Latest Articles on Mountain Sports
Mountaindays.net V2 at last!
After months of work, on and off, we can finally announce the launch of the new look Mountaindays!
New look mountaindays.net
I created this website over six years and it now attracts in excess of 50 thousand visitors a month. To try and keep up with the demand for reviews of books and other climbing related kit, I decided to implement the site in a content management system. This would also allow me to implement some additional dynamic functionality such as a membership and commenting scheme. Plus it also needed a new look and feel made using schematic HTML.
After much trawling around and a few false starts I settled on ExpressionEngine. This is a php based content management system build around a blogging metaphor but with a large user group. There is a free version available for individual use, I decided to purchase the personal edition, mainly to make use of some of the additional features available such as the photo gallery.
As with all new software and development environments it took some getting used to but I have to say I am very impressed with what can be acheived and the new version of ExpressionEngine looks very promising indeed. In terms of the Mountaindays rewrite, well the new design and template creation was the simple task. As with all projects of this sort, the migration of the existing content was the real time consuming job, especially seeing as the bulk of the pages were static and used table…
Winter ML
Just a quick one to say I (Giles) passed my Winter ML yesterday -
Paul and Leigh also passed and along with Paul Mitchell who made up the final member of our foursome. Thanks to all for a top week ...... now off to sleep for a few days
The Kepler Track
The forecast was bad… but we were booked on to the track on the 2nd January and it was our only chance to go so there was nothing for it but to don our oh-so-uselss waterproofs and get on with it. Those who know Giles well will understand how tempted he was to go and splash out on a shiny new waterproof jacket for the occassion, but he finally made do with a new base layer instead - bought on the premise that it was ‘warm when wet’
The sun was shining when we were dropped off at Brod Bay by the water taxi so we were hoping the forecast was mistaken. For most of the day we were sheltered from any rain by the dense bush that we were walking through. The track was proving to be quite pretty and we were enjoying being out in the wilderness until… we had just about reached the bushline and were looking forward to seeing the views over the lakes and mountains when we heard thunder. And then the hail started. We arrived at the first night’s hut 40 minutes later looking and feeling like drowned rats. However, the Luxmore Hut did have a nice glowing fire, and we were soon nicely warmed up. Plus, this time we had remembered the chocolate!
The next day the weather was worse and we awoke to a covering of snow. The track lead us up and over the ridge, which should have been the highlight…
Mueller Hut Tramp
The Mueller Hut tramp - this is where we found out how poorly equipped we were for the extremes of tramping in New Zealand. We have brought our summer walking gear and light waterproofs with us, leaving all our heavy duty wet/cold weather gear at home as were not expecting to need it, but we had not bargained for the rain and the cold….
Day one of our tramp started well, with the sun shining and some really pretty views up the valley. For about an hour. And then it started to rain. And it continued to rain. We were wet through pretty quickly, but we perservered with the idea that it must clear up at some point. How wrong we were! We finally arrived at the Mueller Hut to find no lovely fire as we’ve come to expect from our stays in the huts in the European Alps, and we were freezing. To make matters worse, we hadn’t carried up any chocolate. Miserable!
Anyway we made the best of the evening, comforted by the fact that others were turning up looking much more ill-equipped than we were! And it turned out that the hut warden was from Sheringham - so the evening turned to reminiscing about the Norfolk, the UK and Giles and the Warden confusing all other occupants with their strange Norfolk dialect and phrases!
The next morning was very Christmassy, with snow on the ground and a chill in the air that made us feel like we…
Salty Sea Dogs
We were up horribly early on Friday morning to get ready for kayaking, but for once we managed get somewhere on time
We jumped in a water taxi which took us all the way from Kaiteriteri to Mutton Cove, and then we paddled to Separation Point, which is the very northern tip of the Abel Tasman National Park. We were thrilled to see fur seals and penguins fairly early on (we had no idea at the time just how many seals we would get to see on our way back down the coast). From this point onward we were paddling back down the coast, and so with the current, making our lives a whole lot easier! We had a fair bit of wind and swell, so we were pleased not to have to battle against the current as well. We camped the first night at Onetahuti beach, and we were spoilt rotten by our guides with the food and drink that they came up with. The trip was not turning out to be as tough as we had expected!
Day two had us leaving Onetahuti fairly early in order to paddle round to Shag Harbour. This is a tiny ‘harbour’ which we were hoping to paddle in to as it’s supposed to be beautiful at high tide. Unfortunately we were too late and had to abandon our kayaks and walk in instead. We still got an idea of what it would be like with the water, and got ‘up close…
Grade 5 River Kayaking
Well today we both kayaked a grade 5 river including a 7m waterfall! What a fantastic trip although we both had loads of water injected into ears, nose and mouth so have slight headaches.
Before people think we’ve taken leave of our senses and jumped straight into white water rafting on a grade 5 river, well no fear we were both in tandem kayaks along with guides, not that it made the effort any easier. Especially in my kayak where I far out weighed my guide - poor Pete!
The route lasted an hour and the highlight was the 7m waterfall but also include numerous rapids and a couple of other smaller waterfalls at around 4m
Lea was fortunate to stay upright all the way but Pete and I couldn’t manage this under the largest fall. Despite numerous practices in calm water I wasn’t prepared for the violence of the water in the rapids. When we rolled I calmly followed the drill and dropped my paddle and bend double over the kayak and waited for Pete to right us. This he nearly managed to do but lost it at the last minute and we plunged under again. At this point I took a mouth full of water and it started to be less fun. Unfortunately the survival aspect of my brain kicked in and I forgot the drill meaning that we needed help to be righted and then had to empty to boat - sorry Pete!
That aside it was…
Nepal Unclimbed
Unfortunately our Unclimbed Peak remains so ...........
Our trip started with an eventful bus journey with an 80km trip taking 12 hours starting in Kathmandu with 5 of us plus around 10 Sherpas/Porters and a whole lot of kit, finishing in Syrabubensi with a bus crammed full of people after picking up more Porters on the way.
The journey through the Nepal countryside was amazing, punctuated with small villages where we appeared to be a bit of a novelty. We were embarking on our trip on the first day of the Dasain Festival so there was a holiday atmosphere in most of the villages with people decorating their vehicles, houses and faces and playing games in the street.
Recent landslides lead to a few hairy moments on the road with us having to walk across numerous sections. Nepalise bureaucracy made for some long hold ups at various army checkpoints but much arm waving, telephone calls and raised voices safely saw us on our way.
We finally made it to Syrabubensi to find the intended guest house was full so tents it was on the local playing field.
The next day we started our trek into the Langtang National Park with our destination a small group of Guest Houses called the Llama Hotel. As we were still at quite a low altitude the temperatures were pretty high and there was plenty of colourful plant life not to mention monkeys in the trees.
The next day we continued our trek heading towards…
Kathmandu
Well we arrived safely in Kathmandu last night after a brief stop over in the Middle East. Today we’re busy doing last minute admin jobs and sorting kit out prior to our departure for Langtang tomorrow morning. Oh and also recovering from the drinking session last night
Its a fantastic place and a real sensory overload. Fingers crossed when we’re next online (prob 3 weeks time) we and the team will have successfully made the first ascent of our peak. We’ll upload some pictures then
Homeless Loafers in the French Alps
Well it’s been a while - we’ve just been so busy enjoying ‘not working’ that we haven’t had much time for updating our site!
We had a good week with John and Leigh, if a little troubled by the weather
I managed my first 4,000m peak, the Allalinhorn, with John, although unfortunately Giles and Leigh were forced to turn back and wait for us to finish as Giles was not well. (Therefore no photos of that one as I was too knackered to carry my camera and have yet to nab some photos from John).
A few days later we regrouped and all managed to get to the summit of Weismeiss, pictures below…
We said goodbye to John and Leigh, and we returned to Chamonix. Unfortunately the next 5 days saw us valley ridden with bad colds and then bad weather We eventually got fed up waiting for the weather to improve, so we found some valley cragging, and ventured out on to the Mer de Glace in the cloud for some ice climbing.
Finally the good weather arrived, and we headed up the Aiguille du Midi, to attempt the Midi-Plan traverse. Awesome views, the route not completed, but one hell of an adventure! Best save the details to be told over a pint some time
Needless to say we’ll be back next year to finish it off…
One week to go, and with the weather set good we’re planning to stay in Chamonix and make the most of it.…
Takesi Trek
Well we have returned from the Takesi Trek safe and sound, with lots of fun and games to report. The trek was fantastic with us crossing a 4650m pass on day one before camping at 4300m. On the second day we planned to ascend the mountain again to view some lakes before returning to our high camp. Days 3 and 4 involved us descending from the high mountains down into the Yungas (jungle type terrain) before arranging transport back to La Paz.
That was the plan anyway. The first day (Sunday) went well with us meeting the mules and muleteers (people in charge of the mules) in the Cordillera Real Mountain Range at 10am in the morning. It was beautiful high mountain terrain with glaciers and some of the highest peaks in Bolivia visible. We set out on the trek and ascended to the pass. Some of the trail was made up of pre-Inca paving which was over 3000 years old. It was awe inspiring to walk across this and think about the effort that must have gone into creating it and how many thousands of feet have walked across it over the years. That was for Maz and I, it was all a bit lost on the group to be honest.
We made the pass by 4pm and headed down to our high camp which we reached just before dark. Tents were pitched and food cooked and eaten before we all turned in for a very cold night
Day…
