Underwater base jump

Check out this amazing video which i first viewed via Adayak's blog.

What a fantastic piece of filming and editing, not to mention the action itself!!

Wheel Of Life - 3rd Ascent - Ethan Pringle

According to his 8a.nu logbook Ethan Pringle has made the 3rd ascent of Dai Koyamada’s Wheel Of Life at the Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians, Australia. Given V16 after the FA, Pringle registered it as a 5.14d route climb which makes sense since the problem is a massively long 60+ move linkup of several problems in the V9-V12 range.
This ascent is all the more impresive as Ethan  ha s just recovered from a serious shoulder injury sustained in February 2009 at ABS Nationals where Pringle dynoed on Men's Finals Problem #4 and blew out his shoulder. He endured surgery three months later.

A talking point however, is Pringle's use of a kneepad. He used the pad to make 3 knee bars he found on the route, less painful.
Read Ethan's WOL interview here:  http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/ithe_wheel_of_lifei_sees_third_ascent_by_pringle/

Chris Webb-Parsons making the 2nd ascent of the Wheel Of Life

World's End....

Popped down to World's End this morning with Dan for a quick route or two, leaving enough time to get back for the football this afternoon, but lets not mention that!
Having climbed on most of the other Clywd limestone crags, we decided to visit World's End as we had yet climbed there. We headed for the upper tier, as according to the guide this has the most sound rock, (were talking limestone here!).
We found most of the upper tier good but STEEP!, with many of the routes having awkward bulges to overcome.
We got a couple of easier routes in, and then both got well and truly spanked on the HVS testpiece, 'Intensity'. Intensity was, in its time, the hardest route in the valley which houses the band of limestone crags, and defiantly high in the grade for HVS 5a.
I vow to return with a couple of hexes on the harness, which i think may be adequate to protect to the bulge at mid height which neither me or Dan would commit to.

Old Man of Stoer - Video

Here's a short video from our recent trip to Stoer, complete with fulmar sick!.....

The video's quality may be poor if watching this evening, as its still being processed.

Enjoy....

Old Man of Stoer- A brief visit.....

A very quick 25hr round trip from Manchester to Stoer and back again, (950 miles!!) paid off today for Dan, Kev & I, as we made an ascent of the fantastic Old Man of Stoer sea stack.

We, of course had to choose the uber classic, 'Original route' VS 5a. Not the most difficult of route on the stack, nor the easiest, this classic line could not be avoided!

On arrival at the Old Man, it was apparent that a tyrolean was already in place, complete with bolt!!! which i believe was recently placed by a group of slackliners from the U.S. This, obviously and rightly so, has created a fair bit of fuss, but thats another story! Read more here, http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=410368

The pre placed tyrolean fortunately saved us making the swim over the channel, and we were able to make a quick start on the route.
We climbed the route as a team of 3 in the standard 4 pitches, and good conditions, although pretty chilly, made for a quick ascent which took around  2 hours.

All that was left was a brilliant hanging absail to complete the route.

The photo below was taken mid absail!!

Dyneema Vs Nylon - Drop Test Video.......

A very interesting article and video from DMM is currently under hot debate on UKC, http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=412666. The video below shows the results of a series of drop tests using an 80kg dead weight, roughly the same as an average male, on both dyneema and nylon slings.
Dyneema and nylon are the two most common materials used to manufacture slings and quickdraws, and with both having different properties, the test make for some interesting if not scary findings!!

Heres the link to the video:
http://www.dmmclimbing.com/video.asp?id=5

Dream Of White Horses

Wen Zawn is considered the jewel in Gogarths crown, and Wen Zawn is home to the uber classic and most saught after, 'Dream Of White Horses'.
For those that dont know, Gogarths striking sea cliffs are host to some of North Wales's finest climbs, which are set in an amazing situation.
Me and Dan decided yesterday morning that we would make the drive over to Holyhead and  see what, 'Dream Of White Horses', is all about, and yep, its pretty damn good!!

At HVS, 'Dream', obviously gets the grade due to its most serious nature,  and rightly so. Firstly your greeted by the absail to begin the route down into the atmospheric Wen Zawn, and with 'Dream' being one of the easier lines, if you cant climb that, you pretty much stuck, you cant climb out!

After absailing into the route, and setting up for me to lead first, something i read the other day on the web popped into my head. A chap who had gone to climb 'Dream', 8 times before without any luck, finally getting it done on his 9th go!! One of the times his partner refused to even make the absail down, thats how intimidating it can be!!

With the seals watching from the zawn, off we went......

The route was fantastic, as good as the hype, and with nice holds just where you want them,  minimal seepage & good weather we got it done in just over 2 hours.

After climbing the route, its easy to see why it is reccomended that both partners are compatent HVS climbers, any fall would be pretty serious, more often than not it would also result in a big pendulum!

A fall on the final pitch, where the rock dissapears beneath your feet, leaving 200ft of air between you and the bottom of the rocky zawn, doesnt bear thinking about!

There were a few teams climbing in Wen Zawn today, a team followed us on 'Dream', and there was also a team on 'Concrete Chimney'.