A Break from Mountains   The last week and a half has been a bit different to the rest of this Summer’s activities of big wall multipitches and mountains.   Willis and I drove to Grindelwald from the Dolomites after our ascent of “Phantom der Zinne” on the Cima Grande. We were meeting up with good friend and professional filmmaker, Euan Ryan (Finalcrux Films). Willis and Euan had a previous engagement to film the “Eiger Paraclimb”, a project lead by Scottish climber Mark McGowan in which he was helping lead three disabled climbers up the west flank of the Eiger -... Continue reading

Inspiration The Dolomites is without a doubt one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes I have ever visited. The whole of the Tyrol and more specifically, South Tyrol region will always have a place in my heart… I love it here so much! The mountains, culture and climbing combined make for one of the most enthralling locations I have had the pleasure to visit during my time as a climber.Blast from the past - last year on "Bellavista" Visiting the Dolomites last year was a huge eye opener for me, it challenged my view of climbing and what I really love... Continue reading

  Everyone has dreams, yet few of us ever get to realise them... Some might say it's sad when you have a dream you will never see realised; the aspirations to realise mine is what ends up taking me to places I never would have gone to without them in the first place! So what if I never realise the dream? Well at least I experienced the journey! This story is a happy ending though; I didn't just go on the journey... I realised the dream! The Legendary photo of the no-hands rest on the 7c+ pitch of "Silbergeier" The Dream... Continue reading

    The Beastmaker Board Comes to EICA Is it possible that in 10 years of climbing and training; something can come along that totally blows your mind… that re-introduces you to training ideas and concepts… that inspires you and helps you see what is actually possible?Meditating under the Board Well the answer to this is a resounding… YES!!! Everyone knows that EICA: Ratho has the best route climbing facility in the UK by a long shot and is, without a doubt, one of the best climbing facilities on earth. The only downside to this amazing centre was that a few... Continue reading

  “Unfinished Symphany”   There’s something special about making an ascent of a climb that's  only had a few ascents… I guess it’s like being one of a select group; it makes you feel like “The Big Man”! Sounds like such a ridiculous reason to do anything; but saying that, I think grades are really silly too and a lot of people climb routes for "grades" more than any other reason! One of the main factors that attracted me to try “Unfinished Symphany” was that I could get a 2nd ascent. I just like the sound of that… it’s not a first... Continue reading

  The grit was made famous worldwide after the movie “Hard Grit” was released in the late 90’s. Whenever I travel abroad, the moment it becomes obvious that I’m British (which is generally instant), I am queried about grit… Almost as if this island we live on is just one massive gritstone blob bobbing in and out of the sea :P Well I have a confession to make folks, I’ve not really spent much time on the grit… In fact my time on the grit can be narrowed down to half a day at Stanage bouldering and another spent top roping... Continue reading

  A lot of people have been confronting me recently on my apparent change of focus to trad climbing. For those of you who don’t know, I would probably be regarded as a “sport climber” if you were to file me into a category… and I definitely wouldn’t disagree here as sport climbing is what I have primarily done up until recently. The real answer to the question, “why the sudden change?” is actually not that difficult to comprehend. In fact the route to this question stems from the reasons why I started climbing in the first place… Challenge! Me climbing... Continue reading

After all the excitement of having climbed “Bellavista”, Logan and I gave ourselves a little bit of a rest from the alpine environment and headed instead for some apparently, more relaxing sport climbing adventures in Zillertal, Austria. The reason I say “apparently” is because relaxing was not the best way to put our time in Zillertal… It was always raining when we were there, the camping situation wasn’t the best and Logan was having a bit of a hard time on the tough granite (Schist) style. We just felt dirty the whole time, something I have gotten quite used to on... Continue reading

Bellavista   Well… Long story short… Logan and I were successful in our attempt to free one of Europes toughest multi-pitch challenges and indeed one of the world’s most famous, hard, alpine style rock climbs. But the short story long is a far better tale to tell, so that is what I will tell now… View from our tent ;)We travelled back to the Dolomites after a break in the bad weather would allow us to have a bit more time working the crux pitch. We had only had 2 days on the route so far and it had already seemed... Continue reading

So I’ve been in mainland Europe for a week now… I am out here climbing with a good friend of mine, Logan Barber (Australia). I first met Logan on a climbing trip to Ceuse back in 07 and since then we have been on many a good climbing trip together and share a lot of similar goals. At Christmas time I spoke to Logan about a trip to the Dolomites, and thus the seed was planted… Logan was keen for it immediately and we spoke more about the plan when I was in Australia. Before I knew it I was flying... Continue reading