Thursday 13 September 2007

New Video Link

Check this out!

http://www.army.mod.uk/news/army_news_current_stories/hard_rock_climb.htm

Kendal Film Festival Confirmed


Good news is that after lots of emails flying backwards and forwards to John Porter we now have a slot at this years Kendal Film Festival.

Sunday 18th November - 12.30pm Malt Rooms


I am so happy as it means a few things :-

Firstly, I get an excuse to come back to the UK, everyone thinks I am mad but I do miss the old place, and even though this year I saw it at its wettest I still loved it.

Secondly, we get to see all our friends again. We made the most amazing contacts this summer and hopefully we can call them friends and continue to see them lots. Sir Chris was a charmer which I am sure most people that know him will confirm. David Simmonite and I get on like a house on fire. In fact I am sure Rich would say too much as one night when Dave slept in Cheryl we stayed awake talking until the small hours like a couple of teenagers!

Some of the Mountain Rescue people we will stay in contact with, especially the young couple from Cornwall as they offered to take us surfing next summer. Julian from Wasdale we will also meet again and hopefully next time he will go climbing with us.

Stephen Reid was a great support during the challenge and it was so nice when I was alone in the van and I would get a phone call asking how we were getting on. I even remember on a very wet day in Aviemore when he had taken the trouble to check the weather report for me for North Wales.

Alot of these people we will hopefully see at Kendal and if not during one of our less stressful trips to the UK.

Monday 3 September 2007

Trying to get back to normal!

I don´t really know if I am coming or going at the moment. We got back from the trip and I had 2 days before I left again to watch my eldest boy Daniel play cricket for Spain down at La Manga. It was the European Championships and they did really well. Three wins out of five and only getting beaten by the champs from last year and this years winners, Guernsey. You can check out the details here CricketEurope.net

I have just finished an article for Mountain Rescue Magazine, it was nice just writing down everything in one go, I didn´t even need to look back at my journal! I will post it whole on here once the magazine has been published.

Rich now has the daunting task of going through the 100´s of hours of video tape. Not a job to be taken lightly. Simon did try to keep a log during the trip but time ran out on us everyday.

One thing writing the story out in full did, was bringing back some of the not so nice memories from the trip :-

Out of touch with the real world! - I never realised before how much we rely on mobile phone coverage and the internet. It was such a weird feeling know that people could not get hold of me. I did put an automatic reply on my emails which explained why I could not get back to people, but I still worried. It didn´t really bother Rich as he leaves all that stuff to me and Mark did have his small pda which he used in the back on the van whilst on the move!

Places like Petes Eats which is a cafe in Llanberis, ended up been a god send! they even trust you to tell them how many minutes you use and pay downstairs. The internet cafe in Fort William was also great, the guy even set me up with a tab which he kept open for 2 weeks inbetween the visits.

No sharing with Rich - Some days if I had time between cleaning the van, shopping and cooking I would take Tufa for a walk. The one that stands out the most was my day in The Cairngorms. The boys had set off for the second time to climb King Rat and Goliath, I chilled in the morning on the campsite and then decided to have a bimble around the loch! little did I know it was a 9 mile round trip.

I was so amazed by the view but was very very sad that I had no one to share it with. I even got a little tearful when I looked up to the crag he was climbing on, knowing that I was not going to see him for a few hours.

We will go back to alot of the places we visited this summer and I am determined to take the time to enjoy all the beautiful places together.

A few more photos from the collection :-

Another great Mike Robertson photo - Rich using the tree on North Crag Eliminate!

Almost too warm to climb and this was Wales - The boys on The Big Groove
Stephen Reid took this photo of the boys on The Crack in the rain