Type 2

Feed from Type 2

Feeling slovenely.

I popped down to Slovenia for a couple of weeks in June for some type 1. I don't really have the motivation to write it up properly right now, but here is a summary of what we learned:

Travel:

- If you are driving to Slovenia from the UK then travel time is similar to a trip to the dolomites. Doing it overnight in shifts is a bit of a wounder, but you can always sleep it off in the camp site.
- There is quite a lot of Germany.
- Austrian road tax tariffs are specifically designed to mess with people on 2 week trips.
- All parking around the lake Bohinj area costs 1 euro an hour, or 10 a day.
- Laybys around Virsic & the northern end are either a couple of euros per day or free.

Camping:

- Camp sites are slightly more expensive than in the UK but tend to have good pitches with clean, well equipped facilities.
- For trips to the northern end of the range the site in Dovje is excellent.
- For the Bohinj area the large site in Bohinj Bistrica is pretty good. The site in Ukanc is cheaper, but a lot less convenient for the shops.

Eating out:

- I hope you like Pizza.

Huts:

- Well appointed and not too expensive.
- When they are open.
- When they aren't open the more remote ones do have winter rooms round the back. Fortunately.
- Alpine club membership makes life a lot cheaper, but I wasn't able to get a straight answer on BMC reciprocal rights cards.
- Unmanned "Bivak" huts are locked these days after some problems with vandalism. Keys are held by local mountaineering clubs. The manager of the Dovje camp site was extremely helpful with this.

When to go:

- Not June if you want to guarantee the huts will be open.
- The locals recommend late August.

The routes:

- Mix of walking peaks and via Ferrata. A harness, shock absorber + lid will get you to the top of most of them.
- Climbing/alpine style routes do exist, but english language information on these is almost non existent.
- The sport climbing guide is pretty good, but treat the grading with care. The day we went bolt clipping I got my arse handed to me.

Books:

- "Mountaineering in Slovenia - The Julian Alps and Kamnik and Savinja Alps The Karavanke" Tine Mihelic - Inspirational, but sometimes hard to figure out exactly where the hills are in relation to one another. Well worth the money for the pictures alone!
- "The Julian Alps of Slovenia - Mountain walks and short treks" Justi Carey, Roy Clark - another good one, although the photos aren't quite as shiny.
- "The Julian Alps " Robin Collomb - massively out of date, photo free and poorly typeset but in many ways the best of the bunch. It gives no nonsense route descriptions with exactly the information you need.

Maps:

- 1-50k and 1-25k maps are available. Quality is reasonably good with all trails marked.
- 1-50k maps tend to have a large lat/long grid, which frustrates all but the longest compasses. Not particularly useful with GPS.
- Some of the 1-25k maps have no grid whatsoever!
- Technical data on the maps are limited.

There are some pictures over here: http://www.spectral3d.co.uk/Personal/pics/2010/slovenia_2010/

Posted by upwardlymisanthropic

With an OWL!

I seem to have developed a habit of finding the bad weather lately. Extreme dampness in Llanberis a couple of weeks ago resulted in gear shopping, and last weekend in Dolgellau looked likely to go the same way.

A very, very wet Saturday in the Rhinogs resulted in limited motivation and a low probability of climbing. Fortunately the evenings beer consumption was limited enough that when an opportunity did arise we were just about capable of taking it.

Saturday morning was foggy but dry, so after a leisurely fry up we decided to wander up to Cyfrwy to see what we could find.

Cyfrwy is a large microgranite crag on the north side of Cadair Idris. Normally it looms imposingly above a scree slope and invites people to pick out lines as they approach.

This time it was different. This time it lurked in the fog and dared us to approach. Occasionally a corner would poke out for a few seconds before sidling back into hiding. Unsurprisingly there were no other climbers to be seen.

Maybe the crag had eaten them.

As we ascended the scree I practiced my excuses under my breath. Words like "Greasy", "Dodgy", "Loose" and "Tea Shop" all briefly surfaced and swam around for a bit before I reminded them that this was fun and they went away again.

A quick look around revealed some surprisingly dry rock and no excuses, so we decided to take a look at the "Table Direct" start to the Cyfrwy Arete.

The climbing was pretty good if easy, and the top half of the Cyfrwy Arete is always good value but the real standout feature of the day was the atmosphere. Quiet and slightly eerie, with occasional glimpses of the view below having far more impact than on a clear day.

The experience reminded me that I don't climb in clag anything like as often as I used to. It is something that everyone should do from time to time.

And I didn't even get stuck down an 'ole.

Posted by upwardlymisanthropic

Thinking thin thoughts.

I failed to get to the top of a route a couple of weeks ago. This isn't particularly unusual in itself, but on this occasion I failed to get up a route because I am fat. I had thought that I was fairly slightly built, but I was wrong. I am a veritable whale, and I need to urgently lose weight and/or spend type with an orthopedic surgeon.

Like most climbers I enjoy climbing a nice face, slab or ridge. The feeling of exposure, the views and ambience can result in some really special days.

Unlike some I also like chimneys & gullies when I'm in the mood. A good character forming thrutch can be extremely entertaining. When I'm getting too big for my boots a wet, green diff chimney is an excellent way to regain bit of humility.

And then there are some routes that are really special. The ones that just jump out of the guidebook and beg to be climbed. I'm going to mention four of my favourites today.


1. Helfenstein's Struggle, Stanage Plantation (Diff)

UK Climbing have this little beauty down as HVD, but they are wrong. It is diff or impossible.

I had been leading for maybe a couple of months when someone pointed me at this "easy little route". Not being the one with the guidebook I took him at his word, racked up and set off.

A wander up an easy gully/chimney leads to a chockstone. Place a bit of gear, stick your head and hands through the hole.

And push.

And swear.

And realise you racked up too much gear and you are stuck...

At the time I hated it, but my second hated it more which made it all worthwhile.


2. Lockwood's Chimney, Clogwyn y Bustach (Diff)

Another classic this. Best climbed in horrible weather after dark apparently. We managed the horrible weather bit, but failed at "after dark", because everyone else in the club was too sensible.

A wall and crack lead to the bottom of a slimy chimney. Work your way up, and then gradually work your way towards the back. Once in the back of the chimney you can climb to a window, up an easy slab and you are done. Hurrah!

This is best tackled with a large group moving together, as strained nerves and irritability only add to the experience. The knowledge that as I squeezed and wriggled and fought for every inch someone else* was stuck on a slab in the wind & rain waiting for slack gave me a warm glow inside.


3. The Inside Route: Dove Nest Crag (VD)

What can you say about a route with pitches with names like "the rat hole" and "the rabbit hole"?

Don't put anything breakable in your pockets**, and take a head torch. Saying anything else would ruin the surprise.


4. Under Milk Wood, Three Cliffs Bay (VS)

The hardest route in this list, and the source of my failure. Work your way up a wet slab, over a slimy green overhang and force yourself through the surprisingly dry tunnel toward the light.

That's the theory anyway. I got half way up the squeeze before my right shoulder got stuck. Various contortions would not get it through the hole, so I was reluctantly forced to concede defeat.

Next time I will try to do it on my back!

*Hi Sarah.

**The rat hole ate my phone, the dog ate my homework and UMW ate my dignity.

Posted by upwardlymisanthropic

Going commando

I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to climb Commando Ridge at Bosigran a few weeks ago. What a route!

The day started out looking somewhat unpromising, with drizzle and mist filling the air. I arrived with my 2 climbing partners and we decided to wait and see if the weather cleared.

An hour later the cloud blew over and we were in blazing sunshine standing a few metres above the bottom of the first pitch. The tide was low, but there was quite a swell, with large waves periodically washing over the belay platform.

Despite my urging my belayer was unwilling to spend time submerged on my behalf. I patiently explained that his drowning would amuse me greatly, but still he selfishly refused. Next time I will take a snorkel.

The first pitch was a fairly easy slab/crack climb leading to a stance below a pair of towers. The second involved a delicate traverse which rejoined the route proper.

From there on the route mostly alternates between scrambling, absurdly exposed traverses and easy down climbing on perfect solid, grippy granite.

There is quite a lot of ridge, so the route took us 4 or 5 hours to finish, but we made it down just in time for cream teas at the cafe down the road. The perfect end to an excellent easter weekend!

If you feel like climbing it, and you should, then take lots of slings, get your exposure head on and enjoy one of the finest vdiffs in the UK. It deserves every one of its 3 stars.

The route is pretty easy to escape, but but be prepared to move fast.

Posted by upwardlymisanthropic

In defense of incompetence.

WARNING: This is one of those tedious reminiscence type posts that I want to get out of the way as quickly as possible so that I can get on with some new stuff.

Sometimes everything goes to plan, and sometimes you just get lucky.

Rhyolite Romp is a beautiful 2 star grade 1 scramble on the west face of Aonach Dubh in Glen Coe. It is straightforward even for a grade 1, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants a good day out with excellent views.

The route is described quite accurately in the Cicerone guide book "Scrambles in Lochaber". The description is clear, and to be honest only an idiot could screw up the route finding.

I am that idiot.

The route begins with a walk along a terrace below a band of Rhyolite, crosses a number of gullies and picks up a path up through the Rhyolite band. The book is pretty explicit about this. The relevant sentence reads "Continue across Number 2 Gully and pick up a faint path which runs along a sloping terrace on the upper section of the west face."

Of course we couldn't be bothered with actually reading any of this. A quick glance at the book showed an arrow in vague proximity to a gully, and it was only a grade 1 scramble so what could possibly go wrong?

According to my climbing guide number 2 gully is a fairly unremarkable grade 1 winter route. In the summer it is something special.

There is scree of course. Nothing unremarkable about that - all gullies have scree. It goes with the territory, and we like* scree here.

Start to ascend a bit and things start to get a little bit more entertaining. The first couple of steps are perfectly consistent with being on a grade 1. The bottom of the gully slopes away quite steeply giving a good deal of exposure but the moves are all there. This is fun!

Then you get to the first sopping wet water worn slab. Good edges are handy here, as the holds are small and the exposure is starting to get noticeable. The observant may start to think that they are drifting into grade 2 or easy grade 3 territory.

Observation never was my strong point, and we were moving well so where was the problem?

As it happens the problem was directly above us. The moss pitch. A short but exposed wall composed of loose rocks the size of half bricks, held together by a mixture of soft black mud and moss. Things were starting to get entertaining.

I can't really remember the next bit very well, except that I know I spent several minutes feeling rather upset and moving very very slowly. It seemed to elicit the same reaction from Gav, and he is harder than me so at least I knew it wasn't just me being a wuss.

Things eased off after that, with an easy but vegetated slab leading up to the top followed by rejoining the "correct" route for a walk around some of the most stunning scenery in Glen Coe.

On balance one of the most awesome and memorable mountain days I have ever had, and a perfect introduction** to type 2 climbing.

I have never looked back.

*Tolerate.
**I do not in any way endorse this sort of idiocy. You have been warned.

Posted by upwardlymisanthropic