Approach shoes review - The North Face Women's Hedgehog GTX XCR III Trainers

Recently I have had the pleasure of testing out a pair of approach shoes thanks to http://www.outdoorkit.co.uk/ I have been testing The North Face women’s Hedgehog approach shoes. I always love getting some new outdoor gear (have a look at outdoorkit.co.uk – they’ve got tons of the stuff!) and I needed some new approach shoes! If you have read my blog you will see that I have done a fair amount of climbing in the last year, which has also meant a lot of walking to the crag! I went through 2 pairs of cheap approach shoes which I totally wrecked so I thought it would be a good idea to try some high quality ones for once! So if you’re also looking for some high quality approach shoes I can recommend these.

I have worn them to a number of different crags over the past few weeks, on the slippery limestone of Malham catwalk, a couple of local gritstone crags and also just for walking about on the moors and also in urban areas. I found the soles had a good grip on rock and also on rough ground.

One of my favourite aspects of the shoe is that they very quickly became super comfortable. I have rarely worn a pair of shoes as comfortable as these. The heel has extra cushioning so even for the longest walk ins your feet will be ready for climbing. They are handy for long multi-pitch as they only weigh 620g, and  at that weight you might as well bring them up on single pitch routes! The shoes are also great for cragging, and just general walking about. They come in a wide variety of colours. You can have a look here at all the different colours http://www.outdoorkit.co.uk/product.php?product_id=8378.

One of the other good aspects of the shoes is that they’re breathable. When wearing shoes for a long time for long steep walk ins, its quite likely that your feet get pretty hot and sweaty, if they are anything like mine. The Hedgehogs have a breathable membrane which is ideal if you don’t want to be changing your socks during the day!

So all in all I think they are a great shoe. Oh and did I say I think they look rather cool too!

If you fancy getting some here’s a link! http://www.outdoorkit.co.uk/product.php?product_id=8378

falling, pulling on quickdraws, clipsticking, backing off… it’s all good fun

Hello I’m going to apologise in advance if this blog seems a bit depressing or negative. Recently I have had quite a few failures and been not super motivated but I will try to see positives from lack of productivity and success.

Spain

I went back to Spain after a couple of weeks at home. I started in El Chorro. I was there for 2 weeks. I did some good routes but if I’m being honest whilst I was there I wasn’t super motivated. I didn’t feel like I was climbing very well. I then got a really bad cold and couldn’t climb for the last few days which was a shame. I then got a train to Barcelona to meet Gwen and we headed up to Siurana. Gwen was just there for a week but she showed Siurana who’s boss flashing mandagrora (classic 7b+). I stayed in Siurana for about 3 weeks I think. However my time there was less successful. I wanted to do a route I tried when I was previously in Siurana before Christmas called memorias de una sepia but I ended up losing motivation for it and for sport climbing in general so I decided to come home…

sun in el chorro

Sicily

My parents were going to the island of Sicily for a week on holiday so I tagged along to put off finding a job for a bit. We went to the climbing area called San Vito Lo Capo. The first day there was pretty good. I managed to do the classic 7c of the area which was probably more 7b+ but it was still good and I was feeling a bit more psyched again. But from there it went a bit downhill. The weather turned into UK type weather and the psyche was running pretty low. The last 2 days had nice weather and I just enjoyed doing some easier routes in the 5s and 6s (some of which felt pretty hard).

coasteering 

Right Wall

Right Wall is a route I’ve wanted to do for about 18 months now (ever since I did Resurrection). It was never dry when I was in North Wales last year so when I’d heard it was dry I got pretty psyched. It was a beautiful day in Wales and it was supposed to be the last day of nice weather before we were to be reunited with grey, wet misery. I was not sure whether I should get on it as I had only placed gear once in the last 5 months, an e1 at Tremadoc which I think I went off route on so it was probably more like v diff. I had one day in the slate quarries but the routes we did were bolted. However who knows when the route might be dry again? It could be years from now (over exaggeration). But realistically it could be a few months and I really really wanted to do this route! Well ever since we stepped out of the car the day seemed to go wrong. First of all I forgot the guidebook. So I borrowed one from another party at the crag. When I was racking up I felt really nervous. I have always felt nervous on every route I have set off on the Cromlech because they are so classic. But usually I get a nervous/excited feeling however today It was just a full on nervous worried feeling. I set off and my nerves got the better of me. I was very hesitant, unsure of my gear, unsure of the way to go, and there was just a serious lack of confidence. I made it to the first ledge and had a bit of a breather. I then found it very hard to commit to moving off the ledge, I didn’t want to commit. I eventually did and it wasn’t hard. I then made it to some good holds which I shook out a bit on (That is a huge under exaggeration my friends, I stayed on those holds for a good hour!) I couldn’t figure out where to go, I didn’t want to fall off and I couldn’t commit. I could have done with another size cam which I had already placed. Eventually I got tired, my hands were bleeding and my feet were in agony. This was not enjoyable. I decided to back off knowing that I hadn’t even reached the crux yet. When I got down I felt pretty gutted and upset to be honest. This was a route I had dreamed about doing and I had just cocked it up. Physically I was ready to do this route however mentally I was not. It was too early in the season and I needed to do some more trad routes to get into committing above gear again. My hands were in a pretty bad state for hanging on so long and were bloody and blistered. They are now infected and extremely painful so I can’t climb at the moment haha! Anyway I did feel pretty down for a few days after but it is just a route albeit a very important one to me and I will come back to it in the not too distant future with a few more trad routes under my belt. In some ways maybe I think I should have saved it for a later date but maybe I would have beaten myself up for not getting on it. There’s no point thinking about it anymore now.  I may have lost the onsight but I’ve still got the ground up! (haha I’m not really into all these sayings). But when I do I just really want to enjoy it! The day was still worth it as Gwen cruised resurrection making it look like a walk in the park, I might wait for Gwen to do right wall so I can get the beta off her!

me poor hands!

Anyways so now I have nearly no money and I’m looking for a job, which is proving tricky. However I am mega excited about the fact I am going to morocco in a week with the climbers club hopefully my hands will be better. I am also going back to Kalymnos for a week in April. EXCITED! And also me and Gwen have booked flights to Canada in the summer for 7 weeks but as of yet the only things we have booked are the flights and we haven’t made any plans yet, so we need to start planning soon. And I am actually really looking forward about going to Bangor university in September and do loads of trad climbing and I’ve also decided I want to get better at bouldering so I’m going to try that out a bit more! Wooo! Anyways hopefully the next time I “blog” I will be more positive and have some success to write about.

End of an Annum

I think time is speeding up because it doesn’t seem that long ago since it was last Christmas and I was in the same state of gluttony after eating enough calories in one day to sustain a month long climbing trip. But a year has passed and another is approaching.

This last year has been a whirlwind of climbing trips and exams pretty much, I finished 6^th form in June and since then have either been on a climbing trip or been at home frustrated by rain pretty much. Anyways I’ll have a quick flick through my year and what I’m looking forward to next year…

January – not the best month was still working a lot saving money also had exams, managed to get a bit of bouldering on the grit.

February – Went to the Costa Blanca with my mum for a week a really nice week of some sunny climbing.

March – Quit my job so had plenty of time to climb! Had a really good week’s climbing in the Lake District with my friend Abi with amazing weather. Had a battle on The Niche an e2, 5c at lower falcon – an amazing route!

April – Went to Kalymnos for 2 weeks with friends and family a great holiday, the trip highlight would be redpointing my first 7c Padroni e Paggliacci. Then on returning home did my hardest trad onsight of Warpath e5, 6a at Rhoscolyn but only just, don’t think I have ever been so pumped in my life an exhilarating experience.

May – REVISION REVISION REVISION

June – some more revision then exams were over and me and my good friend gwen scooted down to Pembroke on the train. A fun week doing some good routes and also some dancing in the rain.

July – A 26 hour coach journey landed me and gwen in Chamonix, we did some alpine climbing and got very scared, days I will never forget!

August – headed over to the world class sport climbing crag of Ceuse did some of my favourite sport climbing routes of my entire life, felt like I was onsighting quite well. Also saw many wads. Came home got my A-level results and got very frustrated with british weather.

September – Went back out to France for 2 weeks with Beth and my parents went to Orpierre and Buis les Barronies. Managed to get a very last minute redpoint of Un Nouveau Monde Left,7c, did it on the journey home very stressful.

October – Got a little bit of trad done at home, had an amazing day at millstone with Gwen where I practised jamming. Also had a day at the Cromlech where I got a bit gripped on True Grip. And also had a couple of days at Gogarth and a fun day at Stanage with Eve. Then headed off for some winter sun in Espana!!

November & December - Climbed in the Catalunya area and did some brilliant sport climbs in Siurana, Monsant and Margalef and met many nice new people.

Soooo to sum the year up I have been on lots of sport climbing trips to some amazing places and done some amazing climbing. However I feel like I have hardly done any trad this year which is a bit disappointing but I put this down to bad weather and being away when the odd week of good weather has been.

I am really psyched to see what 2013 has to bring, so far my plans are to head back to Spain for another 2 months, then I’ve got a week of trad climbing in the Anti Atlas mountains of morocco which I am really excited about. I will then be working at home for a bit to save up some more money as hopefully I will be learning to jam on granite in Canada and America next summer! Then starting September I will be starting at Bangor University to study geography. This last year I feel like I’ve focused on sport climbing a lot, but for 2013 I really want to see how far I can push my self on trad and there are loads of trad routes I want to do so hopefully it will be a good year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone Anna xox

Spain so far..

So about a week ago I got back from a 7 week sport climbing trip in Catalunya. I climbed in Siurana, Margalef and Monsant. I was really psyched about getting there because I had heard so much about it, looked at so many photos on the internet of long orange vertical walls in Siurana and steep conglomerate of Margalef and I have to say it lived up to its expectations and more.

I was travelling alone but knew some people that were going to be out in Spain and met so many nice people along the way, so I was never short of people to climb with which was amazing. Since I was on a long trip I knew there would be highs and lows of the trip which I would have to deal with, but all in all it was a great trip and I did a lot of climbing by the end I was ready to come home for a bit of a break.

home for 7 weeks

I started in Siurana which was amazing, most of the routes (at my grade) were vertical or gently over hanging technical climbing which really suited me and was sort of similarish to trad climbing of the likes of the pass or Pembroke. Some of my favourite routes were Remena Nena (7a), Berrio Cabrerro (7b+), Mandagora (7b+), Ay mamita (7a), Si vas niquel fas tard (7a+).

I was then ready to give my fingertips a break and headed over to pull on some pockets in Margalef, my first few days of Margalef did not go well. I caught a bug of some kind and got sick. One of the lowest moments of the trip was throwing up outside my tent in the middle of the night shaking in the freezing cold wishing I was at home with someone to look after me – haha! Luckily it didn’t last that long. The rest of Margalef went pretty well and I managed to redpoint two 7c’s quite quickly and was feeling like I was climbing quite well, but it then felt time to head back to Siurana…

On arrival back to Siurana my motivation was quite low I felt like I wanted a break from camping as it was getting quite cold and I wasn’t sleeping well because I couldn’t get warm even wearing loads of my clothes and a down jacket in my sleeping bag. I was thinking about coming home a bit earlier than I originally thought but I had a feeling that I hadn’t really tried that hard on the trip so far. I thought maybe it would be time to step it up to the next level of trying an 8a. I know this sounds stupid because its only sport climbing but I felt nervous at actually just getting on it, mainly due to lack of self confidence and paranoia of what people may think. Stupid thoughts such as “why is that pale, chubby girl with frizzy hair getting on an 8a” went through my mind. But then I pulled my self together and had a go at Memorias de una Sepia a vertical 8a at Siurnella Central. It is an amazing route with lovely technical climbing and a funky crux move involving a high heel hook rock over onto these slopers and then a pop to a good crimp. I was surprised that I managed to do all the moves relatively quickly. So after a few days getting it wired I had some redpoint attempts. I didn’t get the redpoint in time as I had booked my flight home but I know that I can do that route so I am going to go back to Siurana…

So I have been home a week and been bouldering at the wall a few times and oh dear if I thought I was rubbish at bouldering before I really am rubbish now, I have no power! So in this few weeks I’m at home I’m on a boulder and strength mission to try and regain some umph! I’m going back to Spain in January first to El Chorro for a few weeks then getting the train up north again to head back to Siurana and the Catalunya area to hopefully send the route and also climb at more of the crags up there, I really really want to go to Riglos so if anyone is keen to go there let me know as I’ll be looking for climbing partners!

Comfort Zones

In many aspects of life I think that it can be possible to get stuck into comfort zones and it can feel scary and intimidating to step out of your comfort zone. I think this is definitely true in climbing and in the last few weeks I have tried to step out of my comfort zones and be brave.

Comfort zone number 1 – cracks!!

Crack climbing is a weakness in my climbing, it is something I have always shyed away from and get extremely intimidated by. But I really want to climb in America and Canada for the main reason – the stuff over there looks pretty bloody good! So I am really trying to improve this technique. I had a “crackaliken” day at millstone with Gwen where I did some finger, hand and fist jamming. I started on a vs which was good but felt a bit tricky then stepped it up to hvs and then managed to do Regent Street (classic e2) I finger jammed the whole top crack and the jams actually felt pretty solid. I also followed Gwen up some more beefy cracks which was good because it meant I could completely concentrate on the technique. I also went to Rysltone the other day where I battled up Monument Crack e1 – I found this route seriously hard!!! My hands were too small for a lot of the crack and basically I just got seriously pumped and a bit gripped but when I did finally managed to get a solid jam it felt soo good and satisfying! I think I’m starting to really like this crack climbing business. Thanks for Bruce and Chris for patient belaying.

i didn't actually take any photos that day but this is one from earlier on in the year on  Bond Street

Comfort zone number 2 – getting on hard routes…

It is all too easy to get to the crag and say I think I’ll have an easy day today and just do some easy routes not really get scared or gripped and just do some enjoyable climbing on a bit of rock. This is all well and good but really what motivates me the most is having to really try hard on routes and get a bit scared and get pumped! So why do sometimes I get to a crag and not feel like trying – maybe its being scared of failure, scared of hurting myself and also being scared of getting scared!! Anyways I think it is probably a combination of quite a few things but it is something I am really trying to work on.

So when I had the chance to go climbing in North Wales this last week I said to myself before I even got the train there “I am going to get on a hard route!”  I met Gwen at the train station and we went to the Bangor university climbing wall where I met Lewis who said he was up for climbing tomorrow. After a bit of miscommunication between a bus and a train station we somehow ended up at Dinas Chromlech the next day. I decided to get on True Grip (E4/5 6a). This is a really great route but it was slightly spoilt by the fact my trad head was totally not there! I found it so hard to commit to moving above gear and trusting I was going the right way and trusting there was gear coming up. I am putting this down to the fact that I have done hardly any trad recently but I really hope my trad head comes backs for next spring! The route joins left wall (most amazing e2 EVER!!!) about 2/3’s up. I did something a bit stupid here I thought right this should be easy now I had done left wall last year and found it not that hard but I think that was because I was so psyched about climbing it. Anyway I have learnt my lesson not to underestimate things because I ended up having a bit of battle on left wall LOLZ it didn’t help that I dropped my small wires which is something you probably don’t want to be doing on left wall!

 But anyway I got up it and once I committed to doing the climbing it didn't even feel that hard there is a runout section going up this ramp thing and even though the climbing is pretty steady I felt really exhilarated to be in that situation with gear way below my feet being in control and doing some really lovely moves. I have to give Lewis a big thank you for belaying for so long! And hopefully my trad head will be back soon, where have you gone!??

another photo from a different day this is me on cemetery gates last year - Lewis took a photo of true Grip on his phone so i'll try and get that off him and put it on later

here it is - getting well and truelly gripped on true grip

The next day I had a great day with Gwen at Gogarth where we did Atlantis/True Moments/Freebird (e2 5b) on Castle Helen. Really good route just started to rain as I topped out so we timed it well!! And I treated my self to a hot chocolate and a chocolate brownie (this is actually quite a regular occurrence) in the South Stack café. We also went to the new Beacon one evening which is really good – psyched to be getting there in an evening when I will be studying at Bangor next year!

Gwen on pitch 2 of the route at castle helen.

Comfort Zone number 3 – stepping into the unknown..

I have booked my one way flight to Spain now to get away from the UK winter and will be back next spring for some trad. I have no real plan for Spain except I’m starting in Siurana and hopefully I will find people to climb with! I am really excited about doing a shed load of climbing and hopefully get some hard stuff done. But I am also rather nervous, I am usually quite shy so I’m going to have to really put my self out there to meet people to climb with and hopefully I will and meet some really nice people. I am really looking forward to going on an adventure with no real plan just me, my tent and all my stuff!

Little (quite large) Anna is going to have to come out of her box!

i wonder if many people will want to climb with me looking like this!

eating and climbing

So when there was a slight break in this rubbish weather for a week in September where it looked possible to get some trad in I went to France! – sod’s law. However I’m not complaining because I had a great time. I went with my mum, dad and best friend Beth. This was to be a touristy/climbing holiday we did some serious eating and some not so serious climbing. We started off climbing in Switzerland and got shut down on desperate 5’s! We then headed off top Orpierre for a few days where we did some really nice routes I tried a few harder routes here but I found them hard as they were generally quite steep routes (I need to get stronger and stop eating cake). My favourite route was Diedre sud – a multipitch 5+ on the quiquillon I did put some of the pitches together - I did one 65m pitched which meant some serious rope drag!

nice 7a in orpierre

diedre sud

We then went to Buis les Barronies for 3 days and i managed to redpoint Un Nouveau Monde left (7c) at the crag of Malaucene. I was really happy about this because it felt hard and i had to try hard. The moves were the hardest i have ever done on a route before. It involved doing some biggish moves (probably quite small) on monos. But it was just a great route to do and I was excited about climbing it. A great way to finish the trip!

crep - holiday highlight!

un nouveau monde left - 7c

So as the England goes underwater I have realised my trad goals for this year are going to have to wait until next year which is a shame as I am currently feeling fit and really psyched for trad but I can not change the weather. I have recently done a lot of sport climbing and it has made me realise that trad is where my heart is and I really hate rain! Hopefully I will be able to do some in the next few weeks. I will soon be setting off to spend the winter in Spain I’m really nervous but sooooo excited!!!!!! Hopefully after a few months of sport climbing I will become a half decent climber and be able to do some hard trad routes J

France trip

Last week I came back from a 5 week climbing trip to France. This is the longest holiday I have ever had and it was amazing! I went with my good friend hard core crusher Gwen (North Wales wad). In total we spent 3 weeks in Chamonix and 2 weeks in Ceuse. We travelled by public transport and hitching which proved tricky at times as we are not the lightest of travellers - between us we had 7 bags 2 of which were a similar size to a baby elephant.

some of our stuff at Paris coach station

Chamonix – For both it was our first visit to Chamonix. We were both keen to dip our toes into the world of alpine climbing! My parents used to do a lot of alpine climbing so they were able to give us a few pointers to begin with before we went. But mine and Gwen’s parents seemed very worried about us going to Chamonix and we found out why – it’s scary! We arrived in Chamonix after a 26 hour coach journey a tad tired, stepping off a smelly coach into the valley was like entering a whole new world. It was a lot bigger than I imagined, it makes Llanberis Pass look a bit weedy! Me and Gwen both looked at each other like “what on earth have we got ourselves into!”

I won’t go through everything we got up to but a brief overview. We came here not to push ourselves but to get experience, and that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t do anything hard but enjoyed and got scared on the easy stuff. We did quite a few routes on the Aiguilles Rouges, Aiguille du Peigne and bailed on a route on the Blatiere. On the Aiguilles Rouges for our first experience of going up high we did a route called Poeme a Lou which is a really cool multipitch bolted 6b+, a good one to get going. A few days later we went back up to do a route on the Belvedere however on pitch 2 a really big rock fall came flying over our heads making a whistling noise and landed just where we had walked up. The party above us had got hit so they were retreating and the next few pitches were exposed to the rock fall so we decided to retreat, maybe we would have been ok with carrying on but since both of us were inexperienced we thought better to be safe than sorry! We also had a bit of an epic on a route called Voie des Dalles on the Pouce (about 11 pitches I think) The first 7 or so pitches were really good climbing on trad gear but the last pitches were a bit chossy with not much gear – I think we went off route. I got into a position where I had run out of rope couldn’t set up a belay and hardly had any gear in as there was none, climbing together with hardly any gear in on chossy rock was pretty terrifying. We finally topped out at 7pm slightly relieved but the epic had only just begun! We still had to get back to the Index lift station where we were sleeping but had to go along a ridge. My friend Ewan and his friend James had also done the same route and were in front of us, so all four us roped up for the ridge. Basically we got lost on the ridge (sounds a bit stupid I know) it started to get dark and Ewan didn’t have a head torch – It took us 5 hours to get back and we arrived to the lift station at half midnight knackered.

Gwen seconding on first pitch of Belvedere

me on Voie des Dalles

Gwen on Voie des Dalles

One of my favourite routes of the trip was called the Bada Bing on a big crag called Les Perrons de Vallorcine which is in Switzerland, I think it is part of the Aiguilles Rouges. It is an amazing 8 pitch 6c+ the first pitches were not good. But the last 4/5 pitches were all immaculate 6c/+ pitches all of which were 45m or 50m, it was some of the best climbing I’ve ever done sustained positive technical wall climbing – the sort of climbing you dream about!

Me on amazing 6c+ pitch on Bada Bing

We also ventured onto the granite side of the valley where we did some good stuff but got scared once again. I fell off a route as my finger jam slipped out of a crack and encountered a whistling rock within 5 minutes of each other which scared me quite a lot (I cried – haha!). We didn’t get to do the best stuff in Chamonix as we didn’t have ice axes and crampons but when I return I am psyched to do more of the granite climbing, I would like to climb at Envers and the South Face of the Aiguille du Midi and some other places, next time! I did like the Alps but the rock fall scared me I don’t know if we were unlucky with the amount of rock fall we experienced but it certainly put me on edge.

Ceuse: So we decided to move on from Chamonix as it started to eat up all our money and energy and were psyched for some less stressful climbing. So 6 trains, 2 buses and a taxi later we landed at Ceuse. There were so many hard core climbers there we felt a bit out of place at first but we soon got into the swing of things when people on 8’s is normal. We both did quite a few 7a’s, Gwen crushed her first 7b and then soon after her first 7b+ so that was really cool. I managed to onsight my first 7b+ called Cent patates, so I was really happy about that. I climbed it like a trad route though, up climbing, down climbing farting about. I think some Spanish men were taking the mick at how long as I was taking but I clipped the chains so I didn’t care J. Some of my favourite routes were dietic line 7b, la reine des pommes 7a, great blanc 7b, au sud de nulle part 7b+, simarils 6c, le vol du Pilatus 6b+. However to be honest all the routes here felt pretty top quality. Warning though the 6’s here all felt really hard for the grade. I wanted to climb another 7c when I was out there but that didn’t happen but I’m going out to France in September so I’m going to try again then. We also met some really nice people out there who were crushing hard.

Me onsighting Cent Patates 7b+

lowering down

I have been back at home a week now and had a week off from climbing to give my body a break and also to let my psyche refuel. So I am now raring to go again. In this time I got my A level results AAB woooo!!!! Was soo happy about this as I deffo feel like I put the work into to get them so if all goes to plan I will go to Bangor University September 2013 where I will hopefully become a north Wales trad guru. So short term plans include: I am going to North Wales for a few days, then I’m going to Pembroke for the bank holiday and some of the week after. Then I’m going to France in September for a few weeks with my parents and my best friend Beth before she sets off to Durham University so currently I’m an extremely happy person.