Double Barrelled Fun

A weekend of contrasts both climbing and weather wise. I actually managed to get out climbing both days for once, it's only taken all summer!

Saturday saw Simon and myself umming and ahhing before heading to another recently developed crag, this time it was Comb Hill which is in the dry valley above and behind Malham Cove. I'd run past this several times on my training for the Bob Graham and had given it a quick once over but hadn't really thought about it. Times and tastes change and after parking at the top of the Cove road we headed down to the crag, maybe ten minutes walk tops.

The place was Baltic!! The thin north wind was whipping down the valley rather than over the top of the crag. Still while we were here might as well get some routes done. Two F6a+s and a F6b later and we decide that we'd be better off out of the wind so it was down to Giggleswick South.

Two groups of friends were already there so it was quite sociable. In the sun it was warm but there was still a distinct lack of heat once the sun went behind a cloud. Another six routes and we've had enough as it's getting towards evening and cooling down.

The following day I have the car so it's plan A for Gaz and myself, down to the Peak and gritstone at Burbage. I hadn't climbed in the Peak since my accident so the first few routes solo (deja vu!) were a bit tense and I was definitely happier once the ropes went on. By the time we'd done half a dozen routes including some delightful gritstone HVS cracks with all they entail :-) it was getting time to go given it's a two hour drive.

This week has been a bit topsy turvy - the cleats on my road cycling shoes were wearing thin so time for a new pair. One trip to the local bike shop and they were fitted Monday evening. Tuesday morning and the weather is fine so I head off to work on the bike. Or rather tried to. My feet were flying out of the pedals so it's the car again. Asking around at work it seems that Look changed their pedal style, or at least the size of them, around three years ago! Brilliant! One web order later and I've the original style heading my way.

With the lack of exercise on Tuesday I actually went for a run on Wednesday evening, only two miles and very slowly but it was a run. My knees haven't felt too bad over the last couple of days though there is a bit of delayed muscle soreness. Today has been fine weather so I went to work on the bike, at least the cleats fit.

Lazy days.

The weather played up a bit at the weekend so I didn't really get much done. We were intending to do the Bronte Big K on Sunday but we hadn't pre-entered so it would have cost us an extra fiver (making it £30 each) which we wouldn't have minded but when we woke at 7am it was chucking it down so we thought better of it. As it happened, it rained all day and we hardly went out of the house. Saturday wasn't really much better, just lighter rain and a few gaps between showers though it really depended on where you were.

Biked in to work most days this week, Thursday being the exception due to the forecast but as it turned out, it wasn't that bad a day. At least I'm getting some exercise even if it is of short duration.

Following Andy's suggestion of high dosages of Cod liver oil I've been doing a bit of investigation. For once Wikipedia didn't come to the rescue as it appears that the relevant article is currently a thinly disguised advert! Once you've got past the pseudo scientific stuff on the first page or two that Google returns it becomes quite interesting.

An Australian paper looking at the effects of Cod liver oil states that certain oils - namely 1n3 (the omega-3s favoured of advertisers) are beneficial but that it isn't just augmenting your diet that needs to be done, rather you need to alter the proportion of these fats to their close relation 1n6. Guess which society has got it wrong? 1n6, is everywhere in western diets. Margarine, mayonaisse, you name it, it is likely to be based on the 1n6 fats.

The upshot of all this is that taking cod liver oil while not having been proven beyond scientific doubt to be of help, it is not going to be harmful. Though it seems like I should have been taking it for the last thirty years as it's more effective in prevention rather than cure.

Away from all this, my knee has definitely been hurting for the last day. I think it started when baking a cake, actually gingerbread (don't ask!), last night and it locked in a funny way. One one positive side effect of not running is that I'm becoming more flexible in my right hip which has been significantly less mobile than my left for a while. Quite probably because I've been adjusting my gait to avoid stress on my knee.

All in the Mind?

A bit of a quiet week really. The usual one day out climbing on Sunday saw us visit a new (to us - it's actually about 200 million years old) crag - Castlebergh at Settle. Developed by the Leeds Mafia a couple of years ago, we'd heard varying reports about it not all of which came from reliable sources. Plus there is a lot of The Emperor's new Cloth about new developments and it's usually best to let the hyperbole settle (no pun intended) before trying it for yourself.

So it proved - those routes to the left of the steep part are mediocre at best, crap at worst, definitely not worth the multiple stars that the download from the Leeds Wall website would have you believe. Perhaps more of note was the average age of the teams there - probably close to sixty - we felt quite young! The youngest person there was in their forties.

By the time we'd worked our way in to the steep bit we didn't feel up to the bouldery starts so decided to head over to Giggleswick North as there were some friends there. As it turned out there were lots of cars at the layby so quite a busy day. Our friends were on the first buttress so we nipped up an F6a we hadn't done before and then wandered over to the further buttresses which to be honest offer better climbing.

It turned out that we knew most of the teams on the crag, again most of those present were in their fifties, the only people that weren't were those in the only team we didn't know. A sign of the times I suppose.

Simon fancied Bad Genie at F6c. We'd looked at the start of this before and couldn't figure out just how to make it go at the given grade. Moving a metre or so to the left proved easier. I seem to have trouble with getting going on F6c, I'm fine at F6b+ but as soon as I move up a grade all the smoothness and ability seems to desert me. It has to be a mental problem as the moves themselves aren't difficult but I don't seem to be able to convince myself of this. I couldn't work out the final move over the final bulge on to easy ground so lowered down. Simon managed to get it first go, making a move out right at the top rather than straight up as I'd been trying. I was definitely tired though as even on a top-rope I struggled. Time to call it a day.

I don't know if my knee is definitely worse or I just think it is now that I know the problem. It may be that I sought medical analysis just at the time it was getting worse. Alternatively I may just be subconsciously focusing my attention on it. Whatever I'm wincing at times even when walking and occasionally when setting off cycling. I still haven't settled on a strategy to handle the arthritis other than continue to lose weight.  Joint supplements are often recommended but a recent study casts doubt on their effectiveness. Best save my money then. Maybe it's all in the mind.

An Anniversary or Two

It's been a year since I had my accident. I hadn't realised until Cath started going on about not falling off before I headed out to climbing on Saturday. Perhaps not a brilliant year, frustrating definitely but one that just needed working through.

As mentioned, we headed out climbing on Saturday. Given the recent fine weather we were going to chance Trow Gill, it takes a while to dry out and it was getting late in the season so there might not be another chance to get up there. Another reason was that Simon had never been. We were going to meet Mike and Gaz there.

The crag was rather dirty, perhaps not surprising given the rains through the middle of summer, also it's a 40min walk which puts many off. A nice F6a+ warm up then on to Alick which I've done before but for some reason I though was F6b. At the top I thought I was struggling but then after his ascent Simon felt it was F6b+. A quick look at the guide confirmed it. Doh! Close by were a couple of routes that I hadn't done before so we ticked them off.

Mike Bullough on the crux of Alick at Trow Gill

A bit of lunch and we reckoned that we really ought to get on something harder. The central corner of the face is taken by Clink - F7a and equipped with staples rather than mechanical bolts so bailing out would be a bit easier. Simon had a really good effort, only needing to to rest on the top bolt before working out the crux sequence to the belay. I was feeling a bit jaded so tried it on a top rope. There was a really tenuous move at half height but I couldn't even make the move to the top bolt and struggled with the move past it. Mike and Gaz also had a top-rope on it. One more route and we were ready to head home.

I've been biking in to work most days - the only day that I didn't, Tuesday, the trains were late! This extra bit of exercise combined with being quite strict about what I'm eating means that I've lost quite a bit of weight already. Just need to keep going with it though it would be better if I lost weight at a slower rate so that the body can adjust rather than react. Even on the bike I can feel my knee playing
up at times. Will just have to see how things go.

25 years ago! Dai Lampard on "The Ramp" on the Original 1938 Route on the North Face of the Eiger.

Another anniversary that I missed was the twenty fifth anniversary of succeeding on the North Face of the Eiger. We actually completed the route on the last day of August 1985. Given the increased summer temperatures in the alps summer ascents of the Eiger have become increasingly rare and it is more likely to hear of a winter ascent than a summer one. So I have to say I feel lucky to have done it when I did. Definitely one of my life changing moments, as was last year!

Blue is the Colour!

Well the bike ride went OK apart from the weather which was a bit pants! Some big hefty showers combined with a strong, ahem, breeze made for interesting riding.

Our route was out of Embsay, home to most of the participants, over Halton Heights, down to Bolton Bridge then along to Ilkley via the steep hill of Langbar then over Addingham and Silsden moors before heading up to Lothersdale then back through Skipton. Quite hilly then! Halton Heights and Langbar weren't too bad as the wind was behind us but heading down in to Ilkley was quite dicey as the wind was now coming from the side and gusting through gates and gaps in the hedges. Heading out of Ilkley we were heading directly in to the wind so it became hard work, as was the climb up on to Addingham moor. We then cut round on to Silsden moor where the others headed straight back towards Skipton while Steve and I headed home - uphill and in to the wind again - it was a struggle to keep moving even on the flat. A total of 26 miles in all. No idea of the average speed but not huge I would have thought.

Sunday was climbing with Simon again. A late start given the showers during the morning. We took a punt on Blue Scar being dry, and it was! Apart from a couple of small streaks it was bone dry. After a couple of warm-ups we headed underneath the arch, an area I'm not too keen on as the path at the foot crosses the debris of a fairly recent rockfall from said feature - gulp! Our target was Scarface - F6c. I headed up to see how far I'd get as much as anything.

Getting the clips in almost proved to be the hardest thing, the bolts were just too high for comfort from the good holds. Consequently a couple of rests later I was at the lower-off. Simon managed it first go. However in the latest guide to the crag this is now given F6c+ so I don't feel so bad, definitely (another) one for the redpoint. After another (undergraded) route we were done.

Monday was climbing with Mike and Steve. They wanted to go to Blue Scar! Slightly different this time in that we headed to the left hand side for some trad routes rather than the sports fare we've been doing on previous visits. It's a long time since I've climbed on this bit, about twenty years in fact! First up was the only real option for a warm up - Some Blue For You at E1 5a. Steve set off first, Mike and I were going to lead on his gear (the craftiness of age!).

Steve leading Some Blue for You at Blue Scar

Now Steve hadn't been climbing for ages so took a while to get going, in fact he probably took longer for the first ten feet than the rest of the route. The upper wall is protected almost entirely by threads, one of which needs two 8ft slings to make use of! After Mike had done it, it was my turn and it did feel very easy climbing, there wouldn't have been much difference in putting the gear in as most of it could be placed from restful positions.

After threading the belay we decided to top-rope an E3 to the left and since I was already tied in then I may as well go first. Let's just say I didn't climb it in particularly good style, though Mike and Steve did. Mike and Steve then decided that they would top-rope Unreal but that meant climbing a grotty VS to set up the ropes so I ducked out of that. Given that I'd struggled on the previous route I wasn't too keen to do so again, plus I had done it several times in the past.

With a little time left we headed over to the right wing and did a couple of sports routes before the midges started to get bad and Mike had to get back for his wife's birthday.

My knees were a little sore after the bike ride - possibly because of the steep climbs and subsequent effort involved - so I don't think I'll be doing much running for a while as that is only likely to exacerbate the condition or at least have me hobbling for a day or two. Have done a bit of internet research on arthritis it seems that one of the best things to do, and one of the simplest and cheapest, is to lose weight. The best way is to take it easy - a pound or two per week at most - cutting out snacks and the like is also an easy hit. I'll just have to be strict about things. Trying to do too much will just cause the famine response where the body hoards fat because it thinks you are heading for a lean time.

With the good weather I've also been biking in to work and so far there hasn't been too much complaint from my knees. Looks like the good weather will continue in to the weekend so more biking and climbing ahead :-)

Not what we thought it was

Following last week's blast biking in Scotland, this week has been particularly lazy for one reason(excuse) or another.

In fact the only real exercise I've done has been to get out on the road bike one evening for about 50mins, though it was a fairly hilly route but then they are all hilly routes round us. I might have gone for a run but for my knee (more of which in a moment) but since it was a fine evening I thought I'd try the bike, plus I'm heading out for a ride on Saturday with a group of MAMILs (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) who do a lot of biking.  A road bike feels totally different to a mountain bike, less efficient brakes for a start, so I took it steady especially, somewhat paradoxically, on the downhills - I'm wary of coming off given the state of my left elbow and that I'm still suffering in my right shoulder from the last time I came off a road bike some two years ago! The middle part of the ride was nice and flat though so I got a good blast in, keeping up at around 22 MPH.

The results of the MRI came back. There is no meniscal tear in the knee but there is moderate arthritis. The original diagnosis of a meniscal tear was based on my description of how it became apparent:  a sudden pain when pulling up after a run along with occasional partial collapse of the leg - i.e the leg giving way under me. It makes sense really that it is arthritis since I have it in the other knee.

I'm not sure where this leaves me though - in a way if it had been a meniscal tear then the choices would have been easy - an operation or no op. With arthritis it's going to be along the lines of long-term management. At the moment things aren't too bad but then I've not really been doing much running. Will just have to see how things develop.

Mountain Biking in Scotland

Just returned from a week's mountain biking in Scotland with Cath. Did some excellent rides and some not so good plus a day on the routes in Leanachan Forest.

We'd booked a chalet at Bunroy Park in Roy Bridge on the basis that if the weather was poor then at least we'd have somewhere to dry and sort things out rather than have to struggle camping. We've been to Scotland in August before! Getting there took a bit longer than we had planned - an accident on the M8 in Glasgow meant an hour and half delay in getting through the city. This combined with the holiday traffic meant that we took nearly eight hours to get to Roy Bridge (it only took six going steady going home).

We'd got a mountain biking guide to "Wild Trails" in Scotland. One was just up the road on the Ardverikie estate. The estate house is well known as it is the setting for the BBC series "Monarch of the Glen" but this ride heads over towards Loch Ericht on good tracks then passing round Loch Pattack before a steep climb and descent back over to the Laggan side before heading back along loch shores to the start.

Loch Pattach. The route went over the col just right of centre.

With good sunshine and little breeze it was a really nice ride with great views.

The following day we headed off for another route out of the guide. We had thought of doing this ride last year when coming back from a trip to the Outer Hebrides but the weather had been poor so we didn't bother. On paper the route, Glengarry Circuit, was similar to that around Ardverikie - easy fire roads then a climb to and descent from a high col before more fire roads back to the start. On the ground it couldn't have been more different! Once leaving the fire roads, the climb to the col was several hours of pushing and carrying over peat hags, tufted grass and heather. The supposed brilliant descent was largely washed out and you'd need to be better riders than us to ride it all. A bit of a disappointment after the previous day.

One of the things I'd wanted to do was a two day ride with an overnight stop in a bothy. The guidebook described one such ride which circumnavigated the Mamores and Ben Nevis/Grey Corries ranges. However the first day was mainly on estate tracks and having walked/run on them before I knew they weren't desperately interesting so I came up with a variation: get the train to Corrour station then head down to Loch Treig before following the river up to the bothy then do the described second day. Bikes go free on the train but you need to pre-book them. That done we got packing, trying to get all we'd need in to 25L sacks.

Our itinerary actually makes a decent day ride but splitting it into two meant that we wouldn't feel rushed, plus we could take time getting used to riding whilst wearing larger and heavier sacks than we were used to. It also meant that we could get the midday train rather than the early one.

Luibelt in the trees on the left. Ben Nevis and Aonach Beag in the centre distance with Meanach bothy to the right.

I have to say that the guard on the train was very friendly, not really had a bad experience on this line. Getting off at Corrour we remembered that we'd forgotten coffee powder so a visit to the cafe (now run by the SYHA) to try a bit of begging was in order - we also bought some tea and cakes while we were there!

The direct path looked a bit boggy following the recent rain so we took the estate tracks heading east before turning and descending to Loch Treig. The good tracks continue around the head of the loch until the remote Creaguaineach Lodge is reached, apparently the postman used to deliver here! From here we followed the Abhainn Rath past Staoineag bothy ( a lovelier spot is hard to imagine) until the valley opened out and we got to Meanach itself. Much of the second half of the route had been intermittent riding, maybe on the bike for 50 metres then a couple of ditches or rock steps to negotiate then a bit more riding etc. It's not like the purpose built trails which are designed to be ridden.

The bothy is well maintained (by the MBA) and has two rooms one of which has wooden flooring which makes a lightweight trip all the easier - we'd only got cut-down sleeping mats. It's also got a resident mouse called Clive! Another advantage of doing short overnight trips is that invariably you get things about your kit wrong: too much of this; not enough of that; should have brought that piece of kit; never used that; etc. Bothying and bivvying is an ongoing art and with practice you do get close to an ideal set of stuff to take.

The following day began with a big push up to the col above the Lairig Leacach, you could ride short sections where it levelled out. Once at the top there was a brilliant kilometre or so of singletrack before it became a recently bulldozed track - apparently the singletrack used to continue all the way to the bothy at Leacach. Once at Leacach it was all good surfaced landrover track down to the River Spean before a couple of miles of road to finish. Since leaving Corrour we had only seen one fisherman in the distance and the crew of two Tornadoes as they flew by the bothy.

Our final day began with heavy rain. By dinner time we could no longer put it off so headed to Leanachan forest to do some of the trails there. As it happened we timed it just right as the rain stopped about ten minutes after we set off on the first trail. After the grandeur of biking in the highlands pretty well any trail was going to disappoint, and so it proved. The "World Champs" trail was effectively a single climb followed by one long section of descent of varying technicality. Having done that we headed out on the "Ten under the Ben" trail. This is used for the annual race of the same name, suffice to say that for three quarters of the trail I was using the big front ring with high gears. Stuck in the middle of all this cruising was a short downhill section, including about 50m graded black. All a bit unsatisfying really, it is as if they are training routes for the main event here - the downhill course - plenty of riders doing that but in the whole week we only actually met two other riders out riding - near the end of the Ten under the Ben course.

In fact we only met a handful of people each day, usually Munro baggers, everywhere was decidedly quiet despite the amount of traffic we had seen heading north on the Saturday.

The forecast now is for "mixed" weather, let's just hope it doesn't put all the crags out of condition.