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 →
Let's start with a little moan, the bloody weather! I mean what the hell? I'm in Spain, and it's starting to feel like I'm still in England! Anyway moan over! We left Portugal in horrendous rain, and in two days we made it to a small town just on the outskirts of Madrid, called El... Continue Reading →
When we arrived in Portugal, we had plans to spend a couple of weeks there following the coast up to Lisbon, climbing as we went. As things turned out we only managed a couple of days on rock and for the rest, rain stopped play. We had a long drive from a service stop just... Continue Reading →
The afternoon after we had been bouldering, we had a lovely lunch overlooking the bay. We then drove down to Bolonia and had a walk down the beach, we had the whole beach to ourselves, apart from a few cows! We collected some shells and even returned a beached jellyfish to the sea, I'm not... Continue Reading →
This is a tiny post more for information rather than telling a story of what I have done, although I'm sure there will be a little in there! We parked at the Aire that is located at the top of the town (36.445959, -5.278203), where we camped, it is quite comfortable and has water, waste and... Continue Reading →
We have had another week or so of play in El Chorro, and to be honest it's a week more than we expected when we first arrived. On our first week we only managed to climb a few single pitch routes due to a lack of a guidebook, and most of these were in poor... Continue Reading →
Another day, another adventure! This time we had to open up our storage box in the van to find our via Ferrata slings as they had been out of use since we left the alps. We were going to climb the local via Ferrata route in el chorro, that we had found information about online.... Continue Reading →
A while back a friend of mine tagged me in a post about this walk, and at the time we though it was not for us and maybe a little tame. However we decided it would be a good option when the weather was not so good. We tried to do the walk a couple... Continue Reading →
So it's the end of our first week in El Chorro, and the heavens have opened, leaving me with some time to write up a blog post of what we have been up to so far. In all honesty this first week has been a little up and down. First of all we drove close... 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 picked Ricote as a camping spot in our usual way, what's near us? What looks nice? As it turns out Ricote fitted the bill just nicely, although it was a little out of the way. That said it was worth an extra twenty minutes behind the wheel. The actual camper stop/wire is located in... 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 →
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 →
It feels like half the time, which can only be a good thing! When we set out we planned on a years trip and so far it is all going to plan. Of course there have been a few problems on the way ( no one mention getting stuck and wedging the van under a... 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 →
I have already reviewed my first week in Croatia, and although it has not gone to plan as far as the climbing/weather is concerned, we have still made the best of the time we have had here. The same has to be said of our second week we have been hampered by bad weather and... Continue Reading →
I held off from adding this to the last post, in the hope that we would be able to have another day of adventure in the mountains, unfortunately the weather has had the last word and high winds have meant we will instead drive to Croatia this afternoon. I know it's a hard life! In... Continue Reading →
So far Slovenia has been a beautiful place, we have only a few places on which to base this opinion, but so far we have had a blast. The classic sights of Bled coupled with some Gorge and waterfall walks have been fantastic, however we still feel the need to itch the climbing addicts within... Continue Reading →
We left the Dolomites after a bit of bad weather and a sprinkle of snow had coated all the mountains, whilst taking away a few more degrees in the process. This was enough to force us to leave as it was pretty cold already. We had an amazing second trip to the Dolomites managing to... 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 →
This is one of the classic Via Ferrata in the Dolomites, add to this fact that there is a bridge, we just had to have a go! Sometimes classic means ruined by the passage and polish of many climbers and although it did have lots of polish the route, it was still a really good... 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 →
After a couple of tough days on the Col dei Bos, we decided that we would continue with a third day, this time on the Via Ferrata Michielli Strobel on Punta Fiames. This is close to where we have parked and seems to have a smaller approach time, as Jess does not like long approach... Continue Reading →
Finally we have made it back to the mountains, oh how much I have missed being here! It sounds weird to have been travelling, climbing and diving across Italy and Sardinia, and the whole time I felt like there was something missing, and I've not realised it was this, hills, mountains, towering rock faces, amazing... Continue Reading →
Many years ago, I was climbing in North Wales and me and my partner decided to pop into Plas Y Brenin as there is a bar there and an adventure presentation/talk on the Alps. Whilst enjoying a pint of local ale I watched and listened as the presenter (an instructor at the centre) talked through... 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
So during a rally from London to Mongolia, Phil and myself split from the other two in our car, and headed to Kyrgyzstan by ourselves. We had an amazing time from the first time we entered Kyrgyzstan, with a couple of relaxing days in Osh, before driving up the Karakol highway over a couple of... Continue Reading →
Colin and me fancied a trip during the Easter holidays and where better than sunny Wales, you heard me sunny! A fantastic week chasing up some classic routes after a long time away. We drove up in my ever reliable mini and camped on the farmer’s field just off the A5, and for 5 pound... Continue Reading →
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