After talking to my friend Cat about starting climbing, she sent me a video about something I had not seen before. Slacklining!
All it took was for my brother to tell me out of the blue that he had a random opportunity to try slack lining, to see 3 mins later, by chance that Cat and her boyfriend had just done their first session on a slack line in a london park and I have convinced myself that slacklining is for me.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - It seems to me, that the older you get the more each aspect of this errrr 'syndrome' is exacerbated: The onset is more delayed, more muscles are affected, and they are more sore.
27 is not old, but still, I notice that I am no child anymore - able to undertake any strenuous activity, without considering how my body is going to punish me later... This is why, you see, that I undertook a strenous activity without considering how my body was going to punish me.
First indoor climbing session, three days ago. Three whole days (Tuesday) and my body is destroyed (Friday). It fits the 'delayed onset' criteria, because on Wednesday I felt fine, Thursday mostly fine, but today, I am so stiff and sore it is incredible.
Forearms, shoulders, wrists, stomach, neck = sore
The plan is to go again tomorrow, but honestly, I don't know if I'll be capable. If I can't, I'll certainly be keeping my eye out for more climbing videos like the one below. Seriously impressive! Enough to inspire any newby climber.
What better time to get an under par night's sleep than the night before your most athletic undertaking of a hectic holiday!
Again, this video is a far better representation of this climb than my words will ever be, so for an insight into our journey that day, watch from 3.20 ish, summit from 5.30 onwards, then descent.
I was angry on leaving the car. I believed that my bad state and annoyance was going to affect my enjoyment of the experience we had come for. Then we had to go back to the car, because my bro, had not tightened his pedal fully. I don't blame him, there was a lot to remember and sort out prior to departure: clothing, for any conditions, tools, nutrition, ah and suncream, but you don't think like that at the time - It pissed me off! Luckily I had noticed only a couple of hundred metres from the car, so things could have been worse, as a pedal spanner is not one of the things you tend to take with you.
Once underway I forgot about all my frustrations though. The Alps seem to be able to distract like this. I felt pretty good actually, better than I had ever imagined. We made good progress through the lower slopes and the vineyards and dwellings. Vineyards stretched as far as the eye could see - A terrific site in itself. The vineyard rush hour of the morning had dissolved into an incredibly quiet mountainside, which was a pleasure to cycle up. The contrast from the anxiety inducing rush of the earlier morning, probably made the peace all the better!
This peace, was nothing compared to the lonelyness of the higher reaches of the route though. The Col du Sanetsch, is not a pass, so there was no through traffic. Only some tiny dwellings on the mountain side and a power station just the other side of the summit account for the presence of about 13 miles of this stretch of tarmac. The experience is all the better for it!
I remember the various stages of the climb. The lower slopes, covered with vineyards and villages. The classic alpine tree line, before hitting the higher slopes, with spruce and fir giving way to a few hundred vertical metres of alpine grasses/meadow. Then finally hitting the baron, tundra like expanses above the meadows. The distinct sections, give an insight into your upward and downward progress.
I remember one of the most juxtaposed visual experiences of my life, seeing a superb alpine cabin adorned with hundreds of Swiss flags, in all shapes and sizes, standing next to a sign that told us that we had 15 kilometres to go to the summit, all after over an hour of climbing. Around 10 miles uphill still to go.
I remember realising after a depressive mood gave way to a few minutes of elation and then swiftly into angre, that I had by about 11 o clock that day experienced pretty much the entire spectrum of human emotion.
I remember the tunnels, one 800 metres long hewn into the rock, that allowed for the otherwise impossible traverse of the road.
I remember that after an entire mountain of going at my speed, my brother finally felt he needed to push on for his own good. Slowly his advantage of power to weight showing through as he extended a gap between us on the final couple of miles of baron lunar like landscape, leading up to the Col. And him waiting for me, so we could summit together, good chap!
The elation of reaching the top and then the thoughts of the absurdity of the way we create goals like these for ourselves. Boy, it was awesome though and the kind of thing everyone should experience.
Then it was my turn to be able to gain ground on the bro. I was always better at descending than ascending! Great fun. Another athletic experience in itself, descending an alp. You learn quickly that even if you want to, there is no way you can slow yourself down for the entirity of a descent, you need to just let go and give your forearms and brake blocks a rest, before slamming on the anchors just before each switch back.
We completed the majority of the descent. I left Andrew on one section, where one of 3 cars we had seen in four hours, found the gap between us and I really put caution to the wind. Part of it is caught in the video around 8.30 I think, though you cannot grasp this from footage. Great fun! A bit further on I waited for Andrew, but then he decided to spend time looking at a particularly spectacular view.
My descent of the last section, back into and through the villages and vineyards was truly awesome! Alone, I pushed very hard and loved really investigating how hard I could push myself and the bike. Transfering weight hard when taking a racing line through an S bend on the limit at over 40 miles an hour is a great experience. The close proximity to the road of some of the houses, really highlighted the speed and my bike showed its true colours on that descent. Something to be remembered.
It was not long before Andrew rolled towards the car at the bottom. Huge smiles!
Steep, undulating trials. Changing, uneven, often awkwardly cambered or slippery surfaces all add a bit to your standard run. 8 miles, probably equivalent to a few more flat miles. A peaceful day with very few people around. Great! Few days calf recovery needed though. Those hills really grab at them!
Bolt Head and Tail, South Devon, a fantastic area to visit!
Last weekend was a Snowdon attempt on Mountain bike. Was under a little time constraint, so didn't end up sumitting. Stopping to film at various points also took a long time.
Felt fantastic so a shame not to summit, but absolutely blindin' experience nonetheless, with snow present from the llanberis path, half way house upwards.
Suffered slightly from having a very unaggressive, race orientated rear tyre, but not in the manner you'd imagine-when it comes to grip whilst climbing - but because it wasn't quite so resistant to the thrashing it had on the way down with all the high speed rock impacts.
With the winter coming on slowly, I am more than ever looking forward to the prospect of a good bit of mud. So with that in mind, here's Robin Moore again with another blinder.
Wake up >> un-tangle knot of body/sleeping bag/clothes >> unzip sleeping bag, then bivi >> put trousers socks and boots on >> stand up, put rest of gear on >> pack sleeping bag and bivi up >> re-pack bag >> eat trail mix for breakfast >>
>> head off up trail >> Round bend - get battered by the wind >> Struggle up mountain >> Take cover from rain storm >> curse the weather for needlessly having made you take cover from rain storm >> break cover >> Have oodles of fun running up and down a rock outcrop in the wind >>
>> Continue >> Get battered by sideways hail (Right in the face!!!) >> Continue >> Find old stone sheepfold >> Eat >> Take photos >>
Sheepfold near Melynllyn
>> Find path >> wade bog >> cross water course >> Find Tarn>>
Melynllyn Tarn
>> Walk the 'beach' >> Find sheltered spot >> build rock wall >> put stove on >> attempt solo skinny dip >> Fail (Really? yup...don't ask) >> clothes on >> Hot chocolate brew >> Pack up >> Descend >> Amazing!!!
First log fire tonight. Picked up some deadwood the other day. Thanks nature. Mesmerising watching fire isn't it, just as it is to listen to Richard Feynman talk about the science of fire. He just has a fantastically engaging way of simplifying physics so that mere mortals like me can understand. What a character!
If you're aiming for 'Wilderness' a dead end road is a good start and if it has gates, all the better!
So first evening, we found some good UK wilderness on a plateau of snowdonia around 600 vertical metres. We hiked for a bit and then bivi'd down. Mr Wind was being a bit playful, though strangely enough, one of the better sheltered spots was atop a rocky outcrop, which provided spectacular views in almost every direction.
East from plateau over North Wales Llyn Eigiau Reservoir
Come morning, Mr Wind had really got the bit between his teeth. We temporarily lost one roll mat and a water proof bag, but an intrepid 10 minute mission down hill and back up by my wilderness colleague, saw us retrieve that which we thought was lost.
Pack up was a challenge, but moods couldn't have been better. Huge appreciation of total contrast between 9-5 London and time doesn't matter wilderness. Love it!
For my first post, I considered outlining a possible subject for the blog. Obviously I didn’t do that!
The problem was, that I didn’t really know exactly how this was going to go.
…and I didn’t want to be unoriginal straight away, did I?- Not a good start!
So sticking to the less unoriginal, (no, not ‘more original’) here are links to two videos that I want to remember. Both of which are mountain biking related. One, impressive because of the cycling aspect [and the commentary] Danny Hart's downhill run and the other amazing because of everything but the cycling aspect Just trust me and watch this!
