Another goods days training in the cave with myself and paul both reaching a high point on our project "Smackdown" M7, it seems near impossible to extend the route any further but as they say everythings possible, I had a little go at trying to make a half descent video today, so hope you enjoy it....
Untitled from
Tommy Harris on
Vimeo.
With the forecast looking grim it was a great opportunity to head down to some local caves for some training on the tools. Myself and Paul set off early to beat the rain to get to our sheltered training ground for the day.
The rock seemed pretty cool to train on apart from being a little loose in places, I took a look at a steep over hanging wall with wishful thoughts thinking it was way beyond us, the placements were non existent and where there was, they were very small. we climbed a vertical wall just traversing from one side to the other, this had some pretty nice moves on and although the forearms were getting pumped it was nothing to hard, the cave height was only around 5 metres high so the only way to climb was to traverse but this was still entertaining and gave some technical climbing.
I headed on round to the overhanging wall again for another peep, noticing a tiny ledge i decided to see if the axe would hang on it, it did, so starting from a good ledge i tried the first move, chricky, not many feet placements, mono crampons would have helped but smearing in stickies wasn't to be, the ideal move would have been a fig 4 but rough ground beneath put me right off that.. I didn't hang the move but I was now pretty excited and wanted to play, after a closer look and play we managed to work out a sequence across the wall, myself and Paul took turns trying to be first to get the route done, the climbing is pretty tough with very small placements and allot of campus moves, I came close a few times but was unable to get the last couple of moves, Paul also done really well considering this was his first taste of dry tooling.
Paul's axe popped causing him to hit the deck pretty hard, i didn't mean to but I just burst out laughing, I asked if he was OK and he was, I'm sure though if he would have been alone he would have cried...
I had another goes before taking that fall myself, I didn't even get time to know I was falling before I hit the deck, It bloody hurt and was the end of today's climbing, a sore bottom, ankle and elbow was enough for today, Paul was hurting with headache, and back so we decided to call it a day. I am pretty psyched now and want to get back on this, its great training for Ice fest in January but it would also be cool to link this route up considering it looked impossible at first.
A coffee and cake in Wareham ended a great days training... Thanks Paul....
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Warming up on the tools
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Paul Getting used to the new vipers
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A dry toolers are a little mad
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Paul on the easy traverse wall
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Paul trying the steep Project
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Delicate moved on small placements
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Paul looking strong
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The right axe is in the most unprodictable placement, has an abbit of ripping out
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And when it does, it flipping hurts.... ouch!
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Close to the end, two moves from getting it.
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Paul just before disaster....
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Its sometimes said, only half jokingly, that climbing Everest is good preparation for climbing Denali. This may sound extreme but Denali is a very serious mountain, and one of the hardest of all the seven summits, it certainly shouldn't be first on your list, at 6194 metres (20,320 ft) it is only slightly higher than Kilimanjaro, and much lower than Aconcagua, but neither of these mountains demands comparable experience and effort.
From the Moment we arrive on the Kahiltna glacier we will have to melt every drop of water that we will need for drinking and cooking from melting snow.
We will be experiencing temperatures as low as -40 degrees with winds of up to 100mph.
We will need to put up our own tents and the end of each day after many hours of hard climbing.
we will need to build snow walls to prevent the wind from blowing our tents away.
There are many other serious factors in which we will need to consider but the rewards for all of this is to be in one of the most beautiful places on earth,
Denali's latitude, close to the Arctic circle, makes it harder to climb than any other mountains of comparable height, because the earth is not a perfect sphere, the atmosphere is thinner near the poles. At 4000m on Denali, atmospheric pressure and available oxygen is measurable lower than at 4000m on Kilimanjaro, physiologically Denali's 6194m has been found equivalent to about 7000m and with the extra challenges of extreme weather.
In May next year a team of us are heading to Denali for a month, we plan to climb the ordinary west Buttress route then if possible the West Rib or the Cassin ridge, this will be a very challenging and a hard climb and at these altitudes will need good team work,a stable head and a great deal of technical ability. But hopefully we have a team that is good enough to pull this off.
Preparations have started now with team meetings and kit organisation, travel is being looked at and Scott is meeting with equipment providers has I type, things are getting pretty exciting and starting to fall into place.
Ive been training hard with lots of running and upper body training, a few of us are also off to the Ecrins early January for some training and ice climbing.
I will keep you all posted on updated progress and also all the other climbing matters that happen in the mean time.
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| Denali in all its glory |
Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are
naught without prudence, and that a momentary negliance may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; Look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end
