Rjukan Day 1: Krokan

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

After a long day travelling yesterday we had a bit of a slow start this morning. So that we could make the most of the day, and get used to being on ice again we headed to the friendly single pitch venue of the Krokan. I spent the day climbing with David, while 4 others had a days tuition at the same crag. We had a good day with lots of fat ice, although some of it was a bit drippy. We started the day climbing the classic route Bullen, as there were already a few other teams on it we just went up the last free line which was one of the steeper finishes. This provided interesting climb and was an excellent way to get back into ice climbing. After this finding route which were not busy was a bit challenging, so we walked down the crag and ended up climbing ice which looked good around the WI5 Unkown route. With the current fat ice conditions none of these route were WI5 but one of the routes started to feel a bit more tough and pumpy which was great.. Read the full article…

2015 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, General Short Link

Overall 2015 was a very successful year, but it certainly wasn’t without it’s ups and downs. In addition to climbing I had lots of positives in my personal life as I attended four weddings and moved in with my girlfriend. Winter I spent a lot of time out in the mountains in the winter and had some fantastic days but I would have liked to have done some more harder ice climbing. My best weekend climbing was an impromptu trip to North Wales where we climbed Western Gully and El Mancho. As ever I enjoyed taking less experienced people out climbing and I really loved learning to ski tour in the Cairngorms. My winter highlights were Summer Rock My summer climbing got off to a fantastic start with a weekend down in Cornwall at Easter. And over the next few months I went from strength-to-strength which culminated in a fantastic weekend in Pembroke at the start of June. I was just loving climbing and progressing really well into E2. Unfortunately, after Pembroke weekend I became ill and it was the end of my hard climbing for the year. I had a. Read the full article…