Yesterday was blazingly hot and we spent hours taking the trad gear for a walk up and down a mountain with no climbing whatsoever. The guidebooks for the area are a complete nightmare to use and we got bit badly by them. We walked in to do a route which was an epic up and down a mountain into another valley. Once we got there and looked at the massive walk still to do up the screes on the other side we decided we wouldn't have enough time to actually complete the 400m of climbing and called it off. It seemed sensible to walk out via the closer carpark we should have parked in and walk back up the road to our car. Big mistake. This took up miles out of our way at the bottom of a valley. We left James and Chris with the gear and Adam and I started the walk up the hill trying to hitch as we went. Over an hour later and about a third of the way up we finally got a lift from a kind Italian chap who didn't speak a word of English! Karma was returned when we gave a German bloke a ride back down the road. All the walking had killed us so we spent the rest of the day lounging in the park before grabbing some beers in Cortina and having a wash in the river. Chris our resident chef rustled up an awesome spaghetti bolognaise for dinner.
We pitched tents in a massive carpark overnight and did a very neat job anchoring the tents down with rocks instead of tent pegs.
Today we walked in to do a couple of four pitch routes above a massive lake. All these massive towers and faces look the same up close and Chris and I managed to do some accidental new routing up a completely different piece of crag to where we should have been. The rock was really chossy and I threw loads of rocks up to head size down as Chris as I was leading the 40m slabby first pitch. Pitch 2 was a pretty gnarly 40m chimney, incredibly loose, that I had to excavate on the way up. No gear for the first 10m and I had a bit of an issue trying to furtle gear in at the crux without falling out and hitting the belay ledge. The chimney eased in difficulty but remained loose ad required lots of care to find relatively solid parts to pull on. Topped out on a little pinnacle with awesome views. Route is called Dirty Dancing VS 4a, 4c 80m, very loose. We abbed off and had a really harrowing journey down avalanching scree slopes back to the bags. I'd had enough near-death for one day and the weather was starting to turn so Chris and I headed back down to the car and found a bar while Adam and James finished their first route and went to start the route we were supposed to be doing.
An hour later and a storm broke and Team B had to abb off in torrential rain (James' first abseiling experience) while Chris and I enjoyed wheat beer and chatted to a hot Italian barmaid. They arrived back absolutely soaked through so they'll be having a rest day tomorrow to dry their kit out. It's still raining so we got some takeaway pizza in Cortina for dinner and pitched tents again. Hopefully the weather will improve soon as the hammocks are about a billion times more comfortable than sleeping on the ground! The rain is having a really depressing effect on the whole team - it's difficult to still see the magic when you're wet and cold!
Hopefully a days climbing for Chris and I tomorrow. Think we'll head over to the Sella Towers on Monday - we're all psyched for Tenker Crack!
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Climber - Alpinist - Diver - Photographer - DBA - Idiot
Sunday 29 August 2010
Day 8/9 - 12hr epic/rest day
Yesterday Team B spent their day drying out all of their equipment from the day before. Chris and I caught the first chairlift up from Lake Misurina to go do the Comici route on Punta Col De Varda. We got on the route, Chris lead the first slabby pitch then I got stuck into the second chossy corner pitch. About 15m above the belay the corner crack closed up, the rock became friable and the climbing got serious. I tried a move off my little ledge, pulled on what appeared to be the key hold, ripped off a head-sized block and threw it down at Chris! Suitably spooked I made use of an existing piton and lowered off. We abbed down to the ground, had a sandwich, it started to rain so se headed back down the scree slopes with our tails between our legs. Looking back up and consulting the guidebook we realised we'd been on the wrong line again! =o( We carried on down, discussing out options, but it took us to the bottom of the torturous screes to mtfu and head back up again and do it properly.
The weather had smartened up by the time we got to the bottom of the now blinding obvious line so we set on up, me leading as fast as possible, moving quickly and keeping the gear spaced. Four pitches of quality crack, chimney and face climbing were dispatched in short order, it was still very cold and windy but no rain. There was no way we'd make the last chairlift down but we soldiered on anyway. The final pitch was a vague leftwards traverse linking ledges. So vague, I did a full 60m of quite tricky crack and face climbing with not a ledge in sight! That scared me as I was really unsure we were going the right way on the vast face!
We finally got to the top of the route, decided to sack off the 300m scramble to the summit and started abbing off. 150m of scary abbing down a massive choss filled chimney full of loose blocks the size of my torso saw us on the ground as it was getting dark. I'd used all my ab tat, mallions, nicked a rope and had to solo up to free the ropes on the final ab but we were both alive, albeit tired, hungy and covered in cuts and bruises. We walked down a piste by headtorch and got back to the car at 2115. That was Chris' first epic and one he'll remember I'm sure! I've certainly cured him of the idea that abseiling is fun! =oD
Today we drove over to the Sella Towers, Chris and I took it easy, had a good breakfast, dried the tent and had a refreshing wash in a river. Adam and James ran off towards the Sella Towers as soon as we arrived replete with via ferrata tails with a vague plan to find something to climb. Just had a text to say they'll be late back as the descent is tricky so they've got up something which is cool.
Less than 20% battery remaining on the phone, fingers crossed I can keep it off and blog till we start the log journey home on Thursday. It's been an awesome experience here with a good bunch of friends but I'm kinda looking forward to getting home now! I miss cold beer, large pizzas and the healing touch of a woman!
Oh, I've become quite addicted to expressos here, which is strange as I've never been a fan of coffee before!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The weather had smartened up by the time we got to the bottom of the now blinding obvious line so we set on up, me leading as fast as possible, moving quickly and keeping the gear spaced. Four pitches of quality crack, chimney and face climbing were dispatched in short order, it was still very cold and windy but no rain. There was no way we'd make the last chairlift down but we soldiered on anyway. The final pitch was a vague leftwards traverse linking ledges. So vague, I did a full 60m of quite tricky crack and face climbing with not a ledge in sight! That scared me as I was really unsure we were going the right way on the vast face!
We finally got to the top of the route, decided to sack off the 300m scramble to the summit and started abbing off. 150m of scary abbing down a massive choss filled chimney full of loose blocks the size of my torso saw us on the ground as it was getting dark. I'd used all my ab tat, mallions, nicked a rope and had to solo up to free the ropes on the final ab but we were both alive, albeit tired, hungy and covered in cuts and bruises. We walked down a piste by headtorch and got back to the car at 2115. That was Chris' first epic and one he'll remember I'm sure! I've certainly cured him of the idea that abseiling is fun! =oD
Today we drove over to the Sella Towers, Chris and I took it easy, had a good breakfast, dried the tent and had a refreshing wash in a river. Adam and James ran off towards the Sella Towers as soon as we arrived replete with via ferrata tails with a vague plan to find something to climb. Just had a text to say they'll be late back as the descent is tricky so they've got up something which is cool.
Less than 20% battery remaining on the phone, fingers crossed I can keep it off and blog till we start the log journey home on Thursday. It's been an awesome experience here with a good bunch of friends but I'm kinda looking forward to getting home now! I miss cold beer, large pizzas and the healing touch of a woman!
Oh, I've become quite addicted to expressos here, which is strange as I've never been a fan of coffee before!
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Wednesday 25 August 2010
Day 4/5 Washing/Climbing
So, the hammocks aren't so good in thunderstorms, but more of that later! I have a technology problem - my iPhone car charger has decided to stop working and being a 'tard I didn't bring a mains charger! I'm going to turn it on and blog every couple of days while the batteries last but no photos unfortunately. =o(
Yesterday we had a rest day as the forecast wasn't too good. We had a late start and relaxed breakfast next to the car before heading into Cortina to do a little shopping. We grabbed some beers and sat on some steps and watched the world go by. Italian women are incredible - we've had to come up with a whole new rating system! Athletic tanned loveliness. And we've seen a lot of leiderhawsen (sp)!
Having not washed since we left on Sat everyone was smelling pretty disgusting, I seemed to be sweating Camembert! We took a walk upriver and had a very invigorating bath in the icey cold glacial meltwater! After some general goading everyone got their head underwater - there's some comedy video footage! We grabbed another beer in town where James angered the barmaid by eating bowl after bowl of free barsnacks until she brought him his own set of snacks to stop him emptying the bar!
We returned to the same bivvy spot in the woods and watched lighting in the sky as we went to sleep. About 2330 it rained. And I mean really rained! Turns out the fancy hammocks aren't breathable, and the zip on mine had water pouring into my face. Chis on the other had was sound as a pound in the cheaper zipless hammock, tightened up his bivvy bag and carried on sleeping. I wasn't liking my hammock slowly filling with water so I grabbed the emergency tent out of the car. As I was wrestling with the tent (and the rain had all but stopped) James decided his bivvy bag was leaking and he'd rather sleep in the car. I have him the keys and he ran off into the dark, in his underwear and shoes, headtorch on his head and dragging his sleeping bag.
A good 20mins went by before we heard panicky shouts from the opposite direction of the car. Shortly after James arrives, still in his underwear! He's run off into the woods, got lost and had some sort of Blair Witch Project experience! The look on his face was the funniest thing I've ever seen - we've all been laughing about it ever since! The car was only 30m away, you can see it in daylight and we've been back and forth loads of times! =oD
Today we went and climbed a 10 pitch VI (about Severe, though the two crux cracks felt VS to me). I lead all but the first pitch. We did it in 7hrs - same time as Mon by twice as high. I absolutely loved it - solid rock low down with involving climbing. And loads of choss at the top which I really enjoy. I've become quite the choss-weasel! Slightly overhanging offwidth about 150m off the ground was my highlight. I'm really into the runout nature of the climbing and covering the ground as fast as possible. We did some via ferratta to get down which included a really eerie suspension bridge shrouded in cloud. Also explored some WW2 tunnels on the way down.
I'm typing this from my hammock - forecast looks good for the next two days so hopefully no rain fail/tent retreat tonight! Aiming for a 12 pitch VI+ tomorrow with a 150m open book corner at the top. Whole route is 380m tall or so! Bo)
Life out here is very simple. We sleep wherever we string our hammocks, wash in glacial rivers, eat very cheaply and climb. The mountains are stunning, it's all so big. And there's so much history here. God knows how people can cook themselves on a beach all day. My cough is loads better and I'm feeling strong.
And we saw a bear today. But it might have been a dog. We can't agree but took a picture!
Night all!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Yesterday we had a rest day as the forecast wasn't too good. We had a late start and relaxed breakfast next to the car before heading into Cortina to do a little shopping. We grabbed some beers and sat on some steps and watched the world go by. Italian women are incredible - we've had to come up with a whole new rating system! Athletic tanned loveliness. And we've seen a lot of leiderhawsen (sp)!
Having not washed since we left on Sat everyone was smelling pretty disgusting, I seemed to be sweating Camembert! We took a walk upriver and had a very invigorating bath in the icey cold glacial meltwater! After some general goading everyone got their head underwater - there's some comedy video footage! We grabbed another beer in town where James angered the barmaid by eating bowl after bowl of free barsnacks until she brought him his own set of snacks to stop him emptying the bar!
We returned to the same bivvy spot in the woods and watched lighting in the sky as we went to sleep. About 2330 it rained. And I mean really rained! Turns out the fancy hammocks aren't breathable, and the zip on mine had water pouring into my face. Chis on the other had was sound as a pound in the cheaper zipless hammock, tightened up his bivvy bag and carried on sleeping. I wasn't liking my hammock slowly filling with water so I grabbed the emergency tent out of the car. As I was wrestling with the tent (and the rain had all but stopped) James decided his bivvy bag was leaking and he'd rather sleep in the car. I have him the keys and he ran off into the dark, in his underwear and shoes, headtorch on his head and dragging his sleeping bag.
A good 20mins went by before we heard panicky shouts from the opposite direction of the car. Shortly after James arrives, still in his underwear! He's run off into the woods, got lost and had some sort of Blair Witch Project experience! The look on his face was the funniest thing I've ever seen - we've all been laughing about it ever since! The car was only 30m away, you can see it in daylight and we've been back and forth loads of times! =oD
Today we went and climbed a 10 pitch VI (about Severe, though the two crux cracks felt VS to me). I lead all but the first pitch. We did it in 7hrs - same time as Mon by twice as high. I absolutely loved it - solid rock low down with involving climbing. And loads of choss at the top which I really enjoy. I've become quite the choss-weasel! Slightly overhanging offwidth about 150m off the ground was my highlight. I'm really into the runout nature of the climbing and covering the ground as fast as possible. We did some via ferratta to get down which included a really eerie suspension bridge shrouded in cloud. Also explored some WW2 tunnels on the way down.
I'm typing this from my hammock - forecast looks good for the next two days so hopefully no rain fail/tent retreat tonight! Aiming for a 12 pitch VI+ tomorrow with a 150m open book corner at the top. Whole route is 380m tall or so! Bo)
Life out here is very simple. We sleep wherever we string our hammocks, wash in glacial rivers, eat very cheaply and climb. The mountains are stunning, it's all so big. And there's so much history here. God knows how people can cook themselves on a beach all day. My cough is loads better and I'm feeling strong.
And we saw a bear today. But it might have been a dog. We can't agree but took a picture!
Night all!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Day 3 - Cortina, Hexenstein
We awoke rested, cold and very psyched. The hammock city was packed up quickly and we drove on down into Cortina. We wandered around until we found a supermarket and stocked up on a couple of days food, investigated a few climbing shops where James bought a hammock and retired to the carpark for breakfast. Chris brought his chef skillzooorzzzz to bear and fried egg, tomato and cured meat were gratefully received.
We then headed up out of Cortina, into the mountains, heading for a route called Hexenstein. The weather was hot, hot, hot and the very steep walkin was really tough. A popular route it seemed as there were teams on every belay and two queueing in front of us at the base.
We climbed as two teams of two, one ahead of the other. The rock was of excellent quality, compact and not polished but gear placements were few and very far between. Belays were bolted and there were sparse pitons and bolts as runners but it still felt like soloing a lot of the time. Crux move for me was an awkward step into a squeeze over a massive jammed boulder - as I committed, the hex I'd placed rattled down the rope to the belay which wasn't ideal! I ran the end of pitch five and the final pitch together, I placed a hex near the belay and ran out a whole ropelength up a choss-gulley to get to the summit cross on rope stretch! Awesome! Except we took 7hrs all in to do 6 pitches with a ridiculous guidebook time of 1.5hrs. We need to get our speed up if we've any hope of doing the Stella Towers traverse.
Walked off by headtorch down WW2 tunnels and via ferrata, cooked in a lay-by and set up the hammocks in trees a bit further down the road.
Didn't take any pics on the phone unfortunately!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We then headed up out of Cortina, into the mountains, heading for a route called Hexenstein. The weather was hot, hot, hot and the very steep walkin was really tough. A popular route it seemed as there were teams on every belay and two queueing in front of us at the base.
We climbed as two teams of two, one ahead of the other. The rock was of excellent quality, compact and not polished but gear placements were few and very far between. Belays were bolted and there were sparse pitons and bolts as runners but it still felt like soloing a lot of the time. Crux move for me was an awkward step into a squeeze over a massive jammed boulder - as I committed, the hex I'd placed rattled down the rope to the belay which wasn't ideal! I ran the end of pitch five and the final pitch together, I placed a hex near the belay and ran out a whole ropelength up a choss-gulley to get to the summit cross on rope stretch! Awesome! Except we took 7hrs all in to do 6 pitches with a ridiculous guidebook time of 1.5hrs. We need to get our speed up if we've any hope of doing the Stella Towers traverse.
Walked off by headtorch down WW2 tunnels and via ferrata, cooked in a lay-by and set up the hammocks in trees a bit further down the road.
Didn't take any pics on the phone unfortunately!
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Monday 23 August 2010
Day 2 - France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hammock!
We set off from the service area we bivvied in at 0800 and an hour down the road we took a random junction off and found a big market about five mins off the main drag - result! Picked up some bread from a stall, dissuaded James from buying a whole rotisserie chicken for breakfast, then scored some Brie, Camembert, saussison sec and tomatoes from a supermarket before hitting the road as a very impressive thunderstorm hit with massive lightning strikes all around us. The team set up an impromptu sandwich production line in the car using what utensils could be found - the wok playing a key role!
The roads went on and on and on, with far more Payages in France than we expected. Mucho driving rock has been listened too, with Bonnie Tyler being particularly popular.
The German Autobahns weren't particularly exciting, too much traffic for people to go superfast. I'm on a big economy drive so have been keeping the speed steady and mpg up - 54.4mpg so far which is pretty awesome.
Driving through the bottom of Germany and catching our first glimpses of the Austrian Alps filled the car with psyche. Some great windy roads down through Austria but time was pressing and it was dark by the time we crossed over into Italy. We were pulled over by an Italian policeman and told we couldn't enter Italy - turned out it was simply because I'd accidentally turned on the front fogs and the Italians are scared of a car with all the electrics working!
We stopped about 2300 in a car park about 15mins drive from Cortina and bivvied in the woods over the road. Sleeping in the hammock was amazing - such a comfortable nights sleep. And it dropped 20 degrees during the night so I was glad of the big sleeping bag come morning. James is the only team member without a hammock and is now on a big hammock-purchasing drive!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The roads went on and on and on, with far more Payages in France than we expected. Mucho driving rock has been listened too, with Bonnie Tyler being particularly popular.
The German Autobahns weren't particularly exciting, too much traffic for people to go superfast. I'm on a big economy drive so have been keeping the speed steady and mpg up - 54.4mpg so far which is pretty awesome.
Driving through the bottom of Germany and catching our first glimpses of the Austrian Alps filled the car with psyche. Some great windy roads down through Austria but time was pressing and it was dark by the time we crossed over into Italy. We were pulled over by an Italian policeman and told we couldn't enter Italy - turned out it was simply because I'd accidentally turned on the front fogs and the Italians are scared of a car with all the electrics working!
We stopped about 2300 in a car park about 15mins drive from Cortina and bivvied in the woods over the road. Sleeping in the hammock was amazing - such a comfortable nights sleep. And it dropped 20 degrees during the night so I was glad of the big sleeping bag come morning. James is the only team member without a hammock and is now on a big hammock-purchasing drive!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday 22 August 2010
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Settling in for our first bivvy.
Slept in behind some trees in a service area last night. It was 20 degrees at bedtime and I was sweating buckets in my new down bag! Rained a little in the early morning but rolling over made it quite comfortable. We need to get a bit smarter with the car packing and unpacking - everything gets emptied on the pavement every time we need to find something.
Eta in Cortina is 1900 local time. Need to find some food urgently though - James has started eating his rollmat!
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Saturday 21 August 2010
Here we go, here we go, here we go!
Four brave souls, four hats, one housewifemobile.
We've arrived at Dover and are waiting to board the ferry. Pretty steady drive down, car is absolutely rammed with people and kit but we still averaged 53mpg! Morale is high, everyone is psyched for our first bivvy somewhere in the Reims area.
Chris has sourced a comprehensive range of dessert options which includes tropical fruit cocktail, lemon sponges, custard and golden syrup cakes. Pasta for dinner later. =o)
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