January 2011 - Plans and Reflections

In 2010, Post-Kilimanjaro, I had a bit of a 'break' from updating this mountain-a-month Blog.  The original challenge to climb at least one mountain a month was mostly a way of ensuring that I completed enough training for the Kili-trek by giving myself focus.  Of course, most months I climbed more than one mountain, but to give this Blog some structure, I restricted myself to just writing about just one of those mountains.

In 2011 I will continue to update this Blog, however, I will slightly change the nature of my updates. I still plan to update once a month, but I will now post about hills, fells and local walks, depending on what I've done that month, and may also talk about outdoor (single or multi-pitch) climbing trips.  (My outdoor rock-climbing was put on hold somewhat in 2010 due to most free weekends being used for mountain walking to train for Kili, but I fully intend to do a lot more this coming year and some months may focus on this rather than walking.)

In summary, this Blog will consist of some monthly 'waffling' about my outdoor experiences, mountainous or otherwise! I'm going to kick off with some of the things I've been up to since my last update;

September 2010

I felt a serious need to kick the post-Kili blues in September last year, so quickly organised a climbing trip to have a go at some mutipitching.  I've done a fair bit of lead climbing before, but not very much in the way of multi-pitching, so the 4 pitch climb up Avon Gorge was quite an undertaking. A great day out, and a really nice way to finish the summer.

October 2010

Headed to Buxton for my Birthday so that I could get a bit of walking in before the short days and winter weather started to get in the way. No mountains, just a lovely long hilly (and muddy) stroll near Buxton.

Towards the end of October I had a week in New York, and a bit of research told me that the NYC climbing community like to boulder in Central Park. Luckily the weather was warm and dry enough in October for me to get a little bit of Central Park Bouldering in on 'Rat Rock', the last bit of outdoor climbing I did in 2010.

1st January 2011

On New Years Day 2010 I found myself on the top of Arthur's Seat, one of Edinburgh's 7 Hills. It was the perfect way to spend the first day of the New Year.  Since I was in Edinburgh again this New Year, it was only right that I kept up the 'tradition' of a long hangover curing walk and climbed one of the other 7 hills on 1st Jan this year, namely Blackford Hill.  No snow this time round, but still stunning views of Edinburgh and beyond.

Now, I'm looking forward to Spring; walking weather and more daylight so I can get outdoors again!