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.

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.

Last year I started a thread on UKClimbing challenging people to go through the whole of 2007 without accepting a single plastic bag from a retailer - the thread is here.

“The idea is that you manage to last the whole of 2007 without accepting any plastic bag from any retailer. To do this you need to either carry what you bought, or use bags you already own. If you do get caught out then any bag you accept must be re-used at least five times for it not to count towards your total.”

If we are going to be perfectly honest about this then I have to admit that the James-Louwerse household failed in the strict definition of this challenge. I accepted a couple of bags when stuck at a checkout at a DIY store with lots of little fiddly items and a long way to the car, and Henriette was never really fully with the challenge. The fact that we moved house during the year didn’t help much and then getting two kittens meant that we suddenly needed loads of plastic bags to deal with the cat litter during the first few months while they had to be kept inside. However, the real result of changing our behaviour has been thoroughly successful and we now have a big stock of solid permanent bags (and a wheelbarrow) and we remember and use them, as well as re-using to destruction any old plastic bags.

I think one of the most encouraging things is that I have also noticed a slow change in other people’s behaviour. Shop keepers no longer assume that you want a bag and tend to ask now, many more people appear to be shopping with their own bags and there is also a lot more in the media about zero plastic bags, including the zero plastic bag village - Modbury in Devon. Decathlon now charge for plastic bags and I think it won’t be long before more shops start doing this. It seems to be one of these curious situations where the public opinion is way ahead of the retailers who are all terrified of charging for plastic bags as seen in this article.

So what is the challenge for 2008?

Well obviously to continue the plastic bag challenge, but this year’s main target for us is the stand-by devices and making sure they are turned off when not in use. This is so far proving much harder than I anticipated. So many devices appear to use a bit of leccy just to keep then ticking over like the DAB radios we have which all lose all their stations when turned off at the socket. I have an intelliplug which means you can power-down a whole series of sockets when your computer goes to sleep, however this also takes down the wireless network which I have now had to put onto a different socket. It also means every time I wake up the machine, the printers chug into action making a huge racket and probably using about 10 hours worth of stand-by power. Once again, they have gone onto another socket which only leaves some speakers and a couple of hard drives connected to the intelliplug.

The other issue which should probably be much higher on most people’s agendas is low-energy light bulbs. I am still amazed that the stock of old-style light bulbs is so big in most supermarkets and I had a real struggle finding a shop that supplied low-energy spot bulbs. However we have been using low-energy bulbs for about ten years now so this isn’t one that we as a household can improve on much. Getting the kids to turn them off though is a different matter!

Hannah at St. Michael’s Mount

Well what do you know!? - maybe some of Craggs’ weather luck is rubbing off after all. One week in Cornwall and sun on every day, in fact only a tiny bit of rain during a showery day (at Eden Project) and during the night. We choose our week well since things seem to be back to normal this week. Our Dutch friends who came over had been dreading it a bit since all they kept hearing on the TV was about floods in England. Everyone in the Netherlands thought they were mad. Then half way through the week we heard a weather forecast for the whole of Europe and Cornwall and northern Scandinavia (where Craggs is of course) were the only places with good weather. Day 1 we picked up a bunch of ‘wet day activity’ leaflets. At the end of the trip we had only used 3 of them and that was because we were tired of visiting beaches! I even managed a great day on Astrall Stroll (see other blog entry) with Mark Glaister.

Lovely campsite as well at Treveague Farm which was recommended to us by Maryn Maltby in this thread.

In order to test drive the new Pokketz guidebooks, I took the family out for a session at Birchen. The crag was as busy as ever but we found a few empty routes on Stoker’s Wall the best of which was Yo-ho Crack - a great beginners and small person’s route since there are no reachy moves and it requires a lot of different techniques. The new Pokketz guide seemed to do the trick nicely. I suspect we might have successfully re-invented the wheel with these books and in a few years we may be producing more of them than full-sized books. Probably ultimately it will be mainly for areas where carrying a book is essential like sea cliffs and mountain routes, but they also seem to be handy for quick trips out to local crags where you just need s quick reminder of what is available. One slight drawback might be that it is easy to put down and forget where you left it. I am not sure whether it is because I have boxes of the books at home, or because I wanted to indulge in a bit of viral marketing, but I accidentally left my copy at the crag.

When will it actually stop raining. We have a holiday in Cornwall planned soon and I have long been expecting that the warm weather was bound to have arrived by that time. Now I am not so sure. After a wash out last summer as well, the family is beginning lose its patience with my holiday plans. Next summer, I’m going where Craggs is since he never seems to get any rain.

The rain in France in August 2006.