Torrs photos

Well, it's been a bit miserable and rainy round these parts this week - particularly helpful when you have just removed the guttering off your house!
Anyway as a little bit of brightness I got sent these pictures by Mike Hutton today from the other week when we were down the Torrs putting in the second lot of bolts. The 3 newer routes on the other pillar (arete about 6a+, left hand route about 6b+ and right hand route about 6b++!) of the bridge are cleaning up well and were dry last night in heavy drizzle - now if the floodlights could just be moved 6ft over ........

Check out Mike's website here.

Ice Festival Ecrins...

I've been having a trawl round the internet this morning trying to look up dates for the coming winter's ice festivals and came across this film from last winter's Ecrins festival - I even make an appearance near the end doing the dry-tooling comp routes.
Brush up on your french and check it out!


Ice Climbing Ecrins 2011 by tlcprod

Some of Dan's pics from Froggatt

Dan just sent me over a few photos from the other day on Froggatt. Go check out his website for more.

Nesscliffe was great - no Teddy Bears having Picnic's in the woods, but some good climbing. Lee Dog knocked of Trouble in Toytown and Cones and Currants and I started work on a project - more about that if I manage to do it.
Friday saw an afternoon on Peak Limestone with only my second ever visit to Raven Tor - feels pretty big when you are at the top. Think I need to watch the classic Ron Fawcett film Body Machine again for some beta.
Back to the DIY grindstone today - and some time to grow some skin back!

Enjoying the sunshine..

It might have been raining in lots of places but the Peak has been smiled on by the weather gods this week, so yesterday I headed out for a mellow day on Froggatt with Keen Youth (and photographer Dan Lane) and Ruth who is attempting a restart to her climbing after multiple injuries.

So anyway - the sun shone, the midges stayed away until tea time and although the friction wasn't at it's best we had a great day cruising around, with some fine efforts from Dan on Synopsis and Strapiobante (we won't mention Hawk's Nest Crack hey Dan?), Ruth decided that ropes are overrated and wandered up Sunset Slab and I had a hell of a battle on an E1 called Strapiombo - bloody desperate! Here are some pics - thank you Ruth.

 Here's Dan "enjoying" the top out on Strapiobante! How is it possible for such a short route to be so pumpy?

Off to Nesscliffe today - not sure how much product will result but sure it'll be fun hanging out with Lee Dog.

Mountain Equipment - 50th Birthday

M.E. are celebrating their 50th birthday with a whole load of stuff going on in the next few weeks - to get things started they have produced a film about the history of the company and the many people who have been closely associated over the years doing cool stuff - check out the short version here:



Since 1961... from MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT on Vimeo.

The full length version is on the M.E website

Gritstone + Bolts???

 

That's right gritstone and bolts in the Peak! On friday I was down New Mills Torrs helping out with the bolting of the bridge. Myself, Martin,  Dan Lane, Wendy (Ruth's Mum) and Roger (Ruth's Stepdad) - with some help from New Mills Town Council, a cherry picker and the North West Bolt Fund, bolted up 4 lines on the viaduct.

What an experience - drilling whilst hanging out of a cherry picker at it's highest point (about 20m) is pretty gripping.
Keen youth Dan was back down on saturday to climb some of the lines and Martin and I have been there this evening to do some more cleaning - the routes are really sandy and dusty from the bolting. Should have some names and approximate grades soon......watch this space.
Hopefully the 4 lines in are just the start and we'll be able to get a few more in over the next few weeks - the all-weather climbing facility just got even better!

Lukasz - Photography Workshops

Not just content with flying around the world and taking fab pictures and videos, Lukasz has decided to put on some workshops. The first one is going to be in the autumn and it looks like it'll be brilliant - a great opportunity for people to learn loads, do some proper photoshoots with Dave Macleod  and have a great weekend out in the hills of North Wales.
Ruth is helping out with organising and looking after safety for the weekend too so no doubt I'll get dragged along.
Check out more details here.