Back in Sheffield now! Travelled up through France to Font, where I had a couple of wonderful days - a bit warm for the slopers but so what? Audrey called in for a few days on her way to a bouldering world cup on Reunion Island, and the weather held out for enough time to get properly tired, then a bad forecast encouraged me to hit the road back to the UK. It had been four months since I’d had to deal with the horrendous traffic, and omnipresent fear of speed cameras, and it wasn’t much fun.

Back in Sheffield, I have a new place to live and a long list of things to do. I did my first Peak coaching session of the year on Saturday, and remember why I enjoy it so much - we had a real fairytale ending to the day. On Sunday (yesterday) I went up to the best bouldering area in the Peak District, and as usual, there was nobody there! I was joined by Audrey Seguy, then later Jamie Veitch. It was great to be cleaning off problems and running around the place looking for more gems - climbing there feels like finding an area of Fontainebleau that’s never been climbed on, even though I’m sure most of the problems have been done, it often doesn’t feel like that!

< Left Audrey Seguy on an unnamed, ungraded problem on Peak Gritstone, looks good, doesn’t it. When you’ve held the jump to the sloper - you’ve got to mantle it!

So, the plan is to spend my time coaching, and working on the two books that are currently in production - in particular Winter Climbing+ which I’m producing for Rockfax with Neil Gresham and Ian Parnell - I picked up a huge batch of photos from Ian last week, so lots of work going on with that one. Winter+ will be out for this winter.

I can’t believe I’ve been getting around to updating this blog for two months! In my defence, I have been pretty busy with things. I spent all of February and three weeks of March staying at Ollie Ryall’s gite near Buis-les-Barronies. I was joined by Chris Singer and the mission was to check out all the local climbing areas, and start work on a selective guidebook. Much of the time was spent checking out routes, taking crags photos, snapping the odd action shot when the opportunity arose, and then getting back and immediately getting to work drawing photo-topos, maps, and writing the text. It’s surprisingly tiring work making a guidebook! The biggest surprise has been the reaction of French climbers who sussed what I was doing – I had feared that I’d get some flak, but au contrare, everyone I spoke to could hardly wait. At the moment the area is covered by an assortment of hard-to-find local topos, and if you want to check out a lot of areas, it works out surprisingly expensive! The one guide that does try to cover the area, Avignon Soleil is, well… no comment.

So, day’s lead to weeks, and weeks to months. I’m now based in Pierrelongue, just down the road from Buis, about ten minute’s from St. Leger (amazing place). The book is coming along niceley, but in the last week I’ve realised how much work I need to do to do justice to the Dentelles – a big areas about thirty minutes to the west. Also, I’ve agreed to expand the book to cover a number of very well-known areas further east. I will be back in the UK in May for my annual season of coaching in the Peak District, then back out here for more climbing and photography.
Highlights of the trip, from a climbing perspective are hard to sum up. There have been so many superb routes, the quality of climbing here is so high, you could take all the best sport climbing in the UK and it wouldn’t fill half of St. Leger, and hardly anyone’s even heard of St. Leger! In many ways, my climbing has taken a bit of back seat in order to check out the routes, most of which range from F5 to F7a, but I did have one very good day at St.Leger with the Hamer boys Sam and Ed, where they gave me all the beta on an 8a (actually 8a+ in the topo) and I got a flash shortly before Ed redpointed it – his first 8a! My most intense moment was pulling off an onsight of a route at Combe Obscure – Jingo Wobbly actually described the route with a point of aid – so in the name of research I tried to free it – thr crux was the hardest micro-edge pull I’ve ever done, every joint in my hard cracked mid-move and I let out the loudest power-scream ever! But I got it – just! Afterwards I found a topo online where the route was given F7c+ - pretty tough for a one move slab route, and not exactly my forté. The best week was the week the sun shone, and Chris was joined by two friends from Vancouver (Erin and Carrie) and I was joined by Audrey Seguy who I’d been ice climbing with in Chamonix earlier this year. Audrey was climbing well, as usual, and though she wasn’t focussed on grade goals, flashed two 7b+s at Malaucene, I had such a good day at Malaucene that day that I changed my mind and decided to put it in the guide after all! The photo I took of Audrey on one of the 7b+s might have had something to do with it!

Just another few days in Pierrelongue before Chris and I hit the road again. We’re heading to Font, but may well take in a few more places on the way. Then it will be back to the UK. My coaching diary for May is filling nicely, so with a bit of money, it won’t be long before I’m back down here!

www.positiveclimbing.com 

My desire to try snowboarding started twenty-five years ago when I watched James Bond do it in the opening sequence of Octopussy. So impressed was I by this new sport, that winter I acquired a conveniently shaped a sheet of Perspex, and decided to make it into a snowboard of my very own. I curved the front over the gas stove, and screwed two pieces of timber to the deck so I could brace my feet to something. When the snow hit (it used to snow back then) my family and I headed up to Brecon one winter’s day and I quickly learnt why they use bindings.
Twenty-five years later, staying in Gryon, Switzerland, I had the chance to try it again. Thanks to George Gallop, I headed up to the slopes with a real proper snowboard and a moderate splashing of body armour, though not quite enough if you ask me.

I had been told that my first day would be hard work, and that was right enough. I spent five minutes just trying to stand up. The remainder of the session was a blur involving adopting the posture of John Wayne after several days in the saddle and at the same time imagining I was hovering over the world’s worst dunnie (my lesson was in Australian). Amazingly, after an hour I could actually get to the bottom of the run the right way up. I was quite happy with this, until I was told that I needed to learn to turn so that I faced THE OTHER WAY. This was rather like learning to ride a bike without stabilisers only to be told that you now need to do it sitting on your handlebars facing backwards before you can call yourself a cyclist – I would have told them right where to stick their cycling proficiency test.
Turning is, it turns out, the hard part. I now had a head full of quite important things to think about, and a couple of very important things that there wasn’t quite room for. The general idea was to point the board straight down and then whilst doing my cool cowboy taking a crap impression, to slip in a bit of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever by putting one hand on my hip and pointing with my other in the direction I wanted to go. At this point I realised why John Wayne and John Travolta where never destined to share a scene.

Ice climbing
After three weeks in Switzerland it was time to move on from snowboarding to try something far less dangerous; it was time to go ice climbing. Now, according to my new hostess, Louise Alexander, I had once announced that I would never go ice climbing, well, I was wrong. I had met Louise a number of times over the years: she was a client on a women-only coaching week that I found myself ‘supervising’ along with Gaz Parry – I can’t recall Gaz’s excuse. Anyway, the next time was as students attending the Extreme Film School, Louise and I made a short film about Tony Lamiche, a year or so later, we ended up making another film following Gaz Parry and Steve McClure climbing Hotel Supramonte, and that was the last time I’d seen Louise. I was quickly joined at Louise’s Chamonix pad by the Castle Climbing Centre’s head warden, Audrey Seguy (Audrey was actually the coach for the women’s week where I met Louise – it’s a small world). Anyway, it was a good job that Audrey came out as Louise had hurt her back in an accident on the ice – the ice between her apartment and her car that is. On the first day we headed to the Creamerie, in Argentiere. We picked a two-pitch route, and Audrey headed off up the first pitch, and, deciding there was only one way to learn to lead ice, I lead through and ticked my first lead.
The following day we headed off to Italy and got on a three-pitch route that weighed-in at 4+. Up to this point I’d found ice climbing nothing short of pure fun. A sport involving lots of sharpened spikes and bashing things really spoke to me. The fun ended when half-way up pitch one, a huge chunk of ice fell exactly where I had been minutes before. I decided I had enough ice screws and climbed at double-speed to the belay. Audrey led the crux pitch with her usual combination of finesse and determination, which I attempted to emulate, only I went slightly the wrong way, making life very hard for myself and realising that no-one had ever taught me how to go sideways. It was a great day, but one that reminded me of the objective dangers you don’t see too much on a crag. Our final day was spent dry-tooling. I’d never tried dry-tooling, and always thought it sounded a bit daft, pointless and easy. I was wrong about it being easy.

Back to the rock
And so it came to the time to hit the road again, this time to more a more familiar environment. I’m currently living near Buis-les-Barronies, getting back on rock after a two month break, and working on various book projects.
www.gryon.com
www.mountaingirl.eu
www.climbfrance.com
www.positiveclimbing.com

After my last post I had a couple more days in Spain before returning to Sheffield. By far the best thing to happen was climbing Espolon Centrale on the Puig, though only 4+, it’s a mega route, and a proper day out. Climbing with Helen Dudley, we managed to simul-climb a fair bit allowing us to do the whole route in only four pitches, which meant climbing for hundreds of metres without stopping - brilliant fun, and a great antedote to hanging around steep shady crags!

Back in the UK I spent Christmas with my family in South Wales, the first time in two years I’ve done that. Wanting to take a good break from climbing, I had just the one day at Dynamic Rock with my cousin’s daughters Martha and Sophie, who I hadn’t taken climbing for far too long. Both had a good day, with Sophie doing her first lead. Sophie has decided she wants to be professional climber now that she has her photo in ‘Trad Climbing+’. I was also really pleased to meet up with John Bullock, my very own climbing mentor. When I first met John Bullock back in the late 1980s, I was 16 and keen, and he had his photo on the cover of the Gower & South East Wales guidebook, needless to say I followed every word of advice he gave! John recently retired and is now more active than ever.

In the new year I packed my car and headed off to Switzerland where I am currently staying at Chalet Martin, in Gryon. I was very keen to try out my new satnav for this trip, and was quite impressed by the the efficient way it took me to my destination. Unfortunately I typed in Gruyere by mistake, and I can vouch it is a nice place, though not one I would otherwise have visited. It’s a good job Switzerland isn’t a terribly big country.

This very pleasant and remarkably inexpensive hostel is run by Matt Tomlin, who I had met each October in Kalymnos. So far I’ve had a go at skiing (up-hill as well as down – actually, I find it easier to go up), and had my first go at ice climbing. Ice climbing felt oddly familiar considering I’d never done it before, though I have to confess that this is probably because I’ve spent so much time last year laying out Neil Gresham’s words and Ian Parnell’s photos for Winter Climbing+. The day didn’t get off to the best start as the area we headed to had a large group in place, fortunately we’d driven past an icefall not far from the road, so went back to that. Soon we were plodding up a snow slope, we consisted of Matt, who has done a fair bit of ice climbing, and the other three of us, who hadn’t. Matt lead on up a snow-filled gulley, and we duly followed. As it steepened, we found ourselves kicking steps into the snow, and then it steepened further and turned into ice. I forget to say that everyone was wearing mountaineering boots, apart from me, I was wearing approach shoes, but they fared quite well. Eventually it got to the point where ice tools had to be lowered, and I got my first taste of ice climbing: un-roped and in approach shoes. When we’d all reached the safety of easy-angled ground, Matt lead the route, and set up a top-rope, and we all had a play. Fortunately, twenty years of climbing has made hanging onto ice tools a pump-free zone, but I did get a taste of the dreaded hot-aches! After we’d all done there, we returned to the road, and checked out a free-hanging column of ice that was formed by the concrete structure that protected the road from rock and ice fall. It was only about five metres long, but a lot of fun, the only thing to belay from were ice-screws, so were all got a taste of trusting them too.

I’ve not lead anything on ice yet, but later this month I’ve been promised some lessons by Louise Alexander out in Chamonix. I first met Louise on a women-only coaching holiday that I had organised in Sardinia, then bumped into her again at the Extreme Film school. The last time I saw Louise was in Sardinia where she helped me film Steve McClure and Gaz Parry climb Hotel Surpramonte. Louise now runs ‘MountainGirl’, a company providing women-only guiding and workshops from Chamonix. I’ve always been a bit of a girl when it comes to the cold, so I guess I’ll be in the right place.

I am currently sat in the salubrious splendour of the Orange House down in the Costa Blanca, I have to confess that I’m feeling the strain of three weeks’ climbing. Having a book at the printers always seems like a good time to run away, and so I was pleased to join Lucy Creamer and Tim Glasby on a short trip to the new bouldering must-visit destination of Albarracin in northern Spain. Meeting us out there would be Helen Dudley and her partner Jason. Helen forewarned us that there was a chance of snow, so I packed by biggest down jacket I own, and was glad I did as it was pretty cold! The climbing was great but you couldn’t really stand still for very long or you froze. Tim was shooting for the forthcoming Marmot catalogue, as well as a magazine article, so I’m sure the photos will appear at some point somewhere.

After just two days, I was feeling pretty wrecked by the climbing, and took a rest while everyone else went out and had a really good day, I was hoping to be on form for the last day, but I just seemed to go into ‘rest mode’ and found myself unable to really get going – I think I would have been better just climbing each day. We live and learn.

After Albarracin, Tim and Lucy returned to the UK (Lucy is the new competitions officer at the BMC), but the rest of us drove down south to Calpe where warmer weather was waiting, and expedition down jackets just looks a bit silly. That was two weeks ago, and so far the highlights look a bit like this:

L’Ocaive: sector Cuevas: had a go at flashing the ingloriously named, but highly rated ‘Route 9’ (8a). I’d watch Steve Mac fall off this one a couple of years ago, so shied away from trying it onsight – just as well, it was far pumpier than it looked and I got as far as the wet tufa. I was probably too pumped to carry on even if it was dry, but it was a pretty good excuse…

Gandia: Had a go at onsighting Negue Gorrak (8a) but couldn’t do the crux, which felt more like Font 8a! Oh well, I settled for ticking Patatas a lo Pobre (7b+) and Botoia Sakatu (7c), both of which I’d been spat off on previous visits, which was quite satisfying.

Gandia – El Bovedon: I tried Arcadia (7c) but just wasn’t up for it (way too steep!), which felt a bit disappointing, then got to the last move on the flash of ‘Route 10’ (8a), which made me feel a lot better, even if it was only about 7c+ to that point – maybe even 7c!

Altea Col: Had a good day here, though the crag isn’t quite as good as it looks in my opinion. I got a (technical) flash of El Paso Blanca (7c+) which was good, I say technical as I had watched Helen work it, but I did do it a completely different way, so would have been no harder onsight. I onsighted Pure Obsession (7c) which was a bit sharp for my liking, and some chalk would have helped a lot. I didn’t fancy trying the 8a to the right after that.

Bernia: I finally got back on The Magic Flute (7b/7b+) after getting beaten up by it several years ago, even on the redpoint, it felt tough, and I’d give it 7b+, just. The route to the left, Tufa Groove (7b+/7c) was just as good, and I managed to hang in for the onsight. It felt pretty tough for 7b+, and only today did I hear that many consider it 7c (I’d agree) and some consider it 7c+.

So, nothing too amazing so far. The best route I’ve done is probably Esto Escampa (7a+), a four pitch outing up Pared de Rosalia at Sella, though the last pitch was shorter than some of the boulder problems at Albarracin!

Coming to the end of the trip now, I’ve got some coaching work to do before Christmas, then it’s off to France!

I’m back from what has become an annual pilgrimage to Kalymnos, and have to report having had a very good time. I managed to finish off a 7c project I bolted last year (Dream Line Extension), bolted and climbed a new variant to Anaphylactic Shock (Lactic Shock, 8a) and even managed to drag my sorry ‘desk-evolved’ state up Helios (8a) onsight – much to my great surprise – I was even more surprised to find it had originally been given 8a/8a+, so fingers crossed it won’t be down-graded. Actually, I know it won’t be down-graded because not long after I did it, my partner for the trip, Helen Dudley, pulled off a pretty big hold out of the crux sequence making it rather a lot harder. Shame too as she was about to redpoint it as her first 8a. But all was not lost as she soon ticked my Anaphylactic Shock –but promptly downgraded it, quickly removing another 8a from the island.

I had the usual epic getter back: the wind cancelled the ferries leaving us stuck in Pothia. Fearing missing flights we attempted to track down the local ‘private’ ferryman. A stark lesson in both the international language of Hollywood and the nature of this individual was soon learnt. When the coast guard was asked where we could find the captain of the Anna Maria, one of the Coast Guard staff gave a lengthy reply in Greek, the only discernable words being ‘Jack Sparrow’ somewhere in the middle of the sentence. Fortunately, the Greek Gods were on our side and the ferries did run in time to get to the airport, where I bought the last ticket on the flight to Athens only to stopped by security who were very interested in my pair of (rather heavy) Hilti batteries hidden at the bottom of my hand-luggage. I started a mime that was intended to explain ‘hammer drill’ but stopped when it became abundantly clear that, to the uninitiated, the method of holding an enthusiastic hammer-drill was not dissimilar to that of holding a WW2 sub-machinegun.

Trad Climbing+ is now in its final proofing stage, and is booked to go to the printers in the next couple of weeks, so now all attention is to be turned to the ‘Winter book’ and if the weather is kind, some good coaching days out in the Peak.

Click to Download the Ivory Tower Topo

Finally, Trad Climbing+ is out of my hands and has begun its final journey that will see it in print before the end of the year. It’s been a year since I started this book, and I’ve been around the world getting photos and ideas from New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and Canada. As always, when you embark on a project to write down what you know, you realise how much you don’t know. Fortunately, John Arran was there to co-write this book, and I got a huge amount of incredibly interesting information from research conducted my manufacturers, and folk like Dan Middleton at the BMC.

I’m happy that Trad+ is as good as it could have been, and that we didn’t compromise anything. Once again Ray Eckermann did a brilliant job with the illustrations, and we got photographic contributions from far and wide, including Alex Messenger, Nick Smith, and Simon Carter. We were also very fortunate to have help from climbers willing to dress in bright clothes and get on the routes that have the best light, rather than, perhaps, the best holds. Alex Hughes, Alex Mason, Alex Barrows (are you noticing a theme yet), Steve Ramsden, and plenty more all deserve a hearty pat on the back. Similar thanks should go to DMM, Wild Country, and Black Diamond for their help in supplying the latest kit.

I’m now about to leave for my annual pilgrimage to Kalymnos. I was going to try to go somewhere else this year, but it was not to be. So I’m currently working out how to get all my gear through an airline with a 15kg luggage limit – I mean, my Hilti batteries alone weigh about half of that, so it’s going to be another interesting journey. This time tomorrow I will be either handing off a tufa or swimming in the sea. Then back for some more coaching on the grit to pay the bills – well, you don’t think we earn any money from writing books do you?