I have not written a diary style blog post for a while now, mainly as there has been very little to write about, and rather than write a post for the sake of it, I thought it best to wait until something worthwhile happened! We headed north after Las Fallas, in the general direction of... Continue Reading →
This area first arrived on my radar when looking for sports climbing in the area. One of the online forums mentioned this El Helechal and it's great bouldering potential. All I could find in the form of topo’s was higher graded routes, most of which were out of my grades, however I still thought a... Continue Reading →
Whilst we were travelling towards El Chorro, I placed a thread on the UKC forum asking wether there was any descent places to go walking or scrambling near El Chorro, as I fancied the option if there was a chance between climbs. As luck would have it I chose an Aire in a town called... Continue Reading →
We have continued our climbing tour through Costa Blanca, with a trip to a crag called Sax, again we were chasing top fifty and three stared routes from the Rockfax book. Sax had a lot of good routes, and looked like a great place to climb although the guidebook did say that the venue was... Continue Reading →
The adventures in Costa Blanca just continue to come. Following on from our success on Parle, a sea cliff/cave climb, that tested our ability to the max, we thought we’d head north and take on another time and again recommended climb, Sonjannika at Morro Falgui. I initially found out about this route when searching for... Continue Reading →
There have been some highlights on this trip for me and this day is another to go on that list. I'm not sure why, but this ridge has been on my wantlist for a while, I can't even remember where I first read about it, although at some point it crossed my path and ever... Continue Reading →
After leaving Croatia due to cold weather, we thought we would entertain even colder climates in Slovenia, and see how both the van and us would fair. On crossing the border we headed straight for Bled, and stopped at a service station for the night. In Croatia we had already given into the cold at... Continue Reading →
So the last week or so has been both good and bad, mostly in terms of the weather. As an outdoor trip, we are constantly relying on the weather to show its hand and then we can get on with things or just chill out for the day. As it turns out, since we went... Continue Reading →
Finally the weather seems to be improving for a time and we are trying to make the most if it. The first afternoon of good ish weather we headed up to the crag near Split as we were parked in town. It's weird that for days all I have wanted to do is climb and... Continue Reading →
In all honesty this second outing to the Dolomites has been one long hard week of fun! In eight days we have had seven of them out in the mountains, with one off in the middle, my body is feeling sore, but it has been worth it. Last time I left the area feeling disappointed... Continue Reading →
Or so my guidebook says, Magnifici Quattro (The magnificent Four) is a grade grade 6BVF, and is named in honour of four members of mountain rescue who tragically died whilst on a rescue mission. Jess and me both felt as though we had the ability to climb this route and so set our alarms early... Continue Reading →
So far this trip we have climbed, a lot, however our stint up the west coast of Sardinia resulted in more sunbathing than climbing. In all honesty the most climbing that we did was at Masua, and that was three single pitches, so not exactly pushing ourselves… that said, this part of the trip has... Continue Reading →
By Christ the weather has been a big load of manure for a few days, and this time it’s was wet, cold and just plain horrible for days on end. As we are tighter than tight, we can very rarely do anything, as everything here costs money, so we spent a good period of time... Continue Reading →
It must appear to some that each of these climbs/posts are starting to roll into one another, however this could not be further from the truth. Each of these experiences is unique to one another. Sure, there are similarities, but each adventure has its own personalities, its own take on a similar story, and todays... Continue Reading →
In my last post In Descent Proposal, Voie Ravanel (D, 5b), Pointes de Bayere, I finished by mentioning that the descent had been hampered somewhat by a pain in my ankle. Although this pain was not so acute to stop, it was enough to keep me aware that it might get worse, especially on the scree... Continue Reading →
For a while now I have moaned about the weather here in Cham, it’s been okay, however I’ve always wanted it to be better! So the other day we got a window of what looked like good weather and we were going to take it! I started looking into routes in the mid mountains, as... Continue Reading →
We have been based in Chamonix for the best part of a month and have so far had some great adventures in the mountains. That said, there have often been down days where rest is required and there have been as many, if not more, bad weather days where restlessness is acquired. The past few... Continue Reading →
As the title says this is a rematch against this route as a few weeks ago, both Jess and me retreated from the route, the whole story is here, and involved lots of tiredness, rudeness, dysentery and a stuck abseil rope. All in all, its fair to say that we hated that day and did... Continue Reading →
We have had a barren spell of getting into the mountains recently, mostly due to the weather. That’s not to say we have not missed a couple of average days, when getting up at 6am, looking through the curtains and seeing nothing but cloud or rain, and on those days my bed is more inviting.... Continue Reading →
'Fancy a 30 minute jog before lunch?' 'Yeah, best get on with it, as we have been so inactive due to rain over the past few days...' That was a snippet from our conversation this morning, so as you might imagine this post is about a run. A couple of weeks before, I had been... Continue Reading →
Sometimes a post does not need a title, as the name of the climb is so cool! That’s the first thing that drew me to this climb, the second was its vicinity to the Index chair lift, only 20 minutes to walk in, and thirdly was the 6a pitch, as I’m hoping to climb bolts... Continue Reading →
Just a short one as it was a short day! After such a long day spent on the Aiguille Purtscheller, me and Jess fancied an easier day with less approach and lower graded climbing, but still keeping to traditional climbing, so the South East Ridge on the index was an ideal choice. It has a... Continue Reading →
Before I begin going on about the to and fro that took place on this trip, I will state in a phrase that I have read I the past, “… we humans often experience happiness without recognizing it, later we realize that at such and such a moment we were happy”, Re reading this recently... Continue Reading →
It seems that everyone who has been mountaineering in Chamonix has done the Arête des Cosmiques, well not me, until today that is! It's a classic route that is a short walk from the lift station, and after a few ups and downs ends back at the station. So it is obvious why it's popular,... Continue Reading →
After a couple of day’s downtime, we finally struck up a plan to get back up in the mountains for a day. We chose this route, as the North West Ridge is in nearly every guidebook for the area, so it must be worth a spin! We then looked into the Rockfax guidebook and found... Continue Reading →
Ever since the beginning of this trip I have had one dream, the Alps. To get stuck into the mountains for no other reasons than I absolutely love it. I don’t know why and I have no answer as to why, it just is amazing. I have been flicking though the Chamonix guide book for... Continue Reading →
Quite a short post and not much to say on this one to be honest! Just had another down day, and this time the rain has held off long enough to get on some routes and have a good hard days bouldering! A five minute walk from the car park and we were faced with... Continue Reading →
So on here I have posted much about the days when there is lots going on, I have talked about life in the van a little and although there are adventures taking place pretty regularly out here, there are also days where the sun does not shine and life is put on hold, such as... Continue Reading →
To start this entry I am going to try and paraphrase a definition I learnt at University, it was a definition of adventure, something along the lines of ‘Taking part in an activity or journey with an unknown outcome’, this next entry has this in a vast quantity. Everything that we set out for was... Continue Reading →
After a few weeks in the burgundy region of France, we made the snap decision for a change of scenery and hit the road, bound for Chamonix. Once we arrived, we had a day off to rest, and managed to sort out some admin in the van and around town. By the end of the... Continue Reading →
What can I say, Burgundy has delivered, time and again I have been able to reflect on life in a present context. I'm happy to be here, and have enjoyed the entire stay! Whilst driving along I have managed to catch some fragmentary impressions, which have given me glimpses of wonderful things; chateaus and rolling... Continue Reading →
betathief.wordpress.com 