Ho Hum.

I have made the decision that I really need to get back into this blogging malarkey. Its been a hectic 12 months, but hopefully some of that should be dying off and I should have some free evenings again.

That job I wasn't sure I wanted - I took it, and we are even looking at buying a house at the moment (though a major issue is the fact that I am the crappest negotiator ever to grace this earth).

I thought that in order to get hings going again I would have delve into my Flickr account for any photos which I have stashed away and could use. Then I had a minor heart attack when I found out all of my photos were missing! Thank god it was just my account expiring and I can recover them - otherwise I may have cried.

Here's one of the boys standing on the top of a via ferrata route we did in the Dolomites in May. A little too dark to see faces, but still I like it:



Hopefully I will be around a little more from now on!

Random Review: 6 of The Best...

... epic adventure books

For the last few months, I have been filling my impressionable mind with thoughts of adventure. I am not a big fan of fiction, I find that although the stories can enthrall me and whisk me away, I can get the same feelings of escapism, along with a large dose of 'that's pretty unbelievable' from true stories. And to satisfy the fact that I rarely get the opportunity to go climbing, I can marry these together in my current favourite type of book - epic adventure biographies from times gone by. Here are my favourites:

The White Spider - Heinrich Harrer (1959)

And why not start with the ultimate in climbing stories. I already reviewed one of my favourite books, the Heinrich Harrer book Seven Years in Tibet. And boy did this guy have some life! Before he was the first westerner allowed into Tibet and permitted audience with the Dalai Llama (after escaping a British PoW camp in India), Heinrich was one of the most celebrated of european climbers after scaling the most difficult and prestigious wall of that time - The North Face of the Eiger.

Heinrich (by his own admission in the pre-face to Seven Years in Tibet), is not the most fluent of writers, nor does he need to be - for this story of an epic journey up an uncharted climb facing down death on a number of occasions tells itself. This book is credited with being the inspiration for a great number of future climbers who have taken up the call of difficult, dangerous ascents. Only when you read this, will you understand why.

4 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer (1996)

Jon Krakauer is a journalist and expert in story-telling. He is also a fine mountaineer having climbed some difficult big-wall routes and attempted the Eiger North Face - though at the time of this Mount Everest ascent, none of this had been experience at high altitude. As a part of a guided expedition to report on the increasing traffic on Everest's slopes, Jon attempted Everest on a fateful day in 1996 when 8 climbers were killed high on the mountain.

Its not just the way which Jon writes which makes this an amazing book, its also the presence of real-life drama in the writers life. In the book Jon levels some criticisms at the guides responsible for getting their clients to the summit, with reference to their safety practices and their competition with other guided parties. This book led to a great deal of controversy within the high-altitude guiding field.

4 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

The Climb - Anatolo Boukreev (1996)

Anatoli Boukreev was the most experienced and fit guide on the disasterous Everest expedition of 1996. He summited without supplementary oxygen (an extremely difficult feat) and enacted an extremely brave rescue following the difficult summit day, of a number of clients stranded outside. He was also on the receiving end of some of the blame from Krakauers book on the safety mistakes faced by the expedition. Read in conjunction with Into Thin Air, this book is totally enthralling.

On an Everest expedition, there is supposed to be a turnaround time, at which point if you haven't reached the summit, you have to turn and go back down because the cold weather is coming in, your oxygen is most likely running out, and you have spent too long above 8000m. This turn around time was ignored (it is thought that, because of the large amounts of money clients had paid to do the climb and the intense competition, expedition leaders wanted as many to summit as possible). 

Other mistakes made include a lack of supplementary oxygen, and a lack of fitness and experience amongst the clients. Boukreev was specifically targeted for summiting without oxygen (if a client had had problems, oxygen would have enabled Boukreev to provide more support), and for going ahead of the party to get to the tents first. 

Perhaps its because Boukreev writes with a small hint of arrogance, or perhaps its because Krakauer is the superior writer - but I found it easier to sympathise with Krakauer's case and cause, but what seems to me as so obvious and simple as a reader, is not so simple to think through at over 8000m above sea level when your brains have gone to mush and your body is slowly eating itself.

3 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer (1996)

This book isn't about climbing, but is by  climber! This is a true story from an investigative journalist about Christopher McCandless, a student who abandons his comfortable middle america life - giving away all of his money and possessions including his car, and heading out on the road with a dream of getting to Alaska and to live self sufficiently, at least for a while. 

The book is expertly written (I am not so keen on the film version) as for parts of it, you are totally with McCandless, admiring of the actions he has taken, breaking free from the chains of society and just living hand to mouth however he can. It inspires you as the reader to consider your own chains in life an the potential for casting those away and setting off on your own epic journey to take you wherever. You admire his bravery.

On the other hand, there are actions which McCandless takes which are difficult to reconcile and appear selfish and hurtful at face value. The biggest for me, is the fact that he doesn't tell his family, in particular his sister that the is going and that he is safe. In his bid to change his own life, he takes away several years of those around him. The writer almost asks the reader to come up with their own judgement on McCandless actions. I don't think think is brought out in the film.

4.5 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

Annapurna - Maurice Herzog (1952)

In 1950, 3 years before Hillary and Norgay reached the summit of Everest, Herzog and Lachenal became the first mountaineers to summit a Himalayan peak of over 8,000m. The summit was Annapurna. This account tells of the massive efforts of hundreds of people which went into forming the expedition. From Nepali porters, to sherpas, to liaison officers, climbers a medical officer and photographer, the story is as much of Nepali attitudes to the climb and climb organisation as it is of an epic struggle of a group of experienced French alpine guides.

What fascinated me about this book, is that one of the first things they have to do, is locate the mountain! There is only one map of the area which is hand drawn and inaccurate, and the Nepalis rarely go up o such heights. At one point they head over the wrong pass and end up in Tibet - where the surprised residents werent even aware that Nepal was at the other side of the pass! 

The book is extremely well written and keeps you glued to its pages right to the very end when Herzog and Lachenal have to be evacuated from the mountain on stretchers complete with frostbite to hands and feet.

4.5 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

Touching the Void - Joe Simpson (1988)

This book need no introduction really. A Sheffield local, Joe Simpson ans Simon Yates experienced a terrible tragedy in 1985 on the Suila Grande in Peru. Simpson broke his leg on the decent and was lowered bu Yates rope length by rope length until he was accidentally lowered over a precipice. Yates had no choice but to cut the rope and Simpson fell into a crevasse from which he had to crawl for many miles.

The subsequent film was a success and although it is very mainstream, this is an example of a climber who is also a very good writer. Highly recommended.

4 out of 5 Rabbit Raisins

Snakes and Ladders

This time we took our friend The City Worker up into the mountains. And instead of climbing rocks we were climbing iron ladders. Great big massive iron ladders, one of which was 50 metres in length.

These are the the kind of ladders which you don't tackle without any equipment for clipping in, for a fall from the ladder itself could be fatal, even not considering the fact that the adder is high up on a rock face.

We began the climb with a steep uphill walk with good views of Lake Garda:

The Nurse and I led the climbs, up ladders with hundreds of rungs which ascended up into the mist, seemingly never ending.

Climb four rungs, clip. Climb four rungs, clip. The guide book said it would take 30 mins to climb one of the ladders alone - and it was right!

The City Worker was the only non climber among us, and he did a pretty good job! He tried to change the subject every time I spoke about how much it would hurt if we fell, and he complained a lot  but to be honest he always complains a lot.

Here he is completing the daddy of all the ladders:

And leaning back on my harness I managed to get a little video of him looking up for the first time:

Of Iron Roads

As we got higher up the mountain, we nervously ploughed into thigh deep snow, putting into practice some of the winter skills we learnt during our course, but this time without the comfort of having an experienced guide directing our every step. We weren't quite sure what to expect and whether the going would get tougher, the snow drifts deeper and the danger or falling down the mountainside on our left, even greater as we wound our way upwards.

The guide book gave directions based upon landmarks, but we must have gone past several, a signpost here, a memorial plaque there, a fork in the road. They were supposed to be ten minutes apart, but it was hard to know what ten minutes should be, being as our progress was much slowed by the snow. Round the corner to fantastic views down the Lake Garda, the guide book said. We could just see grey sky.

The cloud began to lift as we were closing in on our first bit of Via Ferrata. Descend 200m into a large bowl, but be warned, this may contain some snow early in the season. Some snow! It contained massive bloody sheets of ice! It was only on the good advice of the chap in our local outdoors shop, that we even took ice axes. It would have been very difficult without.

The Nurse followed as I chopped steps down the mountainside to the first wired section. 

Via Ferrata routes are essentially long sections of wire attached to steep bits of rock, to which the quick fix climber can attach himself using a specifically designed lanyard. They were initially built in the Italian Dolomites to assist soldiers in the first world war by helping them climb quickly to great height without the use of ropes. This route was considerably newer than this (or at least I hoped so), and I am presuming just set up for sport.

When we got to the bottom of the bowl, we put on our harnesses and lanyards and began our ascent. The first section was a fairly easy chimney, up which the Nurse led the way. 

We then hit a massive patch of snow which was concealing all of the cables into which we needed to clip. The next clipping in point was visible about 10 feet away from us - the only problem being the traverse unprotected accross an icy slope with a massive drop on one side. We decided a much better idea was to spend 20 minutes furiously chopping through the snow to get to the submerged cable. Neither of us was prepared to stand on a slide away to nothing, without at least being clipped on somewhere.

The next pitch up a large crack was a little more challenging. It wasn't quite hard enough for me to think I was going to fall off, but still hard enough for me to spend my climbing time thinking about what the concequences would be, if I did fall off. 

Place hands, place feet, haul self up, look down, remind self never to look down again ... and repeat. It was a fair distance to the top crawling over the edge and making that final clip with no small sense of relief.

'The final pitch climbs at an easier angle', said the guide book. It didnt seem much easier to me with tired arms. The water cascading down the rock didn't assist slow progress, but did add to the adventure.

Wearily we drew ourselves over and walked the short distance to the top of the 2,200m peak. We opened the metal box which contained a climbers log. The last entry - October 2009, meaning we were the first climbers of the season. Something to be proud of I feel, and perhaps this explains why we were wading through virgin snow  the whole way up the mountainside. One thing was for sure, the second group of climbers of the season would have a much easier job digging those blasted cables out. 

We thought to rest until thwarted by an act of nature. 

We looked each other tentatively up and down. Two lonely souls on the highest peak on the range, caught in a thunderstorm! Luckily we had long metal sticks in our hands to ward off the bad weather. 

It was back down for us through hail and snow to sun-burnt girlfriends, cheap red wine and pizza.

We had a number of good little adventures on the trip. But I will save something for future posts!

Grey Crag

The Lake District in the UK has the reputation for having by far the worst weather in England. It basically pees it down 24/7. Which is why, when we went climbing yesterday - we were extremely surprised to see that glorious sunshine was forecast all day, and even more surprising was that there was to be not a smidgin of wind either.

We headed up to Grey Crag near Buttermere for some easy multiple-pitch climbing, and a not so easy 1 and a half hour 600m ascent walk to the base of the crag in baking hot sun with all out gear (my legs feel as though they are no longer under my control today).

Weirdly there were no other climbers at all. It not often you get perfect climbing conditions in the lakes (i.e. no wind or rain), but beside a few walkers, we saw not a soul.

I didn't get ay 'killer' shots (i.e. single handedly hanging off a rock by our little fingers 'cliffhanger' style). But here is one that I like (which was actually from when we were nearly back at the car):

Oh - and to the guy who decided to park his £1 ice cream van right next to the car park. Thanks, it was needed.

Curved Ridge

Last week there was a sad story in the news about a couple of climbers who were killed on the descent from Curved ridge in the Glen Coe area of Scotland. I have linked to the story here.
The scary thing about that story is that we were on the exact same ridge on day two of our winter mountaineering course!

When we were on our way down our guide warned us that you should never take the route we took when there is an avalanche risk. When we were there, it was mainly ice with little loose snow layers luckily.

We slid down on our backsides (I managed this video of Andy). The guys who died were on the ridge to the right trying to avoid the avalanche zone:




A few days later we were emailing our guide and recieved this message:

A big dump of snow again last week has made everything really dangerous. You just can't get into anything. The zig- zags on Gear Aonach that we did on the last day is about it, unless you want to get killed. An instructor and client were killed in the Coe on the Buchaillie on the way down having completed Curved Ridge. The corrie we slid down was correctly avoided, but even on the ridge on the right as you look up, which is considered a safe descent, avalanched. A friend of mine was guiding his own party just a few paces behind the others when it happened. Fractured right in front of him, Just a small slide 4-5m wide and only 150mm deep but enough to carry them all the way down the mountain. A real shock to the mountaineering/guiding comunity.

It just kind of proved to us that you cant mess around with mountaineering. The danger is very real.

Fear

On the fourth day of the mountaineering course, our guide thought we were doing pretty well (as we all have a bit of experience in rock climbing) and agreed to let us try one of the most famous winter climbing routes on Ben Nevis, called Tower Ridge. Andy, one of the guys on the course with me had been keen to do it right from the start.

We were joined by a second guide on the day, and being as Graham had retired on day two (due to a sprained ankle on the walk-out), we had three of us to two instructors.

We started early and ascended the side of Ben Nevis towards the start of the route where we roped up. I was on the end of a rope of three (our guide, The Nurse and myself) with Andy and the other instructor following behind. We donned crampons, harnesses, helmets, extra layers and armed ourselves with our ice axes. The weather was good and it was 9am, leaving us plenty of time to tackle the route.

The climbing was not too hard, though I wasn't fully used to jamming axes into cracks and putting my full weight on them and there were a couple of hard bits of climbing near the beginning. All in all we made pretty good ground up until about midday or so.

The View from the Bottom of the Second Climbing Pitch

The difficulty then came that we got stuck behind a really slow moving group of four and as there was no option to overtake on the route - we had to queue to climb the different sections behind them. We must have waited nearly two hours to complete a traverse and a climb up to the top of the 'little tower'. 

The traverse was scary - I had previously thought that I wasn't at all scared of heights up until that point. But with just a few crampon points separating me from a couple of hundred feet of drop below me - I was more than a little nervous. Here is a photo of the traverse courtesy of a photo stolen from the internet (spot the footprints):

Then it all started to get a little worse. The party in front of us held us up so much that our guides told us that we would have to walk down in the dark ... then they told us we would have to finish the climb in the dark. All in all - we climbed for over 3 hours in the dark!

Just Before We Crossed Tower Gap - The Nurse, and above that - our guide

The hardest point of the tower ridge route comes near the end. Basically you have to cross an extremely narrow, extremely exposed walkway into a hole known as the 'Tower Gap', before climbing out up to the top.

The issue here is that I was roped to the back of a group of three, so I couldn't move forwards until The Nurse in front of me was able to move up enough to pull the rope tight. The Nurse spent a total of 10 minutes navigating the Tower Gap whilst I stood with my feet together and my knees shaking on the narrow walkway ... in the dark. Here is a picture of the walkway in the light that I managed to steal:

Although I was roped in and safe - the fear was pretty much building in me from here. Next I had to climb down into the gap and back out of the other side. It would have been a tricky climb in the summer with a pair of climbing boots and the sun-shining. In the dark - it was much worse. Especially seeing as just as I was climbing into the hole - my head torch broke! 

I kept having to take my gloves off (which were essentially ice-balls by this point) to press the button to get the torch to work again and as soon as I put them back on again, the torch would switch off.

I swore ... lots. At one point the head torch went off as I was straddling the gap with one foot either side and one glove half on trying to hook my axe onto a piece of rock quite far above my head. I can honestly say thats the most scared I have ever been. I cacked myself.

I finished the climb short roped to the nurse (about 1m behind him) so that I could make use of his head-torch light) and we walked 2 hours bac down to the car - to get there for about ten o'clock.

It was a brilliant experience though. While I was climbing, all I was thinking was 'mountaineering is crap!', but afterwards - the feeling was pretty great.

4 Boasts

What an absolutely crappy week this has been. I have been sinking beneath an ever growing mountain of work with a constant stream of people hassling me for things I haven't managed to do yet.

On Tuesday morning I came down stairs to find a magpie on my living room. Bloody big thing it was! The cat was chasing it around to no avail (being as it was bigger than the cat). It must have got in through the cat flap. I finally managed to get the thing out of the patio door (but not before it shat down our curtains) after about 10 minutes of struggle - and get myself off to work.

Lucy informed me that it is bad luck to see a lone magpie (something I was not aware of) and this rang true the next day when I crashed my car on a roundabout I have crossed a thousand times (incidentally, for the last 18 months I had been referring to it as 'the roundabout of death'). Then I spent the whole morning trying to figure out (via about 10 phone calls) who the bloody insurers were for my company car (even our finance director didn't know) as it had just changed the previous week.

But hey, I have managed to line up quite a few interesting bits of time off in the next six months. Each and every one of which I am excited about for different reasons.

In February I will be undertaking a 5 day winter mountaineering course. I recently sold my kidney on eBay to pay for boots, crampons and goretex jackets and am very excited about putting them to good use! I got the following email through from the course instructor today:

"Tower Ridge is a route that I would choose for the course but its a long route, so you will need to still be fit enough by day 4-5 of the course in order to go for it. Try to do as much airobic training bettween now and your arrival." I was hoping to get through it on strength of mind alone. I didnt realise I needed fitness!!

I was seconds from posting up a picture of Tower Ridge and then realised that both my mum and Lucy read this blog and after viewing the pictures - If I post them up I may not be allowed to go!

In May I am heading to Lake Garda and the Dolomite in Italy with Lucy, my friend The Nurse and his other half. He is my regular climbing buddy and we are going to tackle some via ferratta routes before retiring to the lake for some relaxation (and maybe a visit or two to Milan / Verona / Venica)

The best way I can describe Via Ferrata is that its like mountaineering or climbing but with fixed wires and ladders. We did some of it in a past visit to the Tatras in 2007.

In July we do the Hadrians Walk in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust. I have been enstrusted with preparations and leadership of Team Bandicoot. We are going to be a small team (I am hoping for between 12 and 15 people), but we should get on great and there is nothing I love more than romping through the countryside in the sunshine. Conversely to the Pennine Way last year - we will also get some good nights sleep in hostels rather than tents which will be welcome for most (though secretly I would rather camp).

In late July / August, Lucy and I will be heading to Lebannon for a week - for a wedding in Beirut! This is somewhere we would probably not have chosen to visit (as there are so many places in the world we want to go), but I am really looking forward to it and it will be really interesting to get an inside view of such a different culture.

Apparently we will be spending some of our time in a small border village where we have to get signed in and out. The hills are supposed to be amazing here too, but the warnings about land-mines have kind of put me off somewhat.

So really I cant complain.

Also I just spent half an hour blogging when I was supposed to be working.

This Can Only End Badly

After a really good day at my sisters wedding, about which I will post at some point in the near future - I got up super early to speed on up to the lake district for some climbing. 

I appear to have got in with a bad crowd at work, and have been tempted by some of the more hard-core outdoors enthusiasts amongst them to delve further and further into outdoor sports. Over the winter I will be undertaking a 5 day mountaineering course up in Scotland (and may potentially have to pay for the expensive equipment I will need by selling a kidney!), and I am getting more and more into my climbing.

In the lakes we did some multiple pitch climbing. I will attempt to explain what that means (though I am not completely sure myself). One person leads up on the rope, putting in safety gear along the way and being belayed from the bottom. The bottom person then follows being belayed from the top. Both people are now half way up the cliff face and repeat the process until all the way to the top.

We had three people, which made everything a little more complicated and made each climb pretty lengthy. To the point at which we had to abandon out second climb on the third pitch (and abseil down) to avoid having to walk home in the dark.

We all hauled our cameras up with us and tried to angle the lense such that is appeared we were doing much harder climbs than we were. This is my favourite of Graham (though if I had proper photo editing software, I am sure I could make it better):

How to Bypass NHS Waiting Lists

Last night I was down at the Foundry climbing wall with The Nurse. We've just started doing a bit of lead climbing being beginners and were attempting to tackle some of the overhangs.

For me, lead climbing is a bit more exciting down at the wall that you traditional top roping. Basically rather than being suspended all of the way up, you clip in as you go. The excitement comes with the fact that is you fall off - you fall down the distance to your last clip in point, and then that same distance again below the clip. And then you fall a little bit more if the guy who is belaying you is not really paying attention and has left a little bit too much slack in the rope.

The slight apprehension about what will happen when you eventually fall and smack into the wall makes you fear just that little bit more. And the fear makes you grip a little bit harder. It all adds to the rush!

At one particularly memorable point in the night I was belaying for The Nurse who was attempting a relatively easy climb, but on a relatively difficult overhang. He had already made significant progress and had fallen a couple of times. I was trying to maintain attention, but have to admit, was getting bored with slow progress and was probably diverting a little too much attention to climbers on the other walls.

The Nurse was about half way up the wall when he managed to get both his feet onto a rather large oval shaped hold. At this point he decided to make a relatively straightforward move and reach up for the next one. He extended his foot to get a little more height ... when ... POP! Not usually a good sign. The Nurse fell off and I lowered him down.

He seemed to be in a fair bit of pain. To be honest, the Nurse has a little bit of a history of injury. I used to play roller-hockey with him a number of years ago and he got injured so many times that he ended up acquiring a (very un PC, I am ashamed to say) nickname of 'Cripple' by which he was known in my mobile phone for many years. Most of the time he was just being a big wus in my experience. But something made me believe that it wasn't so this time.

It could have been something to do with the fact that he nearly puked in the middle of the climbing hall, or the masses of sweat, or the rather horrible swollen blue colour his left ankle had gone - but I sensed something might really be wrong.

So we went to the local minor injuries unit at A&E and something quite remarkable happened. We walked up to the desk and the receptionist took a few details. Name, age, etc. What surprised me was that when she got to 'occupation' - 'Staff Nurse', the ballgame changed.

Anyone familiar with NHS A&E department, will probably be familiar with that little board you often get. The one which shows waiting time. This usually flashes by at around 1.5 hours, sometimes 3 on a Saturday night. If you have a minor injury, you may be lucky to get to the front of the queue at all! OK, so its maybe not that bad, but I was certainly expecting a long night.

But apparently if you are a staff nurse, it seems you can completely bypass the queue, nevermind the heart attacks of the broken necks, get seen to immediately - and whats more bypass the x-ray queue as well and be back out of the hospital within about 35 minutes!

Bonus was that we managed to get out just before the kick off to the England - Germany game, and get a few beers (which the Nurse was adamant, increased the effect of his pain killers).

Only downside is that now I dont have anyone to climb with.

(oh -yeah and The Nurse has to have an operation which I guess is a downside too).

10 Things I Love About Sheffield

A couple of weeks ago I had my first big pang of regret - I regretted leaving Sydney for the first time. 

I was driving home. The rain was horizontal (they have rain in Sydney but it tends to obey the laws of gravity over there). My car windows were in that kind of permanent partially misted up state that you get  (it doesn't matter how high you set your blowers). I thought to myself, the trip home from work in Oz would have been a pleasant bike ride in the sunshine. It hurt.

But on the whole I have really been enjoying being back. And really enjoying Sheffield (more than I imagined I would). 10 things I like about Sheffield?

• There are 5 separate indoor climbing places within 10 mins of my house (in Sydney there was one within half an hour). Sheffield is pretty much the UK centre of climbing;
• I can get on my bike and be out in the Peak District national park within 10 minutes (boy did I miss this countryside);
• I can go out for a run and be in the Peaks in 15 minutes;
• I can get in my car and be in the Peaks in 2 minutes;
• Did I mention I like the peaks?
• I have managed to find a few cool hangouts with live Jazz etc;
• I can afford to rent a 3 story townhouse set back in a wooded area for less than a 3rd floor flat would be in Sydney;
• I am learning to lead climb;
• I am loving the local curry house;
• There are many excellent country pubs in easy striking distance (something I didn't think I got in Leeds).

On the bad side:

• The 3 hour round trip to work;
  
• After living abroad I have come to realise that english food (which I always defended) is pretty crap.
  

Thats 10 against 2 I think which makes this an OK move I suppose.