Steve Hope

Ueli Steck’s Project Himalaya from Mountain Hardwear on Vimeo.

Is a mountain really ‘climbed’ until it’s done Alpine? It’s something that’s troubled me for a while, and can’t really take an ascent of Everest seriously until it’s climbed in one push. I hope to see this in my lifetime, but haven’t until now been so excited at the prospect that this might be achieved in the near future. Last I’d heard Ueli Steck had given up the discipline of speed ascents due to the severe danger of it all, but his recent speed ascent in the Himalayas proves he’s only just getting started. Could Steck be the first man to truly climb, Alpine style at least, Everest?

Image from UKClimbing.com

(Disclaimer: I don’t care if it’s not climbing) This is a nice vid posted by Steve at the St Vedas surf shop in Coldingham Bay, originally uploaded by Edward Legge. I’m honestly embarrassed at how long it’s been since my last surf, but surfing is all about fun - I don’t need to get better at it to enjoy it more, as is the case with climbing.

There’s something very calming and enticing about surfing at Coldingham Bay as oppose to Pease Bay. It may just be the average weather I’ve experienced at both, or because I took my first lesson at Coldy, but while Pease generally has better surf, Coldy has an ability to provide a much more pleasurable day, and will always be my favourite :-).

At nearly 37m and 11m of overhang, you’d only just be able to climb it with an 80m rope.  The Excalibur climbing wall at Bjoeks Climb Center in Groningen, The Netherlands. It may be the tallest, but the EICA Ratho is 35m in height and is unmatched internationally in terms of volume of routes. Thanks to @Phil_Adams for the link, and original from PSFK.

Alpine Ibex goats from Italy…

…friggin’ mental beasts. Original found here.

As seen in the Reel Rock Tour film contest in 2009. I guess it’s quite funny, but it had a lot more potential - it never seemed to take off, I think it lacked any real direction. They could have went deeper into the character traits, or the culture of climbing videos (ie. how the Dosage series is just climbing porn). Still, it’s worth a laugh at least.

On pitch 3 looking up the wall makes it look pretty easy, but there’s a real problem with perspective here. For those unfamiliar, the line follows a crack system up to the small triangular roof - close up below.

Finally looking down from near the top, I still think it’s not as big as I thought. At 5.8 C2, it’s technically possible for me one day, with the biggest hurdle for me being getting there for the right conditions.

Original images from ukclimbing.com.

Tim Emmett shows the guys at Radio 2 a bit about ice climbing. I’ve spent quite a bit of time this summer up in Ice Factor at Kinlochleven and am raring to go for another good Winter season, although I can’t help feeling that the programme above trivialises ice climbing and makes me feel like its actually quite easy. Truth is though such a big part of climbing is the psychological implications of what you’re doing, and it’s easy to forget that’s the real challenge your facing when your on the mountain. It’s not your physical skill or the weather conditions, it’s keeping a controlled mind so that you can walk into a dangerous situation and then walk yourself back out again.

I love seeing climbing being mentioned more in the mainstream media, it’s just with every step it takes to being more accessible, it means you have to go further to get that feeling of isolation and uniqueness.

Ice climbing is a terribly under filmed sport, mainly due to the environment and that the often slow speed doesn’t lend itself to the fast pace of film. So unlike rock climbing, there always seems to be a real lack of any video content other than the odd feature in an otherwise filled rock climbing DVD. Petzl though are breaking new ground in ice climbing videos, and have already released fantastic productions of their recent trips to Quebec and Scotland both 37mins and 26mins respectively, which for free, quality content is uncomparible.

But now they’ve also released a 13min video showcasing this year’s new updates to their ice tool line. Apart from the benefit of having someone explain simply advantages of the updates to the tools, the ice climbing and dry tooling is absolutely incredible - certainly the most advanced dry tooling I’ve ever seen.

Well done Petzl, not only have you convinced me that I really need to buy a pair of Quarks, you’ve also indirectly convinced me that you’re genuinely trustworthy, have my best interest at heart and are at the forefront of innovation when it comes to communicating to your customers.

Surely the financial and sponsor pressure a lot of pro climbers feel must push them past what they’re comfortable climbing and into seriously dangerous waters, but the difference is that the pros are so mentally prepared and focused that it isn’t as risky as it looks. This video is still very impressive however as without the superhuman focus required to send some of the top extreme grades at the moment, it’s actually a very dangerous endeavor to risk your mental control in such a committing environment, especially when it’s just his route to reaching his actual workplace at the top of the tower.