L’Albenc and into the Vercours
The Isere Valley marks the northern border of the Vercours national park and the river has sliced the end of this high plateau leaving towering limestone cliffs impressively lining its […]
Author Archives: Dominic
Berdorf – not the red sandstone we were expecting to be climbing on, but not a bad substitute
Regular readers will know that one of my favourite expressions is “Green lights all the way!” and I count myself both a very fortunate and often lucky person. However, our […]
Perma-dry climbing 5 mins from the pub – what’s not to like about New Mills Torrs?
The Rucksack Club evening meet programme got a welcome bonus episode as the autumnal weather provided a dry window of opportunity. Where else to go but NMT when you’re short […]
Last hurrah at Hobby!
The last Rucksack Club evening meet of the year saw the season go out with a bang with a great turnout and fabulous weather. A combination of the usual suspects […]
Last of the summer wine
Sunday morning and I should be on a plane to Vegas. That didn’t work out (yet) but as a consolation I’m heading west along the A55, bound for Gogarth. The […]
A Brit Grit fix with Jake
More or less straight off the plane and back into action – Jake’s only home for a couple of days and is keen to get some cragging in. First venue […]
North America Wall – Trip Report
This could be subtitled ‘Episode Ten in Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures’ after five previous trips to Yosemite, and further adventures in The Alps, Dolomites, Taghia (Morocco) and Riglos (Spain). […]
Dike Wall, Mammoth Lakes
After an exhausting day of being tourists it seemed much easier to just go climbing again for our last day – but nothing too stressy! The criteria were: not far […]
… And Relax
The beers, shower and pizza (plus a dose of ice cream) were every bit as wonderful as anticipated – and the luxury of a humble apple served as a reminder […]
Topping out on NA Wall
After an only moderately comfortable, but historically resonant (Robbins, Frost, Choinard and Pratt slept here – it’s like a climbing hall of fame!) night in The Igloo … it was […]
A night in The Igloo
The Cyclops Eye is big – REALLY BIG! Must be over 200ft in diameter and we spent much of the day circumnavigating it. Pitch 20 is a soaring traverse up […]
A night in The Cyclops Eye!
We had a comfortable night on the ledge in The Black Dihedral, though the slight phosphorescence in the quartz intrusions conjured all sorts of interesting faces and features in the […]
Back on track and a bivvy in The Black Dihedral!
Straight out of bed and into a 5.8 squeeze chimney – great way to start the day. Happily, pitch 11 of NAW is nothing like the horror show of The […]
Trundling gently up the West Coast
What a great place to wake up… Earlish get away and the climbing is quite involved from the off. Pitch 6 has you speeding up a bolt ladder – easy […]
… And they’re off!
A leisurely start followed by an afternoon of toil. A major packathon had neatly sorted food, water and beer for 4 nights (after a quick excursion to the store to […]
Gone fixin’
After yesterday’s snafu, we at least knew where the actual start of NAW was (the other “unmistakable” triple cracks with a roof, about 50m right of SOD). We’d also blown […]
A bit of a SOD
The smoke is clearing in The Valley and folks are arriving. We were up early with the intention of “fixing” – doing the first 4 pitches of North America Wall […]
Another episode in Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures
Bill and I had booked flights to SFO a few weeks in advance, for a planned trip to Yosemite to climb North America Wall on El Cap. Subsequently, the “Ferguson […]
Stanage and a trad initiation
Glorious afternoon at Stanage for Leah’s first experience of trad climbing. After careful research, Jake chose Heaven Crack as a suitable initiation – but it turned out a lot steeper […]
All shades of The Peak
In between dashing for the occasional hit of mountain cragging we’ve been sampling all that The Peak has to offer. Classic grit at Stanage and Bamford, moorland escoterica on Dovestones […]
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