Escape from Dolphinholme

For a number of years I've dreamt of living in Scotland, but I don't think I ever believed it would happen, as I didn't initially see how it could realistically work.

But after a few twists of fate and a successful job interview all of a sudden Scotland was on! Moving just North of Inverness is rather exciting, with so much wild land to explore. I'm particularly excited to be moving North of the 57th Parallel, which is a similar latitude to Alaska!

So now I'm just filling up the van with a second load of stuff before heading North and leaving Dolphinholme behind for a while....

As its a big change for me it seems fitting to start a new blog '57 Degrees North', where I hope to post some Scottish adventures. Exciting times lie ahead.....

Day out with the family Brown

On Sunday I had a nice day out climbing at Rylstone (Yorkshire moors) with 3 generations of the Brown family. It was pretty cold and windy at the crag but great to go somewhere new, and even better to climb some more gritstone. The heather was in full bloom and the bilberries were tasty and prolific.

Top of the crag

Cliff on the mono's

Cliff was on good form demonstrating his new (version 7) stove making brews for all, and although he declared he wasn't on top form shot up the steep VS I lead. Shaw was was on equal good form by nearly sending us up an E4 whilst looking for a HVS ;-).

The Browns (and Judith)

Admittedly we didn't climb many routes, but it was a nice social affair and we finished with some fun bouldering on the walk out. In fact I even had to rescue one Brown from a route, I'll let you guess which one!?

Judith photo bombed by the chopper

The sun finally came out at the end of the day