Bat Route, Weddings and another Stag Do!

After my Kalymnos trip I felt like I was getting fitter and myself and Neil had managed to keep the psyche going with regular trips to Malham even though the weather had been terrible. Most of Bat Route had stayed dry and I was able to get some good links on the route. We had some good spells of weather in May and I came really close about 5 times! I just wasn't quite able to 'close the deal' getting a terminal pump on the last 3 moves. It also didn't help that the two other people I was working it with Ben and Steve dispatched it that week. After a bad spell of weather at the end of May I went back indoors and did a bit of training, thinking in the back of my mind that it might be just about to get hot or wet in June and therefore having to wait till the Autumn. However at the start of June we had a short good spell of weather and the route was bone dry for a few days! Neil dispatched his new route Raining Bats and Dogs ( hard 8c ) on the Saturday and then we went back up on the Thursday with Neil, Kathrine and Dom. I warmed up well doing some big links on Bat Route and then smashed it in first go. GET IN. It felt amazing I sat on the half way ledge at Malham for about 15 minutes taking it all in. Probably one of the best routes I have ever done.

Crux

Big Air time

The last hard section

trying to stay calm on the last few moves.
Thanks to Nick Brown for the photo's

After dispatching Bat Route I was ready for a metal and physical rest, Beer/cakes were on the agenda. Lucinda and I had a family wedding to go to in Toronto,Canada. We had a great week of chilling, eating and hanging out with Lu's Canadian cousins. One day we headed out of the city to Niagra Falls and quested into the middle of the falls on the boat 'made in mist ' we got fully soaked and had an awesome view of the spectacular falls.

Made in the Mist'

CN Tower

A couple of weeks later it was time to head out to Spain for the Legendary Stag Do of Jason Pickles. Leo had planned 5 days of carnage from Canyoning to Bull Running. We started the week with a massive drive to Riglos for a action packed day down a canyon and white water rafting! It was awesome twelve lads questing about in the water was a sight to be seen. We then headed to Pamplaona to the San Fermin festival. Thousands and thousands of people all dressed in red and white descend on the city for seven days and seven nights of what can only be described as carnage. Every morning at 8am they let ten large bulls charge up one of the streets ( about 800 meters in length ). Punters line the street and either run alongside the bulls, get trampled on/Gored or try everything possible to get out of the way. We all managed to not get hurt and make it along the street and follow the bulls into the Bull Ring where the carnage continues. We then had one hell of a savage night questing round the city moving between crazy bars and street party's. Happy Stag do Jas! Most of the crew then flew home and the five of us left drove another six hours to the Picos de Europa, to attempt to climb a big wall on the Naranja de Bulma.
We stayed in a small village after the massive drive, everybody feeling broken after the all nighter. We got up at six in the morning hoping for the alpine start and set off in the car to drive to the base of the cliff. We didn't have a map just Leo's memory of when he was there four years ago. Two and half hours later we eventually found the parking and started the two hour walk in. We finally made it to the base of the cliff at midday!! felling optimistic about the 15 pitch 7B+ big wall we were about to climb in a team of five!! Sure enough we got the half way ledge ( pitch 8) and it was six o'clock with the mist and rain setting in!! Time to bail and get back to the Refugia for dinner at eight o'clock. Result!! We got down in time for dinner and drank more wine and finished the stag do in style. What a great week and thanks to Leo and Jas for arranging an awesome week.
Check out the photo's below:

 Ready for action

Apprehension before the bulls

Last pitch before we bailed!!

Last night Refugio scene

Stag Do's, Stag Do's

Brother Adam in the Cow suit

Me and Adam ( Adam in Croc suit )

Wow, the last 3 months have been crazy. It all started with my brothers Stag do in Bad Gastein in Austria. 20 lads including my Dad and his mate Dave headed to the mountains for four days of skiing, snowboarding and drinking!! I opted to stay in a small B&B rather than staying in the YHA dorm with 15 other lads ( you can imagine the scene!). The four days were great fun with Adam having to wear all kinds of ridiculous outfits on and off the slopes. The highlight of the trip was one night where we consumed 100's of bottles of jegermaster, yes it was a messy night with everyone feeling worse for wear the next day.

Adam on the Jeger's

Me and Dad ( his 1st time on a board )

Powder day!!

Brothers!

With only three days to recover and re-group! I was off again on a flight to Geneva to go my mate Bozer's Stag do. This time there was 20 lads living in a swarve chalet just outside Chamonix. The Chalet was comlpete with outdoor hot tub, sauna and walking distance to the nearest ski lift Bravant. I snowbarded for the first few days and had one of the best powder days ive ever had. 3-4 hours of fresh tracks off the back of the Grand Montets, awesome!

Bozer dressed for action on the Grand Montets

Party boys

Probably the best bar in the world

The next few days I borrowed some ski's off Gus to try and get my eye back in bit as we had made plans to go and ski the Valley Blanch. I had heard that it was grim on a snow board and better on ski's. I felt confident skiing on the slopes but there was no powder left to practice my off piste skills. We pushed on and set off to do the Vally Blanch, 13 lads got ready to go up on the cable car none of us really knowing where we were going. Moments later a good friend of ours / mountain guide ( Jon Bracey) turned up to ski with us for the day! we all felt a lot better as visability disapeared at the top station! and we couldnt see 5 meters in front of us!!! lucky Jon was there. After a bit of a sketchey decent we skied down over some ice fields and into powder! I was falling over everywhere, I wished I was on my board! Skiing in powder is loads harder than on the slopes. Oh well it was a good experiance and I feel a bit more confident on ski's now.
We had some great party's in the Chalet as there was four techno Dj's all well psyched to get on the decks. We played quality tunes all night and day, had competitive Sauna sessions and played drinking games in the Hot tub. All in all it was a great week and thanks to Bozer and Mike for arranging such  an awesome trip.

Mike enjoying fresh tracks

Hot Tub!!

DJ Gallop on The Rig...

Time for a detox! I spent the next few weeks training and trying to get fit again. Time was against me! Lucinda and I had arranged a week in Kalymnos with some good friends and I felt like I needed another month to detox. As I didn't feel like I was that fit I was not intending on competing at the CWIF (Climbing works International festival). With a week to go before CWIF Graeme and Percy informed me that a member of TEAM WAD ( climbing works team) had dropped out, neeeding myself to man up! I climbed ok in the Qualifiers and scraped into the Semi finals in 20th place. The semi's took place on the Sunday afternoon and I felt I climbed alot better and got close to a couple of problems. I finished overall in 9th.

CWIF Final

Semi Final - 5 mins rest! Phew

Problem 3!!

Problem 3 again

Two weeks later we quested off to Kalymnos for what turned out to be an awesome week of Sun, Sea and Long pumpy routes littered with jugs. Last time I was on Kalymnos I was attending a prAna sales meet and ended up going on boat for 3 days looking for the ultimate deep water solo with Chris Sharma. It was a trip of a life time and it was great to be back. Lu and I climbed 5 out of our 6 days and onsighted up to 7c. It was great no stress holiday but a shame that we were not there any longer.

Me and Lu on the boat to kalymnos

Party boat

The reason we could not stay longer in Kalymnos was that we had the wedding of my younger brother Adam and his finance Emma to go to. The wedding and reception was all at one venue in  Seften Park nr Liverpool. The spectacular Victorian building was full of  plants and trees and was really atmospheric and magical. They both had a lovely day as did Lu and I and all of our family crew.

Getting ready with the best man Chris

Party's, Spain and Switzerland

December was a crazy month!! It was a month of party's, drinking socialising and not much climbing. The first party was Sheffield's finest underground Techno night STI where Gus and I have played there twice before. Decembers gig was amazing, my best set at STI so far, the club was ram ed and had a great party atmosphere. Then came the Plastikman night in Manchester where 25 of us filled a small mini bus and headed over from Sheffield to the Manchester Acadamy. The Plastikman show was incredible, a ridiculous light show and laser extravaganza with about 2000 people going off!

Then came the big one The Climbing Works 5th Birthday Smash at a new club in Sheffield called FWD. It was so good, the club was full all night with a great atmosphere. I DJ'd from 2 - 3.30am and then The Gusenator tore it up until 5am.The rest of the other DJ's all smashed it up including an amazing debut set from 'THE HORSE' aka Minimal Man Si Wilson.There was usual after party scenes and next day pub madness, what a great weekend.
With a great Staff meal and Christmas Day meals at mine and Lucinda's parents all in all December was a quality month.

One of the few times out on the Grit, here soling Entropy's Jaw at the Roaches, photo: Simon Wilson

Through the Xmas period the weather was horrendous, our Australian brother The Rubber Chicken was over for a 6 week quest around Europe and we had climbed outdoors twice in 2 weeks and he was desperate for some rock action ( me too). Lucinda was suffering from a bad dose of Flu and was keen to get rid of 2 frother's that needed to go climbing. We headed to Spain the next day.
As I was with the Rubber Chicken who is not psyched for sport routes I needed a plan ASAP. I did some research and got some beta from Jordan on a small local bouldering spot near Murcia ( close to my folk's old farmhouse). We checked out the area which was about 30 Min's from our house and we were pleasantly surprised, the area consisted of about 4 steep caves with problems from 6a to 8b. Plenty to go at for 3 days. We both dispatched a couple of 7b's a 7b+, 7c and 7c+ and the RC did a really cool 8a. I was very close but ripped off the last jug taking half of my finger off in the process, game over!

RC dispatching the 8a.

We had new years eve in a curry house on Camp O Sol, (a massive housing resort full of ex pat Brits)It was so bad that it was good!!! The curry was great and we had a quality night people watching and getting lashed.

Curry house scenes.

I headed back to the rain in Sheffield and the Rubber Chicken quested off to Madrid to see number 2 ( our good Spanish friend Unai ), then on to Portugal for a week and then Switzerland.
Lu had finally got over the flu and was psyched to go to Switzerland, we fly out from London Luton and met RC at Milan Malpensa airport. We drove for just over an hour to our very nice accommodation in Claro and got psyched for 12 days of crushing. The weather was amazing we could have climbed every day if we wanted. I climbed 10 days out of the 12.. After the first week we had a surprised visit from the Dizzy 9 (Harry) who had just got back from 3 weeks in South Africa ( there summer ) and was keen to do some climbing and catch up with the crew. We all had a great time drinking 30p pint cans of FinkBrau and bouldering nearly everyday.

Tough guys :)

View from our Crib...

We had a few days warming into it at Chironico and we did a few 7b's and 7b+'s, then quested around looking at some other area's. It was at the end of the day when we found a great looking problem craply named Arete with Pocket 8a. We tried it for about an hour and worked out a few sequences. We came back the next day re-worked out better sequences and I dispatched it finally after dropping the last move a few times.

 

Arete with Pocket 8a

Molunk probably one of the best 7c's in the world.

The Crew

Then we headed up to Brione, passing the 220 meter bungee jump off the world famous dam, that I jumped off on my Stag Do 3 years ago. It brought back some quality memories (the ones I can remember!!). 20 minutes up the road leads you to a totally amazing unspoilt little village where there lies some secret quality bouldering. Me and RC dispatched Molunk which is probably one of the best7c's I have ever done. Then we went down to an awesome boulder next to the river to try some very steep looking problems. Frogger on the left was wet but Fake Pamplemosse 8a was bone dry. We figured out a pretty basic sequence which basically involved pulling really hard. Rubber Chicken dispatched it in about 3 go's and i came close but didn't have enough beans. Lu worked out on the moves and then we headed back down the valley.

Harry cranking in the dry cave,.

The next day we woke up to a bit of rain and snow, undeterred we headed up to Chironico to find some dry rock. We found a couple of caves with some excellent steep problems on good holds.
As the snow had fallen quite heavy over night we decided it would be a good idea to stay lower down in Ticino so we headed up to Cresciano to meet up with fellow Brits Ben M, Ben P and James F. It was pretty warm and very busy with locals, including Cresciano's own Adam Long! This guy new all the problems and didnt even have his own mat he just followed us around and then asked if could try the problems we were trying and then walk up them like they were nothing. It was a great day and everyone at the crag was very friendly and super psyched.

Ben on Stinky Pete, High ball 7b

not sure whats going on here..

 The weather had improved loads so we quested back up to Chironico to check out some more problems. Harry found this amazing looking 7c called Slimeline, the boys set to work on sorting out the sequences and I was supposed to be resting as we were going back to Brione the next day. They did all the moves and Harry checked out the top, it looked amazing, I was psyched to have a go!!! I pulled on the start and smashed through the crux and keeping it togeather toped out with very cold fingers.

  

Flashing Slimeline 7c

After obviously drinking a load of FinkBrau's the next day we went back up Brione as I wanted to finish off Fake Pamplemoose 8a and we all wanted to try Marilyn Monroe. I warmed up and went straight to try F.P. I did all the moves to warm up more and then crushed it 3rd go.. I really enjoy these power style problem's as they just boil down to pulling really hard and trying even harder. Next up was Marilyn Monroe 8a, its a great looking problem with some nice features. At first it feels desperate until we unlocked the beta. RC crushed it first and then I did it straight after. This is the first time I have done 2 8a's in a day and I was over the moon! ( its a good job we got that extra slab of FinkBrau! ).

Check out Video of our swiss trip here:http://vimeo.com/36132010

Fake Pamplemosse 8a

Marilyn Monroe 8a

RC's now back in the Gramps in 35 degree heat

Here is the list of the problems I did, Chironico: Swinger club 7a+, Triade 7a, Slimeline 7c flash, Palpatina 7a+ flash, The Loneliness of long long distance runner 7b+/7c flash, Super otti 7b+, Doctor med dent 7b+ flash, Teamwork stand 7b, II volo del collbri 7b+, Birds 7c, Papa razi 7a flash, Arete with Pocket 8a. Brione: no name 7a, no name jump 7a+, Fake Pamplemoose 8a, Marilyn Monroe 8a, Molunk 7c.