Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts
Monday, 5 December 2011
Pinnacle Ridge & Helvellyn
This weekend I was in the Lakes helping to run a training course for some members of WLSMG who are heading to the Canadian Rockies in the summer. Saturday I took a mixed ability group up the ever classic Pinnacle Ridge on St. Sunday crag and then continued on a circuit round, dropping down to Grisedale Tarn and then up over Dollywagon, Nethermost Pike and finally Helvellyn. We had intended to descend Striding edge but decided to the winds and icing on the ridge that it would safer to head north and instead drop off the main ridgeline into Glenridding. I've put together a small video of the day below:
It was pretty cold out during the day and we consistently experienced hail and snow showers so winter is certainly on its way. The turf on the summit of Helvellyn was looking frozen although nothing on the Red Tarn face was anywhere near in condition yet but it looks like hat might have changed over the last 24 hours as Paddy Cave has been out on Bowfell Buttress today.
Friday, 18 November 2011
The Moonflower
Friday evening, Bec and myself along with a few other friends from Lancaster took the train up to Kendal to catch the premier of The Moonflower new film from Posing Productions. Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker were there, along with Alastair Lee who introduced the film. It chronicles there ascent of a new route on the North Buttress of Mt. Hunter in the Alaska Range. which they named the Cartwright Connection in honour of Jules Cartwright, a British Mountain Guide who tragically died while guiding the Piz Badile a few years ago.You can see the trailer below:
Cartwright originally envisaged the line as a companion to his route The Knowledge ED4 on the same buttress, which he climbed with Ian Parnell in 2000, although feeling that the climbing on this new line may be of a more sustained nature. In may of this year Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker set out to complete this line, which they did.
I won't ruin much of the story now as I think its best saved for when you watch the film, which I think it great. The lack of footage of a lot of the actual climbing, and the quality of the camera work done by the climbers could be criticised but I think this gives a real raw look at what climbing a bit alpine route it like. I think Alastair Lee might of been a little short on footage to work with as I'm pretty sure I saw some of winter climbing on the Ben at one point that he'd subtly woven in! On the other hand, some of the aerial footage and time-lapse photography that accompany that taken by the climbers is very impressive.
Bracey and Helliker climbed the route in a clean but slow style, carrying a portaledge and plenty of food. It will be interesting to see however in the coming future if this route has the potential to be climbed fast and light in a single push style as some of the route on Hunter, and many of the other big mixed test pieces in the Alaska range already have.
So, an excellent achievement for the alpinisits and a great film. I highly recccomend buying the DVD or downloading it from posing productions here. It's certainly solidified by ambition for a trip to Alaska.
Cartwright originally envisaged the line as a companion to his route The Knowledge ED4 on the same buttress, which he climbed with Ian Parnell in 2000, although feeling that the climbing on this new line may be of a more sustained nature. In may of this year Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker set out to complete this line, which they did.
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| The Cartwright Connection, Alaskan Grade 6: 5.8 A2 AI6 M6, 2000m |
I won't ruin much of the story now as I think its best saved for when you watch the film, which I think it great. The lack of footage of a lot of the actual climbing, and the quality of the camera work done by the climbers could be criticised but I think this gives a real raw look at what climbing a bit alpine route it like. I think Alastair Lee might of been a little short on footage to work with as I'm pretty sure I saw some of winter climbing on the Ben at one point that he'd subtly woven in! On the other hand, some of the aerial footage and time-lapse photography that accompany that taken by the climbers is very impressive.
Bracey and Helliker climbed the route in a clean but slow style, carrying a portaledge and plenty of food. It will be interesting to see however in the coming future if this route has the potential to be climbed fast and light in a single push style as some of the route on Hunter, and many of the other big mixed test pieces in the Alaska range already have.
So, an excellent achievement for the alpinisits and a great film. I highly recccomend buying the DVD or downloading it from posing productions here. It's certainly solidified by ambition for a trip to Alaska.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Trowbarrow
Sunday afternoon, after some getting some work done in the morning I couldn't resist the urge to head back out for some more climbing in the afternoon so after lunch myself, Gaz, Claire and Ben headed up to Trowbarrow for a few hours. My goal for the day was do Harijan VS 4c as its the only route of the grade I've not done at Trowbarrow. We jumped straight on it and I lead off, the move round the corner from under the overhang is pretty scary but well protected with cams in the break. After this theres 25-30m of fantastic vertical climbing up the crack system. It is steep and is is sustained but the holds are all there and you can get reasonable rests from time to time. Its also well protected throughout. Only one slightly worrying moment where my sunglasses steamed up and I couldn't see for a few moments... I was pretty pumped when I got to the top, built the belay and then Gaz followed in good time.
We went down and eyed up Hollow Earth, which is just to the right of Harijan but HVS and looks really good but is supposed to be quite hard for the grade so decided to leave it for a little later in the season when we're a bit stronger. We then rested for a while, filming and photographing Claire on her first VS lead, Coral Sea which she did an excellent job on. Gaz put the above video together, watch it in higher quality on facebook. A few laps of soloing Barrier Reef S 4a next to it and we were done for the day, back to to Lancaster for fajitas and beer.
We went down and eyed up Hollow Earth, which is just to the right of Harijan but HVS and looks really good but is supposed to be quite hard for the grade so decided to leave it for a little later in the season when we're a bit stronger. We then rested for a while, filming and photographing Claire on her first VS lead, Coral Sea which she did an excellent job on. Gaz put the above video together, watch it in higher quality on facebook. A few laps of soloing Barrier Reef S 4a next to it and we were done for the day, back to to Lancaster for fajitas and beer.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Cairngorms: Ski Mountaineering & Winter Climbing
Saturday morning, after a relaxed drive up on the Friday afternoon I skinned into Coire an t'Sneachda along with Hannah, Joe, Jonny and Tom who were on foot. We split into two team with Hannah, Jonny and Tom heading to Fiaciall Couloir. Joe wanted to climb so steep ice so we went up to look at Mirror Direct IV 4 and I gave him some tips on tool and screw placements as well as foot work and then he did a superb job of leading the route which was his first proper ice route. At the moment its fairly banked out but still giving a good 6-8m just off vertical section. I followed and then we abseiled from the in-situ belay at the top.
Back at the rescue box we had a bite to eat and I stuck the skis back on and we headed over to Fiaciall Buttress, I managed to skin almost to the bottom only having to put my skis on my back for the final section, much to the pleasure of Joe who was wading through the snow behind me. We looked at Invernookie but decided the wind was a bit high but went for Fiaciall Couloir II/III. We roped together with about 30m of rope between us with myself leading and Joe following and climbed the route in about 20 minutes which was awesome. After topping out we headed round to 1141m where I left the other to walk down to the daylodge while I skied the Cas headwall and then blagged a few laps of the Corrie Cas T-bar.
Sunday we headed into the Corrie again and with the high winds and avalanche hazard decided to go for the sheltered option of Patey's Route IV 5. The first challenge of the day was constructing a harness for Hannah as she had failed to pack her's in the chaos of the morning. Joe led the pitch up to below the first bulge where I took over climbing this and then the crux pitch. The route was fairly thin in places, but still good, if a little tricky. Once at the top of the difficulties we soloed up Alladin's Mirror to the top.
Joe and Hannah filmed quite a bit of footage over the weekend and they've put it together in the video below:
Back at the rescue box we had a bite to eat and I stuck the skis back on and we headed over to Fiaciall Buttress, I managed to skin almost to the bottom only having to put my skis on my back for the final section, much to the pleasure of Joe who was wading through the snow behind me. We looked at Invernookie but decided the wind was a bit high but went for Fiaciall Couloir II/III. We roped together with about 30m of rope between us with myself leading and Joe following and climbed the route in about 20 minutes which was awesome. After topping out we headed round to 1141m where I left the other to walk down to the daylodge while I skied the Cas headwall and then blagged a few laps of the Corrie Cas T-bar.
Sunday we headed into the Corrie again and with the high winds and avalanche hazard decided to go for the sheltered option of Patey's Route IV 5. The first challenge of the day was constructing a harness for Hannah as she had failed to pack her's in the chaos of the morning. Joe led the pitch up to below the first bulge where I took over climbing this and then the crux pitch. The route was fairly thin in places, but still good, if a little tricky. Once at the top of the difficulties we soloed up Alladin's Mirror to the top.
Joe and Hannah filmed quite a bit of footage over the weekend and they've put it together in the video below:
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Church Beck
This weekend was Ormskirk Scout Network's annual activity weekend in the Lake District. Two years ago when I was last around for the event I took a large group of people for a scramble up Link Cove Ghyll in Deepdale followed by the Greenhow End Slabs before topping out on Fairfield. It was a superb day, and despite everybody getting pretty wet they all enjoyed it. Keeping to the theme of gyhlls, this year I decided to brave the cold March water and go a for a look at Church Beck above Coniston with Josh, Tom and Rob.
With the recent high pressure and dry weather the water level was fairly low, but still deep enough for us to be able to safely complete all the jumps. It meant we stayed fairly dry, at least on our upper halves throughout the approach section. As is commonplace for most groups using the ghyll (although we had it to ourselves today) we hopped out midway, just below the 'slide stone' and walked up the bridge before getting back in and descending the upper section doing the jumps. We ended up doing this twice before the signs of hypothermia started to set in, at which point we walked back down to Coniston, passing several inquisitive wooly hat and glove wearing walkers, got changed and had a few rounds of hot chocolate in the Sun pub. I've put together a small video of the day below:
With the recent high pressure and dry weather the water level was fairly low, but still deep enough for us to be able to safely complete all the jumps. It meant we stayed fairly dry, at least on our upper halves throughout the approach section. As is commonplace for most groups using the ghyll (although we had it to ourselves today) we hopped out midway, just below the 'slide stone' and walked up the bridge before getting back in and descending the upper section doing the jumps. We ended up doing this twice before the signs of hypothermia started to set in, at which point we walked back down to Coniston, passing several inquisitive wooly hat and glove wearing walkers, got changed and had a few rounds of hot chocolate in the Sun pub. I've put together a small video of the day below:
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Tarleton Skiing
I arrived home on the train on Friday (17th) evening just as it was beginning to snow in Preston. Between then, and when I woke up on Saturday morning it didn't really stop, with places getting 6-12inchs.
Skinning on Hesketh Lane.
After getting in late (2am) from the Ormskirk Network Christmas Meal in Southport I decided that considering the conditions it would be foolish to pass up the chance for a quick ski-tour round Tarleton. I managed to ski down Sutton Lane, through Mark's Square - much to the amazement of those that were still in the Lilford. Then all the way up Hesketh Lane to the High School where I skied down to the canal before heading back up to the main road, down Kearsley Avenue and home. Never thought I'd get to do that in Tarleton!
Saturday, Jacob, Andy and myself took the car out to the moss for some more fun with both the skis and sledge. I found skiing the powder on the verges of the road to actually be really good fun - although perhaps a little more akin to waterskiing than actual skiing!
Later that night we took this to another level though when Martin, Bob and Tom joined us complete with Landrover so we could really get some speed up on the Moss. We all found it quite exciting skiing and sledging behind the landrover at speed with somebody hanging out the back with a lantern illuminating where you were going. Anyhow, lets hope this snow sicks around. I'm hoping going to try and get to the Lakes tomarrow for some climbing, so if I do I'll report conditions when I get back.
Skinning on Hesketh Lane.After getting in late (2am) from the Ormskirk Network Christmas Meal in Southport I decided that considering the conditions it would be foolish to pass up the chance for a quick ski-tour round Tarleton. I managed to ski down Sutton Lane, through Mark's Square - much to the amazement of those that were still in the Lilford. Then all the way up Hesketh Lane to the High School where I skied down to the canal before heading back up to the main road, down Kearsley Avenue and home. Never thought I'd get to do that in Tarleton!
Saturday, Jacob, Andy and myself took the car out to the moss for some more fun with both the skis and sledge. I found skiing the powder on the verges of the road to actually be really good fun - although perhaps a little more akin to waterskiing than actual skiing!
Later that night we took this to another level though when Martin, Bob and Tom joined us complete with Landrover so we could really get some speed up on the Moss. We all found it quite exciting skiing and sledging behind the landrover at speed with somebody hanging out the back with a lantern illuminating where you were going. Anyhow, lets hope this snow sicks around. I'm hoping going to try and get to the Lakes tomarrow for some climbing, so if I do I'll report conditions when I get back.
Monday, 6 December 2010
Lake District Ice - Blea Water
Sunday entailed another 'Griffiths-early-start' with me and Martin leaving Tarleton around 5:30am. The drive up was fairly slow as anything other than the motorway was covered in ice. We came off at Shap, noticing on the way that the Teabay road cutting icefalls seems to be coming into condition quickly, I don't know if they are quite climbable yet though so don't take my word. From Shap we followed some icier roads, eventually arriving at the head of Haweswater just as it was getting properly light.
I've never climbed on Blea Water Crag before, I was initially attracted to it in the guidebook by the short walk in and the promise of some of the fastest forming water ice in the Lakes, which considering its been cold for a while I reckoned on being quite fat by now. The walk in went quickly and we were soon at Blea Water where we chose the Lakeland classic of Blea Water Gill Direct III 4. This route starts at the base of the face, only about 15m above the water level and follows a steep gill, first through a series of narrow chimneys filled with ice before it opens up allowing several variations on what was superb water-ice. We did 5 reasonably full pitches before soloing the last section where it eases.If you take the easiest line and avoid the difficulties it probably deserves and straight III 3 however if you take them direct its at least tech 4. The route is easily escapable at most point, which also allows to come back down and do variations you missed.
After topping out onto High Street we dropped down the ridge heading back to Haweswater for a few hundred meters before coming off partway down to the south to check out some steeper looking ice lines that we'd seen from the Gill earlier. I lead a nice route of about 20-25m which started with vertical ice for about 6-8m before the angle eased a little as you go over a few bulges. I'd say it felt about WI3, which roughly equates to IV 4, although it was single pitch Ice cragging so probably just the tech 4 is more applicable.
So, conditions are great at the moment, and if its ice your after certainly go and take a look at Blea Water Crag in the next few days.
I've never climbed on Blea Water Crag before, I was initially attracted to it in the guidebook by the short walk in and the promise of some of the fastest forming water ice in the Lakes, which considering its been cold for a while I reckoned on being quite fat by now. The walk in went quickly and we were soon at Blea Water where we chose the Lakeland classic of Blea Water Gill Direct III 4. This route starts at the base of the face, only about 15m above the water level and follows a steep gill, first through a series of narrow chimneys filled with ice before it opens up allowing several variations on what was superb water-ice. We did 5 reasonably full pitches before soloing the last section where it eases.If you take the easiest line and avoid the difficulties it probably deserves and straight III 3 however if you take them direct its at least tech 4. The route is easily escapable at most point, which also allows to come back down and do variations you missed.
After topping out onto High Street we dropped down the ridge heading back to Haweswater for a few hundred meters before coming off partway down to the south to check out some steeper looking ice lines that we'd seen from the Gill earlier. I lead a nice route of about 20-25m which started with vertical ice for about 6-8m before the angle eased a little as you go over a few bulges. I'd say it felt about WI3, which roughly equates to IV 4, although it was single pitch Ice cragging so probably just the tech 4 is more applicable.
So, conditions are great at the moment, and if its ice your after certainly go and take a look at Blea Water Crag in the next few days.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Falcon Crag
Tuesday, myself, Joe and Lewis headed up to Falcon Crag at the head of Grisedale. We walked in from Patterdale, having driven up to Penrith and down the Ullswater road rather than risk the Kirkstone Pass. This was probably a good move as the pass was closed when we got down later that evening. The walk in was fairly long, although no arduous and even quite pleasant - I do think however that it is quicker to come up from Dunmail Raise on the other side but it is a steeper ascent.
We had planned to do Dollywagon Gully which Joe had done before, but I hadn't. We traversed in fairly high though and ended up in what we think may of been Dollywagon Chimney with the Right hand Finish IV but it could of quite easily been a different line, or Dollywagon Gully itself but Joe said he didn't recognize it. Anyhow, it looked good, and like it would go so we went for it. Conditions were good (one of the belays was a pure ice screw belay) and the turf is still fully frozen. The only thing that is letting it down slightly is that a few more inches of consolidated snow is needed on some of the lines. Most rock, on most aspects is hoared up as well. We topped out in deteriating weather, and headed down to the tarn and out the way we came, it was starting to snow heavily as we got to the car which bodes well from conditions later in the week. Beers and Imran's naturally followed.
We had planned to do Dollywagon Gully which Joe had done before, but I hadn't. We traversed in fairly high though and ended up in what we think may of been Dollywagon Chimney with the Right hand Finish IV but it could of quite easily been a different line, or Dollywagon Gully itself but Joe said he didn't recognize it. Anyhow, it looked good, and like it would go so we went for it. Conditions were good (one of the belays was a pure ice screw belay) and the turf is still fully frozen. The only thing that is letting it down slightly is that a few more inches of consolidated snow is needed on some of the lines. Most rock, on most aspects is hoared up as well. We topped out in deteriating weather, and headed down to the tarn and out the way we came, it was starting to snow heavily as we got to the car which bodes well from conditions later in the week. Beers and Imran's naturally followed.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Kendal Mountain Film Festival
Its the annual Kendal Mountain Film Festival this weekend. So far I've booked to see the world premiere of 'The Pinnacle' which documents Dave Macleod and Andy Turner repeating the Smith - Marshall famous week climbing on the Ben last winter, which should inspire me a bit for our CIC weekend in March! I've also got tickets to the Snowsports evening on the Friday, theres a few ski films being shown, and Glen Plake is there so that should be pretty cool as he is THE guy from Blizzard of Aaahhhs.
The trailer for the event as a whole is below:
The trailer for the event as a whole is below:
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Cosmiques Arete Solo
Friday saw the good weather we'd been heaving in Cham break and a bank of unsettled low pressure move it for the weekend. Ash an Clare decided to have a valley day at Gaillards the local crag but having done a lot of the route there that are within my grade when I was out in Chamonix last I decided to try and get one more day in up in the mountains before my flight and the definitive end to my sumer alpine season.
The Cosmiques Arete isn't hard, nor is it particularly serious, its very accessible and having done the route many times over the summer due to its proximity to the lift station and preferableness to trudging up the snow arete I now know it pretty dam well. As such it made quite a good objective for a alpine solo. I've never solo'ed anything in the alpine before, and when I say solo I don't mean just climbing un-roped, I'm referring climbing alone on the mountain.
The weather was poor, with visibility down to about 15 meters, persistent snow and a reasonably strong wind which made walking across the galcier the scariest bit of the whole trip, especially when I put my foot partially in a small crevasse just below the Eperon - probably not big enough for me to fall in but it did make me think. I took some shelter behind the Abri Simmond, having a quick bite to eat before setting off.
I left the base at 10:10am (having left the Midi at 9:45/9:50am) and climbed fairly quickly up the first slabbly sectyion. The rock was very snowy and sections were covered in rime. After about 15/20 minutes I was at the first abseil. I though about down-climbing this as I've done several times before but as I needed to get the rope out for the next one decided it was probably quicker an safer to just rappel both. Rigging the second abseil my hands got quite cold having got wet earlier from brushing snow off holds, here I had a bit of a moment as once you do this you are fairly committed to finishing the rest of the ridge, including the crux slab. I went for it and got to the bottom of the gully where I pulled the ropes, here I made a stupid mistake. As I took my sack off to stow the rope I forgot that my axe was behind my back and dropped it and had to downclimb a good 15m to where it was perched precariously between two rocks, this cost me a good 5-10 minutes as I took it quite slowly. After this I soon reached the crux slab where I changed into dry gloves and then went for, the last section on the north side of the ridge went very quickly and by 11am I was slumped infront of the telescope on the viewing platform, 50 minutes after I started.
The guidebook time is 3 hours, so 50 minutes isn't bad, I'm happy with it considering the conditions. I would of really liked to of beaten John's record of 40 minutes, and I think if I did in good conditions I maybe could - but that will have to wait to next year. I really enjoyed doing it and got a huge buzz from moving freely and swiftly on the mountain however I really did feel alone and quite vulnerable if anything did happen (there were no other parties on the ridge), I imagine I'll do some more soloing, but I'm not quite sure how much yet.
Thats the summer alpine season over for me, I've done 7 weeks out in the Alps and got loads done, and in general the summer has been one of the best I've had for climbing with the month I spent climbing Yosemite, Squamish and Nevada before the Alps. Apparently its time to knuckle down and finish my degree now...
The Cosmiques Arete isn't hard, nor is it particularly serious, its very accessible and having done the route many times over the summer due to its proximity to the lift station and preferableness to trudging up the snow arete I now know it pretty dam well. As such it made quite a good objective for a alpine solo. I've never solo'ed anything in the alpine before, and when I say solo I don't mean just climbing un-roped, I'm referring climbing alone on the mountain.
The weather was poor, with visibility down to about 15 meters, persistent snow and a reasonably strong wind which made walking across the galcier the scariest bit of the whole trip, especially when I put my foot partially in a small crevasse just below the Eperon - probably not big enough for me to fall in but it did make me think. I took some shelter behind the Abri Simmond, having a quick bite to eat before setting off.
I left the base at 10:10am (having left the Midi at 9:45/9:50am) and climbed fairly quickly up the first slabbly sectyion. The rock was very snowy and sections were covered in rime. After about 15/20 minutes I was at the first abseil. I though about down-climbing this as I've done several times before but as I needed to get the rope out for the next one decided it was probably quicker an safer to just rappel both. Rigging the second abseil my hands got quite cold having got wet earlier from brushing snow off holds, here I had a bit of a moment as once you do this you are fairly committed to finishing the rest of the ridge, including the crux slab. I went for it and got to the bottom of the gully where I pulled the ropes, here I made a stupid mistake. As I took my sack off to stow the rope I forgot that my axe was behind my back and dropped it and had to downclimb a good 15m to where it was perched precariously between two rocks, this cost me a good 5-10 minutes as I took it quite slowly. After this I soon reached the crux slab where I changed into dry gloves and then went for, the last section on the north side of the ridge went very quickly and by 11am I was slumped infront of the telescope on the viewing platform, 50 minutes after I started.
The guidebook time is 3 hours, so 50 minutes isn't bad, I'm happy with it considering the conditions. I would of really liked to of beaten John's record of 40 minutes, and I think if I did in good conditions I maybe could - but that will have to wait to next year. I really enjoyed doing it and got a huge buzz from moving freely and swiftly on the mountain however I really did feel alone and quite vulnerable if anything did happen (there were no other parties on the ridge), I imagine I'll do some more soloing, but I'm not quite sure how much yet.
Thats the summer alpine season over for me, I've done 7 weeks out in the Alps and got loads done, and in general the summer has been one of the best I've had for climbing with the month I spent climbing Yosemite, Squamish and Nevada before the Alps. Apparently its time to knuckle down and finish my degree now...
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Calgary Mountain Film Festival
After a weekend of climbing and skiing last weekend and a fairly hectic penultimate week of term this week of handing in assignments and wrapping other things off I decided to take today off from anything too adventurous and chill out, lying in to well past lunch. Well thats my excuse for not having a partner to go climbing with! Anyhow heading out to Nakiska with Ian and some friends of his tomorrow to rip it up, more new territory to explore.
To the meat of this post though - an e-mail dropped in to my inbox a few weeks ago from Spirit West, one of the premier outdoor retails in the city which has developed a bit of a community around it (for you Brits think Needlesports or old Rock n' Run and you won't be far off) advertising the Calgary Mountain Film Festival; which is part of the bigger event known as the city's 'Outdoor Festival'. I hadn't heard of it before, which isn't surprising considering this is only the second year its run and with perhaps, the most famous mountain film festival in the world preceding it by a few months in Banff just an hour away. Anyhow I did some reading and it looks like they've got a really good line up of films and of speaks, I'm particularly keen to see Will Gadd talk about his ascent of Hunlen over in BC and see the film. There are 4 separate evenings for the films, but the best value seems to be to buy a weeks pass of $39. I've got finals that week but I'm going to try and make as many of the films as possible as its only a few stations away on the C-train in Kensington. So if your in the city next week (April 19-25th) make sure to get down, its looks good. To whet your appetite theres a trailer for the Banff Mountain Film Festival below, which included many of the films that will be being screened next week.
To the meat of this post though - an e-mail dropped in to my inbox a few weeks ago from Spirit West, one of the premier outdoor retails in the city which has developed a bit of a community around it (for you Brits think Needlesports or old Rock n' Run and you won't be far off) advertising the Calgary Mountain Film Festival; which is part of the bigger event known as the city's 'Outdoor Festival'. I hadn't heard of it before, which isn't surprising considering this is only the second year its run and with perhaps, the most famous mountain film festival in the world preceding it by a few months in Banff just an hour away. Anyhow I did some reading and it looks like they've got a really good line up of films and of speaks, I'm particularly keen to see Will Gadd talk about his ascent of Hunlen over in BC and see the film. There are 4 separate evenings for the films, but the best value seems to be to buy a weeks pass of $39. I've got finals that week but I'm going to try and make as many of the films as possible as its only a few stations away on the C-train in Kensington. So if your in the city next week (April 19-25th) make sure to get down, its looks good. To whet your appetite theres a trailer for the Banff Mountain Film Festival below, which included many of the films that will be being screened next week.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Scottish Winter Climbing
Climbing in Scotland, and in the other parts of the UK in winter has to be pretty unique. Having spent my formative years climbing in wet, cold wind blasted corries in the Cairngorms or the faces of Ben Nevis spending the year here climbing beautiful fat water ice in lovely cold dry conditions has been quite the contrast, a good one though. The routes are still challenging here, but theres not quite as much suffering involved which allows you to concentrate more on the climbing, perhaps allowing you to push yourself a little harder.
Anyhow trying to explain this contrast to locals has proven challenging, many have the view that the UK mountains, well our mere hills, are tame compared to the rest of the world and in some respects they probably are, but in others they are most certainly not. I found this video below and I think it gives a good picture of what the British winter climbing scene is like, and its not like its bias either - coming from a group of continentals! Make sure to watch it on full screen.
Obviously the grades these guys are knocking out are far harder than the average British climber, myself included climb and they do make some of them look pretty easy! But I'm a firm believer (perhaps because I don't in the grand scheme of things climb that hard) that climbing isn't about the grade, its about the process.
Anyhow trying to explain this contrast to locals has proven challenging, many have the view that the UK mountains, well our mere hills, are tame compared to the rest of the world and in some respects they probably are, but in others they are most certainly not. I found this video below and I think it gives a good picture of what the British winter climbing scene is like, and its not like its bias either - coming from a group of continentals! Make sure to watch it on full screen.
Obviously the grades these guys are knocking out are far harder than the average British climber, myself included climb and they do make some of them look pretty easy! But I'm a firm believer (perhaps because I don't in the grand scheme of things climb that hard) that climbing isn't about the grade, its about the process.
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Powderwhore
The rockies have been pretty dry for the last few weeks, the resorts were really starting to show the lack of snow, still plenty in the backcountry as I found out on the meadows last weekend though. Thankfully a few systems have come through this week and put some down, Sunshine got 20cm Tuesday/Wednesday and I hear Norquay got nearly twice as much, 35cm, on Thursday. So plan is to get out and look for some fresh tracks, heading out tomorrow with Trevor to a yet-undecided destination, avalanche forecast is a little high but I'm sure we'll find some nice slopes to ski, and then having a resort day Sunday with Trev, Ian an Dena - should be a good weekend.
As such, while having tea tonight I did a little surfing on Google video for some skiing clips, its nice to gawk at people that are far better than you'll ever be from time to time! I particularly enjoyed the one below:
I'll report back on the conditions and where I ended up when I get back.
Quick side note, I went to my friend Dena's band at a gig last night, I've seen them before and again they didn't disappoint. They're a Ska band and do a very good cover of Reel Big Fish's 'Beer' Check out their MySpace - I know still in the dark ages.
As such, while having tea tonight I did a little surfing on Google video for some skiing clips, its nice to gawk at people that are far better than you'll ever be from time to time! I particularly enjoyed the one below:
I'll report back on the conditions and where I ended up when I get back.
Quick side note, I went to my friend Dena's band at a gig last night, I've seen them before and again they didn't disappoint. They're a Ska band and do a very good cover of Reel Big Fish's 'Beer' Check out their MySpace - I know still in the dark ages.
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Wapta Icefields Traverse
I had last week off as reading break from university, which was welcome as the first part of this semester had begun to tire a little after a great month off at Christmas with friends and family. Before I arrived in Calgary, last summer I did some preliminary reading on the classic mountaineering objectives in the area and compiled a short informal list of stuff that I'd like to do out here, the first thing that sat quite highly in the ranking was the Cascade ice route above Banff which I managed to knock off in January with some friends from the UK, so with a week off I figured that it was time to cross another one of these of the lists, and what better than a traverse of the Wapta Ice-fields.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the route its a hut to hut ski mountaineering route, often touted as Canada equivalent and competitor to the European Chamonix - Zermatt Haute route. The Wapta Icefields sit in the central ranges of the Rocky mountains on the western side of the Ice-fields Parkway. The route is linear moving southwards so requires you to do a car shuttle on either the first or last day. We took 4 days over the traverse, but missed out the Peyto hut due to hearing that the approach had a significant section of boot packing on it, and nobody really likes carrying their skis. Instead we began with an approach to the Bow hut, then a day ascending Mt Olive and getting to the Balfour hut, a day traversing the Balfour high col to the Scott Duncan hut and then on the final day we took the Sherbrook Lake ski out exit down to the West Lake Louise lodge.
The skiing on the route is for the most part fairly easy, with the hardest section being skiing the glades and canyon on the ski out. The glaciers are also fairly tame with no significant objective dangers apart from the ascent to the Balfour High Col, this section certainly warrants the party roping up and moving fairly fast as some big serac bands hang above the route, this danger can be lessened to a degree by taking the lower glacier route but while be objectively a little safer this is more crevassed and demands more attention to navigation. We were lucky and had fine weather for 3 days of the trip so navigation on this section or any of the other was never a problem, I could imagine in worse conditions though it could get very tricky. In case of this, and in addition to a map and compass, I carried a GPS with relevant waypoints programmed in, many other up there also seemed to be taking this precaution.
I used the 'Alpine Ski Tours in the Canadian Rockies' guidebook to plan the trip, along with articles I read on the internet. The map which seemed best to support these was Murray Toft's 'Ski Touring on the Wapta Ice-fields' which has the routes and huts marked as well as some helpful photographs detailing the best lines to take. I found this map elusive in Calgary, even MEC didn't stock it but I fortunately managed to pick up a copy in Banff at Mountain Magic for $23 - not super cheap but its printed on nice waterproof and tear resistant paper so if you look after it you should only have to buy one.
I did the tour with two friends of mine from Calgary; Meg a telemark skier, and Dena, a climber and alpine skier who is fast developing a passion for the backcountry. Everything went to plan and we achieved guidebook time on all of the day. Theres a video below that follows our trip, and a set of photos in my Picasa gallery that is linked above in the tabs. If I have some time I may write more narrative entry about the trip later in the week, but we'll see.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the route its a hut to hut ski mountaineering route, often touted as Canada equivalent and competitor to the European Chamonix - Zermatt Haute route. The Wapta Icefields sit in the central ranges of the Rocky mountains on the western side of the Ice-fields Parkway. The route is linear moving southwards so requires you to do a car shuttle on either the first or last day. We took 4 days over the traverse, but missed out the Peyto hut due to hearing that the approach had a significant section of boot packing on it, and nobody really likes carrying their skis. Instead we began with an approach to the Bow hut, then a day ascending Mt Olive and getting to the Balfour hut, a day traversing the Balfour high col to the Scott Duncan hut and then on the final day we took the Sherbrook Lake ski out exit down to the West Lake Louise lodge.
The skiing on the route is for the most part fairly easy, with the hardest section being skiing the glades and canyon on the ski out. The glaciers are also fairly tame with no significant objective dangers apart from the ascent to the Balfour High Col, this section certainly warrants the party roping up and moving fairly fast as some big serac bands hang above the route, this danger can be lessened to a degree by taking the lower glacier route but while be objectively a little safer this is more crevassed and demands more attention to navigation. We were lucky and had fine weather for 3 days of the trip so navigation on this section or any of the other was never a problem, I could imagine in worse conditions though it could get very tricky. In case of this, and in addition to a map and compass, I carried a GPS with relevant waypoints programmed in, many other up there also seemed to be taking this precaution.
I used the 'Alpine Ski Tours in the Canadian Rockies' guidebook to plan the trip, along with articles I read on the internet. The map which seemed best to support these was Murray Toft's 'Ski Touring on the Wapta Ice-fields' which has the routes and huts marked as well as some helpful photographs detailing the best lines to take. I found this map elusive in Calgary, even MEC didn't stock it but I fortunately managed to pick up a copy in Banff at Mountain Magic for $23 - not super cheap but its printed on nice waterproof and tear resistant paper so if you look after it you should only have to buy one.
I did the tour with two friends of mine from Calgary; Meg a telemark skier, and Dena, a climber and alpine skier who is fast developing a passion for the backcountry. Everything went to plan and we achieved guidebook time on all of the day. Theres a video below that follows our trip, and a set of photos in my Picasa gallery that is linked above in the tabs. If I have some time I may write more narrative entry about the trip later in the week, but we'll see.
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