Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

Would do it again now knowing what to expect :)

More cows and tents.
Even with hipster hippies and barking dogs off the lead the cows and bulls remained docile and not bothered.
This same hippy fella was asking for a tea bag bin in the cafe, but then lets his dog worry cattle and drop guinness cans............. (hippy (not fourms Hippy mind) had a teepee)

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The old harbour wall which gets a mention in the book i bought as Tex's boat managed to rip out a key stone it was tied to during a storm while trapped overnight on Eigg.

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Approach to Muck harbour.

I got caught out by really good weather and carried some stuff i didn't need, then got ill.
Back to work on Monday :)

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Would anyone be able to identify this jacket for me?

Its got "WIND BLOC" written on the sleeve.

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Has anyone been to the Carpathians in Ukraine?
I'm heading there in a few weeks.

Looking for some summer type walking/hiking show, off to the Amalfi coast so looking forward something lite and breathable. Have been looking at the Nike Wildhorse and also the Adidas equivalent. Any recommendations

Just got back from the Annapurna circuit in Nepal, I highly recommend it, the scenery is mind blowing!

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Any recommendations in South east for a 2.5 day hiking/camping adventure?

Have 2 mates over from home this weekend that fancy a bit of camping (one has actually never been camping so hoping for a nice mild weather introductory weekend). Leaving work at 6pm Friday with the intention to hop a train to somewhere, likely have to stay at dedicated campsite as they'll be in a tent and I'll be in a bivvy. Pub dinner and few pints followed by cans and a good kip Friday night.

Ideally walk most of Saturday to another camp site (unless we can pull off wild camping with a tent?). Dinner, pints, kip.

Walk some of Sunday to a train station that will get us back to London, unless there's a nice route that will land us in Tunbridge wells as that's where they're staying Sunday night?

New Forest will tick the all above if you want proper campsites

Get the train to arundel or andeley, then walk part of the South Downs way, getting bus to Brighton on Sunday. Or, get train to Brighton or lewes, taxi to campsite, walk to Alfriston, camp there (although not a brilliant campsite), then walk to Eastbourne- again all SDW.

First trad mission of the year today down to the Cattle Troughs at Swanage. Top spot, despite the weather we had both amphitheatres to ourselves for the whole day- Subliminal/Avernus looked heaving on our way back up.
Having not climbed for almost a year and being out with a guy on his first trad trip we didn’t do anything spicier than S4b but still found some great routes at that grade. The vdiffs were all messy and pointless and weirdly hard to protect.

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Did Clarion VS4c in Avon last week. Fun way up to the lunchtime ledge.
Not hard but a reassuring lack of protection where required.

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Planning a hiking/scrambling weekend in the lakes in a few weeks, any must-do day routes? Friend wants to get up Hellvelyn and Scafell, so bonus points for hitting those tops!

Blencathra/Sharp Edge if you like scary ridges. Be very careful in bad weather though, it's an accident blackspot and people fall off occasionally

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That looks like my kinda ridge!

Hey - quick question. My partner and I are pretty new to climbing and neither have done a top rope belaying course. We've just been using auto-belays (when no friends around happy to belay us) and bouldering.

We're overgrounding it from London to Helsinki, via France, Italy, Austria (although this can be adjusted) in the next few weeks and thought we could stop somewhere and take a course - and maybe something which also involves some outdoor climbing. Anyone have any suggestions for training centres to look in to?

o loo

I would look into doing a top rope course before you go so you are confident with belaying. If you are climbing at a F5+ level already then you could also take a lead climbing course as you will need lead climb to set the top rope if thats is your plan. I did both courses at White Spider in Chessington and would recommend them.

Chamonix has some great climbing and its not too expensive to hire a guide for half a day who will bring a rope, harnesses, quick draws for you if you don't have them already.

If it's just top rope belaying you're looking at then any "introduction" course will cover it thoroughly enough. But you may struggle to find English language ones in other countries. I would advise just going to your local wall and getting the lesson there before you go. Or watch a few youtube videos(Petzl have some decent ones), find somewhere you can loop a rope around a railing or banister and try it out for yourself. If you're both practically minded, and thoughtful people then top-rope belaying isn't too hard. Whatever you do, don't just watch someone else in a gym. There are way too many terrible habits out there!

Also, don't bank on European centres having top-ropes set up for you. The bigger ones will have a few, but in the few I have been to around here in Switzerland, they generally prioritise lead and auto-belay.

Thanks, guys. There's no "before you go", unfortunately - we're heading home. (Although I tried to do a course in Helsinki before leaving, but the session I could make was full). So, looking to do a top rope training somewhere else on the way to get a day or two climbing in. It would be nicer were it included some outdoors climbing as well. As would any additional, appropriate, skills training.

In that case, Chamonix will probably be your best bet for an english speaking guide. Otherwise just have a google for climbing centres that are on or near your route, and call to find out who can do a reasonably priced, English (I'm assuming), private course. Most walls will hire you a belay plate and rope, obviously this is trickier if you want to go outside.

The forum "UKClimbing" (2nd friendliest place on the internet) is a good source of all things climbing in Europe.

Looking for a little advice from some tech-savvy climbers.

Can anyone recommend some approach shoes that may be available in large sizes? I'm struggling to get anything larger than a 12, despite the fact that some companies seem to go up to 15 in climbing shoes. I gots big feets

Adidas? https://www.alpinetrek.co.uk/approach-shoes/for--men/size--50c5/

Awesome! Thank you

Did my first outdoor (non-bouldering) climbing today. Just outside Helsinki. Was good fun, but I need to keep training indoors.

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I've always like inov-8s as approach shoes. Grippy enough to climb up to S/HS too. They seem to go up to uk 14s for some models.