Long Summer...

Well its been a while since I last wrote anything on here, over 4 months to be exact...

Well where do I start... The summer has been really good as I got to do my 1st full season of work as an outdoor instructor working with PGL. As I was employed as a watersports instructor I was running canoeing sessions on the purpose built lake at least 4 days a week with the odd climbing and high ropes session thrown in here and there. Also I managed to get a few days working over on Portland on the outdoor crags which was really good. Basically chilling in the sun watching people climb all day, what more could you want..                                                                                                   

                
                              Purpose built lake at PGL Barton Hall

                         

                         One of the crags on the island of Portland

Along side work I managed to get a few river trips in, thanks to the very wet British summer, on the river Dart and finally got my 1st taste of the mighty Upper Dart! A section of the river which is graded at class 3 with some class 4 rapids!

                          

               Me scouting a grade 4 rapid (Euthanasia) on the Upper Dart

 

Although I never got do do any outdoor climbing this summer I did manage to squeeze a day in at the The Climbing Academy in Glasow back in July and also a bouldering session last week at the Barn Climbing Centre  to help me prepare for a climbing trip to El Chorro with my partner Aj. Can't wait!! No where near fit or strong enough yet so plenty of training to be done in the next month!

               
          Me on the competition wall at the Climbing Academy in Glasgow

With summer drawing to a quick end and only 5 days left before my first Uni Lectures of the year I think its time to get the drinks in before the end of freshers.

Hopefully be back to plenty of posts regarding outdoor activities very soon so watch this space...

Adios for the time being...

PGL Training...

Well its been a long week but finally its over. This week there has been 50+ of us training to become Activity Instructors/ Group Leaders where we have been getting assessed on group control, examining efficient learning styles, working with challenging behaviour and of course the dreaded first aid!!

It has been great meeting new people and making new friends that I will be spending the summer season working with. I think its safe to say that this summer is going to be a great one coaching kids canoeing and running abseil sessions.

Well done to every one who passed their assessments today. But enough of me raambling on lets get the drinks in...

Lake District mountaineering

Finally after a treacherous trip to North Wales I was keen to make up for it by having a good week in the Lakes with a good group of people.

During the week long eXped we completed a 37km round trip spaced over 3 days with 2 wild camps at Grisdale Tarn and Keppel Cove respectively.

We managed to bag 13 summits, had lunch in a bivvy cave half way up a mountain crag, experience some changeable weather with snow on all the high summits, leave 2 friends behind who traveled to Scotland for the summer to work, but best of all I some how by chance bumped in to my girl friend on the summit of Helvellyn (England's 3rd highest peak ).

The summits we managed to reach are:    Angletarn Pike

                                                             The Knott

                                                             High Street
                                                             Thornthwaite Crag
                                                             Stony Cove Pike
                                                             Fairfield
                                                             Hart Crag
                                                             Raise
                                                             White Side
                                                             Helvellyn Lower Man
                                                             Helvellyn Summit
                                                             Nethermost Pike
                                                             Dollywaggon Pike
The three day routes can also be found here at these links to the United Kingdom Hillwalking website:
                                                         
                                                             Day 1
                                                             Day 2
                                                             Day 3

Stony Cove Pike Summit 

View from Priests hole bivvy cave 

Helvellyn 2012

Blizzard...

Well the North Wales climbing trip which was meant to last at least a week sadly only lasted 2 days. 
The 1st day we managed to get on some slate and managed a few routes each before the rain came in and forced us to pack up and instead go on a venture through the immense slate quarries scouting out routes for the future.

 

The impressive Quarryman 'Groove pitch' in the huge 'Twll Mawr' sector of the slate quarries

The 2nd day we awoke to rain battering the tent, and sadly showed no signs of stopping, so we headed over to Holyhead Mountain where the weather didn't seem to be as bad, or so we thought. We managed to get our 1st taste of the impeccable Quartz climbing experience and managed to get a few more routes in before a storm wiped out any chance of further climbing. I say storm however it was more like a tornado, blowing us off our feet on the retreat to the car park and causing a massive swell out to sea with the waves looking at least 12foot in height.

We headed back to Llanberis where we made our selves some food before retreating to the pub in desperate need of shelter, a warm fire and some alcohol to help us forget the 2 miserable days we had . After a few pints, some card games and ridicule from the hardcore Welsh locals, who recommended we 'leave early in the morning with our tails between our legs', we finally escaped the pub 'lock in' and made the long 100meter trek back to the camp site in the thick snow.
The following morning we awoke to a complete white out with the snow in the Llanberis pass as deep as 7 inches in places and decided we would take the locals advice and retreat before anymore embarrassment.

Ridiculous amount of snow in the Llanberis Pass 

The small list of climbs I managed to tick:   First Stop F5
                                                               Septuagenarian F6a 
                                                               King Bee Crack HVS 5a
                                                               Tension VS 4b

Off to the Lake District on the 16th of this month on a walking eXpedition so hoping this shall make up for the poor trip we retreated from this week...

Quay competition time…

Well today was the South West Climbing Competition at the Quay Climbing Centre. Categories included under 18 male and female and 18+ male and female with individuals participating in disciplines including bouldering and top roping and also bouldering and leading. Both me and my partner Alicia (Aj) signed up to enter the bouldering and leading disciplines of the competition. So after signing in and collecting our score sheets we headed for the bouldering rooms. There was 10 boulder problems ranging from V1 up to an impressive V7! After tackling around half these problems within our 3 allowed attempts we set about some of the harder problems… Although not finishing on the final holds of the harder problems we were still racking up the points by completing a set number of moves on each problem. After some intense bouldering on tiny crimps, slopers, large volumes and some attempted dynos from Aj we had attempted every boulder problem and individually racked up over 500 points each.

 Aj busting some moves on he boulder wall

                                                           Me before a tricky attempted dyno
Now it was time for the lead climbing category. Five routes on the lead climbing walls with grades ranging from 6a+ straight through to an astonishing 7c!! A maximum of 100 points for each climb completed with only one attempt allowed. Aj started on the 6a+ first and managed an impressive 73 points then I led to secure my only full 100 points in the category. With the climbs becoming increasingly harder our point scores slowly started dropping… However me and Aj finished on xxx points and xxx points respectively. Not too bad for our first individual competition.

A very enjoyable day climbing with good routes and problems and also very good boot demos by La Sportiva and climbing hardware talks by DMM.

An early night sleeps will go down a treat as a group of us are completing in the Plymouth Sport Relief mile tomorrow morning so I must shoot off.

Results to follow, Adios Amigos…

The Mighty Barn!

Another Thursday and another practical day for college. Sadly the weather didn't look appealing to be climbing outdoors today so we opted for a day at the wall. Having been to both Dart Rock Climbing Centre and The Quay Climbing Centre lately it was good to have a change of venue.

The day was spent at the The Barn where there is a free standing boulder with around a hundred routes and a grossly overhanging lead wall built to resemble Ansteys Cove. We spent around 3 hours bouldering and I also led a few routes on the overhanging wall, which was tough to say the least.                                

      Briony pulling shapes on the boulder wall              

                                                                               

This was perfect training for the competition this Saturday at the Quay. My arms are burned out so i'm going to stop chatting away now, peace out...

Competition promises to be a good'un ...

Head climbing at Sanctuary Wall...

Well the sun was out again today and me and Jack decided it would be rude not to go climbing. We decided to hit one of the hardcore crags of Torbay and attempt a line that we have both had on our wish list. The crag was Sanctuary Wall, a massive overhanging cliff above the sea with the only realistic chance of escape being the dreaded drop to the sea far below. The route was Incubus, a HVS and possibly the most traveled route on the crag due to the grade and ease of start.

The belay to protect the leader on the 1st pitch.

The 1st pitch was led by Jack. A very technical sequence on side pulls gains a ramp and easier climbing leads to the belay ledge. After stripping my belay I nervously followed Jack and we met at the belay ledge. I got to finally see my 2nd pitch as its impossible to see from the base of the crag, unless however you are in a boat below the fiercely overhanging wall. I said to Jack that my head wasn't in the right place today and so he reluctantly gave in to my asking of following him on the 2nd pitch also.

Jack on the technical 1st pitch, note the steepness!!

So Jack set off on the 2nd pitch, a tricky layback which soon eases off and the holds become more positive before reaching a wire and peg belay at the top. The communication was poor and Jack had to phone me from the top to tell me that he was safe and that I could take him off belay. I quickly undone the belay and started climbing. I got to the tricky layback move and overcame this by some super funky bridging before reaching the jugs and pulling positively to the top. A quick handshake and I told Jack that I owed him one.

 It just goes to show that a big proportion of lead climbing is all in the head, a mental thing. I easily made every move on the climb but was terrified at the thought of falling off and hanging in space above the sea. I'll be back to lead the beast that is Incubus.

Cheers once again Jack and the next pint is on me!