Badger Rock is a famous boulder that I’d been eager to climb for years. Its reputation is built on providing great climbing, across a range of grades, in a picturesque, quiet Lake District valley. Continue reading Climbing a Wet Badger
You need a lot of hope if you want to rock climb in the UK. Hope that it won’t rain on your weekend climbing trip. Hope that the rain will stop by the afternoon so that you can go climbing. Hope that the rock will dry out quickly from the last lot of rain because you’ve been sitting in the café far too long. Hope that the rain will hold off until you have finished your climb. Hope that the water slowly trickling down your sleeves as you climb is just a quick shower. Continue reading Hopeful Climbing
My best photos from my climbing and hiking adventures in 2014. Continue reading My Climbing 2014 in Pictures
Christmas is the season for giving. It is also the season for lots of really good competitions for outdoor clothing and equipment. Just as the shops put out their Christmas wears come December, so a range of shops, magazines and forums put on generous competitions for the sorts of goodies that outdoor enthusiasts would love to have in their Christmas stockings. It’s a fairly blatant attempt to boast sales during a peak buying period, but I don’t care, as I like entering competitions so much. Continue reading ’tis the season of competitions
There are some items of outdoor gear that you don’t often see reviewed in the outdoor magazines and websites. Jackets, tents, rucksacks, baselayers, softshells, fleeces and boots all get regularly tested and reviewed in detail, but outdoor underwear doesn’t get reviewed much and, if it does, the reviews tend to be a bit cursory. Continue reading Getting Out in Rab’s MeCo 120 Boxer Shorts
Walking and climbing in the mountains gives me an opportunity to see some amazing and beautiful rock formations. I sometimes regret that I don’t know enough about geology to always fully appreciate what I see, but what little I do know makes what I see and climb a little more amazing. It’s great that I don’t have to be somewhere with soaring peaks to experience amazing rock forms. My trip last weekend to the Yorkshire Dales was full of stunning rock in the area around Ingleborough, from limestone pavements, to scars, potholes and Norber Erratics. Continue reading Walking by Pavements, Erratics and Holes
My son, Leo, got to the top of his first peak today. Snuggly wrapped on his mummy’s back, he got to the top of Craig Wen in Snowdonia. Summiting a 608m peak is pretty impressive when you are eight months old, can’t walk yet and have to battle cold winds and rain. I’m proud of how well he did. Continue reading First Peak
After probably the wettest winter on record in the UK I thought I might have another walk sealed in my waterproofs as gusts of wind made me zig-zag like a drunkard as I walked over the hills. Instead, the sun shone on my visit to Exmoor and I wore a T-shirt most of the time. I walked along stunning coastline and through beautiful woods of ghostly trees yet to come into bud. Continue reading There and Back Again – Countisbury to Heddon’s Mouth and back
One size does not always fit all. My larger than average head means that I have quite a bit of trouble finding any hats that fit. This can be a problem as a woolly hat is essential for keeping my head warm on cold, windy mountains (particularly as I increasingly have less hair to do this job). I don’t think that I’m the only person in this situation as people keep coming to an earlier post of mine via Google searches for climbing helmets for people with bigger or extra large heads. So, for those of us blessed with a generous cranium and a love of the mountains, here are my reviews of some of the woolly hats for hiking and climbing that I’ve found fit my head. Continue reading Woolly Hats for Big Heads
Lurking under my bed, buried in a drawer, shut in a box or in the dark in my wardrobe. These are the places where my unused outdoor gear lives. These are the bits of hiking and climbing gear, clothing and equipment that have been superseded when I upgraded to new, better kit, no longer work as well as they should, never really fitted me that well or were retired because they too old to be safe any more. Now they take up space in my small London flat and provide a home for dust bunnies. I’ve decided that they need to go. Continue reading Ropes into Rugs and Other Ways to Recycle and Reuse Outdoor Gear
My best photos from my climbing and hiking adventures in 2013. Continue reading My Climbing 2013 in Pictures
Approach Creux du Van from behind and it’ll surprise you. Walk over Le Soliat from the south and it looks like the rest of the Jura – a pretty landscape of rounded mountains covered in woods and meadows with the odd bit of limestone sticking out of them. But as you walk towards the northern side of the mountain, a crescent moon of rock appears, dropping roughly 150 metres deep and stretching around 1,400 metres wide in-front of you. Continue reading Walking the rim of the Creux du Van
I’ve got mixed feelings about gaiters. They’re brilliant for keeping snow and water out of your boots, but they can make for lower legs that are hot and damp with the sweat the gaiters haven’t allowed to escape. This is a particular problem on those days in the mountains when it’s warm, but gaiters are still needed. Even if rain isn’t forecast and the sun shines warmly, gaiters can be essential because of the risk of putting your foot into a bog or slipping when crossing a stream. In Alpine conditions you can be toasted while on a sun-baked glacier and have to wear gaiters to cope with the snow on the peaks you’re going to climb. Rab hold out the promise that their NeoStretch Gaiters will make life more comfortable in such situations by combining one of the new breed of highly breathable fabrics and Rab’s usual, excellent design work. Continue reading Review of Rab’s Neostretch Gaiters
I like to think that I’m a rational person and that I make reasoned decisions on the basis of a considered weighing up of all the information. This is important, as sound decision-making is vital for the safety of me and other people in the mountain sports that I do. The truth is that I am as vulnerable as everyone else to my decision-making being distorted by biases that lead to less than rational thinking. Continue reading Bias Can Get You Lost
the Severe climber 