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A complaint to Northern Rail

January 21, 2013by Leo Woodhead 52 Comments

This morning I was subjected to some awful customer service by the Northern Rail staff at Manchester Piccadilly. On this occasion I decided to stand up and be counted and […]

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My climbing blog: 2012 in review

January 11, 2013by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about […]

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Artist or vandal: You decide

November 3, 2012by Leo Woodhead 3 Comments

I’ve always appreciated ‘good‘ graffiti. Colourful swathes of paint, in an otherwise grey and sterile urban environment, fill me with joy. The talent of some of the graffiti artists who […]

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News, Uncategorized

Winning!

October 30, 2012by Leo Woodhead 1 Comment

  I am a cynic! Always have been always will be! If it seems too good to be true then it probably is. Normally I would never bother entering a […]

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Christian aka Brokeback attempting the table traverse

The great table traverse

October 15, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

The last night of the Lundy trip culminated in some heavy drinking and a table traversing competition. In the barn, the main dining table is perfect for traversing underneath. We […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

The great Wolfman epic

October 11, 2012by Leo Woodhead 4 Comments

It was a day like any other. It started off with an average breakfast and a gentle amble to the cliffs where the route American Beauty, HVS 5a resides. We […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)
Albion, VS 4c - courtesy of Will Hardman

Our first taste of Lundy Island

October 3, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

After arriving on Lundy Island following a choppy ferry journey, excitement among the MOB was high. Once we had dropped off our bags, and had a quick non-alcoholic drink at […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)
Manchester to Ilfracombe

Getting to Lundy Island

September 26, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Getting to Lundy Island is an epic in itself. For us the starting point was a 9 hour drive from Manchester to Ilfracombe! On a good day this journey can […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

An introduction to Lundy island

September 24, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Lundy island lies off the coast of North Devon, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bristol Channel, with nothing between it and America. A granite outcrop, three and a half […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

A day on Dow crag (nearly)

September 6, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

I may have slightly deceived you with the title of my post there! We did intend to get out on Dow Crag in the lakes. Unfortunately as is often the […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

The Swiss Machine

August 17, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

Originally posted on ezahárom:
The Eiger in 2 hours 47 minutes. What a guy! ezahárom View original post

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News

Deeply vale, an accidental E2, and the clean crag crew!

August 17, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

Last Friday Derek, Pat, Cat and I had a nice after work session over at Deeply Vale. If you haven’t visited Deeply Vale before it is an unassuming crag, but […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

Llandudno, we love you!

August 13, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

When the rest of the country is sopping wet, dripping with disappointment, Llandudno proudly bathes in sunshine, like a last bastion of hope in an otherwise dreary world. This is […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)
Tim Seconding Double Diamond © Roel Driesen, Jun 2009

This week I have mostly been…..

August 3, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

This week I have mostly been partying! It’s been a bit of a hazy week really! Last weekend I had to forego any climbing activity as I was at the […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)
biolite-camp-stove

I want one!

July 19, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

I’ve just stumbled across this new little gadget, the Biolite camp stove and at first glance it looks like a pretty cool idea. A stove that burns any bio mass […]

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Wish list (gear)

El Chorro crew reunited!

July 17, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Firstly sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. It has been a bit of a busy one! Guilfest was the main attraction. Some good partying […]

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Climbing (general)

Shoddy journalism

July 11, 2012by Leo Woodhead 5 Comments

The Metro, a bastion for shoddy journalism has yet again pushed the bar! Yesterday they went with the headline: “Leo Houlding becomes first Briton to climb El Capitan.” Following on […]

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News
Climber @ Cliffhanger festival 2011

Cliffhanger defeated by bad weather

July 6, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

The Cliffhanger festival in Sheffield has been cancelled due to the bad weather. Torrential rain has been falling across the county and Sheffield has been badly hit. Richard Eyre, head […]

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News
Pen Trwyn

Oh we do love to be beside the seaside!

July 5, 2012by Leo Woodhead 4 Comments

When the rain comes in and desperation hits we turn to the experience of Derek to find somewhere climbable. Yet again he didn’t let us down and we had a […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)
Snowdon

Plain stupid or the spirit of adventure?

July 2, 2012by Leo Woodhead 8 Comments

Recently a group of stag do revellers ventured up Wales’ highest mountain, Snowdon in pyjamas and trainers. They managed it; got off the mountain alive and no doubt have a […]

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News

Not much to say

June 28, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Unfortunately due to the weather we didn’t manage to get out climbing this wekend. We did go indoors, but that isn’t really anything to write home about. Hopefully we will […]

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Climbing (general)
Mike Westmacott

Farewell to a great man of the mountains

June 22, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

A firm bastion of British Mountain climbing, Mike Westmacott has sadly died at the age of 87. Mike was part of the team that successfully scaled Everest, the world’s highest […]

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Climbing (general), News

New faces and fond places

June 21, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

As regular as clockwork the MOB were out again last Sunday. As my previous post mentioned, rain had been a prominent feature over the last few weeks. Fortunately, when it […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

Bear on a wire

June 21, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Bear Grylls, the media lovelies’ adventurer has been busy again. This time he has been part of the Olympic preparations, hurtling down a zip wire with the Olympic torch! Watched […]

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News

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!

June 15, 2012by Leo Woodhead 5 Comments

6 days till the official start of British summer and for me it can’t come soon enough! Not that it will change anything, apart from my naive expectations. For the […]

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Uncategorized

MOB trip to Gower, South Wales

June 11, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

One of the great things about being a member of a climbing club is the trips that are readily organised by enthusiastic members. Our trip for the Jubilee weekend was […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

The optimism of climbers

June 10, 2012by Leo Woodhead 1 Comment

On a recent trip to the Gower it became apparent that within our group at least there is a wealth of optimism when it comes to weather conditions and fires. […]

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Climbing (general)

The joys of slacklining

June 9, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

Slacklining, an activity requiring a mixture of balance, technique and core strength. All of which I thought I had (apart from technique), but alas I was wrong. Any balance and […]

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Mob Day out – Sergeants crag slabs

May 29, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

On Sunday the 27th of May the MOB were out in force again. In attendance were Derek, Dom, Jordan T, Mark, Rick and me. Our destination was Sergeants crag slabs […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

The importance of a good belayer

May 28, 2012by Leo Woodhead 4 Comments

In my haste to write a post about my fall the other day I failed to mention one of the crucial things every climber needs, a good belayer. On this […]

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Climbing (general)

MOB weekend at the Roaches (UK)

May 23, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

On Friday the 18th of May a merry band of rock monkeys and musicians descended on the Don Whillans memorial hut, at the Roaches in Staffordshire. A weekend of climbing, […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

Learning from falling

May 23, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

At the weekend I took my biggest ever fall. I was climbing at the Roaches (UK) on an imposing roof climb called The Sloth, HVS 5a. Before the climb I […]

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Climbing (general)

Success comes to those who train!

May 15, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

A monday evening trip to Wilton 3 near Bolton brought success and new experiences. On such an unassuming evening big moves were made and progresss was chartered! Firstly Jordan G’s […]

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Climbing (general)

A break in the weather

May 4, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

After 2 weeks of dreary rain, Saturday marked a brief break in the weather. Making a dash for this sliver of opportunity were Will, Mark, Steve and myself. Setting off […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

Things experience has taught me

April 22, 2012by Leo Woodhead 5 Comments

Although I feel that I have nowhere near enough experience to write such a post I thought it would be interesting to catalogue the things experience has taught me in […]

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Climbing (general)

A day out at Burbage North – Sunday 15th April 2012

April 21, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

After a day of dreary weather on Saturday I awoke on Sunday to find the sun bursting through the clouds. Jordan Taylor picked me up in Fallowfield at around 9am […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

My First E1 – Cameo E1 5a – 20th May 2010

April 11, 2012by Leo Woodhead 4 Comments

Whilst I am in the zone with writing some blog posts I thought it would be nice to write about my first experience climbing an E1. For many of us […]

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Climbing (general)

Developing the head game for climbing

April 10, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

Whilst at a crag in El Chorro I recently heard someone say that climbing is 80% confidence and 20% footwork. To be honest I think this is bang on the […]

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Climbing (general)

MOB trip to Tremadog

April 10, 2012by Leo Woodhead 2 Comments

Since joining the MOB (Bury Mountaineering Club) I have relished getting out. The added pleasure of climbing with a group, the experiences, the banter and the booze all make for […]

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MOB trips (Mountaineering club of Bury)

Joining a climbing club!

March 14, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

As a young boy the idea of joining a club was met with youthful enthusiasm. By the age of 12 I had joined quite a few “clubs”, the cubs, a […]

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Climbing (general)

The preamble ramble!

February 6, 2012by Leo Woodhead Leave a comment

Having never written a blog before, I thought it was time to warm up those typing fingers and get the juices flowing. First of all a little background on me […]

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Climbing (general)

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  • A complaint to Northern Rail
  • My climbing blog: 2012 in review
  • Artist or vandal: You decide
  • Winning!
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