George Cave

Demo Route

An early evening rush with Ross to Demo Route after the rain cleared. Being a military man, he insisted we followed it up with Civvy Route, fortunately for his career he got the lead clean.

Chair Ladder

Ita had never been climbing outdoors before, so Cat and I took her in at the deep end with a five pitch tidal sea cliff route at Chair Ladder. We initially ab'd in to the wrong route, and then traversed across too low so by the time we topped out of Pendulum Chimney we'd finished seven pitches of climbing.

Ross and I finished on the Hard Rock route Bishop's Rib, although I fell off on a section helpfully described by Ross as "that was so easy, how did you manage to come off?".

Dagala Thousand Lakes

Today we hiked to 4600m, just below the sacred 5000ers on the route between Labatama and Panka. The famous "Thousand Lakes Trek" finally delivered some lakes, along with endless vistas of the surrounding high peaks.

Into the mountains of Bhutan

Our trek into the high mountains of Bhutan had began and we eased our way up the hillside to a camp at 3300m amongst the trees. The next day, our procession of horses, cook, guides and horseman hiked to the pass at 4300m before descending to make camp on the plateau at Labatama. Behind us, the 7000m peaks of the Tibet-Bhutan border ringed the horizon, with Kangchenjunga just beyond.

Paro Taktsang

Erinna and I did our best Kate and Will impression in the heavy rain as we hiked to Paro Taktsang, the Tiger's Nest Monastery, on our second day in Bhutan.

Taktsang Palphug Monastery, the Tiger's Nest, is sat 900m above the town of Paro in western Bhutan. In the 8th century, Guru Rinpoche flew here on the back of a tiger from Tibet and mediated for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days & 3 hours. Now it's a prominent Buddhist sacred site, and a beautiful pilgrimage spot 2 hours trek up from the valley. For the lazy tourists, a horse ride will take you half way.

Skiing in Zell

A weekend skiing at Zell, catching the last of the (rapidly melting) off-piste tree skiing.