Dave MacLeod - The Indian Face E9 6c

Dave tying in to lead Indian Face

Congratulations to Dave MacLeod on his repeat of The Indian Face E9 6c on Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, North Wales yesterday in some what less than perfect conditions.

Checkout the full story over at Dave's blog

An evening in the Churnet Valley

Since moving to the edge of the Peak District almost a year ago, I have been spending lots of time on grit edges and in limestone dales but have been rather neglectful of sandstone, specifically sandstone conglomerate.

I had no plans for Wednesday evening beyond climbing, and the long sunny evening made it a perfect opportunity for my first trip south to the Churnet Valley. At 1hr and 25mins drive it is a rather long way for an evening session but what I found made the drive more than worthwhile.

I headed to Wright's Rock as it was the shortest walk and found a steep crag with flat grassy landings. The rock featured pockets, slopers, wierd tweaky pebble holds and lots of steepness and roofs.

After a giving me a quick tour the only other climbers there left and I had the crag to myself for a couple of hours. It was really good getting stuck into steep problems and good friction. It was a world away from last Sunday evening at Mother Cap, behind Millstone Edge: Groups of tourist wandering around, midges and greasy holds.

I walked back to the car at 10pm, in day light, already thinking of the tick list for my next trip.

Still actual grass below some problems!

Setting sun, trees, quiet.

Slacklines are now online

Head over to the Mountain Equipment site now and check out our new collection of Slackline's for Summer '10.

Heinz Zak on a high line at Zugspitze

We've had huge success with our Slackline's across Europe over the past 2 years and we are now bringing them to the UK.

Designed and tested by Mountain Equipment Pro Partner Heinz Zak we offer 3 styles to suit all needs from the entry level Chill 15m with its wide 40m line to the longer length Pro 25m.



For more info head over to the product pages here

also checkout our German micro site here

UK stockist currently include:
Mountain Intelligence - Leeds
Needle sports - Keswick
Outside - Hathersage, Calver,
Mountain Wild - Hebden Bridge
BAC - Elland, Leeds

Mountain Equipment's Martin Dixon on UKC

Martin leading Spartan Slab just before the rockfall

Our very own Martin Dixon - Sales representative for the North of the UK and Ireland along with climbing partner Chris Hague from retailer Mountain Intelligence witnessed a major rock fall at Etive Slabs, Glen Etive last Thursday while they were on the last pitch of Spartan slab.

Large sections of Rock which came off the crag

Luckily it was a quiet day at the crag and nobody was injured, had it been weekend it could have been a different story.

You can read Chris's full account over at UKC now here

The British Tahu Ratum Expedition

Mountain Equipment is proud to announce our support of The British Tahu Ratum Expedition 2010.

The British Tahu Ratum Expedition team is made up of 3 young British climbers Tom Ripley, Luke Hunt and Hamish Dunn (pictured above). The aim of the expedition is to make the first ascent of the NW Ridge of Tahu Ratum, in the Hispar Muztagh region of the Karakorum.

Tom gives us a little more info

“This will be our first greater ranges expedition and we will attempt to climb the unclimbed NW Ridge of Tahu Ratum in alpine style. We won’t use bottled oxygen, Diamox, high altitude porters or fixed ropes. It will just be the three of us, carrying all our kit, food and fuel. After a period of acclimatisation we’ll start at the bottom and attempt climb to the top. We’ll attempt to free climb the route wherever possible, but no doubt we’ll end up using the odd aid or rest point.

Tahu Ratum photo - Lee Harrison

Tahu Ratum (6651m) is an immaculate granite pyramid, which rises approximately 1500 m from the Khana Basi glacier. The Mountain has seen one previous ascent. In July 1977, a Japanese team made the mountain’s first ascent via SW Ridge. More recently, American Kyle Dempster attempted to aid solo the West Face in August 2008, but retreated 200 metres beneath the summit due to lack of food.”

You can follow/support the guys as they prepare at their blog and facebook and also check back here for the latest news

The Tatu Ratum Expedtion has also been awarded a Mark Clifford Mountain Grant for 2010 more info here

Vacancy - Junior Sales Representative

At Mountain Equipment we are committed to providing our retail partners with excellent support and service by delivering first class sales representation and staff training. Having achieved significant UK and European sales growth year-on-year, we require a Junior Sales Representative to support the UK Sales effort.

The successful candidate will report directly to the UK Sales Manager. Main responsibilities will include supporting the Regional Sales Managers to provide comprehensive sales and service to existing and new retail customers across the UK A large part of the job will involve delivering excellent retail support and staff training to our multiple accounts.

The job will require you to be based at our offices in Hyde, Greater Manchester. You will be required to spend 2 to 3 nights per week away from home and attend monthly meetings when required.

The ideal candidate will have retail experience within the outdoor industry, together with a good knowledge of the ‘selling process’ and the wider aspects of the outdoor trade.

Active participation in mountain sports would be an advantage.

If you are interested in applying for the position, or would like more details please email a CV and covering letter to chris.smith@mountain-equipment.co.uk

Closing date for applications will be 1st July 2010

Summer training part 2

A couple of weeks ago we finished off the last of our summer training for the guides course, four full days over in North Wales based out of Plas y Brenin in pretty much perfect weather. Compared with a lot of the other courses there was a lot more 'classroom' time with a number of talks and discussions of all aspects of guiding from client psychology, to making the most out of the internet for marketing.

However the main program for the week was looking at coaching methods. The first morning was spent inside discussing how people learn and looking at teaching/coaching methods, for such a vast subject we only had a short time to briefly touch on it but learnt a lot nevertheless. Putting it all into practise that afternoon we ran a mock fundamental of climbing workshop in the sun at the RAC boulders. Tuesday was a day out on the hill to look at how to teach and assess navigation. Assessment isn't common role for a guide but once qualified there is always the chance of working on ML, MIA etc mountain qualifications where you will be assessing navigational and various other mountain skills. This turned into more of a day of navigation training for me. I knew before hand that it’s a skill I’m weak at (bit of a recurring theme here!)...even though I’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains in Europe it's usually only when you get caught out in bad weather when ski touring that the map comes out, so lots of night nav and days out in crap weather for me this summer.

It was back inside for a full day on Wednesday for a very varied day of talks and many coffee breaks. We finished the day off by putting together a full program for an alpine preparation course we were going to be giving the next day. Working with Andy and James we put together a program that was based around the centre in the morning and going to a local crag in the afternoon. Our students were the new centre assistants from Plas y Brenin and it was good to be working with genuine students rather than mock students where it feels a bit strange and hard to teach people things that you know they are very experienced at already.

Neither Nic, Oli or Lawrance had any alpine experience but all three had aspirations to visit the alps soon and most importantly were really psyched to learn the necessary skills. Through the morning, using various areas of the centre, we covered how to take coils, moving on a glacier and prusiking practise. Over a coffee break we spent a good while flicking through guide books and maps whilst chatting about a typical alpine day and the differences between climbing in the UK and the Alps. After lunch we headed down the road to the small crag of The Pinnacles right in Capel Curig where we practised crevasse rescue and how to move together on classic alpine ground.

That’s it now till the summer assessment in mid September, again over in North Wales. I’m going to be working in Yorkshire for most of the summer but aiming to spend a few weeks before the assessment in North Wales putting it all together to hopefully go into the assessment as prepared as possible...

Vacancy - Purchasing (Germany)

In unserem Team ist noch ein Platz frei...

Mitarbeiter (w/m) für den Einkauf gesucht

-Internationale Verbindungen zu Handelspartnern pflegen
-Komplexe Arbeitsbereiche überblicken
-Lösungen für die täglichen Herausforderungen finden
-Kommunikation auf allen Kanälen in perfektem Englisch
-Eigenverantwortliche Betreuung des Einkaufs

Das umschreibt im Wesentlichen die Position in unserem jungen und
unkonventionellen Team, die so bald wie möglich neu zu besetzen ist.
Authentische Begeisterung für Berg-und Outdoor-Sportarten ist nicht
zwingend erforderlich, aber hilfreich.

Deine Aufgaben:

• Bedarfsermittlung
• Disposition bei unseren Lieferanten im Ausland und Bestellverfolgung
• Fracht-, Zoll-und Speditionswesen
• Rechnungsprüfung
• Stammdatenpflege
• Reporting an die Geschäftsleitung und Buchhaltung

Invia ist als Vertriebsorganisation seit über 20 Jahren in der Outdoor-Branche
tätig und hat sich mit den Marken Mountain Equipment, Gregory Packs,
Bridgedale, Satmap und Techtrail im Fachhandel etabliert. Wir betreuen
Fachhändler in Deutschland, Österreich, in der Schweiz und in Südtirol.
Unser Unternehmen befindet sich in der Nähe von Wolfratshausen.

Interessiert? Mehr Informationen zu uns findest Du auf http://www.invia.de/.

Bitte schick Deine Bewerbungsunterlagen per Mail direkt an Thomas Strobl.
Kontaktadresse: thomas.strobl@invia.de

Mark Walker: The life of an Aspirant Guide.1

Just returned from a Mountain Leader Assessment with a couple of nights in the Welsh mountains. Directing these courses is such a dream when the candidates are good! It was stunning out there with dry days and perfect sunsets.

Photo: Mark Walker

Space is always of a premium on these mini breaks and to move around checking these guys out, my kit has to be light as well! I was using a Xero 350 sleeping bag. The conditions were pretty warm at night but the bag performed well and i wasn't bathed in sweat.

The full length zip was a bonus. Superlight and compact and just enough space for me in side. Im off tonight to work in the Alps for my first season as an Aspirant Guide. Its still pretty cold high up. I wonder how the bag will perform. I'll keep you posted!

Mark Walker is an Aspirant Mountain Guide as well as being a holder of the Mountain Instructor Certificate qualification. He is a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) and lives near Llanberis in North Wales.

Baffin Big walls 2010 - Arctic Monkeys

the summit

Congratulations again to Mike 'Twid' Turner, Stuart McAleese and Mark Thomas on establishing their new route Arctic Monkeys (VI A4 V+ 1400m) on Sail Peaks, in Stewart Valley, Baffin Island.

base of the new route

The trio reached the base of the mountain at the start of May as you'll have read here at the blog and spent the past three weeks forging a line which Turner had spotted during a previous expedition back in 1999.

Mark climbing through the storm

Climbing capsule style, they spent 18 consecutive nights in portaledges on the wall and encountered difficulties up to A4 on the 1400m line. Furthermore, they were severely put to the test by poor weather and cold conditions (down to -20°C)

Despite running out of food the trio persevered and topped out at 16.00hrs on the 24th May in perfect conditions, before abseiling off rapidly and returning to civilization to escape the thawing fjord.

Stu takes a break in the portaledge

We'll have more information and photos from the guys over the next week but you can check out a full interview with Twid over at Planet Mountain here

Anubis - Kit list

Mountain Equipment Pro Partner Dave MacLeod give us his round up on Anubis


Photo - Smiles after bum sliding number 4 gully from the topout on Anubis, and happy to have warm gloves on again...

"Readers of my own blog might already have read I just completed a long term project of climbing Anubis (summer E8) on Ben Nevis in winter conditions. Normally on hard routes, I don’t have to give much conscious thought to choosing kit for the ascent - climbing is such a routine for me that it’s automatic; I already know exactly what to wear/use without thinking and I know my kit and how it works in different situations inside out.

This climb was rather an exception, hence this post about the gear for Anubis, which kept me up at night in my gear store in the loft, humming and hawing about every last piece.

On such a steep and physical piece of climbing, weight is everything. On my previous attempts, the weight of a full mixed rack like a kilt on your harness was so obviously a huge disadvantage, and every 100 grams shaved off the total kit weight might save me enough energy to make the belay.


Axes (new fusions), footwear (‘fruit boots’) and hardwear were easy choices, with knowledge of the available runners from my summer ascent. I made sure all my krabs were the lightest I had and ditched every superflous runner I could get away with.

Clothing wise, the goal was to keep super warm right up until the moment of stepping onto the pitch, from which time a very high physical work rate would keep me warm to the belay. For the upper pitches of grade IV/V, I should still be moving fast anyway (having dropped the ropes and continuing solo), so cold hands and feet from floundering about in deep snow would just have to be suffered for a bit.

Kit list was:

Powerstretch salopettes
ME Prototype Fall 2011 baselayer top
G2 Ultimate Mountain pants
Pulsar Jacket
Branded Beanie

For gloves I wore a pair of goalies gloves I bought in Decathlon in Spain for 7 euros. I’m a bit of a glove obsessive on a permanent hunt for the perfect glove for hard mixed climbing, with the perfect balance of energy saving grip on tools but enough protection from winteryness to keep going. The goalie’s gloves had the perfect sticky palm and fit around the wrist but a shiny smooth plastic back which snow can’t stick to and melt through the glove. They only work in Scotland on perfect windless days, which this was, and also in my bag in case it had been windier was my good old Mountain Equipment Windchill Grip Fleece gloves which are my normal glove for pitches of IX or above. They were perfect for the crux pitch, but as predicted I suffered badly with frozen hands on the upper solo pitches. Stopping on a small ledge for 30 minutes terrified I was going to pass out with hot aches and fall off.


What I’m hoping you’ll notice about the clothing list is that it isn’t very much - which was great! The big deal for me is the new pulsar jacket which I’m loving. It seems to have everything finally I’d look for in a soft shell - not too many pockets or features, warm, an excellent fit for free movement when climbing and slides well over the layer below. In my bag in case the conditions weren’t so good was an Mountain Equipment Firefox GORE-TEX Pro Shell Jacket, which would have added an extra 200 odd grams I’d hopefully have lived with, But I really did feel after 5 hours and 30 minutes to lead a 40 metre pitch that I was on my last drops of energy at the belay!"

Dave's currently out filming footage with fellow climber Tim Emmett for "BBC Live Climb" which hits our screens in August'10 more info see here

Also checkout Dave's Blog for the latest