Ice climbs ⛏
Bakveien W4
Excellent route to finish the weekend. The ice was plenty thick in the narrow gully. Done in 2 pitches.
Foererkomiteen W4+
Off the beaten track this monster route needs all the dedication you can muster. Approach was done in snow shoes and was tough going. The reward was a sustained climb from the base all the way to the top. I was at my absolute limit.
Sabotoerfossen W5
I did the middle pitch and belayed in an ice cave on the right. Pleased to be able to lead grade 5. Done in 3 pitches
Monday Money W4
Picked one of the big ones. Long walk in and an absolutely knackering climb up to the base of the ice fall. We started the first pitch but were drained after the walk and hill climb. We bailed.
Valmiana W3
Good conditions throughout. Had the route to ourselves.
Cascade Lillaz W3
Ozzimosis W4
Fabrikkfossen W3
Rjukanfossen W4
Frits fell in the lake on the way in.
De kaller meg fjaard M7
I had top-roped this earlier in the season and the lead went smooth. It is well protected by bolts on the rocky bits. Excellent route.
Bullen W3
Gaustaspoekelse W4
Nordkroken W5
The Undertaker W5+
Birthmaker W4+
John in his element. Linking two lines on Gausta making this one.
Unnamed W4
Gaustatoppfossen W4
Trappfoss W4
I Just Love a Nice Stein Pull! M6+
The Undertaker W5+
Absolute mindblowing beauty. Climbed with head torches at night.
Tjonstadbergfossen W4
Swiss Army W4
Camillas Foss W4
To menn og et foster W4
Sean dropped 4 of my ice screws on the route! Even so, we had a great time.
Bullen W4
Rjukanfossen W4
Brilliant route. Lovely walk in, route and walk out.
Bullen W3
De kaller meg fjaard M6
Sabotoerfossen W4
Half of the climb.
Unknown W2
Swiss Army W4
Anakje W3
Introduction climb for Frits. The ice was the best I have climbed so far. One blow and the pick was placed.
Blindtarmen W4
Good ice all the way. Highlight of the weekend. I found the second pitch pretty steep and sustained. Top belay was in-situ slings with maillon around a block (as opposed to the guidebook bolted belay) and the half-way belay and abseil point was to in-situ bala-threads without maillon. The guidebook description is odd: we walked up easy slope to the what we would describe as the first pitch. Did then a full rope length (50m) on quite steep ice and then a second 40m to the top with some bridging out of the left rock wall.
Fabrikkfossen W3
Nice long and easy for the grade I thought. Abseil on trees all the way down on the right facing the waterfall. Worked fine on a 50m rope.
Gaustaspoekelse W4
Ozzimosis W4
Patri W4
Everything I hate about ice climbing in the alps. Long walk-ins, queues at the routes and unpredicatable avalanche conditions. We bailed mid-way due to disagreements on commitments.
Acherote W3
Lillaz W3
Better day than the day before. Finished with festive snowball attack on Richard and Tim.
Bjornstadsbekken W4
A stunning line in perfect condtions. For some reason Paul did not want to finish the complete climb
Lillehammer W3
Oppdal W3
Agnesberg W4
Evening roadside ice.
Ozzimosis W4
RU / 60ft / lead /
Sabotoerfossen W5
Verdens Ende W5
Vermorkfossen W5
Vermork Bridge West W5
Vermork East W4
Super hard finish to a great weekend.
Kaminfossen W4
Excellent lead from Sean. Proper outing.
Bullen W3
Sean kicked off the weekend of ice with a steady good lead up the right hand gully. Ice wet but good ice
Broken Pillar W5
Just brilliant. Precarious climbing up the free hangin pillar. A peak of my sport ice climbing career
Topp W5
Unknown W5
Easy lead, steep but with steps all the way.
Julevask W2
Good route with a steady flow for the grade
Ozzimosis W4
Ticked this awesome classic of the crag. Great climbing all the way
Fyrstikka W5
My first WI5! intimedating looking from below but the wall training had me totally fired up for this sort of job. Super route.
Jomfrua W4
First WI4 lead from Sean. Inspiring lead from the old hatter.
JG Climb W3
Gaustaspoekelse W4
Jomfrua W4
Unnamed W4
Kjoekkentrappa W4
Bullen W3
Anakje W3
Minidisken W4
Klassisk 4 W4
Skrueis W3
Aarsdagen W3
Pisse Froide W4
Great route climbed with my best friends
Pylone Right W3
Managed to squeeze an ice climb out of a visiting German friend. We didn't do much but it was worth it.
La Colere du Ciel W3
Excellent route. Super festive glissade down to the valley afterwards.
Symphonie d'automne W4
The classic of the crag. Excellent snowblade descent afterwards.
Stalactus W4
Caturgeas W5
600 meters of pure ice! We ticked all of it although it took us 15 hours! (and then 3 hours to get down). Quite a day out.
Chizarton W3
Initiation ice climb for James. He did very well. The finishing top is quite unpleasant.
Chizarton W3
Lots of fresh snow made the ice climbing less pure. Still a good initiation climb for Celine who did very well.
Version Originale W3
Climbed with Pete from the internet. Meeting him was a fun story. Hooked up prior to Facebook and all that - internet was more a forum for nerds (like me). We met at a bar in BourgdOissan and Pete was a travelling ice climber just like I was at my trips to Chamonix before I moved to Grenoble. So he was carrying _all_ his gear and was fairly random in general. After we had climbed he kept sticking to me and came to my flat at Valentines day walking up the stairs in ski boots. As I was courtisating Celine at the time (we had just met) I was a bit in a dilemma inviting him in. The dilemma was a lot of fun.
Sans Issue W5
Excellent route visible from the valley below. I found this dude who was keen to climb and it worked out nicely.
Le Voile du Chizarton W4
LG / 30m / top / 🍒
Self toproped because I'm such a sad lonely git down here in France. Excellent stuff though - did it four times for some proper forearm training. Selftoproping worked really well with the Petzl Traction. Ice conditions are *superb* this year.
Les Larmes du Chaos W4
Very atmospheric climb. Good bit of spin drift on the second pitch steep (85 degress) and quite remote.
La Grotte W3
Superb settings. Full sunshine perfect ice.
Pylone Left W4
Less ice than two weeks ago (more delicate) but colder (better ice).
Pylone Right W3
LG / 70m / sec /
First ice climb in LG. Excellent stuff.
Central Gully W3
My first proper iceclimb. Good stuff although a bit thin and delicate at places. Released a huge rock which thundered down the gully which was packed with 4-5 other teams. Not good! Nobody got hurt luckily.
Juvsojla, Rjukan W6
Straight 50m pillar. Need to train on wall before winter season for this to happen.
Lipton, Rjukan W7
The pinnacle of ice ambitions. Photo from season 2023.
Paraglider 🪂
11. Bovbjerg Fyr
Joined the yearly parafun meet. Awesome to be back in the air. Happy I hadn't forgotten. Brilliant to be back with the club.
10. Lindtorp
Just as I thought I was getting comfortable with it all Allan phone me up with a last chance before going back to Copenhagen to try towing. I said yes and got towed up to 300 meters height and then released my thingy and had a mad mad flight down to earth. It was absolutely mental and I was just screaming and giggling the whole way down. Awesome kick!
9. Toftum
Brilliant session with lots of top landing and take offs. Managed to stay from the beach the whole time and was generally pretty much comfortable with everything. Great fun.
8. Bovbjerg Fyr
Another great session at Bovbjerg. This time top starting and just enough wind to keep on hanging. It required care with the flying and I ended up on the beach a few times. Biggest tick was a couple of 100% self supported take-offs from a remoter spot and flying back to the others gaining height. Super satisfying.
7. Bovbjerg
Awesome session learning to beach start. Quite tricky and also a notch up on the danger scale. Really good fun though flying low over the sand dunes and taking off and landing constantly. Also went with Poul flying all over to the lighthouse which was a great trip.
6. Toftum
The tick is in the bag! Ever since the first session in Toftum this place remained number one on the ticklist. Great session feeling really in control all the time. The new school wing is really comfortable and launches and handles really smooth. Did 3 succesfull top landings and 2 beach landings. The wind picked up in the end making the last run a bit epic.
5. Hamborg
Fully self supported with Poul on the ground obviously. Had some crash landings which I learned a lot from. Landed with my bum on the top on the slope (controlled) and in a fence (not controled).
4. Venoe
4 runs at Venoe with last run unsupported. Sideways winds. Crossed brake launch.
3. Toftum
Ground control. Crossed brake launch in stronger wind. Hard work.
2. Bovbjerg
3 runs at Bovbjerg. Forward launch.
1. Toftum
Ground control. Crossed brake launch technique.
Dive 🤿
Ablaham
2 dives with Frits. 16m depth. Spotted Lobster and Large Crab. Kullen diving is as good as Kullen climbing: really mediocre. But it is close by.
Strandgade
OR / 1h / /
Photographing Jorns remaining propellar. And started cleaning Big Lady. With scuba gear this will work really well.
Tuborg Havn
Searching for Jorns propellar. Did not manage to find it.
Strandgade
First dive under my boat. Awesome experience. Found an empty safe. Really exciting dive.
Aakersberget
Taj Mahal Cenote
Tulamben
Tulamben
Tulamben
Tulamben
Deep dive
Lovina Beach
Night dive
Menjangan
Menjangan
Lovina Reef
Lovina Reef
Helsingor Wreck
First dive. Together with Jesper who had lined up all the gear from a local diving club. We practiced first at the shallow water at the beach and then took a dingy out and dived down to a small wreck in the middle of Oresund. Quite exiciting.
Caves 🪖
Hunters Hole
Excellent 3 in one trip. Read Axel's trip report.
Rhino Rift
Jingling Pot
Sell Gill Hole
Axels first visit to the Yorkshire caves
Hunters Hole
Axels first SRT trip
Swildons Hole
We got to the down climbs.
Goatchurh Cavern
Axel and Elias did the drainpipe.
Goatchurh Cavern
Bixhead Mine
Agen Allwedd
Excellent digging trip to dig 9. Also saw the Corkscrew Chamber which was found the day before.
Agen Allwedd
13 hours spankotronic. With John Stevens
Agen Allwedd
A visit to the digface in Grolsch Passage. Managed to make about 2 meters progress removing 22 trays of spoil. The whole passage is really impressive.
Agen Allwedd
Continuing the dig. Excellent burly trip. I enjoyed being at the sharp end much more this time. We've hit a boulder section.
Agen Allwedd
Digging trip towards Daren. Excellent team effort hard work but good fun. Digging is not for the claustrophic amongst us.
Maskhill Mine
Brilliant rig. World class. The subsequent connection was an ultra burly bit of caving. I was particularly traumatised by the gravel-stream squeeze that nearly caught me on the return. Next time I will remember to turn my head the right way. Good effort from Martin leading this bit and not drowning while reversing in the sump. Double black helmet.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Highlights: sucessfull use of heyphone wading through bonzai streamway pushing to Aquenos Choke. Exit series felt hard.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Two-nighter into Dweebland (the end of the cave so far). Excellent trip. Flawlessly executed. We let off two smoke bombs (one failed) at the end to see if there's a draught towards Aggen Allwed. There is. Get your crowbars out!
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Trip to the restaurant of the end of the universe
Scialet de la Chique
Fred's first rig in the Vercors unmedium. The pendulum was as festive as ever and worth noting is that we managed to get up that climb in the end (fairly committing) taking us all the way to the bottom.
Scialet de la Chique
Excellent cave - easy in all respects (rig and walkin). Martin regained his unfire with a steady lead to the bottom. All bolts overtightened subtracts a star good photoshooting and muddy fun adds it back.
Scialet du Pot de Loup
Nice trip with Paul which regained his interest in caving. A great easy cave.
Scialet du Pot 2
The Pot 2 attempt - Grosvenor style. Martin lead down to -80 meters. To be continued.
Scialet de Malaterre
Tried out my new caving radios which works extremely well on these long vertical pitches.
Scialet A2
Full on caving. Included a dangerous 25 meter pitch lead in Wellingtons with only a sling and my bolt kit (thank god for that) as protection. Fantastic cave - highly recommendable.
Scialet de Malaterre
Great initiation trip for the new speleo recruit. Messed up the logistics by forgetting one descender at the training wall back in the hut. We managed nevertheless and bottomed out the main shaft in style. Good effort from James it being his first real vertical cave.
Glaciere d'Autrans
Desperate. Approach was as hard as ever and the amount of ice in the cave was worrying, although on the same time ultra festive. Martin fired up an inspirational ice-stal-chopping session as we were stopped but an almost complete blockage of ice in the entrace tunnel. Reaching a depth of approximately 100 meters we eventually decided that this was a black helmet danger zone. Huge television sized blocks of broken off ice was scattered around the shaft, and after a quick statistic calculation on when the next bit of ice could be coming down, we decided to blow retreat horn and hurried out after exhaustive cold caving session.
Scialet des Joufflus
Excellent job to the bottom. The route finding to the last pitch is a bit tricky until you realize you have to gnarl your way through a hole in the roof (upwards) with the festive aid of a spit/stal sling. The squeeze to the beginning of the last pitch is not as bad as it looks - go in feet first and you can stand up half way (not imidiately obvious). Yoor!
Scialet des Joufflus
Really easy when you've already done it once (but not all the way to the deck). The approach was definitely the crux walking in thigh/waist deep snow to the cave. A festive day. Good effort from Andrew who hadn't caved for 10 years and was srt'ing on a rather made up and minimal rack.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Long trip with an overnight camp in the Hard Rock Cafe. The further speed trip to The Microns was a seriously burly piece of work. Good effort from Martin doing the car shuttle on foot both ways and for the amble lager refreshments in the Hard Rock Cafe and Royston for the very inspirering bit of cave leading in the Rock Steady Cruise.
Grotte de Bournilllon
VC / 2h / /
Went up to have a look. Couldn't resist. Went in. Normal way too wet so I opted for the highlevel dry fossil way which was much longer than I expected and with some pretty nasty (but polished and obvious) squezes. Good training but cave soloing doesn't feel very clever.
Trou du Diable
Solo with Celine at ground support (making tea).
Gaping Gill
Lateral Shaft. Superb rig avoiding most of the water of the main shaft. Mindblowing
Gaping Gill
Main Shaft. Wild decent. Although the water level was low we ended up right in the end waterfall which is serious stuff and very scary but excellent adrenalin fun at the same time. The tick is home!
Rowten Pot
Excellent sporty rig.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Fantastic trip. Made it to the Bonsai Streamway and back.
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
A job needed to be finished. We wanted to finish yesterdays objective of getting to Smiths Armery but the area was in flood now and we made it past the traverses into OFD3 and reached the roaring streamway which was fantastic to watch but a certain deathtrap to enter. Great trip
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
We did an unplanned round trip due to some tricky navigation in the Shambles. On one of the many tricky climbs Tom lobbed of and fell around three meters but luckily landed on his feet and not on one of the sharp boulders. He sprained his angle badly and we abandoned the trip and got out safely.
Grotte Gournier
Jesper's first caving experience. Another team was already in there which unfortunately took the edge of the scaryness factor and it was really plain sailing. Still enjoyable.
Grotte Gournier
As festive as caving gets. This huge and relatively easy cave is guarded by a big lake which we crossed in my new rubber dinghy. Seriously festive approach. Followed by a 6 meter steep climb directly from the mooring spot and then a 30 meter high leve traverse with some fairly serious exposure. Great cave.
Scialet de Pot de Loup
Good SRT initiation trip for David. We went down the 40 meter pitch and then up again. Got through most of the SRT curriculum including a helping hand from above once or twice. It was raining heavily the whole day but the cave stayed dry.
Trou de Glaz
Went back for a further exploration. Annabel announced her disgust of the un-rock but David is keen on more. This cave is massive. Over 50 kilometers of known passageway with numerous through trips under Dent de Crolles. The mountain is basically completely hollow and will be the focus of activity in the near future. As with all Grenoblois speleoaction it requires a fully equipped SRT team to explore.
Trou de Glaz
Walked up the Dent de Crolles. Nipped in to a huge cavity with our c-rack. Massive draft coming out of the cave. Will be back for further exploration.
Scialet de Pot de Loup
Absolutely superb SRT trip. Beautiful lines and an amazing 40m drop from an overhanging speleothem. Easy and highly recommendable. Approach - 8 seconds from the car.
Glaciere d'Autrans
Long day out. 13 hours including the walk. We got back to Grenoble at 4am in the morning.
Trou de Diable
Beautiful walk-in - quite long. Descended amazing looking shaft (140 meters straight!). 10 meter down bolt ripped. Mission aborted. Glad to be alive.
Scialet des Joufflus
Beautiful cave - lots of little lakes and excellent formations. Perfect rig as well.
Glaciere de Carri
Desperate trip. Got back up to the surface at 12'o'clock at night after a long day in the darkness. Our friends in Grenoble was getting well worried and had started phoning the local police etc. Luckily they sensibly held back any rescue attempts as we were perfectly fine. Glaciere de Scary!
Scialet de Fee Anglaise
Excellent cave ends in a big lake which goes of in the distance. Next time we'll bring a boat and explore further. This time we both put the double amount of clothes on and was relatively warm.
Scialet de Malaterre
Massive cave shaft - starts with a 120 meter (360ft) drop of a bridge - straight down in to the void. Desperate trip - quite wet and extremely cold.
Manor Farm Swallet
I decided to postpone the UK underground retirement for one more trip - I couldn't say no to a trip down Manor Farm with DG and MB. I wasn't disappointed. Dave now goes under the nickname 'Mr. President' (president for the HPCC) and I had the great pleasure of pushing through some really dodgy loose bouldery bits in the far end which was rewarded with a huge chamber which almost certainly had some further continuation. Dave and Martin unfortunately didn't reach this glorious chamber as they reckoned the boulder bits were too unstable.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Did it! RR went with us for 10 meters and then decided to back out after a worm attacked her in the entrance. We'd seriously misproportioned the whole cave - the entrance crawl and chambers beyond was much bigger than expected. We forgot the map which ment we couldn't make it further than the Great Chamber
Thrupe Lane Swallet
Did the full through trip. A great evening out with TW and DG - possible the last for a long time now that Fred is going back to Denmark and Mathias is going bigger voids in Grenoble.
Goatchurch Cavern
Brilliant trip. Laerke's first ever caving trip and she was so on for it that we decided to do the full Goaty - into the letterbox and back. It's f*cking scary in there - sort of smells of evil and it was a stupendious effort from the girls.
Fairy/Hillier's Cave
The Rhoades sisters had an unsettled bill in the sump of this fine system. We went all the way through Cambridge Grotto to the Red Room. Good to be back. A photo from this trip was subsequently used in a caving instruction book.
Ogof y Daren Cilau
Oh baby! This hole had been on the ticklist for quite some time and still is! We had to turn back approx 350 meters in through the 530m crawl that guards the cave. RR had some bad equipment and was freezing and we decided to go back before it would be too late. I have the feeling we will be back - soon.
GB Cavern
Fine trip. Dave pointed out a number of challenges which we should attempt soon.
Sidcot's Swallet
We got as far as the 'very narrow tube' and despite Mathias' attempt of squeezing through in underpants only there was no way it would go. Good trip.
Goatchurch Cavern
Our sister Henriette went to Bristol to figure out why her brothers like caving. She didn't find the answer but found out she is definitely not desperate to get underground again. Instead we went on an epic trip on the narrowboat
Bull Pot
A hidden gem. Excellent rig. The line is just pure beauty.
Hurnel Moss Pot
Long walk. Long rig. Well worth it. FW rigged the hole thing.
Alum Pot
Such an amazing hole in the ground. It was raining and there was quite a bit of water.
Eastwater Cavern
Great little Saturday afternoon adventure. It was/had been raining a reasonable amount and there was a sizable stream entering the cave. We managed to do a nice round trip
Thrupe Lane Swallet
Excellent trip. Did a 'double' abseil simultaneously next to each other and swapped over in the bottom
Shatter Cave
Very pretty cave in the Fairy Quarry. It's normally locked so you need an official guide for this stuff. Impressive formations
Thrupe Lane Swallet
We did the Latheral Aven pitch. But we missed our honoured caving mentor DG Grosvenor who unfortunately had other obligations this Friday evening
Thrupe Lane Swallet
The second big SRT trip after Rhino Rift to do in the MD. We did it in three pitches - excellent stuff. We will be back soon to do the big 200ft single pitch
Fairy/Hillier's Cave
A job needed to be done and TW and I went in to finish the Fairy Cave business. We reached the 'Red Room' which is in the connected Hilliers Cave and is the furtherst reach of the system. Quite an amazing system and very well worth it. Recommendable
Fairy Quarry Cave
Not an ideal trip. I forgot to stock up on carbide and didn't have a lot of juice in the batteries. So we went in as far as the duck and probably partly because I was nervous about the lights Mikkel didn't fancy the duck and we blew retreat and went out. Shame because I would have liked to show Mikkel the Red Room.
Lionels Hole
Awesome trip. We did the round trip which has some extremely challenging routefinding speically on the return. We were very pleased to get out
GB Cavern
Great evening out in the MD. GB has some really awesome formations and some quite entertaining squeezes
Swildons Hole
We were back to complete the round trip that we had attempted with Peter three entries down. This time the mud sump that we had rushed through was filled to the roof with water and after an hour or more of pumping water with no noticeable effect we went to explore the Black Hole Series instead. This ended when we arrived at a 40 foot pitch. Good day out. We were both exhausted
Rhino Rift
We got a hold of the key yet again. Tim rigged and I de-rigged
Fairy Quarry Cave
We went in with Dave Grosvenor on a good trip in to the wonders of Fairy Cave. A surprisingly muddy experience. Some good technical obstacles to keep the wriggling techniques uptodate. A Grosvenor Special.
Swildons Hole
An excellent trip! We went into the St. Poul Grotto Series which included some very low crawls and passing a mud sump. Peter did well in this -not- a beginners section of the cave. We didn't manage the through trip though since Peter started having more than enough. We didn't realize that this actually was our probably one and only chance of ticking this sought after Swildons collectors piece. Bummer!
Swildons Hole
Good Trip. Theresa and Rene both did Sump 1 in freezing cold water and in a very uninviting condition. Rene even managed to become a 'Son of The Mendips' as she fell into one of the pools twice.
Swildons Hole
I took Lars and Helene down Swildons Hole for a grand caving trip. Unfortunately the mission was aborted shortly after entering the cave due to too much 'noia'
Goatchurch Cavern
After the failed attempt in Swildons we went for the Goatchurch instead - objective: to go through the drainpipe. We got to it after some persuasion but that was as far as the party wanted to go. Drainpipe 2 - Lars Klammer 0
St. Cuthberts Swallet
The yearly 'Insult DG' trip was as festive as ever. Sparrow treated us with several muddy squeezes and a good selection of pretty formations
Simpson's Pot
Tried a 'canyoning rappel' technique for the abseils. Worked okay but figures of eights and doubling the rope is preferable
Manor Farm Swallet
A bit of a project. Check out the Trip Note with a little drawing
Goatchurch Cavern
We finally managed to get all the way in to the 'letterbox' - the furthest end of the classic cave. The letterbox is an extremely tight squeeze section very awkward specially on the return
Cueva Miso Ha
Mathias negotiated a tricky entrance to a cave with a waterfall coming out of it. Ended in some muddy dig business
Cueva Xtacumbilxun
Some interesting exploration but we didn't go down the main shaft where it looked really interesting. No SRT kit. Very visited
Rio Frio Cave
Huge short cave. Explored some galleries but no interesting passages
St. Herman's Cave
Through-trip Big cave little technical side passages. Very visited
Poptun
Big tube with mud and good formations second level round trip with somewhat technical climbing and crawling. Long. Very visited
Lanquin
Big chambers bats spiders lake with potential river lots of potential side passages one easy squeeze. Total virgin experience. Only very few traces of humans. Unique. FW managed to catch the 'Bat Disease' or Histoplasmosis as it is apparently called - pretty nasty lasted for weeks but he survived. Only he nows sleeps hanging from the ceiling
Lanquin
Psycedelic praying with candles etc. reentry with smoke and strange sounds. Photos
Gaping Ghyll
Bar Pot. Possible my best caving trip so far. Interesting SRT'ing good deal of route finding and a long section of tunnels. All rewarded with the inconceivable main chamber of Gaping Ghyll. Photos
Alum Pot
What a cave! Massive 60 meter free abseil down the amazing shaft
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
Excellent through trip. Hard. Wet. Had to swim several times. Massive cave system
Goatchurch Cavern
Katerina did the Drain pipe. Well done. Photo
Hunter's Hole
Practicing SRT for our Gaping Ghyll project
Gaping Ghyll
Dihetheral Way. Too wet too scary. We will be back. Photo
Sell Gill holes
Wet Entrance. My first rig - brilliant stuff. See map . And here are a few good photos
Sell Gill holes
Dry Entrance. Good SRT practice. See map
Jingling Pot
Main Shaft. 50m down. 50m up. 6 dead rabbits in the bottom. See map
Simpson's Pot
Simpsons Pot to Kingsdale valley entrance. Excellent through trip featuring a spectacular 25m abseil. Photo
Clearwater Mine
Ancient Iron Mine. Bow to the Ham
Swildons Hole
Very wet conditions
Goatchurch Cavern
The guys had visited me all the way from Denmark to see Bristol Rovers play against Oldham Saturday the 21th of February. Having arrived already Thursday night we were looking for something to do Friday. With Keld and Frede Firsttimer
St. Cuthberts Swallet
An extremely beautiful cave. With Andy Sparrow
Swildons Hole
Jakob did the sump 1 of Swildons. On sight. Photos
Goatchurch Cavern
Started caving at 11pm!
Otter Hole
The entrance of Otter Hole has an exiting feature. The river Wye is tidal so the entrance is only open an hour or two during low tide. When the water comes in the entrance (and exit!) closes for about 10 hours which means that once we enter we are comitted for the whole day.
Goatchurch Cavern
Entertaining trip. Went all the way past the Drainpipe and up in the letterbox.
Sidcots Swallet
Goatchurch Cavern
Our first cave ever. Excellent trip. Photo
Swildons Hole
Black Shiver, Yorkshire
Dangerous SRT.
Snow and Run 🏂 👟
Limone
Repeat ski rando now with Uffe. Great day out and more fun being two! We had to quiche on the steep last bit - it was too icy and without ski crampons there was no grip.
Limone
BO / / solo /
Good walk up to Fort Central. Did a steep uphil zigzag at the end. Quite gnarly without crampons. Must get some.
Artesina
Absolutely brilliant and exciting ski rando. New equipment worked perfectly and my skills on skis in steep powder was satisfying. Amazing full day out. Epic return through the valley.
Artesina
BO / / / 🍒🌤
7 days of skiing and snowboarding with the UVR team. The conditions were perfect with massive snowfall prior to 4 days of perfect sunshine and deep powder. Artesina is a brilliant resort. Maybe my favorite.
Chamonix
5 days of skiing and snowboarding in Cham. Stayed at the Chamoniard Volant like I did first time i 1995.
SLMM 35K
Wonderful to be back in England running with Celine.
Chamonix
CH / / solo / 🌤
Bitihorn
Winter ascent of the main feature of Beitostoelen
Chamonix
CH / / solo / 🌤
Got the randonee skis out and revisited the Grande Jorasse basin where Fred and I had been 7 years ago. Went up to Refuge Lascaux (2450m) and headed back. Brilliant trip. 6 hours
La Grave
LG / / solo / 🌤
Definitely the last run of the season. Lovely day, lots of sunshine but quite desperate snow conditions. I was almost caught in the biggest avalanche I have ever seen - I was completely alone on the whole Vallon side just catching my breath right under La Meije. I hear a crraaaackk, look up and boy oh boy oh boy, the whole serac fall is coming down. Absolutely mind-blowing to watch. It was just getting bigger and bigger in classic avalanche style - you know, developing this huge cloud of snow thundering down toward the valley floor right where I was standing. I waited a few second admiring the spectacle and then I was okay, that actually looks like a bad job and I started the engines and got further away while I could. I stopped some 500 meters further down and looked up again. Like some big disgusting animal the avalanche ate its way down the face and 30 seconds or so later engulfed the place where I had been in cloud and debris. Eventually it reached where I now was but was now a mere wind of snow. Absolutely fantastic to see. All other stuff was very avalanchy as well, but nothing as major as that baby. If only I'd brought my camera. I switched to my skiis midday but changed back to the gun after one desperate run.
La Grave
LG / / solo /
Brilliant day. Worked on trying to jump the big serac thing on the left of the drag lift in the top. It's a massive drop and the landing is not very steep so you really gotta go for it all the way. I was there a couple of times but didn't do it. Even Tigers has limits. :-) - I successfully did my usual cliff jump on the left of the telepherique which is always amazingly adreanline pumpy.
La Grave
LG / / solo /
Woke up. Looked at the webcam. Looked good. Headed off. Scrounged my way to a free lift ride. Conditions was pretty desperate actually. Fresh snow but very cold and the base was rock solid (not good for the big air landings). Also the avalance risk was quite obvious very high and I was glad to reach the bottom in one piece
La Grave
Superb day. Excellent big air jumps and some really pumping carving. Absolutely shagged afterwards also partly because of heavy drinking at the previous night with Martin, Christian Holst and forty bottles of bottles of Christians vodka
La Grave
Gnarled around a bit to figure out what the best descend would be with the access to P2 being unskiable. Perfect weather and only few people
Sherre Chevalier
Plenty of untouched snow, but weather a bit unstable. Good fun
Derby de La Meije
LG / / solo / 💪💯🍒
Yearly off piste race of festive proportions. Came in 84th in the my category - time 12m33s
La Grave
Steep aaaaand deep. Did my favourite left side (facing the mountain) exclusively. Lot of queing in the lift unfortunately
Alpe Duez
Did some excellent cliff jumps. Visibility was poor but due to heavy snowfall
Courchevel
Despite quite crazy conditions (fluffy snow, sun, fog, snowstorm, rain, slush - all in a day) we managed to get some good stuff done. Good jumps.
La Grave
David and Annabel joined me for the evening and we had a good day skiing/boarding. Still plenty of deep snow
La Grave
It had snowed a lot the previous day and we arrived to a perfect morning. Perfect snow, lots of it, no people
La Grave
LG / / solo /
Ice climbed Saturday and it then snowed 30cm during the night and Sunday was a real treat on the gun. Excellent cornice surfing on the Vallons side. I think I've found my favourite line in La Grave. If only the lift didn't close so early (4pm). I was the third one down the slope in the morning though!
Chamonix
CH / / /
Still powder left from the day before and an excellent snowdepth, soft and perfect for trying some festive jumps.
Sept Laux
It had snowed in the morning, and the bastards closed the top bit (avalance danger) so I was confined to the piste. :-(
Sept Laux
GR / / solo /
First time in the local ski resort. Good potential
La Grave
LG / / /
Only fresh powder on the very top section - really good stuff. The lower parts was icy and tricky on the Powder Gun
La Grave
LG / / solo /
Bought a Swell Panik Magistral board and had the most amazing day in La Grave. 10-20cm of fresh powder under clear blue sky.
Alpe Duez
It changed from rain to snow mid day. We should have stayed one more day
Alpe Duez
Highlight of the day was the lunch in the Marmotte Restaurant
Alpe Duez
Spend the New Year break in Alpe D'huez the closest big resort to my new home in Grenoble
Double Wye Valley 38K
Tim did a "Double Wye Valley run" today - I was climbing, but I thought this should be noted. Double! If the normal round wasn't hard enough, but doing it it twice - pfeww. Well done Tim.
Molboloebet 10K
WV / 1h12m / /
Anders Soft ground. No frost. Lots of branches. Danish Orienteering. Great fun. 18 posts. At each post one had to answer a question which is then part of the score.
Furesoeen Rundt 22K
Soft ground. No frost. Perfect. Excellent run. All systems were running fine.
La Grave
A week to check out the powder in Chamonix and La Grave. Great trip together with the skiers Jesper Ritzau and Lars Klammer. No trip report. No photos. But we have a fully edited movie (9 MB!)
Wye Valley 19K
WV / 2h09m / solo /
Agony. I thought it would never go. If I want to get the sub2 again I need to rethink be current diet of beer and crisps. Still - I was going allright from the field to Tutshill, so I was quite pleased with the time.
KIMM 37K
We came in 68 of 197 teams in the C class. 69 of these retired after the first day - 128 completed. (2.200m of ascent)
Wye Valley 19K
WV / 2h25m / solo /
Tried to use ski poles. Disaster. It screwed up my rythm and I struggled all the way through! Ok, I hadn't really had any thing to eat, so I was quite low on energy, but - my ski pole theory has proven wrong.
Brecon Beacons 32K
Superb Half of it was fun. Half of it was a running mare. Absolute savagery. Constant horizontal rain all the way through.
Semi Wye Valley 10K
Good training.
Cotswold Race 18K
CW / 1h33m / solo / 🌤
Complete torture. No problems in legs but the lungs and overall stamina was suffering seriously from the extreme heat. I came in 15th. It was not pleasant. Ridiculously hot (25+ degrees). Worst conditions I have ever run in.
Cotswold Leg 5 (recce) 18K
Calves killing me, otherwise the run was great. We were chased by a flock of cows at some stage.
Cotswold Leg 3 (recce) 16K
Got lost once. Picked up the track again after some skillful map reading.
Wye Valley 19K
WV / 1h50m47s / solo / 🍒💪
Up until the top of Wyndcliffe my left calf was in absolute agony, but then it started loosening up after that. Boy was I glad when I ran across the bridge in Chepstow. New record for The Run which I am sure will not stand long
Wye Valley 19K
We were supposed to have been 6 people going but the other potential participants seemed to have lost their attitude. Still, Linsey and I went and it was as always a fine Valley experience.
Wye Valley 19K
Perfect! The seasons first after work run. It looked like it was going to be a mean run, but after reaching the otter hole car park things seemed to just go really smoothly and no pain in the knees which is great.
HP Extended Valley 12K
Beautiful. I have started running more frequently and on less savage terrain. All systems are working fine. No problems with knees or anything. So I guess I just need to go easy on the actual fell runs.
Furesoeen Rundt 18K
Changed to my old more bouncy shoes. I think it helped a bit on my knee, though it still hurt quite a lot. Specially afterwards. Good trip though - but less hilly than I had hoped. Denmark just is flat as a pancake.
Wye Valley 19K
WV / 2h43m / /
Right knee really painful. Maybe it is my beloved Walsh shoes which are a bit too hardcore after all.
SLMM 35K
Great conditions. Misty, wet and not too windy. Right knee hurting. After five hours I twist my ankle badly and we decide to retire and manage to arrive at the midway campsite after an additional 3 hours struggle. Read the full story.
Cotswold Relay 16K
Team 62 Ideal conditions. Muddy as hell and sun and showers during the run. Despite the fact that my shoes are crap it went okay. I came in 19th of 45 participants. Tim, who ran the leg as well came in 10th, three minuttes before me. Excellent fun. Right knee hurting quite a bit otherwise okay.
Cotswold Recce 16K
Practice Run for the race on Saturday
Wye Valley 19K
Worst ever: Hot. Humid. Muddy and slippery. I lead. Tim runs with Claire. Totally exhausted hardest run yet. No blisters. Picked up Claire in Tintern.
Wye Valley 19K
After work run. I left the field after Devils Pulpit and was alone until the last road section near Chepstow. Fine conditions. Big bloody blister on left toe.
Wye Valley 19K
Muddy. Wet ground. Snow. Good. Good Run - very wet, otherwise good conditions. Snowed on the higher grounds. Blister
Wye Valley 19K
First time - twisted my ankle a bit
Col de Palet
GR / 4h / solo / 💀
Did the Col de Palet to Champagny run (alone!). A bit irresponsible in retrospect. Desperate on a snowboard
Chamonix
We only had three days as the following days was ear marked for Christmas purposes. There where a lot of nice offpiste riding
Chamonix
CH / / solo /
Spent two months in Chamonix, one week in Serre Chevalier (and La Grave) and one week in Val d'Isere. The off piste conditions in Val d'Isere was unbelievably good.
La Grave
First time in La Grave with Lars. What a place.
Beitostoelen
Skiing with family
Beitostoelen
Skiing with family
Via Ferrata 🔗
Limone Via Ferrata VF
BO / 200m / solo / 🌤💪
Lack of partners I ventured into the high alps for this ViaF. Plenty of doubts along the way, but at the end I gave it a try and quiched one third of the way. Mainly due to uncertainty of the conditions of the descent; in particular if it would be snowy/icy, in which case I would be severely screwed. Also I didn't bring any sunscreen or water which was a bad. I will be back.
Liaucous VF
It was so good we had to do it twice. Next time we need pullies for the final zip line.
Liaucous VF
Excellent Via Ferrata in Gorges du Tarn
Bastille VF
Axel on the Grenoble via ferata. 9 years old. At the limit. The yoor made it happen.
Bastille VF
Lunch time climb. With skateboard.
Off Road 🚴 🚙
Boves ED
Great trip with an additional two rented e-mtbs.
Jordan Valley
Hunting trip with off road vehicle. Drove all day in savage terrain, never spotting other than deer. We had tags to shoot an Elk, which we did not find.
Shafer Trail
MO / 72k / solo / 🍒🔥💯
At the spur of the moment, I decided to drive off-road back to Moab from Dead Horse Point. A bit late in the day with only 2 hours light left it was a bit touch and go. Totally wild drive and incredible nature experience.
Limone ED
Excellent trip into the mountains with Emil and the e-MTB's. We ended up on the top of Limone and had a lot of fun ridin the (empty) resort slopes down.
Roervig
SJ / 6h / solo /
Tried with Scotty first but he is yet too unsettled for longer trips. Went to Hundested, ferry to Roervig and then trailed the beautiful landscape down to Holbaek and back home. Excellent space on the roads, not much traffic.
Roedvig
SJ / 5h / solo /
Hornsherred
Excellent trip with Allan and his new bike.
Oroe Round
Excellent motorcycle trip with Axel. Cold but sunny. We visited a local animal park at the island which was brilliant. The talking and laughing parrot Cookie was a highlight.
Biscali ED
BO / 3h / solo / 🍒💯🔥
Crazy E-MTB ride. Went up the mountain with vague idea of the area. I had spotted smoke in the distance and also firefigthers while driving up in the car. My round trip was committed in the mountain landscape (at some point I could not return back the way I came) and I had to go straight through a full blown forest fire with fire on both sides and embers on the path (!) and to top it up, helicopters and planes above throwing water down. I luckily hit a short window where they were not throwing water down but it was all super intense and quite dangerous. I was most nervous about puncturing the tires on the hot embers as I would be very screwed in that case (with a heavy e-mtb). All went well and I ended up with an eventfull tick in the bag.
Geels Skov
Major crash while doing a major gap. Bent a few ribs.
Fossil Rock
Mad 4x4 wheel drive in the desert. Camped mid-way and struggled to get out the day after as the wind has removed all tracks and we were completely left on our own to find our way (I had a guidebook). True epic.
Garden Valley
ATV drive on the back trails of Idaho. Ended in a real epic with a crash and one of the ATVs going over the side of the mountain road and tumbled several hundreds of meters down the steep forested mountain side. Glad to be alive. We spent hours hoisting the atv back to the trail, totalled. Close call.
Black Mountains
Hardcore uphill. Fun downhill.
Blocs 👊
Liten og Full f6b
GB / 8m / solo /
Ockero
SS Sloper f6c+
Marie Rose f6c
Great trip to FB with the Danish climbing mates. Ended up camping in the forest on a piece of cardboard. I love FB.
To Gode Juggar 6b
Mr Magnet 6b
Hajfinna 6b
Several Problems f6c
Awesome week in FB with 3 families. Should get a camper van for this sort of tripping.
Vaxelstrom f6c
GB / 8m / solo /
Langle Ben f6c
Cool to be in FB with JG and the Danes. JG is an excellent guide to FB.
Lots of blocs f6a
Surf 🏄 ⛵
Sealand Round
20 days of sailing around sealand. Enough epics to fill a trip report.
Mathias Anchorage
Afternoon outing with 8 young guys and two young girls. Swimming from the boat out at an achorage/buoye I have found next to Trekroner.
Charlottenlund
Evening trip to bonfire anchorage. Return solo around midnight. All night systems worked beautifully.
Trekroner
OR / 6h / family /
Fourth trip. Family outing. Ferrying 30 people from Amerikakaj to Trekroner. All systems worked well. Fuel consumption seems to be very reasonable. Brilliant day out.
Svanemollebugten
OR / 20h / solo / 🍒
Third trip. Well prepared this time. Exciting to leave single handed. All worked well and anchored up for the night. Home day after in the afternoon.
Svanemollebugten
Second trip. Great weather. Exit of canal a bit gnarly but apart from that all went perfectly smooth. Anchored up which also worked great.
Trekroner
A major tick! Went out with Big Lady on a succesfull out and back with plenty of maneuvering and technicalitites with the huge boat. Couldn't have wished for a more perfect mayden voyage sharing it with my forever partner in crime. Yoor! I am now introducing a "Medal" icon ๐ - this indicates one of those transformative experiences that happens every 10 years. An experience that opens up new chapters. This was one. And there are a few more down below in the log.
Furesoeen
Brilliant ice sailing with Knudsen. Perfect conditions. Amazing speed and delicate control. Yoor!
Rungsted
Superb down winder in beefy wind and full sails all the way.
Skovshoved
OR / / solo /
Finally a perfect wind from Christianshavn to Skovshoved.
Christianshavn
OR / / solo /
Lasercamp
Excellent day of sailing and racing in Knudsens Laserjoller
Skovshoved
OR / / solo / 🌬
Returning the boat to Rungsted. Beefy wind. Had to make an emergency stop in a harbour on the way for sail only (engine failure) which went really well.
Christianshavn
Moving the boat to ChrHavn for the kids to stay in the center. Excellent concept.
Soenderborg-Aabenraa
3rd leg.
Denmark-Soenderborg
2nd leg.
Kiel-Denmark
Start of weeks sailing with 3 rental boats.
Rungsted
Returning the boat from ChrHavn. No wind, engine throttle cable broke half way. Managed to rig a temporary solution with string and pulleys to make it all the way back. Exciting trip.
Landerslev
Brinks Byoye
OR / / solo / 🍒
Glass flat water but with a light breeze. Moored up at Brincks boye and swam in to shore for a beer. Daren drum useful for keeping the towel and clothes dry on the swim. Brilliant.
Ven Singlehand
OR / / solo /
Ven Nord
Excellent trip. A few dramas. Engine stop on the way into harbour. Nearly struck by lightning in the night.
Moen
Nice to get out. Dad and Fred on shore admirering my shenanigans.
Ockero to Malmo
Transport of Spooky from Ockero to Malmo. One long stretch. Extreme. Most of it in pitch black darkness. Cold.
Lynaes kite
Nice session with Soeren
Oxford Canal
Lynaes
Morning session
Landerslev
SJ / 2h / /
Seesion with Michael Lasso. He subsequently got hooked, bought the gear, got injured, stopped.
Landerslev
Bovbjerg
Kitesnow Excercise
JL / 1h / solo /
Ice kite
Mental. On skiis. Max speed 61km/h.
Struer
JL / 1h / solo / 🍒💯
Snow kite - awesome
Cold Hawaii
JL / 2h / solo / 💪💯🍒
At last I felt ready to go to the north sea. Amazing ride.
Klovvig
JL / 2h / solo / 🍒
Superb and brilliant flat water spot discovered
Ejsing
JL / 1h / solo / 🍒
Excellent afternoon session. Super cold and powerfull wind. Need warmer gloves.
Wave session
JL / 2h / solo / 🍒
Ejsing
JL / 2h / solo / 🍒
Excellent kitesurfing session
Ejsing
JL / 2h / solo /
Quikcy
JL / 1h / solo /
Off shore
JL / 1h / solo / 💀
In the search for pancake flat water I went out in pure off shore wind at a place where the water gets deep quickly and in really cold water (only just finished April). Eventually I fell over and could get the kite back up in time before the water was getting me really cold. I decided to quickly emergency release the kite (which wasn't trivial) and swim to shore. The kite took off on its own on the water. I drove to the nearest harbour and chartered a boat to go out and rescue the kite. Quite an epic afternoon.
Lundoe
JL / 1h / solo /
Ejsing
JL / 1h / solo / 🍒
16m2 kite. Old school
Ejsing
JL / 3h / solo /
Although the wind was fading, we had some good practice with the 12 and 16m2
Ejsing
JL / 1h / /
Teaching Brice how to kitesurf
Ejsing
JL / 1h / solo /
Kitesurfing course. Essential.
Sealand Round
Sealand Round
Bath Narrowboat
Possibly the maddest trip ever. In a sport that if not often associated with adrenalinus maximus
Ven Camp
Wild trip in kayaks to Ven in the middle of winter. Done as part of preparing for the 1998 Raid Gauloises.
Furesoen
SJ / 1h / solo /
Learned to windsurf locally in Holte.