Back to Trad – Banzai Pipeline and First Steps on the Sharp End
As the “Summer of 26” continues to deliver, I’ve made a couple more baby steps in my recovery, firstly back into mountain trad (albeit in top-rope tough-guy mode) and then […]
Category Archives: Peak
Two Steps Forward, One Step Backwards
After four weeks, it was a huge relief to get rid of my big plastic boot and knee-crutch (I’m keeping hold of both – sorted for fancy dress options for […]
Back in Blighty
Having more or less maxed out our 90 days in Shengen, our return on Easter Sunday coincided with the first flush of spring (almost summer!) Perfect timing to join the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
CAC-ing it!
No, not another close scrape on a crumbly seacliff, unlike this time last year… Coming home from Greece, to what must be one of the most miserable Aprils on record, […]
A Mixed Bag of Bolts
No, not a trip report from an expedition to ScrewFix (though perhaps that would be more exciting!), this is a roundup of the shower-dodging exploits from the last couple of […]
Just Another Week in The Peak, plus a trip up The Matterhorn*
(*Spoiler alert – more accurately a Matterhorn rather than The Matterhorn) Just another week in The Peak started off with a visit to one of my regular haunts: New Mills […]
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 […]
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 […]
Frodsham – Sandstone Highballs in a Gritstone Sandwich
Having commuted to Chester from Manchester every day for three years, not to mention regular pilgrimages to Snowdonia and Gogarth, I reckon I’ve driven past Frodsham at least a thousand […]
High Pressure across Britain
Our planned return home for some work commitments was slightly accelerated to beat the impending requirements for PCR tests on entry to the UK – nothing like as dramatic as […]
Ilam Rock Paraclimbing
It’s almost 2 years since I posted about supporting Michelle to fulfil her goal of climbing The Old Man of Hoy – a stretch target and bucket-list dream for most […]
Troy Quarry
I caught up with Hamish for a short afternoon hit after a morning of torrential rain. Handy location, fast drying and surprisingly scenic – it’s well worth a visit as […]
Eggselent Easter week
The first tentative (but irreversible?!) steps out of Lockdown were perfectly timed to coincide with the clocks changing (OK, that’s pretty predictable!) and another great week of sunny weather (who […]
So long Lockdown
The “roadmap” has finally yielded the beginning of the end of the latest Lockdown (was it the 2nd or 3rd, and more importantly will it be the last?) Time for […]
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