Ren hits the rock!!

Dry rock??

Today Rene and I headed out to Lancashire for Ren's first taste of some action on the rock after a few indoor sessions. When i awoke, it looked like a perfect autumnal morning for a climb, fresh, clear and a hint of sun, but by the time we arrived up in Lancashire it was clear by the puddles on the roads that we would struggle to find dry rock.
We made the short approach into Wilton 3, which would have been a good venue for Ren as their are a good ammount of easier graded lines, but unfortunatley the majority of  the rock was soaking. Ren seconeded a couple of V Diff's, (which wasnt easy due to the grease!!), before we headed down to Brownstones.

The rock at the Ash Pit Slabs area of Brownstones was marginaly better. Keeping to the easier lines ment that we could probably get something done, although there was minimal to no friction and greasy cracks, we managed around 5 or 6 problems, and Ren sent his first route!!

Ondra completes his hardest to date

16 year old Czech wonder kid Adam Ondra has climbed his hardest route yet which was also a first ascent.
The route is Marina Superstar (9a+/b, or 5.15a/b) at the Domusnovas area in southern Sardinia, Italy.
Read more here: http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/ondra_completes_515ab_first_ascent/

He also says, "So happy to have some really hard FA! Well, I am not sure about the grade. Definately my hardest yet, but probably not 9b, thus I go for 9a+/b. I have to try more routes from Chris to compare. Beautiful line 35m line in very steep cave. It took me 4 days this year and 3 goes last year. Thanks to Matteo Marinini for bolting and to whole Cagliari!"

Priests Hole Movie......

Priests Hole Cave Bivouac.

With a dreadful forecast in mind, getting something done was always going to be difficult this weekend. We aimed to head out from Ambleside and up to Priests Hole cave on Dove crag and stay there for the night as its a fantastic bivy spot.
Once in Ambleside, we unfortunatley had to change our plan and had to resort to a less time consuming approach as the weather forecast was spot on, it was horrendus!! We noticed there was a small window of fair weather in the early afternoon, so we drove to Brothers water and headed to Priests Hole from there. We timed it well, the weather eased up for our approach and came in again as we just made the cave which was pre occupied by 3 Geordie chaps and a crazy Labrador called, 'Bergkamp'!! Sounds strange i know!!
We settled in with plenty of cups of coffee, soup and hob nobs. The geordie chaps even had an ipod and speaker system on the go!!
Inside Priests Hole there is a metal box, which contains a visitors book for people to write about there stay, (how good is that!!) and also items left by previous occupants! We made use of a fire log which was in the tin, and had ourselves a campfire on the go to dry off peoples wet gear.

The weather didnt let up all night, but we all seemed to get a good nights kip, even Bergkamp!!

Inspirational Movies....

A couple of truley brilliant inspirational movies are doing the rounds at the minute, and i couldnt resist posting them for anyone thats interested.

The first is of John Griffith and Will Sim climbing the Croz spur with the Slovenian start on the Grandes Jorrasses.

Some amazing footage, and even better climbing!!

Just double click the videos to watch on full screen. It is reccomended!!



Croz spur with Slovenian start- Grandes Jorasses from Jonathan Griffith on Vimeo.

Another cracking short movie around at the moment is that of Rich Simpson climbing Wolfgang Gullichs classic, Action Directe. The video is more of a documaentary of Rich's 'obsession', to climb Action Directe. It shows the gruelling traing sessions and the true strength needed to climb such a powerful route. Bear in mind Action Directe was the worlds first 9a!

The film is just over 25 minutes long, but well worth the watch if you have time.


Obsession from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.

Workout at Pex

On Thursday i headed down to Pex Hill for a couple of hours training.

I bouldered, stayed on the low wall as i was alone and didnt fancy taking any big falls without a spotter!!

I played around on the traverse, working out the individual moves, hopefuly a couple more times down there and il get the full traverse done!!

The finger felt good again, so its all about building the strength back after a wasted summer!! And there isnt anywhere better for that than Pex!!

Another alpine short movie

I have uploaded a new short film to the video wall which was recorded by Dan Robb.
It features some mixed climbing on the last few meters of the chimney pitch on Pointe Lachenal, at the foot of Mt Blanc du Tacul.

Final Makalu Report - Ueli Steck / and back to the training for me!

Heres Ueli Stecks final report from his recent trip to Makalu (8463),http://ueli-steck.petzlteam.com/index.php/. It makes a great read if you have a spare moment, and really tells the tale of how demanding an ascent up the worlds 5th highest mountain in this style is, and not forgetting Ueli is an increadibly fit alpanist! Again Ueli didnt have good conditions at all, a bit like his trip to Gasherbrum II earlier in the year.

And for me, the finger tendon i damaged earlier in the year is coming along brilliantly, probably around 85% back to full fitness. The past week i have been putting in a few light sessions on the finger board, as i hope to build some of the lost strength back, as i feel pretty weak atm!!
Also i have been out with Wayne and Allterrainroutes http://www.allterrainroutes.co.uk/, the past couple of weeks, and had a few great night rides which are keeping the fitness up!!

First snow of the year.

People up in the Scottish highlands woke up this morning to the first snow of the season up on the hills.

Looks like the Cairngorm especially got quite a dusting in yesterdays storms.

Also Ben Nevis and Lochaber recieved a light dusting over the tops, so time to get training for this winter season. Hope its going to be a good one!!

Heres a short movie to get the psche going, produced by Dan at Mountainplan,
http://www.mountainplan.com/, which features me and Dan!

Time to sharpen the axes!!

Short Movie - Alpine Climbing

Here's a short movie that i have put together from our recent alpine climbing trip to Chamonix,France.

You can also watch the video via the Dailymotion video wall on the sidebar to the right, along with older productions.

Hope you enjoy!