Blooin’ a hoolie

It had been planned for a while to head down to Glentress with Stevie and Andy for a bit of mountain biking, given their recent bike exploits and the niggling craving they now have to get out as well as climb to make the most of the wet weather. The night before I decided to check the weather given all the recent storms and strong winds fearing the trees would all be down. Glentress had thankfully updated their website confirming my suspicions and saving us the long drive down to the Borders. We therefore decided on the local option of Carron Valley to get some riding done knowing it may be futile.

Pulling up we see the sign stating trails closed due to fallen trees. Nightmare! We did however decide to do a bit of investigating and set off in the rain to the trails. Ten metres in the first tree was down. Hauling the bike over we carried on to find another down just five metres ahead! Should have listened to the signs!

We scouted further up the trail on foot and decided it couldn’t be rode given the innumerable trees down. We pushed the bike up off the trail to make the fire road and decided to check the jump park given the trees were further from the track. Suspicions proved correct and it was ride-able! Ace! We ended up riding down and up this 3 times, got soaked and couldn’t see through my glasses in some parts due to the rain! Great day…the train back not so much!

Relentless 24

Tuesday, just another day in the office. I was getting a bit fed up of sitting down all day so decided to look into 24hr bike races this season to realise a desire to go do one at some point. Turned out there was the Relentless 24 up in Fort William that very weekend. Great stuff. Plus I don't think I'm quite ready to torture myself by freezing my nuts of with the Peffer in January! 

Thinking of people who would be game, I sent a few texts round and Nikki responded saying that she was keen. We then entered as a mixed pair under the name Vaseline Virgins - aptly named for a 24hr race.  Slipstream Bum Inspectors sounded more of a road racing team!

After some long days the rest of the week to get Friday off, I headed up to Dundee to meet Nikki and her mate Will who kindly offered to support us and drive his van up, which was an enormous help and proved to be invaluable during the night for staying warm. Next thing I knew I was stood next to motorbike legend Guy Martin at the start line for the roll out! The bunch stuck together for the first lap (I think it was around 10k but not sure) but quickly split on the second when Nikki took over the baton/timing chip! We did a lap each during the light and two at night for a bit more rest. Our lap times averaged around 1hr 10mins, with fastest being 1hr 3mins (not a patch on the 50mins laps of some guys!)

The track itself was amazing, being a mix of the witches trail and ten on the ben and a few fire roads linking them in a figure of eight loop from the start/base. It was pretty technical and fast in places, with two big relentless up-hills to get the elevation. North shore, flowing berms and mud were the theme coming down. The daylight laps proved invaluable for when the lights had to go on. I was running a mates hope light and my China special. Both worked wonders with just enough juice to cover my night shift, including my massive 1hr 45min lap where I was so physically exhausted I had to stop at the start half way round the lap to eat loads of biscuits! 

There were numerous crashes, my best one being falling off some north shore into a bush as I didn't realise I was on but it was pretty low and dark! There were a few others, with the next best crashing out at the top of the witches trail coming down but none were as funny. I did realise I was flying down a fire road on a night lap pretty fast and my eyes were closed. I ended up singing 'The Young Ones' the rest of that lap to stay awake! Thankfully though as everyone was spaced out so much that you only saw one to five other competitors per lap nobody saw/could hear my singing!

The atmosphere, the marshals and people watching and helping out like the guy Matt who became team support for the banter and the guys from exposure lights who joined in our team abuse we shouted at each other. We may have been the ones taking it least seriously, and probably why people wanted to join us, but we loving it and it kept the spirits high...well maybe not all the time, especially the two laps I did around 11pm when it rained! Matt's bacon sandwich quickly remedied this for me though!

During the race neither of us slept (you really didn't need to as you were pretty wired to go out for your next lap) which allowed us to get in a good number of laps. . As a result when it came to the results we won our category by 5 laps, and were 5th fastest pair overall. We totalled 19 laps, though after giving everything on the 17th (my 9th) to give Nikki time to get her last in before the cut off, we realised we had time for one more. Despite the initial lack of psyche I (was forced to) manned up and we nailed it to get in just before the 25hr time cut! Last ones in!

Would I do it again? Well despite the broken spoke, buckled wheel, untrue gears and new set of brake pads which resulted I would do it in a flash! Maybe not a 24hr solo though!

I have signed up for ten on the ben June 2014 solo. 10hrs how hard can that be?!

Podium first and second mixed pair

 

Also as you were probably wondering, I can still confirm we're still Vaseline Virgins! Just well hard!

Biking in the Borders

A few months back for my birthday William, Brian and I headed down to the borders for a birthday ride. Rocking up a Glentress at half ten, we went to hire them some bikes for the day. This was to be their introduction to mountain biking, with a few blues then reds to get the hang of handling a bike as it's relatively new to them. Unfortunately they were out of hire bikes for the day, so thinking on my feet we got them to ring to Innerleithern to see if they had some available. Thankfully they did so we bombed down the road, picked up the bikes then set off on the Inners red run.

Having not rode here before I thought that it would be similar to the Tress down the road but how wrong I was! Turns out the first 10k of the loop are mainly uphill. Fine for me, in fact something I enjoy, but looking back after two corners to the lads I started to wonder what I was putting them through. Brian was slogging away and William was pushing. Turns out they didn't know how to use gears properly!!! This was to be a steep learning curve!

Sitting behind them and shouting shift gear left hand down, right hand up we were getting the hang of it. Brian seemingly getting the better of William. Shuttling between them and a lot of banter/waiting later we were soon at the summit of the hill and ready for the down hill. William was a broken man, eating all the food he brought and a bit of mine too! Power poses later we were ready to ride the downhill.


Having never actually rode a MTB properly this was to be as equally eventful as the uphill. I set off first stopping at the more dangerous bit to give pointers on technique and body position on the first few then waiting at the fire roads for them. Somehow Brian didn't fall off but William did a fair few times which was funny...until he didn't appear for 5 mins at the fire road and I started running up to see where he was at! Turns out he was fine just in a heap with the bike!

The day ended, with the route seemingly continuing to Williams dismay and the weather turning into a thunderstorm and buckets of rain. I had to swap for his hire bike and bomb the last bit with Brian back to get them back in time. Cake bought and dried off we went to find William and feed him up again. Never have I seen anyone so broken.

We've been down a few times since, much to the same theme...crashes fast uphills/pushing. Great stuff. I'm sure it will continue into the winter months. Plus I'll be super fit with the new 36 mile commute I now have!

Northumberland - Back to Bowden

After coming back from Font, the lads who couldn't make it decided it would be great to make the most of the weather and head down from Glasgow at 05:30 to Northumberland and asked if I fancied it. Despite the lack of skin left on my finger I decided to tag along and take the rest of the week as rest days to allow for all the font niggles to recover. Plus it was Kev's birthday which meant that I could bring along a massive cake and eat the majority of it!

Great Hat!

After a McDondald's breakfast on the way down we arrived at around 08:30 as the sun was just hitting the crag. We warmed up on the warm up wall and then some more as we started doing some bouldering at the far end of the crag as the sun hit this first. It was great to have the crag to ourselves, and it remained really quiet most of the day until we headed back up the road around 16:00. A fast and quick raid on the county.

As always there was a lot of banter, with Andy wanting to finish off 'the lightbulb'. A 6a which defeated him last time despite the numerous attempts he spent on it, and a massive source of banter for the past year when he fell off anything he did bouldering outside! Thankfully for him he put this demon to rest by making a cool ascent. After a few further sends from Stevie and I we moved to the 6b slab 'Child's Play'. This is a brilliant route I did a few years back when I was living in Dundee and unable to repeat last time I was down. This time I got it and the top felt a lot less scary from what I remember! Andy followed me up but had a look of sheer panic when he reached the break near the top. That looked familiar, too high to not want to come down (and really difficult to reverse) and not wanting to carry on as you get higher. A lot of words of encouragement were shouted and he completed it. Great stuff.

Lightbulb

We climbed a fair few more and on the way out I tried the 7a+ 'His Eminence' which looked great, but was always busy when I was down. Unfortunately I did not complete it but I'm sure I'll be back to give it a fair few goes as it seems an amazing problem if a little high!

 

His Eminence

Return to Font

I've just got back from another week in Font this year, where the temperatures were hotter and more sweatier than ever before! Nevertheless it was still a great trip, even if there was a 4 hour siesta each day to sit out the 35C heat!

The chance to get away again this year was too good to turn down due to ludicrously low price we managed to get it for. Arthur, William, Brian and I flew from Glagow Prestwick to Beauvais then drove down to Font in a massive Citron, via a scenic detour into the middle of Paris (thanks Sat Nav)! We stayed in a lovely gite near Milly, owned by an equally lovely elderly couple who even offered us food the night we arrived! Then all that was left was to climb away.

As chief Sat Nav navigator and Ray Mears forest veteran, I sniffed out the venues for the trip again using my expert judgement but primarily where I wanted to go. We therefore ended up going to 95.2,

Roche aux Sabots, Bas Cuvier, Roche Canon, Franchard Isatis and Franchard Cusinere. We quickly realised on day 1 just how warm it would be, so headed for the trees! 

I cant really remember what was climbed, though due to the heat I got close but no cigar to a few 7a's but mainly did quite a few 6's, some lovely slabs, and really easy fast circuits at the height of the midday sun. The others were more focused on some of the harder stuff but again had little success. Everyone enjoyed it which was the main thing. Well that and of course the amazing food (seafood bbq, salmon pasta, mackerel, steak, baguette, pain au raisin etc) and French wine. 

Here's a few pictures from the trip. A video is soon to follow which may be quite short as footage is primarily of failures on harder stuff!)

Glasgow River Rat Race 2013

Back in March of this year I had an accident out in the hills which required some assistance from Mountain Rescue to get me back off it. In recognition of the help I received and the overall work the Mountain Rescue teams do, a few folk from work thought it would be a great idea to do a bit of fundraising for them by running the Glasgow River Rat Race.

I'm pretty grateful they decided to do this, but more impressed that they put themselves through a race in the River Clyde given what a lovely and clean river it is! The race itself is a 10k run with a few easy obstacles along the way to break it up, a bit of kayaking half way round then back to the start at the riverside transport museum for a swim and big jump off a plank off the tall ship to finish. It was a great laugh and everyone completed it and had fun along the way.

We were unsure if we were all going to run it together, but it happened that we eventually paired up with someone of the same speed. This was decided for Nikki and I at the start when we were herded into the start pen and ending up on the front row due to being stood by the gate during the brief/warm-up! 3, 2, 1, go!  We were off! Having done no training whatsoever, with the last run I did being over 6 months ago due to my painful knees we were quickly overtaken by the more serious runners. It didn't matter though as we were there primarily for the fundraising and a bit of banter and fun. To this end it was great to run with Nikki and we had a great time, even with my athletic commentry! Just a shame on the kayak we didn't manage to pick up the bottle of floating Buckfast someone was obviously enjoying the night before!

In the end we came in 74 & 75 out of 500+ which was a pretty respectable in a time of 1hr 20mins ish. The rest of the team started rolling in over the next half hour, giving us  time to be in a position to shout abuse/banter at them as they were going to jump off the tall ship plank!

The team raised around £1,500 for Mountain Rescue Scotland, surpassing any expectation of what I hoped we would achieve. A massive thanks to everyone who sponsored us, it's a fantastic total I'm sure they will be able to do lots with. It's great to know the MRT are there for if we get into difficulties in the hills. They do an amazing job, go out in all conditions and give up their time freely to come to people's aid. A massive amount of respect.

(Our sponsor page is http://www.justgiving.com/teams/thefallguy)

The Cobbler

This weekend , and old German Dundee Uni friend was across for a visit so we went for a walk up The Cobbler by Arrochar. We set off to Queen Street to make the 8.30 train but missed it by a minute (thanks phone app!), so after a coffee and a walk in town we got onto the 10.30 train then walked up and around the Cobbler, via the mid-path scramble and the ridge off the left most peak, threading the needle on the middle peak along the way.
It was another scorcher of a day but we had a good time and watched the guys climbing and soloing on the way down, who were going well, with some guy climbing hard.

A great lead up Rest and be Thankfull by some guy

It's easily do-able to take a trip up it, make a pub stop and then make it to the station for the half 6 train back to Glasgow. Plus by taking the train you get the lovely views over the lochs on the way back which you miss on the road (as well as the comedy drunken neds getting on closer to Glasgow)!

The Cobbler is always worthwhile in any weather I find!

Today we biked up to Luss which was nice and got the train back to mine so Nina could make the train to Edinburgh to fly back to Germany. Always nice to catch up with old friends and get out and about.

A not so great second!

Cathkin Thursdays

For the past few weeks some of the guys from work and I initiated post work mountain biking at Cathkin Braes every Thursday for a few laps of the new Commonwealth Games Cross Country MTB track. Cathkin Thursdays - with catchy titles like that it proves we don't get paid for nothing!

Now for the past few months I've been enjoying cycling the 24 mile round trip primarily on the road bike, which turns out to be far more rewarding than the car and almost 40 mins faster than public transport! I've been getting pretty fast, and tracking it on the phone via Strava and seemingly doing quite well compared to others; though I'm only really slightly interested in my own times out of all of it! Therefore coming in on the MTB is a bit more of a chore, though I somehow have a few Strava personal bests on some sections on it?! Nevertheless it does make a solid excuse for not being able to keep up with Adam and Andy when they shoot off on the laps given their commutes are half mine. It has nothing to do with the fact I'm rubbish! haha.

The track itself is great fun and packed full of tricky technical sections with rocky flats, fast jumpy downhills and rocky steep uphills. Not bad for a 5km loop! The Commonwealth and proper races there must be great if you're any good! I've heard of 14 minute laps being done, beating my 18 min ones by a fair bit when we turn that into 3 laps!!!

One day I'll get the last steep uphill and not fall over the bars as often!

Not Cathkin (as I don't have a pic), but here's Cav leading the British Road Race Championship in Glasgow back in June!

Unfortunately next week will be the last foreseeable Cathkin Thursday as we move offices to Eurocentral :( Bad times.

Return to Auchinstarry

Tonight Brian and I headed for an after work trip to Auchinstarry for a bit of trad climbing. I slinked off from work at half three to make the most of the weather and cycle back without too much traffic.

Brian was leading all night as my head for trad is still a bit all over the place still after March. It was nice to be back on the rope again and I had a really great night, as did my skin thanks to Tesco Value factor 20 suncream, which turns out to be the best midge repellant ever! Good accidental work there Tesco.Unfortunately for Brian I put it on before I left so he didn't fair too well!!!

Nevetheless Brian lead some cracking routes and has rapidly become a good solid and safe trad climber. We started on the 3* HVS Promontory Direct which is the classic of the crag, and after a few sketchy hand jams (his first ever) he was at the top crack and up and over. I followed up and enjoyed the moves, thinking it was a great lead.

We then moved round and did VS Red Lead above the water which is again an amazing route. The gear is good where you need it and it feels like proper climbing all the way across. The traverse out to the belay rock spike is interesting too... especially when you realise you left your phone in your pocket!

Some guys on Red Lead from top of Midas

Brian then lead his first E1 Midas Touch, placing a dodgy first nut but better gear above. Another great lead. We then abbed down and went up the VS Mastalgia to get back up and out by around half ten. A great evening out and great work from Brian.
I'll hopefully be back in the trad game properly soon enough!

Dumby Nights

Brian and his Gorilla nemesis

Over the past two weeks with the cracking Spanish esque weather I've popped up to Dumby after work with Brian and a few others. Despite the scorchio weather we've still managed to get a few new problems done and got a bit further with others. Primarily on those on the northern sides of the boulders in the shade. I'll have Mugsy yet!

The school of half shoe on climbing

I did manage to do all the slabs on the sea boulder I've ignored until now as well as Physical Graffiti and Home Rule.

New Wheel

I was out for the usual fast 40 miler on the weekend in the Campsies and sadly my rear road wheel finally gave up ghost on the way back just before Milngavnie. Due to it's age/use/spec/freewheel pack up/hub issues, I decided it was high time for a new wheel.

I bought a new Halo hub online then after work on Friday I went to Wheelcraft in Campsie Glen to see big Al and try and build a wheel. Last time I was up he did a great job of fixing me up with a new front MTB wheel after I laced it up. I smashed the old one up significantly after taking a jump wrong - I'm not making wheels into a new habit! Incidentally the new wheel is still true as a dime despite the abuse!

Anyway I arrived on Friday around half 5, and after picking out a new Ambrosio rim (not the custard), Al cut me some spokes then told me the principles of rounding, truing, dishing and tension. These are simple concepts, and should only take around 45mins to lace and true a wheel I gathered. Unfortunately for me when combined together on the truing stand proved to take a little longer....well a lot longer. 5 hrs later I was done!

Big thanks to Al for letting me do this and teaching me how to do this. Also thanks for lending me a high vis for the ride back in the dark to make the last Glasgow train!
The wheel rides great and is proving too good to be true given that it was my handy work (pun intended)!

New Wheel!!!

Great Yorkshire Bike Ride 2013

Another quality ride occurred this year, with all the usual happenings including another good performance from Dad Cav and the annual rain, with the showers this year being particularly heavy and short lived! The ride itself is just over 70 miles from Wetherby to Filey and is done by around 2000 people so effectively becomes a closed road event despite this not being the case. Mass bikeathon!

This year the Jordan peleton was also graced by Andrew Parkin to add in an outside Parker cousin entry to the mix. We set off after a quick bike decoration courtesy of Martin and Adam to have the coolest bikes in the race. Sadly nobody thought they were good enough to swap for their posh full carbon job bikes.

Never mind, the power train went on regardless, with Adam 'squeaky seat Spanish legs' leading the way. Everyone kept up throughout and had a great day (though they did slow down for my knees for the last 10 miles). The hills proved easy this year though Adam still comfortably retains the King of the Mountain Jersey for some physically impossibly pacey riding up hills!

Over the day we average around 17mph but  did take some good breaks to capitalise on the great lunch put on. If we'd have been ten minutes faster we'd have even missed the horrifically heavy rain  just before going up the hill. We came in looking like drown rats! After that it was a fast decent into Filey. Quality day out on the bike.

 

Fontainbleau Euro-Tripping

Paris from Sacre-Cour. Sacre Bleu!

I've just returned from a classy two week trip to Font in a very round about way via Amsterdam, Paris and then onto Barcelona! Some brilliant places I highly recommend visiting.

I set off to Amsterdam to see Graham and Emily before they set off for South Africa and saw the local sites on offer and the beach 7km from Harleem. The first day I was there the weather allowed this though it then threw it down until I left for Font! Absolutely soaked! Amsterdam itself has lots to see and do and the engineering of the canal work is impressive. After 2 full days I left for a day and night in Paris where I blasted through the subway system to see all the sites. This is pretty do-able, especially if you're on a budget and don't go in anywhere which costs (and usually has a queue). Plus, unless you intend to spend money, don't find the best climbing shop I have ever been in just down from the Uni in Paris. I came out with these bad boys:

Pythons

I then met Brian and Andy at Beauvais where we picked up the Qashqai, pumped up the French rap and headed to the forest. We quite literally did as the first night we had no gite accommodation so spent the night in the car after a cheeky tipple at the one bar in Nemours which was open!

Font itself was great, everyone climbed well given the hot weather with many 6's getting done. I tried to work a 7a, but at 29C I got nowhere! Also turns out 7c slabs are really hard! Hardest thing I sent was a 6c at the Elephant.

Brian and Andy put in good performances, giving everything they had to the rock as it was their first trip down. I don't think Andy will forget that 3c in a hurry! (or ever be allowed to live it down).



At the same time we were down for the week, so too was Johnny from Dundee with his new Swansea mates, and so too was Billy with his Glasgow climbing club. It was good to catch up with everyone. On the trip itself we visited quite a few places: - Franchard Isatis, Bas Cuvier (not for the night action!), Elephant, Petit Bois, 95.2, 91.1, Cul De Chien and Roche aux Sabots. We also decided to make a movie coming to a screen near you soon. It's called 'some videos from Font' by a half hearted production. Pretty much says it all, though it is a first attempt with the climbs not being super inspiring.

Classic Font style! Stopping for a breather!

la sagrada familia

I then left the lads and caught the Paris - Barcelona sleeper and spent another 4 days down there. Hands down the best city I've ever visited in Europe. So much to see and do, I could have spent much longer down there. I didn't fully experience the nightlife for a lack of funds and not meeting anyone in the hostel going out until my last night, but from what I hear it's quality too.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Keep it Holy

Link to Video Here: http://vimeo.com/70060409