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...
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...
On Europe, Refugees and the Rise of Inhumanity!
I just read a post in Linked In by Ban Ki Moon – putting the case for a more humane way of viewing the current refugee crisis. It makes sad reading despite its upbeat tone. The only response so far was from some right wing sounding character who only picked up on the supposed increase in sex attacks in Belgium, completely ignoring the Belgian’s own nasty habit of isolating refugee communities within their country. (or is that just my misreading of the muddied reports that come out about refugee life?). It is however depressing to see the countries who most recently joined the EU for their perceived economic benefit are the ones building Trump’s Wall in Europe while our own astonishingly wealthy, but parasitised country virtually washes its hands...
Fiesta on the Camino- Walking with a Hole in the Shoe to Estella
What happens when the pilgrims don’t like to party? It’s all here on Day 5 of Heather’s walk along the old pilgrim route “The Camino de Santiago”. Hola!. Probably a two-part chapter. 640 km to go and loving every minute. If you’re not au fait with kms, times by 5/8 to get to miles. (Sorry, not meant to be an insult. But do it in your head, never trust a calculator). So what was all that worry, planning, reading about prior to the journey? How was I going to find the albergues (pilgrim hostels)? … A flippin’ great sign over the door marked Álbergue, Heather! How will I find food? Bread shop? Supermarket? Cafes? It´s just Spain, not the Atacama desert. What on earth was all that worry and planning about? I...