Mont Ventoux was the main attraction for this summer’s camping holiday in the South of France. Our aim was the same as most visitors, to cycle up the thing without stepping off the bike. In the end we managed it from both Malaucène and, the steeper climb, from Bedoin. First time up though was a lesson in how not to do it; too fast at the start and completely knackered for most of the ascent only getting to the top on my very, very last legs in 2 hours and 5 minutes. What we did wrong on trip one, we did right on trip two from Bedoin. An easy-going start led up the the relentless climbing section which just goes on and on, but by taking it easy early on I was left with much more in the tank for the upper section and actually manged 2 hours and 23 seconds this time. Next time I want to shave those 23 seconds off!

The place is an amazing magnet for cyclists with hundreds of people attempting the thing every day in the summer. Some are no hopers, some are tiny zippy little blokes who don’t seem to need to draw breath, but most are just normal people who want to test them selves on this famous climb.

Near the top you pass the Tommy Simpson memorial; a shrine which has acheived mythical status amongst many cyclists who decorate it with their discarded drink bottles.

Day 11 - I suppose it couldn’t last and finally the weather broke today although not in true Lofoten style I feel since it still only registered ‘a few showers’. This was enough to send us to the steep sport climbing cave of Eggum.

“Alan somehow keeps up a very good image of not trad climbing, I take it this is completely unfair and that actually he’s a complete knarl-meister?” - TobyA here

Well today I set about proving Toby’ s pre-conceived image correct. Armed with the knowledge I gleaned from Sport Climbing +, Mark and I set about Eggum in true sport climber style - a proper 6a warm-up, then a 6b+ to get the blood flowing, and then a quick working of the 7a+ extension. When the redpoint time came, we dispensed with the Brit-style double 9’s and used one 9 on its own, the quickdraws were all in place and the route properly rehearsed (well sort of). With such efficient redpoint tactics, success was inevitable (helped by the fact that the route was probably only 7a).

Eggum does add another dimension to Lofoten albeit mainly for the climber operating at 7a and above. The routes are on perfect rock, are well bolted and give great steep climbing. Just another feather in the cap of this wonderful climbing destination.

Day 12 - It has certainly got a bit colder now although the rain is still holding off. Spent another day at Gandlaf - the first crag we have visited twice - and picked off another couple of classics: Gamel Rev and Gollum. Apart from the two Czech climbers we kept meeting, this was the first occasion where a crag had been a bit ‘busy’. There were some guides practicing their rescue skills plus at least four other teams active. The Norwegian season is supposed to have started yesterday, which might explain it, although most at the crag had been there for a while.

Day 13 - Our final two routes were sport routes at Urdstabben before the long and rather tortuous journey home. I won’t go into too many details except to say that SAS are good, reliable and efficient, but if you do book from the UK, try and avoid the 3-stage flight in favor of the 2-hop one if you get the choice. Three hours driving, three flights and then a train make for a very long day!

Day 8 - One of the great classic routes of Lofoten is Bare Blåbær (only Bilberries - an expression which means the same as ‘piece of cake’ in English). The route is situated in the outstanding valley of Djupfjord, a place which would be World famous and probably developed with chairlifts, campsites and luxury hotels if it was anywhere in the Alps. Here there is nothing but what nature left us. Everything about this route from the walk-in to the first and last move is a pleasure. There is nothing really hard about it, but the length and sustained nature of the climbing mean it is a long and memorable day out. Once again we were joined (by coincidence) by our Czech friends Janek and Camilla, who we had climbed Vestpillaren with on Friday.

Day 9 - Although we had not declared this officially a rest day, it became an official late start day due to slightly dodgy weather, and lethargy. However we managed to pull one route out of the bag - the classic Solens Sonner, a long 4 pitch slab route with cracks and friction climbing. As expected it was another great route although Mark admitted that he has nightmares about holdless slabs, and there are plenty on this. It also throws in a 30m crack that only takes one decent runner at the bottom and then little else.

Day 10 - Today’s chosen route was Puff Crack around by Kalle camping. The crack itself was superb but the upper pitches hadn’t been climbed this year (we don’t think) and gave slightly terrifying slab padding on gritty, lichen-covered rock above a tape runner. Be warned that the Top 50 tag probably only applies when the route is clean which may not be very often, although you can abseil after the crack pitch.

The rest of the day consisted of exploring the Paradise area which is a fascinating jumble of blocks, walls and sea inlets. There is a huge potential for new routes here. The photo shows the idyllic free camping spot at Paradise, complete with bathing Norwegian girls. This lovely location apparently gets a bit crowded and smelly during the busy part of the season which is a great shame.

Day 5 - After yesterday’s excesses, it was hard to get going again today. The weather gave us no let up though and the sun continued to shine brightly. A brief visit to the sport crag of Finnvika was the only climbing activity - good climbs in a beautiful location but not really what you come to Lofoten for.

Day 6 - Lofoten is good at cracks - long ones with great gear in wonderful locations. Store Festvag has them by the bucketload and we managed three, all of them great. The photo shows Skiloperen, but the best and most surprising was Cuckoo Crack which looks E5 from below but gives a magnificent pitch at about HVS (it should be called Cuckoo Flake really since that is what it is).

Back at base the rest of the team had left leaving just Mark and myself. We settled into an evening routine of beer on our terrace overlooking Vagakallen, a plate of grub and (expensive can of beer*), then settle down in the camping reception to watch the football and get a decent internet connection.

*Price of beer - first day we arrived, walking around the supermarket we spotted the beer, 25 NOK a six pack (we thought). Got outside, did the maths and realised that it was 25 NOK per can (= £15 a six pack!) Finances weren’t helped by then leaving a six pack in the fridge of the first camping we stopped at.

Day 7 - Thorbjørn didn’t want a photo of the Goat on the cover on the guide, despite the fact we had rather a good new one (see Goat chapter). I can see why - the Goat is Svolvær and associated with old-skool Lofoten, the new wave are centered on Henningsvæ, Presten and Gandalf. We still wanted to climb the thing since it is an essential route when in Lofoten. It didn’t disappoint. Mucking around the horns in particularly exciting and unique. We didn’t do the jump but even so the situation is just superb.

There are many things which make a route special - line, position, continuity, exposure, rock quality, history, location and climbing quality. It is rare that all of these come together in one route to such great effect as they do with Vestpillaren. The route has a perfect line up the most striking rock feature in the area, the rock is of immaculate quality, the pitches are all around the same difficulty, the position and outlook are majestic and the climbing absorbing throughout. The upper section has a few pitches that take the only lines of cracks and grooves up an otherwise blank sea of rock - all natural and little fixed gear.

We were also blessed with perfect weather for our ascent and, like the side-bar advert I set up over a month ago, I have now experienced a story I’ll be telling my grandchildren. I won’t go on about it since the ascent was pretty straightforward, just make sure that if you have any ambitions for big rock routes in Europe, you put this one on the list.

Here are some more pictures (click for bigger versions):

Five days in and we still haven’t seen any rain, and the forecast is still good for the next few. Lofoten is certainly an amazing place in these conditions.

Day 1 - Long drive up through so much impressive rock scenery that we banned the comment “I wonder if there is anything up that?” We stopped at one of the many superb little campsites that Norway specialises in with a camping cabin. First evening was spent witnessing my first ever midnight sun - an amazing and disorienting experience.

Day 2 - A quick ferry onto the Island (although you can get there by road now but it is a long drive) and we met up with Chris, Sherri and Colin. Afternoon was spent at the accessible and sheltered Gandalfveggen. There was a wicked cooling wind blowing that must have chilled the teams we saw up on Vestpillaren. Two great routes done - Gandalf and Tromso Express.

Day 3 - Cloudy but no wind. More classic ticks on the accessible Pianokrakken. Light and Shade and Apple Cake Arete. The big news though was that the guidebooks stock has arrived in Henningsvaer so the launch party on Friday is on! The photo shows the guidebook selection available at Thorbjorn’s shop currently (well he has some others on another shelf).

I had promised Sam a ‘lads trip’ to Wales - his sister had gone with Henriette to Berlin last year and, although the trade may not seem a fair one, Sam seemed happy enough with it. So it was with increasing frustration as we woke up every day during half term to be faced with rain, drizzle and dodgy forecast. Then suddenly, and rather surprisingly, a good weather window appeared at just the right moment. Bags were packed and the lads set off on Friday afternoon heading for Ogwen and one of the beautiful campsites below Tryfan.

The intention of choosing one of these campsites was that they are too far from pubs to attract the drunken middle of the night chatter problem keeping everyone awake until all hours. Of course that doesn’t stop people bringing their own ‘pubs’ with them to the site, which is exactly what happened. It is amazing how ignorant and unsociable some people are. At the end of the weekend I ended up wondering why on earth these people had bothered coming all the way to Wales for their ‘campin’ weekend since they never actually left the campsite after arriving despite the beautiful weather and clear tops.

Anyway we weren’t going to let it spoil our time. Acting on a hot tip from Jack Geldard, Sam and I headed off to Carnedd y Filiast aiming for Left Edge. Jack’s 40 minute walk-in turned out to be 60 minutes steep grind up hill for 11 year old legs - a fact which will probably guarantee this buttress remains a beautiful and quiet place - but the route looked good when we got there. A brief explanation to Sam of how multi-pitching works and I was off. Now one of those lessons that you tend to only learn as an after thought is that people on their first multi-pitch climb quite like decent-sized stances to break up the route - it gives them a chance to get things together in their minds and also offers a break from the exposure. Unfortunately Left Edge stance can only be described as small, smaller and smallest (well a foothold actually). Luckily though the climbing is dead straightforward and the position is superb. Four pitches later we were at the top and ready to make our way back down. Sam had enjoyed the climbing but didn’t much like the lonely waits on the tiny stances as I disappeared up the slab above.

The rest of the weekend went well. We joined the crowds for an evening session on Little Tryfan - perhaps a better place to learn a bit of multi-pitching! Next day an early start ensured us peace and quiet on Milestone Buttress Direct and a very different sort of VDiff to the previous day. In terms of technical climbing I’d say there was at least three grades between MB and Left Edge - the former surely being worth HVD or even Severe, the latter having no move which would get more than Mod on a Peak edge. However, I think VDiff for Left Edge is ok - the gear is a little thin and the situation remote with some of the trappings of a more serious mountain crag.

All in all a fine weekend.

I forget how pleasant and relaxing holidays where you don’t do much can be. When I was in my 20s the thought of going on a holiday away from rock used to fill me with horror - any time when traveling had to be dedicated exclusively to finding something to climb. I doubt if I left home on a trip anywhere without at least my boots and chalk bag in my luggage, even if it was a packed social weekend miles away from any climbing. They were a kind of security blanket.

Of course the pace of life was different - I didn’t work half as hard as I do now, and had no where near as many demands on my time. Nowadays a nice relaxing holiday away from climbing and, more importantly, the Internet, is essential.

Over Easter for the past few years we have spent a week in a series of Dutch holiday farmhouses - no danger of encountering anything to climb there, or any Internet for that matter. This year it seemed even more welcome after a hectic early year which has involved one book published and another taken to the brink of publishing. A short school term and the day-to-day complexities of UKClimbing have added to the workload.

So it was nice to pull up at a (rather large - see photo, and there were two other buildings) farm in rural Achterhoek in the Netherlands near a place called Borculo. In England this farmhouse would have been developed into 5 separate holiday cottages all charging a fortune. This particular organisation don’t seem too bothered about maximizing income from their asset and very grateful we were too.

On previous years these houses have been comparable pricewise to shabby UK holiday cottages with tiny rooms, carpets in the toilets and fridges that haven’t been properly cleaned for the last 5 years. This year the strength of the Euro has made it a little more expensive - Staatsbosbheer if you want the link, but you will need to be able to read Dutch. Not all Dutch holiday cottages are huge farmhouses - many are in purpose built holiday parks - but they are all relatively cheaper than the UK (Euro permitting) and you won’t ever find carpet in the toilet or a mucky fridge - or climbing!

The week passed without too much incident. One trip to the Dolphinarium at Hardewijk and several great bike rides. It was great to do very little actually.

On Monday it was back to the Internet and 453 emails and after a week I already feel like I need another holiday.

.. and everyone was there! Climbers on boulders and routes, walkers by the hundred and loads of paragliders - I even saw two teams busy on Count’s Buttress! It makes you realise why some issue on Stanage crops up at most BMC Peak Area meetings and why the place needs its own Access Forum.

We were just out for a family walk - a loop starting near the High Neb parking, dropping down in the general direction of North Lees farm but cutting back up towards the Plantation and onto the top of the Edge. From there the loop is easily closed down the Causeway and across by the Buckstone back to the car. Earlier in the day we had seen loads of people walking around in shorts and t-shirts but this means very little for Brits who will go out wearing next to nothing in any weather, especially on Friday nights! So we ignored the signs and the kid’s (Dutch) mother pre-prepared them in all sorts of coats, hats, gloves and scarves which of course all ended up hanging from my backpack by the time we got to the Plantation boulders. I felt like a right packhorse (as usual).

But it was worth it since the views were stunning.

Typos - don’t ya’ just hate ‘em!

The little tinkers lurk menacingly around a text as you construct it trying to jump in when you are not looking. Lazy or slow ones may get spotted, but most sneak through, especially if you drop your guard, which tends to happen in long projects as you are overcome by fatigue, boredom or complacency. Even easier sport is the text with multiple editors which offers many opportunities for the creative and ambitious typo to bury itself while author and editor transfer the half-cooked text between them.

Once in the text the shrewd typo will slip on its invisibility cloak and be gone. Only a really good wizard can find them then and only by painstaking application of effort which is also subject to the triple whammy of fatigue, boredom and complacency - there are no easy spells for this. For some reason invisibility cloaks work even better on the wizard who wrote the text in the first place. The really clever typo casts a reverse spell over the author so that it actually implants the correct text in their mind so that every time the author reads the grammatical nonsense they have created, it actually makes sense to them.

And that is how the game goes, through all stages of proofing. There’s the initial text - loads of typos in that; next there is the first pass by the editor - some sloppy typos out but many slip through and a few new ones added for good measure. Then there is the proofer stage where the success depends entirely on the ability of the wizard doing the proofing. A good wizard will find loads, including some that aren’t even typos; a bad wizard will find a maximum of five typos in any text and these will all be in the first three pages. Assuming that you have gone with the good wizard then all you will be left with are the really stubborn little critters.

This is all in the proofing stage of course. As soon as the press starts rolling you can almost see those invisibility cloaks being cast aside. No need for any wizardry skills to spot typos now, any half-wit can see them, dancing around screaming at each and every person who opens the book. It’s job done for the typo and as they attain immortality on the printed page!

Typos cropped up with regard to the new Yorkshire Grit Bouldering book. I haven’t seen it yet but, based on experience, I strongly suspect that the finished book isn’t nearly as bad as some have declared. I have heard the same leveled at our books in the past - “the text is riddled with mistakes” - only to find after inquiry that ‘riddled’ actually means a handful of mistakes spread thinly over a few chapters.

There are also plenty of commentators who suggest “how easy it is to get a couple of mates to proof text”. We produced a book to one area where we identified five influential and knowledgeable locals. They were all friendly and co-operative towards the project and were keen to help proof the guide. I packaged up five print-outs of the full guide text (no small job), sent them off with plenty of time, with an SAE and all five arrived back within a week or so. The grand total for a 250+ page guide was 25 corrections out of the five print-outs, and 50% of these were date corrections of the proofers’ own first ascents. Now at least this was 25 corrections but a good wizard will find 25 corrections on one double page spread, so these 25 hard-earned corrections just become more effort than they are worth.

Over the years I have learnt that good proofing needs reliable and competent proofers, mostly likely ones who are being financially rewarded. Graham ‘hyphen’ Hoey and others like Carl ‘comma’ Dawson, Mike James and Dave Gregory have done a great job for Rockfax, especially in recent years now that we give them more time, however typos still slip through. I suspect that they always will since guidebooks in the UK just don’t have a big enough budget to fund 100% reliable proofing. Keep in mind the fact that proofing is independent of print run - a 350 page book, 2000 copy print run ‘technical’ book (tiny by publishing industry standards) requires significantly more proofing than a 600 page Harry Potter and I think Bloomsbury can probably afford perfect proofing without harming their book budget!

If you do find a typo in a guidebook which annoys you then have a bit of patience, accept the fact that you have a great-looking book which by most reasonable business standards is far closer to a ‘labour of love’ rather than an ‘agent of profitability’. You will certainly make the publisher and author happier by noting it down and pointing it out to them rather then making sweeping generalisations about errors you claim to have found on public forums.