Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

Bouldering is the way to go for strength and technique. Sport climbing is great for endurance and technique. Both are great. For outdoor skills and safety it's probably best to join some kind of club or association.

The 5.10 Dragon VCS's I bought the other day are just too small for me, so offering them here if anyone wants them? Size 11 / EU46, £50 + P&P. Link here

Sport climbing is great for endurance and technique.

Special mention to via ferrate for endurance. Even the best rock climbers, many of whom sneer at it as somehow too easy or too safe, tend to find it a shock to the system to climb 100+ vertical meters (or even up to 800m on the longer routes), even if the going is easy.

I’d go to one of the shit load of good climbing centres nearby then. Ask about getting an induction to use their facilities, what training they offer, what clubs they might be linked to. I don’t think it’s as simple as choosing between roped climbing vs bouldering to start with, they both offer different things and different people develop different preferences.
As someone else has said it’s crucial to be climbing (on ropes especially - although spotting when bouldering is very important too) with someone that you trust to be doing the right things. Learn what the right things are and then check your partner, you never get too experienced to do the basic checks.

Thanks everyone. I have booked an auto-belay introduction course next Wednesday :-)

Rule 1. Don't let go of the belay at the bottom.

I was going to say in response to your original question - belaying is the most annoying part of climbing (and the reason I prefer bouldering as a beginner) as you have to rely on someone else's availability and spend 50% of your time waiting. And people can be picky about trusting newbies - for good reason I suppose. Auto belay will be good!

Hiking/scrambling trousers for cold-to-mild-ish UK climes... Any recommendations? Finally knackered the seams my final pair of old (and multiple-times patched) craghoppers kiwi winter types from years ago. Go with them again or is there something a bit more abrasion/weather-resistant? Waterproof not required, as I have some good overtrousers.

Rab Vapour Rise, always. Especially the older ones (you can tell cos the logo has colours in it)

Rab VR stuff is good as above. I rate Montane trousers very highly also. I have a standard pair of Terra and a Winter pair, but I think the scrambling specific ones are Terra Edge.

I don't have those BTW but no doubt they'll be decent as per standard Terra pants

Just finally wore out a pair of Decathlon/Simond softshell trousers after about seven years of using them for all manner of winter/autumn mountain fun (for about 6 weeks per year). For £60 I'm a big fan. Only gave up the ghost because of a clumsy crampon moment yesterday. Probably a bit warm for anything above five degrees though.

I have a pair of hagloffs rugged mountain that have been going for 7 years or so and will last another 7 easy. Id buy another hagloffa product based off their durability and function.

Thanks all - will pop out to outdoorsy shops/decathlon on HSK to try what I can of these for fit.

Ended up in here today, on a training course & not due to poor hill sense though. Woodhead Pass area is horrible conditions yet still folks were wandering out into the hills from the laybys in their pac-a-mac's.

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Thats a decent looking fire.

Bit random asking on a cycling forum I know, but I ask everything here so why not?

I'm in the market for a pair of ice axes. I won't be ice climbing with these. They will mostly be used for semi-technical but pretty basic stuff like ~50 degree snow slopes and quite Easy mixed routes like a Breithorn traverse or Castor or Pollux.

Any recommendations? I'm considering Simond Anaconda but starting to have my head turned by Grivel because their axes are just beautiful objects.

No experience, but I have been reading up a lot on axes recently after my first climbing outing. The anaconda is a really ugly axe, and the hendle doesn't look ergonomic at all. Obviously there is nothing that can match Decathlon pricing but the CAMP X-lights are in a similar category to the anaconda but look much more comfortable and won't break the bank. Then you have the Petzl Sum'Tec with the removable trigrest which will perform much better for using cane style than the others if you will be doing more snow slopes than ice.
Again, this is all just internet knowledge, not experience, so feel free to trash it.

It's all welcome input. Ice axe choice is a divisive and contentious opinion/subject. Few people agree with each other.

Don't really care about looks. If I did, I'd go custom or buy grivel. The thing about the Anaconda is hat they are very highly reviewed by people who actually use them.

On the subject of Decathlon/Simond. A few of the mountain guides we know are sponsored by Petzl/Grivel etc so they get a lot of either free or heavily discounted kit. Despite this, they use a lot of certain Simond kit because they rate it so much. Not ice axes tbf but even so, goes to show that Simond is legit for most things.

Do you know the weight of the Anacondas?
I agree completely about the quality of Decathlon / Simond kit. I know a few ex-Decathlon engineers and the R&D they put into metalurgy is beyond the scope of most other sports equipment manufacturers. I'm sure they have resources to put similar research behind almost anything they make.

Do you know the weight of the Anacondas?

Adze model is 560g, hammer model is 600g. So about 100g more than my wife's Grivel Airtech Evos.

Fuck knows exactly why, but the Austrian guides I know are crazy about these carabiners. No idea why they like them so much...look pretty normal to me! They are small and light but not sure if there is anything else to it.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/rocky-screw-lock-karabiner/_/R-p-130435?mc=8292181

On the subject of ice axe choices, a rescue climber once told me that I should never use an elasticated leash on an ice axe. I axsked him why. He then told me a horrific story about a body he recovered where they had taken a slide on a snow slope and, well, you don't want an ice axe twanged into your head at speed. Lets just leave it at that.

He freely admitted that it was a freak accident that he might never see happen again, but some things are horrific enough to change your habits. I certainly think twice before using a leash now.

Although sure, sometimes the risk of losing your axe would be worse. Its just not something I do without thinking carefully first.

I would prefer static leashes anyway. What is the benefit of elasticated leashes if they're your own axes and therefore you know your arm length etc? It's easier to take a rest on a static leash, using your axe as an anchor, it can be lighter, less bulk, less likely to get iced up...

Absolute belter yesterday

Mayar and Driesh

Lovely! Was up Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers today, amazing day

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