With a relatively early 2:45am start, we made good time up the glaciers and rock finish to the summit of Dufourspitze (4634m) in around 7 hours. The descent route was much more exciting with some soloing of fixed ropes over the top of the Spanish and a few monster crevasses to contend with.
To cap off the weekend, a good lead from Al up the corner followed by my first E1 in quite some time with Cemetery Gates. We were somewhat humbled to watch a couple of lads ticking almost every route on both walls, but otherwise a brilliant weekend of climbing in North Wales.
A cold autumnal morning for some mountain trad with Ross. We headed for Eagle Front on Eagle Crag, Buttermere, and I was lucky to get all of the best pitches to lead. Great climbing if a little chilly at times.
Day 4 in the valley and a big day out for the Croatians, Andrew and myself. We beat the queues to the base of the route which gave us time to appreciate the 300m+ of awesome climbing overlooking El Capitan to our right. Andrew and I swung leads to the top and swept through the multiple abseils to be back just before dinner.
My first sport climbing in about 5 years and a chance for some sunny rock routes before winter began! Mark and I flew to Malaga and hired a car (for £11!) to spend four days climbing at Frontalas, Turon, Valle de Abdalajis and El Torcal de Antequera. There was only one small injury, which slowed the pace a little towards the end of the trip.
Some people do marriage courses before they get married. We do klettersteig courses.
