I’m back!

Well I’ve finished moving, my internet connection is up and running, I’ve found a York climbing wall, I’ve ‘diversified’ my job so that it no longer sucks (as much) and I have a new bike! So all in all I’ve stopped moping about and I’m back in training.

Hopefully we’ll see a few more posts cropping up in the next few weeks. If you guys want to send me some of the latest Portland pics I’ll chuck them up here to get the ball rolling.

The Peaks approach…

So, speaking of planning, the weekend approaches.  As I see it, currently looking as follows:

Day 1:

All going well, we should arrive at 10.15 on Saturday.  Head out to Derwent Valley for a day of mountain biking.

Days 2 and 3:

Play it by ear:

switch(weather) {
   case good: activity = bouldering or climbing; break;
   case mediocre: activity = geo{cache,hash}ing; break;
   case abysmal: activity = climbing wall; break;
   default: pub and further planning;
}

Any additions/deletions/modifications?  Do we want to be any more organised?  (face it, could we possibly be any more organised? what could go wrong?)

So, we’ll definitely pack harnesses and shoeses; question is: should we bring ropes and gear too?  Quite happy to, as it’s a feasible load (especially with three of us); at the same time, if climbing is not likely to be on the cards, we’ll leave it at home, as hauling great loads of nylon and metal up and down the country for fun is, well, not really that much fun…

I realise that the weather will be a pretty significant factor; will keep an eye on how the forecast develops.

In terms of the long range forecast, I reckon it would be good to get another day/weekend in at Portland before the Summer deserts us (if it hasn’t already); looks like the next free weekend is last weekend in September (27th-28th).  What do people reckon?

Geocaching

Following up on my shiny new GPS device, I was thinking about what we’re going to get up to the bank holiday weekend and I came across these:

http://www.geocaching.com/about/

http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Main_Page

What do people think? We could head out on a geohashing adventure, walking and climbing whatever gets in our way.

Sheffield Planning Thread

Ok then guys, the train tickets are booked and I’ve worked out how to use the sofa bed. So nows the time to sort out what you want to do while you’re up here. I’m definitely going to have a bouldering mat so that’s an option, we can either MTB out to Rivelin/Bell Hagg or drive out to Burbage South. It all depends if you guys are going to be able to get your bikes up here. We should have enough kit for some sport climbing but I’m unlikely to have a large enough trad rack by August. I’ll let you know if that changes.

It’s not quite as extreme but we could just go for a walk round the peaks or stretch out the bike rides into a decent bit of MTBing.

Anyway, answers and comments in the thread please!

Goals for the Summer

In an attempt to stay honest and focused I’m going to post up my goals for this summer:

Bouldering @ Font grade 6c+

Complete an adventure race

Get down to the Beast of Brenin @ Coed Y Brenin

At the end of the year if I make the most of my recent move to Sheffield I’ll be fairly pleased. Feel free to ask me how things went at the end of the summer.