Snow in the States! - December 2010

Over state side in New Jersey for a few weeks visiting family for Christmas and New Year. Elbow's still giving me jip so hoping being miles away from Scotland and the Lakes will take the ice conditions out of my mind!

A big snowstorm blew through last night leaving about 6" of snow here but much more further east and in the centre of New York. Ventured out today and it was freezing cold but lovely blue skies and sunny - too cold to go running though (what a shame!).

Mark Savage - Blog site!

Mark Savage has finally got his blog site on line. Check it out for some fantastic shots of climbers on the rocks of Northumberland and updates on how his book on climbing in Northumberland is coming along.

Mark Savage Photography.

Injuries!!

Back on the physio bench again :o(

Left elbow is back to its usual gammy state! Bit of a bugger as I'm pretty psyched on the climbing again after a bit of a low spell, so looks like I'm going to miss out on a bit of the winter bouldering and the start of the winter season. Already missed out on the majority of the Tooling comps north of the border but Steve Lynch is keeping up the side for the North East squad - 5 wins out of 5 so a cracking result! Check out the results so far on the Scottish Tooling website.

What's gone on for the rest of the year?!?

Been really slack in not updating the blog site for ages!! What's gone on since the last installment:-

Skiing in Italy at Easter.

A little bit of rock climbing in the UK

Climbing trip to Mallorca October half term.

Steve has been getting out a fair bit, check out Mixed Picks for details.

Nathan's been on the injury bench for the last few months, hopefully back into training soon!

More updates on the way.........

Tooling at The Cove - Saturday 13th March

Headed down to the cove for an early morning training session with Ali, Alan, Nathan and Lucie. It was a beautiful morning, nice in the sun but chilly in the shade!

Aimed for the normal area as the tide was on the turn and we didn't fancy getting trapped in the 'Burl Cave'. Good session but I was tired from the comp at Climb Newcastle the night before.

The Cove - Nathan Fires 'Warm-Up Traverse' from Andy Moir on Vimeo.

Alan pulling on the steep!

Ali on the 'Warm-Up' traverse

Skiing at Nevis Range - 6th & 7th March

Decided on a weekend on the slopes as a change from the climbing. The conditions were great so it made sense to grab the conditions while they were there!

It was a weekend of two halves it terms of the weather, Saturday was hot and sunny while Sunday was cloudy and cold.

Ali on the sunny slopes!

The Lakes - 27th & 28th February

Opted for a weekend of climbing in the lakes for a change as the conditions were so much better than Scotland.

On Saturday Nathan, Steve Lynch, Wilkie and I headed to Dove Crag to climb a route Steve had been wanting to tick for ages. Inaccessible Gully (V, 5) was there but in the warm sunshine it was really running! Steve and Wilkie set off first with Nathan and I following behind, dodging the lumps of ice.

The ice was pretty detached on the first section which made it exciting even on the 'blunt' end of the rope!! The second pitch gave great (and strenuous!!) mixed/tooling moves round the big chock stone. Fantastic route!

Inaccessible Gully

Steve Lynch on the detached ice on pitch 1

Sunday saw us heading to Dove Crag in Grassmoor, the aim was Dove Crag Gully (IV/V, 4). Nathan was climbing with Steve Hartland (AKA The Machine). Steve Lynch and I climbed with Steve Roberts from The Mountain Boot Company out for his first route of the season.

It was really busy with plenty of teams on and vying for the same route. Amazing ice and a great weekend out with the team!

The Machine on the first pitch

Steve Lynch on the steep ice of pitch 2