Monday 15 August 2011

Trad Climbing at Bowden Doors, Northumberland

Today I went Trad climbing with Ross and my Dad at Bowden Doors. Big improvement on the weather since last visit. I climbed 4 routes and placed gear on 2 of them.

Getting organised - note Ross's spanish walking stick!


First climb of the day - Deception Crack -VD.

Adding lots of weight with the gear!

At one point a couple of low flying Tornadoes deafened us. It was a fly past!
The climbs we did were Deception Crack; Black and Tan; Eliminate and I tried Stretcher Wall but it was very reachy! It was cool.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Bouldering with Ross

Today I had a session with my mentor Ross Kirkland at Ratho. Alexander was climbing too and we did lots of hard boulders. Last week, when I was climbing with my coach Robbie, I did my first V7 (orange, in the boulder room) - so I was really pleased to show this to Ross!

checking out the problem

In the boulder room
Alexander wanted to try the speed wall so we finished our session with this. Alexander was delighted to break his 20 second barrier with an 18.5 second climb. I had a turn next and managed to knock 1 second off my personal best with a 22.9 second climb. It was a great session and it was good fun to be back climbing again with Ross.  

Monday 8 August 2011

British Summer!

On Saturday I enjoyed a day of "realrocks" bouldering in Northumberland with Buz. The other climbers were my brother Alexander and Keira, Sam and Kirsten. It was pouring with rain and I was soaking wet. After wading through a bog my trainers were full of dirty water! We bouldered in the cave at Back Bowden to give us some dry, sheltered rock. I really enjoyed the climbing.    
Sheltering from the rain

7a+ traverse