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I climbed with David Horwood on the second week – enjoy the pics. Cheers again to David, Jim and Bent for the hospitality, great climbing and patience with the weather, as always…!
Category Archives: Rich's Blog
Senja Island – Ice and Mixed Climbing in Arctic Norway
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Just back from a very memorable 2 weeks climbing with Jim and David on the magical Senja island in Arctic Norway. Senja is just south of Tromso and a little way north of the Lofoten islands, and is a truly spectacular land of deep fjords and jagged mountains rising from the shoreline – mostly of modest scottish altitude, but with an impressive scale and its fair share of very gnarly weather! We stayed with local guide Bent as we did last year – Bent is the man behind Senja Lodge and Mountainguides, and big thanks again for making us so welcome and sharing your knowledge of the island (although you didn’t tell us everything I guess??). Its tricky to get info for this area but after chatting to Bent and one or two of his climbing friends we were persuaded that most of the routes we did were first ascents… but who knows! What was for sure was the quality and variety on offer – pure cascade ice, Ben style icy slabs, deep crack and chimney lines, turfy grooves – just brilliant climbing. Bent will be producing a guide to the ski touring, mountaineering and technical climbing around the island so route details will go to him, but here are some pics of the routes I climbed during week one with Jim.
Lakes Winter Action
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Some pics from a recent trip to the Lakes. Martin Cooper, Jonny Morgan, Nick Wallis, Nick Williams and myself had 3 days visiting Gable, Scafell/Pikes Crag and Bowfell. With good early season mixed conds we managed ascents of Jabberwock (with some good airtime!), first ascent of a nice route on pikes crag, an attempt on Botterills Slab, Bowfell Buttress classic route and FWA of Rubicon Groove on Bowfell Buttress. Other teams out made impressive FWA’s of Angel of Mercy, a new route on BB, action on Cambridge crags and lots more activity throughout the Lakes – so a great weekend on the hill. Most impressively, we managed by the skin of our teeth to not write off my car on Honister pass when Jonny slipped off the bonnet and my chains snapped… Thanks to the Honister quarry workers who towed us away from the brink!
Peak and Pembroke
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I’ve been enjoying a spell of work in the Peak District, Pembroke and the Wye valley with Nik, Sim and Al. Some strong winds and moody skies set the tone in Pembroke but we managed to duck and dive between the odd shower and get some good stuff done including the excellent Heart of Darkness/New Morning, Tactitian, Straight Gate a few other classics around St Govans/Travellan. Cheers for a good trip guys!
Aiguille de la Republique
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Chamonix enjoyed an extended summer with hot sunny weather right into mid sept, so my last two guiding weeks with David H were spent on the rock. Highlights included the Salluard on Pointe Adolph Rey, a visit to the amazing Dalmazzi hut in Italy (easily the best hut food of the summer, a warm welcome and cragging by the hut door..) and finally the Aiguille de la Republique in the Chamonix Aiguilles. Simply one of the best mountain rock adventures you can have at this grade, and a memorable end to the season, cheers David!
Cordier Pillar
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A few pics of the excellent Cordier Pillar on the Grand Charmoz. I teamed up with regular James Smith to climb this route in august – we had a tight schedule with rain forecast on the sunday, so did the route from the first bin on saturday followed by a comfy bivvi on the Blaitiere moraine. Cheers for a great day out Jim!
The South Side of Paradise
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Chamonix saw some grim snowy weather last week, so I set off with Dan in search of dry Alpine rock on the south side of the Gran Paradiso national park. Just 2.5 hrs from cham, this is a wild corner of the Alps with loads of flawless granite in the main valley, and some great peaks of good quality gneiss in the main massif. We had a fun time on Becco Meridionale della Tribolazione where we climbed the Grassi – Re, and a good fight on Diedro Nanchez and Fissure Disperazione – good old fashioned granite at its best!
Chere Couloir, Aiguille du Toule and Cosmiques Arete
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A few more pics from the week with John Long and Matt Coleman. We had some very snowy weather which led to a very eclectic week of rock climbing in Italy, ice climbing in an underground ice cave near annecy, the Aiguille de Toule, an attempt on the Rochefort, the Chere couloir (in amazing conditions) and the Cosmiques arete. Cheers for a fun week guys!
Annecy Rock
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A few pics from my first week of the season down in Annecy with Jim Bird. Fun time dodging the weather and some eclectic sport – Delite de Fuite (approx 12 pitch 6a) at Sapey which has some of the best limestone around, a massive bike ride in the hills round Annecy, and Thones via ferratta, which is quite full on – ladder rungs on a 30 deg overhanging wall above a massive drop!
Rich
Gastlosen Weekend
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This weekend I teamed up with Al MacColl for a trip to the excellent Swiss limestone region of Gastlosen. We started out on the Corneau Aubert with a varied 6 pitch 6a, before a quick afternoon trip to the cannuled slabs at Wandflue. On Sunday the weather was excellent again and we got fully toasted on the huge limestone slabs of Padflhu in the main Gastlosen chain – Bilbo gave some great limestone slabs again with endless water runnels… Keen for the ridge traverse some day which looks great!
Rich
