Blog

I know this website is pretty glove heavy, with thousands of words explaining different systems on how to keep your digits working.  The reason for this is not that have some glove fetish, but that getting this aspect of your gear correct is pa...

When I’ve finished writing Cold Wars (should be out this summer, with my deadline being end of March), I’m self publishing my next technique book (Driven being the 1st), a book called Down; which covers everything you need to know about n...

Short video (filmed on a Panasonic Lumix FT2 Digital Camera I think) by Rob Jarvis about climbing the North Face of the Eiger in October 08. Rob’s got a great website and you can read about the ascent here, and even get an insight into his kit ...

For thirty years Petzl’s mission has remained constant: To offer people practical solutions that maximize their safety and mobility in the vertical world. Discover the Petzl company from a different angle (10mn).

Drove over from Sheffield to Chamonix yesterday.  I spend a lot of time driving these days, sat in my smelly and noisy diesel van alone, my iPod earphones stuffed in my ears trying to drown out the noise, only this time I going climbing… ish.&...

I was supposed to be climbing with Rich Simpson this winter, probably something on the Jorasses, not that we’d ever met, our relationship no more than half a dozen Facebook emails knocked back and forth, but I was looking forward to it.  I...

Looking through the US Patagonia site the other day I spotted a very sexy piece of kit; a Nano Puff scarf; your bog standard scarf, only made from a sandwich of nylon with a synth fill.  It’s the kind of design that’s brilliant in it...

So Season after season you go up north to Scotland - and some times - rarely - to the Lakes and Wales - to go winter climbing. You’ve undertaken a standard apprenticeship or rock and then ice, easy routes first - almost walking - then onto hard...

In the comments in my last blog, where I wrote about removing hooks, Ben Sharp said how he was disappointed to see when my book Driven came out at £20, and the download was £10.  I wondered if I was in fact being a greedy capitalist and should...

New technology in winter protection is always a good thing, and beyond the democratization of good quality ice screws a decade ago the last new bit of winter kit was the ice hook.  Everyone knows how versatile ice hooks are, and since they’...