Leashless Blog

The new web site and blog

2010-06-01T08:16:00.005+01:00

The blog has now moved as of the 1st June 2010. Follow the link to see the new site and the latest news. Please note that it requires Flash Player and might ask you to add fonts, for which you just click 'ok'.

The new site link

The monk life

2010-05-04T21:11:00.002+01:00

The return of the monk life is imminent. The monk life has only been engaged twice before in recent years and it led to some of my best days at the crags. So it will soon be time again to trek out to the monastry of climbing and book myself in for an extended period of study and therapy. All fueled by the newly upgraded monastry type 2, training cave.

Cue the battery charging circus.

The upgrades taking shape.

Anyone need some wood?

Rally the troops

2010-04-26T20:16:00.002+01:00

Rally the men Corporal, it's time to prepare for our assault. Things are changing a bit from this week. Thanks to help from Kat and Kris the Monastry training centre is growing and finally starting to completely fill the space and fulfill it's likely potential. This means that there will be no excuses in the future. The Monastry will be as good a winter training as anyone in the world has access to at the moment (indoor only of course). There are also other opportunities to build other drytooling facilities in Copenhagen in the future. Interesting stuff.

Plans are starting to come together for the summer too. A little visit to sunny Spain in May. Several trips to less sunny Scotland in June. Possible trips to New Zealand and the Mediterranian in July and August and a mega looking trip around Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico in September.

This week I also agreed a deal to work with Danish based outdoor company Toursport. Hopefully this will work out well in the future and allow me to keep a good deal going with La Sportiva products for which Toursport are the agents. More to follow in future posts about this.

Out of your mine again

2010-04-07T17:50:00.016+01:00

3 years ago I went to Sweden to search out some of the legendary ice mines to find out if they really existed or not. I found what I was looking for at the time and I think it was maybe even the first proper post on this blog. For the last 2 years I have been wanting to get back there again and climb some of the amazing ice features that lurked in the depths. Now living in Denmark, the trip suddenly became more realistic and with the added psyche that accompanied the extra long winter season that's been going on, I managed the impossible. To find a bunch of willing, capable, free and most importantly slightly mad people to join forces for this daring and at times ridiculously insane project.

I'll be writing a more engaging and thorough piece on this blog in the near future but for now here are some photos explaining the more mundane practical aspects of making a one off trip like this into a success.

Team ice miners included: Rob Gibson, Malcolm Kent, Lukasz Warzecha, Thomas Mazur and Kristoffer Szilas.

Rob and Kat testing lights in preparation.

First things first, don't throw stones.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

After 9 or so hours drive through the night, we arrive.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

Laying out the kit is the morning ritual.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

Rapping in during the initial exploration mission.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

Time to get yourself back to surface again.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

Another epic day ahead of us but at least the weather was on form.
Photo: Thomas Mazur

And for something a bit different

2010-03-27T18:33:00.006Z

Firstly, a big well done to my mate Chloe Graftiaux. She just won the international boulder comp at the Climbing Works in Sheffield. There are probably a lot of people in the UK wondering who the hell she is. Well, I personally am well impressed. I climbed and competed with her and partied with her till the early hours this winter and she can crank. Not only one of the best female climbers on the Ice World Cup Circuit but also a top level boulderer. And that's scratching the surface. Watch this space type thing. I'm psyched by this and will write some blurb sometime soon about being a great all rounder. It's hard but it's not impossible.

And today a new project begins. Well actually it began 3 or so years ago around a beer and some food in a pub with Will Gadd. But now the project is cooking on gas so to speak and I can't wait.

The unlikely venue for the next adventure. Let the games begin.

I have also been playing with the latest indoor drytooling creations from Schmoolz.

10min after I was let loose with the Schmoolz, I get cracking.

Hide and seek

2010-03-16T15:36:00.008Z

Just back from one of the most frustating climbing trips for a long while. Scotland, so good for so long. And the week I turn up, the big thaw begins. Basically if it's below grade IX Scottish, then it's not worth mentioning and if it's below grade VII then there's no point even bothering unless there's some desperate need. And with that, our team essentially climbed 'naff-all' this week. A big waste of time, money and effort for all concerned. Back to sport mixed climbing and competitions, at least that's more reliable.

1. Day one and we filter out the rack and split it between the would-be porters.

2. Ultra white from a distance but warm and melting closer up as myself, Rob, Andy, Lukasz and Steve amble up to the line of the 'Hurting' (middle right).

3. After another day of miserable weather, high winds and spindrift, Rob decends out of the circus and back below the cloud base.

4. Now this might look more promising, but infact we got screwed again this day as the temperature climbed rapidly over the following 2 hours. Bringing with it rain and sleet. Lukasz (bottom left) tries to get scenic shot before the 'something' hits the fan.

5. The trip summary photo. After giving up on pointless 3am starts and wasted 3 hour hikes, we hang out with Andy, Ruth and friends in Fort William and observe the greyness from the window.

6. The tools from Schmoolz. Designed for indoor drytool training. Yet to be tested. We'll see how they go over the next few weeks at the warehouse.

Team 'competition climbers in Scotland' included Rob Gibson, Lukasz Warzecha and Malcolm Kent. Honorary members were Andy Turner and Steve Gordon. Team support was covered very brilliantly by Fiona Murray. Next time guys. There will always be a next time...

Bluebird

2010-03-07T18:24:00.006Z

The weather here has been absolutely cracking the last week, one sunny clear day after another. What some people in Colorado might call 'Bluebird' (they often smoke a lot). I've had a cold mixed in with some of the ever reccuring golfers elbow, over training syndrome. Secretly the sunny weather has been pretty nice. I can't admit that to myself though. I want to believe there is still lots of winter climbing to be done. Thoughts of sunny warmth and long days, have to be replaced by thoughts of bitter cold, blizzardy winters in order to keep the tools firmly attached to my hands.

There's been talk for a while now about an x-million kroner wall being created in Copenhagen. There are some pretty elaborate ideas floating around and none of it is just speculative rumour. I couldn't resist sneaking around the likely premises thought to host this uber project.

The best way as we all know, to make sure your cold or flu is definitely well and truly flushed out of your system is to party until the early hours. There were no such parties happening nearby this weekend, so the party took place right here. And by 2am there were still 10 bottles of wine, 12 jacket potatoes, 3 cakes and several days worth of chilli and lasagne. Kat did a great job with the cooking and understandably took a well earned sleep on the chair at the end. Worth noting for future parties.... bottles of London Pride are like gold dust. Buy as many as you can carry and drink one quick before they're all gone.

I had a laugh today reading another verse from the ever cynical and tongue in cheek, Stevie Haston. Read his blog for info on how to become a successful 'virtual' ice climber. His gear suggestion is arguably more functional than some of the big name wallet draining pieces in the shops. Why do manufacturers spend so much time and money developing new gear only to screw up the simplest of features right at the end. Seemingly never listening to the customer. The list is long and the Petzl Sama is hereby added. Such a great harness in so many ways. The saviour harness for multi-pitching you might hope. So why angle the front gear loops forward? What kind of idiot, retarded climber would want their draws or cams draped over the front of their legs, getting in the way every time you try to move your legs up. I finish here, in pure desperation. Yours..... Mr Malc.

Is winter about to turn to spring?

2010-02-28T18:57:00.013Z

I really hope not. After sacking off the trip to Canada, I headed to Norway recently in search of something inspiring. I had been training pretty regularly beforehand and Norway seemed to be a place where warm temperatures weren't a problem. So I figured it was game on. It was a trip that had no plan from day one. Which left me uncomfortable to say the least. In the end though, thanks mostly to people that volunteered their help at late notice I had an interesting time and learned a great deal. The highlights were seeing a whole host of new areas, climbing a WI7, onsighting an M10 and soloing an 800m WI4. Most motivating of all was towards the end of the trip, when I actually started to open my eyes properly and find a few very cool looking projects for the future. You really have to get the binoculars out and look closely.... and only then do you start seeing the potential lines! (note to self).

My advice: Don't hire a Citreon C1, unless you want to spend all your time traveling sideways.

A short time in Rjukan to onsight the half bolted, half gear protected Fission.And just when you might have thought you had done a great job, someone comes and tells you that Will Gadd onsighted the route in 2004, with old skool gear, whilst drinking a cup of ice tea.

The stunning climbing area of Senja.And just when you think you might have been the first to climb here you find Guy Lacelle and Aljaz Anderle beat you to it in 2007. Great.

Grapevine

2010-02-21T20:00:00.011Z

It's late season, or is it mid season...... I can't quite tell. And here's what I've been hearing, second hand of course! Speaking to Nick Bullock recently it seems like he has been getting in new routes in Chamonix with Pete Benson and others in the Rive Gauche area. I just heard from my buddy Roger Strong that he and Rob Owens sent the second ascent of the Shadow WI7 on the north Face of Mt Patterson in Canada.

Albert Leichtfried has also been busy after sending Centrecourt WI7. He and Benedikt Purner have done the first free ascent of Gorillas im Nebel M10 WI6 in Zillertal, Austria. And (via good old Facebook!) whilst Will Gadd has been resting out from WI10's he and Andreas Spak have been busy adding new long ice routes in the Eidfjord area of Norway. On the subject of Norway, the unusually cold winter allowed a team of Norwegian climbers to add some 400m WI6 routes to the Seven Sisters in the Geirangerfjord area. At this point I'd like to squeeze in a mention about my good buddy Manu Cordova, who along with Martin Elias sent a WI7 in the Pyrenees recently. Mega stuff considering it's the Pyrenees! and also great that he got it in between comps and his academic studies.

Also well done too to Dave Macleod and Andy Turner for completing their week long Marshall challenge back in Scotland. And to Ines Papert for making it over to Scotland for a week of climbing old and new routes, hosted by Mr Ian Parnell. Finally a mention to Rob Gibson who's been ticking off some big classics in Canada with Ramon Marin, like The Big Drip in the Ghost area (great tick list guys).

Also on the grapevine, the Petzl Ergo.

Added on 27/2/10:
Big up to Dave Macleod. This morning he posted the news on his new winter line on the Comb on Ben Nevis. It looks hard. I remember that last winter he showed it to me and we stared at its line. Gear options looked limited and the start was clearly the dictionary definition of bold. But now he's sent it and showed us all the way. Cheers Dave.

Getting organised

2010-02-08T20:33:00.011Z

Here are few of pics summing up the comps over the past weeks. A big thanks to those that took them, it's great to have some kind of postcard from each of the events.

Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Photo: Marianne van der Steen

Photo: Marianne van der Steen

Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Photo: Marianne van der Steen

Things this season have been poorly planned out...... even by my standards. Of course I can blame the move of countries, the change of jobs, the new lifestyle and building a training gym, but they're just excuses at the end of day. So I am currently hunting for someone that wants to be involved in some adventures later in February. Either to Canada or to northern Norway. And beyond that I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Scottish conditions will get good in March. If that happens then I'll be heading there looking for some big ticks. All good motivation to keep training and stay strong.

To get things back on track I'm already coming up with ideas for next winter. Of course there will be the comps, with their many twists and turns. But I am also dead set on heading out to Asia for a few weeks. This will involve some climbing in Japan, Korea and China. So if anyone fancies a bit of that then be sure to let me know. Especially as it looks like one of the World Cup comps will be held in Korea! Beyond that the possibilities are endless... just too many great places to fit on this page.

Close but no cigar

2010-02-07T19:54:00.006Z

It's no exaggeration to say that last year's trip to Romania didn't exactly go very smoothly. And to be fair I was crapping myself that this year might end up following a similar downward spiral. But it didn't. Luckily. So I made my way to the World Cup Finals in an almost surreal, supernatural state of relaxation. Of course, there were still the craters in the road, the blur of continuous car accidents, the stray rabid dogs and the horse and carts. But this time, barring the guy who tried to sell me a 2 month old baby for 1000 Lei, I managed to arrive in Busteni in very good time.

The Romanian way of putting road-kill to some use.

I hung out a bit, ate, got some half decent sleep and woke the next morning ready to climb whatever was put in front of me. And I say this because this year a new ''500,000'' euro climbing structure had been built in the town, ready for the comp. And that, I have to add, was about as organised as things got. Upon arrival at the competition it became clear that the schedule was a long way behind. Infact it turned out to be more than 2 hours behind. I knew I was second to last to climb. But I didn't anticipate that I would have to sit in isolation for almost 8 hours (7.695). If it wasn't for 'Spanner' (Justin) feeding me cold chicken kebabs through the window of the isolation room around dinner time, I probably would have sacked it off and gone home (great barbecue sauce too).

Maxim sleeping through isolation. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Eventually under Count Dracula's pitch black sky I emerged to have a crack on a route. And cutting a long story short I climbed okay, but made a mistake trying to set the pick correctly on a particular hold. Which sucked all my time. The next day the semi-finals got abandoned after someone ate too many pies and broke a hold and no suitable replacement could be found. So with the schedule already behind time, the competition jumped forward to finals stage. Unfortunately for me, Evgeny Krivosheitsev had just beaten me by as little as a throw of an arm. So I missed out on making my first appearence in a World Cup final. 'Krivo' is a true competitor, so there was little sympathy coming from his corner. We thought about putting sleeping pills in his drink too, but no such pills were available at the time, so that plan was quickly floored.

After complaining about his mere 3 hours (!) of isolation before the final, the newly upgraded T4000 terminator prototype flowed his way between the ice and rock holds to another very precise and unflappable victory. Leaving him with 6 wins out of 6 in the season's competitions. Hee Yong give him a pretty good scare coming super close to a top out of the M12 onsight. But for all of us outside of Cyberdyne Industries, we're all going to have to go home and train that bit harder for next season. And with that the post comp party began. Of course I could tell you about the massive consumption of alcohol, the outrageous dancing, the wild antics, the general shinanagans and the rest. But that's what Facebook 'tagging' is for. So I'll leave it there.

The new T4000 code named 'Bendler'. Credit: Marc Beverly

General news

2010-02-03T20:14:00.002Z

First up is the bad news. It looks like Scott's Extreme Dream wall in Aviemore is downsizing it's climbing facilities. This is big shame for all those that live locally and use the wall regularly. This used to be me not so long ago, so I'm as gutted as anyone. The wall will still be open though, and hopefully the move will allow Extreme Dream the enterprise to thrive in the future.

On the flip side I heard from Pete Hill that the enthusiasm for drytooling is slowly building around the UK. Pete has been organising a number of events recently to raise awareness of the discipline. It seems like he's having some success, so hopefully the drytooling scene will expand in the future. It would be great to see more folks and more venues involved in the drytooling series next winter.

On the continent all the reports hint at this winter being much better than last. Ice conditions have been good in a lot of major areas over the last month or so. Will Gadd and Tim Emmett climbed a line on the back wall of Helmcken falls in Canada. Making full use of the sprayed on blobs of soft ice that litter the cave. Only 2 people as mad as them would come up with such an idea, but fair play it does look like a lot of fun. And in Austria, Albert Leichtfried's WI 7-8 testpiece 'Centercourt' that he climbed several weeks ago has been repeated by 2 other Austrian's. And they have confirmed the grade. Meaning... ice climbing is far from dead (as some people like to speculate) and is still being pushed forward by climbers at the top level.

The Saas Fee bubble

2010-01-26T17:12:00.009Z

When you enter this mythical, enchanting winter wonderland, you find things are not quite as they seem. Something is not right, something is missing. I think in some distinguished corners they call it 'reality'. Yes, now I think about it, it is definitely referred to as real life. In this chocolate factory populated only by people called Anthamatten, you will find all the snow in the world, small picture-postcard confectionary shops and beautiful folks sipping gluhwein by a log fire. Like they do in Whamm videos. In such a town, the pains and stress and responsibilities of the real word need not exist. It's just 100% climbing, skiing, drinking, partying and more drinking. In no particular order.

Saas Fee, the chocolate box town of Willie Wonker himself. Photo: Justin Spain

Myself and wingman Lukasz (calling him Goose would be criminal) rocked up in style in our Ford Focus hatchback just in time to get checked in at the 'Dom'. An ultra cool, snowboarder hotel in the trendy part of town. Yes, your thinking is right... why would two of the most uncool, unsophisticated, trampy climbers stay at the Dom? And yes, the receptionist asked a similar question through the medium of facial expression as we asked for our keys. Later on that night we came to realise a very inconvenient truth. Global carbon emissions are increasing and there was a nightclub directly underneath our bedrooms. At this point I should have seen the way the weekend was heading.

Modus transportius. Even the police use these. Photo: Justin Spain

Anyway before that there was the serious matter of climbing to be taken care of. And this time unlike past comps, I had everything set up perfectly. My competition 'man-bag' was packed, my hands were warmed up and I had plenty of time to get my stretch on. Then it was game time. To begin with, I climbed like a well oiled machine, cruising quickly on the tenuous real rock holds. But nearer the top I caught the rope in my crampons whilst trying to emulate a drunk person climbing through a window. I ran the clock down for 2 mins trying to free my hardwear from the 9mm octopus. And in a blink I went from hero to zero.

The reason I don't bother with speed climbing. Photo: Justin Spain

I was denied entry to the finals, like a bouncer on a nightclub door telling you to get screwed because you don't fit the dresscode. I've been there before, and just as I did then aged 17, I also turned round and shouted four letter abuse into the air. Get in. Malc must always have the last say.

A short period of focus. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

So in short summary, the weekend went rapidly downhill. I emerged unscathed to the hotel door at 5.30am with a lighter wallet and a very full bladder. I slept in till 1pm, then went to watch the other guys in the final in the evening. The finals produced their regular spoonfull of soap opera drama. Then began the main party! That's right 5.30am turned out to be the warm-up! And all I can honestly say is, what happens in Saas Fee, stays in Saas Fee.

My buddy Steph, winning the womens final. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

I could elaborate on the heavy alcohol intake, the dancing ontop of the bar, the stripping off, the pole dancing, the crowd surfing and thumping headache after, but that would just be telling. You'll just have to read the column that our journalist guest is writing for the Times newspaper in the UK. I can only wonder at what he thought after one night hanging out with the world's best ice climbers!

Marc 'the beast' Beverly finds a shorter route to the bar. Photo: Justin Spain

Grande Spectaculari

2010-01-18T13:35:00.005Z

This weekend was Italy and the World Cup. I love going to Italy, just about everything I observe there makes me laugh. A few of us during the trip decided to see who could find the longest, most ridiculous word in Italian. I'm convinced that half of what I hear is actually made up. There's no way they can be real words. The rules are. Add together as many Italian words as you can, roll the r's, always end with an 'i' and over-emphasise everything. For example escussiscolarigrandispectacularialtheti. See I just made that up, but someone in Italy knows what that means. No wonder Scrabble in Italy must be something entirely different altogether. I soon learned to zone it all out, and just listen for the very subtle mention of my name somewhere in amongst....right, there I go, time for me to climb! Either that or they are just insulting us without us knowing?

The finalists previewing the final route.

I climbed okay this time, limiting my under pressure competition mistakes to just one. It lost me time though and eventually became my downfall, as I just narrowly missed out on the finals. But at least this time the organisers realised that I was representing Denmark and not the UK. Overall I was pretty psyched though as my preparation went well and I felt strong whilst climbing. For my Italy World Cup debut it wasn't too bad.

Team America coming to save the world with Champagne.

These trips abroad are always a bit of a struggle. Generally I rarely ever speak any of the language of the host country. Such as this weekend, which was littered with incidents where people spoke to me in fast Italian, I shrugged my shoulders, they continued to speak in faster Italian and I shrugged my shoulders some more. It's hilarious really. When Markus was interviewed after the final, the interviewer hit him with a long barrage of Italian. He then took a guess of what the question might roughly have been about and responded into fluent German. Most of the crowd understood none of what happened. But all that mattered was that both people nodded and shook hands and that reflected some sort of general agreement.

Those that fell early were escorted to the 'kids area'.

I find the travelling a bit of struggle sometimes too. I'm a pure 'thoroughbred' climber. I hate walking to places and don't really like the action of travelling. I just want to reach the destination as soon as possible and climb as soon as possible. Driving on Italian roads has scarred my consciousness for eternity in the past and this weekend I remembered why. I don't yet fully comprehend why you would bother having speed limits on roads, when no one does less than twice the limit. I also don't understand how you can get away with people simultaneously overtaking and undertaking you at 160kph on the autostrada. I'd love to see some stats on road accident deaths in Italy.

Precision packing, the story of my life.

After I had managed to navigate the way back to Milan last night without crashing the car, I raced to the airport, screeched into the drop off area, grabbed bags and ran to the check in. Leaving my poor American buddies to try and drive the 'manual', 'toy' car round Milan airport to get to the drop off point. I heard that it took them 4 or 5 circuits of the airport ring road before they found where the car hire depot was. Meanwhile I made it from check in to plane in a record 12 mins (I don't recommend that anyone tries jumping the fence at the security gate in future though). I can tell you I slept like a baby afterwards.

Next it's the World Championships in Switzerland. The way this season is turning out I think I might write a piece later on about people. So many of the best stories are about the personalities of the people.

Back at it

2010-01-12T20:51:00.005Z

Some pics from the indoor and outdoor training places in Russia.

Moscow outdoor. Photo: Pavel Dobrinsky

Moscow indoor. Photo: Megumi Takahashi

Psyched by this I try to do something useful back at my place.

From Russia with g-love-s

2010-01-11T20:25:00.009Z

I just read a friend's Facebook page. He described our recent adventures in Russia as 'Epic'! And he wasn't B-S'ing. He's a fully qualified mountain guide. There are probably ten or more stories you could spin off the trip, but I'll attempt instead to tell one coherent summary of what happened with no bias and strictly PC of course.

The start of the trip went well. The flight to Moscow, the transfers, the 14hr train ride to Kirov and the fact that I managed to bag a room to myself in the climbers' hotel. However things went quickly down hill on the day of the climbing. I, like Rob and Dennis, drew an early starting number and stepped out into the -28 deg C air with zero warm up and zero clue what I was doing. Some flash pump and some technical infringements (touching out of bounds areas) later and my climbing was over.

Team non-Russia meeting up in Moscow.

Later on I watched some very good climbers fall foul of the rules or fall from ice that was so brittle it fractured and fell apart with them hanging off it. But 'Bionic-man', Markus wasn't phased by any of this and went on to cruise brilliantly through the routes and win the comp. Needless to say almost all of the top 10 positions were held by Russian climbers. Now this isn't to say there was ever any split between us, but as 16 of us had travelled together to get there, it felt like Markus was one of us.

Markus, Herbert and Andrej getting cold.

The trip was such a big adventure for all of us in the 'non-Russian camp' that it was just a matter of time till the post comp party began. Guided by the wisdom of the Americans, Marc and Justin, people that were once well respected climbing machines soon became intoxicated drinking machines, lubricated by what the Russians called 'mineral water' (actually 40% strength vodka). In fact the bottles unbelievably even had plastic sports bottle caps like Powerade!

The culprit.

And so began the long and painful journey back from the comp.

For some reason, let's just say 'whatever' reason, we had all been booked on a train that only took us half way to Moscow. So at 2am, 16 of the world's best ice climbers stepped off the party train and into the -20 cold, in a totally random town in the middle of nowhere. The following 4 or so hours were a memory hiatus. No one really remembers what happened in that town. Eventually we got back onto another train at 6.30am that took us to Moscow. By the time we arrived, people's merry status had mysteriously transformed into hangover status and 16 half-asleep bodies hit the Moscow streets. Meanwhile I made a hasty exit in the direction of the airport to speed up the 'self-expediting' process from Russia.

Steve Mcqueen in Russia, aka Rob during our 4hr time warp.

All in all it was the most adventurous climbing competition trip I've ever done and the same could probably be said for all my companions. We had a hell of a lot of fun during our short but intense cultural experience. I have to say I learned little about climbing. But I learned tonnes about people. People I'd competed with in the past but never got to know. And as for the guys from Japan, probably the nicest I've ever met. Thanks for your company and for the Japanese language lessons and Japanese towel. For every competition from here on, I will ritually wrap my tools in a towel with Japanese writing on, that I have no idea at all how to read! But it will feel good none the less.

Thanks to everyone on that train, including the guys from the UIAA for making it an adventure I will never forget. And most of all to Pavel (Pasha) Shabalin and our Russian hosts for helping us massively through the trip. Including some fine cognac to help fight off the cold.

The Grinch

2009-12-25T11:07:00.005Z

Here's a quick example of how a regular Christmas can easily turn into the biggest screw-up of the whole year.

First leave home, bound for a wedding in Manchester. Spend ages queuing at the airport in a crowd and then eventually get onto a plane late. Discuss the merits of excuses that include wintery weather, Mr Obama's plane-landing closing the airport and COP15 conference congestion. Arrive one and half hours late and miss the wedding ceremony of your best mate. Then realise that your baggage hasn't arrived and is 'lost', leaving you with only a cell phone, credit card and wedding suit. Check into hotel but find that your reservation has been lost.

Sometime later, pick-up a hire car with no fuel in and no windscreen wash. Drive for 6 hours through blizzards, traffic, diversions and road closures before eventually arriving with your family. Spend the next week in London battling to get a Russian visa at late notice with people that couldn't care less. And spend all your time on the phone trying to locate your lost luggage.
Merry Christmas.

The real grinch having more fun.

Climber Bio

2009-12-25T10:24:00.005Z

Markus looking cool. Photo: Bernhard Kogler

Markus Bendler

At the moment 'I' would say, and maybe others too that Markus is the best in the world as far as ice and mixed ice climbing go. More importantly though, than this kind of off-hand statement, he is the ideal role model for many of us (the 'younger' ones at least).

Current World Champion/World Cup Champion ice climber. Sponsored by Scarpa, Black Diamond and more.

Occupation: Climbing constructor

Born: Innsbruck in 1984

Age 20: Climbed M12

Age 22: Climbed M13

Age 23: Climbed WI 7

Age 25: Ice Climbing World Champion

Markus has also climbed up to F9a sport routes.

Website: http://markusbendler.at

Bye bye Guy

2009-12-17T19:32:00.003Z

I was pretty stunned to hear this week about the news that Guy Lacelle had been wiped out by an avalanche at the Bozeman Ice Festival in Montana, US. Guy was a very special character in the ice climbing community, with a very individual style on and off the ice. When you saw the truck and the dog in the car park, you knew the master was around. Along with Francois Damilano, Guy was the shining light of pure ice climbing in a changing world of 'fruitboots' and 'drytooling'. I probably had more respect for him than any other ice climber in the world. His quiet, methodical and controlled approach to ice was totally his own. In the few chances I had to climb alongside him, I learned more about how treat ice, than through any other medium or any other person. He was the ice man.

Guy cruising effortlessly as he did.

Batman: The dark (k)night

2009-12-16T20:00:00.008Z

When Bruce Wayne goes mad in a cave with a drill and some bolts, you know you're going to be in for a long night. And that it was. Somehow myself and Rob G had managed to end up a bar at 3am in Grenoble on Saturday night and we had no way of getting home. Not wanting to annoy our local hosts we soldiered on (taking one for the 'Brit team') to someone's apartment, where we were greeted with cold glasses of Chartreuse liquor (55% proof).

Rob necked his and I pretended to neck mine, and with that we fled into the night like Batman and Robin, but without the capes and masks. Surprisingly the next day Rob wasn't feeling too well and neither of us could get up till well beyond lunch time. Climbing and or training was thus declared officially... 'sacked off'. And we headed instead to Carrefour supermarket, where we walked round in circles for hours to soothe our souls.

Over the past few days though we have actually been training. This was my first climbing on real rock with tools for at least 9 months so I can say I personally got a lot out of it. Spending time training on M10 - M11 terrain has been a big step in the right direction for me. The physical stuff seems to have been going okay. Now I just need to work on the mental side and get that trained up. I think (?) Rob too got something out of it. He got a free flask, some fixed up ski bindings and the chance to watch some classic X-Files dubbed over in French on the TV. Everyone's a winner.

Big thanks to our good friends Etienne Grillot and Jeff Mercier for hosting us through the climbing and the apres-climbing over the weekend. They both did a fantastic job. I just can't figure out how they got up at the crack of dawn the next day.

Master of ceremonies Mr Mercier.
Photo: Etienne Grillot

The climbing accountant

2009-12-07T19:42:00.006Z

The dilligent checked shirt wearing climbing accountant always keeps track of the numbers as new crags are opened and new routes are climbed. Via inspiration from Rob G, who made a list of drytool routes in England and Wales. Here are my top trumps for Great Britain (I have no idea what's happening in Ireland).

'Torchlite' D12+. Newtyle Quarry. Malcolm Kent
'Good training for something' D12. Newtyle Quarry. Gadd-Macleod
'Too fast too furious' D11+. Newtyle Quarry. Scott Muir
'Fast and furious' D10(+?). Newtyle Quarry. Scott Muir
'Different game' D10. Swanage. Rob Gibson
'Finnish start' D10. Whitegoods. Rob Gibson
'Ready steady hook' D10. Whitegoods. Rob Gibson

Thanks to Rob for starting the list and Ramon for his topo.
You can find the topos in the sidebar on the left.

The 'Torchlite' D12+ description.

Power to the people

2009-12-06T18:33:00.005Z

Big thanks to all the people that had anything to do with the comp in Scotland at the weekend. It was a massive lifestyle detox for me, just to get out of the materialistic, money infested city and out to where it really matters. The hills. A part of the world I haven't been to for such a long time it's embarrassing to admit it.

The comp was never about winning or losing this time, just about benchmarking whether my late burst of training was actually doing anything. That said with 16 routes flashed out of 16, I was feeling like I was just getting warmed up. But freaky things happen in climbing. A tool came flying down from a route, bounced off something and the pick hit me straight in the left wrist. 'Good job you weren't looking up' someone said. Indeed. By the time the final came round the wrist was seizing up and generally pissing me off. But hey, that's climbing, you just gotta keep on at it.

Big up to Steve J, Rob G and everyone else who enjoyed themselves and climbed well for themselves. The atmosphere as usual was fantastic. I don't think there has ever been a competition in the history of climbing that has had friendlier competitors. For now time will tell. Myself and Rob are off on part 2 of the 'Rob and Malc escapades' on Friday for a comp in France. Hopefully the wrist will heal up in time for that.

Some poser topping out in the final.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Technical bed time reading

2009-11-28T19:14:00.003Z

Either because they're good in bed or because they help send you to sleep. Whatever your appreciation, these are the big four mixed climbing books.

Sean Isaac 'Mixed climbing'
Will Gadd 'Ice and mixed climbing'
Jeff Lowe 'Ice world'
Gresham and Parnell 'Winter climbing+'

Dealing with bad skin

2009-11-28T17:44:00.006Z

Although drytooling is no where near as bad for the skin on your hands as rock climbing, if you train hard enough and regularly enough you may start having issues as I did. This is how I get round it.

When the callousses start to develop on the fingers and sometimes in the joins between fingers, its time to start filing. I use a bar of abrasive material from a chemist that's specifically designed for sanding skin. Then I use skin cream that's specially formulated for dry and hard skin. The best piece of kit though for most things skin and climbing related is the Climb On bar. Available from most good climbing stores, its a tiny little pot of solid gold that's highly recommended.

The climbing skin 'medi-kit'

If your problem is the dreaded 'fusion finger' (purple swelling on the outside of the little finger) then there are really only 2 cures. Stop training or stop using the old Fusions and swap to something more ergonomic like the Nomic (hence the name!). Else live with the bad skin and swollen finger and spread the word that only the best climbers in the world have really hacked up, knarled hands (unlikely to be believed).

There is also a line of products that are designed for outdoor people and construction workers. It's made by a brand called Kiehls. It's generally pretty thick and syrupy stuff by seems to do a good job of providing a protective barrier on the skin that doesn't wear off easily.

My 2009/10 Gear Review

2009-11-26T08:43:00.009Z

I'm not exactly the worlds most comprehensive outdoor gear tester, but I know a thing or two about destroying things... and quickly too. Just ask my mum. On some occassions in the past my ability to trash things in very short spaces of time, has actually been of use to manufacturers. Meanwhile I have spent far too much money on things like trainers, which never seem to last more than about 6 months.

This winter I have, like many previous winters developed some favorite pieces. The ones that always get pulled out whenever I climb, because I enjoy using them so much. For this winter here are some of my opinions on gear that I've been using regularly recently.

New Black Diamond Fusion:

It's a big improvement on the old Fusion. They're a touch shorter, maybe 1cm. But they swing much better. The bend in the shaft is higher up and the shaft is 'hydroformed', basically the same as the Viper tool. The tool feels a touch lighter than the old version. Essentially it still drytools well but is now much easier to use on ice. The grip is now fully moulded and integrated, the upper finger rest is more ergonomic and the lower grip is very slightly narrower and easier to hold. The base has a removable spike and the head is now less overhanging at the back with a small integrated hammer. As before the tools still take the regular Fusion pick. Overall it's the real deal and for me is now the stand-out best all-round tool for winter climbing. I've loved training with it. Click here to my previous post on the Fusions

The old and the new modelled by a ninja Kat.

Salomon XT Wings GTX 2010:

These are the old XT Wings but now with Red Bull injected into them. Fully Gore-Tex all over they make total sense to me in the winter. I lose count of how many times I end up wading through snow, digging cars out and even digging front doors out. The best for me is that they are really stable and have extra motion control built in to help people like me that over pronate massively. They have the regular speedy one pull lacing system and contragrip outsole. Although they take a while to break in, when they do they are super easy to wear and super comfortable. Most of all though they pass my test for ability to clean themselves perfectly after running/walking through mud. The most important feature by far.

Mountain Hardwear Dragon:

I used to have the predecessor to this jacket, the Torch jacket. It was brilliant. I wore it so much it went from orange to black. I could use it for everything from Scottish winter routes to big ice and sport mixed. The Dragon is essentially the same but with the updated version of Gore Windstopper. It also has elastic cuffs inside the main velcro cuff. It's basically a super soft, easy to wear, windproof, water repellent, hooded climbing jacket. In all but the most full on downpours, this jacket is better than wearing a hard shell Gore-Tex. I would highly recommend this jacket or something very similar.

The blue dragon on the mannequin.

Buzzing

2009-11-22T19:16:00.005Z

Just in the last week my training has started to move into the 'zone'. Training sessions have a different 'buzz' about them. Essentially, before they were just training sessions and had no 'buzz' what so ever. But now I'm starting to feel 'the force'. What the hell am I talking about with all these words in quotes? Am I just taking the piss and annoying the potential reader? No. The last phrase actually really does mean something. What I call 'the force' isn't the opposite of the sith lord's dark side, but is more of an imaginary hand behind you. When you finish a training exercise, it's the imaginary hand that pushes on your back and compells you get back on for another exercise rather than resting. Or when you're running and you feel the imaginary hand on your back pushing you to go faster and faster. The imaginary hand otherwise known as the force pushes you to try harder, go further and train longer than you would normally do (and it's not drugs related).

Somehow the presence of the force is rooted deep in your subconscious and only reveals itself when you have trained enough and sweated enough to earn the grace of its presence. Then when it arrives, like an unstoppable wave the force gets inside you like an addiction and drives you the minute you pick up those tools or lace up those running shoes. I could now start to talk about things called endorphins but that would break the flow of my badly formed poetry. So ignore the existence of endorphins and think about the force instead. It's much nicer. The imaginary hand of god on your back. Like Maradona or Henry but used for an act of ethical goodness. You have to keep pushing though and keep the training focused or the force will die out and and then you're back to the mediocre world again.

The force is strong in this man.
He did this just because the lift was broken.

Under the radar

2009-11-10T21:31:00.003Z

It's probably not news that's going to rock the world. Like a nutter shooting 13 people dead in an army camp in Texas. But still I liked reading about Marko Prezelj's trip and so stuck it here too for others. I met Marko randomly on a back street in Dundee 2 years ago. A very unassuming guy. Although I think at the time he was lost. Not good on the back streets of Dundee on your own. Good on him though. Nice work.

Bhagirathi in the Indian Himalaya, a truly cool place.

Text here

Dry ice oddness

2009-11-10T21:23:00.004Z

Is this a picture of Mr Gaz Parry beef cake rock climber extrordinaire hanging from some car seat belt strapped to plywood handles or are my eyes deceiving me? Is he laughing out of pure enjoyment or because he's thinking wtf am I doing here? Strange. I heard about these 'interesting' creations 18 months ago when someone rocked up to Scott Miur's wall in Aviemore and started using them in front of us. I'm still struggling, like many in the Dragons Den, to figure-four what's going on here exactly and are they actually going to catch on. That's all I have. I am now out of words.

Here's the campaign poster

Nuclear fusion

2009-11-10T20:35:00.008Z

Some brief notes for those folks that have been asking me about the new fusions from BD.

Aesthetically I have to be honest and say the tool generally still looks recognisably like a Fusion. Except of course the colour. A lot of thought went into the way the tools swing and clearly that's the main difference with the new design. They swing a lot better. They are the same as the Viper in their shaft shape and feel more rigid and better weighted than the old Fusions. This means essentially they are not just a mixed tool anymore but more of an all-rounder and much better on ice. The head can still take a small hammer and the pick is still the low profile fusion pick. The head now is basically a copy of what we were doing for comps, which was to grind the old heads so they were less overhanging at the back. Also worth noting that you can add a spike now the the bottom of the tool if you wish.

The upper grip has been improved as well, by adding a better rubberised moulded surface and by making the finger rest or trigger more ergonomic. The main grip though is essentially the same shape and the same fit - often better for smaller hands and tighter for larger hands (but expandable all the same). Generally the tool feels more balanced and usable. In essence where I used either a specific comp tool, the Petzl Nomic's or the Fusions before. Now I'll be using only the Fusions.

The tool has been notorious in the past for bending picks, bending heads or worse still snapping just above the grip. It's impossible to say if this will happen with the new ones. You certainly won't see me in the garage trying to get all 'Myth Busters' with it. Tools cost money! If you're fretting about whether you should or shouldn't buy them.... just get out there and get a pair. They certainly won't make your climbing worse and when it's all said and done only a bad workman blames his tools (a catch-all phrase that blankets most situations very conveniently!!).

Check out my mate's photo of a bent Fusion pick here:
http://vibrez-drytooling.blogspot.com/

Some Russian pick bending. Photo: Pavel Dobrinsky

5 ways to help avoid elbow injury

2009-11-10T18:41:00.007Z

2. Thorough warm-up and warm-down.
I use hand exercisers and a powerball and then do some easy traverses.

3. Using tubigrip.
Normally I use a short length of tubigrip support bandage doubled up on either arm.

4. Press-ups.
Anything from 30 to 100 press-ups at the start and again at the end of the session.

5. Dips.
Between 10 and 40 dips at the start and again at the end.

6. Slow lock-offs.
Always be careful, slow and deliberate when locking off your elbow or releasing a lock-off.

All of the above is predicated on the fact that you have ignored the obvious cure number 1'' in the list.... not training any more. A dumb idea.

Testing out my homemade dip bars. 2 tree trunks, 2 towel rails
and lots of grip tape. Then get involved.

If any of this seems depressingly methodical, then like me you can 'un-depress' yourself with the sight of other peoples carpentry creations.

Photo: Adrian Croome. Role model for hold density.

Photo: Dave Macleod collection. Role model for steepness.

More pics here:

Stepping it up

2009-11-09T20:23:00.006Z

Just for fun, I often call this phase of pre-season training 'witness the fitness'. A great phrase... thanks to Roots Manuva for teaching us all that one. It's a part of the training that generally takes place between 2 and 4 four weeks in, depending on how strong you were to start with. For me this year I started this phase about 10 days ago. What I am really trying to figure out more than anything is where my level is at. Then keep pushing it over and over. It's a logical extension to the exercises in 'starting training'. But the key difference now is that I don't leave the wall until I am totally finished and I can't do another pull-up.

I do more dips, more press-ups, more sit-ups, more pull-ups and more climbing than before. I know this because I keep a whiteboard on the wall with the last sessions efforts and then try to beat it in the next session. And so on for every session after. I find it's really important to keep progressing. Stalling for more than 3 days for me just means I get bored and loose interest. Not good. I get bored quickly. Having really tangible yardsticks keeps the improvements coming. Bit by bit, then maybe the odd the leap or two now and then.

The whiteboard of justice. It never lies.

I'm now extending the circuits to be 10-20m long equivalent including stints across the roof. I'm also doing longer moves, on smaller holds and using less footholds. On some exercises, particularly the dynamic ones, I'm starting to use weights. Waist weight belts are good and mimic the heavy harness syndrome. A rucsac can be good too. But I generally prefer weights on the arms or wrists best. That really gets results quick. Each week, 2 of my sessions are dedicated to stamina work with super long circuits. And 2 others are dedicated to power training. This power training now includes, easy 1 rung at a time campusing with tools, one arm lock-off's on each arm and one arm reaches and 'deadpoints' with a straight shafted axe. Pulling hard on old skool mountaineering axes with big gloves over and over is the best way to improve grip strenght fast.

You definitely get a lot more wasted during these days of training and I'm definitely sleeping pretty well at moment. But the biggest issue for me is battling to keep the skin intact. Lots of filing back calluses and hand cream is about as good as I can manage. Not a problem though, I've never been big into shaking hands with strangers.

Winter but not as we know it

2009-11-05T19:52:00.003Z

...or is it actually just a normal start to winter, given the past few years? However that said, this week in Copenhagen we had our first snow just yesterday. Not much and no settling but snow still the same. Schizzle. There are reports coming in of conditions forming in the major areas too. Will Gadd has been getting out on thin early season ice in the Canadian Rockies and major ice lines are starting to firm up a bit in Colorado too according to Clint Cook and the San Juan guys. Good news if you live there. If you live in the UK though.... for now... keep praying. I'm so psyched about these stories of hope, I've gone and splashed out in celebration.

Yes that's right I bought 80 bottles of Lucozade.

Warming up

2009-11-03T20:39:00.007Z

First thing to say is that I am definitely not the world expert on this. But I have struggled with the concept of the best way to warm up for the last few seasons and have seen first hand many of the worlds leading climbers doing their various routines. Learning from that, this is what I do now.

I get my heart rate up by cycling to the climbing wall. But this could be just a quick run before you start climbing. Nothing too prolonged and arduous but enough to get the heart rate up high for a several minutes, infact maybe as long as 20min. Then I try and loosen up. I'm not a huge advocate of static stretching although a bit of this might be necessary. I prefer to spend more time doing dynamic warming up, like circling my arms, wrists, ankles and shoulders, loosening up my hips and back from side to side. Some folks think 'windmilling' you arms and shoulders is bad. However I've watched Markus Bendler (world champion) do it everytime before a big comp. And he is pretty much the ultimate althlete in terms of mixed ice climbing, so I think I'd follow him rather than the doubters. Some static stretches for your arms, back and legs are good to do, but essentially drytool training is a very dynamic beast and static stretches just aren't enough. That said I do stretch my calves, hamstrings, triceps, biceps and back.

So now that my core is warmed up and my joints and limbs are looser, I warm up my hands and forearms. When all is said and done, they are the ones getting most hammered. I normally use spongey hand exercisers and a Powerball for several minutes. After this your hands, wrists and forearms should feel sufficiently woken up, maybe even with some minor pump. Another area that gets very stressed with any dynamic training is the elbow. Hence I always try to do at least 50 press-ups and 30 dips before I start training. The dips can be given various types of assistance in order to make them less strenuous as a warm-up.

Demonstrating a basic hand exerciser.

Then it's time to get going, but with the first few exercises being just easy traversing to help get the muscle-memory and brain-focus both tuned in. When I trained at Scott Muir's wall in Aviemore I used to start with 20mins of traversing easy stuff with hands and trainers on a vertical wall before picking up the tools.

The Powerball in action.

I have to add, that there are some things I've seen that I truly cannot explain. At last years world championships in Switzerland myself, Rob Gibson and Tim Emmett did what you might call a 'normal' steady warm up for 30mins. Whilst other folks from other countries jumped straight into campusing the tool board and footless traverses of the angled monkey bars. Either they were a robotic super species not yet known about or they were numbnuts. I am still to this day dumb-founded by how you can go from being stone cold to reps of campusing without injuring yourself? Strange.

Creative Noise

2009-11-01T20:07:00.002Z

Looks like I'll be keeping my feet on the ground this month and keeping it real at home. Spending time in Scotland looks unlikely as the UK weather situation hasn't improved at all. So for November I'll be based in Copenhagen. This will give me some much needed consolidation time before the rushing around starts again. This means more time experimenting creatively. Also known as keeping the neighbours up.

This is what happens when you take some tracks, mess around with them, merge them and turn them into a mess of sound at 10 o'clock at night. Its no labour of love, just pure love. This a clip from an hours, 'playing with sounds' (definitely not a clean cut session!).

Tool techniques

2009-10-25T16:49:00.035Z

There are of course books out there that already discuss this stuff. But for one thing, that means buying the book. Where as people can just look here for free! I also find that no one book has ever hit on all the tricks. Most often because people write books after their climbing career has started to wind down, by which time they are out of the loop and are missing some ideas. On that note I will follow suit and probably miss some stuff too. With that in mind this is what I came up with. (m) made up name, (p) possible made up name, (a) accepted terminology

Regular straight-on hook (all kinds)(a):

Pick wrap(a):

Tool wrap(a):

Regular steinpull(a):

Reverse steinpull 'tin opener'(a):

Free style reverse steinpull(m):

Pick match(p):

Lay-off or sidepull(a):

Pick torque(p):
Placing only part of the pick into a crack/seam and twisting the tool sideways to lock it in position.

Toolbox torque(m):
Placing the pick and the head and maybe even the shaft into the crack and twisting the tool sideways or pushing/pulling sideways in order to lock the tool in.

These are some basic techniques you would employ for training. Of course at some crags you have to make up even more innovative jams, torques or steinpulls. That's a black box of creativity beyond this blog!

Regular grip(a):

High choke/grip(p):

Low choke or intermediate(m):

Finger tip grip(m):

Regular control position(m):

Dodgy hand swap(m):

Tool head mantel(p):

Reverse grip(p):

Reverse control position(m):

What to do with the spare tool when you don't need it for a moment.

In the hand (behind the thumb):

In the mouth:

You can place the tool over or across your shoulder too, but generally I don't do this as it's normally insecure and encourages the tool to fall off. No route that pushes you hard and makes you sweat is worth taking that risk for.

Starting training

2009-10-25T16:02:00.007Z

I just recently started training again for a new winter season. A ritual that's happened so many times before, it's got to that 'oh here we go again' stage. But rather than just plough on into weeks of training with my conscious thought switched off, I thought instead of noting down ideas. As with many seasons, this is another where I've stupidly put myself under extra pressure by leaving the training so late. So these words have even more significance than normal.

I spend the first 2 to 3 weeks developing a base level, the building blocks or foundations for the later training. I call it a base level because generally whatever badness (colds, injuries) happens over the winter, you shouldn't drop below this level of climbing fitness. For me this can be a frustrating time mentally, as you just want to get strong as quick as possible (like yesterday!). But you have keep focused and not jump ahead of your body. As TopGun pilot Maverick was once told by his short, fat, bold, chain smoking boss 'your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash son'. And this is not where we want to be.

So during this time I keep the exercises simple and most of all avoid injuries. This is really key as the new phase of training will leave your body exposed to a host of injuries. All because it's not yet used to the new regime. Avoiding injuries means proper static and dynamic warm-up and warm-down exercises, no campusing and extreme loading exercises and no over-reaching. All easier said than done. More on injury prevention coming soon.

I use a 'systems (systematic training) board' mostly to begin with and some kind of traverse wall. Like this season, I start from the basics. Developing 'muscle memory' for pulling up, dropping down, locking off, resting out and balancing. I make up exercises on the systems board to practice over and over, the shorter and longer lock-off's and reaches. I use my feet on the board to begin with and then smaller and smaller footholds. Meanwhile on the traverse wall I develop basic technique. Using the pick in every way possible. Using every type of hold I can find. Focusing on always maintaining a balanced position and always keeping my feet working hard. Extending the length of traverse wall exercises also helps to train up your stamina.

The systems board.

Everyone of course is different in where their strengths and weakness lie. I have little trouble building up stamina fast, but really struggle with building up raw brute power. Google - fast and slow twitch muscle fibres for more on that. So now for example I'm working hard on the basics of raw power. For mixed climbers this means static reaching a long distance hold via a difficult lock-off or blasting off a figure-four to a long distance hold. So repeated up-and-down lock-off exercises are the order of the day. One other aspect that's really important in the early days is grip strength. This can really get you out of jail on a hard onsight. For this I train with the worlds worst straight shafted axes and thick tramp gloves. Doing easy bouldering till my hands fall off the bottoms of the tools (they are so crappy, tools is probably not the best way to describe them).

Pull-up tools and bar.

Aside from actually climbing, which as Leo Holding once said, is the best training, other types of cross training can help. At the moment I'm cycling 20km a day and running a couple of times a week. Not much, but if you really push hard on those runs and rides then you can help train your cardiovascular fitness. I have found that doing much more than this doesn't really give you much added benefit and just takes time away from what you should be doing - climbing. If you're going to the high mountains then this isn't true of course. So when I look like a twat charging past other people at 9pm on the streets of the city, I feel no shame or embarrassment. I just wear a frown on my face that says 'this is all for a higher cause'.

Looking down the traverse wall.

Every move I make on the training board or crag during this period gets met with the mantra of, check my... Feet, Balance, Breathing and Grip. Are my feet in the best position, am I as balanced as possible, is my breathing controlled and is my grip as relaxed as possible? Over and over. If you find yourself going from a fat bastd to an athlete in a matter of weeks. Don't worry you're spot on course.

I'll have some better explained sample video clips on the exercises in the near future.

A mighty mohawke

2009-10-19T20:05:00.006+01:00

I have been getting a lot of traffic recently asking me about music and dejaying, with the most obvious question being about new music. 'What's the latest hot stuff that's killing it out there at the moment?' Well sometimes I just tell people about old music that's been killing it for me for years. Not really the right answer to the original question. This week though I've had some more tangible stuff to respond with. Whilst the classics like Kieron Hebden, Sasumo Yakota, Erol Alkan, Sebastian, Alex Metric, Flying Lotus, High Contrast and Deadmau5 are still rocking, new names are shining through. This year Cagebaby, Corduroy Kid, Dabrye, Prefuse 73, James Yuill and most recently Hudson Mohawke have hit the notes. Hudson Mohawke's latest offerings like 'Fuse' are just quality through and through. (All other music beta will be in the playlist section from now on). Enjoy.

Hudson Mohawke Link

A reverse mohawke, incapable of music production.

Science Fusion

2009-10-17T19:40:00.003+01:00

I was on a recent excursion via Utah when I heard some rumblings about the new BD Fusions. A tool that I first heard about 2 seasons ago from Roger Strong, but which is finally due out at the begining of December. Keep your eyes peeled here for a pre-season review by yours truly. And here's the link with the BD specs.

Black Diamond Fusion

Thanks to Adam at BD in Salt Lake City for the update.

Image by Black Diamond equipment, USA.

Building a drytooling facility

2009-10-17T17:23:00.006+01:00

You can call it a wall, cave, gym or even woodie (not my preferred nomenclature), it's all the same. Here's the story of how I built mine (wall not woodie!).

Basically I live in a city, so figuring that rent prices or buying costs would be ridiculous close to home, I went looking in the out-of-town areas. Areas where I could see tonnes of warehousing and general industrial grey bleakness. And after 2 months of fruitless searching, with only a sheisty tin pot garage to my name, I struck lucky and found a reasonable sized warehouse for an affordable price.

I measured up every dimension of the space, noting that the design would have to be a little more unorthodox given the paper thin alluminum walls and shortage of electricity. I spent 2 weeks buying the tools I needed and ordering wood from a reputable timber merchant. There were never any formal plans or drawings. Just a mental image and a pathetic looking cereal box cut out. Everyone goes on about structural engineers, but frankly they aren't going to make your design safer necessarily. Rather they can probably tell you how to build it to the same strength but with less wood. Stubbornly I opted to ignore engineering principles and throw a spoon full of chunky timbers in when I thought it needed it.

The warehouse in its original state. 80sqm and 6m high.

I built a free-standing frame supported by a number of key vertical columns. These resembled a mini Stonehenge made from wood. The columns were 20cmx20cm wide and attached to the ground with 90 deg brackets bolted with expansion bolts into the concrete floor. As the framework built up around the columns I switched to using either 2x8'' planks or 2x6'' bracing, depending on where it was positioned. In the cave area the finished framework was essentially a massive box with oblique cross bracing connecting from the sides to the roof beams. For the main wall, the overhang was limited so that the wall wouldn't just topple over and the far ends were braced diagonally downward into the ground to counteract the tendency to topple in.

A 90 deg bracket supporting a post.

During the framework building it became obundantly clear that french screws, regular wood screws and steel brackets were the be all and end all. My universe! They really made the structure work. I think infact I lost count of the brackets used after it passed 80. I have to stress at this point that you can do a lot on your own as I did, but eventually you get to stopping points where you just have to get 1 or 2 folks to help. If you and your mates know roughly what you're doing then that teamwork can really help to tighten up the joints and stiffen up the whole structure. Infact if you've done it right then you should be able to start climbing around on the framework well before it's fully finished. (if you do this and it collapses ontop of you and your buddy and you never walk again .... I hereby disclaim my way out of any liability!).

The framework being built.

Once the framework was up we began cutting the ply. 18mm thick in standard sized sheets. A circular saw is a must for this, unless you're off work and claiming benefit and have spare time to kill. Mostly the sheets will fit up as whole, then after that you generally find that you have to cut small sections to fill the remaining gaps. Hopefully you don't immediately do any attaching, but instead lay out all the sheets and drill the holes. Something like a 20 or 30cm spacing should work. I used a 12mm bit and drilled through several sheets at a time. Then hammered the t-nuts into the holes and placed a small screw against every t-nut to stop them from spinning. And with that the panels went up on the walls. I used 40mm wood screws spaced roughly 20cm apart (stronger screws spaced closer together for the roof panels).

Kat measuring the spacings for the holes.

The final touches were to add some paint to the panels (the holes plugged with something to stop the paint getting in) and to throw in some crash matting. I used mats that were 30cm deep for a cave section that was 3.5m and a wall section that was 4.5 high.

Kat adding the final customisations.

Some useful tips:
Try to design/plan your walls around the ply dimensions of 1.22x2.44m.
Always order a bit more wood from the merchant than you think you need, especially for the ply.
Try to connect the major columns/beams with notched joints like a jigsaw puzzle.
It's most efficient to make notches with very fat drilled holes and then cutting with a sabre saw.
Maybe use cheaper chipboard for the kicker panels where footholds will be placed.
Don't over angle your walls. They always feel steeper than you first thought when designing.
Use clamps to the max, they are a great way to pull in twisted or mis-shapen wood.
The ply panels will surprise you with how much strength they add to final structure.
Save time by drilling 2, 4 or even 6 panels at a time with an extended drill bit.
Always add screws in behind the t-nuts to stop them spinning later.
If possible use a counter-sink bit to keep screw heads from hanging out.
Indoor walls don't need painting, but I did one coat of cheap paint as a rule of thumb.
Put up the lower ply sheets first so that later ones can be rested into position on the lower ones.

A notched joint for a roof beam.

Most importantly though, always keep it fun and interesting to work on. The minute it starts to become tiresome and depressing, a change of approach is needed. A cinical, dry but slightly self-deprecating sense of humour can really help at these times.

New Comps

2009-10-15T20:21:00.007+01:00

Those French guys over in the Haute Alps area have put together some comps for the end of this year that are going to be played out on some of there specialist drytooling crags. Full info at the link:

Drytooling Competitions in France

Thanks for that Jeff.

The infamous 'Zoo' will host the second comp.

A soft landing

2009-10-08T21:23:00.005+01:00

Well, after a lot of travel and very little in the way of sleep, I'm back at home. For a week at least. Until the next trip to Mexico. As the mats for the climbing wall have arrived, I figured I should at least post a photo and relax back in the hope that finally the project is complete enough to be useful for the winter. All I need now is a second pair of hands to help me clear out the piles of rubbish that have accumulated and then that's pretty much it. Until next spring at least.

Santa's delivery couldn't come early enough for Kat.

The orangeness illuminates the walls.

On the road

2009-09-27T19:51:00.004+01:00

For those that are interested in the progress of the climbing gym project. The news is... I'm on the road traveling at the moment and so basically, nothing is happening. But all being well the crash matting will be arriving soon in my absence and will magically fit itself together on the floor and be ready to climb for my return! Unlikely. Though if this was the case then my next post would be titled 'Climbing Wall Finished'.

For those that are interested in the Scottish mixed climbing competitions for this winter, I point you at the new website that Neil S has made to journalize the whole thing. Check it here:

Scottish Comp Series

To all visitors.... see ya in 10 days. In the meantime I'm off to Wyoming!

Isotonic rant

2009-09-14T18:56:00.008+01:00

I've tried it all, I've heard peoples views and I've cast aside all the crap from hearsay and terrible marketing. Quite simply nothing touches Lucozade. I've just started running again. Not much but a quick push around a 10km posing trail, a couple of times a week. I've been experimenting with some of the urine that Danes here think are sports drinks. I don't think they've got any idea what one actually is. The Faxe Kondi Pro that I necked today was enough to make me want to vomit for 6 of the 10k's. I have to be honest and say my running now is pretty shoddy. Because I'm fat and way out of shape. But there was a time when I was fit and could run 10k in under 33mins and a marathon in under 2, 45. Back then and ever since I did my first fun-run aged 10, I have always used Lucozade.

Lucozade was started in Newcastle in 1927 as a recovery drink that would make you feel better when you were getting over an illness. This form of the drink is still available now and is called 'Original'. For me though it's all about 'Sport'. It's da bomb. It tastes good, quenches thirst, isn't too strong or too weak, rehydrates and replaces lost salts. Most of all though it always settles well in the stomach. But now I live in Copenhagen. Where people go running in lycra so they can hook up with other stretchy people. Here it's Gatorade, Powerade or Faxe Kondi. The best of these, Gatorade (the classic American alternative) being difficult to find and just not having the boost that Lucozade has. It seems that where ever I travel round the world, there are always imitations but nothing ever comes close to matching the real thing.

The great, the bad and the vomit. In that order.

Almost finished

2009-09-07T17:12:00.006+01:00

Yours truly Mr Duke Dogg, working late into the night. Photo: Uli Miksch

The first panels start to go up in the cave section. Photo: Uli Miksch

3 hours later and cave is almost finished. Photo: Uli Miksch

The future of the Leashless idea

2009-09-02T10:14:00.002+01:00

The warehouse building project that I've dubbed the Monastry is almost coming to a close. At least stage 1 anyway! This prompted some chain reaction thoughts about what my mum would call...'where is this is all heading?'. And here's the deal.

The plan is to take the blog from just being a brain dump of personal accounts and links to being a more useful resource. I've seen some great examples recently of people pushing blogger as far as it will go. So something that is genuinely useful to other winter climbers.

To help me do this the new climbing warehouse, which will eventually become the Leashless Centre, will be really key. I'm going to use the warehouse to test out ideas and gear, a kind of winter climbing laboratorium if you will. I hope this will be useful to other folks. Understanding how different picks and pick setups work, how different techniques work and bringing together training ideas. The beauty of having the warehouse is being able to build any training device that your brain can dream up. A big learning experience for me.

To kick it off I'll write some notes on building a drytooling gym and how its subtly different from building a bouldering gym. Nothing too long and boring, just the important bits!

The future of training according to one source.

More Monastry Part 3 Pics

2009-08-19T12:24:00.005+01:00

A cool panoramic of the progress a few days ago. Photo: Uli Miksch

New Things

2009-08-18T21:03:00.015+01:00

New gear that'll be all over the shops and the advertising space this winter. I have to be honest, it's often a fine line between autonomously developing something that's similar to another manufacturer and just looking over the fence and copying! [just look at DMM's Dragon Cams].

I recently investigated the subject of creativity with one of the worlds leading experts, a professor from Sweden. We eventually agreed about one thing... truly original creativity doesn't exist. We are all a product of our influences and every idea we have is in some indirect way a product of influence. Most of the super successful corporate strategies around the world have come from the second companies to take up an idea. Not the first companies who orginally came up with the idea. Mmmmm. Here are a couple of new gems due out sometime soon.

The new Grivel G20 2 part, monopoint 'foot folk'
Marginally better looking than the Petzl Dart!

The new BD Fusion 'bread knife' that we've been waiting for for ages.

UK Tooling Series 2009

2009-08-14T14:49:00.002+01:00

Really great news from Glenmore Lodge. Well ahead of the start of the season, dates have been released for the winter tooling competitions in the UK. Check out the link for the beta:

Glenmore Lodge Link

Vorsprung Durch Technik

2009-08-13T09:24:00.006+01:00

It's been a busy old time recently and hence the blogging has sunk into a black hole of nothingness. Lucky then that yesterday I enlisted help from my buddy Uli to add some much needed German efficiency into the construction process for the Monastry. Uli declined to bring along his lederhosen for the job but did however feel the need to carry the extremely heavy, 5m long timbers between his thighs. Scary stuff.

I offered Uli the chance to rachet in the 'Frenske Scruers', but Uli declined saying that he wasn't up for French screwing any more. [Add your un-p.c historical pun in here]. Overall though it was a very satisfactory evenings work, with the Part 3 of the project starting to take shape. By the end of the evening it was left to Uli to have the last word: 'I sinkz zat it izz important not have loozze nuts'. Indeed. Big thanks to Uli for all his effort.

The cave section starts to look almost real.

The sheets of ply waiting to be attached.

2000 t-nuts ready to go.

A little aside

2009-08-05T21:17:00.004+01:00

A lesson in why taking days off from the Monastry project is not a good idea. Why? Because when you decide to go on a site-seeing tour to one of Denmark's so-called beauty spots, you get peoples dogs crapping on the pavement in front of you. And the entire area gets swamped with an infestation of flies. I counted at least 100 on Kat's back alone.

My bag getting ravaged by flies during our outing to Denmark's biggest cliffs.

Kat wishing that she could be sawing, drilling and carrying stuff instead.

More Monastry Pics

2009-07-25T17:55:00.008+01:00

Kat takes a break and feasts on some concrete muffins.

I start to grow wings after knocking back too much of the local sugar solution.

Kat then gets back to some ''precise'' arm measuring.

In case we don't get enough workout during the
building we hit the weights for extra pump.

Mena demonsatrates the wood chiseling technique.

Folded arms = we're absolutely sure this column isn't going to fall down (?)

Sabresaw workout

2009-07-22T21:25:00.006+01:00

Purely by chance I've stumbled on something that's going to be 'biblically' (!) useful for the winter training programme. Feast eyes on the Sabresaw as pictured above. It's a beast, moreover to the untrained eye it might look like a tool of potential death. A blunt instrument of torture. But strangely enough it's been giving me some great workouts of late.

For best results I recommend fitting the saw with a 305mm wood blade and cutting through as much 200x200mm wood as you can take. Meanwhile trying to stick to a pre-drawn line as a guide. It's great. Yesterday I did about 2 hours worth and finished with a really good grip pump just like ice tool grip pump. It's holding the saw straight and guiding it down as it tries to jump around that gives you the subtle pump. Similar to a gyro PowerBall. Attaching the blade correctly to start with is a pre-requisite for success. Anything else is garanteed to amputate, decapitate or lead to unwanted puncturing. In a way this could simulate the fear of death factor of climbing outside?

Monastry Project Pics

2009-07-14T17:52:00.003+01:00

Some pictures as the drytooling wall project moves on.

The sawing begins.

And the campus board becomes.

The Monastry Part 2

2009-07-05T17:57:00.005+01:00

Part 2 is pretty simple really. Get a bank card and a trolly and buy some tools. This phase should have taken me about 2 days but with lots of travelling recently I've dragged it out to 2 weeks. Hopefully travelling should be cut back over the next month. Meaning, I can finally get through phases 3 and 4. If you're ever short of ways to kill yourself for 30mins, try this one. Walking from a shop to a warehouse with a 5m scaffolding tower under one arm and a complete multigym with weights under the other. It's a monster workout. And all in the name of saving money on hiring a van!

Reward is cheese.

The back of the Monastry begins to fill with toys.

The Monastry Part 1

2009-06-07T17:30:00.005+01:00

Today finally represents day 1 of the project to build the indoor drytooling wall after weeks of faff, arm waving and hot air. First step was to walk around the warehouse with a tape measure, paper and pencil, sporting the obligatory 'wife-beater', builders arse crack and pencil on ear. The weather was rainy and the view was mostly industrial, so with no women to whistle at I got to work with measuring up.

The Monastry looking bare and extremely metallic.

The short story is that it looks like a bit of a challenge. With no sturdy walls to use and no power supply things aren't exactly off to a flying start. The main issue is going to be how to install some strength into the framework. The options are: a steel box-section frame, a 2-by-4 timber frame or building new walls from breeze-blocks. Lovely. Welcome to the Monastry.

Let's hope the real version stands up better than the cereal box model.

Does anyone remember the C64

2009-06-05T13:43:00.003+01:00

Needs to be seen to be believed...

Clickable Link

Smurf up, dress down

2009-05-24T18:27:00.006+01:00

New post added to the music appreciation section:

Clickable Link

Hopefully this summer will be long and sunny with countless evenings at beach clubs listening to great new music with good friends. Okay, this isn't really likely to happen very much. If like me you enjoy music around 130bpm with a fat bass line, then keep an eye on the link above. I'll be posting everything I learn on it through the summer.

My makeshift music studio for the time being.

The low down on Copenhagen

2009-05-16T16:38:00.005+01:00

Today's one of those days. It was just a matter of time till it happened. It's been raining all day and I'm bored out of my brains. Whilst the sun is beating down theres something to be done or some place to go and visit. But now its indoors only and I find myself at the computer.

It's fair to say that essentially Denmark has no natural climbing to speak of. The island of Bornholm off the south east coast of Sweden is the closest thing I've seen so far. Besides that there are the crags of southern mainland Sweden for bouldering and some routes. Which pretty much leaves the indoor option :-(

The bulk of the action as expected is around Copenhagen. I've been around the various climbing 'hallen' over the last few weeks and prefer to articulate my opinion in an blunt and concise manner... generally the most constructive way I find. There are basically 2 decent options for the visiting climber. Skovlunde or Amagerbro. Although there are other walls/gyms they aren't worth it for a number of reasons, most importantly their lack of facilities.

The wall at Skovlunde called Pløks is further out of town but just a short walk from the S-train station. It has plenty of height, a good variation of route styles and angles as well as some specific training boards. It's indepedently run and generally the staff know their arse from their elbow in terms of climbing. Which helps. The Københavns Klatreklub run the wall in Amagerbro, which is just a short walk from the Islands Brygge train station.

The main issue with using a lot of these walls is the slightly socialist way in which they are run. Many of the walls require you to become a member of the local club or the Danish Mountain Club first. A pain in the arse to say the least. Nothing new to anyone who has lived here before, who will appreciate the total lack of entreprenuerial spirit and market capitalisation that characterises business in Denmark. The Nørrebro Hallen is a refreshing exception from this with their more logical 'turn up and climb' strategy, that's set to revolutionise things!

Kristoffer Slizas and friends drytooling on the outdoor wall at Artillerivej.

What makes you tick

2009-05-10T19:09:00.005+01:00

Whilst I sort out a warehouse to store my climbing wall and indugle in a bit skydiving and that dirtiest of dirty words, rock climbing. I've been having some tenuous thoughts. I bought a new bike recently [the pedal powered kind... at least for now] after being forever pissed at the toture of riding a crappy street bike with only 3 gears and shoddy brakes. Quiet frankly it was far too boring and far too limiting. And for me, anything that limits me gets the boot. Asap. I immediately took the new bike to an old quarry and throw it around as much as I could without putting myself in hospital for a long time. Hospitals = [Hell on earth] x10.

Then I had a thought... a wild stream of consciousness. 'This is what I love, this is what I live for...' I thought. Its about total concentration and focus where nothing in the world matters outside of your moment and your space. If I was to completely strip back the fundamental building blocks of who I am then honestly I would realise that I have by natural impulse... a very short attention span. I get bored and distracted very easily. I need to be pushed very hard to make me focus.

When I've been climbing a water-ice route and been in good form, its felt easy and comfortable. Until of course you break off a critical piece of ice. Then autopilot mode isn't good enough any more. Training and survival instinct kicks in and you wake up. You immediately focus hard and make damn sure you don't fall from the next section. And its those moments that I love. Where you have to focus and be 'totally there' or you die. Nothing is more powerful and compelling than that. If everyday you could have that feeling you get when you do your first tandem skydive or first go on a big rollercoaster or first hold your breath under water as a kid, then I would really be 100% alive. Until then though, I have to go get the food in the oven and finish off a pile of ironing...

Still needs more mud adding to dumb down the whiteness.

Coming out of a coma

2009-04-12T19:02:00.010+01:00

I don't know where to start. Moving from one country to another is never to be under-estimated. Paperwork, process, bureaucracy and general b-s means that the last six weeks have disappeared into a black hole of pure wastage. Where has my life gone during that time I wonder. But now things are settling and the internet has arrived to save me. And in celebration I can now post some of Lukasz's photos from the end of the winter season.

Topping out in amazing weather. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Warming up on a wall of ice. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Weaving a path amongst the ice. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Figuring out where to go next. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Play time at Kaldakinn. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

The force of natural energy. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Bolts and ethics

2009-03-14T17:00:00.003Z

There are number of so called 'ethical' debates to be had over mixed climbing around the world and this is the latest one to have recieved serious attention.

Article Here

What do I have to do

2009-03-09T19:54:00.007Z

This is by far most incredibly frustrating winter I've ever had. This weekend I took my last chance to get some winter climbing in Scotland. Having been totally tied up in Denmark during the week, I caught a flight back to Scotland on friday and headed for the west coast. I arrived at Dave's [Macleod] late to find that he was suffering pretty bad with a cold. I read the forecast from the MWIS. Gale force winds up to 65 mph, heavy rain all day and a freezing level rising to 1800m. Cloud cover 100%.

Dave getting his 'game' face on at the foot of Ben Nevis.

We comforted ourselves with the locals of Fort William at the annual Mountain Film Festival launch at the ski station restuarant. To be honest everything looked awful, but we were soldiers of fortune and soldiers need to go into battle every so often. Next morning we did battle. I should also add the avalanche risk was at the highest catagory it can be at. It was hardcore minging. The wind was intense, the snow was ultra deep and sodden, the cloud was all immersing and the temperature was up, up and up.

Bad weather immersing the north face.

We tried everything we could to get something meaningful done. But in the end we had to admit defeat as I balanced on some sketchy smears of rapidly thawing ice with no rope. We were beaten, but coming back to the car unharmed is always a winner in those conditions. Suffice to say by the end of the day I felt pretty bad when Dave started coughing and sneezing and saying he needed to sleep. Dave as per usual was the ultimate 'wad'. Due to my possessions being in temporary storage I had turned up with only a climbing helmet and a pair of mincing bright orange fruitboots. Everything I had for the day I had borrowed from Dave.

So this excursion goes on top of the frustrating trip to Iceland and the ultra frustrating trip to Romania. For more on those, click back to previous posts. The Romania trip events need to be read at least twice to be believed. If karma really exists and ying and yang really exist then next winter season will be absolutely amazing.

Wad: short for 'waddage'. A climber's term meaning something that's really good.

Making moves

2009-03-04T12:04:00.008Z

The time has finally come to make a decisive move in my life. Not to the Alps, not to the Rockies or even the central Highlands, but Copenhagen, Denmark. Its time to knuckle down, bank some money, get focused and make provisions for the future. To get to a position where I can stop working and just climb all the time with no money issues I have to put the hours in now and make some important changes.

Time to get packed up.

Living in Europe's flattest and most cragless country (Holland included) means taking a different approach to winter climbing. The future focus will be on competitions and specific target routes that give the most reward back for effort and money put in. For the time being though, just finding a place to live and finding my way around is enough ambition. Yesterday I spent 8 hours visiting flats, banks and administrative buildings. After apartment number twelve I was ready for the pub and a signature Carlsberg.

Studying the city map. Where am I?

It's extremely easy to come up with a million reasons why a winter climber shouldn't move to Denmark but it does have some advantages. Apart from being one of the nicest capital cities in the world to live in, the standard of living is exceptionally high and the people are pretty damn cool. Mostly though you have to start looking at a map of Europe and better still a map of the flight routes. Copenhagen airport is something else. Brand new, ultra efficient, very close to the city centre, but critically extremely well connected to everywhere. Outside of Heathrow and Schipol, which are basically hell on earth, Copenhagen is the next best connected airport for the winter climber.

Some punter splashed on the cover.

Exciting times

2009-02-23T19:40:00.004Z

Whilst the temperatures in Scotland continue to be more like spring than winter, I just got an email from a friend at the Icelandic Alpine club. During their annual weekend ice meet they opened up some new areas in the far north west of the island. It looks unreal...

Another new crag. Photo: Icelandic Alpine Club guys

Apparently there are 17 'obvious' ice lines on this wall!!

Gallery 3: The ice

2009-02-23T17:14:00.013Z

Its only a tiny selection of the many great photos that could have gone in the gallery, but I hope you'll agree even this small sample is pretty special. I chose these as they reflected a little bit of the fun, the atmosphere, the exposure, the competition and the beauty of mixed ice climbing.

Keeping warm at Vail with Rob.
Photo: Dani Alonso

Spanning the roof on 'Musashi'.
Photo: Jo Dotremont

'Big red' doing what it was designed for.
Photo: Dani Alonso

Getting ready for the Ouray Ice Fest comp.
Photo: Rob Gibson

Keeping the feet warm between climbing.
Photo: Dani Alonso

(Left) Jumaring up to the climbing area. Photo: Dani Alonso
(Right) Focused on 'Fistful of steel'. Photo: Dani Alonso

Super sized stalagmites at the 'Hoar House'.
Photo: Rob Gibson

When even a 4x4 isn't enough to access the crag.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

100% attention and focus during a competition in Saas Fee.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Climbing the 'Tulip' a 25m, 20 degree overhanging WI-something.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Gallery 2: The mixer

2009-02-23T16:41:00.015Z

Also thanks to Kat Vyce, Rob Gibson, Dane Sherick, Dave Macleod, Scott Muir and others who have taken photos.

Setting off on a World Cup comp route.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Talking to the guys from the Mountain Hardwear office.
Photo: Dani Alonso

(Left) Topping out on 'Tic-tac' in the sun. Photo: Dani Alonso
(Right) The roof of 'Jedi mind tricks'. Photo: Dani Alonso

Training near the 'Skylight' area.
Photo: Dani Alonso.

The La Sportiva boot store.
Photo: Dani Alonso

Eye-ing up the approach to God's Crag.
Photo: Dani Alonso

A statement of intent.
Photo: Dani Alonso

Slightly wet and esoteric ice in northern Iceland.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Waiting on Scottish weather again (left) and living in ice climbing heaven (right).
Photos: Lukasz Warzecha

Gallery 1: The shot

2009-02-19T20:50:00.030Z

Big thanks to all the photographers and friends that have given up their time over the years in order to get a good picture. In particular Lukasz Warzecha, Dani Alonso and Rich Cardinal. I'm in debt of quite a few beers to you guys.

Tying on for a World Cup competition.
Photo:Lukasz Warzecha

(Left) Returning to demonstrate 'Too fast too furious'. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha
(Right) Gritting it out on 'Dizzy with the vision'. Photo: Rich Cardinal

Another epic journey.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Alone on the 'Shining Wall'.
Photo: Malcolm Kent

The incredible world of ice.
Photo: Rich Cardinal

Warming up before the start of a World Cup comp.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

The beauty of the Canadian Rockies.
Photo: Malcolm Kent

Untamed, wild, beautiful, salty ice. In all its magical glory.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Waiting out the rain and talking shop in a cafe.
Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Building the dream: 1

2009-02-17T12:53:00.003Z

I've been seriously into drytooling and sport mixed climbing for a few seasons now. And this winter was my first where I got properly suck into the competition side of it. Although I first came across leashless tools, fruit boots, competitions and indoor drytool training back in 2002, its really only been in the last 3 to 4 years that I've gotten into it myself. In that time I've climbed two M13 graded routes and onsighted M10. Its given me a taste of the how the grades work, what the super hard routes are like and how hard I can personally climb (not hard enough yet).

Since the age of 14 I have had a massive appreciation for how training can help your climbing and in the last two years I've been lucky to have a training facility close-by at Scott Muir's Extreme Dream wall. When I say close-by I'm talking 2 hours drive from home! But this winter I have learned that if I am to continue balancing climbing ambition with a time consuming career job, then something needs to change. And spending four hours a night driving to and from training after a day at work just ain't gonna cut it.

So the time has come to build the dream. Or at least start planning for it. What am I talking about? Building the biggest and best training facility ever for mixed climbing. We're talking about the kind of project that will draw on everything I've ever learned about climbing training. There's no idea that won't be entertained and essentially no real budget. The main factors being quality of the facilities and proximity to my home in downtown Copenhagen.

Hanging out at the Klifurshusid gym here in Reykjavik I've been filling my head with ideas. Of course there needs to be panels of every angle with bulges, overhangs, roofs, volumes and big features. But beyond this other more focused items will be key. A bachar ladder, campus board for tools, pull-up bars, a system board, free weights, a bench press, parallel bars for dips, space for press-ups and sit ups, swinging logs of all sizes, resin holds, wooden holds and ice holds and of course a place to chill. On top of this a drytool gym needs a workshop. Pillar drill, grinder, vice and a saw are obligatory.

So if you're ever staying around Denmark and want to get involved then give me a shout. For me this project is a way of keeping sane during my time in Copenhagen. With such a disconnection from nearby crags and mountains its going to be a case of adapting to a new focus: competitions and quick hit project routes. Let the monk life begin.

Climbing well in competitions

2009-02-16T22:19:00.015Z

For some the idea of mixed climbing competitions or climbing competitions in general is a taboo subject. In the area of mixed ice climbing, I say to these cynics... get over yourselves! Quite simply put. The best climbers in the world from Haston to Gadd to Berger to Anthamatten to Bendler have all got stuck into big comps. So if you are willing to give them a crack and better still you are motivated to try and do really well in a competition, then the following 'brain dump' will be of use to you (I hope!).

I'm not sitting here as the worlds best competition climber and if I was the world champion I'd probably not have the time or conviction to bother writing a piece like this. Instead I'm someone that has plenty of competition experience, someone that has made all the mistakes and someone that has now finally learned what is needed to get the best performance. I have watched the best in the world during their training and preparation and during their performances in the competitions. I've observed amazing climbers performing really poorly in comps and lesser climbers who have climbed out of their skins when it really mattered. And the following is my way of summarising what I've learned from these experiences as concisely as possible.

Of course the competition doesn't just start when you rock up at the venue. It starts at a mental level from the time the idea of the comp gets into your head. I spoke to Will Gadd on the subject recently and he talked a lot about smoothing out the jump between training and competition day. And because I believe him, I would advocate this as the overriding rule number one of performing well. Simply.... train like you want to compete and compete like you have trained. But let's get away from the philosophy side and throw down some specifics instead.

Leading up to the competition:

Do your homework. Figure out what the comp format will be, what surface the routes will be set on, how many qualifying routes there will be, how many people will qualify for the finals etc. Get hold of schedule as early as possible and look out for the isolation periods and the breaks between routes. Even better nowadays with current technology, google and youtube any videos and photos you can find of the comp from previous years. It's all about mental preparation and keeping your mind clear on comp day. To achieve this you need to avoid being distracted by things you hadn't anticpated. Keeping you focused only on performing.

During your training in the run up to the comp, start putting yourself under more pressure. Try to climb problems and circuits within set time limits and then make the time limits gradually shorter. Practise onsighting by setting new circuits each time. Better still get a friend to set you new circuits when you train and get them to push you to your maximum level. Mentally it is good to start building up a routine at least 2 weeks before the event as well. This routine should start as soon as you arrive. Through your stretching, warm-up and into your hardest circuit.

It's really important to push yourself to your absolute limit in your training sessions, so that this becomes your natural instinctive reaction when under pressure in the comps. When you are up against it in a big competition, you will get very blinkered as you tire. Like a race horse. At this point, you don't think too much you just react. So its vital that you have already trained your subconcious how to react through training. There is some great advice on this in Lanny Bassham's book 'With winning in mind'.

In the very last days before a comp it is good to do your last training sessions in the style of the comp. If the comp will only consist of one qualifying route, then in the training sessions, just turn up, warm-up quickly and then jump straight into a really hard circuit with a time limit. In terms of so called 'tapering' before an event I would say that having 2 full days rest for the competition is enough to be adequately rested. More than 3 and you will loose your 'spiritual' momentum (I couldn't think of a better term!).

It sounds anal but the day before the comp you will really need to slow down and think preparation, preparation, preparation. Spend ample time packing and making sure you think of everything and leave nothing important. Infact get geeky and lay out your keys, money, cards, passport etc so they are all there for when you leave. Have your itinerary carefully planned. Maps printed, hotel details printed and flight numbers to hand. All of this tedious stuff will help keep you mind clear when you arrive. And of course as if it needs to be mentioned, take more than enough warm clothing.

My list of woes in this dept is endless. I once forgot which hotel I was staying for a comp in Scotland. So when I got to the town I checked into the wrong place. Then had to explain this two days later to the hotel that I should have gone to. I've also turned up late to venues because of snow conditions and cancelled flights. But this was just bad planning on my part, because I should just booked flights that got there with more time to spare. In the last case like this I arrived to the venue at 3am. I had to compete the following morning, and as you can expect I climbed well below my best thanks to that fact that I was half asleep whilst climbing.

At the competition:

The night before the big day is generally used by most climbers as the time for sharpening picks and front points. And I would agree that this is the best time. I generally lay out my comp clothing ready to go, roughly gather up my food supplies and scan over the schedule for the cllimbing. Getting a good nights sleep is normally much easier if there's nothing left to worry about or stress about. If you really want to plan you might even take sleeping tablets and ear plugs just incase. Although Markus Bendler once climbed really well in comp after he and Harry Berger had stayed up all night drinking. However, I certainly wouldn't advise this approach as a premeditated plan.

So now we get into the mental side of comps. And a key question I've often asked myself is 'what is the best mindset to have before the moment of truth?' My thinking now is that you need to be driven to win (or at least to give everything) but you also need to be relaxed about outcomes and say to yourself 'if I fall off early, who cares and if I pump out who cares, just as long as I go for it, don't hold back and emerse myself fully in the task, that's what matters'.

When you're under serious time pressure, you have to just go for it and let your training and your subconcious guide you through. Any hesistation and any doubt, will hold you back. It's better to go all out and have a shot at winning than to cruise carefully and ensure a mediocre result. Even if the all out approach has risks of falling off or getting pumped early. This is not easily mastered and probably requires some competition experience first. There are plenty of Bruce Lee texts and a great book by Arno Ilgner called 'The rock warriors way' that explain this fine balance between arousal and anxiety. Somewhere in this balance is the perfect mindset.

Whether your comp has an isolation period or not, your build up should start with the same routine that you have used in your training. This will get you perfectly warmed up but also relax and tune in the mind. Sometimes if the climbing starts early in the morning, I go for a 20min run after waking up. This relaxes the early morning tension you get from sleeping and an added bonus is that you get your heart rate up and so better prepare your body for the work it will do later.

If your competition climbing involves a route preview, you must prepare for it. Have a helmet, a tool, pen, paper and binoculars ready to go. When at the route, try the first holds initially from the ground, then visualise the moves to the top. Look for any crux holds or sequences. Draw the basics of the route on your paper, noting the longer moves. Then before leaving, run through the moves of the route in fast forward from start to finish. Of course you will ultimately never remember every individual hold when you come to climb, but having a rough idea about the tough sections or the difficult clips will help a lot. The key with this is, get a visual picture in your mind, but keep it rough, so that you are still able to be flexible to react to changes on the route if they happen.

In the last ten to twenty minutes before climbing I always try to keep myself subtly occupied. Always focusing on tasks and never getting distracted or even worse starting to think about what might happen on the route and what ranking I might get. Two things are givens: it's too late to change anything now and you can't affect how anyone else does, because that's in their hands. A few minutes before heading to the route it's good to run through the visual picture from the route preview one final time. And when you are doing it, imagine how it will feel, imagine yourself climbing well through the cruxes and imagine it all at the realistic speed.

When it's game time:

So you walk out to the route, warmed up, focused and ready to climb. Now you just have to ignore all distractions and do things at your own speed. Place your tools, tie in and throw away your jacket. Circle your arms, flex your fingers and take a nice full breath. And then set about giving a textbook demonstration of how the route should be climbed! During the climbing it is good to be doing the following.

Climbing faster through the easier sections to allow more time later on.

Trusting your judgement and subconcious to make the right instinctive decisions about moves.

Maintaining a rythmn and flow through the moves utilising natural momentum as much as possible. There is a great section on this in Dave Macleod's book '9 out 10 climbers....'.

Setting up for the big moves before you get there and ensuring that you send them first go.

Breathing rythmically through the route and continually shaking out as you would in training.

And if you hear a shout of 1min left, don't panic but still react and speed yourself up in a composed way.

Overall I'd liken the successful competition mindset to being fired up and agreesive but having that feeling well under control. It's as if you have excess energy and you want to burst out and do some one arm pull-ups, but instead you keep the animal locked up, only releasing it in doses when a hard move presents itself on the route. Meanwhile for the rest of the route you remain calm, relaxed and composed, like a robotic machine. In this way mind and body will be a tight unit, working together effectively, with neither one of them getting ahead of the other.

Overall in the bigger picture, expect a bunch of crappy results and expect the inevitable low that follows a poor result. Jerry Moffat wrote a really inspiring section about his early days in comps in his book 'Revelations'. He didn't given in and learned the art of competitions so that he too could excel at them. And he showed that when it all clicks, you will get on a role and keep doing well over and over.

I could discuss what to eat and drink for a competition but this exercise would be pointless as everyone is different in this way. For some, it has to be a can of red bull beforehand. For others just coffee and water is enough. Whatever you do, it's always best to get it into your routine first during training and maximise whatever works best for you when you are preparing for the comp. I'm yet to see anyone climb at their best after 10 shots of Jaegermeister!

Markus visualising the sequence on a route.

The competitors. All shapes, sizes and countries.

Time to climb and put it all into action.

And whens it's all over, make sure you can still laugh.

Beware the photographers. They can make you look great or equally rubbish.

Priceland

2009-02-16T21:36:00.001Z

In the UK we have a little known saying... 'Mum's gone to Iceland'. No Mum hasn't actually gone to Iceland... not unless she's gone totally mad. One pound fifty for a can of baked beans! You must be joking. Dad's gone to Iceland though. Dad's a savvy dude. He's realised that there's loads of unclimbed ice in Iceland. And not just limited to the freezer department. So here's an off-the-hip first pass run down of what's its all about. A fuller version will follow sometime in due coarse.

The spiraling cost of car hire got the better of us. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Kaldakinn is the place. Everyone's going on about Kaldakinn. It's on the 'Onsight' dvd and on every ice climbers chapped lips. There's a 4km long crag, split into two sections. Short routes (25m) and long routes (150m). Some WI 4 and WI 5 but some harder stuff too. One major mixed route called 'Captain Hook' at M9+ and a super cool WI 5+ called 'Stekkjastaur'. Most cool of all though is that is very close to the sea.

But there's other cool stuff too. Some interesting ice and mixed routes at Mulafjall and Glymur just north of Reykjavik. That latter being a narrow canyon that has some similarities to the Box Canyon in Ouray. Then Haukadalur and the host of routes in the two adjacent canyons that make up the well known area. And just around the corner from this are other smaller crags and flows with great routes and great potential.

The rather tough start to another potential route. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Other areas include the Eastern Fjords, Oreafi and Snaefellsnes. Just this month new routes have been opened at Bidudalur in the far north west and a new mixed crag just across the water from Reykjavik city. Its all happening and as the locals say its early days in Iceland for mixed climbing as people have been pretty much occupied till now with firing the main ice flows and pillars.

Big up to the people that have helped me get more into the info on these places. Albert Leichtfried, Skabbi from the climbing club and Petur, aka Mr Kaldakinn. Most of all a big up to the Gaddsta who red pointed 'Brennavin'. An M9+ that he did in 98 which has never been repeated. I went up to it. It wasn't fully formed and I could only see two bolts. That's my excuse. Just a few things to remember then. It's still hideously expensive, the weather is very changable and a solid 4x4 is a must in heavy conditions. But seriously, there's tonnes of high quality pure ice and a few mixed gems. And more importantly loads of potential for great new ice and mixed routes of all sizes.

Petur the man of Kaldakinn. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Chasing your arse in Alcatraz

2009-02-15T21:03:00.000Z

Climbing has built up a bit of a language of its own over the years and in the same way I have made up a number of my own phrases to describe different styles. Its just the way I 'roll'! Just like 'dogging', 'beta', 'sending', 'boxed' etc, I've added 'chasing your arse' to the phrasebook. This is when you're on a winter trip and the temperature turns warm. So you find yourself chasing around crags to find places that haven't melted yet. I've done it a lot and Iceland must be the place of all places where its most likely to happen.

A dog. Also spends a lot of time chasing its arse.

The problem with Iceland specifically is that you find yourself imprisoned. Trying to escape the island early costs more money than you can afford. Whilst staying and waiting out the days of heavy rain is like Guantanamo torture. And everyday that you're there your bank account is getting emptied out by the cost of living. More on the positives of ice climbing in Iceland coming up in the next post...

Transalvanian Express

2009-02-09T11:46:00.000Z

Sitting in Heathrow airport finally theres some time to sit down for a second and recall whats been going on the last few days.

So here we go. On Thursday morning I get up. Early. Still hanging after a late night work social the day before that involved Absynth, Zambuca, 'Jeager-bombs' and plenty of Vodka. Thanks Mr Work credit card. The power of the Visa. Then I find myself sitting at the airport departure gate with Lukasz, when they announce that todays Amsterdam flight will be not delayed, but cancelled. Normally I wouldn't care about what my mate calls 'The Clogland', but thats my connection for today, so we're in the shit.

Later we found out that the whole country from south coast to north coast, was completely shut down. For us though the next flight we could get was 16.30 in the afternoon. This was the only option besides canning the whole Romania trip completely. And for a second I thought exactly that. My characteristic blind determination and perseverance prevailed though and we moved flights and tried to get home for some rest. Easier said than done. All roads in Aberdeen we closed or grid locked. But we managed to track down the only cab driver in town willing to give us a ride and he duly switched his meter onto fast forward.

He was a funny guy full of what you might call in English, 'bullshit'. Half way through the journey he asked if we liked StarTrek. No! we replied. 5 minutes later through the speakers I hear... 'Captains log star date 2030, these are the voyages...'. It was Captain Janeway, coming through the speakers and through the cabbies tv screen in the front. This guy was off his head. He even said he could get the football through his tv aerial. In the taxi? A few handbrake turns later and we got home, paid the money and ran for it.

After that we got back to the airport and flew off to Holland for an onward connection that would get us to Bucarest at 01.00. At this time in the airport it is impossible to pick up a hire car for any money. So with no options left we had to resort to renting a car off a dodgy local for a 350 Euro cash deposit. There was no time to hesitate. We took the crappy Skoda and hit he road. Although it was mostly the road hitting us. Its common to find meteor craters regularly spaced across main roads and major highways in Romania. Eventually we arrived in Busteni around 3am.

In the morning it became clear that we were staying in some kind of communist torture house with some funky querks. The shower connected directly from the hand basin and the shower head was on top of the toilet. There was actually no where to shower, except if you fancied taking a piss and showering simultaneously. This country was deeply backward. After one and half hours sleep it was time to get up. The competition times had been switched at the last minute and we had to be ready by 7.30.

In action during the comp half asleep. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

All I remember about the competition was falling asleep in the isolation area and a guy shouting 'get me toilet paper' at the top of his voice from the bathroom as I was heading out. Toilet paper was in short supply in the town and asking for more seemed to get a reaction of annoyance from the locals. I hope he got some in the end, otherwise I hate to think how he figured his way out of that situation.

Knackered and pissed off. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

The climbing felt like an anticlimax as I headed off early for some desparately needed sleep. It seemed that everyone else knew the holds and knew the moves. It didn't feel like an onsighting competition at all. Very few of us were really onsighting. Even the fella undoing my knot afterwards threw his hands up at me and said 'What are doing? You should use the top of the holds, all the best bits are on the tops'. He actually expected me to know every holds secrets in great detail. Watching the rest of the comp, particularly the final made it clear to me. People weren't onsighting here, they knew the holds, knew the moves and were masters at second guessing the route setting. Which was best described as plain lazy.

During the day Rob found himself confronted by a local guy asking him for tips on how he trained. Rob politely told him that it was very basic really. And wondered why he was being asked. The gent carried on and explained how he had watched Rob in previous years. At this point I'm wondering if Rob was playing with us and whether this wasn't his first time. But then I remember we were away all last winter. This guy is clearly mistaken. But he insisted aggressively. Rob said it wasn't him. Then the guy said yes, he had seen Rob win the world cup 2 years previously. 'No' Rob replied. Rob was like, I think I'd remember coming here and winning thousands of Euros! 'But you're Evgeny' the man said. 'No, I'm Rob Gibson from the UK'. Says Rob. Ah, now the confusion makes sense. We are all calm again. Except Rob who realises that he could have had a story here and could have wound this guy up no end, claiming to be a Ukranian with big curley hair.

The comp dragged on as a side show to the main ski resort in the town. Whilst on stage nearby a blacked out limo dropped off two blonde beauties and a posh spice lookalike in a tight pvc catsuit. The crowd of adoring (male) fans gathered. More interested in the lead singers butt cleavage than the climbing world cup happening next door. It was a special moment. The combination of 80's shell suits, trashy sounding Eurovision pop, stray rabid dogs and beaten up Ladas and Skodas took me back. This wasn't Europe. Not as we know it. Beam me up Scotty and get me out of here. I left these memories in my childhood, in the 80's, where they belong. No need to be digging them up again now.

Lead singer of the Romanian pop act. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

And so the trip closed in much the same waste of time vain as it had started. Lukasz got ceremoneously ejected from the top of climbing structure for using his flash? In the dark! Maxime Tomilov got disqualified from the mens final for touching a gap between two bits of wood and the dodgy guy from airport ripped us off for our 350 Euros on the car hire because of a tiny scratch on the bottom of the splitter. Had this guy not seen the state of the roads? The only time a 4x4 has actually been justifiable on town streets. One time I fell in a crater so big in one of the paths, I could barely see out of the top of it.

So here I am at Heathrow. After getting home, using the toilet, re-packing, catching some sleep and then getting up at 04.00 for the next flight and the next trip. Its been mad. And the question still remains: Is it worth the trip to Busteni for the chance of more world cup points?

Outrageously good photography

2009-01-27T19:25:00.001Z

Just a couple of days after the Ice Climbing World Championships in Saas Fee and Lukasz releases a few photos from the comp, in partnership with the UIAA. I think you'll agree these are some of the best comp photos you'll ever see.

A teaser from his impressive collection. Markus Bendler
in the process of winning the final of the mens competition.

From the Ice Climbing World Championship collection by Lukasz Warzecha: Full Gallery

More Ibuprofen please

2009-01-26T18:24:00.000Z

Another weekend, another climbing competition, another party and another guy called Tim. I now know Geneva airport so well I can tell exactly which sandwich flavours are available at each cafe. It's sad. People at work think I'm a flashy jet-setter. But I'm actually a worn out, stressed out, always late ice climber. Good then that Mr Pimp Climber, Tim Emmett turned up to Saas Fee to remind us all just how much fun travelling and climbing can be.

Saas Fee was meant to be about feeling good after getting over flu and fever. And it was all going well in the preparation. However at some point between the walk from the isolation area to the climbing arena I forgot to remember I was climbing against a clock. So pretty anticlimatically I had to stop before the top of the route having been beaten by yet more 'clockwork' Swiss efficiency. This whole Swiss efficiency thing is starting to really get in the way this winter.

Lukasz getting right in the face of womens champion Angelika Reiner.

And so the weekend finished in all too familiar territory. Alcoholic beverages, early hours of the morning, a party etc etc. And Tim trying to climb across the roof of the bar with no shirt on. Its weird. Just like 2 weeks ago in Kandersteg with Timmy O'Neil, Tim Emmett was also last seen with drink in hand, destined to somehow eventually make his way back to Chamonix. If those two run into each other in Cham, there'll some story to tell. Anyhow, a less than fruitful performance in Saas means I'm off to the finals in Romania on a mission. No booze, no late nights and my serious face.

Markus back on the ground after winning the World Championship.

Mucho Bene

2009-01-19T20:26:00.000Z

Today is the first in a week since I've felt normal. Sickness has re-written the schedule for this winter and pissed me off no end in the meantime. I'm doubly glad not just be recovering but also to be back from Italy in one piece. To say that Italians generally can't drive would be understatement of a fact. Unreal. 20mph over the speed limit and I was being overtaken by everyone. On both sides. I took my illness over to Valle di Daone near Trento for a couple of days to support the GB guys in the Ice Master World Cup.

The climbing 'stadium' aka the advertising billboard.

The highlight of the weekend besides my sleep marathons, Andy's snoring and the stockpiles of lasagne was Rob's effort in the comp. He climbed pretty faultlessly for his first competition and got himself into the semi-final. A major psyche-up for all. So I naturally donated my bottle of Trentino Grappa (absolutely vile stuff) to him.

Rob looking on after his qualifying route.

Captain Underpants

2009-01-11T17:53:00.000Z

I'm totally shattered and can't believe that I'm sitting down tapping on the keyboard, but sometimes thoughts are just fresh and you have to stick them down before they disappear.

This week the weather was just depressing me so much I had to get out of the matrix and see the 'real' world. That's the world where there's nothing to do but climb ice all day, every day. Yes that's real. The downside being that I had the drive from Geneva to Kandersteg all to myself and Mr Fog. Tonnes of him. I went armed with my mental note book to check out conditions in the area and check out the ice comp. Standards were high in both departments. The conditions were full on cashing in and the comp climbers were tearing it up.

Some misjudgement of the rules and technical infringements later and I messed up my plan to get into the final. But I took off my boots, sucked it up and watched the others in the final with hot gluhwein in hand. My company for the night was the legendary Captain Underpants himself, Timmy O'Neil. Tim had given a lecture on behalf of Black Diamond and joined us for some banter after. Little did we know that Timmy hadn't eaten anything that evening. He said he never really ate that much anyway. But after 2 generously sized local beers poor Tim started to slide down the slippery beer slope. Destination hangover and a lighter wallet.

The evenings entertainment and a carpenter's nightmare.

By about 2 in the morning even Ueli Steck had had enough and no one could find Tim. I followed the singing noise outside into the -15 deg C air. It was the Swiss, singing chants similar to football songs, with Timmy in the middle singing Bob Marley in a short-sleeved shirt. After more wine-like liquids and vodka (I think) I had to leave Timmy to it. He said he wanted to get down and groove. Timmy was last heard in a field in Kandersteg shouting 'I'm no *$^#ing pussy'. If he doesn't arrive in Chamonix to play the drums by next week... bagsey I get to keep his climbing gear. Meanwhile around 3 I staggered back to the hotel and found I'd been locked out by standard Swiss efficiency. Damn. I still had the car key though, so reclined the front seat, turned up the fan and laid out for a few hours of the worst sleep I've had since my last alpine bivi.

Timmy in his new role of hanging out at ice fests.

Thanks to all the great people I met over the weekend especially Dennis and Marica. And so I learned: conditions are fat everywhere round Kandersteg, the guys going to Val' Daone next weekend are super strong and Black Diamond comps are just ever so slightly odd and biased.

Spotlight on the cave

2009-01-07T18:41:00.000Z

As promised, a sample of Lukasz's photos from Birnam.

Too fast too furious, Newtyle Quarry. Birnam. Photo: Lukasz Warzecha

Monster weekend

2009-01-05T13:26:00.001Z

This weekend was my last chance saloon before the serious competitions start. It was also the New Year bank holiday weekend. So doubly important. I turned it into a training marathon, setting about it with all-day drytool training sessions: thurs, fri and sat. Pretty much killing myself as much as possible each day. By saturday I was wasted. Then I realised I had to be up early on sunday to go out into the mountains.

So yesterday I had a bit of an inspection session to look for some future projects and see what conditions were like. It also allowed a friend of mine to get on his first route of the season. Standing on the top of the crag, the wind was enough to knock you off your feet and the snow had its typical fine pelleted sting on the head. Unsurprisingly then, by the time I had made it back to my own living room, I was absolutely shattered. The next couple of days for me are pure chillaxing.

A happy new year to everyone out there this year that takes it upon themselves to step out of their comfort zone and push their level.

Anyone need an aid ladder? (I hope not!!)

Balls of fire

2009-01-01T13:18:00.000Z

Its been pretty cold of late, by UK standards at least. As low as -15 Celsius in the Spey valley. So when this years New Year celebrations were announced, the media were full of warnings about staying warm. Essentially, getting totally hammered and wandering the streets drunk with no clothes on was not advised.

So in an effort to keep warm the residents of Stonehaven decided that the best solution might be to hurl large balls of fire at each other. This is also often called the Stonehaven Fireballs night. A ceremony as old as any other in UK that takes place on the towns old high street on new years eve. Last night I went down around 11pm to see what all the fuss was about.

Fireballs being swung in the time honoured manner through the streets.

Origins to the fireballs ritual can be traced back to the 8th Century.

Night in with the feet up

2008-12-31T15:00:00.000Z

A quick hit on the televisual front. Picture this. It's winter, the nights are dark and cold. You're knackered and resting from the previous days climbing. You've got no mates. Your car is broken so bad it can't be moved and all you can do is sloth around infront of the TV watching climbing DVD's. Why? because the aerial/cable is broken, so it's films or nothing. Wierd, but possible.

These are some DVD's that I can pass comment on:

1. No pain no gain.
A one off production for Black Diamond with Ines Papert, Jack Muller and Simon Anthamatten. It's short and punchy but gets you psyched to train and push yourself. Ines is the star of the film and succeeds in making very hard things look very easy. Including glacier climbing.

2. All mixed up.
A querky film by Dave and Diff at Hot Aches, starring my mukker Fiona Murray. It follows her winter spent in Canmore. Moving up through the grades to eventually climb M10... harder than any other British women. Good for getting psyched to go on trips abroad.

3. One winter.
Made by the same guys that made Hard Grit etc (Slackjaw), this piece of film follows Airlie Anderson and Lucy Creamer to Ouray. Where they take part in the ice comp. It's definitely got a bit of a womens touch going on but very watchable none the less. For anyone still wondering what Ouray is like this is very good.

4. Ice up.
Typically French, this film stars none other than ice... well lets say craftsman, Francois Damilano. Also some cameos by Guy Lacelle and Stephan Husson. It's a bit funky but has tonnes of character and out and out pure ice climbing.

5. Higher ground.
This is defintely a must see if you are really into winter climbing. All sorts of people get in on the act with this one. Ines Papert, Rob Owens, Guy Lacelle and Audrey Gariepy. Basically they're all total professionals. Most of all I think you get an insight into the world of Guy Lacelle. An amazingly modest dude. Still getting time in my dvd player.

6. Le sociere blanche.
A kind of follow up to Ice Up. Francois goes on the hunt again around the Chamonix area and finds a gem of a multi-pitch mixed line yet to be climbed. A very good film of a truly fantastic route. A very worthwhile watch for the more discerning ice climbers.

7. A fistful of steel.
A very psyching film that has a great Scottish edge. It essentially follows Scott Muir over a year or so, all over the world. The film also has some edits of Chris Cubitt and Dave Macleod. A great film with a lot of personality, although the soundtrack is a bit 'special'.

8. On ice.
A North Face backed film from the mid 90's. I had to dust it off before realising that I no longer owned a VHS video player. It's a real classic though, just to see the gear and technique back then. Folks like Canrad Anker, Alex Lowe, Duncan Furgeson, Charlie Fowler and Barry Blanchard take to the ice on routes like Hydrophobia and Curtain Call. You can almost see mixed climbing evolving right in front of you during the 60mins of the film.

There are also various films with bits of winter climbing stuffed in them. Like Fools with tools, Echo Wall, Onsight, Hard XS etc. My personal favourite of all time though has to be the TV series called Wild Climbs. Although not exactly available on DVD, the 1999 eposide with Stevie Haston has to be seen by all committed climbers. Some brilliantly gritty filming, absolutely classic sound bites and great tongue in cheek humour, make it pretty much unmissable.

Failing that there's always youtube.

Tool talk

2008-12-31T11:56:00.002Z

In a follow up to the piece that I wrote ages back on comp boots, the logical step was always going to be, writing something on tools. In this post I explain some of my own personal views on leashless tools and what I use and when. Hence this is not a glossy magazine type review but purely my opinions from my own experience.

Writing this got me thinking and reminded me of my past days working in Snell Sports in Chamonix. The climbing dept there had probably the best selection of winter climbing gear of any shop in the world. Be it your Neptunes, your Vieux Campeurs, your Mountain Gears or even your Outsides, nothing quite equals Snells. During a lazy day I stood and counted how many models of axe we had in the shop. If I remember rightly at that time we had around 30 different tools and more than 20 models of crampon. Some selection. To the point where, when someone asked 'why should I buy this one and not this one?' I just had to be honest and say.. 'they're both as good as each other, the only difference is the price!'.

1. Pure white, untainted waterfall ice. Something like The Fang, Polar Circus or Bridel Veil falls.

My out and out favourite here are the Petzl Nomics. I've been using them ever since the first demo's came out and have never looked back. They swing beautifully, have a great grip that's ergonomic but also not too aggressive, can take clipper leashes and have an adjustable pinky rest. It's also possible to buy cascade style pure ice replacement picks too. And the fact that they are a bit short doesn't really matter on ice. Other options would using the Black Diamond Vipers without leashes and maybe the Black Diamond Reactors.

2. Steep and technical sport mixed terrain. From Captain Hook and Mighty Aphrodite to The Game.

This is most open category for me personally. There are number of tried and tested possibilities. The Black Diamond Fusion, the Petzl Nomic or a more elaborate competition specific tool. And because of that I use whatever most suits the style of climbing. The more outrageous the route the more sophisticated the tool.

3. Rough and tough Scottish style trad mixed. The Seam to the Secret.

This has been a bit of revelation over the past year, but now I have come to a landing over my best tool for the job. Of course it depends entirely on what grade of route your aiming for. For me now though on routes I find tough, the Fusions are the tool of choice. Once fitted with hammers (which luckily are totally interchangable with other models) they work brilliantly. The best thing for me are the picks. The end tooth just sticks in like no other. Other choices would be the Reactors or the Nomics.

4. Big competitions and drytooling. World Cups, World Champs, Ouray etc.

Now its gets more involved and list of choices gets wider. The contenders include the ClimbBubu Lambourghinis, the Grivel Quantums, the Fusions, the Nomics, the Cassin Ice Comps and my own personal choice, the E-Climb Cryo Pros. I choose the Cryos because they're aggressive but still usable. The picks have great end teeth and last a long time. The head has extra teeth to help stein pulling, the grips are very ergonomic and secure and overall the tool is light. Any more specific than this and I feel like its just working against me rather than with me.

The Nomic (left) and the Fusion (right).

Since writing this article I have also added a review of the new BD Fusions (11/2009).

Link to post here

The rogues gallery of training tools.

Scottish Winter Conditions Info

2008-12-31T11:24:00.002Z

A brain dump of sites to rifle through to get the low down on current winter conditions.

http://www.sais.gov.uk/

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/loutdoor/mountainsafety/index.html

http://www.bennevisweather.co.uk/weather.asp

http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/blog/blog.htm

http://www.abacusmountaineering.com/currentconditions.html

http://www.alphamountaineering.co.uk/conditions/conditionsPage.html

http://mountainplan.blogspot.com/

http://www.jamesthacker.co.uk/reports/reports.html

http://www.willwadventures.blogspot.com/

http://alanhalewood.blogspot.com/

http://www.highmountainguides.com/index.php/eng

http://hughesmountaineering.blogspot.com/

http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/

http://highmountaineering.blogspot.com/

http://www.moran-mountain.co.uk/blog/

Christmas chalk

2008-12-23T20:59:00.000Z

Today I hooked up with my good buddy Rob for a quick burn on the chalk of the south coast. When I say quick burn I mean the time when the tide is low enough, the crag isn't falling down and there's still enough light to see what your hacking at. And the crag falling down was not a typo.

The crumby rock and dodgy fence (left) and the aftermath (right).

Rob's off next week to France to kick off his winter season with Andy T in the Ecrins. I'll next be bumping into the both of them in Italy in the middle of January for some competition action. Meanwhile I heard back recently from Mr Inform, Jeff Mercier who told me that he had a very productive trip to Canada for 3 weeks. By the sounds of it him and the French crew climbed a lot of very hard ground, including a cleanup of the Cineplex.

Probably not too good for your boots.

Hopefully for me, by the end of the week the temperature in Scotland will have dropped a bit and normal service can return to the corries.

On camera

2008-12-21T17:50:00.000Z

Last week my friend Lukasz (an award winning photographer featured by Alpinist magazine) rang me up and asked if I was interested in helping him with an experiment. So this weekend myself and Fiona [Murray] reacquainted ourselves with the 'Tube' [Birnam] and met up with Lukasz.

Anyone that's ever been there knows that its a place with some very weird angles, making it tricky to photograph. Added to that it doesn't get that much light and by 3pm in the winter you stop being able to see the holds. So Lukasz had come up with an idea involving studio strobe lights and a big fat lens. It all seemed a bit disco, not too good for the epileptics amongst. Besides I wasn't ready for raving that early in the afternoon. And after two trips to carry the gear up I was starting to wonder where this was all heading.

Lukasz was absolutely right though. He had seen the potential in his mind well ahead of us. Just looking at some of the test shots he was getting early on made me realise that I was wrong to ever doubt that this was anything but a very well thought out idea. Unfortunately as is the way, Lukasz is away this week, but hopefully in the new year I can drop a sample on here. I have a feeling there might be something pretty special. Music to my ears as I can't wait to work with Lukasz on some trips over the winter. The added bonus being that both me and Fiona were able to get more valuable training in before the season gets into full swing.

Getting technical in the cave.

10 hour burn

2008-12-21T17:23:00.000Z

This week I did my first full day 10 hour training session. 10 hours? Yep. And is it worth it? Of course, training is always worth it. Particularly timely this week as well because it's just before Christmas and will hopefully offset any weight gains over the next week! The benefit from the all-day workouts is that you get much better prepared for long days cragging on long routes. The downside is that the comps require a massive effort for just 6 to 12 minutes. So being strong all day is not that useful in that context.

To keep me psyched for such a long time and keep the training productive I used a number of different exercises. With a slow warm up and warm down acting as the bread in the sandwich. Some of the exercises were: 1) Pull-ups on straight shafted axes with old school grips 2) Full one arm lock-offs with a mainstream leashless tool 3) Timed speed circuits round a tooling cave 4) Figure-four circuits around a roof 5) Specific set drytool problems and 6) Tooling across 15m roof routes. Throw in some press-ups, sit-ups, campusing and leg raises and you should be totally annihilated by about 9pm.

One of my all-day burns last winter. Photo: Kat Vyce

Inspirational

2008-12-16T14:59:00.000Z

What a great weekend. This winter is something a bit different. Early conditions for winter climbing and sustained too. And mixed climbing competitions before xmas. The training and climbing opportunities are coming thick and fast. Mega.

A nice photo from the round 3 comp. Photo: Scott Muir

This weekend I left work at 6 and drove straight from Aberdeen to Kinlochleven for 4 or so hours. Having a stinking hang over from the work social the night before didn't help either. So as expected I hit the bed on arrival. Only to fall victim to the ever prevalent travel insomnia. Feeling super wired I spent most of the night failing to get to sleep.

On the saturday I got involved in the comp at the Ice Factor centre armed with 2 bottles of lucozade sport. The final round of the series. For me this was the real deal. All the best guys I could think of turned up (except Ian Parnell of course!) and made it a really interesting comp. The routes were very good and had a fantastic range of surfaces and styles. At the risk of sounding like arse kissing, the guys at the wall did a really good job at setting things up. Most of all the timings worked, and no one found themselves running around struggling to get the qualifiers done. It all boiled down to a final and super final in the end. A really good way to finish off the series and the day. And a proper little spectacle for the folks watching.

Welcome to the Ice Factor at Kinlochleven.

That evening myself and Dave Mac made plans for the following day and even though he beat me in the comp and I had made a stupid mistake with a clip in the final. My short lived disappointment at my own dumb thinking was easily remedied. Dave is someone I enjoy climbing with... a lot. Words that spring to mind begin and end with inspirational. I think you know what I mean.

And inspirational it turned out to be (sunday). After hiking up for 2 or so hours through uncompromising bogs and deep snow and after realising that I had lost my helmet on the way (sorry mum!... yes I don't usually recommend winter climbing without a helmet), we hit the crag. Cutting a long story short, we found the line we wanted which was yet to be climbed. And Dave embarked on the first pitch. Just before darkness fell we topped out on the second pitch and dug out the head torches. The inspirational bit was that most of that time was Dave battling his way up the shallowest, most featureless section of winter climbing I've seen. Its hard to explain fully but for me watching.. inspirational was the only word for it.

Some quick hits

2008-12-10T19:03:00.000Z

1. La Sportiva have recently released their long awaited and eagerly anticipated 'Stratos' ski mountaineering boot. Keep an ear to the ground for more info on them as word gets around.

2. I've heard that Rjukan will host an 'Isfest' this winter at the end of February. Some of my buddies from Norway will be driving across and if anyone from the UK is going too - I'll see you there. Website

The current marketing image. Photo: La Sportiva

Climbing well on ice

2008-12-08T20:06:00.003Z

So, I started writing some stuff on ice climbing technique a while back, but then read over it and thought.... screw this, people can read the books and find out all this info themselves. And to be honest it's probably better explained in the books! But then Mr Gadd came to rescue. He wrote a very 'straight to point' piece on climbing well on ice. So here it is.

100% of the credit for this goes to Will Gadd. He wrote it.

''Moving well, or fast, on ice melts down to two basic components: The mechanical systems (most of the last post on multi-pitch ice) and then the physical stuff including technical ability, your partner, etc. This post has to be a bit brief 'cause I'm blowing off some other stuff to write this, but I've been thinking a lot about this in the last few months, so here are a few more things. Note that they also generally apply to single pitch routes. There's just not much technical difference between climbing single and multi-pitch routes well, it's the mechanical transfers that are different. My book goes into this all a lot more, but here are some recent thoughts:

1. Look at the route from the ground for at least five or ten minutes. Line selection is everything on long routes; if you want the "hero" line then you can find that, but most of the time on long routes you just want to get up the rigs as safely, smoothly and enjoyably as possible. It can be really hard to pick lines while on the route, especially on bigger and steeper rigs. A bit of short-term effort can bring a climber to a long groove of good ice that's not obvious while on the route... Stop, look. I often watch people struggle for literally hours on routes that would be a lot easier if they would just move over 30 feet or something. This study will also lead to good belay stances. Talk about this all with your partner; a team understanding just seems to help, and keep things running smoother.

2. The same thing applies on a small scale. Ice is often radically different just a few feet to one side or the other. All the stuff about where to swing (in concave places, not convex) holds true. Good ice tends to form in lines; inside of corners, the thinner ice on the edge next to the rock (usually better than the fat stuff if the ice is only 3M or so wide...), etc. etc. You can take twice as long just by climbing one meter in the wrong direction.

3. If you do the above right you'll probably move generally OK.

4. How often to put in ice screws? As often as you need to, but always have enough solid gear in to keep you from either hitting the ground or a ledge feature that will operate as the ground. If I feel strong and secure I'll run it hard on steep terrain. But if gets ledgy and messy I'll always put in a screw just before pulling over a bulge above a ledge... It's all about the situation you find yourself in, or rather, knowingly climbed into 'cause you were reading the route above you and had an idea for the line developed on the approach. I have seen way too many horrible broken ankles, legs and other carnage from people falling off on ice, even while being lowered on ice and dropping a few feet onto a ledge. Crampons and falling just do not mix; sometimes you'll have good luck and it will all be OK, but personally I try to climb like any fall will result in a compound fracture of both legs. It's worked for 25 years.

5. If you can't lead most any ice pitch you encounter in under about 30 minutes and any ice pitch you encounter in under an hour then you're climbing over your head and shouldn't be there. Go back and learn how to climb better, or choose an easier line. I mean this. Alpine pitches are a bit different, but most pure ice pitches should take under half an hour to lead. If they're taking more than this you're either trying to climb up to the level of your ego (the pitch is too hard even if you think you should be able to do it), you're trying to impress someone else (same), or you've screwed up and are trying to get it done (it happens, I was there a month ago). Realize that you're pushing things, your partner is going to get cold and not be having any fun, and that you don't have a safety margin anymore. Ice climbing is fundamentally not about technical ability but balancing ability and ambition; I'm a lot more impressed with someone who can lead a "grade 4" smoothly and well than some joker who sketches up a "grade 6, dude!" then boasts about it in the bar. If I sound a bit sarcastic and maybe a little aggro here it's because I've seen far too many leaders on terrain far too hard for them over the years. I've left climbing areas rather than watch someone sketch their way up something. Compound fractures are messy, I don't want to watch.

6. Strength will help in ice climbing for sure, and all things being equal the stronger climber will kick ass on the weaker climber. But all things aren't equal. Most ice climbers need to train on ice way more than they do. Do 200 laps on a vertical ice climb and you'll likely have a clue about how to actually ice climb. Do 20 leads on vertical ice and you might not know much about ice climbing. There is a replicable, teachable, and organized method to climbing ice well; learn it well before you lead. Nobody would grab a rack of cams and head up a crack without ever actually having climbed a crack, yet that's what I see all the time on ice climbs from rock climbers. The idea is to move securely, smoothly, and at a speed that can be maintained with those two attributes...

7. Have fun. If you're not having fun and enjoying the place, the day and the setting then you're probably climbing too hard, and climbing fast is out of the question. I know I'm "on" when I'm psyched, moving securely, feel strong, and it's all working. I know it's off when I keep thinking about how I'm going to get some work done at the office or something, I feel cold, I'm climbing slow and awkwardly, etc. etc.

8. Bring a couple of little "family band" radios on long routes. These really, really cut down on confusion on ice climbs. I've seldom needed them on rock, but they are great on ice and cut down on yelling.

9. If the leader takes 30 minutes then the second should take under 15 from the time the leader yells "Off!" to when the second arrives at the belay. Enough said.

10. Train. This is the secret to climbing ice. In order of usefulness: Train on ice, drytool, train on plice, train in the gym (straight Crossfit will be enough), train however you can come up with but train.

OK, there's a rant, lots more to put down but I'm out of time. Have fun!''

For more related articles go to Will's page: www.gravsports.blogspot.com

Yours truly enjoying efficient ice climbing in the US. Photo: Rich Cardinal

Ratho by Lukasz Warzecha

2008-12-02T21:06:00.000Z

A couple of quick photos from the Ratho round of the Mixed Climbing Series. The photos are taken by a very talented young photographer living in Edinburgh. Hopefully I can rope him into some of my plans for the winter. This season for me will be all out competition and some specials on the side. Those specials might include short trips to go after the two hardest mixed routes in the world and a trip or two to somewhere a bit different.

On the open qualifying routes at Ratho.

Lukasz Warzecha website

Inside out Part 2

2008-12-01T20:31:00.000Z

So, after a days competition I relaxed back in the Cairngorm Hotel restaurant with the guys. Recounting the stories and talking about winter routes in the mountains.

The alarm went off at 6 and by 7.45 I was starting the walk out to the Northern Corries with Fiona. We were amongst the first people out on the clear blue frosty morning, about 30mins ahead of the crowd. We opted for the most white-looking thing we could see and climbed on. Worth noting that a lot of buttresses were stripped off and too dry to do any winter climbing on. We topped out after lunch and headed down to the trail perfectly in time before the snow came in.

What an awesome all round weekend I thought as I slid my way down the icey track. A bit of comp climbing with the axes and crampons and then a beautiful day winter climbing outside. And to cap it all off the road back home was as clear as it could possibly have been. If only every weekend could be this good.

Inside out Part 1

2008-12-01T19:52:00.000Z

This weekend was one of those weekends that just fitted together like lego bricks. I woke up early on saturday and got driving before the darkness had cleared. The temperature dropped from -5 to -10 degrees as I headed down the Spey valley to Aviemore. Thinking I was lucky to get there on time and with the car in one piece, I headed into the Extreme Dream centre for the latest round of the Mixed Climbing Series. My luck was still cashing in though, as I got involved in the most fun and enjoyable comp I've ever done.

-10 on the display during the drive.

Big Al and Scott worked their arses off the day before setting a mass of fantastic tooling routes which incorporated everything from swinging boards to hanging logs and overhanging walls. The kind of setup you'd be really pissed about having pull down afterwards. And all day I failed to meet anyone that wasn't loving it. I even manged to slice open my palm on a route that I didn't even have to do. But still I just laughed and kept on enjoying.

The final turned out to be a really spot on route as it managed to stretch out the participants perfectly across it. I stepped up with my bloody hand and torn glove and put in a reasonable effort, getting out to the final section of the roof. Not quite my best, but much better than my effort in the first two rounds. Rob Mckenzie climbed after and put in a brilliant effort to push past my high point in a faster time. Proof that World Cup level rock climbing really works and that he is a talent we need to take to the Ice World Cup this winter.

In the other catagories, Fiona Murray won the womens, Ellen Barber won the girls, Stevie Addison the boys and Ru Mckenzie the vets.

Cineplex, Canada

2008-11-23T15:08:00.000Z

This week my buddies Jeff and Boris are heading over to Canada to climb mixed routes for 3 weeks. Jeff asked me about routes at the Cineplex and a possible topo. On the back of this I've pulled my finger out and cobbled together the following info about this notorious crag.

The Cineplex also known by the waterfall - 'Panther Falls' has been a focus for super hard mixed climbing for the last 8 or so years. It's home to a number of mega routes which have represented the hardest test pieces in the world at various times. By far and away the most influential 2 people in this story are Will Gadd and Ben Firth and they would always be my first port of call for detailed historical info.

Getting to the Cineplex can be really easy or really hard depending on road conditions. After flying into Calgary and then basing yourself in Banff, Lake Louise or maybe Rampart Creek you head north up the Icefields Parkway. After passing the famous Weeping Wall you get to a massive hairpin bend and soon after a turn-out on the right side (not always ploughed). This is very subtly sign posted as Panther Falls. From the parking spot most people walk behind the sign and zig-zag through the trees, tending leftward to the point where the waterfall feeds the river. The other approach is by going further left from the car park and rapping straight in just to the side of the waterfall.

Basically in the safest way possible, you should eventually come in under the massive roof that sits behind the falls. For the next bit I'm going to try to explain the routes at the cave from right to left as you look in at them.

1. Coming Atttraction M7- (far righthand route)
2. Cineplex M9 (starts on the fat pillar and then follows tat across the rock)
3. Musashi M12 (starts above a loose scree slope with an awkward belay)
4. Rocky Mountain Horror Show M11 (very close to Musashi but a longer route with more bolts)
5. The Game M13 (start on a short backwall and massive moves across the roof via overlaps)
6. Steel Koan M13+? (start on short wall with reaches over bulges, left traverse to monster roof) 7. Orgasmo M9 (far left route behind the curtain)

Musashi is normally a reference point to work from. It starts with a short overhanging wall above a slippery and tricky slope. The route uses an obvious slot before going round the front of the roof and up towards the ice transition. I can't remember how many clips are on RMHS but its something like 20+, so it's easy to find because of its length. The Steel Koan is also pretty easy to spot too as it starts to the left on a small block which you can scramble up on. It also has the newest BD draws hanging from the roof (in 2008! at least).

Further left still there are 4 more routes bolted up outside of the ice curtain graded M8- to M9-.

A few quick hit tips for the Cineplex:

If you're low on fuel the nearest emergency option is the lady at the Ranger station, Saskatchewan Crossing. Dollars required.
If you get lost in the trees, make sure you traverse the slope fully leftward well before getting too far down toward the river.
Always be careful incase the snow plough actually ploughs your car in.
If you drive as far as the Columbia Icefield Centre then you have gone way too far and need to turn and watch out as you drop back downhill toward the big U-bend.
Bare in mind that the cave can get bitterly cold, even so much that you can't warm up enough to climb anything.

Guidebook: 'Mixed climbs of the Canadian Rockies' by Sean Isaac (2nd edition)

The slot move on Musashi. Photo: Jo Dotremont.

Keeping your hands warm

2008-11-21T21:26:00.003Z

This is going to be a short post. Because put very simply there is one clear way to warm up your hands when you are out climbing in cold temperatures. I could try to explain it in words or draw a diagram, but luckily Stephen Koch has already done the work for me by making a neat little video. This and more tips are available on his website. See the left hand side for a link to his page.

http://stephenkoch.com/2010/03/how-to-warm-cold-hands/

I often see people trying to warm their hands up using their armpits or by blowing air onto their hands. The bottom line is quite simple. You need to push oxgenated blood into your extremities like your hands as soon as possible. The blood will carry the warmth straight from your core. By adding artificial warmth from outside onto your skin you might be making your hands feel temporarily warmer but you are not actually curing the situation. As the added external warmth will just make your blood vessels constrict more. So fooling your hands into thinking they are warm is not a good plan. Instead focus on forcing as much blood to the hands as possible at every opportunity using a method like gyroscopic force.

The added advantage of this is that it becomes especially helpfull when you're ice climbing. Gripping the tools tight for long periods is an easy way to ensure you get hot aches. So by forcing blood back into the hands from the heart every so often you will stand the best chance of avoiding the hot aches burn. I also recommend doing full rotations with your arms before training and before competitions too. This way you can be sure that you are absolutely maximising the flow of blood to the hands and fingers in preparation for the climbing ahead. And if on a route you find you can't practically and logistically do full rotations then just half or quarter rotations, back and forth by your side will also help greatly. The more exaggerated and forceful the better.

Through all of this post I'm assuming that you will have decided to wear a half decent pair of gloves for the conditions!

Hello Polar Maritime Airstream

2008-11-21T18:53:00.000Z

Here come the snows again. All day today the snow has been blowing in, giving me a fair amount of confidence that the highlands are getting covered. The forecast is for snow all weekend...

Walking through the driving snow to get to my front door.

Next morning a snowman decides to hit the shops early.

New tooling venue

2008-11-20T20:07:00.000Z

As the rumours have been predicting, yes Blackpool Climbing Towers now allow drytooling. So I guess another step forward in a sense - the first outdoor tooling venue for the UK. Just one issue.... who lives close to Blackpool? Some people I'm sure, I just haven't found them yet. Hopefully this is the first step in a new effort to try and get some more exposure to this area of the climbing sport. Also mega because it marks my 100th post!!! Yer!

General info: Here

Tooling info: Here

Pick Types

2008-11-20T19:58:00.000Z

For the increasing number of people that ask... what's the difference between so called 'T' picks and 'B' picks. Quite simpy it's like this: There are different ratings on a basis that they are of different strengths and meant for different purposes.

B Picks: Designed for ice climbing.
Often designed to be thinner and better at penetrating ice and getting back out of ice.

T Picks: Designed for mixed climbing.
Normally designed to be thicker and stronger and better at taking a torque force.

The Black Diamond line: Here

Normally most very good ice and mixed climbers I've seen just use T picks for everything, rather than switching around between different pick types. Hence its on average most common to see T picks fitted to tools you buy in the shops (except where people purposely put B picks on to try and get rid of them to unsuspecting buyers of course).

More comps, more hits to the head

2008-11-15T20:58:00.000Z

Okay, so there's a running theme here. Take part in climbing competition during the day, come home and find X-Factor on the TV in the evening. Luckily there are no comps next weekend so I can feel the relief of a break in the cycle. This weekends comp was at the EICA at Ratho, Edinburgh. First thing to note for the non-UK residents is this place is huge - one of the largest climbing arenas in the world.

The competition had a slightly different format from the first round (Dundee). This time there were 10 routes of varying difficulty to climb in a limited amount of time. Some of the routes were powerful and overhanging, whilst others made cunning use of natural rock and a 'new school' style of mixed climbing.... half real rock and half climbing wall panel!

For me the idea of doing these events is to practice my onsighting and to sample the fun delights of whatever funky routes have been dreamt up by the route setters. Hence my appreciation of how quickly the clock ticks down is often somewhat casual. Like many people, I realised this with just 10 minutes of climbing time remaining. Again like most other competitors I too failed to get a go on all the routes. Of the ones I climbed, I can say they were surprisingly well set and had a good level of sketch and long move action. As with the last round I was totally hooked on the fact that everyone was so friendly and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

At the end of the day the winners were as follows:

Mens: Robert Mackenzie
Womens: Fiona Murray
Junior Boys: Johnny Stocking
Junior Girls: Ellen Barber
Vets: Ruairidh Mackenzie

Full results here

As for yours truly, I came a disappointing fourth in the mens. Still having trouble getting going in these comps even with 2 rounds done. Being able to climb M12 and M13 doesn't seem to matter as I battle with the finer points of how you actually climb anywhere near your ability level. Something I might write about in a post as it can be really important for the bigger comps: How to get yourself to climb at your absolute maximum potential level exactly at the time you need it and for 6 to 15 minutes? ... the holy grail of the international comp climber.

The new look Ratho EICA. Photo: EICA.

The world's biggest mountain rescue station

2008-11-10T18:20:00.000Z

The PGHM, the peleton de gendarmerie de haute montagne. In english the police mountain rescue team. I've been reading a lot over the years about these guys and even know some folks that work there as instructors and thought I'd throw down some words. In an inform-the-nation stylie.

Motto: Never leave anyone alone in trouble on the mountain.

Formed: In 1958, hence a 50 year aniversary.

In December 1956 two young students ventured up Mont Blanc for a second time. The first time they had turned round because of cloud over the summit. On retreating down the Brenva Spur they changed their minds and headed back up after seeing Walter Bonatti heading up with a client. (I guess if you saw Bonatti going for it, you might be swayed yourself?). They got into trouble at the top though and as the now legendary story says, they made a desperate and futile attempt to get down.

Their epic survival mission lasted for 8 days, in temperatures down to -35 and at 4400m. Remember, 1950's clothing and gear! And whilst Bonatti tried fruitlessly to guide them down, the situation spiraled out of control. In the end even a rescue helicopter had to crash land near the summit. The final conclusion saw a team from the army eventually get to the pair, but by then it was too late. Fortunately for the great Bonatti, he and his client made it out in one piece on the Italian side.

Such was the public outcry that these young lives had been needlessly lost, that a new rescue team was formed on the back of it. This team now answers over 1000 calls a year and has rescued over 25000 people since its formation. Not only this, the PGHM also tests gear and procedures all year round and teaches courses in all aspects of mountain activity. Nowadays, competition to join this prestigious unit is fierce, with half the 35 guys in the Chamonix unit holding a mountain guide diploma.

Piece of mind for you: The team works across the entire terrain of the Mont Blanc mountain area as far north as Vallorcine. And every helicopter that goes out to rescue someone always has a highly qualified doctor on board. If you see the label 'Secours Montagne', you know you're in safe hands.

Photos: Phillipe Poulet.

What's better than X Factor on a Saturday

2008-11-08T20:38:00.001Z

The world's gone crazy. Everyone seems wrapped up in watching the latest antics on this weeks X Factor. Strangely enough though I had little in the way of difficulty pulling myself away from the TV to post about todays news. Today was the first in the new series of drytooling competitions for the UK. In regular style I got up late, got out late and then arrived suitably late for the competition registration at the A Vertical World wall in Dundee. It was new to me - tooling indoors in Dundee, and new to the wall too. The first time they had put on a tooling comp.

A fully stacked turn out packed into the 'compact' sized wall and got stuck into a range of routes and boulder problems - 15 in total. The emphasis was on the ability to use some very small holds and some very cunningly subtle placements. This meant things got very spicy very quickly. People were pinging off regularly. Great for anyone watching and a really good fun challenge for who ever was unlucky enough to be holding the tools. What really stood out for me during the session was the sense of camaraderie between climbers. I've done my fair share of rock comps over the years and always found them too stuffy and sometimes a bit anal. Someone asked me a few weeks back what tooling comps were like. I don't think you can get a friendlier type of climbing comp.

Back to the day though and 4 us were ushered around the corner for a 'final' type arrangement. For anyone who doesn't know about these comps, this wasn't just for guys. There were finalists for the junior girls and boys, women and senior veterans. It's hard to comment on anything when your asked to hang out in an isolation area. But the final outcome saw Dominic Scott win and three of us tie for second (later split on points count-back). The real shame being that no one topped out across the elaborately decorated roof. For the hours of man time that must have gone into setting that lot up, I can't believe we all missed out on actually hanging off it.

So, that's kicked off the series for this year. Hard to believe in fact that this is the only professionally organised and sponsored tooling series by any one country in the world. Yer... we're at the cutting edge right here! Impressive stuff. With this in mind the boys at the wall did a mega job setting and running the comp. There were some comments on the sketchiness of the routes and 'can we have some thumping music during the final please', but otherwise most people ticked the two most critical boxes: 1) get pumped stupid and 2) enjoy the day.

Final results:

Junior Boys: 1st Stevie Addison
Junior Girls: 1st Ellen Barber, 2nd Nikki Addison
Vets: 1st Jimmy Addison, 2nd Bill Davidson
Mens: 1st Dominic Scott, 2nd Mark Musgrove - Neil Silver
Womens: 1st Fiona Murray, 2nd Anna Wells

see: http://www.averticalworld.co.uk/comp.htm

Some ice competition history

2008-11-05T20:19:00.000Z

Ice Climbing is a fairly new Competition Sport. Even though the first known ice climbing competition was organized in Courmayeur on the Brenva glacier in the year 1912, ice climbing as a sport is considered fairly new in terms of worldwide competition and participation.

Ice climbing competitions started in Russia (at that time the Soviet Union) and have been held each winter since 1970. There were three disciplines: difficulty, speed and speed climbing of a longer route (100+m) by roped groups where the lead climber changed every 40m. At the end of a season the winner of each of the disciplines was announced. National ice-climbing speed competitions in Russia have been held since around 1987. During the winter 1996/1997 the Russian team participated at a Courchevel competition in France and at that time they adopted the French rules for difficulty also for their events.

These competitions at Courchevel in France were also famous. The magnificent 40m high tower in Courchevel was synonymous for difficulty ice climbing events in Europe from 1995 till 2000 when a huge piece of ice fell down just a few hours before the event started. The main rule was to climb as high as possible using as few hits as possible, with the time limited between 8 and 14 minutes.

There were and still are several competitions in North America. The most famous were Winter X games ice climbing events (speed and difficulty), but after 1999 ice climbing was excluded from Winter X games. Another good event was the IWC competition in Quebec Canada that hosted all the best competitors in the world. There are some other ice climbing events that also include competitions, but with their own regulations.

One of the most well-known is the Ouray ice gathering in Colorado, USA, a five day event with many other attractions for climbers of all ages. The Canmore Ice Climbing Festival in Canmore, Alberta, Canada combines great competitions with skill clinics, where climbing techniques are taught, and other attractions such as climbing demos and slide shows.

Slovenia is also well-known for the Bohinj speed race (50m). From 1994 till 1999 duel speed competitions were held on a natural rock in Bohinj. In recent years there have been problems with ice as a result of climate change. Since 2000 Solcava has hosted difficulty and speed competitions, while for the season 2002/2003 the event "Slovenian cup" took place in 3 different locations. The Slovenian cup has now taken place every year in speed and difficulty.

The International World Cup started with a competition in Cortina in year 2000. In 1999 the competitions in Europe were organized to a kind of schedule (not yet IWC) in Courchevel, Cortina, Pitztal and Kirov. The first common rules appeared in 1998 and the first IWC (International World Cup) took place in 2000 organised by a private German company, who organized the event till the season of 2002, when the International Ice climbing commission of the UIAA took over. In 2007 there were competitions in 3 locations in Europe. However the Sport is expanding rapidly, and we expect to have 5-6 events next year.

The incredible looking setting for the unconventional Ice World Cup - Norway.

Courtesy of the UIAA.