Leading the way

NB: I haven't got any photos of today, but I should do next time I lead so I'll upload some then.

All has been pretty quiet on the vertical side of things recently, hence the lack of posts. Due to constraints with rowing and uni and work, I haven't really had time to do anything, so until today I hadn't done anything for almost two weeks! However, today training was cancelled and uni finished early so I gave Charlie a bell and we decided to climb, and make a day of it. So with my harness and my new rope (which is one of the most awkward things to carry on the Tube ever...) I made my way down to Westway.

Unfortunately I was somewhat held up by an annoying american tennis-playing couple who were trying to book 3 different courts on about 12 different days (lots of 'ooh, not the 24th, we have a thing that day...maybe the 26th?) but we got in, got harnessed up and tried a couple of top-roped routes to get my eye in and refresh un-used skills. One positive note of the time off: I've been doing a lot of weights, and climbing has gotten a lot easier in terms of the effort involved - I can now almost pull myself up one-handed, which makes life a little more fun and a little less painful, especially helpful when lead climbing when all my weight can be on a single hand hold.

After warming up, we decided to tackle my first ever lead wall. First thing we did was Charlie gave me a brief on the intricacies of belaying in lead climbing. It's quite a lot different to normal - the rope isn't kept taut constantly and it requires a whole load more attention and forward thinking to plan when the climber will need more slack, more space, where they may slip or fall and need arresting and how much rope they'll need to clip in. He had a quick shoot up to show me how its done - I didn't belay perfectly, causing him a little trouble a couple of times but he didn't die so I'll take that as a positive step. After he touched back down and we got me tied into the rope (which is my new 10.5mm, 60m behemoth, which Charlie says suits 'suits its owner as it's thick and unwieldy'. Always a charmer...) it was my turn to lead up the wall.

The route itself was a relatively simple 4+, but with the added challenge of thinking about constantly having to clip in made it a much more interesting climb. You don't just have to think about where you're going to put your hands and feet, but also where you're going to set yourself up to clip in, which hand you'll need free etc. The first few quickdraws I clipped in I did twisted, but once I had it cracked the rest went in clean, no problems. I did have one interesting section where I had to clip into a right-handed quickdraw whilst hanging off my right hand. Apparently I made some really odd shapes and Charlie panicked that I was going to fall, but all was well.

First climb went well, the second not quite so hot. It was a slightly more technical route involving two overhangs (one small, one larger) with some really awkward, crimpy holds. There were some nice big ones afterwards, almost like a reward for making it, but the last hold, the one I had to hang on to clip into the top pair of karabiners was an odd shape and my hand was sweating. I couldin't get my hand to my chalk bag as there was no left-hand hold, and as I hefted the rope to clip in I could feel myself slipping. Desperately I clung to the last hold, clipping in to one, then the second (reversed) karabiner. The instant I clipped into number two I lost my hold and fell, but thankfully not too far or too drastic and was brought down safe but a little shaken - if I'd missed the holds there would have been an extra two or three meters of fall to arrest!

The rest of the day was spent practising on easy-grade lead climbs, before eventually calling it off after two and a half hours of constant climbing, with aching forearms and painful fingertips but a sense of achievement from me at least.

I'll say this - it feels great having broken my duck of leading, I finally feel like I've actually accomplished something in my climbing, something tangible that I can measure my progress by  The challenge is a new one and it keeps everything fresh, both belaying on the ground and up on the wall. Leading is what I'll be having to do when I eventually get up onto a mountain, so learning the basics here is a really good stepping stone on to the technical stuff, when we start to introduce pitons, hammers and clipping in my own quickdraws.

All in all a good day!

A spot of refurbishment

It's project time here, folks. Not a huge one, but a project nonetheless.

Over the Christmas period my cousin - who is now getting married - was clearing out all of the stuff he'd left at his mothers for the last decade or so. Uncovered were a treasure trove of his (and, interestingly a lot of my father's) childhood toys, books and boxes. One unexpected discovery was a barely-used C.A.M.P Zephyr 25.5" (65cm for those of a metric disposition) walking ice axe that a friend of my cousin's had left at his house forever ago. This was just as I was beginning my current obsession with mountaineering so not knowing a huge amount (and not one to look a gift horse in the mouth) I took it for myself.

When I got it back to my flat having left it at home, I got a better look at it and discovered it was a little bit worse for wear for its decade-long stay in a cold garage. There were several problems:

1. The (overly large) grip was pitted and the rubber perished - if I tried to use it to hack into ice it would probably come away in my hand. It had to go and a replacement sourced.

2. The pick itself whilst mainly in decent shape had patches of rust on them. Whilst not a major issue, it's ugly and some rust leads to more rust so this had to go.

3. The metal shaft isn't the grippiest. Despite the fact I doubt I'll often have to use it holding it by the shaft, if I did I'd want something more comfortable and grippier than plain metal.

So, on a quiet Friday afternoon after university I sourced the bits I needed and set to work. First things first was to strip off the perished rubber grip, which was achieved scarily easily - I was instantly vindicated in my ideas. There was some glue still on there so I washed the entire thing, dried it off and grabbed the electrical tape and started wrapping.

Before, with perished rubber grip, plain shaft and rusty pick

After, re-wrapped in fetching yellow tape with no rust!

After about 3 layers and one and a half rolls of yellow electrical tape I had a decent thick covering on the shaft of the pick, as well as a wrap of green to make sure no one nicks it (not that it looks all that expensive, but hey, it's mine, so...). I also wrapped the pick protector in tape otherwise it's rather difficult to see if the cover is on when you're anything more than an arm's length away.

Next job was to remove the rust spots from the pick and axe head - this required a little more finesse. Or, to put it more accurately, taking a flat-head screwdriver and scraping away the rust spots 'till the thing looked a little less brown and a little more shiny.

It still needs a little bit of work, and possibly a new grip (I'm undecided as to whether I need it yet) but for a relatively old axe, the little bit of love has done it some good and will see it used for a little longer!

Harness and Hands

Excellent news reader(s): today I got my very own climbing harness, and she's a thing of beauty!

I'll add a better photo when I get one of me actually using it...hands were too ruined today 

Isn't she pretty? Although my birthday isn't for a couple of weeks my parents gave me the money to go and get a harness and the assorted bits and bobs, so it's a nice little early birthday present for me. To be specific its a Petzl Corax, and it's a wonderfully clever fusion of an alpine/mountaineering and indoor wall climbing harness. The mountaineering elements are thinner padding, soft rear gear loops (to avoid fouling a pack) and fully detachable leg loops. As such it's not perfect in either environment but it makes a damn fine harness that'll do pretty much everything rather competently. It came with a free chalk bag which was nice, too.

I had the opportunity today to also try out this new harness for the first time; because he'd been trapped in Scotland on Monday having completed a winter skills course over the weekend, Charlie had to work on Tuesday (and therefore we hadn't climbed) so after rowing on Wednesday I popped off to Westway to see him, meet his normal climbing partner Tom and get some decent climbing in myself. This turned out to not be the best idea, as rowing can tire out your hands and forearms - parts of the body essential for climbing. By the time we were finished I could only form a claw and couldn't even begin to contemplate untying my knots.

My poor, claw-like, ruined hands. They still hurt now, hours afterwards.

All in all to be honest it wasn't my greatest day's climbing for me but I learned some valuable lessons and got some really good insight; whilst Charlie is experienced, Tom is the far better climber and a teacher to boot, and so is really good at imparting his accumulated wisdom. As I climbed he identified that I was getting tired far too quickly on the walls because I was essentially doing a series of chin ups up the wall. He took me to a slightly lower grade wall and taught me how to concentrate on technique of avoiding using my arms. It was somewhat confusing to begin with having to re-learn my way of climbing but it worked; I was able to do 3 consecutive walls without untying or pause.

I also got to have a close look at some lead climbing for the first time too - whilst it's not overly complicated as a way of ascending a wall, Charlie doesn't reckon I'm quite ready yet (an assessment I'd fully agree with after attempting the same wall but as a top-roper and falling off halfway up) so I've got a little bit of time to wait before I can lead myself. Although I'll confess I'm quite looking forward to it, because it looks like stupid amounts of fun. The only downside is the fact that generally the lead climbing walls are rated at 5+ and higher - at the moment the best wall I've climbed is a 5+ and that was with the security of a top rope. It could be interesting to push it harder...

As a small aside, whilst we were at the center we saw an ad for someone selling £350 worth of climbing gear for around £95. Charlie and Tom are attempting to build a full climbing rack between them so they want all the quickdraws, karabiners and loops, but have offered me a very lovely Mammut 60m rope for £30. That's around 15% of the price of a brand new rope. Yes please.

A small update

Well...nothing much has really happened since my last post. Which is dull.

It's all a bit quiet really. It's been a week of gathering advice from those with far more knowledge than I and consolidating what I already know.

We got a visit at work from one of the Mammut product instructors, and whilst waiting for everyone else to appear we had a bit of a talk. As you'd probably expect from someone who is employed by a company like that, he's heavily into his outdoors stuff and he recommended me some bits of kit that I could find useful, and also gave me a heads up on things one or two things to avoid taking or doing, like getting an asymetric bar for my crampons (when I get them) to fit the boots I bought more precisely and the value of a 12 point crampon over a 10 pointer. Which reminds me - I've bought my mountain boots! Mammut Monolith GoreTex B2 mountain boots to be exact. Very nice bits of kit indeed. I'll post a photo up when I get one, the sheer size of them (I'm a size 13) is a sight to behold! Absolutely solid bits of kit and I can't wait to unleash them on an unsuspecting mountain!

EDIT 08/02/2013 I got a picture of the boots in all their B2, size 13 goodness!

They are actually terrifying, or so my flatmate says.

I returned to the Westway center today and am now regarded as a 'competent climber', meaning I can climb unsupervised. All I had to do was demonstrate that I could don a harness, tie in with a double figure-eight knot and tie into a belay plate. All simple stuff but now I'm officially qualified to climb, supervise and lead-climb. Not that I consider myself quite ready yet, but nice to know I can when the time comes...

Had some fun with the UWSU climbing club and met some new guys I can train with now - due to a contract with the SU you don't actually have to be a member to climb with the club (but as I also climb with Charlie I am of course a member of Westway) but they only get an hour on the wall at one time. The team captain, Peter, has said he'll register next time so that he can come in other times and climb with me - excellent, someone else to train with!
An advantage of climbing with the SU club is that they have qualified instructors who lead the sessions who are vastly experienced and can offer tons of excellent advice. The guy I had today, whose name escapes me advised me to get as much wall time under my belt as I can before I go mountaineering to prepare me as much as possible for what might happen. Sound advice and I think I'll take it!

Finally, the issue of fitness is starting to rear its head, especially if I want to be ready by the summer. I currently weigh in at around about 112kg empty, and despite the fact I'm 6ft 2, I'm a lot bigger than I'd ideally like to be - the plan is to get to around 100kg by the end of May. It's going to mean a lot more pushing and some serious fitness work, but I think I can get there, and I'd need to do mountain-specific stuff anyway. Anyway, that's a subject for another day and another post when I have a few hours to work everything out.

Might make these small updates a weekly thing - summarise all the little stuff that happens during the week that doesn't need it's own post. Or even just rambling on random subjects if I'm feeling bored.

Stay tuned folks!

Rope Work

Hey everyone, good things happened today: I finally started training!

Although I was really meant to start last week with my University climbing club, today I finally got around to getting to a climbing wall and learning the basics of rock climbing which are core to everything else I will ever need to learn to do with ropes, be it in ice climbing, bouldering or even on a building site. I've done a little bit of rope stuff before, abseiling on adventure camps with the Army or a little rock climbing with Scouts, but that was all at least 4 years ago and if I'd paid attention and learned anything (which in itself is unlikely), it was all long forgotten.

So, with my trusty girlfriend Bailey in tow we headed off to the Westway Sports Center in Shepard's Bush to re-acquaint myself with the finer points of rock climbing, and hopefull have some fun at the same time. After paying for membership, renting a harness and a pair of climbing shoes each we headed out onto the climbing walls for my first lesson.

Charlie reminds me to trust him and the equipment.
I find a man wearing lycra indoors difficult to believe.

First up was simply how to climb; a quick introduction to the double-figure-eight knot that underpins all climbing (which I'm still struggling with) and a lightning ascent of an easy-grade wall to get me confident in myself, what I'm doing and the equipment. The familiar rush hits me as I get further up the wall and as I abseil down I've got a massive smile on my face - even if I never end up on a mountain I know I'll be here as much as I can. Although it's somewhat difficult to put my faith in the equipment and Charlie's belay skills at first, after a couple of slips and arrests and an abseil down I'm feeling more confident in what I'm doing.

Bailey gets a turn and although slightly less confident than me (with a bit less of a head for heights) she's soon rocketing up the walls and doing what Charlie describes as 'throwing the right shapes'. He looks on enviously and mentions something about us 'larger' people never being really good at rock climbing. Not that I especially mind; it's fun but I'd never take it to a high level. When she comes down, Charlie takes his first ascent with me belaying, and I quickly get to grip with maintaining a constant vigil. I'm very aware that to a certain degree his life is in my hands and do my best, although my abseil is a little fast and leaves him nursing a crushed crotch when I keep the rope too tense on descent. But otherwise all is well.

Charlie showing off that he's better than me, whilst I dutifully belay below.

After Bailey is down we walk around and past the self-lead walls, where climbers are attaching their belay rope to karabiners set into the wall or using their own quickdraws to secure themselves to the wall. This is what I'll have to eventually learn how to do, except on a mountain I'd be hammering anchors into ice or rock and leading in that way. But for now, we concentrate on simply learning the ropes. We have a go on a series of other walls until eventually my fingers start to give out. I try one final ascent of a Grade 4+ wall, but even with a healthy dose of chalk my fingers are shot and I can't grip, and I fall less than ten feet off the ground. My forearms are on fire, my fingers are aching and my feet are asking me why I've squeezed them into such uncomfortable shoes but I've competently completed my first proper ropes session.

All I need now is a few months more and I'll be sorted. That is if I can learn all the knots that I need; it really would sruprise you that I was a scout sometimes. Although I certainly know what my next kit purchases will be. Anyone want to give me a lovely new harness?

A Proper Introduction

So, as a first post I suppose I should explain what this is all about. I'm James, and I'm a student in London about to enter the second decade of his life. In the bare basics this is a simple blog that follows me whilst I make a bit of a tit of myself learning the finer points of mountaineering. It's slow, it's not necessarily fascinating and I can tend to get bogged down in annoying little details.

Still here? Well, your choice I suppose. Let me explain further:

I've always had a hankering for the outdoors; before I was six months old my parents were taking me on walking holidays to Brecon or Dorset or any number of middle-of-nowhere locations and lugging me around whilst they 'enjoyed what was left of their youth' as they put it now. It seems that being carried on an old steel army rucksack frame, lolling about not quite comprehending my surroundings (apart from a healthy dose of fresh air and rain) triggered something inside me that left me enthralled with climbing mountains. I'm not a huge walker; give me a patch of flat ground to walk across and I'll be bored stiff, and I'll let you know about it. But give me a challenge; a mountain, an arduous route, difficult conditions and I'll lap it up and ask for more. I've climbed Pen y Fan, completed the Fan Dance challenge, trekked across Dartmoor and even spent a week hiking in the jungles of Brunei. However there is one itch I've never been able to scratch: I've never climbed a proper, snowcapped mountain. I've dreamed about it, read books and magazines, watched films and read blogs, but the opportunity to do an alpine ascent myself has never presented itself. There's only so much that the British Isles can offer you in the way of true mountaineering and whilst I haven't ever climbed anything in Scotland, it's still not the Matterhorn.

Fast forward to October 2012 and I start work (whilst still a student) at Blacks Outdoors and meet my boss, Charlie. Through conversations we discovered we both shared a burning desire to be up mountains, but where I had only dreamed of it, Charlie had been there and done it, had the expreience and the knowledge and was willing to share it. Slowly an idea formed in my mind, and just before the start of 2013 I approached him with the aim of going to the Alps in the summer and making my first mountain ascent. He agreed, and here we are today, starting out on our training. It should be fun, so stick around.

I might even make a tit out of myself. I'll let you watch.