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Not as good as the 1st time but still flippin' great!
28 September 2014, 3:05 pm

It seemed a good idea to go to Kalymnos. According to the topo there should have been a strong northerly wind blowing (called the Meltemi) to keep the humidity down and make climbing in September reasonable.

In reality there was no wind and most of the time the crags were damp and suffering from the Gogarth/LPT soap. Temps were around 32 degrees C and the humidity was up around 80% which made it pretty unpleasant for climbing, lathered in sweat, red faced and panting like a dog each time we tied into the rope!

The outcome was far different from Easter last year. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to do many of the harder routes on my rather long hit list. Still it wasn't a waste of time either. During the 3 weeks we visited lots of different secteurs and climbed lots of amazing steep tufas. Which is what people go to Kalymnos for. We made lots of new friends and even met up with friends we'd not seen for many years.

Despite the heat, the humidity, lots of polished footholds and the crowds I still believe Kalymnos is one of the best places I have climbed at. Where else, for example, can you go and climb amazing 6c's on blobby tufas, like at Ghost Kitchen and Secret Garden? Or have an entire crag to yourselves covered in quality routes, like at Galatiani or Sikati Cave? Or eat fantastic Greek food for 8 Euros per person, like at Noufaro's?

What a pity though that we had to drive to Milan Bergamo again to catch the Ryanair flight and have to suffer the crazy Italian drivers on the autopista around Milan!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Arriving on Kalymnos[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Our accomodation (shame about the Swedish witch above!)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tools of the trade[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]There's beer![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]And good food too![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Our wheels below Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Andy Chambers on the brilliant Frapogalo (6c) at Secret Garden[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine on the tricky Dafni (6c+) at Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Spot the climber on Morgan (7b+) in Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Surreal landscape in the bottom of Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]French climber on the mega Calcite Star Plus (7b+) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The same French climber on Feuerdorn (7a honest!) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Look at those incredible tufas on Armata Sikati (7b) in Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Austrian climber sending one of the best 7c+'s anywhere: Marci Marc in a Force 7 (one of the few days there was actually some wind!). Elaine looks cold![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Yours truly at the knee bar rest above all the hard climbing on the mega Gegoune (7c) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Sunrise whilst leaving Kalymnos[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view from Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Telendos from our apartment[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Funny, I was just reading this thread today, chuckling at the Phil Davidson post ...and then bumped into him at Helsby this afternoon. The Ducati has only just been sold after 30 odd years

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Tourists in Iceland
26 October 2014, 6:30 pm

We've just got back from a really great trip to Iceland, the small island where everything is on a massive scale. If you like mountain and volcanic scenery it is simply stunning. We spent a week travelling in the south of the island. Our original plan was to travel around the whole island but we decided to take things slower and not to spend all the time driving.

Elaine did the usual research before we left. It was perfect timing on her part because we had generally good weather (though of course it was cold) and there was a new moon, so it was great for seeing the Northern Lights (unfortunately we didn't have a good enough camera to take any photos, doooh!).

Iceland itself we soon learnt was very expensive (especially buying food in super markets and eating out in restaurants) and the blokes are very weird as they don't crack onto you when you speak to them and don't show any emotion. We thought they were all just being miserable but we were assured they are just "shy". Also they all pretty much look the same! It took us a while to work out that we couldn't buy beer and wine in the super market. We had to go to the "Vinbudin", where the staff treat you as if you're after something really dodgy, eg buying pr0n movies or trying to score some drugs (not that I have experience of either! Honest!)

Highlights of all the places we visited were:

the plate tectonic boundary at Pingvellir and the bridge between two continents;

the geysir Strokkur and the hot springs;

countless impressive waterfalls such as Gullfoss;

the smoking hot springs at Gunnuhver;

the dormant volcanoe craters of  Kenio;

the ice lagoon at Jokulsarlon;

the enormous Vatnajokull glacier;

Skaftafell;

the Eyjafjallajokull volcanoe;

expansive glacier outwash plans such as the awe inspiring Skeidararsandur

and of course seeing the Northern Lights doing their thing. Simply amazing.

We have both decided that we'd love to go back. Twice. Once in summer to discover the interior and walk up some volcanoes and once in the depths of winter to see the glaciers at their best and also the frozen waterfalls. But we'll save it for a couple of years probably.

We had a few days either side of our flights in Liverpool (which allowed us to get our border collie fix by staying with Ewan and Brenna again AND also a couple of cracking sessions at the Climbing Hangar). It was also great to meet up with my 3 sisters as well as catching up with some old friends from so long ago, namely Dave and Sue Wooliscroft and Mike and Rosie Harris.

Next stop: a short 3 week trip to somewhere in Spain on Wednesday (after we've had our last jabs for the China trip). All's going great and according to plan.

























































Source: Mike Owen's blog

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A story of 3 BC's
18 November 2014, 10:59 am

I'd just like to start with a small apology. True, we've just had a great time in sunny Spain and I've got some great shots of the Northern Lights from when we saw them at Hofn in Iceland. However, I think the main theme is going to be about dogs, more specifically I'm going to write about the three dogs that have shared their lives with us (hence the apology, because some people might think I'm going on again). We'll see how it all pans out.......

Firstly: The Northern Lights photos. We met a lovely couple from Singapore who were much better prepared with DSLR cameras and tripods to take delay shutter images than us. Here are some of Yuru's photos. They're pretty amazing aren't they?

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]It was very cold and driving conditions were hazardous![/td][/tr]

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Secondly: We ended up at Chulilla after a misty humid day at Llaberia. Weather was mostly great, the climbing was as usual very fingery but fantastic and we met up with lots of friends. Vicki Hau and Eddy Young (from Dorset) shared their superb doss spot with us, thanks guys! Once again, local experts Dave and Rhian Cross gave us useful route info and provided quality humour too. Jean Claude and Michele were an amazing retired couple from Grenoble who stopped a couple of nights with us before heading off to Calpe. Finally we hooked up with Ben Farley and Caryl (not forgetting Marvin the monkey and Paul van diesel) from Liverpool, who are also on a year off travelling and gave us plenty to laugh about during the last few days. It was fantastic to see you all and share great times together. Hopefully we'll see you all again some time soon.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Local experts Dave and Rhian Cross[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jean Claude and Michele from Grenoble[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Scousers Caryl and Ben Farley[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ben on-sighting Las Franceses, 7b+[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Caryl cooling down at the end of the day on a 6b[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]TC meets Marvin (Marvin is a "she" by the way) (photo by Elaine)[/td][/tr]

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Thirdly: The nitty gritty. Here goes.

I remember my grandparents having a friendly enough bull terrier called Bundle when I was very young. We even had a dog too, a mongrel called Kim who used to go everywhere with me before she unexpectedly disappeared when I was about 12 (I later found out that she had been put down for biting somebody). After that I definitely didn't like dogs at all. It was simple really. My parents became obsessed with breeding and showing wire haired dachshunds. They had loads, none of which were house trained so the smell was disgusting. I couldn't wait to leave home and get away, which I did when I was 16.

Many care free years passed by and my life with Elaine was blissfully free of dogs (though we often came across farmers working with their amazing sheep dogs when we were climbing here, there and everywhere). However things changed in early 1989. Tony and Jill Flanagan had a lovely border collie called Nell. She was caught short by the local black labrador and soon Tony and Jill were looking for caring people to take Nell's lovely collie cross puppies. We didn't really hesitate and we took a female who we called Del. Del very quickly was seen at all the crags we were going to, mostly Gogarth at the time. We still have a laugh when we recall Darren Hawkins crying out to his then girl friend Del Goodey at Parisella's Cave, "Del, there's a dog named after you!". Unfortunately, our little world collapsed (for the first time) at Tremadoc in early June. Elaine had just led a climb called Merlin Direct. Afterwards I had to go back to the car park and (despite Elaine trying to stop her) Del followed and was struck by a car as she ran across the road. She died in our arms a few minutes later. Obviously we were completely gutted and returned home feeling very sad.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Hey Del, there's a dog named after you![/td][/tr]

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A couple of days later, Rosie Harris was on the phone telling us about an advert in a newspaper for border collie pups in Timperly. We chose Veronica, as she was then called, a beautiful black and white merle female with one blue eye and one brown eye. Not surprisingly we called her Merlin.

That summer was amazing. We spent many weeks down in the south west and Merlin went everywhere (apart from Lundy when she stayed with a very caring woman who ran a kennel in Ilfracombe). I remember Elaine insisting on attaching Merlin to a rucksack at the bottom of Sacre Couer before she set off on the sharp end of the rope. We just got back to her in time as the tide was coming in very quickly! It rained on the way back to Ford Escort van and we all got soaked. Back at the tent we stripped off our wet clothes. As I lent forward to pick up some dry ones a warm wet tongue quickly licked my arse. When I turned round alarmed, Merlin was licking her lips!

We had a particularly great time with Chris Craggs, Sherri Davy and Colin Binks at the Count House in Bosigran. Colin and Merlin used to run around the whole place for hours, tiring each other out and having great fun whilst we dozed after climbing.

Merlin became an almost permanent fixture at the "in vogue" Malham Cove and provided much light hearted relief from the stresses of red pointing projects. She'd run at full pelt along the catwalk through TPM's legs, in order to hassle the tourists into throwing her a stick or she'd spend ages just standing in the beck, barking and wagging her tail whilst people threw stones into the water! I remember Tom Herbert telling us that his friend who took him to the Cove on his first visit said, "That dog is always here, it must live here".

On another occasion Steve Petro and Lisa Gnade were over from the US. They took Merlin to Kilnsey whilst we spent the day at work. At the crag Chris Gore promptly said to them, "You must be staying at Mike and Elaine's because that's Merlin".

When we moved over to France Merlin was already ten years old but the warmer and drier climate gave her renewed vitality. She was very soon a favourite with lots of the local climbers and on non-climbing days we'd go out "scamping" and discovering the local area for hours.

However in the summer of 2002, Merlin really started to slow down and we'd sadly have to leave her at home more often than not. By Christmas she had developed cancer in her spleen, which ruptured causing the cancer to spread into her lymphatic system and intestines. In the end she could hardly walk and I'd have to pick her up to take her out to go to the toilet. We had to make the awful decision to have her put to sleep. That night, whilst we were putting up the tree and decorations, she had a burst of energy and kept bringing us a tennis ball. We were in tears because we knew what was going to happen the next morning. But by the morning it was obviously the humane thing to do. We arrived at the vets and we lay her on the table. As the vet connected her to the drip we stroked and caressed her and soothed her with loving words as we watched her pupils dilate and her body become limp. Afterwards all three of us were hugging each other and the tears were in full flow. We returned home and spent a very sad Christmas on our own in a very quiet house. Our little world had collapsed for the second time after almost 14 fun filled glorious years with Merlin.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Merlin at the Count House waiting to play with Binksy (photo by Chris Craggs)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Merlin in her element, running free in Watlose dry valley above Malham[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Merlin smiling as usual[/td][/tr]

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At some point during the Christmas holiday I was out trying to climb at Castillon with Marie-Jo (Elaine was stuck at home because she'd damaged a knee very seriously and was on crutches). Marie-Jo's cat had recently passed away and we were both feeling very sad and we were trying to cheer each other up as best as we could. She suggested we get another dog. Later Marie-Jo found a website and Elaine got working on the case. She found a farmer near Ceuse who had 2 female pups. We went up to see them and (to cut a very long story short) we started the next chapter of our lives with Scamp (named because we used to take Merlin out "scamping").

I've written lots about our time with Scamp in my recent blogs and about our little world collapsing for a third time in September, after less than 12 years together. We are still very much missing Scamp but we keep finding her hairs everywhere, which makes us chuckle and remember all the good times with her.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Baby Scamp sleeping after a hard day[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]How cute can I make myself look?[/td][/tr]

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When the time is right we'll get another border collie for sure. In the meantime TC (our Ultimate Travel Dog) goes everywhere with us!



Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Climbing in Yangshuo
14 December 2014, 9:03 am

During our year off work we decided to go and see Elaine's brother Dave and his wife Jenny in Shanghai. We got half price tickets from Air France during a promotion early in the year for 1040 euros in total. We also decided to combine the visit with climbing in Yangshuo.

After an 11 hour flight from Paris we went straight to Jenny's parents place in the ancient town of Xin Chang, where BaBa had prepared us our first Chinese meal which included spring rolls, dumplings and chicken and green beans in ginger. Afterwards BaBa took Dave and I on his small motorbike down to the local market (yes there were 3 of us on the bike and none of us wore helmets!). Dave was only too keen to point out the delicacies, eg. pigs' noses, chickens' feet, ducks' heads (including beaks), pigs' intestines, skinned frogs, turtles and so many different types of fish!













That evening BaBa and MaMa prepared a massive meal of at least 10 different dishes and we were introduced to the older and most important members of the family. The food was amazing though the "Yellow Wine" was absolutely disgusting. That night we tried to get over our jet lag with stuffed bellies.

Next day we moved to Dave and Jenny's apartment in the new part of Pu Dong about 45 minutes drive away. We noticed straight away a massive increase in traffic noise and tooting horns as well as a marked decrease in air quality. I suppose it's understandable as 23.5 million people live in Shanghai!

It was with relief that we finally left the city on the 4th day and took a flight to Guilin and then a taxi on to Yangshuo. We had booked a room in a small hotel opposite the world famous Moon Hill cliff about 6 km south of Yangshuo, which proved to be a very smart move as it was much quieter and cleaner than in Yangshuo town.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view from our balcony[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pu Yue Ju, our lovely hotel [/td][/tr]

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Next morning we hiked up the steps for 30 mins to arrive at the cliff, which consists of an arch with lots of stalactites hanging down offering steep climbing on good holds. Whilst our initial impression was that it was pretty small, compared to the crags we climb on in Europe, it looked as though we'd have lots of fun nonetheless. However on closer inspection we noticed that all the first and many of the second bolts had been removed. That was definitely a bad thing as it meant I'd have to climb higher before clipping the rope in for safety. So we started off with an easy 6a on the right and then Elaine would clip the rope into the lowest bolt of the next route as she lowered down and that way we'd be able to top rope the starts. We did three nice warm ups and then I decided to go for it on Over the Moon (Todd Skinner's famous 7b+) despite the absence of the 1st and 2nd bolts. The climbing up to the 3rd bolt at 8 metres was precarious at about 6b+. After that it really steepened up but the holds were great and there were plenty of knee bar rests (plus all the bolts were in). Unfortunately half way up the climb two park officials arrived and told us to stop climbing. Each time I clipped a bolt they shouted "Hello, come down, no climbing". They didn't understand that I had to get to the chain in order to come down. Eventually I lowered down, stripped the draws and then we had to pack in. We didn't climb there again and I didn't get to do Red Dragon (8a/8a+) which was my main objective for the trip. I was absolutely gutted!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Moon Hill and the view towards our hotel. Over the Moon climbs up the right side of the arch (photo by Elaine)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Raul from Andalucia on Seb Grieve's Honky Tonk (7c) at Lei Pi Shan[/td][/tr]

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After that we had to climb at lots of other crags, sometimes walking or using a bicycle to get there. At this point, I have to say that we were generally disappointed with most of the places we climbed and we did find ourselves counting down the days until we could escape. Most crags were very over rated and only had a handful of climbs. Most climbs were super polished. Lei Pi Shan and White Mountain were the most polished, despite (or because of) having some really great climbs. It was utterly frustrating to fall off 7a's and 7b's because your feet zipped off the glassy footholds. I completely lost my normal confidence and dared not try anything hard. Another irritating factor was the topo. "Yangshuo Rock Climbs" has to be the worst climbing guide we have ever had the misfortune to use (even worse than the Alpes Maritimes topo and that's saying something!). We found the maps, directions and hand drawn topos totally inaccurate and the route descriptions were full of unhelpful American hype.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The Stone Dog, 6a+ at White Mountain (photo by Elaine)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Merry Christmas, 6c at White Mountain (photo by Elaine)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Korea No. 1, 8a at White Mountain (photo by Elaine)[/td][/tr]

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Eventually we returned to the noise and smog of Shanghai. Dave and Jenny gave us a great tour taking in the incredible views of the sky scrapers and then we boarded the plane to Paris. We'd had a great adventure and we were actually a bit sad to leave. However, during the flight down to Nice I sat next to a window and watched the sunrise. As we headed south we flew past les Alpes, Le Lac St Croix, over the Gorges du Blavet and over the Esterel, over Ile St Margeurite and Cap d'Antibes. It was a beautiful morning, the sky was clear and blue. It reminded me how lucky we are to live in such a lovely part of the world and it was great to be back home!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The weary climbers returning from White Mountain[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jenny and Dave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Brother and sister are very alike[/td][/tr]

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PS

Yesterday we looked at some 14 week old border collie puppies. We chose a tricoloured female who we've called Ruff (because Scamp used to ruff when she barked). We are going back to pick her up next Saturday after our short visit to Liverpool. Her first adventure will be in Sicily. Bring it on!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]So beautiful! 3 females left to chose from. Ruff is on the right.[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Ruff stuff
7 January 2015, 11:33 am

We've taken 16 flights and travelled many thousands of miles since we finished work last July. Quite frankly we were both pretty tired and wanted to just chill out at home for a few weeks over Christmas and New Year. So we had the perfect opportunity to find ourselves another border collie. I haven't been so happy for a long time!

Losing Scamp had put me in a very melancholy mood for a few months, despite all the fun we were having on our travels. (That is the sort of thing that us depression sufferers have to put up with from time to time.) It just wasn't right that we hadn't been there when she died and we couldn't just go and get another dog straight away. Now all our flights are finished and we're going to be travelling in the Cali from now on. So we've been spending quality time with Ruff and trying our best to get her used to travelling, which has had it's ups and downs. Typically we have had to stop and clean up the mess inside my poor Renault van twice on our way to the cliff or climbing wall! But she is getting better.

Otherwise, Ruff is settling in well at home and is getting used to going out for walks and meeting different people. She is making us very happy and healing our broken hearts.

Next week Eddie and Mandy Martinez will be arriving on the Cote d'Azur, then we'll be going on to Sicily for about 6 weeks. We can't have Mark Hetherington having all the fun and being the only one to climb all the best routes out there!!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Great to catch up with the Chadster at the Climbing Hangar in Liverpool[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Great to see so many old friends from the Liverpool area[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine climbing a 6c at Chouchou Place (photo by Marie-Jo Centofanti/Voyages a la Verticale)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Trying a new 7c at Chouchou Place (photo by Marie-Jo Centofanti/Voyages a la Verticale)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Le Rouret climbers enjoying a raclette chez Owen's[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A visit to Smerl's rock on the hill behind our house[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My dad keeps disturbing me when I'm trying to sun bathe![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Whilst mum and dad are (trying) to watch 24 (season 9) I can stretch out on mum's lap[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Ruffin' it and unfulfilled ambitions in Sicily
29 January 2015, 9:24 pm

For a few days my dad and I had been spending some time chilling together in the big blue thing parked in the garage downstairs. I just went along with the flow, it was well worth it coz my dad kept giving me little treats. I was pretty cool about going inside and just listening to him telling me that I was a very good dog. I even put up with his choice of music, it didn't surprise me as I've already been listening to it for a few weeks now. Then, one day, he turned a key thing in the ignition and the big blue thing sprang into life and made lots of noise. That was OK too, because I've been going here, there and everywhere in his little white thing that he has to park on the village car park for a few weeks by now anyway. However, I got the impression that the big blue thing was very special, so I made sure that I didn't have a pee in it whilst my dad was prattling on at me and, once again, my dad said "Ruff, you're a very good dog" and I got even more treats! These humans are so easy to train, it's amazing. My dad will soon be rounding up sheep!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Me in the big blue thing as we set off for Sicily[/td][/tr]

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Then it all made sense! We all set off on my first adventure. We went off to an island called Sicily which was part of a weird country called Italy. The idea was that my mum and dad were going climbing with my uncle Eddie and auntie Mandy. Don't ask me, alright? Yes, I know, I think it's a bit stupid too but each to their own, I say. Anyway, all was super cool, coz I really love my uncle Eddie and auntie Mandy. They let me get away with so much more than my mum and dad. I can leap all over them and uncle Eddie even lets me fool along with him on his bed. I never get near my mum and dad's bed even though it looks so much more comfortable than mine. At least they allow me to sleep in their bedroom.....

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Me and my uncle Eddie[/td][/tr]

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I could tell my mum and dad were dead excited about this trip and that's why they'd been taking me down the climbing wall so many times. My dad had even made a flipping wishlist on that UKClimbing website thing, bless him.

The "voyage" went very well. We drove to Genoa and got on a big boat. We were on that for 21 hours and my mum and dad had to take me up on the deck to the "Fido Park" when I wanted the toilet. Mostly we all just slept and some times my uncle and auntie came to see us in our cabin. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed in the restaurant or bar, I'm so glad we live in France!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My uncle Eddie and auntie Mandy[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Me with my mum, uncle Eddie and my dad[/td][/tr]

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When we got off the boat, I could tell my dad wasn't happy. He was moaning at the poor road signs and having lots of trouble finding the way. He said something like "FFS, where's the f...... the autostrada?" We drove to what seemed like a lovely beach near St Vito Lo Capo, after giving up trying to find some friends called Nat and Pat at a cliff near a horrible place called Mondello.

When we woke up, we discovered that the place was covered in loads of broken glass. At least there was lots of sheep poo to eat!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My mum leading at Parco Cerriola in the sun![/td][/tr]

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The first day was great fun. The sky was blue and it was nice and warm. My mum and dad were really happy too. Then my dad got really pissed off as he couldn't hold on to the holds on an easy 7b climb that was covered in what he called "Gogarth soap". Next day was not so good and my mum and dad just got a warm up done before the heavens opened and we had to go and chill out in The Climbing House where Ivan made lots of fuss over me, it was much nicer than being at the crag.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The main street in St Vito during the first thunder storm[/td][/tr]

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Next day, we went to a big piece of rock apparently called Never Sleeping Wall. My dad is so pathetic, right, he nearly wet his pants when he set eyes on it. However, he was soon moaning again about that Gogarth Soap stuff and he really got angry when he greased off. We went back the next day, too. By all accounts it was a "top day" and my mum and dad didn't find any Gogarth Soap or grease off any holds. They actually managed to do some flipping climbing. Amazing, eh?

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My amazing uncle Eddie flashing Il Patrone Nero (7c)[/td][/tr]

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We then had even more rain for a couple of days and we all got pretty bored stuck in the camper van. We even went walking to the Crown of Aragon cliff in the rain, which was fine by me until a nasty Rottweiler dog at the cliff attacked me. I was so glad my mum and dad decided to go back down and not climb there. I was very frightened.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The usual weather[/td][/tr]

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It rained all night but the morning was clear and very windy. So we went back to Never Sleeping Wall. My dad wanted to do Superman, one of the climbs that he'd already greased off. The cliff looked pretty wet. So, to save my dad failing again I decided to bark at the cows. I knew that that would get the attention of the nasty dog that guards them and, sure enough, it soon arrived and barked and barked at us until we packed up and left. I'm so sorry my dad didn't realise one of his dreams, though it wasn't really my fault.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]My dad on Superman[/td][/tr]

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We then drove to a place called Syracusa on the other side of the island. On the way we saw a volcano called Mount Etna, it was very big and covered in snow. Things seemed promising, despite the rain. However, after climbing at 3 supposedly fantastic (but in reality very ordinary) cliffs we'd had enough and decided to leave for home. Guess what the weather was doing all the last day? You guessed right, it was chucking it down.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Me in our cabin on the way home[/td][/tr]

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It's great to be back home, where I've got much more room and I don't get wet all the time and bring in mud on my paws. My mum and dad say that we're going to somewhere called Spain in a couple of days. I hope it's nice and dry and we can get lots of fresh air and sunshine.

Meanwhile, I'll get back to work on training my dad!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The only nice sunset we saw[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[fatneck]

Brilliant!! 

[comPiler]

Inspiring news from the UK climbing scene (and some punter action in Spain)
9 June 2015, 4:47 pm

Shocking how quickly time passes, but that 's nothing new or surprising. What I mean is it's so long since I wrote on this blog.

We've just returned from a nice long journey through Spain, meeting up with lots of great friends and climbing in some ace places.

However, I'd like to mention some truly inspiring news from the UK climbing scene, which Stu Littlefair summed up so perfectly on Facebook by posting something like this:

"Everybody stop what you're doing. Ben Moon has just climbed Rainshadow. Now, carry on."

Most climbers will understand the significance of this news, but non-climbers will need some help. We are talking about a 48 year old bloke succeeding in climbing one of the hardest climbs in Britain. The climb is graded 9a. Ben did his last and only 9a (which has since turned out to be the first climb to be given that grade anywhere in the world) 25 years ago. Ben was the fourth person to climb Rainshadow yesterday. So, there you go. A really amazing achievement by one of the sports legends throughout the last 4 decades. Well done Ben Moon.

Rainshadow is the long extension to the classic Raindogs, which is a very popular and slippery 8a above the Catwalk at Malham Cove (which I did about 50 times before leaving Britain in 1999). I think I'm right in stating that it was originally equipped and tried by Mark Leach in the early '90's. Several years later Steve McClure took up the challenge and finally climbed it in 2003.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view on a very cold March day from Ager. [/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ben and Caryl looking so happy after a year travelling and going back to the UK with loads of wonderful memories (photo by Elaine Owen).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A bright and crisp morning at Ager, wonderful and totally FREE! (photo by Elaine Owen).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]All the flowers were coming out towards the end of March.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff experiencing some difficulty whilst trying to train Dave and Rhian Cross.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Meeting up with old mates is always great fun, even if they're Porky and the Colonel![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Falling asleep with a pine cone in my mouth and my mum is trying to give me the squeaky ball![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]2 photos of Guillaume Bouloumie on his own route, the brilliant Naranga, 8a+ at Super Devotas.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Steve Crowe on Peril Jaune, a very steep 7c+ at Super Devotas.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Me at (more or less) the same place as Steve in the previous photo (photo by Steve Crowe).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Lowering off after a successful red point, Super Devotas is really steep (photo by Elaine Owen).[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Summer heat in the south of France
11 July 2015, 4:24 pm

We actually fancied doing some climbing here, in France, as we've spent most of the last year climbing and travelling abroad.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff making short work of her new football![/td][/tr]

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Some great friends from our Liverpool days were in the Vaucluse so we met up and drank quite a bit of wine, ate some great Provencale food and did a bit of climbing at Malaucene. It was fantastic to meet up with the Hewson's, Stewart's and the Brown's. It was wonderful to see that we haven't really changed much in the 35 years we've known each other, we're all still fun-loving, grown-up kids.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jim and Anita get shown around the Cali by Ruff[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A yobbo, Lew, Margaret, Barbara and Al[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Al and Lew still having plenty of banter at the crag[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff watches Al taking aim[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]the camping municipal in Vacqueyras ("Honestly, it was this big" - thanks Ralphy!)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Lew Brown at 72 and still cranking[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]warming up for Mt Ventoux[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Lew didn't know that Mike was given a very large piece of the cake![/td][/tr]

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We wanted to go back to les Vercors and climbed at la Presqu'Ile, despite the horrendous walk in. The crag was a bit disappointing but there were some very good, fingery routes up to 7b. I had a look at le Trouble (8a) at l'Auberge Espagnole. Such a great route with 2 tough sections (a thin smooth wall and a big roof). Unfortunately, it was too hot really, it'll be worth going back for in the autumn.

Next on the list was a hole in the ground, called la Precipice du Corbiere (also in the Vercors), which is guaranteed to be cool even in the height of summer. It was worth calling in to do a nice, tough 7c called Requiem. Not the best crag, not many routes and there were loads of flies. Whilst in that area, something to put you in a very thoughtful and reflective mood is a visit to the Resistance Memorial and Museum nearby in the infamous village of Vassieux-en-Vercors, which was totally destroyed (and the inhabitants massacred) by the nazis during WW2.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]view from col de la Pousterle[/td][/tr]

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Next up was a visit to Briancon. We've climbed there a number of times over the years and never been impressed. The climate is great for climbing on north facing cliffs in summer, but basically the rock is pants! We returned to Tournoux where, once again, I didn't manage to finish the job on Cost of Freedom (a gnarly, polished 8a with a very slopey crux). But we did go to one of the supposed good new crags called Grotte d'Oreac. What a pile of shite that place is, I'll tell you! The whole cliff is held together with tons of red sika, so it's ugly; the routes are very over graded and they're much shorter than in the useless topo. However, it's always nice to park up at col de la Pousterle, where we spent a few blissful nights completely on our own (oh, along with thousands of flies!).

The Gorges du Verdon was calling us back south by then, with the prospect of some newish shaded crags above Moustiers St Marie. We had 4 great days with the crags to ourselves. No surprise really, due to the 40 minute up hill slog to get to Grotte du Monstre and Baume Blanche. Unfortunately, Baume Blanche gets the sun around 13h and Grotte du Monstre is still a bit dirty. However, we did some really fantastic routes, such as "100% Halal" (a very intense 7b+), "Lou des subis" (7b), "Pour toi j'ai bacle" (a 50m 7c), the much harder "Pour toi j'ai beche" (7c+), "Walim" (a 50m 7a+) and an unnamed 7a+. We got hopelessly lost the first time we went up, as we turned of the GR path too soon, even so the path was very hard to find. Subsequently, we made lots of improvements to the path and erected many cairns to show the way (which was desperate work in the full sun). Ah, yes, there were loads of flies in the Verdon too!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]lavender field near the Verdon[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]so hot![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Whilst our colleagues at school were celebrating the end of the school year, we were eating apples and rice cakes at the crag![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine trying to hide from the flies at Baume Blanche[/td][/tr]

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Now we're back home again and there's no flies! It's hot, of course, but it's not too hot in the Gorges du Loup. We climbed at Jurassic Park (2nd time this year) and Cayenne (1st time this year) on Thursday, where I did my favourite 8a+ for the 41st time and "Cayenne" for the nth time/1st time this year. Yesterday, feeling a bit tired, we went to St Martin Vesubie where I dogged my way up "le 7eme ciel integrale" a couple of times; a fantastic 50m monster with a very Malham like crux. I'll definitely go back for that, when it's cooler.

Now, we're making plans to head off towards Arco (heard there's a 40m 7c called Abissi that sounds great), the Dolomites and on to Buzetski Kanjon in Croatia. Loads more fun to be had and we'll be wild camping again, as the Italian campsites are such a rip off!



Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Up and down and round and round in the Dolomites
2 August 2015, 5:04 pm

Funny how the choices we make affect our lives so much. Take this example from the awesome summer of 1976.

One of my regular climbing partners way back then was Pete White. He was so much older and much more grown up than me, or so I thought at the time! He was 23, whilst I was a mere 18. He had a serious job as a maths teacher, whilst I was working on a building site. However, Pete had a car, whilst I hadn't even had a driving lesson, let alone passed my driving test. That summer we were on fire, working our way through the routes in The Pass and Cloggy and we were keen to try anything. We set our sights on going to The Dolomites, in Italy, where we intended to climb on the famous Tre Cima di Lavaredo. I even bought the Dolomites East guide book to get us really psyched. Then for some reason that I can no longer remember, we decided to go to ...... The Lake District instead! OK, don't get me wrong, there are some lovely climbs in The Lakes but the place doesn't compare with The Dollies.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete White at Gimmer Crag, July 1976, where we did Kipling Groove (so called because it used to be ruddy'ard)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Could you imagine this bloke teaching your children Mathematics?[/td][/tr]

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Anyway, we bimbled around carrying my copy of "Hard Rock" as our guide book and ticked off some of the classics. We had a right jolly time camping in Langdale and drinking beer in the famous "Old Dungeon Ghyll" after cragging. One particular day (after we'd just ticked off North Crag Eliminate) we discovered the Scout Crag boulders and set about working our way through the many problems. Being as it was summer (and 1976 was an amazing one) we were topless and strutting our stuff. (Is that a resounding "Yuk" I can hear someone say?) I was 110% focused on climbing and didn't notice, but Pete had a 6th sense when it came to the opposite sex. Low and behold, we were being watched by two pretty young ladies (though they later claimed they were watching a "fit looking" instructor teaching some kids how to abseil). It didn't take Pete long to get into his chat up lines and we found out that they were called Elaine and Suzanne. They had just done their first climbs that day and just so happened to be at the crag after their climbing partners had left. We got chatting and they asked us all sorts of questions about climbing. We drove off in Pete's Triumph Spitfire, feeling very chuffed with ourselves, as we'd sort of made arrangements to meet up for a drink later on. Meanwhile, Elaine and Suzanne reported back to the two blokes that they'd climbed with that day that they'd met a couple of blokes who climb "extreme". These two other blokes were obviously very unimpressed and said "No way! They don't climb extreme".

Anyway, Pete and I didn't make it to The Dolomites, but I did meet my future wife. Elaine made steady progress and we have been climbing together non stop since then. (I hardly ever climbed with Pete as a result, sorry mate.) Also, that was the first time I met Mickey J (legendary Lancs climber and one of the other blokes along with his brother Ian!).

Now, fast forward 39 years. Elaine and I have just been to The Dolomites armed with our copy of the excellent new Dolomites Rockfax by James Rushforth. We didn't do any of the famous multi pitch routes that Pete and I had intended on doing so long ago (having a dog is such a good excuse to get out of that mullarky). We visited some of the best sport climbing crags and we were amazed by the stunning scenery. We also got to meet up with Dave and Rhian Cross and her parents, both of whom are still enjoying travelling and climbing in their seventies. (Rhian's father, Barry Webb, is famous for his climb called "Gael" on Cloggy, which he climbed in the sixties, and his appearance in Crew and Soper's compelling read "The Black Cliff".) However, we weren't impressed with how expensive everything is there (eg. the access road for the Tre Cima is a toll road, you have to pay 36 euros in a camper van and a brown loaf costs around 3.5 euros!!). It's so hard to find anywhere decent to buy food, plus you have to pay to park when you do find a shop! The campsites are mega expensive but we were able to camp wild in some beautiful places, no problem. The cheapest campsite we found was at Malga Ciapela, where we paid 32 euros just for one night. It rained or stormed heavily everyday at some point and we had to have the roof down on the Cali every night. Also, we've had enough of negotiating so many hair pin bends and slogging the Cali in 2nd and 3rd gear, as we drove up to high cols and down into deep valleys to get to different crags. On the plus side however, the crags are quiet (apart from Eiszeit), the routes are not polished, the crags dry quickly and the temperature was perfect for summer (between 15 and 20 degrees C). Whilst the climbing is generally very enjoyable, the crags are not very impressive and the style is always fingery and technical. It was great fun doing lots of on sighting but I have to say,  I didn't see anything that I wanted to project (apart from Fottiti at Eiszeit, which was always occupied).

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff training Uncle Dave and Auntie Rhian again![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Barry Webb in "The Black Cliff" (Crew and Soper's compelling book about Cloggy, published in 1971).[/td][/tr]

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Right then, we've been there, ticked that box and had a good time but we're glad to be back home for a couple of days. We still have a month of our sabbatical left and there's still lots of fun to come! Bring it on.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A rare sunny breakfast near Saas Dlacia.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Come on, hurry up I'm ready![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dave Cross climbing Mittersteiner, 7b+, at Eiszeit.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Climbers on Paprika (7c+) and Fottiti (8a) at Eiszeit, the day before a mega storm caused a huge waterfall over the top of the crag![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Unusual cairn at Saleras, girls looking super cool.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dave Cross climbing Zinnentraining (7b) at Salares.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view driving down from Passo Pordoi, so many chuffing bends![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The closest we got to the Tre Cima due to unreliable weather and too many people. Seen from the Val di Landro.[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[Fultonius]

Just missed you in the Dollies Mike, say Hi to Elaine form Bella and me. We found plenty of free (and relaxed, low stress) camping spots around Canazei and Cortina. Surprised you were €36/night. I'm sure we paid €26 at "camping Cortina" the one night we used proper facilities. (2 people & T4). The toll to Tres Cime is a joke, we stayed twice, both times for one night. First time it was ... €24 and the second ... €16. Not sure what their "system" is, that's for sure!

You should have got yourself on Camilotto Pellisier. I'm sure the dog would have been fine scampering around the base of Cima Grand. It's so overhanging it should be safe from falling rock.

[comPiler]

La Rentree
10 September 2015, 6:41 pm

Well it's business as usual now we're back home. Our year's sabbatical is finished but we've got so many wonderful memories. We're back at work but at least the Cali is getting fixed (it's been at the garage almost 2 weeks now and it's going to cost a lot!).

Being back home means we get to climb tufas again, yippee! We seem to have spent a lot of time climbing on fingery crags this summer, so it's nice to get back on bigger holds and on steeper routes.

We've been going to La Sanctuaire (which is a really nice cliff equipped by Guillaume Ciais in the Vesubie valley), Le Parcour de Sante (equipped by Alex Mege and Aurel Gelot up at Gourdon) and a secret spot somewhere along the Route Napolean. Lots of great routes ticked up to 7c+ (including a possible 1st ascent of a 7c+).

Psyched for climbing locally at the moment as there's still lots to do. The only problem is Elaine's finger has started playing up again. She's going for another injection next Monday, so hopefully it'll be better soon and she can get cragging again.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine climbing Shivas se regale, 7a at La Sanctuaire.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pippa climbing Princesse 10 tetes, 6c+ at La Sanctuaire.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jean-Luc climbing Les filles de Las Vegas, 7b+ at La Sanctuaire[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Roman climbing Guere Sainte, 7b at La Sanctuaire[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Amazing views in Les Alpes Maritimes[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Hot Ruff at le Parcour de sante[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

To quote Porky "It's nice to have a little bit of success".
13 October 2015, 8:17 pm

It's weird how things can come together when you're least expecting things to happen. For most of this year I've been climbing with "golfer's elbow" and it's been really painful at times. Luckily, I have managed to climb but I haven't been able to push myself hard. Since being back home, there have been more rest days and it's been possible to do some quality training (including working on those important antagonistic muscles). The elbow is slowly improving.

Elaine's injection has been very successful and she's feeling no pain in her finger anymore, so we've been getting outs lots and making the most of the cooler temps and quiet crags. Three weeks ago I had two fantastic back to back days. On the Wednesday I set off on my latest project, a great 8a+ tufa at a secret spot, which I'd tried the previous weekend (expecting to have another dogging session)). There was no pressure, amazingly it just happened and I just kept climbing all the way to the chain. The next day I was back with Stephane Quefelec and exactly the same happened with a 7c+ I'd worked a couple of weeks previously. It made such a nice change to have a couple of no-fall days and just climb. It was amazing to just turn up and do both as they felt utterly desperate when I was dogging them. Thanks to the equippers for creating such beautiful routes, you know who you are.

After that it seemed a good idea to revisit Deverse and try Supertango again. This is a short but tough 8a+ (there are easier 8b's than this one!) which climbs two parallel tufas up a wildly steep overhanging wall. I last tried the climb eight years ago and could hardly move on it, eventually I gave up when I aggravated a knee ligament and left it. This time all was going well (I was very inspired by a local friend, Seb Muller, who'd done it last year). Petr gave me great beta and Roman even took some photos (which I've yet to see). However, last Wednesday I felt the same ligament (the MCL) strain whilst doing a big drop knee. Instinctively, I let go and saved the ligament from tearing. The sensible thing has been to leave the climb alone, yet again, rather than risk a serious injury which would need ages to recover. So, sadly Supertango hasn't been ticked off the list!



A couple of days icing, resting and taking ibuprofen and we were out again at the weekend. Saturday at Mesa Verde falling off every move on one of my bogey routes, Pizza Party, a tough bouldery 7c. I left my draws in over night. Next morning Elaine wanted to go to Jurassic Park, so we had a good work out and I managed my favourite 8a+ again (that's 42 times now!). Cayenne and Shakti were too wet so we headed down to Mesa Verde to get my draws, as it was going to rain for the next couple of days. We arrived at the crag at 6h 27 and there was nobody there, all the other climbers had all gone home by then. There was just enough time for one go before it got dark. I was expecting to fall low down and then dog up to get the gear out but it just happened. The start went perfectly and I got to the shake out below the bouldery finish feeling fresh. After a couple of minutes of positive mental rehearsal (thanks to Hugh Mantle) there was much whooping after sticking the crux dyno. I've never been so happy to get a hold as that one! So, an old score has been finally settled. Result!





Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Super Tango photo shoot and La Croix
1 November 2015, 5:28 pm

Found an email in my junk mail from Roman Bayon with those photos of Super Tango at Deverse Satanique, here in the beautiful Gorges du Loup.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Awesome tufa action on Super Tango (8a+) here in Les Gorges du Loup (photo by Roman Bayon)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]At the strenuous "rest" on Super Tango (photo by Roman Bayon)[/td][/tr]

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Just spent a week at one of our favourite crags, La Croix in the Tarn et Garonne department. The climbs are very long (up to 50 metres), on fantastic tufas and the walk in is about a minute! The new Anaconda secteur offers more fingery and sunnier climbing which makes a nice change. We had fantastic, warm weather and the cliff was totally dry. Perfect!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Yannick on the superb "Anaconda" (8a) at La Croix[/td][/tr]

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It was nice to settle the score on another of my Mesa Verde bogey routes before we left for La Croix, Petit Poucet has been added to the tick list (at last!). Back to work tomorrow....



Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Wild West Tour 1993, Part 5
26 January 2016, 8:28 pm

Since my last post nearly (3 months ago) we've been lucky enough to climb outdoors every weekend, apart from a couple of weeks ago (and that wasn't anything to do with bad weather - we both had colds). The weather here has been really good with lots of sunshine and the crags have been completely dry. Amazing conditions on the Cote d'Azur for sure.

So we've been ticking over; climbing at Val de Grimpe and on our board downstairs, also we've done some core workouts and some weights and generally keeping fit. Neither of us has found a project to get stuck into but we've had lots of fun ticking easier stuff at places like Chouchou Place, La Decharge, Seranon, Le Brumisateur and Greolieres. Most of the time we've been able to avoid the crowds and enjoy the peace and quiet in the mountains.

However, some super motivated Australian friends of ours (who climb and travel even more than us!) have been climbing at Red Rocks in Nevada, USA. This got me thinking and I realised that I hadn't written the final part of our Wild West Tour from 1993. So, here goes.....

After such a fantastic time with Tom and Sondra climbing at Jailhouse and Yosemite, we headed towards the desert. We weren't sure if we were going to Joshua Tree or Red Rocks. A decision was made when we found out that Liam Gartside (a friend from a trip to the Verdon in 1983) was staying in a place called Mesquite, near Virgin River Gorge (about 80 miles from Las Vegas). Liam's friends (Rob Foelek and Peggy Purner) very kindly told us to "come on over". Peggy is a veterenary surgeon with her own practice; she was nursing a very shy monitor lizard when we arrived. Rob was out at work, dealing Poker at the Virgin River Casino, on the graveyard shift. We met Rob later when he returned from work; he was more than keen to share with us his addiction for chocolate ice cream at 3 o'clock in the morning! Rob's philosophy was "quantity" rather than "quality", so (luckily) there was always loads of cheap chocolate ice cream at hand in their house.

We used to drive all the way to Red Rocks and drive back each day, which was a round trip of almost 200 miles, but it was worth it for the fantastic company (not to mention all the ice cream and pizza!). Whilst there we met up again with Pete and Cara Blackburn, who we skied with at Heavenly whilst staying at TM's. They'd been surfing down in Baja California and were keen to do some climbing for a change. (They both studied at I M Marsh with Elaine.) We also had some great days at VRG. Well, I say great but Elaine would disagree very strongly, climbing in the shade in late November and early December was never her idea of having fun. Of course I feel the same way myself these days, but at the time I was really keen to climb some of the great routes there. Not surprisingly we met up with super keen new router Randy Leavitt, who would drive all the way from San Diego each weekend.

Climbing at Red Rocks was a nice change from the volcanic tuff, limestone, granite and basalt crags that we'd climbed on up until then. Whilst the crags that we climbed on were pretty small, the rock was nice and rough being sandstone, so the friction was ace, you could almost climb just using your feet. There was one typical American "novelty" that used to bug us at the end of each day. The park ranger would come with his loudhailer and tell us all to "get the hell out of the place" before they closed the park for the night! There was some panicked climbing, if we weren't quite finished on time followed by a frantic jog to the car to make sure we weren't locked in for the night.

One rest day we visited the Grand Canyon and the Hoover dam. Another time, Rob scared the shit out of me by taking me on a wild drive, tearing around the sand dunes in his dune buggy. We even went skeet (clay pigeon) shooting. We were both horrified to see the selection of guns when we went with Rob to hire the rifles and get the ammo. You could come out of the general store armed just like Arnie in Terminator with a pump action shotgun AND a 6 pack of beer. Only in America......

All to soon, it was almost Christmas and we had to head back north to Pete and Sandra's place in Portland and catch a flight back home. Before we left we took the car back to Pete's friend at the garage where we bought it (with an extra 10 000 miles on the clock in the 4 months we'd had it). He bought it back off us for 600$, which was the same price we bought it for in the first place. Pete also gave me a letter addressed to me. It was from the insurance company and it contained a refund of my insurance premium because I'd not taken the Oregon drivers test! Result! Ok, I hadn't been technically insured during our long journey but I did have the paper work in case I got stopped by the smokies. (I didn't know that was going to happen. Honest, but it was a nice surprise.)

The last night before flying home, Pete took us down to the climbing "gym". Lots of folks were keen to hear where we'd been to and many asked which was our favourite place or crag. I can remember at the time, we both said "Yosemite". However, in reality, it wasn't an easy question to answer as we'd been to so many amazing locations, climbed in so many beautiful places and met so many wonderful people (many of which we're still in touch with today, well over 20 years later). Even now, I can still remember so much about that trip. It was absolutely out of this world. I'd like to thank everybody who helped us have such a life changing experience, especially Pete Kirton and Sandra, Marla Gibson, Tom and Sondra Herbert, Steve Petro and Lisa Gnade, TM Herbert, Peggy Purner and Rob Foelek. Thank you all so much for your friendship and help along the way.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Warm up at Red Rocks (hat supplied by Pete Gomersall/Troll)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Puffing the cheeks on The Sissy Traverse (8a)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete and Cara at Red Rocks[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The one everybody goes to Red Rocks for: The Gift (7c)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Another nice warm up[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]DMM sponsored bald person making a quick ascent of The Ascent of Man (8a) at VRG[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Rob Foelek releasing the skeets, Elaine getting in some target practice.....[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine warming up on Yaack Crack[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine, Baldy with moustache, Peggy Purner, Rob Foelek, Cara and Pete Blackburn[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The moustache, Rob and the dune buggy[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]L to R: John Williams, moustache, sorry can't remember, Sondra Herbert, Krister Williams and Tom Herbert (whilst we were climbing at Jailhouse Rock)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine, Cara and the moustache. Scruffy climbers skiing at Heavenly[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Back at Portland, Pete Kirton and Sandra. Can you spot who's on the TV?[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Heading north from Mesquite. "Winter is coming".[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Return to La Desfiladero de La Hermida and the Celebrity Climbers Ticklist
20 August 2016, 4:12 pm

It all started with a message from Maxime Clerc (1). You see, he's a local climber who is a teacher with the same holidays as us, so he usually gets in touch to try and tempt us to climb wherever he is. Last year it was La Ramirole; we didn't take him up on his offer, partly because Maxime climbs so much harder than us and we thought he wouldn't really like to climb with us punters. However, this year he was in La Hermida, in Cantabria (Northern Spain) which we visited 2 years ago and had such a good time that we always wanted to go back again sometime.

The same day there was a new "Destinations" article on UK Climbing titled "Into The Valleys" all about the climbing in Asturias and Cantabria. We got in touch with Richie Patterson (2), author of the excellent "Roca Verde" topo and we were hooked by his enthusiasm (especially after watching the video of James Pearson on an amazing double tufa rail called "Dimensiones Paralelas" at the reasonable grade of 7c+). We headed off on the long drive west.....

We met up with Maxime. He took us to a newly developed cave called Cueva Hermida where he was trying an 8b+. The climbing there was, unfortunately, too hard for Elaine, but I managed to do two really good 7c's. Maxime had 3 good goes but had to leave for Onate without doing the 8b+.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Hatori Hanza (7c) at Cueva Hermida.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Hatori Hanza again.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Maxime Clerc warming up on the 8a version of Hatori Hanza.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Maxime on El hombre que vendis el mundo, 8b+ (all photos by Elaine).[/td][/tr]

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Next day we went to another newish crag called El Infierno where we got shut down by the warm ups! Elaine found Malas Pulgas tough and intimidating, whilst I fell off Panificadora, expecting a nice 7a+, which actually proved to be wrongly graded (it is in fact a tough and run out 7b+). The high light of the day was bumping into an old friend from Granada called Javier Morales (3). We first met him in Yorkshire in 1990 with photographer David Munilla (he did things like The Oak way back then in the middle of summer with minimum fuss!). We have bumped into him many times at El Chorro and even in the Gorges du Tarn over the years, he is still climbing really hard. Also there that day was Mariona Marti (4), who we already knew from a previous visit to Onate.

Next on our list was the immense cave high up the hillside opposite Cicera called Cueva Carcalosa where we got stuck into La Deriva (7a+) and the fore mentioned 40 metre classic Dimensiones Paralelas. Elaine made good progress on the former and I should have finished the latter in a day, however I fell off high up and then twice much lower down like the punter I am. It was worth the long walk next day to finish the job, despite really sore skin. It felt awesome to climb such a king line, it was even better than it looked in the video. We also got to tick off two really big names: local equipper Alberto Hontavilla (5) and Dani Andrada (6). By the way, Iker Poo (7) spent a couple of nights next to us where we were parked up. Just saying!!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]On the send train: the superb Dimensiones Paralelas (7c+) at Cueva Carcalosa.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dimensiones Paralelas again (both photos by Richie Patterson on Elaine's camera).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The immense Cueva Carcalosa. It's massive![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Local equipper Alberto Hontevilla climbing the mega tufa Polvo en los osos (7b).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Richie Patterson climbing La Deriva (7a+). Photos by Elaine.[/td][/tr]

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We continued having fun going to different crags and climbing some amazing tufas and we moved onto an excellent and friendly campsite (La Isla at Turieno, near Potes). Ruff was so happy when we were joined by her favourite uncle and auntie, Dave Cross (8) and Rhian Cross (9). Pete Chadwick (10) arrived pretty soon thereafter, ensuring that he had us all splitting our sides laughing at his jokes and stories from his "Porky and Tonks" scrapbook, even if we'd heard them before....... erm, lots of times! Later additions to the team were super stars Neil Mawson (11) and Tanya "Traverse of the Gods" Meredith (12). Brief appearances were made by Jonny Garside (13) and his wife Becky and also Marina (14) from Chulilla.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Rhian celebrating a special birthday.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dave Cross on the challenging Hellboy, 7a+.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dave on Hellboy again.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Awesome Neil Mawson, Balambambu (7c) on sight of course.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Neil Mawson climbing El Algoritmo Wallmann (8a).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]El Algoritmo Wallmann (8a) 2nd go for baldy, not bad![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Approaching the crux of El Algoritmo Wallmann on the send. Above photos by Elaine.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine approaching the crux of Chachimente, a superb 7b at El Infierno (photo by Dave Cross).[/td][/tr]

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Back to the crag and the real purpose of the trip: ticking. El Infierno continued to feature well (Adam Pustelnik (15) ticked, along with Estraguena (nice, soft grades or what?). A day at Cicera proved too hot for climbing but very good for ticking a plethora of celebs: Javier (again, so doesn't count twice), Olivier Fourbet (16), Yann Ghesqiuers (17), Jean-Luc Jeunot (18), St Leger equipper par excellence Franck Vilpini (19) and I think (though I'm not 100% sure) Alizee Dufresse (20). I should add here that, once we'd given up trying to climb, the Chadster and I watched/drooled over a lovely young scantily dressed grimpeuse from Chambery who made an 8b look very easy on her 2nd time up (please don't hit me again Elaine!).

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Asturcantabra, 7c+ on sight for Baldy (photo by Elaine).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tufa heaven on 47 Ronin (8a), 1st red point for baldy. [/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Pete Chadwick starting up Veneno Azul (8a).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Where it starts getting hard, Veneno Azul (8a).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Cueva Carcalosa from Cicera, yes you do have to walk all the way up that hill![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Stars at Cicera, the climbs are 8a+ and 8b.[/td][/tr]

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After more than 3 weeks in La Hermida we decided to head to Teverga after promising reports from Neil and Tanya, despite our sentiments after going there last year. We were woken in the middle of the night by a huge horse with a blond mane, rubbing against the side of the van and Pete's car. It was hilarious watching the Chadster trying to shoo it away from inside his hearse! I can't repeat the rest of the story here....

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jonny, Becky, Bald Punter, The Chadster, The Boss, Big guns Tanya and Awesome Mawson.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]What do you do on a rest day? Plan how you're going to get better, of course! (photo by Elaine).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Flipping heck, I'd best show some interest, my dad's climbing again (photo by Elaine).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Typical grain store in Gradura, held up on 4 posts. The large flat rocks are to stop mice climbing up (photo by Pete Chadwick on Elaine's camera).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The Chadster has been training hard these last few years![/td][/tr]

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Next day proved too much: hot and sweaty at the not very impressive cave of El Covachon, but we did meet up with Pierre "Kairn/Fanatic Climber" Delas (21) and Mr Greenspits himself Antonin Rhode (22) slowed down by a broken heel but climbing well nonetheless.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Fanatic Climber warming up on Espolon Marley (7b+) at the over-rated El Covachon.[/td][/tr]

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Conclusion: an awesome 4 weeks "ticking" and having great fun with an ace bunch of friends; great climbing with favourable summer temps. Next July we'll be back.



Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Sponge Bob Sqaure Pants spills tears
4 October 2016, 1:43 pm

I couldn't help it, I was just so frustrated and the floodgates opened. 58 years young/old and I was crying at the crag. Big, full-blown sobs straight from the heart. Sponge Bob Square Pants reduced to tears. FFS!

Back at work you spend the whole week longing to get out climbing. You've been doing some training to try and get a little bit better, but it's wearing you out and your fingers are really tired. If you've got a project you're mentally worn out too, because it occupies your thoughts most of the time you're awake and you keep going through the moves whenever you've got a spare moment. Then you finally get to the crag (an adventure in itself when you're going to La Ramirole with a dog). The conditions let you down, it's too humide and you trash your skin on your first attempt. The weekend's already finished for you, that's it. Back to work and go through all that aching and longing again, until the next weekend.

That more or less sums up how I've been existing for over 40 years. I have absolutely no regrets and have had a fantastic time trying my best to claw my way up cliffs pretty much all over the world. However, I've got to a stage where it's getting really, really hard to keep motivated. Quite simply, I'm getting too old and am struggling on stuff I used to run up. Plus I'm always the punter at the crag these days and my projects are the warm ups! I'm OK if we're at a quiet crag but I really hate being the weakling at La Ramirole.

I don't feel like doing any more training, I've had enough, and I don't feel motivated to go back to La Ramirole, despite feeling close to doing my project (if only the conditions and my skin were good enough). Then again, you never know..... Maybe I should go downstairs and pull my finger out after all. Come on.







Source: Mike Owen's blog

[Andy P]

Oi! Thats not the Mike I know. Who are you, you imposter?
The real Mike - with Elaine's support, would just take a well-deserved break, allow body & mind to recuperate from 40yrs of hard climbing and come back with a vengeance.
So, will the real Mr Owen please let us all know when the time's right.
Best,
And. xx

[comPiler]

Meeting up with Steady Eddie and The Sun Goddess again
22 November 2016, 6:06 pm

As I write this, we're having a brief respite from a long period of heavy rain during the last 48 hours here in the south of France. It's forecast to continue raining up until the weekend.....

It's just as well that we made full use of the last couple of warm and dry weekends to do some climbing with our friends Eddie and Mandy Martinez from Britain. We met up at Courchon and the crag was in mint condition. This weekend we met up again and climbed at Jurassic Park and Cayenne (on Saturday) and St Cezaire on Sunday, all crags were more or less dry (though there were some damp holds in places). It was great to see them again after so long. It was also a chance to test my re-soled shoes (thanks Marie-Jo!).

Couldn't climb outside today, so had a great bouldering session downstairs. Unfortunately, the crags will probably start seeping now, shame but that's the way it is.....

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Eddie and Mandy in the Verdon, 1997.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Eddie and Mandy arriving at Courchon.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Mandy warming up on Diplodocus, part 1, 6c.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Eddie on Cayenne, 7c+.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The girls warming up at St Cezaire.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Eddie trying Babo Babo at Courchon.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine having a play on Cayenne.[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

The rain in Spain .... Climbing in Rumenes.
17 August 2014, 2:06 pm

We know that we've returned to the Mediterranean because the sky is blue. We've missed the sun so much during the past few weeks.

The main objective was to visit Cantabria and Asturias in northern Spain as a result of buying Richie Patterson's excellent new topo "Roca Verde". However the forecast was bad so we stuck to the sunny side of Spain to begin with.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view from our doss spot high above La Hermida, Cantabria[/td][/tr]

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First destination was a fairly new cliff called Culla about an hour north of Valencia. Thanks to Dave and Rhian Cross for the excellent info. However it was very tough on the Scali getting down the 2.5km track to a perfect doss spot overlooking the crag. The crag was in the shade with plenty of wind, we had the place to ourselves and the routes were on fantastic colonettes. Due to the uncertainty of not being able to get the Scali back up the track we decided to drive back up that evening (after doing Mojo Pican, a really nice 7a+, Mojita Matata, a great 7b+ and working a really long 7c). It was touch and go and needed some rally driving to make it back up. We made the long walk the following day instead which was an uphill killer at the end of the day in the full sun. (That day I did one of the best 7c's I've ever done called El Poder del Keler but I couldn't hang on the slopey crux of Generacion del Silencio, 7b+!) After that we decided to go somewhere else with a much shorter walk in.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tufa paradise[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]El Fronton at Culla from the end of the track (photo by Elaine Owen)[/td][/tr]

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Somewhere we'd never been to was Onati in the Basque. After only 2 minutes walk in I was motivated to do the 2 great looking tufa climbs where you arrive at the crag (Sonata, 7c and Mamba, 8a). However with very high humidity the climbing was hard work and it took me so long to do Sonata (completely pumped and covered in sweat) that I didn't bother even trying Mamba. It was great to make new friends, Gaizka and Sergio were really helpful and always good fun at the crag. Unfortunately, we never saw the sun during the 3 days we were there and we got fed up of the humidity and the rain.

It was finally time to drive on to Asturias at last. Driving along the autopista the scenery reminded us of North Wales. The mountains rise very steeply just a couple of km inland from the Atlantic in much the same way that the Carneddau rise above the villages of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. There was another similarity in that they were very often hidden by dark clouds and rain!

From the topo we sussed out the places that would keep us entertained: Poo de Cabrales and Rumenes. Both crags have plenty of colos and enough shade for summer cragging. The lower sector at Poo has great short routes from 6b+ to 7a which are super warm ups. The upper "Chorreras" crag is great for onsighting from 7a to 7b+ (the harder routes are not as good). The best routes we did were Mociviellos (6b+), Cencerrada (7a), Alanvista (7a+), Entremedusas (7b) and Kalima (7b+). Richie says that the 7c+ at El Corralito is very good and the 8a+ looks brilliant (though has probably only had one ascent apparently).

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Dave and Rhian Cross on the 7a+ part of El dia del arquero at Rumenes[/td][/tr]

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Ahhhh, Rumenes. What wonderful climbs there are to do there, long colonettes and not too steep. The canyon is so impressive and there is so much rock everywhere. It is an equippers paradise, if you're prepared to walk some. There will be a lot of development in the coming years. DON'T FORGET TO BUY THE TOPO BECAUSE RICHIE IS DONATING 20% FOR EQUIPPING. PLEASE DON'T PHOTOCOPY.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Sindrome de Stendhal, 50m of tufa heaven makes a great 8a (photo by Richie Patterson)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Jan from Czech Republic on the brilliant Rumenes power y al vino, 7a+[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Asia from Poland flashing the excellent Cinderella Man, 7c[/td][/tr]

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All the climbs at sector Chorreras are well worth doing, especially Rumenes power y al vino (one of the best 7a+'s anywhere) and the 50m 8a classic Sindrome de Stendhal. There are plenty of places to park up in the camper van in peace. On rest days the food and beer is very cheap in the climbers bar in La Hermida (Posada la Cuadrona) and there is a hot spring under the bridge.

We didn't get to Teverga which is the other must go to destination, though much more sunnier. That'll be at the top of the list for next time. The region is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, the climbing is fantastic and the topo is amazing and so inspiring. I can't wait to go back.



Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Not as good as the 1st time but still flippin' great! Return to Kalymnos.
28 September 2014, 4:05 pm

It seemed a good idea to go to Kalymnos. According to the topo there should have been a strong northerly wind blowing (called the Meltemi) to keep the humidity down and make climbing in September reasonable.

In reality there was no wind and most of the time the crags were damp and suffering from the Gogarth/LPT soap. Temps were around 32 degrees C and the humidity was up around 80% which made it pretty unpleasant for climbing, lathered in sweat, red faced and panting like a dog each time we tied into the rope!

The outcome was far different from Easter last year. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to do many of the harder routes on my rather long hit list. Still it wasn't a waste of time either. During the 3 weeks we visited lots of different secteurs and climbed lots of amazing steep tufas. Which is what people go to Kalymnos for. We made lots of new friends and even met up with friends we'd not seen for many years.

Despite the heat, the humidity, lots of polished footholds and the crowds I still believe Kalymnos is one of the best places I have climbed at. Where else, for example, can you go and climb amazing 6c's on blobby tufas, like at Ghost Kitchen and Secret Garden? Or have an entire crag to yourselves covered in quality routes, like at Galatiani or Sikati Cave? Or eat fantastic Greek food for 8 Euros per person, like at Noufaro's?

What a pity though that we had to drive to Milan Bergamo again to catch the Ryanair flight and have to suffer the crazy Italian drivers on the autopista around Milan!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Arriving on Kalymnos[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Our accomodation (shame about the Swedish witch above!)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Tools of the trade[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]There's beer![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]And good food too![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Our wheels below Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Andy Chambers on the brilliant Frapogalo (6c) at Secret Garden[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine on the tricky Dafni (6c+) at Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Spot the climber on Morgan (7b+) in Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Surreal landscape in the bottom of Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]French climber on the mega Calcite Star Plus (7b+) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The same French climber on Feuerdorn (7a honest!) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Look at those incredible tufas on Armata Sikati (7b) in Sikati Cave[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Austrian climber sending one of the best 7c+'s anywhere: Marci Marc in a Force 7 (one of the few days there was actually some wind!). Elaine looks cold![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Yours truly at the knee bar rest above all the hard climbing on the mega Gegoune (7c) at Galatiani[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Sunrise whilst leaving Kalymnos[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The view from Ghost Kitchen[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Telendos from our apartment[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

[comPiler]

Easter in Slovenia and Croatia
3 May 2017, 6:22 pm

It's been a long time since I've written. I think that's because we haven't really done anything that was much worth writing about. So, here goes....

Christmas and Feb half term were spent climbing in the sun above Moustiers Sainte-Marie in the beautiful Gorges du Verdon. As usual, the crags were very quiet, the climbing fantastic and the grades were tough.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Bipolaire, 7a at Courchon[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Olivier red pointing Un air de famille, 7c+ at Corchon[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Casse-bonbons, 7c+ at Baume Blanche[/td][/tr]

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Throughout the winter we've been using our board quite a lot for bouldering and for circuits. Elaine has made really good progress, especially on the circuits and her fingers are working well at the moment, despite some soreness/stiffness afterwards. My training was going well, with the specific goals of getting fit enough to do the two big ones that beat me last year (Et dieu creer la flamme and Triste Lune) hopefully quickly and early on in May. Outside, I managed to do Christophe Louis' fantastic Inch of dust (7c+) at Le Discret in one session, although I had tried the start previously.

Easter was coming and we fancied going somewhere new (at least for us) and quiet. That obviously meant going in the opposite direction to usual, ie. not towards Spain! We decided to head to Slovenia and Croatia, specifically the crags at Osp and Buzetski Kanjon. We were amazed how quick and easy it is to get there: only 8 hours! However, you do have to suffer the crazy Italian drivers (never a pleasure). Initially, we were both suffering from colds and allergies, so after one night on the village campsite (which is very basic and expensive) we moved into a lovely modern hostel, which we had all to ourselves (apart from 2 nights) for the whole time. Apartmaji Pod Kostanji is run by Carmen (who speaks English and many other languages) and is not much more than the cost of camping. Fully recommended!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Lukjna cave at Osp. Wow!! Very steep and very big.[/td][/tr]

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The climbing:

Misja Pec (Osp); Awesome with plenty of king lines but it's so polished. Basically we were about 25 years too late, seriously! The 7a warm ups were nails and finished you off for the day! I wasn't brave enough to try anything harder than 7b, and that took me 3 goes.

Befana (Buzetski): More climber friendly, not polished and normal grades. Long routes but a fairly small sector. Busy. Great for 7a up to 7c up overhanging tufas.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Befana, 7c at Buzetski Kanjon[/td][/tr]

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Lukjna (Osp): This is totally world class and like a bigger version of Grande Grotta. Stamina is the name of the game here. Very steep climbing on tufa blobs with lots of funky climbing, ie. knee bars and heel hooks. Some of the routes here are 55 metres, so you need a long rope (through the draws are in place on most). This crag has the highest concentration of hard routes in Slovenia, apparently. The left wall has about 8 routes between 7a and 7c up tufas, all of which are about 30 metres long. The main cave is another world and just has to be tried. Interestingly, it gets flooded most winters and there's a lake at the bottom (a very deep lake from the clearly visible high water mark!). The perfect crag, whether you're trying to red point your first 7a or 9a, as long as you like your climbing on the beefy side!

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ana working Helihopter v omaki, 8b[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Approaching the crux on Trojanski konj, 7c+  (same start as Laokoon, 8a)[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Bitka s stalaktiti, 8b and 55m long. Looks so good.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The 8a part of Active discharge[/td][/tr]

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Elaine had a great indoor session at Plus Climbing gym in Koper. Lots of volumes and World Cup style bouldering.









All was going so well, until the last go, on the last day. A partial tear to my right supra-spinatus means that I'm now out of action. Not sure how long that's going to be at the moment, until an arthroscanner tomorrow and a visit to a shoulder specialist next week. Physio is going well, so it might not need surgery and could mean climbing this summer. Obviously, those 2 Verdon projects are not going to happen this year! Still, can't complain: 43 years of climbing virtually non-stop every weekend, mid-week and holiday. Apart from 3 enforced layoffs due to broken bones (one motor bike crash and two climbing accidents when I was very young) I've been very lucky and have had no real injuries. It's obviously pay-back time. I'm enjoying the chance to have a well earned rest.



Source: Mike Owen's blog

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Life after shoulder surgery
9 July 2017, 2:00 pm

Two whole months, that's all of May and June so far. The first time in my life that I've not climbed for anywhere near that length of time. There's still all of July, August and September as well. Climbing has been my life; it has kept me active and very happy more or less every weekend, every holiday and as often as possible during the week as well, for over 43 years. I don't want to sound negative but it is hard work, waiting patiently for my body to recovery after surgery but I'll get there, I'm keeping positive.

What happened?

I heard a loud tearing noise in my shoulder whilst climbing a very steep route at Easter. I knew it was serious, despite much pain, but I was hoping it wouldn't need surgery to fix, alas I was wrong. I saw two excellent shoulder specialists who both recommended surgery. They both confirmed a partial tear in the supra-spinatus tendon (running along the top of the shoulder) and a slap tear in the long biceps tendon. The first injury was caused by a sudden shock load due to my feet cutting loose (my arms were actually in a crucifix position), the second was caused by long term wear and tear. Both surgeons said full recovery was expected with a return to climbing again after six months or so. Both injuries are fairly common in climbers.

What did the operation involve?

Dr Nicolas Brassart carried out the operation, which involved three parts. Firstly, the supra-spinatus tendon was reinforced and reattached to the scapula with Kevlar fibres and two anchor screws. Secondly, the long biceps tendon was cut and reattached lower down the humerous with two anchor screws. Thirdly, the acromion (a bone at the top of the shoulder joint) was shaved to prevent further pinching of the many tendons in the joint. The operation involved key-hole surgery, via four small incisions. It took one and a half hours under a general anaesthetic and I was in hospital for three days. I was signed off work for six weeks.

How's the recovery going?

My right arm and shoulder were totally immobilised for eight days and I was on strong pain killers and muscle relaxants for the first five days. After eight days I was able to remove the splint in the house and start doing some gentle pendulum exercises several times a day. However the arm and shoulder needed to be immobilised for sleeping and going outdoors. I started physiotherapy, with a really good sports physio here in our village, four weeks after the surgery, three times a week. Six weeks post op, I was able to stop wearing the splint completely and I can now use a 1 kg mass for the pendulums. I can now drive and do easy stuff around the house. Physio is going well and I'm making steady progress with gradually improving movement, though it's quite painful at times. Sleeping continues to be uncomfortable.

How long will recovery take?

Physio will continue into September. I have been told not to force my arm for the first three months to allow the shoulder to heal properly. Then it will be a case of re-building the atrophied muscles with specific exercises starting with light resistance. I am hoping to be up for some easy climbing by the October half term holiday.

I would like to give special thanks to Dr Brassart for carrying out such a good job and for his continued advise and encouragement, and all the staff at Clinique St Jean in Cagnes sur Mer for their help and care. Also, thanks to Patrick Vialli for all his patience and care with my physio.

Finally, I would like to thank all the people who have taken the time to offer me help, advice and encouragement via Facbook. No doubt I will see most of you again at some crag soon.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Thumbs up one hour after the op when Elaine arrived.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A substantial arm splint and moobs (due to muscle relaxants!!!) one day post op. [/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A very frayed long biceps tendon.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Reattaching the supra-spinatus tendon.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Not much to see on the outside.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Eight days post op, starting gentle pendulum swings.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Four weeks post op, using a 1 kg mass for the pendulums.[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog

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The Owens' return to Britain (only joking, it was a holiday!)
19 August 2017, 5:24 pm

What do you do when your physio goes on holiday and you can't go climbing? Visit Britain of course. To be more precise, visit the Yorkshire Dales and Snowdonia. Why not?

The shoulder has been making good, steady progress. With Patrick (my physio) going on holiday we had a little over three weeks before my next session. Elaine didn't want to go climbing in the summer heat (nor did I want to go to some awesome new crag, as it's way too early for me to even think of doing easy climbs). We needed a totally different kind of holiday this summer and decided to visit Britain, to go walking and climbing indoors.  

We made the long journey north and took the ferry from Calais to Dover. It's amazing to think that we used to do that same journey six times a year, before we moved to France. Driving round the M25 reminded us just why we'd left Britain all those years ago. The weather was vile and driving conditions were awful. At least the British drivers were driving courteously and sticking to the speed limit. First destination was Elaine's cousins wedding reception in Buckingham (thanks for the bacon butties - we were so hungry!). It was great fun seeing the Scottish side of the family again: Susan, Michael, Graham and Bonny.

Next day we headed further north towards Settle in North Yorkshire, destination Settle Lodge Bed and Breakfast, to stay with Eddie and Mandy for a few days, to do some walking in The Dales and, of course, to enjoy Eddie's famous cooked breakfasts. We had a wonderful room with a great view, a very comfortable king sized bed, superb modern shower and the softest, fluffiest towels we came across during our stay in Britain. As usual they were both on fine form and had us in fits of laughter. The four of us made the classic walk round Gordale Scar, Malham Cove and Janet's Fosse, the scenery is still stunning after all these years. Unfortunately nobody was climbing but it was nice to be able to still visualise the moves on the starts of New Dawn, Zoolook and Raindogs. Standing there on The Catwalk surrounded by so many classic climbs was like saying "hello" to lots of old friends. On another occasion we took Ruff for a long walk up Ingleborough from Clapham (some thirty four years since the last trip up there during the Three Peaks Walk). Later in the week, we were unimpressed when we visited Kendal Climbing Centre: verdict very expensive for mediocre bouldering, unfriendly staff and not at all dog friendly. Ruff and I were ejected from an otherwise empty cafe by a surly young woman (having bought a sandwich and a coffee) and had to wait in the van whilst Elaine climbed. I really wouldn't recommend the place to anyone and I certainly wouldn't consider going there ever again. With a full weekend of bookings at Settle Lodge, we bade farewell to Eddie and Mandy and headed south towards Wales. En route we visited my sisters, Elaine's brother and The Hangar in Liverpool (quite possibly our favourite climbing wall; very dog friendly too).

We had got very much used to the luxury of Settle Lodge and decided against staying in the Cali, using the rain and my shoulder as perfect excuses. So we booked a nice little cottage on a working farm. Ty-Mawr Farm in Llandeiniolen was perfectly located for access to the mountains and The Beacon climbing wall.

The highlights of our two weeks in Snowdonia  were undoubtedly meeting up with so many old friends (particularly my old climbing partners John Roberts, Brian Jones and Pete White) and walking and scrambling in the mountains, the very same place I learnt all my mountaineering skills as a teenager in the 70's. The landscape is still as beautiful and stunning as I remembered it. I think it's true to say that my heart definitely belongs in North Wales (despite the cold, wind and rain!).

By the way, we had so much fun that we'll probably be going back next summer. Any of our French friends fancy joining us to do some trad?

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Mandy showing Ruff how to work out on a wet day in Settle.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff enjoying the descent from Ingleborough.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Ruff getting all the attention at The Hangar.

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine in the big cave at The Hangar.[/td][/tr]

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[/t][/t][/t][/t] I started climbing with these guys: Pete White, John Roberts and Brian Jones.

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[/t][/t][/t][/t] A chilly day to be on the summit of Pen Yr Ole Wen, looking towards Tryfan, Glyder Fach and Llyn Idwal (Snowdon hidden in cloud on the right).

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Imagine bumping into Martin Crook and Mel Griffiths at The Beacon?[/t][/t][/t][/t][/t]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Elaine in the big cave at The Beacon.[/td][/tr]

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[/t][/t][/t][/t] We also bumped into Bonny Masson as well.

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Al Stewart in The Beacon's big cave.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Coffee on the sofa. Al Stewart, Ken Latham, Elaine, me, Denise and Brian Jones, Sarah and John Peake.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Mick Lovatt gave us a guided tour of the Lleyn crags.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]View from Mynydd Perfedd, L to R: Tryfan, Glyder Fach, Foel Goch (closest), Glyder Fawr (most distant) and Y Garn.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Meeting up with Kath Goodey and Dave Lyons at Joe Brown's in Capel Curig.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Meeting up with Fluff from our student days at I M Marsh over 30 years ago![/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Summit of Tryfan, there were people all over Adam and Eve (hence the reason they're missing from the photo, just left of Elaine).[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The classic photo of The Cantilever on Glyder Fach.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Meeting up for a meal with Sue and Colin Goodey in Penmaenmawr.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Meeting up with some old faces from the Liverpool/Deeside scene at The Boardroom. L to R: Roger Bennion, Andy Boorman, her, legend Phil Davidson, me, Paul Bolger, unknown, Al Stewart.[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Re-living the good old times. Me and Phil Davidson. When was the last time we climbed together?[/td][/tr]

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[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Excellent motivation for next summer's visit.[/td][/tr]

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Source: Mike Owen's blog