Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

A few pics if anybody is interested. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cic9i9AoqwQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Alain Robert climb's 48 storey building on his 60th birthday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62943910

Watched this many years ago, well worth a watch if you haven't seen it. The man is an absolute maniac!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUC53wFWpw&ab_channel=snowymatrixthru-walker

^ and what a good message too. Physical achievement doesn't need to end as you get older.

Got back to he UK on Friday night after spending about 70 days sleeping at 2000m and going uo to between 3000m and 4000m nearly every day.

Yesterday afternoon I came down with the worst vertigo I've ever had. The whole world spinning and really strong nausea. Bit of pressure in the ears.

It's a bit better today but still pretty unpleasant.

I wonder if I'm experiencing a bout of the fabled reverse altitude sickness? It's uncommon but I'm struggling to think of another explanation.

Talking of vertigo, has anyone else on here developed it as they have got older? I used to do loads of rock climbing/abseiling when I was younger but really struggle with heights now. I almost completely freaked out when I had to clean the gutters on my house last year!

Not exactly but I had a long gap (10 years+) between climbing as a youngster and climbing as an adult and I definitely had lost most of my exposure tolerance when I got back to it.

Edit: I reckon it's pretty normal to be nervous of heights...it's people who aren't who are weird!

Looks great!

Do you mean fear of heights or vertigo? They're different although one can trigger the other

I get vertigo (very rarely) but it's totally unrelated to heights

That is interesting, I always thought they were the same thing.

I don't have a problem with the thought of say getting on my roof, but when I am there I am now very uncomfortable (whereas 20 years ago I would have been scrambling all over it). When I say uncomfortable, it is almost to the point of freezing and not being able to move!

If I'm high up I often can't look upwards without getting symptoms of vertigo. Ditto standing at the base of something very high e.g. a powerstation chimney.

I once had the chance to go up on the gantry above a velodrome track. I got so far, then looked up the gantry ladder and suddenly things got spinning and it felt like I had been tazered on my perineum. I couldn't move any further forward, thankfully I could still climb back down and as soon as feet hit ground I was fine again.

/csb

On Saturday we hiked Seed Peak in SW British Columbia, which is part of a small group of peaks about 40K north-east of Vancouver. This is an area that I've known about for a while, but that used to be very hard to access because the road in was so bad. But in the last couple of years they have been logging up there :( so have fixed the road. For somewhere accessible as a daytrip from Vancouver it is, and feels like, a rather remote area, quite a long way from a paved road or any towns.

We left Vancouver about 6am, got to Squamish about 7am, and started up the logging road. On the way we passed the aftermath of a rave in the woods, with people lying in sleeping bags at the side of the road. Good times! We parked the car at about 8.30, at about 1200 metres elevation.

This left us only a couple of kilometres and 200 metres of elevation trudging up the rest of the road to the start of the trail.

Unlike most trails round here, with this one you get out of the forest quickly, onto a subalpine ridge. You have to go over a small peak (November Peak) and down the other side, then back up again into the alpine, where you can choose to head left for Seed Peak (more of a hiking thing) or right for Mount Gillespie (more of a scrambly thing).

From the top of Seed Peak you look down onto Pinecone Lake and views all around. It's one of the most beautiful hikes I've done here for a few years, and definitely worth visiting before the road falls apart again.

1) Seed Peak from November Peak

2) Looking north-east from Seed Peak. The glaciated mountains on the left side are I think some quite remote peaks in Garibaldi Park, like Snowcap Peak and Rain God Mountain.

3) Looking north: Mount Garibaldi (left) and Mamquam Mountain (right). You can see Black Tusk poking out on the skyline right of Garibaldi, and the Garibaldi Neve under it.

4) Looking south-west towards Vancouver. The mountains on the skyline are some of the mountains on Vancouver's North Shore, including Crown, Cathedral, and Seymour. Beyond them you can see Vancouver Island in the far distance, and a bit of ocean.

5) Looking south-east. The mountain in the foreground in Gillespie, and to its right, in the far distance, is Mount Baker in the US.

5 Attachments

Incredible!

Makes me miss the Rockies. It has been too long.

Beautiful

Hi neighbour! So funny to see this here. I live in Squamish... That's a sweet zone - we were up there in early August for a bivvy and a sunrise run.

Can't imagine how terrifying seeing this coming at you is, let alone just standing and filming
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjNHlz8qMNk/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Its scary enough when one triggers near you!

If it's not on Instagram did it even happen

First thing I shouted when I was caught in an avalanche was definitely not ‘GoPro, start recording!’

I think at least one person died in that slide.

Took my eldest up to Snowdonia with us for a few days with a friend and some other kids. Rhinog Fawr via a scramble which the kids flew up and gave them a good intro to some basic mountain safety about rockfall when I dislodged a boulder and had to hold it there until everyone was safely past before I could let it fall.
The next day we did Bristly Ridge up to Glyder Fach in thick cloud which gave a cool atmosphere but made it cold and navigation was harder. The crux of the scramble at Great Pinnacle Gap took us forever to get everyone through safely but the kids all agreed that was the best part of the holiday!
Sure beats watching TV.

Sounds ace! I've heard the Rhinogs are pretty rough terrain and quite tough

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/newsroom/blog/magnetic-true-grid-north-align-over-great-britain

Snowdon national park authority moves to use Welsh language names from now: https://mobile.twitter.com/GillibrandPeter/status/1592896559632781312

Ice axes for Winter Munros walking. I'm getting one for Mrs EB and couldn't remember how I chose the size of mine when I bought it about ten years ago but thought I'd used the old adage of holding it by your side and the tip just about at your ankle.

That made me get mine out (DMM Cirque 55cm) and its a fair way off being near my ankle, maybe top of my boot at a stretch.

I know there's been move towards shorter axes where longer used to be favoured, but I'd like to get her the best size and now confused. I bought mine primarily for using for ice axe arrest rather than an out and out walking aid (use walking poles for that), only using walking uphill or downhill as an aid when gradient calls for it.

Has anyone got one for sale also?

Thanks