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!

Alpkit

So much has happened since the last post so here is the highlights

The Moon board at the Cave has been reset so go check it out

Alpkit have kindly given us some goodies to brighten up the cave. If you haven't heard of Alpkit they sell all manner of outdoor kit, the VAT is taken off automatically and delivery is free.

Les Tielles (a new bouldering area) has been visited again and despite a catalogue of school boy errors we still managed to get some bouldering done, check out the video.

Club Social - Curry night!

This Friday is a ‘Bridge Pub Crawl and Curry’ night – full details have been emailed out, if you haven’t got the email then you obviously haven’t paid this years subs! Get in touch with me for further details, menu choices need to be given in by Thursday.

Cheers,

Mark

2011 will be the year for Bouldering!

Hey all,

Last week I discovered a Big Pile of boulders at Les Tielles, Me, Steve, Martin & James were the first on scene to try the new boulders and we weren't dissapointed! It's a cracking venue, it has lots of potential for some hard problems, and best of all it's a suntrap, it was even 'tshirt off' weather down there today!




It was my turn for decision sunday on our first visit and so I have decided to call this place 'The Hyperbolic Boulder Chamber', It's a dbz reference, and with this place and the new bouldering indoor cave Guernsey should definetely be breeding a few Super Saiyans!

Chris S

The Bouldering Cave

Phase one of the Bouldering Cave is now officially complete! In brief it consists of the following

The Brownie Board
This is the board at the most gentle of angles (10-15 deg off vertical).

The V Board of Heros
Same as above but a little steeper, around 25 deg.




The Moon Board
A 40 deg wall which has graded problems set by Ben Moon.

Campus Board
A small board developed for training purposes which consists of wooden rungs at regular intervals.




In addition to the boards the GMC has invested in two huge crash mats. A number of club members' own personal bouldering mats are now stored there so feel free to use these while in the cave. Please remember although all these mats make for a soft landing they do not make you invinsble!

The three main boards have been equiped with 135 brand new holds providing a selection of interesting colour coded problems at a variaty of grades. We are also due another 60 holds soon so expect more problems to be put up shortly. As the Cave is now offically open if you're not a Gold or Silver member you'll have to pay £3.50 for a session, still well worth it in my opinion!

Take it easy

Steve Le F