I’ve spent most of the summer focussing on my running, a decision I’m pretty pleased with as it has yielded some good results – sub 4 hours in my first Ennerdale, 13th in a British champs' race, 8th at Wasdale in an English Champs' field, getting the Snowdon Horseshoe record and a monster run I’ve wanted to do in France for ten years or so. But in a month’s time I’ll be Patagonia bound for a four-week trip with Mick Fowler, so it’s about time to change focus.
Patagonia has never really been somewhere I’ve been that interested in going to – besides the atrocious weather it seemed to be too much about rock climbing and aiding than the more alpine-style mixed objectives I’ve preferred for trips in the past (last year’s trip to Greenland being the exception). However, as might be expected from Fowler, when he suggested Patagonia, he wasn’t thinking of the famous Fitzroy or Paine groups, but a remote mountain that nobody seemed to have heard of and that he hadn’t even seen a photo of. I said yes.
A few months of research later it would appear that, true to form, he has picked a whopper – Patagonia expert Rolando Garibotti described the unclimbed south-east face of Cerro San Lorenzo to me as a “phenomenal wall with endless potential (almost 2000 meters high, 10 kilometers long), very remote considering the short approach” while Patagonian pioneer Yvon Chouinard told me he could think of no face bigger than this one outside of the Himalaya. Psyche levels are certainly rising.
I’ve got one more thing I want to do with my running this summer, a fast traverse of the Welsh 3000s, a run I’ve done twice before but never when properly fit (best time 6 hours and a few seconds). I’ll hopefully get that done in the next two weeks, then no more running (maybe just the odd local race) just climb climb climb for three weeks. Oh, and there’s the small matter of an Msc thesis to be getting on with...
After the trip with Mick, my girlfriend is coming out to meet me in El Calafate for another three weeks. We hope to do a week-long tour round the Fitzroy massif on skis along with some more leisurely and luxury touristy stuff, which by then I’ll no doubt be craving!
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
The winter that was
A typical wet summer coupled with a now nearly sorted knee injury means climbing seems a distant memory at the moment. So I figured a look back at the winter and start thinking about the one to come was the best way to keep the psyche going.
It wasn’t the most productive winter, but for the quality of the climbing and skiing certainly made up for a lack of quantity. The alps saw one of its best snow years for the last decade and with endless storms through late January and early February making pretty hazards conditions up high around Chamonix the trees of Courmayeur offered the safest bet. An almost daily commute through the Mont Blanc tunnel along with most of the Chamonix locals brought you to the land of good coffee and an endless supply of powder to be hovered up in the trees.
(photo – Pete Benson)
As well as an amazing snow year many of the classic valley ice lines formed this season, the highlight for me was along with Nick Bullock and Pete Benson climbing a friendly formed Tequila Stuntman. The final pitch is the meat of the route with Nick quickly dispatching the 10m of dry tooling before a hard couple of moves over to the hanging ice and a quick blast to the top.
Fast forward 2 ½ months (yes skiing is as hazard’s as ice climbing....) and the draw of the mountains returned. Wanting to do something a bit different Nick and I decided to have a look at the Grand West Couloir, a Gabarrou route (who else!) from the mid 70’s. With only a handful of ascents and all requiring a bit of aid not much info is to be found on it. After a very comfy bivi at the Plan de Aiguille and packing a Compressor Vest each, by-passing the initial pitches and following what looked like the obvious start, Nick torque his way up a short, hard crack to reach a snow slope that lead up into the couloir proper. Three steep sections separated by steep snow slopes brought us to the headwall where 4 long pitches of quality mixed and ice climbing on sound Chamonix granite saw us on the easy final snow slopes 9 hours after starting.
(photo – Nick Bullock)
With the route over the crux of the day was the 5 ½ hours of wading through waist deep snow reversing the classic Midi-Plan traverse leading back to the Aiguille du Midi station and a previously stashed bottle of wine... (alpine climbings all about been prepared!)
A week or so later saw Nick and myself wandering down from the top station Grand Montets to the base of the north face of the Aiguille Sans Nom, this time joined by Ian Parnell. The plan was to do the Russian Roulette start and finish on the Gabarrou-Silvy through the head wall. A few years ago having found the top of There Goes The Neighbourhood bone dry Nick and I had traversed over to finish up the Gabarrou but somehow managing to miss it and finding ourselves at the other end of the face finished up the British route instead.
No mistake this time and after some poor climbing on the Russian start, a 5 star bivi on the median slope and 7 pitches of quality ice and mixed with a crux 95o section leading us to the final 200m of calf burning ice slopes and the top. With no bottles of wine awaiting us this time, instead a cold bivi just over the other side and around 15 abseils the next morning saw us in Chamonix for a refuelling session on Midnight Express burgers.
(photo – Nick Bullock)
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Earthrise™ - Jumping off the fence
Asked to name a company that is raising its commitment to producing products that are more environmentally friendly or that are produced to higher ethical standards and Mountain Equipment may not spring to mind. Perhaps you would mention Marks & Spencer and their Plan A programme or Patagonia and their Common Threads policy
Yet as a relatively small company, and one whose staff use and love our natural environment, we are trying to make changes where we can; genuine and measureable changes that affect our environment and not simply sitting idly by.
For us, its part of our Twenty Things To Do programme, an internal programme to make changes to how we work that will impact on the environment and the people involved in everything to with our products. A wide ranging programme that includes everything from taking a personal interest in community projects such as cleaning a crag, collecting litter or repairing footpaths, to reducing energy consumption in our offices, reducing the amount of product or waste that goes to landfill, reducing the amount of products we ship via air to ensuring any animals involved in our raw materials are reared to humane standards and ensuring all our factory workers are treated fairly and paid a fair wage.
Making our product line more sustainable and more ecological is part of a wider long-term goal. It is not a sudden crusade to change everything we do, but about making incremental changes that will have a genuine impact on the environment around us and the people within it.
The development of the Earthrise™ Sleeping Bag has been about doing the very best we believe it is currently possibly to do; having a product that minimises the use of raw materials, that reduces energy consumption, that reduces Co2 output and that can be recycled afterwards, reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill is a real step forwards.
More importantly it does all of this whilst still performing in terms of warmth, weight, compressibility and longevity and that highlights what remains our primary focus, to produce products that perform and that are built to last in the often demanding conditions we know our customers choose to use our products in.
Of course there remain real challenges to the development of products that have high ecological and sustainable values as well as transparent ethical standards. Studies have shown that even for brands who are considered to champion the environment and ethical standards of their manufacturer, price and quality remain the most important factors that affect their customers decision to buy. And so in order for these types of products to become mainstream requires joint action from suppliers, manufacturers and retailers to help minimise the additional costs to the consumer and for customers themselves to ask more questions of purely low price-driven or short product life-span consumerism.
At present we are simply trying to do the best job we think we can, when we can.
The Earthrise™ I & II sleeping bags will be available in stores from March 2010.
Yet as a relatively small company, and one whose staff use and love our natural environment, we are trying to make changes where we can; genuine and measureable changes that affect our environment and not simply sitting idly by.
For us, its part of our Twenty Things To Do programme, an internal programme to make changes to how we work that will impact on the environment and the people involved in everything to with our products. A wide ranging programme that includes everything from taking a personal interest in community projects such as cleaning a crag, collecting litter or repairing footpaths, to reducing energy consumption in our offices, reducing the amount of product or waste that goes to landfill, reducing the amount of products we ship via air to ensuring any animals involved in our raw materials are reared to humane standards and ensuring all our factory workers are treated fairly and paid a fair wage.
Making our product line more sustainable and more ecological is part of a wider long-term goal. It is not a sudden crusade to change everything we do, but about making incremental changes that will have a genuine impact on the environment around us and the people within it.
The development of the Earthrise™ Sleeping Bag has been about doing the very best we believe it is currently possibly to do; having a product that minimises the use of raw materials, that reduces energy consumption, that reduces Co2 output and that can be recycled afterwards, reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill is a real step forwards.
More importantly it does all of this whilst still performing in terms of warmth, weight, compressibility and longevity and that highlights what remains our primary focus, to produce products that perform and that are built to last in the often demanding conditions we know our customers choose to use our products in.
Of course there remain real challenges to the development of products that have high ecological and sustainable values as well as transparent ethical standards. Studies have shown that even for brands who are considered to champion the environment and ethical standards of their manufacturer, price and quality remain the most important factors that affect their customers decision to buy. And so in order for these types of products to become mainstream requires joint action from suppliers, manufacturers and retailers to help minimise the additional costs to the consumer and for customers themselves to ask more questions of purely low price-driven or short product life-span consumerism.
At present we are simply trying to do the best job we think we can, when we can.
The Earthrise™ I & II sleeping bags will be available in stores from March 2010.
Not one but TWO awards for Innovation
Well we've just won two OutDoor innovation awards at the 2009 OutDoor trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany. What's more we won these awards in two entirely different product categories - for sleeping bags and clothing, something which really highlights our strength across all areas of our product line.
The Earthrise® II sleeping bag, the world's first sleeping bag to be part of the Eco-Circle® programme. Some people may think that we do make much of a deal over Eco-friendly products, but we are trying to do what we can, where we can and a sleeping bag seemed the most logical place to start.
The Earthrise® II sleeping bag, the world's first sleeping bag to be part of the Eco-Circle® programme. Some people may think that we do make much of a deal over Eco-friendly products, but we are trying to do what we can, where we can and a sleeping bag seemed the most logical place to start.
Earthrise II Sleeping Bag
Nearly all recyled and recyclable, in fact other than the tiny zip-head puller, drawcord and shockcord there is nothing which cannot be recycled. To put that in perspective, by weight that is less than half a percent of this bag. And with the shell, lining, insulation and side-zip all being fully recycled to begin this bags drain on finite natural resources is minimal as well as using less energy and having a lower C02 output than if we had used a virgin material. It won in the category of ' Products of High Ecological and Sustainable Value'. It will be available from Spring 2010.
The second award was for our Shield Jacket, the next step for us in terms of lightweight, versatile softshell insulation and protection. And the best news? It will be in the shops in around 6 weeks time!
Shield Jacket - Shown in Black / Citronelle Zips colourway
The Shield Jacket uses a hybrid fabric construction, combining a new lighter version of GORE® WINDSTOPPER® as well as POLARTEC® Powershield®. Other than that what makes this jacket special? Well it uses a combination of seam sewing methods to improve mobility and fit, the hood (which is designed to accomodate a helmet) has a water resistant lining to prevent the hood absorbing moisture from spindrift and drizzle when worn down and it has an anti-wick hem lining, again to allow this product to perform better as a shell.
It won in the 'Apparel' category, will cost around £200 in the UK and is available for this winter.
Friday, 19 June 2009
2010 beckons
Well its been a long and busy week at Mountain Equipment's offices this week as we launched our product line-up for Spring / Summer 2010!
Obviously we cant give too much away at this early stage but we have some completely new ranges of sleeping bags, a couple of new tents and lots of new technical clothing for next year. It is now upto our sales team to convince the retailers to buy it and if all that goes to plan you will see it in the shops from the end of February next year!
And it has been one of our busiest summer launches ever. With distributors and agents from across Europe and the world attending including Germany, Norway, France as well as further afield places such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan. An awful lot of nationalities and different markets in order to please and look after.
Everything kicked off on Tuesday evening with some business updates followed by a marketing presentation. The latter part is a fantastic round-up of the past 12 months activity; looking at all the editorial coverage Mountain Equipment has received, awards our products have won as well as a chance to focussing on what our sponsored athletes such as Dave Macleod have been up to.
Wednesday was then the big day, a whole day of product presentations starting at just after 9am and lasting until just after 6pm - a huge number of products to run through and I for one was very glad to be able to have a beer after all that talking.
And Thursday was the chance to digest it all, for our distributors to decide what products they will range in their countries and for us to start the huge task of pulling together final editions of the new workbooks and start planning for the sales campaign and tradeshows.
And when all of that is over we can start working once again on the new Winter 2010 ranges, which are now well underway. It never stops......
Obviously we cant give too much away at this early stage but we have some completely new ranges of sleeping bags, a couple of new tents and lots of new technical clothing for next year. It is now upto our sales team to convince the retailers to buy it and if all that goes to plan you will see it in the shops from the end of February next year!
And it has been one of our busiest summer launches ever. With distributors and agents from across Europe and the world attending including Germany, Norway, France as well as further afield places such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan. An awful lot of nationalities and different markets in order to please and look after.
Everything kicked off on Tuesday evening with some business updates followed by a marketing presentation. The latter part is a fantastic round-up of the past 12 months activity; looking at all the editorial coverage Mountain Equipment has received, awards our products have won as well as a chance to focussing on what our sponsored athletes such as Dave Macleod have been up to.
Wednesday was then the big day, a whole day of product presentations starting at just after 9am and lasting until just after 6pm - a huge number of products to run through and I for one was very glad to be able to have a beer after all that talking.
And Thursday was the chance to digest it all, for our distributors to decide what products they will range in their countries and for us to start the huge task of pulling together final editions of the new workbooks and start planning for the sales campaign and tradeshows.
And when all of that is over we can start working once again on the new Winter 2010 ranges, which are now well underway. It never stops......
Monday, 8 June 2009
LAMM: Kintail 09
It was very interesting reading Rich's comments below. I know how much training and detailed planning Rich and Keith have put into this years effort. As you can imagine I was gobsmacked when they wandered over to our tent on Sat evening and announced that they had retired! Unfortunately, Keith just had a bad day in the mountains. Maybe his body had not recovered fully from the 'Highland Fling' he ran less than a month ago (see previous post).
Steve (my race partner) and I embarked on our first LAMM together. It was my second LAMM, having completed last year's event in Glenfinnan, and Steve's first MM. Unlike Rich and Keith, our goal was to complete C class and simply give it our best effort.
We ran the Yorkshire 3 Peaks a few weeks ago, with my mate Tim, as a warm-up and to gauge our fitness levels. We did ok, completing the 25 mile circuit in 6 hrs 30. We could have done much better if it wasn't for the chronic cramp that seemed to attack every muscle in my legs after 13 miles and incapacitated me for the rest of the day! I have always struggled with severe cramp, especially during long distance biking and running events. Keith kindly gave me some 'Nuun' tabs on Friday night which seemed to stave off the cramps completely on both days (thanks Keith!)
As usual, the location was stunning and the scenery utterly breathtaking.
It took us a while to get going on day one, but we plodded on while our bodies slowly adjusted to the environment. Reaching the 5th control (of 8) always gives me a huge lift, psychologically, knowing that the final 3 controls are positioned fairly closely together. Steve recognised this and we pushed on and finished the first day 59th out of 150 teams.
On day 2 we felt good after a reasonable night's sleep, a feast of expedition food and tea! We started well and knew that if we kept the pace up we could massively improve our overall position. This was thwarted, however, by a schoolboy navigational error on the 3rd control. We lost 45 mins at least..........enough said! Spirits were low at this stage, but we picked ourselves up, checked off the 5 remaining controls and crossed the finish line in 66th place!
We will be looking at a top 3o finish in C next year!?
Mountain Equipment used:
AR2 tent - perfect, lightweight and roomy
Xero 250 Sleeping Bags.
Compressor Vest - a superb lightweight alternative for throwing on over your layers at the end of the day!
Microtherm Alpine Jacket (see my off piste skiing post). This has to be the most versatile piece of kit that I own. Amazing and only 80 quid!
Altus S/S and L/S Tees. Shifted the moisture quickly and worked well with Microtherm.
Axion Jacket. Worn for 20 mins on day 1! The lightest jacket ME make.
Particle Pant. Not worn
Will post some piccies asap.
Steve (my race partner) and I embarked on our first LAMM together. It was my second LAMM, having completed last year's event in Glenfinnan, and Steve's first MM. Unlike Rich and Keith, our goal was to complete C class and simply give it our best effort.
We ran the Yorkshire 3 Peaks a few weeks ago, with my mate Tim, as a warm-up and to gauge our fitness levels. We did ok, completing the 25 mile circuit in 6 hrs 30. We could have done much better if it wasn't for the chronic cramp that seemed to attack every muscle in my legs after 13 miles and incapacitated me for the rest of the day! I have always struggled with severe cramp, especially during long distance biking and running events. Keith kindly gave me some 'Nuun' tabs on Friday night which seemed to stave off the cramps completely on both days (thanks Keith!)
As usual, the location was stunning and the scenery utterly breathtaking.
It took us a while to get going on day one, but we plodded on while our bodies slowly adjusted to the environment. Reaching the 5th control (of 8) always gives me a huge lift, psychologically, knowing that the final 3 controls are positioned fairly closely together. Steve recognised this and we pushed on and finished the first day 59th out of 150 teams.
On day 2 we felt good after a reasonable night's sleep, a feast of expedition food and tea! We started well and knew that if we kept the pace up we could massively improve our overall position. This was thwarted, however, by a schoolboy navigational error on the 3rd control. We lost 45 mins at least..........enough said! Spirits were low at this stage, but we picked ourselves up, checked off the 5 remaining controls and crossed the finish line in 66th place!
We will be looking at a top 3o finish in C next year!?
Mountain Equipment used:
AR2 tent - perfect, lightweight and roomy
Xero 250 Sleeping Bags.
Compressor Vest - a superb lightweight alternative for throwing on over your layers at the end of the day!
Microtherm Alpine Jacket (see my off piste skiing post). This has to be the most versatile piece of kit that I own. Amazing and only 80 quid!
Altus S/S and L/S Tees. Shifted the moisture quickly and worked well with Microtherm.
Axion Jacket. Worn for 20 mins on day 1! The lightest jacket ME make.
Particle Pant. Not worn
Will post some piccies asap.
LAMM 2009: Unlucky for some!
Well i've just returned from the North of Scotland after one of the most frustrating weekends of my life - getting a DNF classification in a race, having chosen that option rather than accept a mid-table finish is a tough call to make.
This years Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon was held in Kintail, in the North West of Scotland, a location that contains some of the most challenging and breathtaking terrain anyone could wish to visit. To be able to race over the type of terrain is a privilege.
This years Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon was held in Kintail, in the North West of Scotland, a location that contains some of the most challenging and breathtaking terrain anyone could wish to visit. To be able to race over the type of terrain is a privilege.
Courtesy of: Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon
I have been racing in Mountain Marathons on and off for some ten years, in various classes, with various levels of preparation and training, and various success. This year my partner and I's aim was a Top 3 finish in the A-Class of two headline mountain marathons, the LAMM and the OMM.
It was always going to be a tough call, in hard training over the winter for a potential Bob Graham Round attempt this year I ruptured a tendon in my knee, forcing a 3 month lay-off and up until 8 weeks ago i could barely run 5km let alone race competitively in a mountain marathon such was the pain. So this weekend was always going to be a challenge.
We knew how fast we needed to go, we knew some of our competitors and how fast they could go. Conditions were actually very good, cool but bright, very little heavy cloud on the mountains and little wind other than up high. And it started so well, a steady start and we hit the first checkpoint bang on, the second was a steady run through glacial hummocks and small lochains, again bang on. The third, we opened up and ripped through the field visible to us, passing four teams on our way to the fastest checkpoint time overall that day, momentarily things seemed to be going so well. But after that things started to go wrong.
As we pulled up and across the next hillside, I noticed my running partner falling back, only slightly at first, but it became greater despite slowing myself to try and give him a pyscological tow. As we neared checkpoint four, I could see he was in a bad way, devoid of strength in his legs and beginning to sufer from cramp. I could sense any lead ebbing away, at this level, minutes really do matter. And so it was a slow and frustrtating haul to the fifth checkpoint. We were now losing time at a colossal rate. I sat on a rock on the lofty summit of checkpoint 5, contemplating the amazing views north towards Torridon and south across the snow-capped peaks of Kintail and our iminent retirement.
When Keith finally arrived, he was no better, he looked drained as well as gutted. He knew how high the stakes were and how fine the margin for error was this year. Simply completing the course was not what we came to do this year, nor was a mid-table finish and with no sign of energy and strength returning to Keith's body, we knew we had no option but to retire and resigned ourselves to walking back to the overnight camp, a walk of only about 5 km, but one which felt like the longest walk I have ever endured.
So were we right to retire? Yes, unequivocally so. Looking back at the results, we were within 3 minutes of the overall lead at checkpoint 3. We lost five minutes or so on the fourth checkpoint over the eventual winning team and a whopping 15 minutes on checkpoint five. If we had continued at that slowing rate, we would have been lucky to finish inside the top ten that day, dont get me wrong, in all other circumstances that would be a fantastic result, for many simply completing a mountain marathon let alone compete in an A-Class is a tremendous achievement and as such many teams would be blown away to achieve that kind of result , but that was not what we wanted or expected and when you raise the stakes that high you have a lot further to fall when it does not work out.
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