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'.

Latest round - up...

Action Direct sees another repeat

 Last week Gabriele Moroni made first Italian ascent of Action Direct 9a, the route freed by Wolfgang Güllich in 1991 and which still today represents an important test for sport climbing.

Moroni's ascent is now the twelth of Action Direct, and his name is now firmly on the list with some of the worlds greatest sport climbers.

12 ascents in 20 years, says it all!!

http://www.8a.nu/

Dream Guides Everest update

The DG team has been at base camp now for a few days and recently had the, 'puja', a ceremony to bless the expedition with safety and success.

Check out the DG blog for updates http://dream-guides.blogspot.com/

BMC Leading Ladder final

This coming Saturday see's the final of thr BMC's Leading Ladder. The final is to be held at the Leeds climbing wall and results will be posted asap.

Dusting off the rock shoes on Dinas Mot

After the long winter season and the recent glorious weather, it was time to put away the axes for another year and dig out the rock shoes. We headed over to Dinas Mot in the Llanberis pass for some good, medium graded multi-pitching,  just whats needed to get back into the swing of things.

With the uber classics, 'The Cracks' & 'Direct Route' on the wishlist, we made the short walk in, (missed those over the winter!), and were first at the crag, which today was much quiter than i would have expected.

Dan got to work on The Cracks, and ran pitches 1 and 2 together, pitch 3 was mine and i headed from under the overhanging corner, up and right to be greated by a fantastic but grueling looking corner slab crack. This was the 3rd pitch of, 'Lorraine', it ties up with The Cracks above the corner, but looked that interesting and obvious, i  had to begin onwards and upwards. After a 20 minute wrestle, with very few features other than the hand sized crack in a corner i arrived at the next belay. Dan took the next pitch which involved a tricky exposed move, and i then had the honours for the last pitch and the much known about last couple of moves which have seen many people struggle to say the least, fortunatley being tall i could reach the top of the crack and didnt find it too tricky.

Next up was the 3 star, 'Direct Route'. I took the first 2 pitches which i ran together, leaving the most amazing long traverse of The Nose of Dinas Mot. Eveyone who climbs this route MUST do the same, it really does create an amazing pitch of climbing, Dan had the next 2 pitches including the final corner which was the crux and which also was tricky to start. Dan dispatched the last pitch in good time and again is a fantastic pitch and is always interesting.

A great days climbing and another fine day, lets hope it continues......

Piolet d'Or 2010

The Piolets d'or 2010 were won by Denis Urubko and Boris Dedechko for their route on Cho Oyu and by Jed Brown, Kyle Dempster and Bruce Normand for their route up Xuelian West.

Kazakhs Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko last year opened up a new route on the South East Face of Cho Oyu  (Nepalese side).  The route is 2600m and Urubko became the fifteenth man to have successfully climbed all fourteen 8000ers, and the ninth person to do it without oxygen. At 36 years of age, the Kazakh has taken nine years to accomplish this feat.

Other winners were Jed Brown and Kyle Dempster along with Scotsman Bruce Normand completed the North face of the Xuelian West (Chinese Tien Shan). This climb is long, complicated and technically difficult. The summit had never been climbed. This new route has been named, 'The Great White Jade Heist' and is 2650m long and is graded, ice 5, rock 5, M6.

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=37344#