Stand by to Boogie – more Mowing Word fun
Summer has finally arrived and Helen and I are back in Pembroke, this time in the company of Steve and James. It’s mid week and outside the school holidays, so […]
Category Archives: UK
Many shades of Grit
Not a racey page-turner, but a quick look back at a week’s visits to 5 different grit crags, and the amazing contrast offered by more or less the same rock […]
Rucksack Club Gogarth Meet 2019
Amidst a fairly unspectacular summer, the forecast for the Rucksack Club’s annual pilgrimage to Gogarth wasn’t looking particularly auspicious. I’ve been organising this gathering for almost 20 years, and not […]
Climbing Everest (at Stanage) – Inspired by Dave
I teamed up with the great and the good on Sunday to support the “summit push” on a fundraising event to “climb Everest” (or the equivalent height of routes on […]
Moss Rake – a better class of hole in the ground!
Sunny but deceptively cold – the kind of day for a suntrap sports crag to avoid someone getting frozen belaying at the top. Enter yet another re-purposed quarry, with an […]
Craig Arthur
A grey Saturday to be followed by a grim Sunday prompted a detour to Craig Arthur on the way to the Rucksack Club’s hut in The Pass for the annual […]
Big Family Gathering on Gower
We spent most of my childhood holidays on Gower (not THE Gower, apparently…) enjoying the world-class beaches and benign microclimate, whilst blissfully unaware of the wealth of climbing available under […]
Summer arrives at Stanage
Fresh back from “Rocking Around the World”, this time the less-explored crags and coast of North West Scotland, it’s always a bit tricky to find the motivation to visit more […]
Reiff
There are hundreds of routes scattered along the seacliffs around the tiny hamlet of Reiff on the Rubha Mor peninsula – mostly shortish (10 to 20 metres), mostly non-tidal and […]
Stac Pollaidh – Weather to Fly?
We trundled further north out of Ullapool, temporarily part of the North Coast 500 procession of giant white motorhomes (actually, the circus isn’t really in full swing yet, though most […]
Ardmair Crags
These extensive sandstone cliffs are set on the sunny north bank of a lively burn, just 10 mins from the coast road, about 3 miles north of Ullapool (hint – […]
Torridon – Diabaig and Inveralligin Sea-Cliff
We’d visited the fabulous gneiss seacliffs at Diabaig a few years ago, and picked off the plumb lines on The Pillar, including the eponymous 4* E2. It’s a charming little […]
Applecross – Sgurr a’ Chaorachain
We figured Skye might be a bit rammed over the weekend, so headed back over the bridge to explore Applecross. Another charming stopover overlooking Loch Carron … and then we […]
Neist Point
It’s a surprisingly long way from Elgol, on Skye’s south western limb, up to Neist Point, which represents the most westerly place on Skye (and therefore the farthest west you […]
Suidhe Biorach – Climbing OVER the Sea ON Skye
The cold snap and prevailing northerlies were forecasted to last for a few days adding bouts of heavy rain into the mix. The usual browsing of weather apps turned up […]
Arrochar Rucksack Club meet
Ros and Rem have kindly (heroically?!) opened up their home to host The Rucksack Club, and what a glorious spot! Set in acres of woodland, with views down to Loch […]
Galloway getaway
Heading up to the Arrochar Alps for Ros’ Rucksack Club meet over the Bank Holiday weekend, we’ve got a few days to kill, so we turned left at Gretna to […]
Cheedale – Plumb Buttress and The Lifts
Andy and I only had a short day available, and each came up with fairly local, reasonably accessible and somewhat escoteric crag suggestion. Andy graciously postponed a visit to Crowden […]
A week in The Peak
Back from Pembroke and Ogmore, what could be a greater contrast than a trip to Windgather? We headed to this friendliest of Peak crags to catch up with Bill and […]
Ogmore – Exposure Explosion!
Jim has been trying to persuade me to visit Ogmore for at least 20 years, but various factors such as weather, tides and the “easy option” of Pembroke another hour […]
RockAroundTheWorld 