A Weekend with the Fairies.

Jon    climbing, General Outdoor     Climbing, fairy cave quarry, somerset, trad

Sat in my office on Friday afternoon gazing out of the window with lots on my mind; my thoughts drift to camping, climbing and a mini-adventure. I had planned a trip to Fairy Cave Quarry near Shepton Mallet in the South West of England for a full weekend under canvas – Eh-hum – Nylon.

Home by half five, packed and loaded up, I get my bike gear on and then realise the weight of the kit I have to take for my weekend. Almost my own body weight in kit, and that was without  food or fluid which I had planned to get much closer to Fairy Cave Quarry.

Arriving at FCQ around 9 at night I have the pleasure of being the only person in the whole quarry – so tranquil – tent pitched, kit sorted out and I wander off around the quarry to get a feel for the place and I start to eye up a few routes I fancy soloing….. A few hours later and as I am sitting outside the tent watching the stars roll over and satellites flash across the night sky. I spot a shooting star and instantly I wish for good weather the whole weekend.

Saturday morning started early – 0630 – the noises I heard during the night were all explained. There had been a small group of Deer outside my tent (about 3 feet from it) which I watched from under the flysheet feeding on moss and grass, and there were a lot of Rabbit markings (droppings and the like) all around my pitch. I’m guessing the rapid munching / grinding teeth noises I heard were them. Opening the tent I’m surprised to see a pair of Peregrine Falcons just to my right, watching me for a minute before flying off to feed the youngest of their clan. The way that nature has taken over is really quite remarkable considering the bleakness of the slate quarry.

An hour or so passes and my belay arrives, so we head for a classic route at FCQ – ‘Back to Basics’. The route is a VD (very difficult) which follows a nice arete up to around 40 metres of easy, nicely protected climbing. By the time we have completed the first trad climb and descended the Alpine Ridge (PD), my group of students / friends arrives. We set up a few good top rope routes and get the group going on a nice and easy climb.

Smiles shine and eyes light up as each climbs to the anchor and abs off successfully without incident. Lunch, a few more climbs and the group of students head off home which means my belay and I get to climb another few of the classic routes before he too has to head off home too for a Thai take away and some quality time with his good lady. Glacis area is a favourite of mine at present as I have two climbs on my wishlist in this area alone; Jive talkin’ and Glacial point – both ‘E’ graded trad climbs – and some simpler routes that I want to lead just to tick them off and get the ‘feel’ for rock again.

The days overview entailed sun, smiles, much laughter and me cracking my ankle twice on the rocks –  much to my annoyance.

Sunday starts around 8 with the heat becoming unbearable in my little two man tent. I get myself motivated, washed up and dressed down to my shorts and walking boots topped off nicely with a bright Yellow ‘Rat Race’ buff draped over the top of my head and covering my neck so I don’t increase the already tingling sun tan.

Breakfast comes in the shape of a large sausage roll and a Banana – while posting to Facebook – when my students arrive with a nice big coffee for me. Today has a different feel about it instantly, I’m instructing only today as I really want to get a few of my students up in their grades, really getting a passion for trad climbing.

After a lunch stop, we lost two of the students to prior engagements and this only left one thing on my mind – Rob’s Crack. By now the sun is blazing and the heat is enough to literally fry food on some of the rocks in the quarry, so you can imagine how much energy we all had.

Rob’s crack is one of my favourite trad climbs and its placement in FCQ means that you are out of the way of most climbers who visit the quarry unless they’re there to bag Rob’s Crack themselves. 42 metres of VS (very severe) trad climb awaits those who are drawn to its looming slab. 2 crux’ and a very nice resting ledge followed by a pair of metal stakes to ab off mean that the route is a classic, and one to be taken in if you ever visit FCQ.

I have to say, watching your students / friends lead their first trad climb can only be comparable to watching you child walk for the first time. My smiles at their success must be overly noticeable to all who see me. After watching the group second, then top rope the climb, we head off and do a widespread clear of the area to pick up and remove any litter we find. We then make sure we haven’t left any gear behind, before loading up the car, & my motorbike, and heading off home for a well needed shower, shave and comfy bed.

More to follow next weekend? I do think so….

Marmot Rocks North Wales

Gareth    General Outdoor     Climbing, marmot, wales

Eleven of Marmot’s best European climbers recently came together to push their own personal limits on some of North Wales most challenging routes.

The whole week was documented on film by ‘Image Impossible’ who is owned and run by action camera man Ian Burton. Ian is well known for his previous work on the BBC’s Climbing great buildings series and one of the camera men behind The Asgard project.

This short film covers all the best climbing action and some behind the scene footage showing the less glamorous side of being behind a camera lens.

How about finding a lost rucksack after 20 years?

Gareth    General Outdoor     Climbing, Eiger, north face

There are a quite a few outdoor videos that we love, but we haven’t seen any that beat this reunion of Jeff Lowe’s pack by Josh Wharton after a small 20 years lost on the north face of the Eiger!

Jeff abandoned his backpack in 1991 when couldn’t find any anchors at the end of the rope. He left his pack behind as he went rope free on the last 50 feet to the summit ridge where he was plucked off the mountain by a helicopter. A couple of hours later one hell of a storm descended on the Eiger so he was one seriously lucky man!

Unbelievable to think he actually got it back after all these years. Mental.

Climbing Game

Gareth    Gareth, General Outdoor     Climbing, Gareth, nintendo, wii

Goodness gracious me, there was I thinking about heading out for a bit of a wander and a scramble this weekend, when I spotted the fact that I will no longer need to go outdoors at all very soon, and can start climbing all over my telly in fact.

I’m sure that the lure of taking a totally rad route up Pixel Mountain, whilst having your eyes dried by a solid 4 hours in front of the telly will soon replace the wind in your hair, the physical challenge of climbing and the beauty inherent in the mountains we play with.

Now where’s me Wii pad.

Scarp Charmoz GTX Review

Gareth    Planning     Alps, Climbing, Nick Parks, outdoor, outdoors, webtogs

Charmoz GTX – Scarpa
I was fortunate enough to spend my alpine summer with a pair of Scarpa Charmoz GTX Mountaineering Boots to try out and pass my humble opinion on, and I have to say it was an experience I’d be only too happy to repeat. Aimed squarely at the mixed ground climber the boots take a B2 rated crampon, working particularly well with the Grivel Air Tech for mixed routes up to Grade 5. The midsole provides good support whilst the ¾ shank gives just enough flex to keep the approach comfortable. The Charmoz uses the recently introduced FT last, giving a good, precise, feel both when scrambling and climbing and the Vibram Mulaz sole with its plastic inserts for better traction on snow.

Where the Charmoz really excels is on true mixed ground, with constant switches between snow, rock and ice proving no problem. When you’ve got a snow slope followed by a rocky scramble then an ice pitch or two you need something that gives support, grip and traction reliably throughout, and inspires confidence. The waterproof breathable Gore-Tex membrane somehow managed to keep my feet dry even when post holing to knee deep on the ascent of Mont Blanc. Long hard walking on rocky paths felt comfortable which I attributed to the ¾-length shanks, and when it came to steeper icy routes it was simple to fit a pair of Newmatic crampons. The rigid soles and flexible uppers gave excellent support and the shape and fit gave all the precision needed for grade 5 ice and hard mixed climbing. I believe if you want one boot that does it all – or at least Alpine summer or Scottish winter, then look no further. When the mountain terrain changes every few hundred feet, take it all on with the versatile Charmoz GTX Mountaineering Boots.

Nick Parks – Mountain Guide

Science, Religion and the Outdoors

Gareth    Planning     Climbing, gore, mountaineering, outdoor, outdoors, webtogs

It’s long been recognised that the wilderness, especially mountain wilderness, has a spiritual quality that humans need. John Muir expressed it perfectly when he said “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul.” and it’s interesting to see the use of the term “pray” in this famous quote.

CREDIT: “John Muir, full-length portrait, facing right, seated on rock with lake and trees in background.” c1902. The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920, Library of Congress.

When I first heard the line I just dismissed the term “pray” as coming from the steotypical religious mix of Scottish heritage and American tradition and substituted it with “think” in my mind, but experience slowly changed this view. It’s no coincidence that we bestow religious terminology to the finest mountain wilderness, and how early descriptions were full of the sense of awe and wonder usually reserved for religious sights. For millenia people have held nature in awe, from early beginings when deity was bestowed on nature itself to the use of natural amphitheatres in the Peak District used for banned religious meetings.

There is something spiritual in nature, and like religion an introduction to wilderness can change lives in the same way as a religious epiphany – read Andy Cave’s book Learning to Breathe to see just what a difference it can make. Like a religion experiencing the outdoors is a personal experience, but one that can benefit at times from being shared with others, and there’s no-one more enthusiastic than a new convert. The great outdoors draws us at weekends, replacing for many the traditional Sunday church attendance as our feel good factor and inspiration, and when we find the perfect mountain view we even refer to it as a cathedral.

Almost un-noticed, science has entered the spiritual world of the outdoors, but rather than destroying the religious analogies it merely reinforced them. The key to religion, no matter which religion, is surely faith – and that’s precisely what science tries to grow in us. Take a look in at any piece of outdoor kit nowadays and examine the label – you’ll be confronted with more science and technical terminology than the average A level student, but what does it really mean? Take some of the most popular fabrics used for outdoor clothing: There’s Pertex Endurance, Pertex Quantum, Pertex Shield, Pertex MicroLight and Pertex Classic for a start………..now Classic is obviously an original form but how much should you read into the others? Pertex Shield you’d expect to be some sort of shield so probably good for abrasion resistance, and Pertex MicroLight seems pretty self explanatory. Pertex Endurance doesn’t seem too difficult to work out where its strength lies but Pertex Quantum??? Is it some weird option based on advanced physics? The only way, of course, of finding out is to check out the labels and tags that adorn every product, and that’s where faith comes in.

Read a garment tag, skipping the washing instructions, and you’ll find wonderful descriptions of how oilophobic membranes with XYZ ions and silicone dioxide beads combine with silver fabrics and microfilament yarns to produce ……what, really? something you can wear and not something you expect to find in a government laboratory? Seriously now, how many peopple really follow all the scientific or pseudo-scientific geekspeak? You’re expected to put your faith in it just because it’s got a paragraph or three of jargon behind it that makes it look like it’s come straight from NASA. Personally I’m not bothered if it says it an intelligent, semi-permeable micropore membrane with hydrophyllic and hydrophobic lares laminated together – I want to know if it’s going to keep me dry when it rains, and shift perspiration when I get warm…end of! Faith may be defined by a belief in something you can’t see, but surely that doesn’t mean in something you can’t understand either? That’s why I’ve been happy this week to go through all the outdoor clothing on the site, noting their core technology and coming up with a real world description of what they are and what they do. Don’t let the science baffle you or demand a faith it may or may not deserve, save that for the wilderness itself and the faith that it will always be there when we need its spiritual qualities.