The Knife

Nathan and I made the most of a spring tide by heading out to the "Knife". A new bouldering venue just off the West Coast. We quickly did all the obviously lines, definitely worth the long walk out. Check out the video for some of the highlights.

Saturday @ Le Bigard

Typical climbing at Le Bigard - Sunny slab climbing, birds nests on belays and James and Abi hanging about on the Lynx.  Also included for good measure - four of the five bits of gear Tom managed to drop but luckily rescue! :)

El Chorro 2011/2012

Four friends barley make it to El Chorro to end 2011 on a high and start 2012 as they mean to go on

To Hoy and Back

As it's been a while since the last post I thought I'd finally finish off the video from the Hoy trip me Nathan and Chris went on.

The Congrelle, Guernsey's finest DWS Venue

In the late 90s and mid naughties, on one of his many visits to Guernsey, Martin Crocker made a number of first ascents in the Congrelle. These were serious routes not only because of their difficulty and protection but also because they require a spring tide to access the start of the route.

A few years on and Little Chris, Nathan and myself thought it would be possible to DWS some of these lines. We picked the biggest tide we could (a 10m spring) and despite the horizontal drizzle and big rollers coming into the Congrelle we gave it a shot. We never expected to climb any of the routes, it was more of a proof of concept exercise but I managed to get to the very top of Eels on Wheels only to peal off and take the ride all the way from the top of the route.

A few months later with the weather on our Chris and myself gave it another go and yet again I found myself taking another full length fall this time because a hold broke. The next time there was a tide big enough we were down there again, this time on mass! Eels on Wheels saw two ascents by Wilko and myself in addition to many splash downs! Some low level traverses saw some action as well as The Christian.

And the best thing is we've only scratched the surface!

Italy 2011

Just thought I'd give a quick heads up on the Italy trip. We're basing ourselves in Nago Torbole at the Northern end of Lake Garda in an apartment above an ice-cream parlour :-). There are 106 sportclimbing crags, another 32 multipitch (trad/aid/sport) crags and 30+ Via Ferrata routes all within 1.5 hours drive, many within 15 minutes. Our accomodation is booked for 9 nights from the 24th August - 2nd September and we might be able to squeeze another person in if you're lucky, and have room in the hirecars for another 3-5 people! Should be a great trip, get in touch if you're interested!
Mark

Spain 2011!

As nobody in the club got an invite to the royal wedding we decided to take advantage of the April/May bank holidays by taking a sport climbing trip to sunny Spain!!!

It was certainly a trip of firsts. For some their first climbing trip for others the first time they had steak 6 nights in a row or the first time they went DWS. Grade wise Little Chris climbed his first (and second) 8a, possibly a first for a Guernsey lad? I climbed my first 7c while skipping four grades in the process and Nathan climbed the 3 star route Spiderman which was his first 7a.

Of course the usual balls ups did occur, we spent the best part of a day looking for a crag, we nearly wrecked 2 hire cars, we never made it out the villa before 10:00, we left the villa stinking of beer and Martin nearly chopped off his own finger but we sure did have fun doing all of it!!!

Keep an eye out for the full trip report on the website!