The BMC have now completed the rebolting of several routes at Horseshoe Quarry near Stoney Middleton. For those that aren’t familiar with it Horsehoe is a good lower grade Peak sport venue with easy access and nice climbing. So far 6 routes have been rebolted on a trial basis and (perhaps for the first time in Britain) the ‘rams head’ style lower offs popular in parts of Europe and the USA has been used. Rams heads are really easy to use and, even better, the lead climber doesn’t have to untie from the rope to clip. Full information on the rebolt and illustrated instructions on how to use the rams head are detailed on the BMC website at http://www.thebmc.co.uk/News.
I’ve spent the weekend enjoying the comforts of Plas Y Brenin in Snowdonia at this years Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) AGM. The main AGM meeting is always on Saturday evening with the rest of the weekend devoted to a wide range of CPD events and a chance to catch up with old acquaintances (and to make some new ones!). This year there was everything from Dave McLeod dry tooling masterclasses to business development seminars and over 140 mountaineering instructors attended workshops over the weekend.
I chose to spend Saturday on the Angelsey coastline getting some technical input on coasteering from kayaking and coasteering guru Dave Brown. Coasteering is growing in demand and, although it isn’t a large part of our work, it is an activity we have been asked to deliver several times and we’ve also been asked to act as technical advisors for. The mountains of Snowdonia were snow capped on Saturday morning so we were sure to have a cold days swimming but I had packed a drysuit which made the day far more comfortable. There was a fair swell on the west side of the island and we had a brilliant time crossing inlets, jumping off rocky ledges, honing safety techniques and chatting through all types of related issues. By the time we got back to PYB I was certainly ready for the sticky chocolate cake to recharge the batteries!
The AGM meeting followed and we thrashed out a range of issues and also voted in 3 new committee members and a new secretary. Once the business was over we moved rapidly on to the highlight of the meeting…the raffle! Over the last few years AMI has set up a bursary fund to help new climbers and it was brilliant that over 40 prizes have been donated by our sponsors DMM and Mountain Equipment as well as guidebooks from Rockfax, gloves from Black Diamond and a range of other goodies. A good meal followed then Dave McLeod took the floor to deliver an inspiring lecture about his recent cutting edge adventures.
On Sunday I had a leisurely climbing wall session in the morning before I met with the rest of the committee for a long but productive meeting both to mull over the decisions made at the AGM and to create an action plan for the coming year. Somewhere along the line I landed myself the role of Press Officer. A priority for us over the coming years is to raise the profile of the association and this should be an interesting role to get involved with. Infact, I’m going to kick off today by writing a press release about what was a very successful and enjoyable weekend.
2 men, the highest mountain face on the planet and an ascent in pure alpine style. It was brilliant to listen to Steve House on Monday (in his only UK lecture apart from his appearances at the Kendal festival) as he described his ascent of the Rupal Face on Nanga Parbat with Vince Anderson. Steve and Vince spent 5 days ascending hard technical ground to summit the world’s 9th highest mountain and since first hearing about this ground breaking climb I have considered it was of the finest ever Himalayan acheivements. In the compact surroundings of the Outside Cafe in Hathersage Steve’s understated calm description really brought the adventure to life.
Forget your siege tactics, fixed camps and support teams. Steve and Vince acclimatised on another route, packed their sacks and climbed. Brilliant. But what do you take for such a climb? Here is House describing their minimalist light and fast equipment choices……..
Steve’s full account of the climb can be found in his Boardman Tasker Mountain Literature Award winning new book ‘Beyond the Mountain’. Steve and Vince also won the Piolet d’Or (golden ice axe) award for this ascent.
Along with 50,000+ (and still growing) other businesses we’ve signed up to the enviromental 10:10 campaign. 10:10 is an ambitious project to unite British society behind the simple idea that a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions can be acheived in 2010. With climate change, everyone talks about long-term targets and Britain is committed to an 80% cut by 2050 (and at least 34% by 2020). But scientists say it won’t be possible to meet these targets without the right action now – and that means cuts of around 10% in the very near future.
Regular visitors to Peak Mountaineering and course attendees will hopefully know that we try to be as proactive as possible on environmental issues (see our environmetal page for more details) and for several years we have been donating 1% of our annual income to environmental charities. We see 10:10 as an exciting extension to that commitment.
Carbon footprints can be measured in different ways but the 10:10 campaign focuses on 4 criteria; Electricity, on-site fuel use, road transport and air travel. We are currently undertaking an audit to assess where we stand on these 4 key areas and from there we can look at ways to reduce our emissions for the coming year. For a company that has a base and operates both throughout the UK and overseas we should be able to make savings in all areas although some (road and air travel) will obviously need a bit more thinking about!
We will be keeping track of our progress on the Peak website and hope that many of our customers will feel inspired to get involved too (the campaign is open to everyone including individuals and volunteer organisations). Get in touch and tell us your top tips, share ideas and generally ‘feel the love’ that saving the planet can bring. Even better………it will almost certainly save you money too! Please join us.
I was shocked and saddened to read this week that the famous Slovenian mountaineer Tomaz Humar had been killed whilst climbing in Nepal. Tomaz was soloing a probable new route on Langtang Lirang (7227m), a beautiful peak above the Langtang Valley.
On the 9th November, Humar appears to have contacted a friend in Slovenia reporting that he’d had an accident at 6,300m. Next day a helicopter was dispatched and that same morning Humar made his last contact by satellite telephone, reportedly sounding very weak. An air search failed to locate him, as did a strong Sherpa team who began to fix ropes towards the point Humar had described as his location.
Contacts at home mustered the services of the Air Zermatt Rescue, members of which arrived in Kathmandu on the 13th. The following day the Swiss flew a Nepalese helicopter to Langtang and pilot Robert Andenmatten located Humar at c5,600m. The helicopter was carrying the talented Swiss alpinist Simon Anthamatten who was lowered to the site. He discovered that 40-year-old Humar was already dead and had apparently broken his leg in a fall and possibly sustained other serious injuries. Humar’s body was airlifted from the South Face.
Tomaz’s Himalayan career began in 1994 with a partial new route on Ganesh V (6,989m) in Nepal. In the following year he reached the summit of Annapurna I alone and in the spring of 1996 made the first ascent of the North West Face of Ama Dablam, an ascent that would gain him and his partner, Vanja Furlan, the Piolet d’Or.
In the autumn of 1996 he made an outstanding solo first ascent of 6,808m Bobaye in West Nepal. From 1997-1999 he made three ascents that would put him firmly on the map: the West Face of Nuptse West II (7,742m), on which he lost his partner Janez Jeglic and was lucky to survive a gruelling solo descent; a solo ascent of the El Cap test-piece, Reticent Wall; and a solo ascent of an indirect route on the South Face of Dhaulagiri. More recently was his much-publicized attempt on, and subsequent helicopter rescue from, a new route, solo, on the giant Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat, and then in 2008 the first solo ascent of Annapurna East.
I had met Tomaz at a few events and trade events over the years and always found him to be a warm and friendly man bristling with enthusiasm and energy. During my time in Ladakh over the summer I had enjoyed reading Bernadette McDonald’s excellent biography, Tomaz Humar (2008) and would recommend it to anyone keen to find out more about this driven and talented mountaineer.
Having driven back from Snowdonia, debriefed the ML candidates, polished off the paperwork and hung the wet gear out to dry, it was time to repack the van and head over to Snowdonia again (surely I could have planned that travel better!). The plan for the weekend was to join friends Charlotte, Paul, Evie and Bella for a relaxing couple of days holed up in the Climbers Clubs most isolated hut, Cwm Glas Mawr.
As we drove back along the A55 the rain steadily increased in intensity and as we hit Llanberis even the fast speed windscreen wiper setting was struggling to cope. Rounding the corner to Nant Peris village we saw banks of police lights ahead and assumed there had been an accident. Infact what we found was the road flooded to a depth of about 40 cms and a police man stranded in his vehicle right in the middle of it! No problem. We’ll detour round through Ogwen and get down the Llanberis Pass from the other side. Errrm maybe not. This being Friday the 13th there had to be something else to come and it was the news that a landslide had blocked the upper part of the Pass. Our little home for the weekend was right in the middle.
A quick call to hut booking supremo John and an exciting backtrack to Helyg and we finally got a roof over our heads 5 hours after leaving home. At least Helyg has an open fire and a good meal and a few glasses of wine later we couldn’t really care less what was happening outside!
As predicted, normal ML Assessment weather returned for the rest of this weeks assessment. We spent a windswept day on the Kinder Edges looking at emergency ropework then decamped to Snowdonia for the expedition phase. A very wild day and long night navigation exercise was followed by an even harsher day of gusting winds and persistent rain. We finally walked the final leg to the van in vague sunshine to top off a challenging week. Well done to all the candidates and at least you know that if you can lead groups in the conditions you faced this week then you should be okay in any other weather!
I am working on an ML assessment all week and it has been a really gorgeous Autumn day in the Peak District today. We spent a day navigating around the Derwent Valley and the whole place has been buzzing with wildlife, birds, interesting fauna……….and lots of sunshine.
The team made a good start to the week and after a theory paper tonight I hope they are getting some quality sleep in preparation for another challenging day tomorrow. Tomorrow’s forecast is more typical of late season ML assessments as rain is spreading across the area from mid morning. But at least we have those memories of today………………….
When you are a family that climbs it is inevitable that paths will have to part sometimes……..and this weekend was one of those times. The boys and I were staying around the Peak while Cal headed over to Wales for some multipitch action with friends.
For the boys and I the rainy weather meant the climbing wall was the best option (and the only one they would consider!) and we had a brilliant session bouldering and climbing routes at Awesome Walls Stockport. Ben has been super confident for a while now and goes from strength to strength as his skills improve. Tom had a faze of being a bit nervous but has climbed through that and simply wants to climb higher and higher routes.
At one point a little boy stood next to me watching Tom top out on the highest slab and said to his Dad “that boy must be wearing my underpants”. I looked at his Dad quizzically until he explained that his little chap thought he was Superman. I was so proud - my youngest child branded an underwear thief at 6 years old! (although I did feel better at the thought that at least he was stealing Supermans!).
