought a season pass, I really should.

Wow ...

2011-05-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Now that's what you call a fracture.

"Sometimes you just have buck up and huck it."

It's not cool

2011-05-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

So it's not amazingly cool, but I think it's great!

My poor Macbook ...

2011-05-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

So I love my Macbook.

I decided late 2006 that I would bite the bullet , spend the cash and get a decent Apple laptop. At the time I'd broken my last computer and was making do with a little mini motherboard thing which I don't think even had a case! So after applying for a Student Credit Card one week, I maxed it out the next week on a shiny new top of the range white Macbook (ok so the black one was the absolute top of the range but for the £200 premium of a black case and an extra 20Gb hard-drive I was happy, the Processor, Ram etc all the same!).

Fast forward nearly five years now, it's been battered, abused and fixed with climbing tape to hold the screen in place. Most recently I decided I'd see what OsX Snow Leopard had to offer, my (now tiny) 80Gb harddrive getting quite full and Snow Leopard being Intel only (not having all the PowerPC binaries) was rumoured to take up a lot more space. The results were amazing, not only does it run a lot smoother, it also boots and shuts down in a fraction of the time it used to and the promised reduced footprint was true, almost 10Gb freed up it seems!

Another novelty I've been shown lately is that the icons that run along the bottom of the dock, in folders etc are actually a far higher resolution than you'd expect, commonly displayed at 64x64 pixels they're in fact 512x512 in actual size, as such there are a few special elements tucked away in there that you might not expect, for example the TextEdit icon (below) contains the lyrics to the song used in an Apple advert from 1990:

I highly recommend a nose at the other cool examples over at Cult of Mac, here.

Anyway so with it now running a lot better, I thought it was about time to nurture it with something I've been planning for an age, but never got around to - more RAM. As purchased my model had 1Gb of RAM and to be perfectly honest that's been fine for Photoshop, and everything else day-to-day but more RAM always helps and so I looked into what I could stick into it. Disappointingly, that was only another gigabyte, bringing it up to 2Gb which didn't seem like a substantial improvement, then reading around I found some surprising information - the motherboard chipset actually supports more RAM than advertised, in fact you can stick up to 4Gb of RAM in there (although only 3.3Gb is actually made use of, oddly!). Off to Crucial it was to purchase some SODIMMs!

It's always amazing how much of an impact extra RAM has on the most dilapidated of machines, you get so used to how long stuff takes to do, that even a little increase in performance feels like it's running at lightspeed, this addition was no exception - things were running amazingly quickly, better than I ever hoped! All of a sudden, my 5 year old Macbook was back in the game.

Then, last night I dropped it ...

Oh La Sportiva ...

2011-05-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

I love La Sportiva shoes - Solutions are my ultimate favourite and as much as I like the idea of trying loads of different styles and shapes, I can see me always coming back to them. That said the new La Sportiva Python is a possible alternative, a less aggressive version and perhaps a little tougher and long lasting than Solutions.

They could be amazing. The video promo released for them isn't.

Putting your shoes on whilst a python slithers around you isn't cool, it's weird even if the model of shoe is the 'Python'. Weird, weird, weird ...

However bad that one is though, check the next one - now I'm weird about my shoes, but I don't stroke my feet when I've put them on, check 0:38 ...

Breakdancing Photography

2011-05-06T11:23:00.001-07:00

Just popped back from a look at the fantastic series of photographs by Bristol-based photographer Francesca Milano at Bubalu Fitness Cafe.

Shot in the Bubalu Fitness Studio and the UWE T.V. Studios, they're a cool collection of long exposure images, showing how dynamic and contorted the b-boys and girls can get!

For the moment I can't find much of online presence for Francesca other than this sparse tumblr page - 3sixT but if I come across a better selection of her work I'll post it up here asap.

Get down to Bubalu and have a look asap!

Update: Work for sale via http://www.society6.com/studio/3sixt