Jon, Phil and me climbed Contamine-Grisolle on the Tacul Triangle for acclimatisation purposes. The lower slopes of the Triangle were icy and lean but the snow conditions on our route were excellent. The route was of no great difficulty and we moved together for the entirety. We abseiled down the Western side of triangle on completion.
Phil between my legs. On the lower slopes of Contamine-Grisolle
A Silly Game Esoteric... intimidating... worrying... exhausting... are some of the words that I would best describe climbing on the white cliffs at Dover. It's one of the most unique and memorable places that I have climbed at and somewhere that has filled me with equal measures of dread and ambition. The style of climbing is far from perfect but it is partly the imperfections combined with the unique experiences and high levels of adventure that kept me returning.What's more the journey time of under two hours from my former London home made the area positively 'local' by London standards. Mick Fowler's exploits were one of the main catalysts to me trying chalk climbing. I visited Saltdean a few times to climb the bolted chalk routes at Saltdean but was keen for bigger adventures away from in situ protection. An excellent article on Dover by Ian Parnell in Climb Magazine further raised my interest in the purely trad form, particularly in a route called The Tube...
Anna leading the penultimate slab pitch At 7am I was slightly worried about our decision to wait until Sunday in order to climb Hægar, which was the planned main event for the weekend. I lay in my tent listening to the strong gusts of wind shake the trees regularly. Strong winds and slab climbing are far from being my favourite combination, particularly when the wind is across the face. However, a quick check of the wind direction raised my optimism that the ridge curving to the east of the main face would block it to some degree. Once we were off the initial slab pitches and into the corner system hopefully we would get further shelter. Hægar is a route that has been on my wish list for a number of years, but only in more recent times has it found its way towards the top. That's partly because I'm generally climbing better (when not injured), meaning the difficulties have become manageable, and also partly because I'm not getting any younger. Waiting until I become an ev...
This is an English language version of the article published by Norsk Tindeklub in the Tidsskrift for Norsk Alpinklatring 2025 . The hillside woke up a few hours after our torch lights went out. Evidently, it had set its alarm several hours ahead of the one on our watches. Immediately it made its feelings known that it didn't approve of our camping spot by casting rocks at our general location. 'Wooaaahh, that one was close!' Murilo excitedly gasped while I lay semiconscious at the opposite end of the tent. I was getting a running commentary from the tent entrance about each rock that flew down the nearby scree gully - in terms of how fast it was travelling, how large it was, and, most importantly, how close it passed by. 'Shit, that one was only about 25m away'. In resignation, we crawled out of the tent to jointly assess the situation. In a sleepy haze, I s...
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