A very strange year

 I know its not quite over yet, and that I didn't finish my last post (on long term to do list) but I just felt compelled to say its been an odd one. (That is about to get even odder).

Gwen crushing moroccan limestone

It started with a very odd conditions winter that led to lots of pleasant but quite frustrating tea drinking in Inverness. There was then the Morrocco adventure (misadventure?), which included a grim week of sickness (that lingered on long after the trip), getting caught out in a lightening storm/flash flood and various logistical obstacles. Shortly after was the alps trip which involved roaming obscure parts of the alps, sleeping in bushes trying to avoid the rain/ landowners. Then was a series of work trips. I don't think I have been on a work trip before. 2 weeks in Copenhagen and a less glamorous 3 weeks in Birmingham, trying to give an intelligent and switched on impression whilst still reeling from possibly still the morroccan sickness.

Copenhagen has alot of friendly statues 'It was this big'

And some less friendly ones

Copenhagen biocentre - a tad nicer architecture than Brambell

Posing for a photo in Birmingham, trying to not make it look posed....

Recently it had all calmed down and got more normal. Work and wall sessions were back on the menu. Obsessivly watching the apprentice, mornings eating banana pancakes. Wondering when it will start to snow and where my crampons are. I started to calm down after the frantic summer and feel like myself again. And instead of enjoying this normality for a little longer I decided to volunteer to go and help fight ebola (as a lab tech), as I didn't really feel like I had a good excuse not to. And I feel priviledged that I am in a position where I have skills that may be of use. So life has got a bit stranger and significantly more challenging again, no family Christmas and no climbing for 6 weeks again. The application/vetting process has been so full on for the past two weeks its left me little time to think about actually going. But now sat in a hotel on a course at Porton Down (no aliens yet) the reality is starting to sink in. I hope I will be ok.

Schweiz Plaisir Episode 2: 'Adoption'

After the complications of the first few days, we were due some good luck and this came in the form of good weather and being adopted by the chief of the local swiss alpine club branch.

More animals on the walk in. This time a pregnant mule? Is that possible? Does anyone know?

We slogged enormous rucksacks up to Bollenwees, recommended by the helpful lady in the climbing shop, hoping for a place we could camp for a few days. It became apparent this is a very popular area for swiss climbers and walkers and quite farmy, good for admiring pristine cows and walking on manicured tracks...bad for finding wild camping spots. We were not allowed to camp in front of the huge deluxe 'hut' (if it can be called that?) and it was getting dark. Stumbling further uphill in the twilight we came across a small SAC hut, abandoned as it was a weekday surrounded by a walled in flat area.

The perfect spot. We immediately dumped bags and tipped out the contents and started putting up the tent. Suddenly a light came on and there was someone shuffling around. "Quick, quick lets go!", the swiss are not renowned for their tolerance to rule breaking and we started frantically packing with probably more panic than was necessary. "Really really sorry, we are english!" (Our standard excuse for everything) and we thought there was no one here and we thought we were allowed to camp in people's gardens etc etc....

"No don't go! I love everybody who is coming into the mountains!"

"We are so sorry, we will go immediately....oh you don't mind"

"Would you like tea? Water? Chocolate?"

Once again, we had aquired a guardian angel, this time in the form of Andreas Seeger, head of the local SAC and up in the hut by himself doing some DIY. He had walked from the valley with his pots of paint and brushes.

Middle Earth. Bollenwees. The lake was freezing.

Guardian angel sorted, we could finally think about (and do) some climbing.

Schweiz Plaisir: Episode 1

 Having conquered (?) Chamonix a couple of summers ago, me and Clare were back to conquer the Dolomites, although things didn't quite go to plan (storms and bladder infections and the like) and we ended up exploring some obscure parts of Switzerland......

'You are on holiday? In St Gallen?' 'You are camping?' The incredulous tone suggested that the tourist information in St Gallen was not so used to dealing with tourists, particularly british climbing bums. Logistics were going to be a problem, we didn't have a road map let alone a guidebook and good wild camping spots seemed few and far between. Undeterred (or a bit deterred, but having a lack of other options) we eventually got pointed in the direction of the climbing wall which proved to be a crucial hub of information, guidebooks, showers, wifi and my new favourite drink Ovalmaltine. It was also the most beautiful and massive climbing wall I have ever seen, so perhaps we could just spend our whole holiday here?

Clare uses her reach in St Gallen - drinking water logistics not a problem in Switzerland

Breakfast at the crag!

Armed with our newly purchased guides (turns out there is a fair bit of climbing about, phew!), we headed up to Ascher for the afternoon. For a little known crag, Ascher is pretty Ceuse-like, requiring a fairly hefty walk-in but is a big long crag with lots a sectors and some great views. The remarkable thing about this crag though was the abundance of farm animals. It was like climbing in a petting zoo (no bad thing). A miniture horse, a chalet full of rabbits and a flock of very pristine looking sheep with a handsome and slightly threatening male sheep looking after them.

We unambitiously tried the easiest route on the crag and just about succeeded before thunderstorms descended.

I thought I'd start blogging again

Well this blog has suffered from a rather large break while I had a blogging crisis. This is perhaps not suprising as I am often too disorganised to wash my underwear before I run out, let alone blog about it. I prefer to believe this is because I try and pack rather alot in and not the result of a major character flaw.

But now I have succeeded in thoroughly overuse injuring myself I might give it another go as a rehabilitation activity. I also found it really good to look back over previous posts and remember things that I otherwise would have definitely forgotten. I think this may particularly come in handy when I am 80 and senile and want to revel in past glories but can't remember them. Blogging also seems to be a fabulous procrastination activity for when one should be producing a groundbreaking bit of PhD research.... it will also no doubt be a great tool for developing my writing skills in preparation for writing a thesis (does that sound convincing?).....

Cow print rock tape. Yeah!