Talk in Cockermouth

This Wednesday (the 15th), i will be giving a talk in Cockermouth about the world of hard alpine climbing. I will be talking about the fun times, the scary times, the cool places, the really cold places and all illustrated by awesome photos blown up on a projector for full impact.

       If you're free, get yourself to the saints rooms http://www.saintsrooms.co.uk/ for 7pm. It should be a fun night.

    More info here - http://www.saintsrooms.co.uk/contact-us/will-sim-talk/

International Meet

I've just returned from hosting at the international meet at Glenmore Lodge in Scotland. I'd always wanted to attend an international meet, as they always seem to be a fun week packed full of socialising, climbing hard and meeting interesting foreign climbers.
       For me the week wasn't about trying to climb hard stuff, it was about making sure my guest had a great time, and would leave having had a great experience of Scottish climbing. It was therefore a pretty chilled week as far as climbing went.
       When myself and Greg arrived on the Sunday night, we excitedly located the "partners board" so we could find out who we had the pleasure of tying in with the next day......

Takaaki "Taka" Negato  was to be my first partner of the week, and i made sure the drinks flowed slower than usual that night, i needed strength, for the next day i was going to be tied in with a real life Giri Giri boy!! (albeit a severely jet lagged one)

Myself on Ventriloquist VII 7.

And on the spicy crack.

Taka walking up Auricle VI 7. Taka is one of the most stylish winter climbers i've climbed with, impeccable  footwork whether on a grade 4 or grade 8.

Myself on the long second pitch of "Nocando Crack" VII 8, and Matej  from Slovenia seconding  "The Vicar" VII 8.

After 2 days everyone changed partners. I then climbed with the lovely Martina Kratochvilova from the Czech Republic for the remainder of the week. Unfortunately my camera became very temperamental for this period......but lots of fun was had, with routes done in the Gorms and on the Ben. 

Martina, myself, Jen, Polish Guy, Rob and Matej try and escape the damp confines of Newtyle quarry. This was the only day too warm to climb.

Martina leading off on the Ben. So to avoid the crowds on No. 3 gully buttress, and to give Martina a "bigger" Ben experience, we climbed a line based on "Smooth Operator" VI 7, but taking the steep bits full on, so Martina could practice her fig 4's.....

Simon persuades the ladies that "White Goods" is the place to be. Other  "Goods" crew  members; Dave A and Dave G prop the bar up, and were the last standing on this night.

Last night antics, Nick gets an idea, Martina and Viv shield their eyes. (Not sure whats in my mouth?)

Driving past Carlisle on my way back to Cumbria i was greeted by a totally white mountain vista, so my plans for hanging up the axes for the next week may not follow through.

"The Gathering" movie.

A couple of weeks ago, Justin Tracey and Jenny Crook from "Reeltime Adventure" asked if it would be ok to film us on something. We were ok with this and so they came up to Lochain and shot us on "The Gathering".
     Here's the end product, a great little movie which does the route justice.



The Gathering, VIII 9, Second Ascent from Jenny Crook on Vimeo.

A Change of Allegiances

Over the last three years, i have been been lucky enough to be supported by Marmot. This sponsorship has no doubt been key to allowing me to climb as much as i have since i left school, and i owe a lot of the mileage i currently have in the big mountains to this fact. Big thankyou to Marmot and especially Martin Panton, who has always offered good advice.
     Recently however, i have been talking to the Mountain Boot Company (MBC), the distributor for OR, Scarpa and Grivel amongst other brands, and have decided to take up a sponsorship deal with them. This is exciting as these three brands in my opinion make some of the most advanced climbing gear in the world at the moment, and MBC are a company that are definitely going places, and are an ever increasing force within the UK. Looking forward to it.

Northern Corries

After the extended warm and wet period of the last two weeks, myself and Greg have packed the climbing in to the last two and a half days.
      On Friday we headed to Coire an Lochain, for what was a sociable day with many friends. Adam, Greg and myself climbed "Daddy Longlegs" VIII 9 and "Fallout Corner" VI 7, and i soloed something easy in-between.
      On Saturday myself and Greg were tempted in to Sneachda to look at something new, but on arrival we deemed it out of condition so walked back over to Lochain and climbed "The Gathering" VIII/IX 9, which was a great route.
       On Sunday we had a late start, and arrived in the corrie to see a lot of black rock. Just for the sake of doing something, we climbed a line at the very top of Y gully left hand. It looked a bit scrappy but it was something to do. I won "rock paper scissors" and headed up, soon realising that rather than being scrappy, it was in fact an incredible quality, long pitch of climbing. Nothing hard, and with good gear. Not sure if its an existing route or not, but probably one of the best pitches of 6/7 i've done in Scotland.

Greg on the great first pitch of Daddy Longlegs

And again, the tricky move on this pitch is just above Greg.

Myself on the crux pitch, which starts with a wide boulder problem.

And again.

And higher on the same pitch. Credit: Mark Chadwick.

Adam on Fallout.

Greg cruxing on "The Gathering"

And again Credit: Justin Tracey - Reeltime Adventure.

Myself on the awkward crack and groove of pitch 2.

And higher up the same pitch Credit: Justin Tracey - Reeltime Adventure.

Myself on the brilliant route we did on Sunday, which tops out on the RH side of the cornice, just left of Grumbling Grooves.

Its been great over the last few days to hang out with Charly and Matthias, two Austrian climbers i first met last year in Patagonia. Its brilliant to see such talented foreign climbers enjoy Scottish climbing. Ive seen some phenomenal climbers climb, but Charly is definitely up there amongst the very most impressive.

Charly casually onsighting "Torchlight" at Birnham yesterday

It was great to blow away the Christmas cobwebs, and i'm now really looking forward to the international meet next week. Although slightly jealous of what Mr Griffith got done at the weekend!...

On t' farm

I got an email from someone the other day asking about jobs in Chamonix. After writing as helpful a reply as i could, (which must have read quite depressingly....), i got to thinking just how incredibly lucky i am to have a job that i can come back to, almost as little or as much as i want when in the UK.
         John, the farmer i have worked for on and off since school days is a bit of a legend. This November i basically said to him i wanted to work as much as i possibly could, until it got cold in Scotland when i'd want to be climbing, he said OK and that was that. Although it doesn't always work out as well as that, and there are times when not much work is going, i don't think there can be many jobs around where you can do that!
          Farm work is physical, interesting, varied and as far as casual work goes, well payed. Over christmas we've been keeping the farm ticking over, and i've been milking every day which has timed well with the warm and wet mingfest that Scotland is currently undergoing.
       The forecast is looking better for next week, time to head north again i think!

Id drive tractors over tranfer vans any day! literally.



The cows aren't usually covered in this much shit, they've just been refusing to lie on their mats recently.

 .

Snow

With tales of metre deep powder day after day from friends in Cham, i should be very jealous sitting here in the unseasonably warm UK. The promise of more great routes in Scotland in January however is keeping me quite sane. Although i have been getting some flashbacks of swooping between trees, mind-numbing face-shots, and the excitement of first lift up the midi, running out of the lift like a pack of grey-hounds after a rabbit.

      I remember last winter, some friends went off to the Dolomites in search of the legendary limestone couloirs (very different to granite couloirs) found there. It wasn't until i saw this movie of their trip that i understood what they'd gone looking for. Check it out, it will make you jealous.


Dolomiti from Felix Hentz on Vimeo.