Cycle racing, hiking and radishes

Friday saw me in the big city (Lancaster) on a work colleagues leaving 'do'. It was well timed because we also got to watch the VeloCity circuit races (for me this was the main event!). It took place on a 1km closed circuit that included a rough looking cobbled section, and lots of very tight bends. I have no idea who was winning because (?too much beer) after a few laps they are all mixed up, some lapping others etc. It was good fun to watch.

Come on blue!

On Sunday we went on a great quiet walk on the Cumbria/Yorkshire border and didn't see a soul. It was very varied, through woodland, over moor and finishing through lovely meadows.

Thanks for the home grown radishes Janet and Rob..... great with hummus. Radish fact - Radishes, onions and garlic were paid as ‘wages’ to the Ancient Egyptian labourers who built the Pyramid!

hmmm give me some radish....

Back on rock road again - yay!

I had a complaint today from someone who follows the blog that nothing much has been added lately (cheeky bugger!). That's because I've been out of action for awhile with a viral infection.

Just back from a quick after work trip to the Lakes, where we climbed a great route at Raven Crag, Langdale called Holly Tree Direct (HVS). Its got a real sandbag pitch, but we knew this ;-)

Ben just after the 'sandbag' crux on Holly Tree Direct

Shadows lengthening over Langdale, need to finish this climb....

The Strava effect

I've just discovered Strava, which is an app that allows you to share information about bike rides using GPS data collected during the ride.

So today I downloaded the app and headed out on the road bike, whilst logging the route. The idea of tracking your fitness makes the whole thing pretty addictive for a lot of people. When I got back from my short ride, it presented the data in lots of graphs, maps, and provided stats so immediately I can see why lots of individuals (men) get addicted to it. 

Two strava addicts taking it way too seriously....

I pulled the following text from the singletracks website, and it makes interesting reading (particularly the last paragraph):

"........despite launching just a couple years ago, it’s already having real effects on the sport of mountain biking.
Improving Fitness
Perhaps the biggest positive effect Strava is having on mountain biking and endurance sports in general is making fitness fun. Adding a competitive element to every workout, even if it’s just trying to set a new personal record, makes everyone stronger. It would be interesting to see how ride times trend for Strava members over the course of their membership… my guess is they improve trail times much faster than for those who don’t use it.

Here in Atlanta there’s a pretty good group of folks who use Strava but in outdoor hotspots like Denver, Strava use has truly exploded. In fact, we heard from multiple people (including staffers at IMBA) that it’s not unusual for riders in Colorado to fail to yield the trail while shouting “Strava!” to let you know they’re trying to set a new PR on a particular trail section. With Strava, every ride becomes a race with the resulting ego clashes and occasional conflicts.

Some riders have taken things even farther, risking personal injury to themselves and others. In 2010 a rider died after losing control while trying to set a new speed record for a descent in Tilden Park in Orinda, CA because someone had recently posted a faster time. His family sued Strava, saying the man was “obsessed” with Strava which could easily describe a lot of folks."

(Article found at http://www.singletracks.com/blog/gps/the-strava-effect-on-mountain-biking/)

I also know of someone locally who is struggling with his strava addiction (being a very good cyclist) and its causing relationship issues particularly for his partner!

Clearly by blogging/using social media I'm firmly connected to this brave new (ish) world of narcissistic behaviour, even though I try to convince myself to the contrary. It just seems that the extent to which technology is nudging into our lives is catapulting forward exponentially in this facebook generation era.

So..........I've survived up to this point without strava but now that I've discovered it will life be better, more enriched or more stressful. Will it make me want to ride more or less, trying to beat 'that time' again, and again. We shall see............come find me on strava ;-)

joie de vivre..........

I'm sure that most people have had a great week with this sunny weather. Same story here, Tuesday night I headed into the Lakes after work to meet up with the KMC and climbed Slip Knot (VS, 4b) and White Ghyll Wall (VS, 4c), both great multi pitch routes at White Ghyll, Langdale, worth the late finish (getting home at midnight!).

The good weather just kept coming so Friday night I headed back and climbed Haste Not (VS, 4c), a very classy 3 pitch route with a thought provoking airy crux traverse pitch. 

Before the party...

After a climbing fete this week, Saturday night turned into a fun impromptu party on the 'common ground', with lots of wine and fun, including some late night head massages........Dolphinholme rocks

After the party..... (and wine)

Crossing the border

Managed to get out in Wales climbing this last weekend. Saturday was spent at Tremadog where we climbed Scratch (VS 4b 4c), Poor Man's Peutery (S) and the most memorable route, Nifl-Heim (if you are a non-climber skip the next 2 paragraphs!).

Climber on Scratch Arete (taken from pitch 2 of Scratch)

This is a great route that I suspect a lot of people have problems on. The crux traverse pitch is hard, much harder than VS. Also there is an old iron bar just before the crux that has bend down 90 degree's and has a rope attached that looks like people use as a swing to try to gain sideways progression!

Interestingly this route has a grade of VS 4a, 4c, 4c, 4c in my 1989 guidebook, Ben's newer (but still old) guidebook gives it VS 4a, 4c, 5a, 4c. Currently it gets HVS 4a, 4c, 5a, 4c. If that wasn't confusing enough if you look around on line no one beliefs this is an accurate grade either, and the consensus is that it is HVS/E1 5b (mainly for the very stiff crux pitch). Great route and the last pitch off width is also worth a mention, because I also bet this stops the odd climber dead if they get this far!

On Sunday we headed to Gogarth. I've not been here for 10 years, the last time I climbed here I stayed 9 days longer in North Wales than anticipated!

On......you've guessed it Light House Arete

On the half way ledge messing around after our abseil in

It was amazing weather and we enjoyed some routes at Castell Helen, including the obligatory Light House Arete (VS 4c), Pel (VS 4C) and Rap (VS 4c). The first pitch of Pel is steep and 'out there' for VS and I think that doing pitch 1 of Pel with pitch 2 of Rap would be a great trip, taking the best VS pitches on offer here. Great weekends climbing, hope to get back soon. 

Looking down at Ben starting up Pel (I'm on half way ledge)

Here he comes (slowly!). Click the picture (sorry some error with formatting)

Quiet day on the Helvellyn Ridge

Wanting to keep our momentum with walking, we hatched the plan of walking the whole length of Helvellyn (12+ miles measured with a shoe lace), before the dreaded rain returns tomorrow.

J and R heading up from Grisedale Tarn

A few folk around on top, including a tent selling hot drinks and snacks!

We walked South to North, starting from near Grisedale Tarn, and finishing near Keswick/Threlkeld.  I'd expected it to be a quiet walk once we got past the main top of Helvellyn (I realise its a bank holiday weekend). Well clearly that wasn't quite the case. It was heaving on top, and amazing to see the constant line of 'ant' sized people on Striding Edge (Rob got great pics of this).

Close up of Striding Edge from the Nethermost Pike area (good zoom and pic Rob)

Huw is/has just been working on the Cuillin Ridge, Isle of Skye, wonder if that ridge was this busy!?!

Other surprises included seeing the Helvellyn ski tow, the tent on top selling teas, coffee's and chocolate (industrious youth trying to raise money to fund a climbing trip to the Greater Ranges - they needed £21k, not sure if they quite reached that goal!), and really the day was dominated by the 'Threlkeld to Helvellyn and back Fell Race' that we felt bound up in as runners 'buzzed' us from both directions as we walked ever Northwards. So in the end one of the busiest walks I've ever been on - but satisfying all the same.

Is this an arable field? No its the Northern end of the Helvellyn Ridge. 3 wanderers stride out.

Near the end of our walk the last 2 fell runners try to take positions from Rob, Janet and Abs

Four seasons in 3 days.....

Later this year we are heading off on a 'hike' overseas so we needed to do some training for this, especially since Abs hasn't back packed since her DOE award (don't you know!). I was hankering after a trip to the wilds of Scotland, but in the end it made much more sense to stay local and head off into the Lake District for a few days.


Day 1
We set off from Shap (frontier outpost on the East of the Lake District)  in glorious sunshine, in fact it was so hot that I got sunburnt. We headed over into Swindale, which is an amazingly quiet bit of the Lakes. We saw a redstart, meadow pippets, skylarks, wheatears, a dipper and heard the first cuckoo of the year on this stretch.

Leaving Shap - strike a pose (our camp spot on the horizon looks a long way!)

 From Swindale we took the old 'corpse road'. This ancient route links Swindale with the old settlement of Mardale further West. Up until the 1700's Mardale didn't have its own cemetery so bodies had to be carried over this hilly route to Swindale and on to Shap for burial. The settlement of Mardale is now long gone (under water) due to being compulsory purchased to allow Haweswater reservoir to be built in 1929 (to supply water for Manchester - thirsty beggars!). From the high point of this old byway we had our first clear spectacular views of High Street and our onward route.

On the Corpse Road, views of Haweswater and High Street beyond

Sadly there wasn't an ice cream van at the reservoir car park as I had promised, so we pushed on up to Blea Water our high camp for the night. It was a great spot, and we were the only ones here. Abs had brought a poetry book on the trip and we spent the night reading poems in the tent (I didn't want to admit this point!).

Camp with our own pool

Day 2
It was quite cold and overcast at the start of day 2 and felt quite Autumnal. We were on top of High Street at 9.30am, and had the great views out to Morecambe bay (South), and deeper into the Lakes to ourselves. It was freezing, I had every item of clothing on that I had with me. The descent path down into Patterdale, is a treat, and I can understand why its on the Coast to Coast route. This is where we saw the first of the coast to coasters. Quite a collection of people passed us, including a large fun party of 'mature' ladies (sorry I can't think of a better description), led by a well spoken lady with a tall single stick brandishing a sheep horn at its top, enquiring how much further Shap was (about 14 miles). We also saw a 'mature' gentleman, who was hobbling badly in shorts with his knee strapped up, swinging wildly from tuft to tuft, trying to avoid the bogs with all of his days possessions in a single carrier bag (no rucksack). I wouldn't want a carrier bag for company on their 17 mile day. They were all very friendly, and from lots of different corners of the world too.

On High Street (icy cold wind but still happy!)

Dropping into Patterdale (hot again)

Down in Patterdale, it was hot again, and we had a brief stop in the pub before heading onward. The valley of Grisedale is beautiful (never been here before now), it was still sunny as we headed upwards once more, but really windy and quite cold (spring like). We pitched our tent at Grisedale Tarn as the last of the day hikers were heading down into the valleys. Finally the wind eased as we enjoyed our yummy Vegi Dahl.

Camp at Grisedale Tarn

Day 3 
Well we were surprised to wake up in a blizzard and covering of snow this morning! No wonder I had been a little cold in the night.

Crazy weather, no wonder I was cold last night!

Time to head down.....

A quick cup of tea, and hasty pack up, before heading off as the snow worsened. Due to the high winds instead of heading up Fairfield as originally planned we headed down into Grasmere for a quick cafe stop, before walking on another 'corpse road' that leads to Rydal (nice route) and finally Ambleside.

Looking back at our route from the valley

A miniature Abi

Nearing the finish at Ambleside

A great 30 mile trip around part of the Lakes, and typically Abs is feeling fit and fresh whilst I hobble around the house and write this.....