The climbing and mountaineering thread...
Discussion
CamL said:
Fantastic pics and story, thanks for posting Lowndes.
I came from a Scottish climbing background and have done Shibboleth, pretty atmospheric (meaning damp and shady with mainly sloping holds
). No photos unfortunately though, but a couple of other Scottish ones below.
Crowberry Gully (terrors and a curver - remember those!!)
Agony/Ecstacy on the Etive slabs (think we still used a tension traverse so not completly free)
My early alpine seasons were chasing the classics, with the high point being the Walker Spur. Plus as much sun kissed Chamonix granite as possible, to compensate for the Scottish past
Salluard route on Pic Adolphe Rey
South face of the Midi - Contamine route
Here's my alpine buggy, not quite keeping up with the Jones's in their CGT, but from Stuttgart all the same
I still love climbing out in the Swiss Alps, but only on easy stuff. This season I have been doing a lot of bumbling up easy peaks with my mountain bike (often on my back!). This makes the descent rather more amenable to my knees these days
Shibboleth and The Walker.I came from a Scottish climbing background and have done Shibboleth, pretty atmospheric (meaning damp and shady with mainly sloping holds
). No photos unfortunately though, but a couple of other Scottish ones below.Crowberry Gully (terrors and a curver - remember those!!)
Agony/Ecstacy on the Etive slabs (think we still used a tension traverse so not completly free)
My early alpine seasons were chasing the classics, with the high point being the Walker Spur. Plus as much sun kissed Chamonix granite as possible, to compensate for the Scottish past
Salluard route on Pic Adolphe Rey
South face of the Midi - Contamine route
Here's my alpine buggy, not quite keeping up with the Jones's in their CGT, but from Stuttgart all the same
I still love climbing out in the Swiss Alps, but only on easy stuff. This season I have been doing a lot of bumbling up easy peaks with my mountain bike (often on my back!). This makes the descent rather more amenable to my knees these days
Crosses CamL off Christmas Card list.
For a Sassenach livening in London it was more or less as far to get to Scotland as the Alps so what with that and the weather and the midges we maybe didn’t get there as often as the quality of the climbing warranted. We did teeter up the Etive slabs on one occasion, but after a couple of days retreated in the face of a furious midge onslaught. The Ben a time or two in winter as alpine training and Carnmore in the summer one year but I can’t quite work out when that would have been.
Yes I had set of terrors and a curver. The former, visible in the earlier photo of camping at Snell's Field, were a bit fragile and are long gone but I use the curver to lift drain covers in the drive when the system needs unblocking.
Interesting to see you are into Mountain Bikes, am currently investigating electric ones, Digga of this parish gave some very helpful advice recently. Will probably buy locally in Switzerland and accept the CHF price pain. There is an outlet in our village and it should make maintenance easier if I buy from them.
If I catch the four spot running lights in the rear view mirror along with centre locks and ceramics, I’ll move smartly out of the way and let the faster vehicle past, it could well be an S.
Edited by lowndes on Monday 12th August 12:59
lowndes said:
Interesting to see you are into Mountain Bikes, am currently investigating electric ones, Digga of this parish gave some very helpful advice recently. Will probably buy locally in Switzerland and accept the CHF price pain. There is an outlet in our village and it should make maintenance easier if I buy from them.
I would recommend trying one for a day and see how you get on. My wife 'test drove' one a couple of years ago with the notion that it would help equalise our fitness and allow us to do longer runs together. She did not get on with it though, finding the on/off transition when the motor kicked in too abrupt, and also finding it a bit heavy and unwieldy, so we didn't take it any further then.This year though our local bike shop here in CH says that the tech has improved a lot in a realtively short period of time and that he now sells more e-bikes than old school - so may be worth another look.
I will still stick to the hard work approach for as long as the knees allow
CamL said:
I would recommend trying one for a day and see how you get on. My wife 'test drove' one a couple of years ago with the notion that it would help equalise our fitness and allow us to do longer runs together. She did not get on with it though, finding the on/off transition when the motor kicked in too abrupt, and also finding it a bit heavy and unwieldy, so we didn't take it any further then.
This year though our local bike shop here in CH says that the tech has improved a lot in a realtively short period of time and that he now sells more e-bikes than old school - so may be worth another look.
I will still stick to the hard work approach for as long as the knees allow
pm sentThis year though our local bike shop here in CH says that the tech has improved a lot in a realtively short period of time and that he now sells more e-bikes than old school - so may be worth another look.
I will still stick to the hard work approach for as long as the knees allow
Anyone one else feeling a bit edgy? I just missed out on a weekend ski touring last month, and should be either skiing or walking/climbing with the family this week. Got some plans for weekends in June that are looking doubtful, one in the Lakes and one in the Alps. And I can't go down the wall. 
Even mountain biking is limited due to the need to be sensible, and kayaking is out.
This thread is a tonic though, so I'm going to dig through some old photos...
Even mountain biking is limited due to the need to be sensible, and kayaking is out.This thread is a tonic though, so I'm going to dig through some old photos...
My daughter has taken to climbing all the trees in our garden as well as onto a first floor roof that catches the sun. She's also increasingly bugging me about ordering some wood and rope to make a tree house between three large (18" diameter) beech trees that sit in a 15' triangle from each other.
Sorry, got busy and walked the kids to Dancing Ledge. Will have a hunt for pics...
McGee_22 said:
My daughter has taken to climbing all the trees in our garden as well as onto a first floor roof that catches the sun. She's also increasingly bugging me about ordering some wood and rope to make a tree house between three large (18" diameter) beech trees that sit in a 15' triangle from each other.
It's a start! Bill said:
Anyone one else feeling a bit edgy? ...
Some photos of past trips to brighten the day...
Little Ark and Olivine Ice Plateau by Ben, on Flickr
Gunsight Pass by Ben, on Flickr
Arrival by Ben, on Flickr
Tutuko from Earnslaw by Ben, on Flickr
Mt Larkins summit pano by Ben, on Flickr
Afterglow by Ben, on Flickr
Forgotten River Col by Ben, on Flickr
Crevasse Climbing by Ben, on Flickr
Mt Aspiring by Ben, on Flickr
Little Ark by Ben, on Flickr
Forgotten River Col by Ben, on Flickr
Crisp by Ben, on Flickr
Are they all NZ?tertius said:
Yes. I heard this. A legend of the climbing world.
I was only thinking the other week that he must be getting on a bit now when I drove past his shop in Capel Curig.
Yeah, sad to see re: Jo.
The man will remain immortal in the climbing world, just think of all the new routes he put up, and many of a standard that remains somewhat above what most of us will ever climb. It's just staggering to think about the number of new routes he was involved with.
Superb talent, and one to doff a cap to.
The man will remain immortal in the climbing world, just think of all the new routes he put up, and many of a standard that remains somewhat above what most of us will ever climb. It's just staggering to think about the number of new routes he was involved with.
Superb talent, and one to doff a cap to.
Evening
Nice to stumble on this thread. I've been trying to make climbing a bit more of a lifetsyle thing last 18 months or so (great timing I know) and though I've joined a club it's not instructional per se so could really do with finding more climbing partners my level / preferably slightly better I guess to accelerate learning. Guilty of doing various courses over the years when didn't have much time off work and then never consolidated the learning. I'm the wrong side of 40 now and struggle to find climbing partners - any mates that might tenuously have been intererested are now more on family detail. Anyway if anyone on here is more flexible with time and wants to show me how to climb a sea stack i'll happily pick up the beer tab (after).
BTW I just posted on the DIY thread seeking know how on fixing up climbing holds at home onto brick, just in case anyone here is experimenting with same.
Cheers
Nice to stumble on this thread. I've been trying to make climbing a bit more of a lifetsyle thing last 18 months or so (great timing I know) and though I've joined a club it's not instructional per se so could really do with finding more climbing partners my level / preferably slightly better I guess to accelerate learning. Guilty of doing various courses over the years when didn't have much time off work and then never consolidated the learning. I'm the wrong side of 40 now and struggle to find climbing partners - any mates that might tenuously have been intererested are now more on family detail. Anyway if anyone on here is more flexible with time and wants to show me how to climb a sea stack i'll happily pick up the beer tab (after).
BTW I just posted on the DIY thread seeking know how on fixing up climbing holds at home onto brick, just in case anyone here is experimenting with same.
Cheers
Documentary about blind climber Jesse Dufton.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jb7t/cli...
Also an interview with him https://www.facebook.com/parkrunUK/videos/18374907...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jb7t/cli...
Also an interview with him https://www.facebook.com/parkrunUK/videos/18374907...
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