Mount Kenya Memories: Rock and Ice on the Equator
Batiaan summit at sunrise after climbing Ice Window route. Viewed from Nelion Many, many moons ago I had aspirations to be a “big time climber”. I’d enjoyed a couple of summers in the Alps, and a trip to The Cordillera Blanca in Peru, with some college friends: where we’d managed to be the first British group up the SW face of Alpamayo. My winter climbing was going reasonably well and I was getting a few new rock routes done in the Lakes with Steve Howe. I was also beginning to think about buying a wee house. Say Goodbye to Your Mortgage Raymond! All that went out of the window when Steve raised the question in a Penrith pub. “Do you fancy a go at the Diamond Couloir on Mt. Kenya?” Ooh yes – says I! Quietly crapping myself! I’d had to grin and bear nearly a...
The Winter Week That Was
Back in February 1983 I had one of the most amazing half-term winter climbing weeks I could ever have dreamed of. Myself and Tony Furniss managed to blag a couple of places on the Eden Valley Mountaineering Club’s booking at the CIC Hut on the Ben. My big dream for the week was that I might feel up to having a crack at Point Five Gully… by the end of the week. The previous winter I’d had my first taste of the classic Grade Vs after being dragged up Vanishing Gully’s lower pitches. I was beginning to dream. And that February half term started out well enough! Being young free and single (i.e. a smelly dirt bag) I got out on the first Saturday, with Phil Rigby, in the Lakes. They were proper winters back then, before we buggered up the atmosphere! We had...
A Long Road To The Most Beautiful Mountain in the World
Many moons ago I was a slightly more energetic version of a wannabe climber. (I emphasise the slightly!) Desperate to escape the football thuggery and skinhead culture that seemed to be the only thing happening in the town where I grew up, I was invited to “go climbing in Wales” by a pal at the town Carnival one September Saturday.Having just started a 6th form Geology O-Level course, rocks, mountains and in particular a hill called Tryfan were on my mind. I managed to scrounge a pair of DMs, dug out an old parka and was dragged over the Carneddau in the clag. I absolutely loved it despite being completely knackered. That night I was introduced to beer without parents: messy!The next day saw us up the N. Ridge of Tryfan and over to Bristly Ridge. Still claggy...
Chat and Chomp: The Finale
A few years back, Phil Hewitson of Carlisle Speakeasy and Caldew Press, roped me into a community project based in Upperby, Carlisle, just around the corner from where I live. The idea was to create a space where people could meet up, have a craic – and do that over a meal. With the support of ST Margaret mary’s Community Centre and an array of councillors from Carlisle City Council as it was then, Chat and Chomp born. Phil’s connection was filming the project for Tony Brown the community organiser who kept the organisation running and did the donkey work of applying for the necessary grants, reporting and MC-ing the Monday lunchtime sessions. The results of those filming projects can be seen here, in the Chat & Chomp: Currock and Upperby...
Climate Disinformation in The Wake of the UN Climate Summit
Because the oil industry is on the back foot now, they are using their obscene wealth to double down on their disinformation PR campaigns globally, to con the gullible into ignoring the blatantly obvious warning signs that we are f*cking up our little spaceship Earth! A friend posted a video from the Youtube channel “Friends of Science” (sic). In it a very “lovely” grandmotherly figure (clearly a cold calculating, cynical, “take the money and run” lying bastard) talks in soothing tones about how Greta and the youngsters (whom she so respects “for standing up for something”) have been misled and how climate change is nothing to do with human activity, but do with natural processes and cycles. Her soothing tones cover...