River boulder, Laramade

Leaves are falling, autumn has arrived.  Three or four years ago I found a really good boulder  in the Vicdessos valley, near the popular and developed area of Laramade. I was very surprised no one had found it before, being about 45 degree overhanging some evidence of cleaning or chalk would have been visible, but…

training…second week, home and away

In the second week of this programme and each session has involved dealing with a sensation that can only be described as mild nausea. I remember this feeling, years ago when I ‘trained’, now its clear that for years I have only been putting effort into the things that I enjoyed. For example, hanging off…

training…bla, bla, bla.

I’ve been lying…’I train’, that’s what I say to myself. Maybe many years ago I did actually train, I had notebooks, stopwatches, targets and plans. Over time things changed, I took the words in a couple of articles in an old ‘On The Edge’ magazine too seriously, Moffat said all you had to do…I’m not…

burnt toast

I went for a long drive to go bouldering; in the end I didn’t climb much at all. After crossing the Pyrenees I drove across vast tracts of empty arid Spanish landscapes, boggling in its scale and occasionally marvelling at its detail. I had plenty of time to think on this long journey. Bouldering has…

cornwall, rain and reading

I’ve had a FB exchange with a climber, who has been visiting Cornwall and has been in touch for details and directions for the problems in the ‘Treen’ video. It felt strange, for it’s the first time since moving to France in March that I can honestly say I missed Cornwall. At the time I…

Ariege

It’s been a period of change, flux and transition. I’ve sold my house in Marazion and moved to France, with a fair bit of drifting and driving in between. It’s very strange to have moved, it’s not something I have done much of, now I find myself in the Pyrennes and questioning a little as…

tree

Bouron Marlotte, Fontainebleau. Icy evening, moon, mist and trees. The next morning I watched as two forestry workers cut down a large diseased tree. The chain saw buzzed and sawed cuts around the tree base, one cut and another watched, metal wedges driven in to the cut. I looked at the top branches waiting to…

in between the rain

Amazingly it was dry today! I nearly missed it, such has been the unrelenting regularity of shit weather. Filmed a couple of classics, a lot else was covered in damp glowing wet lichen. I also saw for the first time the damage on the classic arete boulder.  It does look like it was intentional. I…