Talkeetna at last!

After a couple of hectic days of shopping for 5 weeks of food and waiting on some delayed gear (UPS had it at their Anchorage depot but wouldn't let us go and collect it till they'd tried to deliver it the next day, go figure...) we've eventually made it up to Talkeetna.  Not entirely sure what food we've got in the end but I'm already looking forward to the thought of the first meal when we fly out!


We're all signed in with the National Park, got our permits and hopefully, weather permitting we'll fly into the Denali range tomorrow morning.  From the few people we've met who have come out of the range it sounds like conditions are pretty good so fingers crossed the weather turns good.  See you in five weeks!

Nick securing the vital expedition supplies

Slowly working through the list

Busy season on Denali, guess we won't be on our own...

Last minute kit faff

The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival

The North Face have organised a really nice festival this Autumn on the small island of Kalymnos. Beach parties, sport climbing in the sun, good food and company, all sounds pretty nice! Shame I'll be flying to Nepal that weekend...

You can find out more info on the weekend here www.thenorthfacejournal.com/category/kalymnos/ and to get you tempted have a look at the short promo video below.

I'm heading off to Keswick now to take party in the 'Evening with the Alpine Club' at the Keswick Mountain Festival. There's going to be Chris Bonington, Mick Fowler, Simon Yates and myself on stage for a open discussion/Q&A session all chaired by Lindsay Griffin. When you look at the years and depth of experience there I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be bringing to the table and definitely feeling a bit 'out of my depth' so to speak but should be good fun!

Last few weeks

The last few weeks have been pretty manic with work and trying to fit as much training in around it as possible, easier said than done!  Thankfully the motivation has been there to get out and I'm really loving the running and road biking at the moment.


The only climbing I've been doing over the last few months has been good sessions down at Harrogate Climbing Centre but Cat and I did manage to escape to North Wales on Saturday afternoon and had a brilliant 'trot' (not quite fully embracing the whole fell 'running' just yet ;-) but I think it may happen... ) round the Snowdon Horseshoe.  Sunday was leisurely start followed by long breakfast and eventually we headed over to Gogarth to be met by a howling wind.  The thought of getting cold, blown about and soaked by sea spray wasn't the most appealing when I'm just about to head off for six weeks of that in Alaska so we headed back to the slate quarries and had a nice few hours there.  Great to be out on real rock again and actually see the sun for the first time in ages! 

Cat seconding the classic Goose Creature E3 6a

We fly to Alaska on Monday, everything is turning into the usual last minute rush which seems to be par for the course for these trip no matter how organised I try to be!  It'll be great to get back out there again and fingers crossed for some good weather.  


My new Tendon ropes turned up today, I've been using the 60m version of these super skinny ropes for a couple of years now are have been really impressed with how well they have performed and still going strong after a couple of Scottish winters and a number alpine hits.  We'll also be taking their lightweight 8.9mm single line to Alaska along with a tag line to have all options covered (baggage permitting!).

Late season powder in Chamonix

I managed to sneak in a long weekend out in Chamonix last weekend, heading out with Cat and Nigel to catch up with Chris and Kat who were finishing off their Euro road trip with a ski season.  The light weight touring skis were all set to go in anticipation of a social few days with some nice spring time ski touring up high in the mountains but at the last minute with big late season snow falls it was the fat skis that got chucked on the aeroplane at Liverpool.

After three days of skiing great powder with fresh tracks off the Midi and Grand Montet I had actually for once made the right kit choice!  The viability wasn't the best all the time  but it did clear up to give us blue skies and sun for a great descent in untracked powder down the Valley Blanch, we decided to go down the Gros Rognon and although not the steepest of pitches gives some great wide open slopes that you can let rip on.

It was great to be in the mountains and back on skis for the first time in over a year and thanks to Chris and Kat for arranging some great conditions!  It was also the first chance I had to try out my Scarpa Mobes on a pair of big ski's to see how they performed.  I've been after a pair of 'do it all' ski boots for a while and was really impressed with how these handled a pair of fat and stiff skis in heavy chopped up snow as well as light powder, pretty much felt I could ski them the same as if I'd had proper stiff pair of freeride boots on.  

The skiing was too good to get the camera out much but here's a few shots form last weekend.

Enjoying the great snow conditions on the Gros Rognon (photo - Nigel Pick)

Cat heading down the Gross Rognon with the Dent du Geant poking out of the clouds

Nigel taking a 'rest' while Michelle enjoying the snow

Alaska psyche

March was pretty quite on the climbing front with just a few nice days out on the grit but lots of running and road biking trying to get the legs working for Alaska.  After been not too sure if the trip would happen for a while flights are booked and I'll ll be heading out with Nick towards the end of May to hopefully have a go at the Slovak Direct.


Since getting into alpine climbing the Slovak Direct up the massive South face of Denali is a route, like many other climbers, I have had on my dream tick list.  As far as I know the it has had five ascents so far and each team has come back raving about the quality of climbing, the situations and the size of it.  To see what its all about check out this great little video that Mark Westman and Jesse Huey made after their 2010 ascent:

BD grassroots athlete Jesse Huey reports on his ascent of Denali's Slovak Direct route 

from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

A BIG thank you to The North Face for stepping in and making this trip happen.  I'll be using all the new Meru Kit on the trip which has some great key alpine pieces in it and looks like it should perform really well.  No better place to test it all out and get a true honest opinion of it!


With no exciting pics from the last month here are a few from my first trip to Alaska back in 2007 when Jon Bracey and I made the second ascent of the Grison-Tedeschi (French Route) on the Moonflower buttress of Mt Hunter.  We had a great quick hit onto the Kahiltna Glacier then and hopefully we'll get the same good weather and conditions this time.  

The approach to base camp on the Kahiltna Glacier with Mount Hunter
and the Moonflower in the background

Early morning light on Mt Foraker

Heading into the couloir that defines the route and the
 main feature of the Moonflower buttress (photo - Jon Bracey) 

Jon following up the couloir

One of the many amazing ice runnels on the route

Jon leading steep ice on the headwall

Following a hard mixed pitch on the headwall (photo - Jon Bracey)

The final slopes leading to the top of the Moonflower buttress
with the south face of Denali in the background

The nearly 3000m south face of Denali.  The Slovak Direct takes the steep buttresses to the right of the central, Cassin, ridge, originally finishing up the large snowfields most teams now finish up Cassin Ridge

Still a long way to go to the summit of Mount Hunter

Jon stamping out a tent platform for the
final (3rd) night  before descending the West ridge

Black Diamond On-line Catalogue - Alpinism 2012

Back in the autumn when I was out in Chamonix I spent a few days out with Jon Griffith to get some photos and footage for an new on-line catalogue project that Black Diamond and Jon were working on.  It was the first time I'd ever done any filming or been interviewed (as you can probably tell!) and to be honest I found it pretty difficult to start with but we had some really good days out and it was fun to be involved in a small part of the project.  


As usual Jon produced some outstanding photography and you can see all his work here
http://catalog.blackdiamondequipment.com/

Central Grooves

I eventually made it up to Scotland at the weekend for the first time since the wash out at New Year, unfortunately the rubbish forecast for Saturday turned it into a shorter weekend than planned and a one day hit on Sunday to Glen Coe.  Malcolm and I were both really keen to do the mega classic Central Grooves, VII 7, in Stob coire nan Lochan so route choice wasn't going to be a problem and an early start had us arriving in the coire under beautiful early morning sunlight with no wind.


Central Grooves lived up to its reputation of great climbing and sustained right from the word go.  After a technical first pitch and a steep second pitch Malcolm dispatched the crux third pitch with bold moves on cruddy ice off the belay and then a long fun final pitch up easy ground finished it off.  A quality route well worth the five hour drive each way and good to blow the cobwebs off the tools at last!

Beautiful early morning light as we enter the coire

Malcolm starting up the first pitch

Pitch 2

Pitch 2

Pitch 2

Malcolm on pitch 3 after the tricky moves off the belay

Pitch 3

Pitch 3

 Pitch 3

Looking across at a climber on Tilt