Climbing is a frustrating activity, no mater how good your year as been you always wish you'd done more. Looking back at 2013 whilst I've not done lots of the routes I'd wanted to I have done a lot routes that have been on my ticklist for a very long time and a heck of a lots of good climbing. As the reality of full time employments kicks in in 2014 I don't think I'll manage to do as much climbing. Despite some of the best winter conditions in recent years I only managed a couple of days out. Here is me psyched out of my tree beneath Pillar Chimney on Clogwyn Du. Being a poor ..read more

Phil and Ollie low down on the Whillans' Ramp at dawn. We arrived in El Chalten, the small, thriving town nestled beneath the Fitzroy and Torre mountains exhausted after four days of traveling. It was cold and windy and there wasn't a mountain in sight. After four days of disjointed sleep on planes, buses and the floors of airports we decided to forgo frugality and treat ourselves to a night in a B and B. Unfortuanately for us the Patagonian weather gods had decided to be kind for the next couple of days. Although we were still tired from traveling this was too good an opptunity let ..read more

As soon as the government reopened the national parks Ollie, Duncan and I drove straight into Yosemite, packed up our very heavy Haul Bag and got on The Nose. We gambled three days worth of food and water and jugged back up to our previous highpoint at Sickle Ledge. I lead and fixed the next two pitches as the sun set. I felt unstoppable. It wasn't to be. The next morning we bailed from the Stovelegs. Basically we were moving too slowly for the short autumn days. Our lack of prior practice was also showing through: we didn't have our three climber system sorted and every belay was a total clu ..read more

We got expelled from the Valley and ended up in Las Vegas. After spending a night on the Strip we found ourselves a cheap hotel on the Red Rocks side of town. (All campsites were closed due to the government shutdown and the only free camping dangerously close to a methhead encampment.) We spent an enjoyable week ticking our way though classics in Black Velvet Canyon. The climbing at Red Rocks is excellent: solid, multipitch sandstone with conviently bolted belays and protection bolts for when everything started to get scary! If you haven't been go there, it's ace. After our week of extravag ..read more

We were somewhere on Highway 120 on the way out of Yosemite when reality began to kick in: due to the US Federal Government shutting down we were being kicked out of the Valley. Our dreams of climbing El Capitan over, at least for the foreseeable future. We don't seem to have had much luck on this trip. When we we arrived in California it was on fire, which prevented us from spending as much time as we wanted in Tuolumne Meadows. Our original plan was to spend seven week in Yosemite but because of the fire we decided to hire another car and head to Colorado, which then flooded the day before w ..read more

2016 seems to have flown by. It doesn't seem long since I was seeing in the new year on a sweaty dance floor in El Chalten. After coming back from South America, Nikki and I spent the next sixth months living in Chamonix, before returning to the UK and its flipping excellent rock climbing. 2017 you are going to have a lot to live up to! Matt Burdekin climbing our new route the Siren on Aguja Bifida Sur. Climbing over two days we made the third ascent of this little known mountain at the head of the Torres Valley. Rich Howells on the first day of the Verbier-Zermatt Haute Route ..read more

Hamish Dunn and our assessor Adrian Nelhams climbing Gogarth on Gogarth Main Cliff, during our British Mountain Guides Rock Induction.  Earlier this year - coincidentally on the same day as Britain voted to leave the EU - an email landed in my inbox informing me that I had been accepted onto the British Mountain Guides' training scheme. Over the previous eighteen months I had focused all of my free time in ticking through the remaining prerequisites. The post below explains my journey and is hopefully of interest to those contemplating following the same path. I have written it b ..read more

I'm not sure of the exact definition of the Chamonix Aiguilles. I should know, I've watched the evening light glow across them enough times. To my mind they are the set of spiked mountains that run form the Aiguille du Midi westward, finishing at the Grand Charmoz or maybe l'M. My original plan was ambitious. Bivi underneath the Grand Charmoz and climb it and every other peak between it and the Midi over two days. Mike brought me back to the earth, pointing out it would probably take us at least three, and we agreed to go downwards from the Midi instead.  Looking across the Chamoni ..read more

Nikki and I have been living in Chamonix since the start of February. Thankfully there has been lots of good snow and I have been able to spend most of my time skiing. I've also managed a few a routes too. Good snow is definitely coming to an end now and I can't imagine I'll be using my skis for much other than accessing routes in the coming weeks. Here are some picture of all that hedonistic sliding. My first ski tour, the Col du Passon. Back in February with Harry Mcghie. Nikki skiing fresh powder on the VB.  Heather experiencing lactic acid in Cogne.  ..read more

Thwunk. The rock, remarkably similar in size and shape to a rugby ball smashed into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. The twenty something kilo pack on my back accentuated this, pushing me into the ground. “I don’t care if Cerro bloody Torre is at the end of this valley.” I thought, “I am never walking up here again.” * It is the middle of January, Matt Burdekin and I are walking along the side of Laguna Torre on our way into the Torre Valley. The ground beneath our feet is hideously loose and as a result progress is unfeasibly slow. We’ve been in Patagonia for around three weeks now ..read more