Wednesday 8 September 2010

A Poem

This isnt mine and i would never claim to be this literarly sound but its good and sums up my ideals well.

What if this Road?
What if this road, that has held no surprises
these many years, decided not to go
home after all; what if it could turn
left or right with no more ado
than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin
were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,
that is shaken and rolled out, and takes
a new shape from the contours beneath?
And if it chose to lay itself down
in a new way; around a blind corner,
across hills you must climb without knowing
what's on the other side; who would not hanker
to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know
a story's end, or where a road will go?

Sheenagh Pugh

Monday 6 September 2010

Rath of the Weather Gods

Having got out quite a bit in the last week i had my hopes up for the following week, when i was heading to pembroke again for some cranking with uni mates. However the weather had other plans.


Above: Sam retrieving the ab rope from above Heart of Darkness (Mowing Word)

After buying food (mostly bagels and a bag of peanuts) from the service station we headed on our way along the M4. Got there and the weather was pretty good, much to our delight. However after setting the alarm for 6am and grabbing a few bevvies from the pub, we woke to find greyness and not brilliant weather. Got down to Mowing word and were the only people there surprisingly on a sunday. The forecast must have scared most people away. After doing two classic routes and being a pussy on another, we headed back to the tent in the rain. From this point onwards it didnt stop. So after a free night in the vicars field, we headed home, collecting free supplies of coffee, sugar, salt and pepper for Sams box of fun from a service station. The weather seemed to brighten up as we got near Cardiff so we changed direction and headed for Ogmore, only to be caught up by the shit weather once again as we got out of the car. On the plus side Sam saw Ogmore and seemed pysced. Yay another body into the fray.

It wasnt a massively productive couple of days but we had a good laugh and did some classic routes. The highlight was the goings on of the hedghogs that liked our tent at night. As after we chased them off with a flip flop on the first night they came back again the second, stealing our bin with its discarded tuna tin and also taking sams shoe for a walk into the middle of the field and into the rain. Vengeful hedgehogs indeed.

Now at least i get a week of training before heading back to uni and peak limestone, the grit and boulder training sessions. Every cloud has a silver lining. Its mostly rain but, i only go training when its raining so its probably a blessing. Never ending pysce.

Friday 3 September 2010

A Black File Day

Having been away on a 'normal persons' holiday for the last 2 weeks (ie swimming, and reading) i had a lot of time to do feck all and think about stuff i want to do in the future and be able to say i have done. So i got thinking about mostly climbing goals, areas to visit etc and came up with the idea (well i actually stole it from somewhere i forget, sorry if its your idea) to make a 'black file'.

I initially got all the info for places like the Wrangell range in alaska and how to get to Islamabad, but it soon spiralled out of control to include maps and times for the Bob Graham Round, Iron man triathlon and the High Peak Marathon. Hopefully its something ill keep going and tick off eventually. That'd be a good day.

Whilst trawling the net for images of ranges, maps of routes etc i stumbled across the 737. Being Welsh originally despite not living there anymore, I have been bombarded by the doings of Richard Parks, but up until now ive ignored most of it. Hes attempting to do the 737- 7 highest peaks, 3 Poles in 7 months. Its pretty epic but the whole 7 summits thing is a bit old. Im not going to go through the ethics and all that stuff because if you care then you'll already know and if not then itll take more time than its worth to explain. Get someone to do it down the pub. What i dont understand is that people are doing bigger, badder, harder shit than this but get very little recognition. He is doing it for charity so im not going to hate on him too much but, he should do a marathon or something. Not use what is holy to some people as a gimick to make money and keep his profile up for a few months (7 to be exact). Minor rant over. Am off to Pembroke tomorrow for some crushing if the weather allows, so will post after that but get yourselves a black file. Good way to while a way a rainy day. And keeps the pysce level up continually!