Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

A climber friend of mine just set a new record for lowest point in Switzerland to the highest point. Lake Maggiore (~150m)to the summit of Dufour (4634m) by road bike and foot in 8 hr 10m.

https://www.alpin.de/home/news/40449/artikel_vom_lago_maggiore_auf_die_dufourspitze_in_acht_stunden.html

Last time I saw Andy I was schlepping my way up a steep snow slope under the east face of the Matterhorn remarking how I hadn't seen a single person for about four hours and he literally fell from the sky wearing a parachute and skis. He'd jumped off the Breithorn ridge about 1,000m above and 5,000m away. Utter nutter.

I've been over Crib Goch, it's exposed but you can definitely walk across it (albeit not so easily in windy conditions like in the video). I dunno. Also the language is so self-aggrandising, "attempting the route", mate it's a scramble that children do, not the fucking Brandler-Hasse.

Anyway, choppers gonna chop. Be safe out there either way.

Ha, legend!

Just seen your avatar... I had to zoom in to check my eyes weren't playing tricks... Nice..

His school-year have produced some insane mountaineers. The product of being bored kids in the mountains I guess.

I do enjoy this short video of his Matterhorn record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnt2kKMsGw

His run from Zermatt to Saas Fee is epic. Takes mortals about 4 days normally!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB4oZlSgUV0

A friend of mine phoned my up quite last minute to go on a week long hike together through some mountains in the backyard of where we grew up, two weeks later we were in Bologna ready to get going. We went to Uni in Bologna and are both from Cesena, so we tried to link different trails to "hike back home".

Started from Bologna and followed the Via degli Dei trail towards Firenze for the first 2 days.
When reached the water divide of the Apennine range, we followed it South East for 3 days, the trail is called GEA (Great Apennine Excursion) but it's also part of Sentiero Italia and E1 long distance trail.
The last two days we followed part of a local trail/loop called San Vicinio trail, and made it to Cesena.

All in all we did 220km, +7800m, in 7 days. Following the water divide and generally ridges, it's quite hard to find water at times, with a couple of days where we couldn't find any aside from one point in the morning.

We spent most nights wild camping or in shelters, with just one in a hotel.

I've been pleasingly surprised with how nice the route came out, despite not being the most famous nor stunning part of the country, it also makes for one of the less crowded ones, with almost nobody doing through hiking.

Route and pictures here.
More pictures here.

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Sounds epic.

We've decided to risk jumping through the hoops to go climbing in Austria for two weeks. Requires medical certificates and covid testing to be allowed in. Not as easy as it sounds given the mandated timescales.

Still, two weeks in the Alps will be the payoff if everything goes to plan.

I hear you. I left without certainty of not having to quarantine upon returning, but I just needed an adventure.

I imagine the Alps will be pretty busy this summer with more and more people choosing to stay in their country.

From the anecdotes I have heard the summer mountaineering season is in full swing with guides fully booked and busy but hiking/walking tourists still seem to be hesitant to travel even domestically.

We are hoping to stay in Obergurgl and apparently bookings are at an all time low there. Some hotels and apartment blocks don't have any guests at all. Its a really small and quiet place in the summer anyway but they're definitely feeling the pinch. Having a big rockslide and being cut off from the rest of Austria for a month certainly hasn't helped things! You can only get in and out via a big detour via the Timmelsjoch Pass in Italy between 8am and 6pm at the moment!

Bit of a weird one, but I took a fall while trad climbing a few months ago, landing on my bum and fracturing my sacrum.

Sacrum is all healed, but I have some hard muscle (probably scar tissues) in my bum / gluteus maximus from where I landed on it, and it can be painful when running, and also prevents me from doing any floor-based core exercise, as I can't go from lying to sitting up easily without rolling over it which causes discomfort.. SO, can anyone recommend a good place for deep tissue massage that might be able to help me with this, and give me some exercises to loosen it? I've been running and climbing again so it's not the end of the world, but it's just a little uncomfortable and I'd like to sort it out if I can..

Thanks

Where are you based?

I had a serious knee injury from skiing and Vanbrurgh Physio in Greenwich & City of London were recommended to me by my knee surgeon. I was extremely impressed with their quality of care.

In Walthamstow, so the City would work. Will check them out, thanks

Haven’t worn my walking boots for a while and yesterday’s down poor gave me a good reason to put them on.

I won’t be doing this again for a while

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Ah fuck me, my feet looked exactly the same a few weeks ago. I've been struggling with heel lift in my moutaineering boots for years. After going through a fair few pairs that seemingly fitted perfectly but still gave me huge heel blisters, I've concluded that its just because climbing boots are stiff as fuck and I only wear them for no more than five weeks a year.
Going to try a combo of sock liners and wearing boots for dog walks for several weeks before a trip and see if that helps

These are just regular boots I wear for dog walking when the weathers bad. It’s only the right foot which is strange

Yds kestrel desert

Great boot, but I do have really awkward shaped feet

Have you tried thicker insoles?

Two pairs of thick socks and lace them up as tight as a Victorian strumpet's corset

Ordered some halfa n hour ago. Worth a try!

Two pairs of thick socks won't be comfortable. Thin sock liners and socks might be ok.

The problem is worse in summer than in winter (when wearing thinner socks) so perhaps size is at least a contributing factor.

As for lacing tightness, the "surgeons knot" method has been revelationary for me...really helps keep the lower part comfortable and the top part tight.

Yes that lacing technique is very useful. Def go 2 pairs of socks, then they chafe against each other not your skin

I remember when I walked the Pennine Way I basically had open sores for the whole walk. I would pack them with bog roll and bind with gaffer tape each morning. I wore a very old pair of boots which I thought were comfy but they developed an actual hole and got soaking wet on day one and never really dried out after that. I took great satisfaction in hurling them in a bin when I finished.

Cheers. I'll buy a few pairs of seamless sock liners to try out. I doubled up after I butchered myself and that did provide some relief but i dont have enough room for two pairs of wool hiking socks. Especially not winter ones. I'm sure something will work.

I love these La Sportiva Nepal Extremes. Did some really nice climbing in them recently. Just really take a toll if they're on my feet for 12+ hours. Interestingly, once my blusters have healed up I can wear them without precautions so I do suspect it's down to me not wearing them regularly enough.

Holds like this. Just really trust them.

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They are brilliant boots, I have a pair of the non-goretex versions in the loft. Sadly many years since they've been used in anger.

Heavy as fuck though. Something like 2.3kg for a pair in my size! Theres a reason why most of the boot hire shops in the Alps stock them...utterly bomb proof. Can be resoled fairly easily too