One smashed helmet, one route, 1 friend so ill he wished he was dead and another 1 friend we thought was dead, days of ups and downs at 3-5000m, incredible amounts of dust, copious quantities of naan, rice and salty tea, horses and donkeys, helpful Wakhi, useless Kirghiz on opium, roads that got confused with rivers, rockfalls and mudslides, drivers that make Egyptians look tame and vehicles held together with Sellotape, customs officials demanding gifts and the truck stuck in the river that became a bridge. Now, finally, after a shower and a few beers,sat in Dushanbe Airport waiting for an early flight at the end of a month's expedition to Afghanistan. We didn't summit the peak we were after and whilst descending from an acclimatisation route one of us was almost seriously injured but we are happy to be all alive and well. Full story to follow when I get home.

Cake art and off on expedition

Love this depiction of me taking Jen and her dad across Tower Ridge the other week. Its in my favourite medium too CAKE!

After a good spell with the family I'm away for almost 6 weeks on expedition now... tell you about it when I get back! If you have an enquiry about a booking in the meantime I have 1 weekend left in September and a few weekdays and I'm about the same in October. Have a good summer!

Its all perfectly organised... honest!

The Cioch Nose, classic Scottish rock

Cioch Nose from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.
Lisa and I have been watching the weather for a day out for a week and although it was due to be windy we reckoned we might just get away with it yesterday. Annie is working towards her MIA Assessment and was keen to observe me at work so she met us atop the Bealach na Ba to make up a 3. The weather wasn't inspiring, misty, breezy a bit dank and rock dripping from recent showers- but we did see a glimpse of sun as we drove up the Pass and by the time we inched our way out on the ledge already high above the coire floor to begin the route things wee already looking brighter.
The first 3 pitches all provide interest, especially when wet. Pitch 1 has a couple of awkward corners with poor footholds but great gear and pitch 2 is an out of balance corner (agin pro is fine though) which was wet again. Pitch 3 has to be one of the best pitches of the grade in the UK. You step off of a large secure ledge onto a slabby wall with hundreds of feet of space tugging at your heels and weave a way right, left back above your belayer(s) and then right again on rough secure rock with plenty of gear. A couple of easier pitches leave you grinning at the drop atop the Cioch itself.
It is possible to abseil down a loosish gully on the left here but I've never done it and Lisa was really keen to complete the whole ridge so we pressed on past a hundred odd metres of scrambling to the base of a groove in a fine soaring arete which gives a final pitch of 4a climbing. A last bit of easier rock takes you to the end of the ridge projecting from the plateau and things aren't quite over yet. As we topped out the weather turned on us and the winds rose and blasted us with a fine rain. There are a couple of awkward steps down on the ridge as it rolls its way back to the main bulk of the mountain and the wet grass was slippery under our light approach shoes so we were all glad to make it to the road by the telephone mast and back to the cars.
A brew and some home made apple caramel cake made the perfect end to a classic Scottish day out!
Hope the headcam video isn't too tedious, I've tried to only include shots showing the gear, the nature of the rock and the awesome exposure!

 Third pitch and space below their feet

Big country

 Scrambling above the Cioch

 The 'extra' pitch

Happy days!

Another climbing video, Steve's amazing climb and Exped prep

Here is another video using the Ion Air Pro plus headcam from Sport Pursuit.


Volcane Pitch 1 from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.
And if you want some REAL climbing inspiration keep and eye on Steve's Blog for the full story of his solo on El Cap. An impressing enough achievement for someone on their first trip to 'The Valley' but when you factor in the fact that he can barely see owing to retinitis pigmentosa its pretty mind-blowing- nice one mate.
I've been avoiding work for the most part for the last week or so but that doesn't mean I haven't been very busy. I've been preparing for a long exped. to Central Asia in a few weeks. Part of that has also meant being 'daddy day care' with Sandy and Kaye so they get plenty of time with me before I'm away (and saving us a lot of money in childcare to boot). Unless you've ever looked after active 1 and 5 year olds at the same time you have no idea... believe me. So days with the 2 of them are write offs in terms of work done. Plenty of that to do though, multiple visas and permits, Grant Applications, 2 sets of agents, co-ordinating a team including people working offshore half the time and one in South Africa, flights, kit, food, fuel, clothing etc. etc. etc.
Many thanks to the Mount Everest Foundation, Mountaineering Council of Scotland, The Mountain Club of South Africa, Cotswold Aberdeen (and Adventure Food), Sport Pursuit and Lowe Alpine and Life Straw for various bits of support and kit to trial we'd struggle without this support.

Ardnamurchan Head Cam

Perfect rock on Ardnamurchan from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Ardnamurchan Rock

Deceptively steep direct finish to Krakatoa (4c)

Gill going for the top on Greta Gabbro (VS 4c)

Rich on Claude (HVS/VS 5a)

Gill on the crag classic Yir (VS4c)

Seconding one of the alternative second pitches to Yir (this one is 4b)

First pitch of Volcane (4c)

Rich on Trauma Crack (E3 6a)

A chilled day out yesterday with Rich and Gill at Ardnamurchan. The folks at Sportpursuit (join via this link and we both get £10 to spend on the site!) have given me a fantastic ION Air Pro Plus HD headcam to play with for a while so it got its first airing yesterday. I soloed Greta Gabbro (VS4c), An Toiseach (VDiff), the first pitch of Volcane (the 4c bit) and the slabs opposite the main crag of Meall Fhir Eoin Beag that I've been meaning to look at for ages (2 15m lines, about VDiff and Severe). I also followed Rich up Claude (HVS/VS 5a- depending on which guide you read) and Gill up Yir (VS4c and I led one of the alternative finishes at 4b). Whilst I had a play with the cameras Gill and Rich also climbed Krakatoa with the An Deireadh finish (VS4c), Lava Lout (E1 5b) and Trauma Crack (E3 6a).

First thoughts on the camera are all positive, easy to operate, very high quality video AND stills, not to heavy on the helmet.

SPA Day 2, new stakes at Auchinstarry and Edelrid Mega-Jul

Its always nice when the forecast is wrong in your favour (yesterday), its even nicer when it happens 2 days running (more dry weather today) and its EVEN nicer than that when you get a clean sweep of passes on an NGB you are working on. Well done to the 4 candidates who all passed their SPA Assessment today.

 Mike Jeans needing rescuing from a VS.... don't see that every day :-)

Someone has placed a couple of new stakes beside the path at the very top of the crag. The first is on the outer side of the path just near the junction with the track to the closed gate leading to the 'poolside' crags (pictured) and the second is just beside the path between the obvious 2 trees. Both are the same material and show the same amount of material protruding above the ground. The first (slightly harder to see in long grass) is well bedded in but can be pulled out easily and you can see how much metal is in the ground (second picture below). There was a third I'm told but no sign of it today.

I've been playing with an Edelrid Mega Jul recently. This belay device looks like a slightly quirky belay plate but functions as an assisted braking device (one with no moving parts, like a Mammut Smart rather than Grigri). It also functions as a guide plate like a Reverso/ATC Guide. I let the candidates from the last 2 days have a little play with it and they soon got to grips with paying out to a leader and tested its ability to lock up in response to a sudden load (worked fine). Today when abseiling with it we all found it quite jerky (you have to keep the device tilted- usually with a thumb in the green loop- just visible in second pic below), more so on steeper ground and even more so when abseiling on a doubled rope. It does lock up well in descent when you go 'hands free' on it (see pic 1 and 2 below with slack dead rope). More playing needed.

TA and SPA and hooray for a wrong forecast

Yesterday I was working as a Technical Advisor to East Dunbartonshire Council doing some Training and Assessment of their DofE volunteers. We were based out at Mugdock country park which gave me the opportunity for another 1 hour commute each way on the bike in the sun (with a killer hill at the end on the way there in the morning).
Today I was at Neilston Quarry running an SPA Assessment for Glasgow Climbing Centre. We started at the wall in the morning with a really grim weather forecast but were blessed when in the late morning the showers cleared and the team got to climb on dry rock for the rest of the day!