Alps an Peru

I´ve just had a great week in Chamonix visiting Alison Culshaw and climbing with Lena Brune. I managed to get 6 days there and climbed as much as the fickle weather allowed. We got some great climbing and routes done.
Photos and blog entries to follow ...

I then flew to Peru for Adventure Peaks, and I´m here now in Cusco, prepping to do the classic inca trail to Machu Picchu.
Photos and blog entries to follow ...

St Pauls Girls School - Duke Of Edinburgh

Group A (Charlotte, Chloe, Livvy, Nat, Zara) will recognise this rock. It was the position of a difficult decision the group had to make. They had to face the choice of sticking to their plan and taking on a difficult 6km late in the day in poor vis and rain, or taking the easier way out and cutting the 6km ... I left them to make the decision, and inform me of their decision by turning the rock in that direction... It took the group 10mins and a lot of debate to decide to take on the 6km !! Awesome, well done, you're stronger for it.

Group B (Claudia, Coco, Marina, Sophie) arriving at a point where they too had to make a decision - along the ridge for easier navigation, but much poorer weather, or down lower, on the valley, for much more difficult nav, but better weather. Again a 10min debate left them with a good decision.. Well done on good clear team decision making..

Nat prepping the next leg - she knows the camera is on her !

Group A striding off into the thick mist

Chris Bryant running down the ridge

On the last day Group B encountered a forward sheep

Coco testing the tameness of the sheep

Group B stride off, onto one of their last legs

The sheep seems to want to follow !

Charlotte (Greeny), Nat, Livvy, Chloe,

Claudia, Sophie, Zara, Marina, Coco

After they'd been told they'd past their Gold Qualifying Expedition - Congratulations

An Excellent Expedition... Very difficult conditions. All the groups stuck to the challenge and can be fully proud of their achievement. Congratulations.

Longtown - A Day In a Gorge

Pete doing his first jump

Dylan was there too, with his group (he's sent them up the corkscrew). We did our trainee year together ..

Dec helping his kids at a slippery/wet moment

Dec can chill now ! Really ..

Okay, now it got interesting... I'd not seen this before - a huge limestone cave roof with sport climbs inside... Can you see the line of extenders across the roof... Got to come back with a harness ;)

Time to jump in again

Okay - so I got the settings wrong on my camera, but an interesting photo, looks like he's entering a black hole - and his body is extending - honestly he wasn't 8 ft tall !


It was a good day for gorgewalking. Warm sunshine (well kind of), and no rain. The water was warm (well nearly), the jumps were massive (well, no !), and the group never complained of being cold (well ...). A good day...

Kayak Polo

What? Is it cold lol - get the ball !

This was 4 seconds before the photo above!

Even George went in

I ended up leading 3 kayak sessions, so became the master of pool games - with, without paddles, 'Hot Dog', 'Bull Dog', 'Any Dog', 'Evolution', 'Kayak Polo', 'All In !'

Longtown - A Day At the Centre

Andy's helping his children close up - giving encouragement :)

Everybody (nearly everybody) was brave with the abseil - Andy's taking photos

Go on, go on - get it, then you can smile :) - Andy looks on..

Andys' turn to abseil

The climb up the tower (forgotten your name - please leave a comment and remind me !)

I worked here years ago when Bob Burson was the Head of Centre. Back now to freelance, and lots of things are the same... The climb tower is def the same.

Caterham Gold Qualifying D of E Expedition 1st to 5th July

The start of the last training day before the Expedition tomorrow

As a group of 22 we set off up hill

Sugar Loaf in the background

Expedition has started now. Kelsey, always the joker, and wanting to pose for photos...

The ponies on the hill

Always time for a smile in the great weather - but it didn't always go their way, a couple of days later they got nearly lost in the thick cloud and used their nav training to get out of it - well done

Time to chill at camp - with the long daylight hours

Rosie and Kelsey

Jason chilling out

The group is here, and Jason still chilling out :)

Can you see the group on the ridge. Shortly after this, the cloud came down and they had to nav off the ridge

We had a campfire. Jason taking photos for his new business

Caterham had an awful practice Gold expedition, with freezing temperatures and a little frostnip! Now was the qualifying expedition and they had luck with thhe weather :)

There was mainly clear skies, sun and light winds, but with a little rain and low cloud and strong wind at times. Success for everybody on the last day - congratulations to everybody...