Birkness Maintainance

Up to the lakes this week-end for a maintainance meet at the FRCC hut at Birkness the main tasks being to divert a leakage path in the woodstore that was causing damp in the cottage and to lay some hardcore on the driveways.


The main tasks were all about completed on Saturday and after some clearing up on Monday morning Colin, Bev and myself enjoyed a walk up Fleetwith Pike in the sunshine and were rewarded by widespread views over the Lake District fells.


On our return we were met by the sad news that one member of the work party had died in his sleep during the night.

Bouldering

Bouldering at Apparent North on Stanage today. Rain showers were sweeping down the Derwent valley but the crags were in sunshine. I decided that either I had lost a bit of strength and ability or that the problems where undergraded as I struggled with the 5a ones and failed on the 5bs although I had cruised a 5b climb on Thursday. Anyway I completed 10 problems then de-camped over to Burbage where I did the Chant (5a) and, after much huffing and puffing Wednesday Climb (5b) which improved my confidence levels.
Finished off the day with a walk round the Burbage valley, back via Carls wark and Higgar Tor.

Midweek Stanage

Colin and me set out for Stanage on Thursday afternoon to meet up with Colins son David and his mates and to take advantage of the early autumn sunshine.

As expected the crag was quiet and I led Central Trinity and Easter Rib, the friction was excellent but it was cold belaying on top. When the sun lost its warmth we finished off by soloing a few routes on Rugosity Wall.

Med Trip 7

We arrived back in Antibes without further incident and set out for a final days climbing. We decided on La Trinitie because it was north facing and cool. This was a choice popular with the locals, three other teams were climbing including a party of schoolkids, not bad for a Wednesday afternoon. The crag was set up as a recreation facility with parking, graded paths and steps to access the crag and and picnic tables and rubbish bins were provided. This approach could benefit some crags in the UK although it would not be appropriate in most cases.

The climbs were steep and crimpy and took a little getting used to but we managed eight routes between us up to 5b.

Med Trip 6

Time constraints meant that we could not make it to Corsica so we returned to Antibes via Santa Margherita, Loano and San Remo. On the way we checked out the crags at Riva Trigoso but grey skies sucked away our enthusiasm and we arrived at Santa Margherita in pouring rain and thunder and lightning.

Between Santa Margherita and Loano we were accompanied by a small pod of dolphins which played around the boat for about 15 minutes to our great delight.

Med Trip 5

While at Portovenere we climbed at Muzzerone which is about a one hour walk from the town centre. Muzzerone has 18 separate limestone crags with different types of climbing and varying levels of access.

The most popular and accessible area is the Parete Central where we climbed first before doing some routes at the Cava Degli Anelli. The climbing at the Parete Central was similar to peak limestone, steep with sharp holds while at Cava Degli Anelli the rock was much smoother and rounded. Both areas gave good climbing and I led 5 routes from 5a to 5c while Bev led two 4c routes and Colin led a 5b to finish.

Med Trip 4

From Santa Margherita we sailed to Portovenere & La Spezia. The sailing conditions were excellent with a smooth sea and strong winds which allowed us to reach speeds up to 9 knots. From La Spezia we were able to access the Cinque Terre (5 villages) which has a famous walk from Monterosso to Riomaggiore calling at Vernazza, Coriniglia and Manarola.

The first two sections of the walk winds through vineyards along the terrace walls and through shady ravines and is very picturesque however after Corniglia it is less so and the final section from Manarola is along a constructed pathway marred by grafitti.

Officially only this final section was open to walkers but the locked gates and barriers were easily circumvented and we managed to complete all the sections.

Med Trip 3

From Villefranche we sailed to Santa Margherita in Italy overnighting at Andora on the way. During the stretch from Andora to Santa Margherita we had some exhilerating sailing with full sails and the boat heeled over.

We spent a day walking from Portofino to the abbey at San Fruttuoso. The walk went steeply up from Portofino then pleasantly through trees and steeply down to the abbey which was located in a small bay. We took a water taxi back to Santa Margherita stopping to view the underwater statue 'The Christ of the Abyss'.

Med Trip 2

Tuesday 08 Sept.

Tom and Clare joined on board and after much to-ing and fro-in we were fully provisioned, watered, fuelled and set off. We motored straightforwardly over to Villefranche and moored for the night.

Villefranche is an amazing maze of narrow streets, passages, ginnels and steps with houses stacked one above the other up the hillside.

Med Trip 1

Currently in Antibes on Colin and Bevs boat where we are waiting the arrival of Tom and Clare before we set sail. The plan is to sail to Italy and Corsica and call at various climbing venues.

It has been two hot to climb in the daytime but we have managed a couple of evening climbs. The first was at Roquette-Sur -Var where Bev and myself climbed 5 routes at about grade 4 & 5 which were newly bolted and not in our guidebook.

Yesterday we climbed at the Esterels where Bev and me climbed a 5a and a 5b. On the second route I became entangled with a prickly pear plant and by the time we had extracted all the barbs it was two late for further climbs. The climbing pictures above were taken at the Esterels which is an idyllic area and well worth a visit.