New route on The Mattherhorn North Face

On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, the Swiss uber strong himilayan mountaineer Jean Troillet,( who is 61!!) climbed a new difficult line on the north face of the Matterhorn. He climbed it with a french duo of Martial Dumas and Jean-Yves Fredriksen , and the route is named "Sébastien Gay" and is 600m graded at ABO.

Troillet attempted the route 3 years ago with partner Sebastien Gay, but the pair were forced to retreat due to poor conditions. A few weeks later Gay died in an unfortunate speedflying accident, and now Troillet returned to finish his route and dedicate it in honour of his climbing partner.

Troillet describes the route as the following, "The route starts steeply, the first 400m are almost overhanging. You have to see the plus side: this protected us from falling rocks. We bivvied on the face in a hammock. And as it's done on the Eiger, it isn't necessary to reach the summit to inaugurate a new route. The grade? Abo. Which stands for abominal"

Jean Troillet, Martial Dumas and Jean-Yves Fredriksen have carried out the first ascent of "Sébastien Gay" (600m ABO) on the North Face of the Matterhorn. Photo by Archivio Troillet

Veikka Gustafson summits all 14 8000ers -Without supplimentary oxygen!!

On 26/07/2009 Veikka Gustafson reached the summit of Gasherbrum I, together with Japanese climber Kazuya Hiraide and four Bulgarians. For the mountaineer from Finland this seals his bid to climb all fourteen 8000m peaks without supplementary oxygen.

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=36878

A fantastic achievment in its own right. Not to use supplimentary oxygen makes it a truley amazing feat!!
Congratulations.

Ice lurchers

Just managed to re-find this short film produced by Mountainplan. It was filmed at a weekend earlier on in the year, which we spent at lurchers.
As you can see me and Dan had fantastic conditions and the crag to ourselves!
Enjoy!


Ice lurchers
Video sent by MountainPlanTV

Llandegla Wednesday Eve

Fun and games last night as we headed to Llandegla for a spin around the red trail.

We took lew out for his first outing on the bikes and he ended up with a snapped chain!. Not to mention me and malc getting a puncture, Dan coming off, and some how Ian went for a swim as he fell into a stream!!

After all the incidents we had to cut the last section of the trail and head back to the cars as it was getting dark, but more importantly the bbq at the visitors centre was coming to a close!!

An eventful evening all round, and we made it for a couple of sausage baps of the bbq!
So all ended well!!

Today at the Marin trail - Gwydyr Forest

Today i was out with Mike, Dan, Daz, Ian and Malc. We headed to Bewts-Y-Coed, to have a bash at the Marin trail in Gwydyr forest.

Surprisingly we also managed to avoid the rain, and the day turned out quite pleasant.

http://shop.bike-fax.com/catalog/downloads/marin.pdf

The Marin trail, although it has a good ammount of climbing, is pretty spectacular, it has some difficult riding, both physicaly and technicaly and also takes in some fantastic views.

The downhill sections are truley brilliant. Wild, rugged singletracks which require precise riding and a fair ammount of confidence.

The main event at the Marin has to be the final 3 downhill sections, which are worth all the effort put in to the difficult climbs. These sections are fast, winding and have some great jumps, (which i came off in good style!) and finaly led us back to the carpark where it all began.

Cheers guys.

Awesome Walls Stockport

The wet weather forced us inside this evening, but all turned out well as Rene joined us for his 3rd session down at the wall.

Ren's made some great progression, and had the confidence to try climbing on the lead tonight, infact he ended up leading 3 routes including a 5+ on the overhanging scoop wall. Ren also learnt how to clip the rope through the quickdraws and to avoid back clipping.

http://www.spadout.com/w/quickdraw/

Nice one Ren.

Me and Dan got some routes in also, but i noticed a lack of strength after not climbing for a couple of weeks due to a finger injury that doesnt seem to want to go away!!

Hopefuly we'l get some fine weather soon, so we can get back outside!

Mountain Bikers - Snowdon Voluntary Cycling restrictions

SnowdonVoluntary Cycling Restrictions in place for the summer.
Summer is finally upon us and with that it the Voluntary Cycling Restrictions come into effect on Snowdon. So if you do fancy tackling the mighty peak at the moment its either going to have to be a dawn raid or and after hours sortie
So far this voluntary restriction is working well, safeguarding our long term access to this very fine ride. The restrictions apply to The Llanberis Path The Rhyd Ddu Path The Snowdon Ranger Path
The voluntary restriction on cycling on the Snowdon bridleways is in effect between 10 am and 5 pm from 1st of may until the 30th September. This was agreed by a wide range of public bodies and individuals, and seeks to ensure safety of all path users, and avoid conflict between users
Please respect the voluntary agreement, or risk having a complete ban on cycling.



Bridleways affected by the agreement


Bwlch Maesgwm bridleway

Thanks

Ueli Steck has success climbing Gasherbrum II

This comes a bit late as the blog is only just up and running, but better late than never!!

On July 9th Ueli reached the main 8035m summit of Gasherbrum II, the 14th highest peak on earth, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasherbrum_II


Sounds like he didnt have it so easy with the conditions either, deep snow, avalanche risk and high winds, read here http://ueli-steck.petzlteam.com/index.php/post/2009/07/15/Gasherbrum-II-the-story-from-Ueli
Ueli Steck reaching camp 2.

Congratulations!!

..........A Few More!!

A day at Windgather crag in the Peak. Dan climbing at Sa Gubia, Mallorca.

Me climbing at Cala Maranger, Mallorca.


Trying the hard moves of Xorics at Cala Maranger, Mallorca.

Some photos from the past 6 months!

Absolutely Freezing in the Cairngorm!
Climbing Invernookie in the Cairngorms

More Lurchers action.

I have finally got this thing up and running! Not being a wizz on the laptop, it has took me a while!

I hope to keep the blog updated, not only with what ive been up to, but with any useful information related to the outdoors. Things like new mountain paths, any significant new lines that have been put up or repeated, new developed crags, recent climbing restrictions, new or adapted mountain bike x- country and down hill trails, and in the winter, the most recent Scottish and (sometimes!!) Welsh winter climbing conditions.

Cheers for reading

Allan