Dolomite Training open bike ride

Paul and Steve at Dolomite Training gave me the perfect excuse to get a pre-X-mas bike ride: They organised an open bike ride for all their friends/colleagues/clients. They had the biggest rucksacks as they carried cameras and mince pies. I only took my GPS, to generate a googlearth track of our ride:

Our starting point was the Woodbine cafe in Hope, where we finished with a mug of tea and an Eccles cake. A very good morning Here are pictures of me (!) they posted on FB - not sure if the link will work...

Michael's goodbye ride

Michael, from the LSMC a long time ago, organised a goodbye weekend in the Peak district on February 12/13 2012, before moving to sunny Australia. I was allowed to join for one activity, with a choice of saturday climb, evening pub at the 3 stags or Sunday mountain bike ride around Ladybower. With snow and ice on the ground, bike was the best option. This was in February 2012, I've been very slow to update the blog. Here are some videos of the ride preparation with lots of climbers turned bikers from Loughborough Student Mountaineering Club circa 2001. Fast forward to 2:28 if you want to skip the preparation. Click here to access the video on youtube. We passed a farmer training his working sheepdog, here's a quick video from over the fence: And here is a video that Michael took of the last downhill ride that day, with his chest cam. In case the embed doesn't work, click here to see it on vimeo
Preview of my last Peak Ride - Bit of Snow from Michael Smith on Vimeo.

Froggatt with friends

To celebrate being a student again, we joined climbing friends who were camping in the Peak. Yesterday, we climbed at Froggatt. I started with Chequers Buttress and belayed Heather and then Louise:



Click on the picture to open a slide show of Heather climbing chequers buttress or here to access the set on flickr:



Same for Louise: click on the picture for the slide show and here for the set:



I climbed Sickle Buttress Direct, a route i'd never done before and belayed Louise and Scott up it. Meanwhile, Heather was leading the very nice Allen's Slab. By the time i got to the camera, she was at the top:



Rob and Angie joined us. I havne't seen Rob look so happy for a long time, so here they are:



Inspired by Heather, I lead Allen's Slab. I managed to place the three "friends" given to me as a leaving present by my ex-colleagues. Mike fetched my camera and took pictures of the finish, while the audience heckeled me for "posing"



Only Louise followed me up that one. Then, Slab recess direct with Louise and Scott.

Finally, Jaimie gave me the chance to try downhill racer on a top rope. It's too hard for me, and if Scott puts his pictures on the web i won't look so good then!

We then retreated to the pub under the thin drizzle. What a great day!

Thank you to Heather, Louise and Mike for taking these pictures.

Les Maeso-Hugounenc de passage

Quelle chance! Des amis du sud, en route vers l'Irlande, ont profite de leur long voyage pour passer un weekend chez nous, a Nottingham.

Nous les avons acceuillis avec un barbecue dans le jardin, suivi d'une promenade autour du lac du campus de l'universite:





On a fait une pause BN au bord du lac. On a finit notre promenade au bac a sable. Pierre en a profite pour passer a ses enfant le virus de la grimpe:









De retour a la maison, on s'est bien sur arrete au pub.

Le lendemain, on est alle se promener au Peak District, a Burbage north. Pique nique au bord de la reviere:



Il y avait suffisament de vent pour s'amuser avec les cerf-volants:









Pour finir un super weekend, Pierre s'est fait couper les cheveux!



Un grand merci a Pierre et Sabine de nous avoir rendu visite. Ils sont arrive les mains pleines de bonnes choses: fromages, saucisson, tomates, brugnons, peches, des bonnes bouteilles... Des gamins fantastiques, de la bonne humeur. Que du bonheur!

Pour voir le reste des photos sur flickr, cliquez ici Les photos des enfants ne sont visibles que sur invitation.

Walk across Kinder

The weather was very cold and sunny last Saturday. The snow had not had the chance to melt yet, but the roads were clear so we took the chance to drive to Edale (2 hours). We started to walk at 11am and 5 hours latter, made it back to the car having crossed the Kinder plateau on solid, frozen ground. Have a look at the pictures:



note: there seem to be a problem uploading the picture on the blog, but you can see the whole set by clicking here

Les Visiteurs!

Isabelle et Guilhem sont venu pour un weekend - c'etait en octobre. On a eu beaucoup de chance avec le temps, plutot sec. Cliquez sur l'image ci dessous pour voir le reste des photos ou bien ici pour le diaporama.
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UK climber feel the credit crunch

Yesterday, climbing at Stanage north end - High Neb, Mike and I saw:

I must say the owner of this climbing shoe admitted to being Scottish...

I can't believe it's February ???

Amazing day at Stanage with Mike. In chronological order:

And the first route of the day - no climber hence only here for the record:

Rainy sunday

A bit too much on my plate, not able to find time to feed the blog? Or time to take good care of myself for that matter! Off to the peak on sunday, the forecast was all wrong and we left the climbing gear in the car to keep it dry. We walked up to the crag, Birchin, to say hello to Scott who drove up from his new home in Bristol to help the club for fresher's day.

The experienced club members had brought golf umbrellas with them and had setup a couple of top ropes. Usually, once freshers have been seduced into paying their yearly membership to the club, the experienced members try to discourage them from coming to weekend trips so i guess bad weather played in their hands ! Only joking ;)
So i grabbed a climb, some slippery chimney but in good style: rope around my waist and walking boots on:



I had a thought for the pioneers who only climbed that way. Back then a dif did mean difficult!

Meanwhile, i decided to lighten the load of crappy machines that constantly break down on me: a new laptop should be on its way. Hurray!

On s'est bien battu...

Ca fait tres longtemps que je passe devant "flying buttress direct" a Stanage en me disant: Un jour...



Avant d'attaquer le surplomb, je place un bon coinceur et un gros "friend":



Et c'est parti:



Precieuse protection:



Ca ne rigole plus !



Va falloir se battre! Les spectateurs sont a fond derriere moi...



Louise est une photographe tres gentille, elle n'a pas pris de photo de moi en train de pendouiller a mon fil!

Matt to the rescue:





La, on ne fait plus les malins: on est creve et il nous faut recuperer le matos puisque personne n'a reussi a sortir la voie



En second, c'etait bien trop facile! Ne plus avoir toute cette quincaillerie sur le baudrier, quelle difference!



J'ai essaye, j'ai vu, j'ai pas vaincu. Mais je reviendrais...!

PS: Mike, if you read this, i've got to come back and do it properly this summer...
PPS: Those of you who paid attention must have spotted that Matt wore a bright helmet!!!

Back in action

Mike "the living guidebook" was back in action on Sunday. He demonstrated that 2 months of revising had not dented his flair for finding decent gear where most would run it out after catching disco leg.

He usually combine two nuts or friends, turning two poor placement into a (half) decent combination:



I also lead my first overhang on natural gear:



Robin Hood's Cave Innominate, harding super direct finish, at Stanage

PS1: I did catch disco leg latter that day, running it up on Mississippi's buttress "Variant" rising hand traverse. That's what HVS on grit does to me...

PPS: For those reading this south of the channel, just have a laugh on "Ze Hinglish" and their weird games!

PPPS: or just try to spot the moss on one of Britain's most famous cliff while sunning yourself on glorious bolted limestone...

## Correction: As i'm checking the spelling of various route names, using an old guidebook courtesy of Matt, it seems that the variant is harder than HVS. How, well, i got sand bagged then!

PPPPS: Sandbagging means givign a lower grade to a climbing route in order to lure an unsuspecting climber into providing entertainment for the watching crowd by catching disco leg. As Mike entertained a lot longer seconding that route that i did leading it, i can't blame him then ;)

Un dimanche a la campagne

Une petite promenade dans le Peak District avec Helen, Kathryn et David:

Comme le dejeuner au pub a ete tres agreable, il faisait deja sombre quand on a commence a marcher!

Le vent etait plutot fort sur la une fois sur les hauteurs. David et moi en avons profiter pour jouer aux equilibristes:

Une super journee!