Eat Natural

Just a quick one to say how happy I am with one of my new partners... Eat Natural.

Tasty treats in my climbing pack from now on! Yum yum :)

Christmas comes but once a year - and that’s fine by me!

I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas; in fact, I find it overindulgent, over expensive, and overrated. More than anything though, it’s the sickly pretence of the day that always puzzled me – we shower or families in lavish gifts, hand out a few awkward thankyou’s, smiles and hugs, only to later argue with said family over something completely trivial, because deep down we feel bitter and bored by the whole charade! Even wrapped in tinsel, does our affection on the 25th make up for the other 364 days of neglect...

Having said that, this Christmas I returned home for the first time in 5 years, and I genuinely had a lovely time. My family were angels, I didn’t eat too much of the wonderful food, and was even lucky enough to climb my oldest hard grit project on a crisp, snowy Boxing Day. It was awelcome surprise to feel so solid and in control on something which had once felt so hard. Infact, the last time I tried the route in question, there was on move entirely that i could not do – so big big changes are happening!

5 days at home really did seem like too little time – all thanks to the magic of the man in red (or should that be Jesus, I never really know). Wow, those are unexpected words from a notorious scrooge ;)

I’ll do my best to write a detailed description at somepoint soon, but as you might have realised from reading past blogs, I am a little bit behind the times, so will first try to catch up with tales of an unexpected Moroccan adventure...

Stay Tuned...

Photo Shot...

The road back to Margalef seemed long and slow, but eventually we found the Refugi, and soon after sleep found us. With the last day dawning clear and blue, we had many options for places to climb, but settled on the easy choice of Laboratory as unfinished business is a strong lure. For those that don’t know the Laboratory I will give you a quick run down...

Its very short, less than 20m, and steep, very steep, except at either end where it becomes very very steep. It is predominantly climbing on pockets, which are usually fairly good, except from the ones that are not, and are always covered in chalk. This means that it is usually possible to get a good idea of the route before even leaving the floor, and so a pretty good place for onsighting.

The left hand end of the cliff is home to the famous roof routes of Darwin Dixit and Demencia Senil, but nestled in amongst its more well known brothers is a route called Photo Shot. At 8b, Photo Shot is the cheapest of the routes in this sector, but since I have been called a scrooge on more than one occasion; it seemed like a good place to start my onsight bidding.

There isn’t really much to say about the actual ascent... apart from it went pretty well. I luckily chose the right holds at the right time, and after a short time found myself at the top. Something that is worth mentioning however is the holds on the route! Unlike a lot of the other routes in Margalef, and this sector particularly, they are not too painful. A welcome surprise, and one to seek out...

Onsighting Photo Shot, 8b in the Margalef Laboratory

After lowering off Photo Shot, I felt pretty energized and half decided to jump on an amazing 8b+ (sorry, I forget the name) a little to the left. Eventually, I decided to leave it for another visit as you only ever get the chance once, and to spend my last remaining energy on Ley Innata. It was a very good call not to try the 8b+ because I turned out to be pretty tired, and after one of the biggest fights of the trip just to claim my quickdraws back, the only thing left was the drive back home.

Next time I will be back on the Grit!

The next day was much brighter. The clouds had gone, the sky was blue, everything was set for a great day. Driving baby car up the windy valley to El Balco de l'ermita, we were reminded at every turn at how much potential still remains in this incredible place. The day was spent onsighting and flashing some of the areas classic routes, including Laura (the best route I have climbed in Margalef) and El Vuite Art. As the sun set we joined friends in the bar for a birthday drink – a fine end to the day...

Good Morning Margalef...

Iker's Van

Caroline By The Reservoir

But this wasn’t really the end! It was my birthday, and on ones birthday, one must party... thats just the rule!

Barcelona, like a jewel in the sun...

After a good old “knees up” in MOOG, Thursday was spent relaxing in the city before joining Jaume to a video presentation in the nearby city of Vic. Fixe had kindly allowed Caro and I to gate-crash their party, and after a quick tour of the factory (which was uncannily similar to Wild Country’s back home) we sat down to watch David Palmada high step his way up some muddy desert choss. I dont have so much “aid” experience, but the impressions I get are as follows:

1. It is very very slow

2. It can be very very scary

3. It is super geeky – lots of fiddling in small, weird gear, equalising knobs etc etc

So basically, its like trad climbing... sort of... ;p

We were all tired from the night before and a long day, but just before leaving, someone uttered the famous last words “do you guys fancy a quick beer” – which for some reason was soon followed by a “yes” from my mouth. I should have known better...

We stayed in one of the most beautiful apartments I have ever seen, full of class, beauty, modern gadgets and ancient art. The apartment belonged to a friend of Jaume, Xavier, and the following morning we drove the short way to Savassona to meet him for a day of bouldering.

If you can read Spanish, there is more info here, or keep on reading below if you are a language dunce like me!

The Team in Savassona

One Of Many Projects

Savasaona is a beautiful tranquil spot 1 ½ hours north east of Barcelona, where ancient ruins and sandstone boulders sit peacefuly in a small forest. Xavier is Papa Local of the area and he gave me the best tour I could have wished for. I saw all the hard boulders, all the projects, managed to repeat a few of them and even establish my own FA – a lovely highball arete that had unfortunatley seen the destruction of Xaviers knee a short while before.

Finishing Off A Scary 7c+ (second ascent)

There are two problems in particular that really stood out to me and will have to wait for another day. The first, La Madame, is a short bulging boulder, begining with compression pinches and finishing with the most disgusting of mantles – a fine effort from Edu Marin! The second, Maria – Alba, is a 15m slabbly 9a from no other than the Machine himself, Ramon! Yes, you heard that right, 15m, slabby, 9a!!!

La Madame

I will be back...

Hola mi Amigos,

My god it feels good to lie down. After 6 hours on the road, preceded by many days of cold, hard climbing and too little sleep, I am pooped (to put it politely). We left Francia on Monday for the (slightly) warmer climate of Spain and the plentiful, painful pockets of Margalef.

The first day was dank and cold, but first day psyche dragged Caro and I out of the refugi at around 11am to a deserted Laboratory , where we began the ongoing battle against numb fingers. Warming up was a relative term; 6b, 7b, 8b – numb, numb, numb. The clouds were persistent all day long, not once allowing the sun to shine on the cliff, but slowly (very slowly) feelings began to return and as a few other brave souls appeared at the crag, I felt ready to move on to the business of the day.

“Il Ley Innata”, product of an Animal and repeated only by a machine, was recommended to me by Iker Pou as a nice route to try that would suit a boulderer. It is worth mentioning at this point that Iker is a complete monster – arguably the best all-rounder in the world and no stranger to hard moves on small holds. This year he repeated Demencia Senil, returning to make this pretty special video, climbing the route 12 times in the process!!!

A few weeks previously I had watched a video of Ramon climbing “Ley”, happily chilling on holds, feet cutting left right and centre, and generally making it look like 7b. After this visual stimulation and the tip-off from Iker, I wandered over to the base of the route expecting... well... I don’t really know what I was expecting... but I do know I got a shock!

La ley innata Ramon Julian from Ramon Julian on Vimeo.

“My God, this is steep” was the first thing that came to mind, closely followed by “hmmmmm, those don’t quite look like the jugs from the video...” The first few moves were hard, but I optimistically told myself I was still warming up, gurning, gritting my teeth and slowly moving upwards the inviting 1/3^rd height jug.

Well, the jug turns out not to be so juggy, more a “mono stack” and a painful one at that! This was pretty much the theme for the whole route – its hard, fu%@ing hard, fu%@ing hard and fu%@ing painful, and that is exactly what one should expect from an 8c+/9a in the Laboratory.

Once I got my head around that things started to go smoother. I began to work out a sequence for me (surprise surprise, Ramons 1.59m method doesn’t quite fit) and by the end of the day I had made a few nice (small) links. I felt physically weak on the route, testament to a lack of bouldering for far too long. The positive side of this is progress should come quickly with a little directed effort. I’ll train power a little over the winter and play again in the spring.

More to come soon...

The Expedition Reports - 3 - The Wine Bottle

Many moons ago I tried to climb a sandstone sea stack off the South Devon Coast. The rock was terrible, the protection was hammered in 6" nails, and I got shut down hard. The route was graded E1, but for anyone who has climbed on any of our fair Isle's more adventurous cliffs, grades don't really mean so much when the rock is disappearing under your hands and feet.

I have climbed a bit of choss since that day, and become more acquainted with its peculiarities. I like the creative process of trying to protect a pitch where the rock is barely solid enough to allow upward movement - it brings together all the things I have learnt about trad and wraps them in up in one complex, ugly, but undeniably alluring bow.

The second route we climbed in the Ennedi was like the sea stack on steroids!

Here is my partner in crimes eye witness account of the adventure. Take it away Mark!

Enjoy...


Today was a day that I will never forget. A few hours ago James and I stood on the summit of the Wine Bottle, one of the coolest towers I’ve ever climbed. The summit was tiny, about the size of two dinner tables, but what made it especially sweet was how deep we had to dig to get up there.

Two days ago we were randomly questing across the desert, trying to find our next objective. It was actually kind of hard, not because we couldn’t find anything, but rather because there was so much to choose from. We came around a corner and there was the Wine Bottle. Just as the name implies, it’s shaped like a bottle: fat down low, then it abruptly narrows down into a slender 100 foot “neck,” topped with a bulging spout.

There was pretty much no discussion – it was such a stunning objective that everyone took it for granted that we had to climb it. There was one little problem, namely that the neck looked super sketchy: steep, loose, chossy and distinctly lacking in cracks or any obvious lines. I circumnavigated the tower, studying it from every angle, and finally decided on what I thought would be a good line.

Honnold was not inspired by the choss factor, so James and I geared up. James took the first pitch up to the base of the stalk. It looked short and easy but ended up being a 60m rope stretcher on bad rock with very little in the way of good gear. When I joined James on the ledge, we shared a look, and it went without saying that I was fully in for it.

There was a line of holds, but as I soon found out, the rock was dangerously loose and virtually every hand and foothold was removable. After ten feet of free climbing I resorted to aid. Thirty feet above the ledge I slung a “chicken head” and gently eased my weight onto it. As I was placing my next piece, the chicken head blew, but miraculously the sling still hung onto some barely adhered left over chunk of sandstone. Scared silly, I drilled a bolt, only to discover that the rock was so loose I couldn’t get it to tighten down. After it fell out, I pounded a piton into the hole, then decided I’d had enough.

Now it was James’ turn and I was interested to see what this master trad climber could make of the pitch. He free climbed to my highpoint and made a few tentative moves above, then decided to take a hang on the manky pin and think things over. For a brief moment it looked like he would bail too, but then James dug deep and set off again. He pulled some hard moves above the bad bolt and I knew that he was committed – it was too hard to downclimb.

Ten feet higher he set a couple shaky pieces, hung off them, and placed another sketchy drilled piton. After equalizing the pin with the bad gear, James free climbed out around a corner into a shallow groove. As he worked his way upwards, a steady stream of loose rocks rined down onto the ledge. More bad gear and hard climbing followed, but James somehow kept his cool and eventually reached a solid crack, which he jammed to the summit. When he topped out, his yell of triumph reverberated across the desert.

I managed to follow James lead, barely, and soon we were sharing a high five and gawking at our surreal surroundings. The Ennedi Desert stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, and it really sunk in just how far in the middle of nowhere we were. Unclimbed spires stretched to the distant horizon, and we could only marvel at how many other classic first ascents like this one still lay out there waiting… (The Wine Bottle 5.11+, A0 R/X 90m)

Mark Synnott

Caroline Climbs Guerre D'usure - 8C

There are more Expedition reports on the way soon, but first I wanted to share the news of Caroline’s ascent of Guerre D’usure. Guerre is a very technical, resistance 8c at Claret in the South of France and is her 6th route of the grade.

An initial “easy” wall leads to a boulder problem through the mid-height roof. After a small shake and chalk on a positive finger edge, roughly 20 intense moves find you again at good holds and the belay. Caro made the route look deceptively easy on her 4^th try. Hopefully we should have some nice pictures soon...

To see the line, here is a picture of Luis Vera I shamelessly stole from 8a.nu