Feeding the Rat in the Cairngorms
After a couple of great weeks enjoying the delights of climbing across Scotland with Helen, she made a family tag-team swap with Jake so I could extended the tour by […]
Category Archives: UK
Glorious Glencoe
The next weather window looked like settling in over Lochaber, so we moved base camp to Craigallan (The Rucksack Club’s hut near Ballachulish, though the word “hut” hardly does justice […]
Skye Seacliffs
We managed to pick up a copy of the Skye Seacliffs and Outcrops guide on our way through Portree, with 5 minutes to spare before the shop closed – did […]
Caithness Convalescence
A couple of weeks after my… … we’d scheduled a spring trip to Scotland. A week into the recovery of my busted ribs (broken, cracked, bruised? Who knows?), tying my […]
Tumble off T-Rex
Yes, I know it’s fallen down! So did I! Read on and all will become clear… Paul and I were heading along a rainy A55 on the way to Gogarth, […]
Walking in a Winter Wonderland (not to mention Bouldering, Running and Climbing)
Our return from the extended Mediterranean heatwave coincided with quite a change back in Blighty. A “Siberian High” weather pattern dominated by a huge area of high pressure centred over […]
Big Wall Apprenticeship – where better than Hobby
When people ask me “How did you get into Big Wall climbing?” they’re invariably surprised to hear that my entire apprenticeship took place over a couple of hours in Hobson […]
Mantrap, Mousetrap Zawn – More Extreme Ledge-Shuffling
Scattered showers across the country prompted the inevitable journey along the A55. Stan and I try to schedule a Gogarth trip each year in the early Autumn, once the bird […]
Celebrating the Pinnacle Club Centenary
We were greatly honoured to be invited along to the Pinnacle Club Centenary dinner at the Vic in Llanberis (actually 102 years due to Covid). As well as the long-established […]
A Birthday in ‘Beris – The Skull and Scimitar Ridge
Another year and another birthday… … and the now-traditional personalised T-shirt from Helen… … harks back exactly 30 years to an ascent of Snake Dike with Jim. I’ve tried to […]
Swastika
Swastika was the third of my Hard Rock objectives for this long-weekend blast to Lochaber. Scorching temperatures on Friday and Saturday made it an easy decision to opt for the […]
Raven’s Gully
Hamish MacInnes has a legendary legacy when it comes to climbing in Scotland, but his contribution to Hard Rock (at least in the author’s opinion) was a bit of a […]
The Bat
The Bat on Carn Dearg Buttress on The Ben has a fearsome reputation, and barring The Scoop, was potentially the toughest assignment of the remaining ten routes on my Hard […]
Clogwyn Yr Adar – Carlsberg don’t do crags, but if they did…
Here’s another crag that you’ve probably never heard of, but check it out – it’s an absolute belter (thanks to George for the tip off, and to Alex for having […]
Carreg Fran Isaf – newly-developed Ogwen Valley mountain crag
I was heading over to the Rucksack Club hut in The Pass for Steve’s Beudy meet and I teamed up with George who was up for a day-trip. “How about […]
Dovedale Church
A bit of a drizzly day, with the prospect of dry rock out east, prompted Helen, Jake and me to pay a visit to Dovedale. We were amazed by the […]
Peak Grit – from Popular to Esoteric (and back?)
My German colleague, Matthias, is a climber and managed to tag a visit to The Peak District on to the end of a business trip from his base in The […]
Slanting Slab – just 10 Hard Rock routes to go
Slanting Slab on Cloggy is the only route south of the border remaining on my Hard Rock tick list. After a reconnaissance last year… … all the ingredients fell into […]
Mid-week Snowdonia
Helen and I took advantage of the dry weather and a few spare days to grab a mid-week Welsh hit before the school holidays started and the hoardes arrived. Beudy […]
Swanage Revisited
Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of Britain’s climbing is its seacliffs, which are unique in the world for their variety and the extent to which they have been explored by […]
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