Medium Mixed Climbing

WEST RIDGE OF SALBIT I could feel ourselves slow as we approached the next turn. We were halfway up the Furka pass, one of the tallest in Europe and yet again Tim's van's engine was overheating. Tim was pretty certain we'd be fine, but that inspired only a little confidence as we entered second gear, the engines revved as much as possible, and the van maxed out around 10 mph. At least that time we didn't have any traffic behind us. On the way to Chamonix we'd overtaken a lorry on an uphill just to power out a few seconds later. Despite our apologetic hazards the lorry driver wasn't best pleased! After two pleasant days in France we were in Switzerland and, if the van made it as far, we'd soon be climbing on Salbit. It's a relatively small but nonetheless impressive peak close to the skiing town of Andermatt. Having popped a pulley on my ring finger the day before, I had eliminated our chances of getting up any technically tricky routes so we aimed to cli...

  Heidbanger Starting up the second pitch Climbing stories are rubbish when they're rambling descriptions of each move and sequence.  Unfortunately that’s more or less what this is. Sorry! The second pitch of  Heidbanger is my first IX pitch lead, and the experience in poor conditions, covered in verglas and pummelled by spindrift felt pretty special to me. I write this as though Callum and I finished the route- which we didn’t.  I don’t care too much for the third pitch. The second pitch lead felt like a new level of trad mixed climbing for me, and by writing this hopefully it’ll serve as a good memory in the future.  Write up contains a lot of beta, you've been warned. I had walked up to the CIC the previous night feeling rather keen for a big day out. The young alpinist group and Tom as well as a handful of other non YAGs were staying in the hut. I had agreed to climb with Will (Rupp), however his exploits on Sioux Wall had left him rather shattered a...

Introduction Roughly 1000km south of Russia, squashed between China to the southeast, and Kazakhstan to the west, lies a small country called Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is a poor country; the average annual salary is around £2500. However, what it lacks in economic power is compensated by its natural riches; Gold, Silver and Uranium are all mined. Aside from the economic value these provide, they are found in and form part of many large mountain ranges that are of interest to me as I enjoy climbing. In soviet times two valleys in Karavshin gained popularity for their solid rock climbing. These are the Kara su and Ak su valleys . In December 2023 I received a message from a friend of mine (Gordon) asking if I would be keen to visit these. Left: climbing on Perestroika crack. Top right: Pik 4810 (Odesa) Bottom right: Russian tower from camp. Journey to Kyrgyzstan It was in this capacity, that at 12pm on Friday the 5 th  of July, instead of working on excel sheets I found myself boa...