Guy Anne, Chamonix
amonixOur main objective for the week was the route Guy Anne, a 12 pitch TD+ with almost every pitch 6a or 6a+. It takes the skyline of the most prominent […]
Bramcrag Quarry
Up to the Lakes and an overnight stop under Skidaw, in a car park used by BG support teams. I hadn’t been anywhere near the BG route in the two […]
Erboristeria
This is the dark, gloomy north facing crag that dominates the entrance to the valley – very reminiscent of a shady Malham. We’d avoided it on our previous two visits, […]
The Ruins
Things brightened up and we had a couple of great days at The Ruins. For a change we had company at the crag – Jeanne chaperoned us one day (plus […]
Tashy’s first BigWall
Topped out in fine style yesterday and were back in Camp 4 for 6 pm and in the shower soon after. Monster pizza and even bigger Margarita followed before a […]
Salathe Wall on El Cap
Jake and I topped out on “The Captain” at noon on Monday having hauled to Heart Ledge on Friday. Three memorable days on the Big Stone. Day 1 – easy […]
The Diamond and The Black – Lockdown slideshow
With slightly spooky foresight I managed to launch Season 2 of The Rucksack Club’s Lockdown Slideshows to coincide with the beginning of Lockdown 3 in the UK. Something tells me […]
You DON’T always get what you pay for
Here’s a departure – RockAroundTheWorld’s first Gear Review, prompted by a couple of outstanding customer service experiences, and two unbelievably shoddy ones. Before diving in, have a go at ranking […]
Sunny Intervals
I got one of those “your memories on Facebook from 4 years ago” notifications the other day… It had me scratching my head. Where was that shirtless climbing under stunning […]
Chasing the Ephemeral
I signed off my last post with the first snows of winter, and that evening a forecasted high pressure / blue-skies day had my thoughts turning to a quick fix […]
Lockdown 2.0
Not the November we’d planned (which would have involved chasing the sun around Europe’s finest climbing spots!) but you’ve got to make the most of what you’ve got… Having The […]
RockAroundTheWorld Retrospective – The 2004-5 BIG TRIP Part 3: California – Big Trees to J Tree via The Big Stone
If you missed the first couple of installments of our Big Trip Retrospective, you can follow our blast around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia here: https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2020/06/22/rockaroundtheworld-retrospective-the-big-trip-part-1-around-the-baltic-in-80-days/ and our trip across the […]
Rucksack Club Charity Calendar in support of Urban Uprising
Thanks to the magic of the Internet and a lot of great help (Cheers JP especially!) I’ve pulled together The 2021 Rucksack Club Charity Calendar from the back of the […]
A brief dip into Provence followed by a deja vu dash
As autumnal weather begins to make itself felt, we headed a bit further south and to lower altitude into Provence. The Alpilles, centred on Saint-Remy, are a range of modest […]
Three Sides of Rocher Baron
We first visited Rocher Baron almost 25 years ago, with two tiny tots in tow. The appeal at that point was the roadside / “pram-able” nature of the nearest south-east […]
Le Pouit – Incy Wincy spider climbs up the rock again!
After two days of continuous rain, we were pretty much climbing up the walls of the van and desperate to get onto the crag. Normally, we use any rain interruptions […]
Casse de Prelles and Les Ayes
Casse de Prelles is an east-facing series of quartzite slabs and pinnacles set above the village of the same name. Here’s a view taken from across the valley a couple […]
Briancon revisited – Hot Rock and Pudding
It’s only a short drive from the Ligurian coast to the Durance valley; around 3 hours over the Montgenevre Pass linking these two tremendously diverse and abundant climbing areas. Each […]
Finale (the original one!)
We’ve been firm fans of Oltre Finale (which translates as “beyond” Finale) for a number of years now, but had written off its more famous and long-standing neighbor as being […]
Aosta round up – more rock than you can shake a stick at!
With so much climbing I’ve got into a bit of a “back-blog” so here’s a quick round up of the other crags we visited in the Aosta Valley: Corno di […]
Another Day In (Grand) Paradiso
A message from Will, fresh back from Leonidio, prompted a further exploration of the crags further up the Valgrisenche. He and a Cham team were planning a foray through the […]
Matterhorn and Monte Rosa
No, we haven’t packed big boots and crampons for this trip. The Aosta guide is a huge tome, organised into sections according to area, and the valleys leading up to […]
La Ravoire and Leverogne
The Aosta Valley runs for almost 100km from just north of our campsite (Camping Mombarone) … up to Courmayeur and the Mont Blanc tunnel. There’s a tonne of rock (140 […]
Gruviera and Montestrutto – into Val d’Aosta
We’re taking advantage of a weather window to explore the climbing around Grand Paradiso and the Aosta Valley, starting in the lower valley whilst things perk up and dry out […]
Weathering Storm Alex
Alex, the first named storm of the year, was forecasted to dump about 6 inches of the wet stuff on Val Penneveire on Friday, threatening to put a major dampener […]
Rocca dell’Arma – up into the clouds
With Jake and Leah having a rest day, we took the opportunity to explore the top end of Val Penneveire. Rocca dell’Arma sits at around 1,400m near Colle di Carpauna […]
