Angel Face, Beinn Eighe
The final installment in my Scottish Hard Rock obsession (until some opportunist produces HR3!) took us to Torridon. Arriving at the free/donations campsite provided by the village (they’ve got a […]
Category Archives: UK
Vulcan Wall, Skye
With the original edition of Hard Rock finally ticked in the spring… … you’d think I’d have hung up my HR boots, but “the devil makes work for idle hands”. […]
BMC Basecamp
It’s not all endless zoom and emails in the BMC hot seat, and by far the most rewarding bits of the job are getting out on the hill with our […]
Out-Flanking Floris
Jake had a couple of days’ window before starting a stretch of night shifts, but the imminent arrival of Storm Floris sweeping in from the west was looking like scuppering […]
Three days in North Wales – 3 different rock types on 3 new (to me) crags
We’ve spent much of the spring and summer in North Wales, from celebrating the Centenary of the CC hut at Helyg, to the BMC International Meet in the Pass… .. […]
Celebrations in The County
I got to know the lovely folks in the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club when they invited me up to deliver a Slideshow to raise funds for CAC last year I had […]
Pen Llŷn Liaisons (not so Dangerous!)
The Llŷn Peninsula extends for over 30 miles into the Irish Sea, and if you count all the crinkles it doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s getting on for […]
BMC International Meet and Gogarth
Brilliant to re-launch the BMC’s International Climbing Meet after an eight year gap (another victim of Covid that’s taken a while to get back on its feet). With the hiatus […]
Pembroke quick hit
Big rain and big winds were forecast to sweep in from the west across Britain for much of the weekend. Soggy pretty much everywhere, but a couple of the more […]
Spring Catch Up
Wow – June already! A glance at the blog would suggest I’ve been slacking since our return from Italy, with only a couple of posts through April and May. Admittedly […]
Pabbay
Pabbay and it’s neighbour Mingulay have become part of the British climbing Hall of Fame over the last decade, jostling in amongst the established royalty of Gogarth, Cloggy, Scafell and […]
South Ridge Direct, Rosa Pinnacle, Arran – Hard Rock in the Bag
I started my Hard Rock journey in 1987, almost 40 years ago, with Helen on an ascent of Gimmer Crack. Here’s the entry from her climbing journal of 29 September… […]
Climbing in a Winter Wonderland
Jake’s shift pattern threw up a bonus three-day window for the second weekend of 2025 and I signed up for a provisional Scottish winter climbing adventure, more in hope than […]
The Scoop, Sròn Uladail or (Strone Ulladale)
The Scoop is by far the most difficult “tick” of the 61 routes featured in the iconic book Hard Rock, rumoured to have been included by the mischievous Ken Wilson […]
Hard Rock tick (but not the big one!) and more purile ticking
Weather and other commitments have frustrated my plans for a final push to complete the two remaining gaps in my Hard Rock ticklist. The cruddy weather has allowed a bit […]
A Long Way from Strone Ulldale
Anyone tuning in for news of Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures Episode 14 – The Scoop on Strone Ulldale – are in for a disappointment. Storm Lillian had other ideas […]
The Path to Rome
Apart from one tentative foray many years ago, I’d never climbed on the Llyn Peninsula. Nor had Andy. To have lived within three hours drive of such an iconic and […]
Splendid (Self) Isolation on Range West
We’ve posted a few Pembroke reports over the last year or two, often featuring the juggling and compromise required to balance all the permutations of seacliff climbing on a military […]
Doing the Rounds
You might have spotted a recent slow down in posts, and a corresponding brevity. That’s probably a relief to many of you, but for anyone missing the more regular outpouring […]
South West Seacliffs – #3 Pembroke
… and all of a sudden, it was summer! After the washout-that-wasn’t on Gower we headed further west to Pembroke to meet up with Jake and Leah for the weekend. […]
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