Going Solo

Last night it was time to test our knot and climbing skills sans instructor.

The only experience I can only liken it to the first time you get behind the wheel on your own in a car after passing your driving test - daunting doesn't do it justice.

I got to the Mile End Wall about half an hour before Guy and decided to practice some bouldering (that's climbing without ropes).

In all honesty I was both nervous and somewhat intimidated. Nervous at the prospect of doing this on my own and the potential harm I may do falling down and intimidated by the large number of confident climbers already there moving like monkeys seemingly attached to the wall - they do may it look very easy. I waited for a gap, as there is a strict etiquette about these things, and went for it. I didn't have the fluid movement, in fact I felt like a giraffe frankly, but in my own ungainly way I made progress around the lateral wall and got further than ever before, so I left that feeling pretty good, and uninjured!!!

Next up was an upward climb, a considerably more daunting challenge given my previous "dislike" of heights. (Hats off to Adrienne Hunter of www.seeconsultants.org who recently qualified as an NLP Practitioner along with me who, appears to have relaxed me considerably using techniques we learned) Much to my own amazement as much as anything else I made it pretty comfortably, albeit when I went over the top I was a little dismayed as it appeared the ladder to get down had been moved, thankfully it was just hidden.

My confidence was high by the time Guy arrived. I don't think he will mind me saying that he was a bit worried about what he called his "knot dyslexia". Thus we focussed as much on tying and untying the knots as we did on actually climbing up the walls. By the end of the evening Guy had cracked and just as importantly we had a good session of climbing, challenging ourselves on harder climbs as the evening went on.

This morning I ached in my shoulders neck and fingers, other than that I feel ready to take on next week.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, over £100 raised so far, it would be nice to get a total of £500. If any corporates reading this, I would be happy to sell some space on here for a contribution :)

Final Countdown

Well there is just over a week to go before Guy and I embark on this adventure. We have one last session at the climbing wall to do before we depart - a last chance for Guy to perfect his knot tying skills and me to stop falling off quite so often!

If you have followed the blog you will know that we have hired a guide and as a result I get a regular newsletter. Imagine my horror when I saw the latest one in all honesty I wondered whether or not I ought to post it as there is a serious chance that Debs, my long suffering wife would veto it even at this late stage!!!!

Now is the time to really try and start to get some financial support.

I appreciate times are hard, but two great causes will benefit.

Firstly, a tiny charity doing great work with a little know condition Rett Syndrome will get 50% of funds raised and the remaining 50% will go towards my squash club's junior section as we try and raise funds towards video coaching software.

Giving is easy, just click on the link below to donate through paypal

Many thanks.

Part 3

Well just over 4 weeks to go and the slight amorphous weight at the pit of my stomach is beginning to take a bit more concrete form in the shape of ice in my bowels. The fitness training has been going well and my upper body strength is definitely improving.  I have even started going to the gym and that will be stepped up in the coming weeks once I finish my NLP Practitioner Course.

I mentioned in my last blog that Guy and I had signed up to do a beginners climbing course at the Mile End Climbing Wall. The aim was to learn the basics so that we could minimise the time in the hills wasted faffing around tying knots etc.  

From the outside the place seemed like a simple warehouse in the middle of nowhere, but stepping inside was like entering another world. To be honest I was pretty intimidated by the mix of beautifully toned muscular bodies (men and women) and what you might describe as those who appear to live an alternative lifestyle. One thing was for sure I didn’t feel I would fit into either constituency particularly easily. (At the risk of upsetting my wife, I would say that if you are a young single man then there are a lot worse places you could go if you are trying to hook up with someone!)

It was with some relief that our instructor was about the same age as me and whilst clearly stronger, he wasn’t Sylvester Stallone – just a normal guy with a passion for the outdoors. It speaks volumes of JR that I offered to advertise him on here and he declined because he already has more work than he can handle!

Once we had been given the introductory Health and Safety speech I, and the other members of the group, was introduced to a wonderful new world – the world of knots!!!! Now I am a man of a certain age and remember being taught knots at Boys’Brigade - I believe there were more in the Scouts. It was all done from personal instruction, practice and dog eared books or notes.

To be told by JR, “Don’t worry if you can’t get it yet, visit animatedknots.com.” was a bit of a surprise, albeit in retrospect probably shouldn’t have been and says more about my advancing years than I would like to admit! On the way home I looked the site up on my i-phone and was staggered to find that not only was there an app for that, but several – Guy later told me that the knots books at Anness, our previous employer, were amongst the biggest sellers.

In addition Guy and I were introduced to the weird and wonderful world of carabiners and belays!After week one it’s fair to say I really was bamboozled by the knot, double figure of eight with a double stop I think it’s called. I THINK I have now got the hang of it, but I think it’s fair to say that I am not sure Guy has quite conquered it yet, the litmus test though will be when we return in May to have a go sans instructor!

As someone who can get quite nervous about heights and exposure I found that I really grew in confidence with the rope attached to me, to the extent that I didn't even hesitate in week two when we were told to throw ourselves off the wall to show how much control our partner has and how easy it is for them to arrest the fall.

Once the belay techniques were learnt it was onto bouldering, basically climbing without ropes. All I will say is that I am glad that there were soft landings. Guy’s height certainly helped in the trickier walls. The experts make it all look so easy, trust me it’s not and I would urge anyone reading this to have a go as it’s a lot of fun as long as you can handle the brief moment of embarrassment when you tumble down into an ignominious heap!

Guy bouldering

All in all it was a very successful venture.

In terms of the fundraising there have been a couple of events aimed solely at raising funds for the junior video coaching technology which have realised a few hundred pounds including the visit of squash legend Peter Nicol MBE. Now that they are done it’s time to focus on this.

Donations are easy just click on the paypal button below which will allow online support, or else contact me if you wish to give direct or corporately sponsor this page and have your company logo posted in an appropriate place.

My final comment for now is that whilst all of us based in the South have been moaning about the rain, it’s more than a little disconcerting when you see that as recently as Friday avalanche warnings were being issued in the Highlands!!!!

Please click below if you would like to support us.


 

Skye Blog Part 2

It’s been too long really since I last blogged on the expedition later this year. I could claim that it was because I have done nothing in preparation except maintain or maybe increase my levels of fitness
by playing squash; a lot of squash. Frankly that would have been boring for non-squash addicts. However, it would also be a lie. I have just been a little, well actually a lot, lazy.

In August last year I did some actual hill walking. I had a lovely day with my two daughters, Lily 6 and Natalie 5, on Ben Wyvis. Not the most challenging of hills, but it was good to get some height into the legs. It was also refreshing to have such a lovely day for it.

Guy and I did Ben Wyvis several years ago, eleven to be precise. It was Guy’s first ever trip to the Highlands and we had a glorious day on Beinn Alligin on the Saturday, real t-shirt and shorts weather. However, Sunday was brutal with horizontal rain and sleet. It’s perhaps a sad reflection
on me that I can recall the date not because of the hills, or the great company (Robert Woodcock and Richard Craig provided the hilarious entertainment for the weekend) but for the fact that Celtic beat Hibs 3-0 to lift the Scottish Cup on 26th May 2001 and I was racing back to the car to get back to see it.

There are many other tales to be told of that weekend, but in respect for the living and the desire to keep this as a family friendly blog, I will take the 5th!

Guy waxed lyrical on the Saturday about how beautiful Scotland was and that he found it amazing that such a place existed in the UK – I often wonder if in retrospect if the weather had been reversed whether he would still feel the same.

In addition to Ben Wyis I climbed Conival and Ben More Assynt sans the rug rats. I had a great day there on my own, the weather was pretty decent and by pure chance, as is often the way in Scotland, I bumped into a fellow walker and chatted for the day. Interestingly he had been to Skye and done several of its Munros and gave me several good pieces of advice. Or at least I hope it’s good!

Firstly get a good pair of gators because the scree can often be so deep it goes over the top of your boots. Normally if scree does that then it’s bad enough, but his second piece of advice made it even more pertinent – “if you want to rob a bank, do it straight after your trip, because the scree and other rocks are so sharp you will have no fingerprints left – or get a decent pair of gloves!” I am not sure I have the wherewithal to rob a bank, certainly not straight after this particular jaunt….

After I returned from holiday it was back to my usual fitness regime of several hours per week of squash, coupled with daily sessions on the Wii Fit Plus (I am a huge fan I just wish they would sponsor us!!!!) paying attention in particular to my upper body strength. My fellow walker on
Assynt mentioned this to me too. I have even gone one step further and joined a gym – it’s a by-product of the newly refurbished courts where I play in Luton as much as anything but I certainly intend to try and put some muscle on my puny body over the coming weeks.

The only other thing I did in relation to the trip was read a tremendous book about Mallory’s attempt to conquer Everest. A truly outstanding book which I would wholeheartedly recommend and thank you Guy for gifting me a copy. The irony is that it puts our impending efforts somewhat in the shade, albeit the thought of vintage brandy or champagne does have it’s appeal!

For those of you who have indulged in looking at what is in prospect for us in June you will know
that there is some proper climbing to be done and with that in mind we have booked ourselves on a course to learn the basics at the Mile End Climbing wall. It won’t be the same as the real thing, for instance it won’t feel quite as daunting when the prospect of a fall doesn’t lead to almost certain death! Hopefully, it should give us the basic moves and rope techniques to improve our chances of surviving and completing the expedition.

The trip does seem to be getting ever nearer now especially as we have now booked our accommodation, now it’s the time to try and get some sponsors and raise some funds for a great charity and a great cause.

Giving is easy just click below to make individual donations or drop me an e-mail if you want to give direct. The amount given will initially be collected in the LDS Junior account and then, once the collections are complete, 50% will be handed over the Rett UK Please be generous.

The Background

In May 2006 to mark my 40th year on the planet I decided, presumably in a drunken moment, that rather than piss it up a wall in traditional “lads” fashion, I would do something constructive.

Having done several Munros, the low-level West Highland Way had no attraction for me, but the parallel route over the tops, called the Highland Highway, appealed more. Getting Debs my ever loving and tolerant wife to grant me 8 days off to do it, when we had two very small children, was something I daren’t even ask. So I sought leave for, and was granted, half that with the aim of doing the final four days from Tyndrum to Fort William which were, in any case, always going to be the most challenging.

I managed to convince Guy Lloyd, Jon Emin and Ashley Harrow to join me in what became known as Munro Madness.

I won’t bore you now with the detail, but whilst things didn’t quite go to plan, we did raise several thousand pounds for the NSPCC and Guy and I managed to traverse the Aonach Eagach ridge.



To say it was pretty scary would be like saying it was a bit windy in New Orleans on 29th August 2005. Frankly I was shitting myself at some points and both of us merely chased our food round our plates that night as the others queried what had happened to cause all colour to leave our faces. The next morning neither of us had slept well and had several “falls” during the night.

The lesson Guy and I learned was that if we are going to undertake that kind of expedition again we would hire a guide, so when we undertook The Liathach a couple of years later that is precisely what we did and whilst it was a challenge, I for one felt much safer, albeit not as confident as Guy.



Now it’s 2011 and I have long ceased waking up in a cold sweat just before hitting the bottom of Glen Coe. Whilst I just about survived the Royal Wedding this year, albeit much of it was spent in Costco Milton Keynes, the prospect of more flag waving for next years Queen’s Diamond Jubilee frankly sent ice through my veins. (I escaped the 2002 version by having a Stag Weekend in Amsterdam, which I wished I could relate some tales, but Amsterdam, being Amsterdam, it’s all just a bit of a haze!!!!) So Guy and I have decided to undertake our most ambitious expedition yet, Skye!

Guy and I have talked about an expedition to Skye many times in our years visiting Scotland since Guy’s first trip to the Highlands on 26th May 2001 when we, and several others, climbed Beinn Alligin and so this time the stars have lined up for the opportunity and we are going to take it.

Watch this space as we tell you details of the expedition, the training and the causes we are raising funds for.