The Roaches

I was down in Cheshire last weekend at a Scout Network event. On Saturday we headed over to The Roaches, just the other side of the M6. We had a group of novices with us so we rigged some ropes on the right-hand section of the Upper Tier, although we perhaps overestimated the ability of some of our climbers so moved them rightwards in the afternoon.

Bottom-roping with a group at the Roaches.

I escaped for a while with Stu Spencer and Charles Conventry, both keen climbers form Ormskirk Network and we got too good routes done. First we did Pedestal Crack HVD 4a which is quite a nice line following a flake crake and than through a break in the overhang leading to the top. We took the direct (left) start which warrants the 4a/Severe grade, you can start further to the right though where it is easier. Some guides suggest doing this in two pitches but we managed to run it together just fine in one.

Secondly we did the classic Black an Tans, S 4a which gets 3 stars. Its got some varied climbing and probably deserves its stars but was perhaps a little short for my liking, because, as we did it in two pitches each one was probably only 10-15m long. Still nice climbing though. As we got down from this the rain came in so we made a tactical retreat to the pub.

Pedestal Crack.

On separate note Connected, the Network event that we were at was ace, a lot of respect for all that turned up in Burgundy! You did us all proud.

I'm off to Chamonix tomorrow to round of the summers Alpine climbing, apparently theres a fair bit of snow around so we'll see what we get done, I'll try to blog with conditions while I'm there.

Wallowbarrow, Pillar & Scafell

Just back from a weekend of climbing in the western Lake District. Friday night myself an Ash left soon after work managing to get to Wallowbarrow, a small crag in the Duddon Valley just above Seathwaite that neither of us had climbed at before. The crag is of a southern aspect so the rock was nice and warm from having the sun all day, the approach is also fairly tame being perhaps 10-15 minutes from the car park at the farm.

As a bit of a warm up for the weekend we jumped on Digitation, VS 4b**. The route first follows a large slab for 36m with some lovely climbing, at about 2/3rds height there is a slightely move bold which both he guidebook states and we inferred from the grade, its actually fine though. There then a small walk up a grassy terrace which leads to the final pitch; up a crack line on a steep wall, and then a series of ledges to the top of the crag. Some guides give the route MVS, while other give it VS. I don't think I've done enough MVSs (simply because the grade is fairly modern so not many exist) to know what one feels like however if it is VS, I'd say its certainly a soft touch at that.

Shamrock and Pillar Rock, Grooved Wall follows a line of weakness up the large smooth looking wall on the right.

Sunday we headed into Pillar Rock, on the backside of Pillar from Wasdale with primary objective of doing a reconnaissance of Slab an Notch route, the scramble/climbers descent that we'll be using when we take the late Dave Ridout's ashes up there in a few weeks time. After some careful placing of sacks at different points on the crag we headed round to the North East face of the massive rock bastion and set off up Grooved Wall, VS 5a***. Ash did the first pitch, which the guidebook does make apologies for and states is out of character with the rest of the route as its an awkwards series of moist grassy ledges which eventually lead up to the base of the groove, the only significant line of weakness of the fairly blank face. I took the second pitch which is the 5a crux, and wastes not time as after a few moves its time to pull through the overhang and into the groove proper. The move is superbly well protected, ideally by no9. hexcentric or a big cam (probably a friend 3.5 or BD 2) and actually feels pretty easy for 5a, although the bomber gear by your waist is a big comforting factor. 20m Of crack climbing with the odd bit of bridging then follow, of which most of it can be almost exclusively protected by slinging chock-stones in the crack before a belay is reached. Ash joined me after doing sterling job of pulling through the crux with our team sack, and then lead off up the final pitches, running the next 4b and final 4c pitch together in one. The final 4c pitch which follows the groove up its steep termination has some lovely climbing on it.

The evening was spent in the Wasdale Head Inn, which pleasantly had a beer festival on including an outside BBQ which was superb. Apparently this is an annual thing so the date has gone in the diary for next year.

Sunday, while Ash an Phil headed up to the Napes on Great Gable to do some classic rock ticking myself and Tom headed up Scafell. Neither of us had climbed on Scafell, and its somewhere I've really wanted to climb for a long time now. Its big for a start, high, being the highest crag in England or thereabout, clean, steep and imposing and a whole host of other things that make a good crag. Its fair slog up from Wasdale Head, taking us about 1.5hours to the base of the crag. It was fairly windy and the rock was pretty cold so we decided to start off up Moss Ghyll Grooves MVS 4c***. Tom led the first short pitch out of Moss Ghyll and up to the grooves where I took over for the 4c crux, which certainly feels 4c and I don't think would be out of place on any regular VS. This first follows a corner crack in the groove before a delicate traverse out onto the arete which is followed for a few meters until a steep move leads out of the groove and into the sentry box. Tom did the next pitch which had a lovely combination of crack an slab before the final pitch that led us to the top. A really good route.

Scafell Crag, Botteril's Slab is the obvious leftwards slanting line in the center.

After the descent down Broad Stand we went for Botteril's Slab VS 4c***, which I'd had my eye on since getting to the crag as its a very obvious and compelling line. Tom did the 4b pitch that approaches the slab and then I led off up the meat of the route, the 4c slab pitch. I found it a bit stuff for VS 4c I have to say, with the climbing being very delicate and yet sustained on small holds as you teeter up the steep slab (its probably 75-80 degrees) this could be because I was pretty tried bythis point, it was quite cold and some of the holds were a little damp. The gear is good on the route, however I though the there was some distance between some of the bomber placements. Tom finished up the final 4a pitch to the top. Anyhow the pitch is superb, and one of the best I've climbed in absolutely fantastic situation. Go and do it, its well worth it.

Black Diamond RPM 26 - Review

I've been using my Black Diamond RPM for most things over the last 6 weeks in Chamonix, from long rock routes to big norths faces, and its taken it all in its stride, and I'm super pleased with it. Here's BD's spiel on the pack:

'Designed for constant movement on big days, the lightweight RPM features a highly compressible, ergonomic design so it moves with you during climbs and scrambles.'

I've been thinking of buying a small lightweight pack for a while now, I toyed with purhasing with the Arcteryx Cierzo 18 or 35 for quite a time while climbing in the Rockies but was never convinced as the 18 seemed to small and featureless but the 37 was a bit too big. I saw the RPM in Snells and it looked liked it fitted somewhere in the middle, so went for it.

The RPM is essentially frameless, so don't expect to be carrying any loads in it. Its got a small waist strap effort which is effectively just their to keep it stable rather than transfer any load, this comes off really easily when you start climbing though. The back does have a thin layer of foam which gives some comfort and structure when packing. Enough of talk of carrying loads though, if your carrying big loads you don't want this rucksack! What this pack excels at is big days going fast and light in the mountains.

For lift accessed climbing, and staying in hut in the Alps this is perfect. I can quite happily fit water, food, a few layers and first aid kit plus whatever gear I need for the route. It compresses wonderfully as well, so you end up climbing with a snug small rucksack rather than something half empty and flapping around. The zip design is a little unusual, and a departure from my normal rucksack purchaing trend, I've always been of the school of thinking that zips can break and I'd always prefer a solid drawcord and buckles/lid. Zips are light though, this back weighs in at 600g, sure there probably not as durable as a standard system but I think I'm willing to sacrifice a shorter lifespan in this case. For such a small sack two ice axe loops on the front are also great.

Using the RPM alpine climbing in Chamonix.

The fabric seems to be relatively hard wearing, after 5 weeks of use in the alps theres only a few scuff marks and one small hole which was caused by hauling it up coarse Chamonix granite on the Rebuffet route. Its never going to last as long a old school alpine sack like my POD Black Ice or similar, but its a fraction of the price and the weight.

The downside is that I doubt I'll be pulling this pack out for much use in the UK, I could imagine the zip letting water through into the main body of the pack really easily and it probably the wrong kind of size for most mountaineering days, plus mines is white, which is certainly not the colour of choice for most moist, mossy or muddy british scrags. But if your looking to go lightweight in the Alpine regions this would be great, I could imagine this being a really good sack for long ice routes as well.

Theres a few other reviews floating around the web, one at Sierra Descents and one at the Colorado Mountain School.

Alpine Finale - Kuffner Ridge

I'm back in the UK, having spent Monday an Tuesday in Zurich flying back into Manchester yesterday afternoon. After a bout of bad weather over last weekend we set off, perhaps a little prematurely for a crack at the Kuffner/Frontier Ridge on Mont Maudit, a big classic mixed route at high altitude.

The Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit, D IV 850m.

We chose to do the ridge in whats probably its most classic form, to approach the Col de la Fourche bivi hut, which is perched very precariously on the arete which divides the Cirque Maudit and Brenva basin, then traverse the Tour Ronde-Maudit ridge to the base of the true Kuffner and then climb the 850m of height to the top from there. The alternative would be to leave from the Torino hut, pass under the Tour Ronde, the Col de la Fourche and head up a snow slope just as the ridge steepens.

We left the Midi in fair conditions, but these soon deteriorated. There had been a lot of fresh snow as well, so as soon as we left the tracks of the Vallee Blanche traverse path somewhere just below the Grand Capucin we were trail breaking all the way up Cirque Maudit. The approach climb to th bivi hut it about 200m, sitting somewhere around scottish I/II, so really easy but it was super hard work as there was a good 60cm of powder snow sitting on the route... 1 step forward two steps back kind of thing. We got to the hut just as the weather was beginning to worsen. We had a bit of dilemma as we knew that if we were to set off the next morning and struggle up the Kuffner, we'd basically be committing to Mont Blanc and down the Gouter route as the normal route down Tacul back to the Col du Midi would be an avalanche related death trap waiting to happen. We decided to bail, so set off back down the couloir the next morning, with only a 60m rope, 30m rappels interspersed with some down-climbing took a little time but we were at the bottom at a good time. The weather really came in on the walk back to the Midi with hight winds and wet snow making for near Scottish conditions.

Second pitch on the Voie Frison-Roche Route.

After our retreat on the Kuffner we decided to have an easier day so headed up to the Aiguille Rouge on the Brevent lift to do the classic Voie Frison-Roche, TD- 6a. The route was really good, and never that hard or desperate. Stubbsy had a bit of an issue on the 6a crux crack pitch an had to retreat but I soon got up it probably thanks to Yosemite crafted crack climbing skills. Its well equipped with good belays and fairly spaced bolts. We got the first lift but were at the top by 11am, 8 pitches I think. Petit Kitchen followed, naturally.

Myself on the classic snow-fin, just before l'Androsace.

So with two days left, the weather finally improved so we decided to go and redeem ourselves on the Kuffner. The approach was much easier, as we followed the trail we'd put in a few days before! We went to bed with clear skys and got up around 4am to fantastic frozen snow, clear skys but not baltic temperatures - perfect! The traverse along the first horizontal ridge takes a bit of time as there are two fairly sizable gendarmes to cross with several bit of down-climbing. After this you start the 850m of mixed ridge climbing which leads you to the top of Maudit, a series of snow gullies and ridges, mixed sections and the odd bit of rock climbing. The technical crux of the route is probably a short rock section of about 4c after the traverse under the point l'Androsance its easy though. The physiological crux is certainly the exposed corniced snow aretes in the top sections with are difficult if not impossible to protect. We hit the top at 10am, having taken 6 hours from the bivi hut, and 4.5 from the start of the route. Both under guidebook time so we were fairly happy. I was keen to push on for Mont Blanc as it really did seem so close but Stubbsy was suffering quite a bit so we quickly dropped down to the Col Maudit, over Tacul and then the slog back up to the midi station. By 2:30pn we were sat in the Petit Kitchen with bacon an sausage sandwiches. Absolutely fantastic route, one of the best I've done.

Stubbs on one of the final snow ridges.

Theres a lot more photos of the route in my facebook photo album.

So thats it for my summer alpine season this year, its been a good one and I've got lots done, but the Kuffner was certainly the high point and a perfect finale. Our tour de force of the Chere Couloir and North Face of the Tour Ronde in two days was pretty satisfying as well. I need to focus on my dissertation for a week or so now, but my had is still in climbing mode...

Sunny South-face Rockclimbing & Cold Icy North Faces

So another update on alpine happening out here in Chamonix, I'll start with a bit of an update of conditions.

With the end of the hot period a few weeks ago a lot of snow then fell around 1-2 weeks ago which put all the snow, ice an mixed routes into good, or at least better condition then they were, we took advantage of this in a few weather windows over the last few days. The weather has now taken a turn for the worse now, with the forecast being fairly unsettled for the next few days. It feels a bit as if we've been juxtaposing types of routes over the last few days, being on warm sunny south faces oen day, in t-shirts and rock shoes and then on cold, icy north face routes the next!

Stubbs arrived just over a week ago, so the day he got here we just headed up for a quick lap on the Cosmiques arete in the afternoon to get our heads in the game for climbing together. We did it in 1 hour 40 mins which wasen't as quick as me an Chris did it a few weeks before that but was still fairly rapid considering we had a bit more queuing to do. You can tell its the high season here as there was a line of about 20 people at the crux slab! Thankfully we maanged to bypass most of these.

Stubb's seconding one of the easier pitches on Indianna Jaune!

Last Saturday, we headed out with a local; Brian Birtle, to a big limestone sport cliff down towards Sallanches. I'm not really a sport, well not really an udnerstatement, I'm not a sport climber! But Brian had the day off an was looking for people to climb with so we thought we'd go along an have a go. We went and did 'Indianna Jaune' on Maladiere, its 300m in 9 pitches and goes at 6c+. Its fairly sustained with about 5 of the pitches being in the 6b range, and the rest not being much easier. Its also fairly commiting, not in a dangerous sense, just due to the fact to get to it you walk up to the top of the cliff and then embark on 5 abseils to get to the bottom, leaving your shoes an stuff at the top! The cliff is huge, and very very steep, as a lot of abseils leave you haning in space away from the wall. The route doesn't waste anytime either with the second pitch being the 6b+ crux, now I've led 6b sport before but this felt a lot harder than that - I have to confess I pulled on a lot of quickdraws and ropes to get through it. The exposure on the wall is fantastic, Indianna Jaune takes the easiest line on the face, the rest of the routes are a lot harder so your alwasy climbing in between very very steep, and very very blank rock. We averaged around 40 minutes a pitch and got to the top at around 7pm, before a hurried descent and drive to the kebab house in Cleuse. Big respect to Brian for dragging us up all the hard bits, and the the route in general! Absolutely superb.

At the bivi for the Rochefort Arete.

Early last week we headed up with a friend of Chris's, Remi whos been living in the UK for a while. We took an afternoon lift up the midi and traversed the Vallee Blanche in fiarly bad conditions to get to a bivy spot above the Torino hut for an attempt on the Rochefort arete the day after. We went fairly lighweight for the bivy, and were a little cold after the clouds dissapeared, and quite relieived to get moving at 4am. The route starts with a slog the glacier, over the bergschrund and then a small, but shallow mixed coulir lead to the col. Here we ditched crampons for the scramble up to the Salle e Manger below the Dent du Geant. The scramble cover around 300m of height and some fairly loose chossy ground, so it was nice to be on it when it was all fairly frozen together. We reached the start of the Rochefort Arete at around 8am. Remi wasen't feeling too good due to the altitude and to add to this Stubbsy had lost his glacier glasses on the ascent so was struggling to see as the sun began to break over the horizon. So a little frustrated we turned around, it was a shame, as I could see the whole arete stretching out in front and it looked ace, and so close! We were glad to be descending the chossy ground while it was still frozen though, there were a few parties on their way up as we were descending and they were starting to knock a lot of stuff down. Two short abseils and a bimble down the glacier and we were back at the bivi spot, before making out way back to the Midi.

Friday/Saturday we decided to take advantage of a good weather window and head off to try an do a route first on the Tacul Traingle, then cross the Vallee Blache, sleep at the Torino hut and knock out the North Face of the Tour Rone the next day before heading back. For some reason the first Midi lift was delayed and it was after 8am when we were leaving the station. There were 3 teams (of which 5 of the 6 people, ourselves included were sporting our new minimalist alpine rucksacks! - I'll be reviewing it soon on here as its ace) heading for the Chere Couloir, our chosen route. The routes given D, which is really soft for the standard of climbing but due to its accesibility of being an hour from the lift station is fair. Its about 250m of ice climbing, with the crux pitches being 85 degrees, so about WI4. We moved together up the first pitch and then did 5 fairly full pitches before abseiling back down. The route was in good condition, with good ice on the steeper bits and bomber neve on the more easy angles slopes. We chose to abseil back down the route in 5 abseils to below the bergschrund rather then continue up to Tacul and secend the normal route through the seracs which with all the new snow would of been pretty dodgy.

Myself leading one of the easier upper pitches on the Chere, lots of spindrift!

After we were down we roped up and began the crossing to the Torino hut, getting there a few hours before dinner, and then having a fairly early night.

The North Face of the Tour Ronde, our route took the lower and upper icefields linked by the snow gully in the middle.

We left the hut at 5:30am, which was probably a little late as depsite being a north face, the route on the tour ronde gets the sun fairly early. The North Face route is 350-400m, moving first up a icefield directly above the bergscrund and then through a snow gully which leads to the upper icefield and the summit. The climbing is much easier than the Chere, being at the steepest maybe 55/60 degrees - the crus pitches are in the gully. We moved together up the first icefield for around 100m with myself leading, and then pitched it through the gully and up the summit icefield getting to the top by about 2pm. We moved fairly slowly but this was due to the fact we were fairly tired from the previous day. The descent was tedious as we first followed the PD rock ridge before dropping off at the shoulder on the the Tour Ronde Normal Route, which is AD and follows a broad, and very loose couloirs. 3 Abseils got us to the bottom of this, and then a sprint back to the lift station.

We fancied a bit of warm rock climbing for change after our cold north face endeavours so headed up the Flegere lift and then the index chair to climb on the index, a huge fin of rock standing clean away from the mountain. The classic route takes the ridge up this, at about 4c but we opted for a link of two routes on the face, going at about 5c/6a over 7 pitches. The climbing was nice, and most of the pitches were pretty well equipped. We abseiled off the summit, back down tot he chair and were back in Chamonix for late afternoon.

Stubbs atop the Aiguillete de Argentierre.

Continuing the theme of sunny rock climbing, after a fiarly heavy night with Chris, John a Scott we got up late so drove up towards Argentierre and walked up to the Aiguillete de'Argentierre, a small pinnacle about an hour from the road road. This was pretty easy, if a little dissapointing with two pitches of maybe 4c getting us to the top. Nice views from the top of the pinncale though. After this we did a route on the cliff opposite, which was 4 pitches of 5c, excellent slabby climbing on warm Schist.

Yesterday we headed back up into the big mountains to have a look at the Rebuffet Route on the Eperon des Cosmiques. Me an Chris went and had a look at this a few weeks but decided the start was out of condition and dangerous due to the snowmelt. We'd heard about a direct start though, that missed this though so decided to go an have a look. The catch was that apparently it went at about E1. The crux of any alpine rock route was as always getting out of crampons and boots, getting these into your rucksack and then getting your rock shoes on! I led off up the first pitch we'd been informed about and immeidietely found it quite hard so left my sack on a runner for Stubbs to deal with later. The climbing was awkward but got easier and eventually I made the belay an then brought Stubbs up, who was complaing about having to come up it with two sacks. I'm not sure it was E1, maybe hard HVS, but still fairly hard on a mountain. I then led out the rest of the rightwards trending ledge system, belaying below overhang pitch. Stubbs came up and I set off up the overhang pitch, this starts with some lovely crack climbing with good gear before you reach a big roof which sticks out about 2m. You can free this, but it goes at about VI so I just pulled on the gear an got through it quickly. 3 More pitches on lovely orange granite cracks led us to the top of the buttress at about VS, and then we zoomed along the Cosmiques Arete, getting to the station for 2pm. Superb route.

Me, leading on the Cosmiques crux slab.

We've had a rest day today, as the weather is bad, its actually looking quite unsettled for the rest of the week so we'll what we get done. I'd like to do the Frendo or Kuffner, and Chris is talking about the Brenva but there all fairly serous routes, so we'll be needing a spell of settled weather to get on any of them.

In addition to the above we've also beein hitting the valley crags like les Gaillards quite a but in between things.

Chamonix So Far...

I've been in Chamonix just over a week now, the weather has been a little intermittant and windows have been short but I've still managed to get quite a bit done, while still having a fairly relaxing time.

Last Thursday me an Chris went up and did a quick lap on the Cosmiques from the first bin, our original plan was to climb the Eperon des Cosmiques roiute which is about 8 pitches up one of the buttresses on the south face of the midi. Unfortunately due to the recent warm temperatures the approach gully had melted out leaving a lot of very precairous looking loose rock, so we bailed and legged it down to the bottom of the Cosmiques Arete which we in 1.5hrs from bottom to top, soloing up to the crux slab where we roped up. We got the sad news as we topped out at the lift station that Dave Ridout, a very prominant figure in both our scouting backgrounds had passed away that morning. While sad, it was quite a fitting place for us to receive the news, and I'm sure he would of agreed. RIP Dave.

I've done a bit of sport cragging at the crag thats about 10 minutes walk from Chris an Andrea's place, for a local crag its pretty good, with routes up to about 3 pitches. I did l'Arete with Heather one afternoon which was a nice route at about 5c.

Over the weekend I went for a big walk, for some fitness training, and due to the fact I was short of a partner for climbing. Up from Les Pelerins to the Plan station and then a lovely traverse along underneath the Chamonix Aiguilles at about 2400m, before dropping down to the Montenvers station and walking back down to the valley.

Me leading, about 8 pitches up the Chappelle route, just before the South Shoulder.

Tuesday I got out with a friend of Heather's, Mike who's Swedish. We headed up the Flegere cable car and then the Index chair on the Aiguille Rouge on the other side of the valley first and headed for the classic Chappelle route on La Gliere. The route is 14 pitches with most in the 4c-5b range, apart from the final pitch which is 6a, but probably a soft 6a at that. Its partly equipped meaning that most of the belays are bolted, and theres pegs here and there on the route where you most need them. We managed to do it in just over 4 hours from bottom to top which for 14 pitches I was pretty happy with considering we'd never climbed together. We had a awesome view of the massif over the top of the cloud inversion all day, Mont Blanc, Aig Verte, Grande Jorrasse etc. - getting very inspired for the next few weeks.

Climbing the 'Razor Edge' pitch on the Chappelle route. Mont Blanc in the Background.

Wednesday me an Chris took the first bin up the Aigille Midi to do the Midi - Plan traverse. I had it in my head that it was going to be a bit of scary walk, which was probably underestimating it as it gets AD in the guide. It starts off following a series of narrow snow ridges that extend from the one that extends down from th lift station. Eventually you reach a rock buttress whcih you pass on the Chamonix side, the climbing its probably Scottish I/II but it pretty exposed and you woulden't want to fall. Another bit of a snow plod leads to an easy mixed couloir and then the rock ridge which calls for a bit of concentration with some more exposed moves. From the end of the ridge 3 abseils get you down to the glacier again where you head up to the plan. You can return to the midi station the way you came but we decided to decend the Requin glacier down to the Requin hut on the Mer de Glace and out to the Montenvers train station. The Mer de Glace was a little tedious with a bit of zig zaggin having to be done through the crevasses below the Envers de Aiguille, we were glad on a ice cream and coke when we got to the station.

Yesterday the weather was pretty bad so I had a bit of rest day, going to the Petit Kitchen for lunch, and then some browsing round Chamonix. I'm about to head out to Gaillands with Mike today for some rock climbing, and hoping to get up on the Chamonix Aiguiiles from the Plan lift tomarrow with Brian, but we'll see as the snow line is down to 2400ish at the moment. Unfortunately the Frendo is out of condition with rock getting covered in snow from time to time with these storms and more importantly the ice at the top being in really bad condition, I'm still optimistic that it might come back in but realitically it might be next year before I get it done, I'm begining to think spring may be a better time for the mixed routes...

The Alps - The Plan

2 Weeks from now I'll be in Chamonix, the first day in 5/6 week epic Alpine holiday. I've got 2 weeks with Lewis first, which is going to serve as a bit of an acclimatization period for myself and then I'm meeting up with Stubbsy for just over 3 more weeks. We're starting off in Chamonix, and to be honest theres enough stuff to do on the Mont Blanc massif for the whole trip, but we may end up elsewhere due to bad weather or other reasons.

The Frendo Spur, Aiguille du Midi.

Theres a bit of a ticklist below, I say ticklist but its more just a list of routes that look interesting, and if I get a handful of them done I'll be super happy.

Dome de Miage Traverse
Table Couloir/Table Ridge, Aiguille du Tour
North Face, Tete Blanche
Cosmiqus Ridge, Aiguille du Midi
Midi - Plan Traverse
Forbes Arete, Aiguille du Chardonnet
North Face, Tour Ronde
Rochefort Arete and Dent d'Geant
Frendo Spur, Aiguille du Midi
Kuffner Ridge, Mont Maudit
Eperon du Cosmiques, South Face of the Midi
Chere Couloir, Tacul
North Ridge, Piz Badile (Maybe the Cassin???)
Liongrat - Hornli Traverse, Matterhorn (If we have time and get over that way)

Like I say, theres a lot of routes on that list above, if we come back with a third of them done I think I'll satisfied! If I get near a computer when I'm over there I'll try to blog a little but we'll see what happens.

British Rock

I'm still working through a series of blog posts for my last month or so in North America however I thought I'd give an update on the last month, the first 4 weeks back in the UK.

Fresh from the sandstone towers of Nevada and granite bastions of Yosemite and Squamish I decided it was best to get straight back out on the rock here in the UK to try and keep standards high, and see how much transferred. I've not done anything for the last week, however I'm on more pitches climbed then days being back in the country, so heres the list:

Castle Crag of Triermain
Overhanging Bastion VS 5a
Gazebo HVS 5a
May Day Cracks VS 5a

Gable Crag
Engineers Slabs VS 4c

Walking in to Gable Crag.

Tremadog
Shadrach VS 4c
One Step in the Clouds VS 4c

Llanberis Pass
The Cracks, Dinas Mot HS 5a
Main Wall, Crynn Las HS 4b

Dow Crag
Eliminate B HVS 5a
Eliminate A VS 4c

I've also had a session top-roping after work last week at Witche's Quarry, Pendle and been up Pinnacle Ridge twice with a group from the university and a group of explorers on County Camp.

So in total I think I'm on 46 pitches, and climbing confidently at the VS/HVS level which is sort where I want to be for the Alps in a few weeks time.

Panty Wall, Red Rocks

For our second day of climbing in Red Rocks we chose to have a shorty day so headed to Panty Wall, one of the areas easily accessible from the first pull-out of the scenic loop road. Panty Wall sits within an area of vivid red sandstone outcrops known as the Calico Hills that Red Rocks draws its name from. The climbing here is generally smaller with many single pitch routes compared to the larger ones that sit to west in the Rainbow Mountain Wilderness area where we had been climbing on the previous day, in addition many of the lines here are bolted sport routes.

Myself leading Brief Encounter, 5.8**.

Pant Wall itself is only one of many of the venues but perhaps the most accessible of near routes, so much so that a few hundred meters away you'll find tourists on day trip from Vegas gawking at you, and if your lucky perhaps even get the odd fly by from a helicopter giving a tour of the area! There are about 15 routes on the wall ranging from 5.7 to 5.12b but with most concentrated in the 7,8,9,10 area. We climbed most of bolted lines up to 5.10 which felt about French 6a/b. I had carried the rack up with us to venture further and try some of the trad lines but the day was exceedingly warm so by mid afternoon we decided to call it a day and head back to the campsite to find some shade. Climbing in the desert is not easy.

We had a couple more days climbing in Red Rocks after this, and for those and the two climbs I've documented already we used Jerry Handren's Red Rocks: A Climber's Guide. I found it to be accurate and reasonably comprehensive, at nearly 400 pages I'm not going to run out of things to do from it! The mixture of Rockfaxx style picture diagrams and classic North American topographic drawings of the routes is fantastic and well thought out. The only downside is you need to have access to, or have the foresight to photocopy the routes you intend to do as you might as well carry a brick around with you!

Cat in the Hat, Red Rocks

I'm back in the UK, and back up at Lancaster currently starting work on my dissertation. This is the first of a few articles detailing a few of my preferred routes that I did throughout the states last month.

'Cat in the Hat' was the first multi-pitch route we did on the May trip. Its in the Red Rocks climbing area of Nevada, which is conveniently about 20 minutes west of Las Vegas. Most climbers use the BLM 13 Mile Campground which was charging $15 a night for pitch when we were there, apparently a $5 increase on the previous year. The pitches are nice, widely spaces and each has a pull-in for your car, a picnic bench and a BBQ/fire-pit. There is running water, but no showers - I'm informed there are some showers at the local climbing wall on Charleston Boulevard which climber from the site often use. If you've got a little more cash then we have you could splash out and stay in Vegas itself, the advantages being obvious but the downside being you've got 20 minutes to drive each morning.

Mescalito, Cat in the Hat follows the left hand ridge line.

Mescalito is a pyramid shaped peak that splits Pines Canyon into its upper and lower variations, its is composed of hard desert sandstone like most of the rock in the area with large portions that are 'varnished' - a black harder coating that forms of the surface of the sandstone due to weathering. There are several routes on the peak which towers approximately 450m from its base in the canyon. Most routes however only reach a maximum of 300m due to the angle and quality of rock decreasing the top section. The approach is around 40 minutes heading west from the 5th pull-out on the scenic loop ring road. Entrance to this ring road costs $7 per car, this does ensure though that it is in good quality, car parking is reasonably secure and there are bathrooms at all of the stops. Just make sure to get there early as once the tourists hit it in the afternoon they drive slowly.

We choose 'Cat in the Hat', and 300m rote given 5.6+ which ascends the southern ridge of Mescalito for 7 pitches, and is rightfully given 5 stars. The first pitch follows a leftward slanting crack system through a steep section, which eventually widens with a final tricky move over the top. This is given YDS 5.5, which depending which grade conversion table you read, fits somewhere around British severe - which I think is about right. I thought it was a bit under-graded at first but in hindsight this was the first pitch of proper traditional climbing I'd done in nearly a year so I was probably a little out of practice. From here a short pitch follows to a lovely bolted belay on a large ledge, we manged to run these two together as we were climbing on 60m ropes, you would run a little short on 50's though.

After a bimble across the ledge a short boulderly move allows to you gain another crack system in a corner and follow this upwards to shady belay on ledge by a small tree. The next pitch (4th in the guidebook) is a close contender for the best pitch of the route, and only just gets beaten by the final pitch of the route. First it climbs a finger crack up to a roof where some delicate moves are required leftwards across a pocketed slab until you can pull through the overhang on good holds and finish up another finger crack above.

Having just pulled through the roof of the 4th pitch.

A easy (5.3 YDS) traverse pitch then follows bringing you to the base of the 6th pitch, nearly 50m of fantastic climbing high on the ridge of Mescalito in very airy and exposed position. It begins by following a hand/finger crack up a fairly steep, varnished sandstone face - moderately protected with mid size nuts and cams all the way. After about 30m the crack begins to narrow and then runs out leaving you on a wide rounded sandstone ridge high above the desert - the position is awesome if a little intimidating. A few moves and you clip a single bolt and catch your breath before making gently padding further up blank wall on blank sandstone for about 6m (British 4b) to very reassuring flake which leads you easily to the top.

From here you can carry up some 4th class ground to the summit or rappel from the bolted anchor. We chose to leave the scramble for another day due the loose nature of the rock higher up and rappelled from he anchor, getting down in 4 full 60m rappels.