Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We’re all in wind down mode at ME HQ readying ourselves for the Christmas and New Year break after another busy fun packed year.

St Nic making the most of the recent conditions on the Ben

Big thanks to all our Pro partners, friends, retail partners and of course customers for your support over the past 12 months

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a great winter!

Roll on 2011

From the

Mountain Equipment Team

Please note the office will be closed from 1pm on Friday 24th December 2010 through to Tuesday 4th January 2011

Stephen Venables: In the Steps of Shackleton 2011 Tour

Mountain Equipment Pro partner Stephen Venables will be on the road again in January/February 2011 touring 17 venues around the UK with his lecture "In the Steps of Shackleton".



In the last ten years, internationally acclaimed mountaineer Stephen Venables has twice repeated Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famous crossing of South Georgia. Using his highly acclaimed photos and natural gifts as a storyteller, Stephen brings Shackleton’s treacherous expedition across Antarctica to life, retelling this fascinating tale of escape and survival - one of the last great epics of exploration.
“Fast-paced, gripping, witty and full of fascinating historical background.” Sir Chris Bonington
DATES & VENUES
JANUARY

Fri 28th WAKEFIELD Theatre Royal Wakefield 01924 211 311Sat 29th PITLOCHRY Festival Theatre 01796 484626
FEBRUARY

Tue 1st INVERNESS Eden Court 01463 234234Thu 3rd KIRKCALDY Adam Smith Theatre 01592 58 33 02Sun 6th SOUTHEND Palace Theatre 01702 351135Mon 7th BIRMINGHAM Town Hall Birmingham 0121 7803333Wed 9th CHESTERFIELD The Winding Wheel 01246 345 334Thu 10th SALFORD The Lowry 0843 2080 6010Sat 12th LLANDUDNO Venue Cymru 01492 872000Wed 16th MIDDLESBROUGH Middlesbrough Theatre 01642 729729Fri 18th FELIXSTOWE Spa Pavilion 01394 282126Sat 19th ST ALBANS The Maltings Arts Theatre 01727 844 222Mon 21st OXFORD Town Hall 0114 2508048Tue 22nd CREWE Crewe Lyceum 01270 537333Wed 23rd RADLETT The Radlett Centre 01923 859291Thu 24th BRECON Theatre Brycheiniog 01874 611622Sat 26th ILFRACOMBE Landmark Theatre 01271 32 42 42
additional information is available at www.speakersfromtheedge.com
you also check out Stephen's latest expedition report and photos from South Georgia at his blog here

Before the thaw

Before last week’s thaw set in I was starting to quite enjoy my day hits to the Lakes (well the whole two I managed to get in) for some winter climbing, wake up at six, jump in the car, a full day on the hill, good pub grub and back home by nine. None of those long caffeine fuelled drives north on a Friday evening and arriving back home in the wee hours of Monday morning a few hours before work.

A couple of weekends ago Leanne and I decided to head for the classic mixed route of the Lakes, Bowfell Buttress. Once again the weather was amazing and we walked up Bowfell looking across an alpine Lake District. Looking across at a very white looking Gimmer Crag we had a slight niggling feeling that maybe we should be over there. Given Kevin Avery’s report from that day and had we know how rare it is for the crag to be in winter condition maybe we should have... But we couldn’t complain, four pitches of classic mixed climbing with a bit of everything thrown in showed us why this is one the classic buttress routes of the Lakes.

Looking back at Gimmer Crag and down Langdale

2nd pitch

3rd pitch (going a bit wrong and coming up this grove instead of stepping on to the slab to the right... i think?)

4th pitch

The last couple of weekends in the Lakes, as i said above, have been amazing crisp alpine days, meaning the Gore Tex hasn't been out once. So clothing vise I've been using the following:

Atlus LS Zip T
Couloir Hooded Jacket
Shield Jacket
Fitzroy Jacket

G2 Ultimate Mountain Pants (with thin thermal bottoms underneath)

Randonee Gloves (I've used these in Alaska, Nepal, the Alps and Scotland, they just seem to work every where!)
Couloir Gloves
Powerstretch beanie

I've be taking my new Scarpa Phantom Guides out for the first time the last couple of weeks and so far I've been very impressed with them. Not as rigid as the previous model this makes the walk in/out a lot more comfy, which lets face it is a big part of winter climbing in the UK, but put a decent crampon on and they give ample support for technical climbing as well as being very light for their warmth.

Climb Magazine - Jan'11

Make sure you check out the January'11 issue of Climb magazine featuring articles by pro partners Andy Turner and Martin Moran.

Doug Scott Lecture tomorrow evening

If you happen to be in the Greater Manchester area tomorrow night then make sure you head down to the Heaton Moor Sports Club, Stockport at 7.30pm where you'll be able to catch Doug Scotts latest lecture.

Click the image for more information

The event has organised by the Rucksack Club and sponsored by Mountain Equipment - Tickets £3 to members or £8 on the door.

ME - Paul Smith Colab

Mountain Equipment and Paul Smith have hooked up once again this winter.

Paul Smith Japanese sub brand R.Newbold and Mountain Equipment Japan have just launched a limited edition collection exclusively for the Japanese market.

The range of 15 pieces centres around 4 down products which fuse Mountain Equipment down making expertise with a twist of Paul Smith design flare as you can see below






The pieces are available in Japan only but you can check out the whole collection at

www.rnewbold.com

If you happen to be in Japan we also have a pop up shop in the R Newbold/Paul Smith store Tokyo until the 26th December’10 - which will also be screening the recently released "The Architect" film featuring Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner.

Winter Climbing in the Lakes

Rich on the walk-in. Dove Crag on the left-hand skyline.

On Sunday I got up early and drove up to the lakes to meet with fellow ME collegue Rich. The plan was to climb some classic lines on Dove Crag but when we got there one of the routes wasn't formed and the other looked a little thin to go. So more "in" looking objectives were selected, and a good day was had by all with some of that fantastic weather we've been having thrown in for good measure. Have a look at the photos below.

Atop Hart Crag nr Fairfield at Dusk

Looking across to the Coniston Fells at sunset