Punter's Krac

A few more ideas for trips

2009-09-05T10:31:00.003+01:00

Long autumn weekends Glen Nevis/peak/lakes/reiff
When the midges are gone and the Indian summer arrives we need to get a few decent weekends sorted!

Bothy Trip for first snow

First white stuff hits the ground lets go play in it, glen feshie was good last time. Bit of whisky in front of an open fire and a wee bit of winter nav would do us all good.

Mountain routes
There’s still time...

A2 sessions
Boo its time, the fatness/weakness needs to be destroyed by the a2, any one up for a regular session again, I’m going to try and get 2 a week from sometime soon!

CIC Hut mid week – next spring/summer

Had this idea for a while reckon we could prob get a few places in the CIC mid week off peak. Would be great to do some more stuff on the ben as I’ve only done 1 rock route!

Torridon Winter
Calum's uncle has a cottage in kinlochewe that we got last year for 4 days, could prob fit about 6 folk. I really fancy the Liathach traverse, a big route on Beinn Eighe and a few more munro rounds. Will try and confirm with himself when he get back from the alps.

Lofoten next year
Got the book last year and really cyked. Reckon it would be a great trip for everyone, with big mountain trad, craging, sport climbing and bouldering. Need to research it a bit more but a week next year some time would do the job I reckon.

Alps next year
Has to be done can’t believe it wasn’t! If I can’t take the time off I will quite ma job!!!!

2009-09-03T20:32:00.003+01:00

taking the 'trad quiz' on facebook the day i realised that we are all punters (except Tim, whose evil ways we must pray for redemption!), yet our very own krac has been silent for too long. everyone seems to have gone there separate ways and this should surely be remedied come the autumn!

my thesis is nearly done and im psyked for some action, so lets hope the weather improves and we can get out to play. i have some plans, if anyone is out there let me know what you think and when anyone has time!

long weekend north wales/peak
walk from braemar to fort william in october over all munroes in between (5nights bothy/bivy)
sneaky mountain route in the sept sunshine
play in the first white stuff (cant be long now, feckin freezin up here!)

let me know folks!

The Thin Crack - Roslin Glen

2009-05-12T13:04:00.003+01:00

Did someone say somethin about Cobra Crack.... pah!

this is clearly the best crack line in the world! 8m high, finger torquing, mantling, and laybacking.... and thats just before the true Roslin top out onto a 5m 45degree mud bank! seemeed much safer just to fall off!

FONTING AWSOME!

2009-04-28T21:54:00.002+01:00

Austrian Adventures

2009-03-17T22:59:00.020Z

Unfortunately, ive had little opportunity to scribble down a report of our trip to the land where the basement was invented and (inbred) babies are born with skis on. But alas, the ‘krac has been quiet of late so I thought id better subdue the chants of the evil fontites and tell you all about a real winter holiday!

So it was that Rieni invited me out to his pad over new year for some ski touring in the back country around the small town of Tamsweg. Along side the other visitors, Moritz, Gita and Hannas, we would be accompanied by a crowd of Austrian mountain goats who had been climbing mountains since about the age I started smoking! To have such an array of guides is something I cant be too thankful for. Not only this but Reinis’ father used our presence as an excuse to stay with his girlfriend for the week leaving his amazing house to us – a fact we were equally grateful for!

I was glad to hear that there was to be another boarder amongst all the skiers, surely we could share the pain of snowshoeing in the wake of those gliding easily up through the powder. Unfortunately I soon found out that Moritz was the Sports-Furher making Hitler look like Mother Teressa, and Arnie look like a soggy Sugarpuff; this guy was a machine and I was to be slogging up the hills all on my own!

Thankfully the first day was the worst as thereafter I knew what to expect and paced myself accordingly. I had also suggested that Rieni needed slowing down so he should carry my board, a suggestion I was surprised to see accepted! A wimp I may be, but I was now a lighter wimp! Day 2 brought us up a long gentle valley which was far less tiring and topped out on a beautiful summit with untracked slopes as far as the eye could see.

The first descent took us down an awesome powder field giving some of the best riding id ever experienced. It was so good that we went back up and burned down it a second time before hiking up the other side of the valley, which gave some steeper terrain on a similar quality snow. The only downside to riding untracked powder all day is that you have to go up in order to come down, and unless you own a chopper this requires serious effort! But, what can you do, powder is there to be ridden and when the opportunity arises one can not but oblige and beast up the hill until your legs explode!
On the morning of the 31st dec our Furher suggested a 5am start to get up b…… at sunrise and do a 1500m descent before breakfast. This is where I should have left the machines to their own devices and spent an extra few hours in bed. But that would have been too easy! Moritz was near the top before I had even finished my morning rollie and Rieni wasn’t far behind, but to see the last sunrise of the year over the Austrian Alps was a moment ill never forget. The descent was sweet although a little icy and we were down for breakfast at 11am before setting off on the traditional hogmanay tour up djd……. From which the views just about made up for the effort of a second tour in a day but the descent was not really suited to a boarder of my ability! Still, some sledging, a great meal and a ‘slumpppeeyyy’ fuelled party saw in the new year and we narrowly missed being up for 24hrs when my reign of elbow dropping terror failed to rouse anyone from their slumber!

Further tours brought some more excellent snow and a short trip through the mountains to visit the Herolds in Hintertaal brought back memories of untold carnage on a previous holiday to Austria and we did our best to recreate the banter with numerous Jaeger bombs at the infamous Alm Bar. On piste with a hangover the next day held little appeal so having boarded from Hintertaal to Marie Alm I jumped on a train to Bishopshoffen from which we went to Rieni’s Grans’ house. An amazing place where I could have spent the rest of my days had her cunning ploy to hide my passport succeeded. Unfortunately our plan was foiled and after another fine day on the hills it was time for me to head to Saltzburg where Gerhard and Julia kindly put me up for a night before I had to return to the dreaded lab where i have been incarcerated since.

Thanks to Rupert, Martina and Reini for a wicked holiday and to all the others there for putting up with my slow pace, incessant smoking and unnecessary drunken violence! Hopefully see you all in Scotland soon - where you shall understand the origin of the above traits!

Bloc Party

2009-03-04T22:37:00.004Z

The Fontainecrew so far is:-

Me, Tim, Andy, Mark (wee), Marc(big), Bry, Al, Fiona and Leena.

2 gites. 9 pads and a big forest full of boulders to caress.

psyche 10 worries 0.

Psyched for bikes? And snow? have a looky see.....

2009-02-26T00:06:00.003Z

air

time

http://www.zapiks.com/yannick-granieri-backflip-bi-1.html

Font trip update

2009-02-17T10:13:00.004Z

Tim has booked the gite, looks like it a good choice just south of the Larchant and Nemours areas.

Also we now have 5 booked (me, tim, sean, lenna, fi) and maybe 2 others (faye and al), anyone else that fancys it please get intouch asap as we maybe abel to book the larger gite next door.

Get trainng yawl!

Font cyke

2009-02-01T13:07:00.000Z

Here's a nice we vid :P

Fontainebleau Trip

2009-01-29T17:50:00.002Z

28TH MARCH - 4TH APRIL 2009

VENUE: THE MAGICAL MECCA OF FONTAINEBLEAU, FRANCE

ACCOMODATION: GITE, JAGGY BLANKETS, WARMTH. £60 APX

TRANSPORT: PLANE, BAG TROLLEY, CAR: £111 FOR PLANE £70 FOR CAR AND FUEL FOR WEEK

PURPOSE: CHEESE AND CRANKING

3 Booked already (me andy and tim)

We hoping to get about 8 or 10 folk.. Let us know within the next week so we can book the gite

Ta

the log of yule

2008-12-24T22:11:00.003Z

May it burn bright in your single malt laden bellies..

let it snow, let it thaw/freeze, let it snow let it thaw/freeze........................

parumpumpumpum

peace and love and jaggy holly to you all.

Russian Ragdes

2008-11-05T23:28:00.003Z

Saw this posted by 'polishpete' on SC.

well worth a watch, something very surreal about it all. Andy, you could maybe do spartan slab heid first? looks right up your street :-)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCyM84HCcA

peace, love and white stuff,

and tooling and hammering in pegs and shit.

sean

A Walk up Creag Meagaidh

2008-10-27T17:10:00.005Z

So I went up North for a bit to visit the folks before they head of on holiday, we had a week of intensely shit weather up in Newtonmore but I picked my day and managed to get out on Wednesday.

There was a hostels meeting in Fort Augustus, so I got a lift to beside Loch Laggan and made my way towards the Meagaidh massive following the Moy Burn. Having not been in the hills out that way before I was cyked to get up Creag Meagaidh, see some nice autumnal views and scout Corrie Ardair for some future climbing.

I Headed up the Creag na Calliche ridge and finding some patches of fresh snow down to about 500m, first snow I'd seen this year! At the top of the crags on the ridge proper there were some lovely views looking south towards Binnein Shuas. So I had a wee stop to appreciate my surroundings, took some pics, had lunch and watched the the snow showers breaking over the distant hills.

Further up the ridge at about 1000m there was a good covering of the white stuff. Scoured and drifting into a lovely patchwork, the estate line wall had caught the snow on its east side and was fully banked out.

I followed the wall which turned into a fence fence (complete with rime ice) up onto the plato and just as this reassuring feature disappeared the weather got a bit nasty! I was expecting a nice donder, but its a good reminder of how nasty the Scottish hills can be in winter. Also a good refresher in white out navigation, took some bearings which where spot on finding both the summit cairn and crazy man's cairn with a minimum of fuss.

Across the plato I hit the cliffs and the clag cleared. The freezing level was rising, the snow turning to sleet and by the time I was down the window in the base of the corrie I was pretty soaked. Had a spot of food and tried to identify some routes, obviously nowt in condition yet, but no harm in looking. The longer routes on the pinnacle such as 1959 Face Route face look great as well as the ice on the post face.

Great wee walk and first taste of winter. Looks like there's a bit of snow coming down this week with a settled high coming for the weekend. So here's hoping for some climbing!

Rienhart is....

2008-10-17T21:37:00.003+01:00

David Graham! Any one else see the resemblance?! Have you been leading a doubel life.... lol

link

2008-10-17T20:33:00.002+01:00

PIcs: Andy making shapes in font. The punters and the Magic fire in Reiff.Rich jumping like a loon in Reiff.Mark fire walking like a mentalist in Reiff. More to follow......sometime.

northumberpics

2008-10-17T20:22:00.005+01:00

Andy on Duke of York and Piano.Tim on The Sorcerer and The Crucifix traverse..more to follow.......

Nice wee piece Andy, the pic of Mark on DE (2nd shot) is a cover for sure.Nice work sir!

Northumberlandtastik!

2008-10-16T17:58:00.003+01:00

This month has been the month of the county, a pilgrimage to the famous sand stone and sunny climbs of Northumbria.

Our first trip brought a much needed return to Back Bowden. Unfortunately not looking quite as magical as it once did; The much talked about tree felling has happened and although it has destroyed the atmosphere of the crag the routes are already looking dryer. I'm sure by spring time when things start growing it wont look quite as ravished.

It was on! The weather was ace and everything we fancied last time (we sat on mats in caves, eating and hiding from the rain!) was looking climbable.

Tim was raring to go and geared up for "The Wizard" with no warm up, he'd previously bouldered the bottom and thought the pull on to the slab would be alright, but no joy, despite getting to within one move or so of the easy bit.

Sean wasted no time and being a face climbing kina guy with a dislike for udgeing got on "The Arches", perhaps one of the most awkward route I've ever climbed! However he made a grand effort and grunted and growled his way along the traverse. Good effort lad, Sorry for my uncontrollable laughter as the fear in your eyes pushed you through the crux.

My turn next and after spying "The Duke of York" last time stepped up, another supremely awkward and weird traverse route. So started marching up and got my self squashed onto the ledge and into a very strange position, especially for establishing on the next section the lovely hand traverse. Anyway I wont revel the beta, but the hand traverse was awesome and pumpy as hell, I was just about off a few times but saved myself by throwing in a heel/toe hock every now and again and getting a sneaky Jam in at half way.

Go do this route!!!!!!

So Tim's lead but unfortunately he has been turned by the dark side and was off bouldering and sending some hardcore problems... Sean was loving the look of "The Magic Flute" and had a go, cursing the first bit he got onto the ledge of the slab. However the scary committing slab with no gear, the potential of a fall and smacking into the ledge spooked him and after much dancing and pondering he requested a top rope and walked up the finished moves. Ah well good effort Sean.

I was keen so I had a go at the lead as well and can confirm that its a scary route... until I got a $%"£)( in the flutings, it now felt like an E1...

The day was rounded of nicely with a spot of bouldering, me and Sean got "Serotine" done and Tim sent several hard crimpy things. Well good.

So three more trips followed But I can't be bother writing anymore..

Warren Grring at "Canada Crack" Bowden Doors.

Sean and Tim sending "Crucifix Traverse", Kyloe in the woods. A lovely problem, I'll be back!

Wee Mark Loving "Devils edge", Kyloe Out.

Punters Fim fest

2008-10-16T12:34:00.002+01:00

OMG so excited "On-sight" is being posted today, get some clips here.
So reckon as a precursor to the EMFF we should have a PFF, night of beer and climb DVD's? Tim did you have "Cyke", Sean "Dosage V", also "The Sharp End" is out as well anyone wana get that? .

Who's game? Venue Neil's and Marks, big TV and sound? What evening could every one make.

low quality pics from quality trip

2008-10-08T15:47:00.007+01:00

cheerio, folks!
as i had a funny wipeout this morning resulting in a broken board nose and a blue ankle i finally got my thin ass out of the atlantic and will post some pics from the trip to ladakh in august. it was amazing!!! the more botanically minded amongst you may recognize the plants that the donkeys are eating - we were quite surprised when we got off the bus to have a piss and found the thing growing all over the place...:)
ladakh's quite a dry place, few water and even fewer beer... however, we spent a great time there with the ascent of stok kangri (20082ft) as a high"light" - damn hard to breathe there!
well, i'm quite looking forward to my return to scotland's green and wet pastures and am quite happy to see that you people continue to do some great stuff! best regards
el reini

Ecky on an E1(!??) at Reiff

2008-10-06T15:22:00.002+01:00

EMF

2008-10-04T20:40:00.002+01:00

So apparently tickets are selling fast who, fancy's what? Reckon I'll be game for Sunday night and maybe one other?

The Chere on the Cake

2008-09-16T18:24:00.001+01:00

I wasn’t sure if I was still asleep, for some reason the mountain had turned into a never-ending stream of light, as though the martians had landed to colonise our camp. Nick gave me some tea and as my body warmed it dawned on me that I was witnessing the nightly parade of Mont Blanc aspirants trudging there way to the top of Europe! It was 3am and Nick and Warren were almost ready to leave by the time Andy and I realized where we were and for what ridiculous reason we were rising at such an un-godly hour. The reason was the Chere Couloir on the NW face of Mt. Blanc du Tucal.

We were not particular devotees of the traditional alpine start but I was slightly nervous about both the condition of the ice after sunrise and the descent route in the late afternoon (not to mention the prospect of following some French climbers up the route!). Andy thought such an early rise completely unnecessary and thus moaned all the way to the bottom of the route, such was his pre-occupation with the time that he didn’t realize his bowels were somewhat volatile!

By around 4.30 we were simul-climbing the easy access slopes and, timed to perfection, we gained the technical climbing as it was getting light. Two full rope lengths of steep ice were protected by bomber ice-screws, and the belayer had the pleasure of watching the sunrise over the Chamonix Aiguilles whilst trying to deflect a constant stream of falling ice being deposited by the leader! Such pure climbing can only be spoilt by one thing; the constant, explosive need for a crap! But I was happy! A further two pitches of mixed ground were covered before enough was enough, and my trusty companion required relief. So, slightly off route, a toilet was found and once again parity was restored – we were now both able to fully enjoy this awesome route!

Further simu-climbing led us onto the summit ridge, where a combination of altitude and hunger led me to some confused route-finding and serious faffing! This turned interesting when we hit a bergschrund on a knife edge snow arête at 4200m, this was no time for faffing! This obstacle safely out maneuvered the path was clear to the summit, apart from the hordes of other people, so we stopped where we were and decided it was close enough to the summit and it was the climbing that mattered.

Thus the descent path was located and we joined the stream of folk trying to get off the mountain. We passed down through some immense serac territory, crossed snow bridges and were happy to get off the slopes and back to the Col safely! We then satisfied our hunger, packer our bivy gear and started the ‘slow death march’ to the midi-station wearied but happy!

This was, although we didn’t know at the time, to be our last route in the Alps for this year, and the Chere Couloir was undoubtedly the cherry on the cake!

Camping on the Col

2008-09-02T18:18:00.001+01:00

Eventually we managed to hook up with Nick, our friend from previous alpine adventures, and the numbers were once again balanced (unfortunately Mark was still cursing his gammy leg!). Laden with gear, Andy, Warren, Nick and I set off at lunchtime with intentions of a short afternoon stroll before an assault on Mt Blanc du Tucal early the following morning.

This stroll took the form of the Traverse of Pointes Lenechal, a small aesthetic series of summits guarding the south east flank of the Col du Midi, from where it drops down into the Vallee Blanche. Having set up home in a pre-dug open shelter amongst the ‘tent-city’ that is the Col, we tootered off towards Lenechal, enjoying the outlook and relative peace. The closer we got, the better the view of our main objective for the morning became and we had a useful chance to reccie the safest approach routes for the Tucal Triangle.

The traverse itself was very easy but the joy came, as with so much in the Alps, from the situation and with ratio to effort, this must be amongst the finest routes in the area!

Stunning views over the Mer de Glace led to the Jorasses and beyond to Switzerland, over the Vallee Blanche lay the Torino hut with the Grande Paradiso standing tall behind and immediately before us stood Mt Blanc du Tucals North face! This was not to mention where we had come from; looking out over the Col du midi, our tent city resembling mere specs of dust underneath the awesome looking Cosmiques Arete.

We were lucky to get it on such a beautiful clear day and once the bergschrund was dealt with we were back at the bivi spot within a couple of hours, hearts content and bellies rumbling! A quick brew, before cooking supper and, in order to retain warmth for the night , we were all swiftly tucked away into our sleeping bags! From the comfort of our bags we discussed trips past and future whilst the sun cast a thousand shades of red over the mountains as a weird inverted sunset effect highlighted the glory of the Matterhorn over yonder. Nice!.

Scottish DT'ing Series 2008

2008-08-26T01:05:00.003+01:00

Looks awesome who's game?

More info at MCofS

Midi-Plan

2008-08-19T18:13:00.004+01:00

During our rest day after the mini-epic that was our ‘easy rock day’ we moved to a campsite in chamonix and met up with the injured Wee Mark (hope the knees getting better!!) and the restless, partner-less Warren. And so the three of us planned to do the Midi-Plan Traverse and leave poor Mark to figure out the origin of the Universe and brushing up his knowledge on the String Theory!

The first lift took us to the Midi station from which the early morning skies lit up the beautiful snow arête that was our route. Roped together we set off, not wasting a minute as we had a lot of ground to cover and speed was essential. The situation was awe inspiring with a drop of 2500m on one side falling all the way back to Chamonix and 1000m on the other into the Vallee Blanche, a slip could not be contemplated!

The beautiful airy knife-edge soon gave way to the first rocky steps of Rognon du Plan which gave some entertaining but easy mixed climbing.

From the summit two rather awkward abseils took us down to the Col Superior du Plan from which we traversed the ice slopes at the top of the Glacier d’Envers towards the summit of Aig. du Plan.

At the top of the snow slopes there was a convenient ledge upon which we left our bags before the final summit blocks which were reached by some interesting maneuvers on the famed clean Chamonix Granite!

That was the easy part done, the traverse completed in precise guidebook time of 4hrs, but now we had 2000m of descent down the complex terrain of the ‘Envers glacier and onto the Mer de Glace! To make things a little more entertaining the strong sun had softened the snow, and what looked like it should be an easy glissade had to be treated with great care! Through some stunning serac territory we slowly wound eventually reaching the halfway point of the Requin hut, where our energy stores were replenished with a well earned sandwich. Time was short and we had to race on down the path and ladders onto the Mer de Glace. Unfortunately, since the ladders we put in the glacier has moved and they dropped us onto a seriously convoluted crevasse field!

After much discussion about the best way to navigate this savage nest of fractures we resorted to the adrenaline pumped tactic of jumping where we could and zig-zagging when we had too! This took us around 2hrs to travel about 200m down the glacier and we were in serious danger of missing the last train from Montevers! Luckily once we were clear of the crevasses were onto known terrain and it took us less than 45min to cover the last few miles and soon we were safely on the train, resisting the urge to steal sweets from innocent kids to feed our ravenous bellies!

A great route, long day and the wonderful feeling of exhausted contentment that makes climbing so addictive!