A complaint to Northern Rail
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 […]
My climbing blog: 2012 in review
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 […]
Artist or vandal: You decide
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 […]
Winning!
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 […]
The great table traverse
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 […]
The great Wolfman epic
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 […]
Our first taste of Lundy Island
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 […]
Getting to Lundy Island
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 […]
An introduction to Lundy island
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 […]
A day on Dow crag (nearly)
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 […]
The Swiss Machine
Originally posted on ezahárom:
The Eiger in 2 hours 47 minutes. What a guy! ezahárom View original post
Deeply vale, an accidental E2, and the clean crag crew!
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 […]
Llandudno, we love you!
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 […]
This week I have mostly been…..
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 […]
I want one!
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 […]
El Chorro crew reunited!
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 […]
Shoddy journalism
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 […]
Cliffhanger defeated by bad weather
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 […]
Oh we do love to be beside the seaside!
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 […]
Plain stupid or the spirit of adventure?
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 […]
Not much to say
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 […]
Farewell to a great man of the mountains
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 […]
New faces and fond places
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 […]
Bear on a wire
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 […]
Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!
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 […]
MOB trip to Gower, South Wales
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 […]
The optimism of climbers
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. […]
The joys of slacklining
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 […]
Mob Day out – Sergeants crag slabs
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 […]
The importance of a good belayer
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 […]
MOB weekend at the Roaches (UK)
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, […]
Learning from falling
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 […]
Success comes to those who train!
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 […]
A break in the weather
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 […]
Things experience has taught me
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 […]
A day out at Burbage North – Sunday 15th April 2012
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 […]
My First E1 – Cameo E1 5a – 20th May 2010
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 […]
Developing the head game for climbing
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 […]
MOB trip to Tremadog
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 […]
Joining a climbing club!
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 […]
The preamble ramble!
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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