Chris Graham

Font 3 - Mega(lithe) Fail

2012-01-24T12:05:00.007Z

Day 3 in font and it's damp. With only a couple of hours til my train ride and with nothing to lose we played for a wild stab in the dark and went back to Megalithe (7c+) at Rocher Greau.

We tried this yesterday and to reiterate I love this problem! Its technical sequence is relentless and the top is high enough to make it very difficult to relax on the bad bad holds. The problem was dryish today, the bottom at least, and after scaring myself immensely straddled atop the boulder trying to dry the finishing holds I gave it half an hour of power.

Sadly it wasn't to be but I learnt a lot and am posting this video to ensure I remember the sequence for my return trip in May...

Font 2 - Rocher Greau and the Magic Circus

2012-01-23T21:35:00.003Z

Sounds a little like a Harry Potter book...

Day 2 was a good one, although it was close to being a great one. After a bit of a lie-in we headed to Rocher Greau, the home of the mighty Tigre et Dragon (8a). Adam's had this on his radar for a while and today he was on fine form, dispatching the problem in a handful of goes.

We turned our attention to the huge prow of Energie Renouvelable (7b+) - pic right and vid below. What a fantastic feature this is with great moves to match including a lock from the break that is very very close to my limit! I was more than a bit sketchy at the top (it's a little difficult to share beta with a 6ft 4 giant) Adam's face says it all in the video! "You got me?" What a wimp!

Check it out below (Adam also dispatched the assis at 7c+, his Nike 6.0s don't say beast for nothing)...

After that success and some Lindt to celebrate it was on to the impressive Megalithe (7c+) - this is a fantastic line on thin crimps up an arete. I got high really quickly, unlocking the technical sequence high up the arete. Adam stepped in to dispatch and I was robbed of an ascent with my hand practically on the last hold. This one will have to wait but is going down!

We finished up at Paradis, the oddest of areas tucked away in the trees beyond some open fields. We were hunting for the Magic Circus - a huuuge double dyno. In some rather damp conditions both me and the big man tickled the sidepulls but as the rain came pouring we retired for the day and left another project on the list.

Font 1 - Salle Gosse & Mandarin

2012-01-22T21:05:00.005Z

This is the first of at least 2 font trips I'll be taking this year and it's been a while so I was concerned it could take some time to find the font finesse (as coined by an old bleausard slating Porter's technique!). However it was off to a quick start dispatching the classic Salle Gosse (7c) at Roche aux Sabots, which suited me thanks to my freaky ability to get 3 fingers in 2 fingered pockets! Pic below of Salle Gosse and today's team of Adam, Porter (who insisting on getting some E9 in - on sale at a shop near you) and kiwis Ben and Micky.

After that Adam and I headed off to check out Mandarin (8a) at Oiseaux - which is one of the coolest problems I've ever tried. Here's me on the hard part which is basically getting your foot out and in a position to press to the top (you go off the palm and again with your right - how cool?!?). Would like to do this and it felt very feasible so I may be back.

En Route to Fontainebleau

2012-01-21T20:44:00.001Z

I've just arrived in Fontainebleau, France where I'm out for a rapide 4 day visit, joining Watson who is on an extended trip in the magic forest.

Thanks to an outrageously good deal I took the Eurostar in, which is great, think I've done more work confined to my seat

on the train than any other day at the office for weeks! I particularly like that you can walk straight out of Gare du Nord into the heart of Paris, and as Adam is providing the mats I thought why not take the stroll down to Gare du Lyon.

This turned out to be rather extended as I was stupid enough not to bring a map and stubborn enough not to want to turn on my 3G - so I followed my nose down the only street I know in that area from a previous visit (Rue La Fayette) on a very indirect route - although it did take me past the impressive Academie de Musique (left) and the apple shop :-)

After a quick cappuccino (which was SO good I nearly turned my 3G back on to tell the world) I arrived at Gare du Lyon (where I realised they can't half build a good train station - right, good clock!) and took a quick ride to Font to be picked up by chauffeur Jeeves...oops sorry Adam.

Anyway I'm babbling - tomorrow I'll tell you about some boulders hopefully!

Preparation H - Northumberland's Finest?

2011-09-13T17:11:00.005Z

I'm going to continue as though it hasn't been 18 months since my last blog... ;-)

Ok the above statement is bold but it's difficult to find the combination of rock and moves that is quite as good as...Preparation H (bad name though), a recent 8a added to the left of the phenomenal Northern Soul.

Last weekend I had a day of highs and lows in the county, nearly turning my back completely on outdoor climbing after (re-)discovering just how poop Bowden Doors is (I'm sorry it is just soft sandy rubbish) and nearly going home or at least back to the wall! But after tomato and basil soup and a coffee in Wooler I gave the county a second chance, ending up at Hepburn boulders and remembering just how good we have it away from the popular crags. It took me a couple of sessions but I re-found my psych, dragging almost the entire Climb Newcastle team (thanks guys) to spot two days later and send the repeat...

Here's the action...

And is it Northumberland's finest? No probably not, but I reckon you could drive as far south as Fontainebleau til you find rock quality as good as this!

The psych is back...

Climb Newcastle Winter Bouldering Series

2010-03-17T16:01:00.004Z

Wow, we had some fun this year!

Here's my competition report as sent to the press...

Friday night saw the finale of the Climb Newcastle Winter Bouldering Series with another superb turnout of over 150 competitors. With the scores tight in many of the categories, and in many of the mini-rivalries, there was all to play for on a very technical set of problems (a fine example here) created earlier in the day by the setting team of Andy Earl, Suzan Dudink and Chris Graham.

In the junior events it was Tom Rookes and Sid Graham who came out top, Tom making sure of the win on the night with in impressive score of 300 points. In the senior female category Karin Magog won on the night to take the title ahead of Libby Barrow and Kate Watson. In the men's event Nigel Callender was finely balancing getting the job done on the night with saving some skin for the next day's British University Championships, and a great job he did, taking 330 points to clinch victory.

In the vets, Steve Crowe was edged on the night by the impressive Tim Carruthers, who travelled across from the West especially, but with another strong performance Steve saw off the challenge of Rick Barnes behind to take overall victory. And Ali McDonald squeezed past Helen Wells on the night by 2 points to win overall and become the only one of last year's winners to defend a Winter Bouldering Series title.

So after 5 rounds with 283 competitors, over 100,000 points won, £3000 of prizes raffled out and records smashed left, right and centre the 2009/10 Climb Newcastle Winter Bouldering Series comes to an end with 1 title defended and 5 new winner's names on the WBS trophies.

Full results and round 5 galleryon the Climb Newcastle website.

Here's looking forward to November when it all begins again...

Scarpa Instincts

2010-01-21T21:21:00.006Z

I've been testing the new Scarpa Instinct Shoes (which come in slippers and lace-ups) for a good couple of months now, and I'm happy to say that the Lace Ups are now in the shops, well more precisely in the Climb Newcastle shop, ready to buy.

The two Instinct shoes are very different in their performance (the Lace Up certainly being the shoe of choice for small edges), however they are very alike in that they are both very very comfortable considering the performance they give. I for one am struggling to get used to Boosters after the comfort of wearing these! This is good news as a climbing centre/shop owner too as they nicely fill the gap between the Force and Booster/Magos on our shelf.

You can check 'em out and buy them online here.

Image: Salesman extraordinaire Chris in action.

Accapi Nexus Testing

2009-12-16T16:23:00.004Z

Back in October I was given some Accapi Nexus products to test out, including t-shirts, an elbow support and a 'photonizer' water bottle cover. All contain the unique Nexus fibre which aids in blood circulation resulting in all sorts of benefits particularly improved recovery and even performance. More info on their website.

I quite often get very bad elbows when training lots and in a funny way I was looking forward to testing out the elbow support for recovery.

After 3 days of setting and testing 70 near world cup standard problems at Climb Newcastle in preparation for the British Team's visit last weekend (see last post) it's fair to say my body and particularly my arms took an absolute hammering! In fact by the time we tested the last men's problem on Friday I was on the floor in agony with pain in my right arm from my wrist to my neck!

3 days (of Accapi elbow support) later and I'm back training again and I've been astonished to find that not only am I getting no pain either during or after climbing but I'm pushing myself more than ever. I have to say I'm impressed!

We now sell Accapi Nexus products in our centre shop and also on the Climb Newcastle website, admittedly they aren't cheap but then again they've probably already saved me a visit to a physio!

Eternal Setting

2009-12-07T19:14:00.003Z

Absolutely knackered after setting nearly 70 new problems at Climb Newcastle with Andy and Suzan in the past week, in preparation for the British Bouldering Team's training weekend.

Here's a little beauty from our red set...

Day Out at Great Wanney

2009-11-06T19:05:00.005Z

In May 2005 I visited Great Wanney to repeat Endless Flight Direct (E8) and before doing so got distracted by this little problem at the right end of crag. It is a sit start from under a little roof to gain the start of a route which is I think If Looks Could Kill at about fb 7b.

This week I managed to get on top of some jobs so Andy, Suzan and I headed to Great Wanney for some fresh air and to check it out. Despite getting very wet feet walking in, doing the problem again made the trip out pretty worthwhile.

The shoes I'm testing in the pic are prototype Scarpa Instinct Lace Ups.

Climb Newcastle is One!

2009-10-22T07:24:00.003Z

Wow, it doesn't seem like a year but tomorrow we celebrate our first year of opening at Climb Newcastle.

Over the course of a year we've had 30,000 visits to the climbing centre, set over 1,000 problems, made thousands of coffees and brought hundreds of people into this exciting sport.

Tomorrow we are hosting a competition at the centre, followed by an after-party at HYEM bar on Chillingham Road where we will be giving away over £1000 of raffle prizes! Hopefully you can come and celebrate with us...

More info on the Climb Newcastle site.

I'm Back!

2009-06-03T16:45:00.004Z

I know what you're thinking...I haven't blogged since November! It isn't that I haven't had things to talk about, I just haven't had time to write them down!

Anyway back at the start of May I had a serious go at Dan Varian's fantastic Ark Royal at Queens. I got through the crux bottom section but fell near the top.

Since then i haven't really climbed for various reasons (not least a head cold that has lasted 2 weeks!) but today I returned and grabbed the 3rd ascent of this stunning line and the 1st ground up. The ground up bit is only significant in that it meant I had to do the bottom several times before success on the top moves which are heavily dependant on body position meaning they have a bit of a knack to them. Indeeed before success today I fell off even higher, hitting the edge of the mat and was probably lucky to only stub my toe!

I should probably mention that I did the 'Andy Earl sequence' to the problem, slightly more sane that Dan's crazy double dyno! Just to clear a couple of things up, contrary to what has been reported in some places the sequence on the starting crux section is identical to Dan's, a low probability snatch for a 2 finger pocket off a very high heel. At the top however it does differ, getting the pocket around the arete on it's right side allows a rockover to just right of Dan's finish. Although finishing Dan's way would have been great, the new finish certainly seems logical from a ground up perspective and removes any chance of the problem being labelled an eliminate which would be a shame for what is a stunning line.

I look forward to seeing the sitter done (not by me!) which will arguably complete the finest piece of hard climbing in the UK.

Climb Newcastle - New Newcastle Climbing Centre Opens

2008-11-04T21:37:00.005Z

Climb Newcastle, Newcastle's dedicated bouldering centre, is now open. Combining extensive circuits of boulder problems with training and coaching areas, this is one of the largest centre's of its type worldwide.

I'm very happy to have been (one third) part of this amazing project and hope that it brings lots of enjoyment for climbers of all ages and abilities in the North East. If you haven't been yet, go check it out!

There's more info on our website www.climbnewcastle.com

Strong

2008-07-29T17:17:00.004Z

No not me...Having been manically busy for a couple of months I'm a bit out of training but these guys certainly pack a good bit of power...! After spending a couple of days in Cumbria, a chance coincidence led to being at the Highland Games in Luss on Sunday.

Maybe after lifting the 400 sheets of plywood for the wall I'll be ready for the caber!

Climb Newcastle

2008-07-15T20:50:00.003Z

Well the cat is well and truly out of the bag...

As some of you will know I have been involved in a project to open a dedicated bouldering centre in Newcastle for some 18 months now. Last month we finally secured a property in Byker and construction has now begun.

Climb Newcastle, the vision of myself and fellow local climbers Andy Earl and Darren Stevenson will open this winter. The centre will be dedicated to bouldering, its coaching and training, using our extensive experience in coaching and competition climbing. The building is an exciting prospect for this; as a former swimming pool it has one giant room which is a fantastic arena and beyond a maze of rooms on 3 floors which you can quite literally get lost in.

More information is on our website www.climbnewcastle.com but now that this is public knowledge I'll be keeping things up to date on the blog.

Val di Mello

2008-06-29T14:52:00.005Z

Almost perfect timing for a trip with things going slightly crazy, last thursday I met up with andy, suzan, martin and tom (the hulk) and flew out for 3 days of climbing at Val di Mello in Italy.

We touched down late on Thursday in Milan Bergamo but things didn't exactly run to plan as BMIbaby had managed to lose Martin's bag and his bouldering mat!

What was worse than Martin stinking for the next few days would be the fact that we only had 2 small mats and some pretty big boulder problems to go at. Next morning we hit the rocks, it was hot and humid despite being high up and although the problems were very pleasant it was difficult to climb anything difficult. This would be the theme of the trip as the next morning we got up even earlier only to find that the sun was roasting as soon as it was out. Fortunately we found some good shade to get some stuff done.

By Sunday it was so hot we had all but given up on the climbing, turning to our new sport of choice...table tennis...for a big tournament. I think the rankings were:
1: Stinky Smith. 2: Dutchie. 3: Kung Fu panda. 4: Come-back Earl. 5. The Hulk.

As we finished the ping pong, Martin's stuff arrived through an allmighty miracle and so we went highballing to finish the day. A day of travelling later and back in the Uk...let the chaos begin...

It's been a while...

2008-06-10T17:53:00.006Z

Hmm, a little out of touch with the blogging, what have you missed...?

Well May and June have all been work work work but I can't talk about much of that as it's all under wraps. When I've had a chance i've done a bit of climbing but really just plodding along.

Talking about climbing, the new Northumberland bouldering guide is out to buy in shops now and features some great pics from Mark Savage who has done a great job making the guide look good and I'm glad to see there is plenty of me in it!

Back at the office my current work is rounding off nicely as the summer approaches, just a few minor tweaks to the code and I should have some nice results.

So not much to say really but I'm off to Italy for 3 days next week so I will be back soon this time...

Ps check out this mini on the side of an NCP car park in Newcastle!

New Snap website and other bits and pieces

2008-05-13T17:47:00.004Z

First a free plug...Recently I've been doing a bit of web stuff for Snap bouldering mats and we've just launched their new look website with products available to purchase online. Check it out at snapclimbing.co.uk.

Meanwhile other than that it's been more busy busy, have been out climbing a couple of times but not this weekend as it has been simply too hot to go out in the sun!

This week I'm doing a lot of programming as I've found some bugs in my code but thankfully I finished by last marking for the semester this morning so I should be much more productive from now on!

Back soon...

Busy Busy

2008-04-29T14:24:00.003Z

Well April is flying bye in a haze of work and very soon it will be May. The weather has turned good, it's almost warm enough to start climbing at the higher up crags of Northumberland again which is good, but I will need to make some time! Anyway, at the weekend I got half a day free to do the problems at the Durham Climbing Centre comp. Was suprisingly not climbing too bad and turns out I won so it was worth the long trip, Darren won the vets category but next time he will definitely have to drop back down to the real man's event! Only problem now is I'll have to go back to claim my prize...maybe at the next one!

Out and About at Shaftoe

2008-04-17T20:00:00.008Z

After my seminar yesterday i needed to clear my head, and what better way then to escape the city for a late afternoon/evening's climb at Shaftoe. I went with the intention of getting back on the Roadside Wall Sit Start which I had been getting relatively close to before my extended road trip of Middle Englandshire.

It turns out I have oodles of really soft skin and the sharp holds were just tearing my tips to shreds, that and I need to work on my flexibility if I'm to avoid literally pulling up on the razor sharp crimps with my feet totally off. Hmm, a week's trying to get my foot round my head should sort that. To be continued...

On the other boulders lots of stuff was fairly damp but I suprised myself by doing Purely Belter (8a) in just one go (I have done it before several years ago mind). I used to think these holds were sharp but after hanging around on the roadside razors they felt good! I only struggled when i reached the finishing holds and was making the strenuous mantle onto the top of the boulder. It was at this point with my arms pushing desperately down on the holds, that Andy and Suzan's dog Fonz decided to run round the top of the boulder and greet me by licking my face. Thanks Fonzie!

I have an old photo of Purely Belter from when i did it the first time (right), I need to buy a new camera soon! The photo shows how small the holds are and how steep the wall is quite nicely.

We finished off at the Areteland area where after having some almost inevitable troubles with the "Long Reach" I got a grip of my body position and made a quick repeat of the 7b+ sit start.

All in all not too bad a day out.

Particle Production through Warm Inflation Seminar

2008-04-16T22:34:00.004Z

Today I gave an 45 minute seminar entitled "Particle Production through Warm Inflation" in the department to a wide audience of applied mathematicians and physicists.

The talk covered much of the work i have been doing over the past 6 months or so which looks at radiation produced through warm inflation as an alternative to the standard view of inflation where an extra period of "reheating" is required in order for the Hot Big Bang to proceed as normal. The production and thermalisation of these particles (in an expanding universe) was the subject of this talk which was of interest to several others in the department as the equations used are similar for example to those solved in Bose-Einstein condensation.

Although computationally pretty challenging so far I've managed to produce some promising simulations. We'll be following this research road for a while yet though i think..

Out of office

2008-04-14T22:28:00.003Z

I've been away for more than a week, seems like longer and seems like I've seen most of England (and Wales) in that time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures at the moment (recall from my last post the story about the camera!) but to name just a few things I've been up to they would include stonehenge, a safari park, many travelodges, a few relatives, a cosmology conference, an international open climbing competition, a very wet country (Wales), a big tower, a castle and several museums. Phew!

Paranoia Sit Start

2008-04-01T08:40:00.008Z

Another day and another problem done. What a day it was too, starting with clear blue skies but no winter chill and the calmest winds we've had all year. I knew exactly where I was going - back to the Old Bewick hill to complete my final project - but I knew that I would have to be patient and wait for some cloud cover. So I sat the morning out waiting.

Mid afternoon and I was at the boulder, the clouds covering nicely but starting to threaten rain. After warming up I worked the crux sequence, a difficult foot release whilst holding a high undercut on what is a super steep bit of rock (see pic below). I couldn't do the move on its own, I knew that it was the sort of move you only did when you really WANT it, and that would be on the link. So I brushed the holds and prepared.

After a few goes failing at the crux I surprised myself, holding the lock and suddenly found myself staring at the finishing hold like it was the barrel of a gun. I knew if I missed the final hold I'd take the roll down the hill and when my left hand moved slightly I bottled it and jumped off. It's not called Paranoia for nothing! I spent the next 5 minutes annoyed that I hadn't gone for it.

Then came the rain, just spitting very slightly. I knew I had to finish it there and then. Back through the crux again and this time there was no mistake, getting the heel on a little bit faster to give that little bit extra juice I needed for the top.

I'm giving the new problem, Paranoia Sit Start, a grade of 7c, just slightly harder than the right arete. It's great climbing, blemished slightly by the loose rocks at the sit start and not knowing where to stand. Fortunately the hard climbing is above this so it matters little.

Oh, and the vid is here...

After doing the problem i was taking some pics of the scenery and my camera slipped out of my hand. I got a taste of what falling off the top badly would be like as it bounced down the hill off two boulders, then a tree and then picked up speed, ending up 100 feet away! Oh well, I fancied a new one anyway!

Roadside Wall, Shaftoe

2008-03-31T09:39:00.004Z

The Roadside Wall (now ~7c) was something I climbed a long long time ago but has become much harder since the snapping and deterioration of a good hold. Recently I took it upon myself to reclimb it as it's a good problem on a great, picturesque boulder. Now the pulling on to the problem is definitely the hard part using some thin ripples where the good hold used to be and sitting on your right foot to make the big move for the right sidepull. Once this is gained you just have to keep your cool!

Here's a vid...

BUSA '08

2008-03-30T23:24:00.003Z

Hmm, falling behind a little with my blogging. So after my last blog I traveled to Sheffield to compete for Newcastle Uni at the the British University (BUSA) Championships. No silverware this time but much fun was had during and after the comp til the early hours.

Right: Living up to my reputation bypassing all the yellow holds in the groove to go through the roof on the volumes!

Back to the Hill

2008-03-18T09:42:00.004Z

During a very busy day on Friday I managed to sneak in a couple of hours back up the hill to climb another new problem. I met up with Alec, the original boulder guru, who was keen for me to get on his old project up the centre of the prow. This turned out to be not too bad climbing but the height above the ground which is sloping away quickly makes it a relatively serious boulder problem! The new problem is called Paranoia and goes at 7a+.

Jeux sans Frontières

2008-03-09T19:59:00.002Z

Well if you've wondered why I've been quiet with my blogging for the last month then this is why. I have been playing a waiting game. Late last year I visited the Hanging Rock high above the hamlet of Old Bewick and spotted a potential sit start to this stunning arete. Unfortunately the exposed position of the boulder means that effectively the area is a no-go when the wind is blowing even mildly at the foot of the hill. In fact I walked up the hill 4 times before even pulling on to the rock because it was just too cold.

So it is with some relief that this afternoon, in the calm before the coming storm, I seized the opportunity and put the hill project to rest. Jeux sans Frontières goes at a tentative fb 7c. Tentative mainly due to the nature of the sit-start moves which suit me down to the ground, two big moves on inadequate handholds on a super-steep wall saved only by a good right heel. When the wild slapping is over and a half decent shallow pocket gained on the arete, the rest of the problem is in the bag, if only because the holds are so sharp that the motivation not to have to use them again overrides any feeling of weakness (the top holds rip skin with one go only!).

Above: Checking out the holds and the exposed view from the Hanging Rock

WMAP 5 year data released

2008-03-06T23:28:00.006Z

Yesterday NASA and the WMAP science team released its five year Cosmic Microwave Background data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Here is what the universe looked like 13.7 billion years ago at the surface of last scattering:

Img: NASA/WMAP Science Team

For those of you not up to speed, the small temperature fluctuations shown as colour differences in the image above were the seeds for the large scale structure we observe today in the form of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The fact that we have a picture of the universe when it was some 400,000 years old means that the information we can take from this temperature map is phenomenal. In particular it can tell us the answers to some of the most fascinating questions we can ask...What size is the universe? What shape is it? What is it made up of? How has it evolved? For myself and many others, the Gaussianity of the temperature fluctuations holds the key to understanding the first moments of the universe, and this will be one of the most critically analysed aspects of the data.

From a personal perspective it is also great to have been cited by the main paper "Cosmological Interpretation" released with the data. To demonstrate the impact these papers have, the equivalent paper released with the 1st year of data is listed as the 5th most cited paper of all time on the Spires-Hep database at the end of 2007.

Working hard on the road

2008-02-01T14:29:00.000Z

Well, what a 48 hours it has been. After effectively triple booking my time it started with a drive to Penrith on Wednesday evening to run a coaching session on slab skills. After a fine pizza at Gianni's in the town centre andy and I hit the road, arriving in Sheffield just after midnight.

The next day andy was setting an elite (read very difficult) circuit for Scarpa and Climbing Works. My job was to film the day to produce a promo film...

Then in the horrific weather we drove back North so that I could make it to another coaching session, this time at Sunderland. Almost completely knackered there was still some life left in me as i spent the rest of last night painfully editing 2 hours of footage into 3 minutes!

And so to today and this afternoon it is all done, here is the finished article...watch out for my cameo appearance!

2008 Begins Busy

2008-01-17T14:55:00.000Z

Well, a hectic start to 2008 with just loads going on. Not much to tell on the climbing front, it's been wet here seemingly for weeks. Small window of opportunity opening up for this coming saturday though.

Anyway, on the climbing side, I was asked to write a review of my climbing year which you can read over on my scarpa blog...

Apart from that there's a whole load of other stuff going on and research is looking up too. Will report back soon...

12th Night

2008-01-06T20:48:00.001Z

Well the decorations are down, but I realised that I never posted a picture of the christmas tree this year (which is tradition!) so I've dug out this rather brightly lit photo from some time last week.

Right, I'm off to finish the gluhwein before it becomes unlucky! Frohe Weihnachten!

Party!

2007-12-21T20:27:00.000Z

Last night was our christmas party with the kids from the Rock Solid Junior Climbing Team. A good turn out of nearly 20 kids all seemed to enjoy themselves! No pics yet of me as fat santa but give it time!

Anyway one of the kids sent me a link to this, featuring the two coaches - Andy and I - getting into the festive spirit...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1498029998

Durham Annual Theory Meeting

2007-12-20T19:53:00.000Z

Well I'm back from Durham after 3 days at the 2007 Annual Theory Meeting in the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, which focuses on the current status of various topics related to Particle Physics.

These meetings have been held just before christmas every year since 1961 and consistently produce a top line up of theorists to lecture. This year the new Wolfendale Lecture Theatre was venue for the talks in an impressive and colourful cylindrical building (see below).

It was good to hear some 'light' introduction/reviews of string theory which seems to be talked about by many but understood by very few. The highlight of the conference however was superstar Rocky Kolb's entertaining lecture on the status of cosmology (see microblog).

On a more serious note however, there is a lot of upset in the particle physics community as they have been hit badly by recent budget cuts for scientific research by the government. The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) plans to balance the shortfall of funding by stopping preparatory work on the proposed International Linear Collider and pulling out of the international Gemini telescope project. It is also slashing funds available for research grants by 25%, cutting funding for space-based scientific instruments by one-third, and reducing support for solar physics and high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. All in all this is a bleak picture for Physics in the UK. You can read more here and sign a petition to reverse the decision.

Before I go i should compliment Collingwood College for their superb food and accommodation provided throughout the conference and if there are any students thinking about going to Durham University and looking for accommodation I can thoroughly recommend it.

Burbage North

2007-12-16T21:21:00.000Z

Had a day out at Burbage North on Wednesday, mainly to spot Andy attempting another grit 8b as I'd been at eldon wall for 5 hours the previous day!

After watching him and Aido split some tips on their respective projects we went for a walk along the crag and found this hidden beauty, Boyager which is a 7bish prow above a very bad landing. I was pleased to flash it, especially so that i didn't have to test the landing! Vid below...

This weekend I will be working mainly, finishing christmas shopping and getting ready for a conference in Durham next week. Back soon!

Scarpa Vids

2007-12-14T17:38:00.000Z

I'm blogging in a slightly backwards way here because I've been so flat out working for two days that I thought I'd talk about that before returning to what i was doing before the crazyness set in!

Late last week I was commissioned by the Mountain Boot Company to put together a 20 minute film to play in a display at Tiso's in the Ratho Adventure Centre, Scotland. This has been taking much of my days (and nights) to get done and was certainly a challenge for my ageing computers.

The film is a compilation of the Scarpa youtube videos that I produced after the Scarpa team weekend earlier this year, along with some features on their climbing shoe range and production. As well as the videos from the summer there are several brand new clips. This is likely to get sent to almost every climbing store in the country so keep your eyes peeled.

Testing models of inflation with cosmic microwave background non-Gaussianity

2007-12-05T10:23:00.000Z

Today is the last day you can download my first published paper from the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics for free. Papers are available for 30 days after publication (which was 6th November). JCAP had an impact rating of 6.175 (this is the average number of citations) in 2006 which makes it one of the highest in the field. here is the abstract...

Two different predictions for the primordial curvature fluctuation bispectrum are compared through their effects on the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations. The first has a local form described with a single parameter fNL. The second is based on a prediction from the warm inflationary scenario, with a different dependence on wavenumber and a parameter fWI. New expressions are obtained for the angular bispectra of the temperature fluctuations and for the estimators used to determine fNL and fWI. The standard deviation of the estimators in an ideal experiment is roughly 5 times larger for fWI than for fNL. Using three-year WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) data gives limits -375 < fwi < 36.8, but there is a possibility of detecting a signal for fWI from the Planck satellite.

November Rain

2007-11-28T17:15:00.000Z

Well it's been wet...very wet in Newcastle. Some mornings it's now so dark that you wouldn't believe the sun has risen at all. So the constant rain from last week might now put an end to my north facing projects for the winter and perhaps it's time to turn the attention elsewhere for some winter climbing (no I don't mean ice axes).

Meanwhile, while the crags are drying out I'm in the middle of two weekend trips. Last weeknd it was to BoulderUK in Blackburn for their annual Plywood Masters, to try and keep my eye in on the comp style problems. Although the lack of training was showing on some of the more powerful problems, I managed all of the 'trick' ones and had a good day out.

Next weekend it's a trip north to our former home, Edinburgh, to do some christmas shopping and get away from the endless cycle of marking that has plagued the last 6 weeks! Hopefully when I return it'll have turned cold and dry again! Bye for now...

The Hard Drive, the Mushroom and High Fidelity

2007-11-16T10:58:00.001Z

Hmm, this is like one of those films where lots of different stories cross, except that they probably don't in this case it's just that it's all gonna get crammed together in my memory...

So it starts on Wednesday when I get a phone call at the office from Andrew to tell me that his external hard drive has erased itself. So I tell him to bring it in the morning to take a look at. So this morning we were heading to Caley. I'm bored in the car, making triangles out of crisp packets (just to wind him up 'cause he hates it) and trying on his E9 hats while Andrew is conversing with Suzan.

Being a biologist, for some reason Suzan is convinced that there is something wrong with the pair of us, and that my brain is abnormal for a human being just because I make triangles out of crisp packets! It was only when we sent her a message suggesting that I could be a mushroom that we all realised just HOW GOOD I look in the E9 mushroom hat.

When I tried to persuade Andrew that he had too many E9 hats and should give this one to me he played hard ball, but fortunately I had a trick up my sleeve as we hadn't quite agreed the terms if I miraculously fixed Andrew's hard drive. So the terms were that if I fixed it I could have the mushroom hat along with 'a favour' from his County Climbing Company partner (who wasn't too impressed at that when informed!)!

Anyway so we get to Caley, Andy brushes the holds and sets off, not expecting to get too far on his first go. Undoubtedly inspired by my awesome spotting ability he waltzed straight past the crux to top it out first try. Good effort from the sparrow legs! You can watch the full video on the scarpa youtube pages but here's what I thought of his ascent...

And in the end I didn't need to fix the hard drive (probably much to the relief of aforementioned CCC partner) but I did manage to guilt andrew into giving me the mushroom hat which is keeping my head warm around Newcastle today!

Peak Trips and General Busyness

2007-11-12T22:07:00.000Z

Last weekend it was a trip to the peak district for a well deserved break after a very busy week in the office - after running a session with the British Team on the Friday morning I went to attempt Master Kush (7c+) at Rivelin, which you might recall I tried much earlier in the year but was a bit hot. It all felt a bit familiar as I arrived exhausted from dragging two mats up the hill, with warm holds making the difficult swing inevitably difficult to hold. Just to rub it in the midges came out (this is November isn't it!?) and I called it a night! I grabbed some pain au chocolat and orange juice for the morning and headed to Stoney Middleton to meet up with the uni climbing club and grab a space in the hut, my night's accomodation

Saturday morning was an early start despite the late night, I had a problem I wanted to check out before the main day's climbing so I awoke early, 7am, creeping past 40 sleeping students to take a shower. After waking up a couple of spotters (!) we jumped in the car and headed for the boulder. Of course I hadn't bothered to check the weather when I woke up so we arrived to find rather damp rock.

Rather surreally I was back from climbing at 8:40am wondering what to do with the rest of the day! So after some breakfast it was off for a slow day at Stanage ticking off the classics (see end of post for video action) like the Green Traverse, Buckstone dyno and Deliverence. The early start would later catch up with me and cut the weekend short!

Back in Newcastle for the start of the week things were going much better research-wise and by Wednesday I was ahead of myself with a little time to spare. So I agreed to take a one day trip with Earl and Stevenson to Burbage...Another early 6am start we made good progress via starbucks to the burbage car park, only for the drizzle to begin. Still it was dry enough at least for Darren to have a go at the Terrace and Andy to feel the holds on Voyager. When the rain set in we finished the day off at Climbing Works on their difficult new yellow circuit.

So to the last couple of days; Saturday saw a trip to town to buy trousers then up to Paxton over the Scottish border for a ceilidh. Much dancing and fun was had but unfortunately we had to drive back late due to coaching the Rock Solid club on the Sunday morning.

This week more busyness, maybe a cheeky trip out climbing and hopefully a quiet weekend coming up.

Finally as promised some video. Take one comedy E9 jumper (available at a stockist near you, a cheerful spotter and a classic peak problem and you get the following...

...I was looking good up until the mantle when I forgot how to climb! But I guess that's what knees are for...

Quick Update

2007-10-24T16:29:00.001Z

OK, so recent activity as follows...

Last Thursday was my last appearance representing Newcastle Uni's Elite Athlete Squad as a guest at the visit of new university VC Chris Brink to the Sports Centre. About ten of us VIPs met with him to discuss sport in the university. The VC is like the university King so it was good to meet him, he is also a Mathematician by academia so looking forward to preferential treatment for our department. I have now said goodbye to the EAS officially, this corresponds with my standing down from the British Bouldering Team and concentrating on non-competitive climbing and other things.

At the weekend I was hoping to get back to Crag X to finish the remaining project routes. Unfortunately I found that on Friday that access to the area is unavailable this weekend so I checked out another new spot out in the hills. This is a big cave, 3 or 4 metres long, finishing with super-slopey tops. My main aim of this session was to get it cleaned, concentrating on the obvious traverse which has some cool funky moves, toe hooks, heels and all. Unfortunately no photos yet...more next week when I return.

Since then it's work work work, about 250 scripts on my desk to mark. Ouch! More at the weekend...

More Secret Venue Teasers

2007-10-11T23:03:00.000Z

As promised some videos from last weekend's new venue...

The first is the awesome traverse of the steep wall, the Sandman Traverse (7a). This starts in a big hole at the right end of the wall and makes a wide move to reach a large handrail of good holds, after a tricky move dropping down the bulk of the problem is easy shuffling on jugs. It has a sting in its tail though, with a strenuous mantle finish.

The second is one of the straight up problems on this sections of the wall dubbed Lord of the Springs (7a+). This starts on two rubbish holds with a powerful first move to gain the handrail; this is the steepest bit of the wall and feels easily 45 degrees. From there another big move leads to a super-slopey top-out.

Hopefully I'll get out on the boulders again on Saturday. And on Sunday we coach the junior team. Speak soon...

County Crag X

2007-10-10T17:28:00.000Z

As promised a little teaser of my new secret venue...In my last couple of blogs I've written about bouldering venues in Northumberland that are little known and have had a few problems done on them but with plenty of hard stuff left. This venue is brand new and completely untouched.

There are two disinct parts to the venue and the one that really made my mouth water was the substantial roof, nearly 10 metres long, with a 45 degree wall on one side. I've done just over half a dozen new problems on here but was slightly dissapointed that some of the smaller holds are breaking. Here's a pic and I think you'll see what I mean about the mouth-watering steepness!

Further along there is a pinnacle which was a little too high for one pad (at least with cleaning as I went), in fact the middle of the slab on the front side looks like it could be E7. The big tick here though will be the right arete which I had a play on and seemed hard.

Tomorrow I'll put up some vids ;-)

More esoterica

2007-10-06T22:18:00.000Z

Back in Northumberland on Friday and checking out more new boulders hidden amongst the county's moors. This time it was White House Rocks just north of Alnwick, which had received some attention in the past but had several obvious harder projects waiting to be done.

With more excellent weather forecast I got up early, beating the rush hour traffic and arriving at the crag with the morning chill still in the air. I soon got stuck into the main project, a highball roof easily crossed by a flake system but with only slopers above. This problem was made all the more interesting by a young tree growing close to the landing area and after several cautious attempts I committed to the high mantle to give Reforestation (7a+ highball).

After that the ball was rolling and I added several more problems including a particularly nasty traverse on the next buttress along (Pepper Don't Preach 7b) on some rather marginal slopers. Although the rock quality was mixed I can recommend a visit for the esoteric bouldering connoisseur and I've put all the details up on NorthumberlandBouldering.co.uk.

Back to the Future

2007-10-04T19:41:00.000Z

Well, it's now been a few days since I got back from greece and things have settled a touch. So I can now pick up the story where I left off last Saturday...

10 days ago, just before jetting off to Greece I checked out a little known bouldering venue near to Alnwick in Northumberland. Lemmington Woods is a real piece of Northumberland esoterica but I can recommend a visit for a couple of very good problems and an enjoyable day out. I have put some info and pics of the area on my Northumberland Bouldering website.

I also found time to add a new problem of my own through a little roof on the right end of the main buttress:

After finishing off all the problems there was time for a walk through the woods to check out some cup and ring markings and runes (runic markings) which are extremely rare indeed. Suprisingly, the two markings are found together, yet several thousand years may have seperated their carvings. According to the runic alphabet the carvings spell out L A F (Laguz Ansuz Fehu), the interpretation of which is complex but could refer in some way to the earlier cup and ring markings. You can read more about runes here.

Greece Day 7: Athens

2007-09-30T23:03:00.000Z

With all of your luggage checked in at the airport bag storage and 8 hours free time to spend in the Greek capital, there can only be one place that you head to first. Towering above the Greek capital, the Acropolis turns Athens from what could be any busy city anywhere in Europe to a place overwhelingly steeped in culture.

The Acropolis is made up several different landmarks: the entrance to the site is the spectacular Propylaea, followed quickly by the Erechtheion, site of the legendary contest between Athena and Poseidon, and then most-spectacularly the Parthenon itself, the most famous of Greek landmarks and one which superlatives could rarely do justice. I will spare you most of the historical ramblings, but I did notice one interesting fact: If you have only seen pictures of these landmarks you would be forgiven for thinking of straight lines and 90 degree angles, however on closer inspection one notices that the columns of the Parthenon (left) actually lean in slightly and form a subtle but perfect arc; this was no mistake and was calculated with extraordinary precision in its conception. It's important to remember when visiting the Acropolis to remove your eyes from its stunning structures to also admire a stunning view of this busy city.

Above: the view looking East from the Acropolis.

Above: Remains of the Parthenon.

Above: Looking North from the Acropolis

Above: the Erechtheion

After walking back down, I headed into the Plako region of the city (below) with its tight streets and bags of atmosphere, it is so easy to get lost here; I knew this already and told myself that I wouldn't (but I did). I did some shopping and headed for the flight home. A great finish to a great trip.

Greece Day 6: The Sun Sets on Universenet '07

2007-09-29T00:49:00.000Z

Fernando Quevedo opened things up on the last day of the conference with a fascinating double lecture on string theory. This was a subject that few have a good knowledge of so a great chance to listen to one of the top guys in the field. This was followed by cosmic ray/dark matter lectrures and talks in the afternoon on miscellaneous subjects.

When the talks were finished there was time to head back to the shops and pick up some local specialities for future greek salads at home. A couple of bottles of Mythos and then it was time for another late meal to be had. Shortly after midnight I said goodbye to my fellow participants and went catch up on some valuable sleep before a long day tomorrow.

Greece Day 5: The Conference Banquet

2007-09-27T23:52:00.000Z

After Wednesday's late dinner there were some weary faces in early for the fourth day of the conference. This morning's lectures were a mix of old and new; first up Antonio Riotto presented the second of his pair of inflation lectures, which was once again excellent. After the second dark energy lecture, new topics dark matter and cosmic rays were introduced. The cosmic ray lecture, concentrating more on the observational side of cosmology, was a refreshing change.

Lunch was slightly shortened due to a second conference being held in the theatre later in the day. The afternoon talks on today's topic dark matter made me think what a stray student from this other conference would think on wandering into our conference. I imagine with topics like 'dark energy', 'dark matter' and 'cp violation' they would think that we were from some kind of ministry of evil!

Anyway with the early finish and a late start for the forthcoming conference dinner, there was time to explore Mitylene's shops before catching a quick snooze at the hotel.

It is fairly traditional to have a conference dinner, which is often held on the thursday night for reasons I do not comprehend, as there will no doubt be more very tired people tomorrow morning. The dinner itself was presented buffet style and with nearly 200 present, thankfully our table was first up to fill our plates. We were finishing our deserts before the last table got to the food! The food was good and the free wine most welcome.

Tomorrow the conference concludes and I will begin to think of the work piling up at home!

Greece Day 4: Petra and Molyvos

2007-09-26T23:07:00.000Z

Day 4 kicked off with some morning lectures which were the concluding parts to talks earlier in the week. These were neutrino physics, field theory, cmb anisotropies and large scale structure. The afternoon however was left lecture-free for a conference trip to Petra and Molyvos in the North of the island.

At 2pm we met in force at the theatre and filled 3 buses to begin a winding journey across the mountains in the middle of the island. First stop was the beach at Petra, a small village just a few kilometres south of Molyvos and we would find later very different in character; Petra is a tourist village, with its long sandy beach running far beyond its shops and houses. Nevertheless, you could hardly blame the locals for their shocked faces when 120 cosmologists stepped off at the roadside and took control of the beach! We stayed for two hours, swimming in the (rather cool) sea and playing a multinational volleyball match (top).

As the sun came down in the sky we were back in the bus and North again to Molyvos. The main town in the North of the island, Molyvos is built on a hillside, topped with a medieval castle (above). We walked to the castle, which interestingly was built to replace an original castle that was conquered by Achilles in the Trojan war. Embracing the tourists, the town has thankfully placed a cafe at the top and, after refreshments, we wandered back down the hillside. The character of the town lies in its quirky shops and cafes running down narrow and steep stoney passageways which, thankfully unlike Mytilene, are not spoiled by the sound of motorbikes. One other interesting observation was the presence of cats in the streets, when in the south of the island there were dogs roaming free. I can't tell you why though!

Greece Day 3: More of the Same

2007-09-25T23:59:00.000Z

Well day 3 has been much like day 2, so much so that it will probably blend into one in my long-term memory. Having said that there was no blackout which was a bonus.

Much like yesterday the morning lectures and afternoon talks were split by a trip around town and today some extended quality beach time. This morning's 4 lectures were CMB Anisotropy, Large Scale Structure, Brane-cosmology and Dark Energy. After the siesta the Dark Energy theme was continued into the shorter talks.

Tonight we ate at an interestingly little restaurant seemingly run by a pirate (he looked like one anyway), he also spoke a dutch/greek combo which added additional confusion to a table which was already conversing in 4 languages!!

Tomorrow afternoon the short talks give way to a conference trip to Petra and Molyvos in the North of the island. 120 cosmologists on a beach...imagine if you can!

Greece Day 2: Let the Burn Begin

2007-09-24T23:05:00.000Z

Woke early this morning with the sun shining bright. Although as I arrived at the theatre for the conference welcome I was surprised to hear the organiser complain about the ‘bad’ weather outside (although I assume he was talking about the mildly inconvenient strong winds). The conference began with 4 morning lectures from some of the top guys in their respective fields on field theory, neutrino physics, brane-cosmology and most interestingly for me, generation of perturbations through inflation, presented by Antonio Riotto.

Lunchtime throughout the week is a continental style 3 hour break and rather than catch up on sleep I decided on a walk around the harbour. Mitylene, the capital of the island, is a busy fishing port where the fish nets and sail boats role seamlessly into streets brimming with motorcyclists. It is also a place of new and old; the majestic castle, temple and statues stand proud, but the lively bars and cafes are more reminiscent of home. It was still clear blue skies so I caught up on some sun under the castle before returning.

Back at the conference, the afternoon lectures are reserved for students to present their own work and the organisers have kindly arranged these by subject area so that concentration can be reserved accordingly. Today’s topic was inflation so it was my afternoon to be on the ball. Many of the other afternoons this week I may not be quite so attentive!

As we left the conference at 7pm the entire town fell into darkness in a complete blackout. Interestingly when the electricity goes out on the island so too does the water supply and after stumbling to my hotel room in the complete pitch black (they don’t seem to have heard of emergency lighting here!) I decided that the best thing to do was head straight out for food. Another good night of Greek food and drink and meeting interesting people. Tomorrow more of the same…

Greece day one: life in the airport lounge

2007-09-23T23:52:00.000Z

Day one of the Greece trip was an early one. 4am to be precise and as I pulled away from home airport-bound there were some still coming home from “the bay”. 1st leg of the trip was to Amsterdam for breakfast. After being used to Ryanair and Easyjet for too long, flying with KLM was a pleasure; the staff were pleasant without being robotic, the free food was excellent and the pilot even knew how to land smoothly!

Any hopes of a quick trip into Amsterdam were dashed by the sheer size of Schipol airport. Just walking between the two gates filled most of the time before my second flight. Another excellent KLM flight and I was in Athens for 4pm. A few more hours in Athens Airport (where apparently the titanic theme tune is still popular enough that they have it on loop) and it was off to Mitilini Island, my final destination for the night. Aegaen airlines kept the interesting musical theme running as we took off to Barry White and although I had missed the informal welcome at the conference that evening it seemed as though the entire plane was filled with cosmologists – complete geek overload.

So after grabbing some food out at the harbour’s edge it’s time to call it a day. I’ve seen enough airports for at least the next 5 days and am looking forward to rolling in tomorrow morning. Fortunately the lecture theatre is within rolling distance of my hotel!

Oh and here’s the view from my window tonight. Catch you tomorrow.

Still Here...

2007-09-20T20:45:00.000Z

So where have I been...? I hear you ask!

Seems like ages since I blogged last after the Scarpa Team meeting at the very start of the month. To be honest I'm not sure where the time has gone myself!

At the office it is all a little hectic to say the least, it's now been a couple of weeks since all of the lecturers moved buildings across campus and we were meant to follow the following week. Unfortunately as I speak our floor in the new building is still a building site and with the undergrads returning next week I'm sure it's going to be total chaos (although I won't be there to see it - more on that in a sec').

As for the climbing it has been even slower than the moving as my car has been in the garage for most of the month. I'd have hitched a lift places but most of my time has been spent working on "things I can't discuss" (at least not at the moment!) which for those of you not in the "inner circle" has meant lots of meetings in suits and actually shaving in the mornings! I have managed to keep ticking over with some training at home for some serious climbing in October, although the Scarpa MD Steve Roberts seems to be doing all the work for his sponsored climbers at the moment with some impressive ticks...keep it up Steve!

So to the present... today I've been to a Classical Field Theory conference in Durham. But most excitingly on Sunday I fly out to Mytilene Island in Greece for the first UniverseNet annual meeting on the origin of the Universe. I quote: "This network brings together the major European theoretical physics groups investigating the fundamental physics that shaped our Universe." Topics include string theory, cmb anisotropies, large scale structure formation, dark matter detection, dark energy, brane-world gravity, inflation and density perturbations, neutrino physics and cosmic radiation. Should be great!!

Scarpa Weekend

2007-09-04T18:52:00.000Z

This weekend I attended a development meeting for Scarpa UK at the headquarters of distributor the Mountain Boot Company and the crags of Northumberland. In attendance were the Uk team of sponsored climbers, the Mountain Boot Team, the Scarpa CEO Sandro Parisotto and rock shoe designers Heinz Mariacher and Sirmone Marcon. You can read the official account of the weekend at the Scarpa News page but I thought I'd add a personal viewpoint of the weekend...

It all started on Friday morning with a stressful visit to the bank manager which made the whole day a bit surreal; not least cruising round in suits in a Jag all morning! After rushing home to get changed at lunchtime it was back to the Mountain Boot Company (only 5 mins from my house) for 1pm. The presentations were very insightful and it was great to meet everyone involved. After grabbing some new Zen approach shoes and a couple of Ts it was off to Bowden to climb. At Bowden I worked the tricky and powerful moves of Transformer Left Hand (eliminate version - grade 7c) and after some time linked the difficult moves with a new sequence for those of a moderate height. Afterwards we tried Pulp Friction (7c+) , which I've done before but this was not the day for a repeat!

After pitching the tent we walked into Belford and were treated to a 3 course meal at the Blue Bell courtesy of the MBC. There was no shortage of wine on the table either and by the time we headed down to the bar I had a whole bottle for myself in hand! As the night grew long and me looking somewhat worse for wear (potential business partners) Earl and Stevenson, inspired by a pocket pair of plyers, decided to take advantage of the situation and try to pluck my eyebrow hairs! Teaming up with Martin they tried to pin me down but fortunately I managed to muscle the 3 of them into control and escaped minus only 1 hair! By the time we left everyone was shattered and a good night's sleep was gauranteed.

Although the sleep was good it was all too short as the sun streamed through my tent at 6:30am. After some breakfast it was off to Kyloe in the Woods. It was a day for filming mainly although I did of course the classic problems...here's nice little dyno Playing Rudies:

Back at the campsite for lunch we chilled in the sun and then had a team kick-about on the grass. Most interesting was a new game inspired by Tom's golf club...Someone decided it would be fun to use a coke bottle as a golf ball and after no-one could hit the thing I thought my go would be no different. As I lined up for the swing there was a team chuckle, expecting me to let go of the club (so much so that Tom got his camera out to capture the moment on film). I swung back the club and with contact that Tiger Woods would be proud of I drove the bottle half way across the capsite missing the front of Martin's new car by what could only have been millimetres! I was crippled with laughter and couldn't move for several minutes.

Back on the crags we headed for Back Bowden but turned back on reports that it was a little warm and someone was trying their best to hurt themselves on a County E4 sandbag! So it was back to Bowden for some highballing...(pic courtesy of Darren Stevenson)

Back at the campsite the MBC team had prepared a substantial BBQ and volleyball was in full swing which was great fun. After a bit of food it was time for an epic football match between North and South. South took the early lead with their star striker Leah grabbing some early goals. However North pulled it back after realising that their goalposts were further apart! Martin scored an all-time classic own goal and yours truly managed a couple of stunners from way in my own half to give the North a justified 10-5 win! After that I headed to the camera crew's van where they'd set up a slackline. Made some headway learning how to slackline, making 3 whole steps! More wine and it was off for more sleep!

Sunday morning the plan was Back Bowden but I amongst others was absolutely shattered. So I headed home and spent the rest of the day and most of the night sorting the vids from the weekend which you can check out on the Scarpa Youtube page. I've never been so tired and today (Tuesday) I'm only just recovering! Great weekend!

Top Secret

2007-08-30T10:00:00.000Z

Making use of the good weather over the bank holiday weekend, I was pleased to get the gardening finished (at the front of the house at least) and had a good day out at Caley in Yorkshire coaching the Rock Solid team and doing some problems. Then Tuesday and Wednesday Andy and I checked out a top secret venue in Northumberland; we added a good new problem at about font 7b - here's the second ascent moments after its first...don't bother asking me where it is, I'm sworn to secrecy.

Google Cosmic Microwave Background

2007-08-27T17:43:00.000Z

You may have read in the news recently that the new version (4.2) of the excellent Google Earth now allows the user to look not only down on Earth but also up towards the sky.

This ingenious idea seems likely to be revolutionary for the public knowledge of astronomy. Check out the promo for yourself...

I was most pleased to see that Google Earth includes a layer to view the Cosmic Microwave Background as measured by the WMAP satellite, precisely the data used by myself and many other cosmologists when modelling the early universe. It has never been easier to learn about what I'm studying: more info here.

Refurbished Website

2007-08-23T08:26:00.001Z

While the weather was poor last week I have been refurbishing another of my websites and now have a new look Northumberland Bouldering site. Although the main aim of the site is to encourage boulderers to use a wider range of venues in Northumberland, thus reducing the erosion and damage at some of the more popular venues, hopefully the slicker look will mean it is even more accessible to people.

The main things I've been playing round with are PHP and Javascript, and although I still have loads to learn this at least makes a nice start.

Sieging, tanning and touring: fun stuff for August holidays

2007-08-20T21:16:00.000Z

Back in the office today after a week away - seems like forever since I've been working and almost as long since I've bloged so here's what I've been up to...

Time off started with the back end of the wedding season and a trip to Lindisfarne for the day followed by Kielder reservoir in the North-West of Northumberland the next day. Back to the climbing on Sunday and for some reason I was psyched to go and try one of Northumberland's hardest problems, Desperado (8a+) at Gimmerknowe. This has been unrepeated for too long (2001) so i began my siege! Desperado is basically two very hard moves followed by an ok top out; the first a deep lock off a razor to the lip of a roof. Day one and I was tickling, fingers over the lip but not quite enough to hold it. As for the second move; once the lip is held you swing a foot and release the heel lock (the only thing really holding you on the wall!). It is important to execute this move as a fall results in a descent down the steep hill behind the problem! Need to practice this one a bit before the link!

Above: Desperado...the new nemesis

The rain fell on Monday and Tuesday so I caught up on some paperwork and did some training at the Eldon wall. When the sun did come out again it was blowing a gale and freezing cold so rather than hang on a rope working other projects I headed back to Gimmerknowe for round 2 with Desperado. Not sure I was getting closer or further away...hmm!

After that it was off to Edlingham to give Darren the tour of the highball problems I did this time last year on Bob's Cave. Sad to see that these haven't been climbed much - the lichen has grown back on all the top-outs - but then I think even I had forgotten quite how highball these highballs are! Nevermind was pleased to be finding them ok.

With more bad weather arriving in time for the weekend my main aim for the week was definitely not going to be achieved: NO SUN-TAN

And with only 5 weeks til my pasty torso hits Greece I'm going to have to think quick...if you catch me at Boots buying bronzing lotion you know why!

Peak Weekend Coaching

2007-08-06T11:55:00.000Z

Back home now after two days of coaching in the peak district over the weekend with the Rock Solid junior team. On Saturday we went to the boulders at Burbage South which are excellent for coaching on, then after some cake in the afternoon we headed to Robin Hood's Stride and Cratcliffe, enjoying some warm weather and fortunately never too hot. The kids were great fun and it was really nice to work with a smaller group unlike many of our training sessions where we are stretched across 20 kids.

On the Saturday evening Andy and I went to check out Ryan Pasquill's problem Master Kush (7c+) at Rivelin. Unfortunately we forgot to take a brush up, however despite this and the high humidity I nearly managed to send the problem. In fact, I blame my non-success 50:50 on bracken and the water authority; we had to get back to our car in the reservoir car park which shut at 7:30pm and as I prepared for my last go at the problem I was psyched out of my mind ready to dispatch and as I pulled on I took a last deep breath and accidently chewed on a wayward bracken leaf, completely ruining the moment!! Ok I'll admit that even for me that is a bad excuse!

On the Sunday we went to the excellent Climbing Works in Sheffield city centre; it was hot in there but this was probably a good decision as outside it was sweltering! Everyone had fun and I got to attempt(!) to tan in the lunch break.

This week is very busy, I have weddings and allsorts on, but am very much looking forward to my week off starting Monday and hitting the crags again. Bye for now.

Staggered Sit Start

2007-08-02T20:16:00.000Z

Thismorning it was back to Bowden Doors bright and early to complete some unfinished business. Staggered Sit Start is one of the problems that Scarpa teammate Malcolm Smith added on his rampage across Bowden in 2003, when he added several new problems and sit starts to existing classics. After Andy Earl repeated the problems it emerged that Malc who at the time was going through one of his mutant-machine-strong stages had been perhaps too strong to realise how hard the problems he added actually were and most have now been upgraded one notch. This one was given 7c+ by Malc although 8a has also been suggested.

After doing all but the first one and a half moves at the weekend I was expecting to finish the problem off quickly this morning. After warming up on the standing version I began to work the powerful first move which involves some deep locking and oodles of flexibility to get your left foot up. I quickly had the move sorted, however the extra effort required for the first two moves meant that the top of the problem was even more touch and go. This is a problem to really be at one with your climbing shoes; the slightest bit of movement on the smears or a poorly placed heel hook and you can find yourself flying off in all sorts of directions. Today it was my Scarpa Boosters which came through for me in my hour of need! Of course you can have an amazing pair of shoes but if your footwork is all wrong you are doomed as I found out after taking two falls onto the boulder on the left of the problem, including a nasty one when I stupidly tried to cross feet on two awful smears and ended up landing cross-legged. Ouch!

After that I think I was shaken a bit and started falling off the first move lots, getting really frustrated and thinking about going home. After lying on the ground feeling sorry for myself for a bit, I dusted myself off and decided I had to finish it there and then - amazing what you can do when you don't want to have a wasted day! Then it was back to the office for 1:30: A good day's work! Video below. Super psyched now but with coaching scheduled all weekend I'm sure the kids will knock that out of me!

Summer Arrives

2007-07-30T16:47:00.000Z

Well it took a long time coming but the weather has finally settled up here and the Northumberland hills season has begun! This weekend I enjoyed 2 whole days of climbing virtually (although not quite entirely!) uninterrupted by rain.

On Saturday my shoulder was hurting after setting Sunderland on Friday so I spent the morning having a walk around a couple of new areas in search of problems. After an ice-lolly I was psyched and went to Bowden which was in great condition, chilled by a northerly wind. Made some good progress on Staggered sit start (7c+/8a), doing the problem from a crouching position but unable to do the first move due to a wet foothold. Will be back on as soon as for the tick! Then I tried my nemesis Growlers (8a), getting as close as ever with a slightly changed method which seems to work really well; unfortunately this one might have to wait for the winter thanks to its minimalist holds.

Sunday I met up with Scarpa team-mates Earl and Smith and strong Dutch-girl Suzanne. It was off to Queen's to so some classics and scare Martin on Queen Kong!

Above: Blue sky with no sign of black clouds, a rare site in Northumberland this summer!

British Championships

2007-07-12T17:18:00.000Z

Had my last training session this morning before the British Bouldering Championships on Saturday. The competition takes place in Graves Park, Sheffield and is part of the Cliffhanger event.

I felt alright today, even giving Andy a run for his money at times (although he was wearing a weight belt!). The pressure is off though as I have already made the decision that I will not be competing for the British Team in international events next year. This is due to a complex combination of things, in particular the past season plagued by injury, the work load of a PhD and other secret projects!

I'll be in touch after the weekend...!

Real Sport

2007-07-10T14:49:00.000Z

Sometimes as a competition climber it can get frustrating to watch major sporting events and see sports which require little technical and/or physical skills (I'm naming no sports, you know who you are!) and many which are quite frankly boring to watch. And then on the other side there are extremely talented athletes such as some of the top climbers who barely scrape by on sponsorship deals and mediocre cash prizes.

Anyway on the subject of real sport, here is an astonishing clip from the Japanese game Sasuke. Sasuke is a glorified obstacle course consisting of four stages which is so difficult that only two people have ever successfully completed the course! This is fisherman Makoto Nagano on each of the four stages of the 2006 Sasuke event, making history as the second person to ever complete the course (the first was before it was made harder) and is surely one of the great sporting achievements. Watch out in particular for the end of the 'pipe slider' at 7 minutes 30 into the clip, the fact that backward momentum is required to kick for the final platform is painful to watch as every time the pipe rolls back and moves him further away.

And if you want to know just how good Nagano is; amonst others, Olympic gymnasts Paul and Morgan Hamm, who were gold and silver medalists at the 2004 Athens games, failed to overcome the first half of stage 3 of the course.

On the telly with Sam and Mark

2007-07-04T11:25:00.000Z

On Monday I was overlooking the filming of the Rock Solid Junior Team (whom sparrow-legs and I coach) for the CBBC programme Do Something Different. My job was to make sure no-one hurt themselves too much and that the normal running of the climbing wall was affected as little as possible. This was made more difficult by the fact that the BBC were 4 hours late and we were filming at the wall's peak time!

I also had a cameo appearance welcoming Sam and Mark with some tongue-in-cheek banter; four lines of scripted nonsense which for the record we dispatched in one take! Yes, that's one take, unlike many of the other sequences that were filmed! I'm expecting some calls for my next role soon.

UKCosmo

2007-06-28T12:09:00.001Z

Just back from the UKCosmo conference in Portsmouth which took place on Tuesday.

The theme of the trip was the disastrous rail situation, which coupled with the tight connection times meant that we missed our train to Salisbury on Monday night. Arrived super-late and then was up early for more misery on the Tuesday morning. After one train broke down and the replacement was stopped by signal failure I just made it to Portsmouth on time to catch the first speaker. Phew!

The talks were a good varied set, opening with a couple on braneworld cosmology and some modified gravity stuff which is popular down there. After lunch it was the talks on inflationary models, much closer to my field; including a talk justifying warm inflation from superstring theory, one of the models we are currently looking at in our numerical studies of non-Gaussianity. After a few shots of coffeee the conference finished with some alternative and exotic possibilities for the source of dark energy. Met some very interesting people and all in all a good day.

After that it was back to Salisbury and some dinner and sleep before the journey home on Wednesday.

Website

2007-06-25T12:35:00.000Z

As my more devoted 'fans' will know I spend a bit of my spare time messing around with website design and run sites for a variety of people. I thought I'd give a free plug to my newest site snapclimbing.co.uk for Snap bouldering pads which are now being imported into the UK by the Earl Empire AKA the County Climbing Company.

Free plug over, I'm off to Portsmouth for the UKCosmo conference.

Trilogies

2007-06-22T13:07:00.000Z

Well today was my third day this week back to watch Earl try his project out in the hills. No success again today, it's a little humid, but when it goes it will be one of the finest hard problems in Northumberland. Meanwhile in this trilogy of outings I have had two projects to try. One of them isn't hard but has been frustrating me all week. The other one I'm a little scared of and is more like being at the circus than trying a problem...If I can do the one-handed jump start to a scoop some 10 foot up in a roof then I'd be laughing, although there would still be the small matter of some very poor handholds, no footholds and a very dangerous mantle to contend with. Still at least I'd be able to give it whatever grade I like! Will be leaving that one til I get (10-20) more pads.

Talking of trilogies I went to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 on Wednesday, all swashbucklingly good but I don't know why these frachises insist on making their 3rd movies quite so long; Spiderman 3 was the same, one bad guy would be enough thank you! Anyway, I have the upmost confidence in a superb third film from the Bourne trilogy...

Magic (wet) Wood

2007-06-12T21:12:00.000Z

The last leg of the trip was 3 days in Magic Wood. Sunday we drove back across the Sustenpass, down to Bellinzona and across East. As we arrived the rain started, ruling out any climbing for the rest of the day.

Woke up the next morning and the sun was poking through the clouds. The rocks still looked wet but we took the risk and headed down to the riverside. After a long time waiting and lots of soaking up wet holds I made a quick ascent of a very damp Supernova (which used to get 8b before Chris Sharma did it without his feet!!) . I was just moving on to the next problem, with the rock nearly dry, when the rain started again. Another day's climbing lost to the rain; we were told by people who had been there much longer than us that this cycle had been going on for a good couple of weeks so we were ready to head elsewhere for our final day in Switzerland.

Tuesday morning and the rain was still pouring. We drove down the valley to Bellinzona and sure enough the sun was shining. A last chance to get some problems done and go home with some kind of sun tan! We headed for Cresciano which we knew would be too warm but would definitely be dry. Did some nice problems then headed off towards Milan for the flight home.

All in all a mixed trip but good to see all the Swiss bouldering areas that I'd heard so much about. Looking forward to a return trip when the sun is shining!

Grindelwald World Cup

2007-06-09T23:55:00.000Z

An early start for isolation on Friday morning with 60 men lined up to do battle over 6 problems to earn a place in the semi-finals. 6 hours later my name was called and I was out. Not my greatest moment in international comps, pretty rubbish to be honest. The annoying thing is that on the same set of problems I think I would have done well this time last year.

We got one Brit through to the next round, Stew Watson, who climbed really well in the semi-final to finsh 15th. Saturday was one of the best finals I've seen with a particularly evil (& dangerous - particularly the final triple dyno problem which saw one poor competitor practically land head first) set of final problems and Killian Fischhuber on top form to win the mens event. Luckily the organisers had thought to put the boulders under a cover as a torrential downpour drenched the spectators throughout the final! More rain to come...

Sustenpass

2007-06-07T20:43:00.000Z

Day 2 in switzerland it was across to Grindelwald via the beautiful Sustenpass which runs West from the St Gotthard tunnel, winding to a height way over 2000 metres. We stopped to have a play on the boulders, do some sunbathing, throw some snowballs and eat some ice cream.

Switzerland Day 1

2007-06-06T19:44:00.000Z

Arrived into milan at 00:05 this morning, the start of a hectic day. Met Zoe and Lee and we drove almost aimlessly up towards Switzerland. After a whole lot of roadworks we arrived at the border control where the border police gave us a hard time for entering their country not once but twice! Found a motel just over the border and got a few hours sleep.

Later on this morning we headed North to Chironico, just high enough to escape the sweltering heat of the valley floor. Did some light climbing before getting rained off big time!

Headed back down to Bellinzona where we are staying the night before heading to Grindelwald tomorrow. Good pizza and we had a nice walk up to a castle which was well impressive and great views.

From Ireland to Switzerland

2007-06-05T11:44:00.000Z

Just got back from a great stag weekend in Cork for Aly Scott (who was once a a 'potentially' world class climber until a finger injury cut his career short!) - my first trip to Ireland which I can recommend - just don't use Jet2 who are rubbish.

One whole day back in Newcastle and today I am flying to Milan and driving up to Switzerland. The plan is to climb in Chironico tomorrow and then drive North to Grindelwald where I am entered into the World Cup on Friday. You can follow the action on the Eiger Live website which will most likely be broadcasting the event live. I am due out some time between 9am and 3pm on Friday.

After that it's off back South to Magic Wood for a few days. Can't wait!

Shoulder Update: The road to recovery goes...to the pennine hills!

2007-05-24T21:33:00.000Z

Some good progress on the shoulder comeback as I had some good muscle pain today; distinctly not the 'nail-in-the-shoulder-socket' type of pain but more of 'a-few-too-many-pull-ups-yesterday' kind of pain. My interpretation is that I've finally managed to get my shoulder working again.

Yesterday, with a couple of hours to spare in the afternoon, someone wrongly suggested it would be a good idea to go to Goldsborough (me) and someone else agreed it was a good idea (Andy). Turns out it wasn't a good idea as it takes forever to get too, through some kind of time warp surrounding Barnard Castle (we spent the best part of 30 minutes just getting petrol from the most chaotic petrol station ever!). And it was bloody freezing!

Anyway it was a good test run on the rock for the Scarpa Magos (above in action). I have been virtually inseperable from my Boosters since the new Scarpa range came out, however the Magos are slowly becoming my shoe of choice for heel-hooking and could be my secret weapon out in Magic Wood next month. Finished the day off with some problems at Sunderland then went to see Zodiac; I'm a sucker for true stories!

Moan of the Week...IDL

2007-05-17T20:22:00.000Z

This week I am mainly moaning about IDL, which for those not in the know, is a graph plotting/mathematical package.

So why am I moaning? Well it's two fold really...

1) Their user manual is ridiculous; a pdf file over 4000 pages long! Whilst some smug genious will be at home somewhere thinking they have made one of the world's greatest achievements to fit so much into one file, unfortunately they forgot to put the 4000 pages into ANY LOGICAL ORDER.

2) Anyway, that's not why I'm moaning today. Today I'm moaning because I realised just how difficult it is to display a legend on a map (eg to distinguish between a dashed and an undashed line). In rival gnuplot's package this is done by the remarkably simple insertion of two words..."set key". In IDL, however, would you believe it, this requires the exceedingly complicated process of setting up an 'object graphic' and then 20 lines of code to produce a simple legend.

I am not amused and reverting to gnuplot as of tomorrow.

Nadser

2007-04-29T18:08:00.000Z

This weekend was a break from trying the highball problems and instead a relaxed tour of Kyloe-in-the-Woods was on the cards. I met up with Andy, Suzan and Martin and did some easy problems thismorning.

It's always nice to do a problem you've not done before and there aren't many of those left at Kyloe for me. So I was pleased to tick the Nadser (a technical 7b+ slab) which i hadn't tried before last week and is rarely repeated. Here's a clip...

The bit where Andy is shouting "higher, higher" is because I was in completely the wrong place when I slapped back with my right hand! Good problem...next week it's back to the projects.

Meet the Geeks

2007-04-28T17:10:00.000Z

This fine looking bunch of postgraduate students are my work colleagues in Newcastle University's Mathematics and Statistics department. Their expertise ranges from MHD galactic dynamo theory and Bose-Einstein condensates to complex anaysis and Bayesian statistics; a rather bright bunch!

The Magician

2007-04-18T19:53:00.005Z

This morning another Northumberland highball classic was born, this time at Ravensheugh, high in the Simonside Hills.

It was our third day working the project which takes the stunning overhanging prow left of The Plumber. Today all went well, despite the small window of oppurtunity we had thismorning. It was a 7am start for me, battled through the traffic on Sandy Lane, picked Andy up and arrived at the Simonside car park at 8:30am. An hour's slog up the hill and we were back at the problem, looking as impressive as ever.

After practising the delicate top moves on a rope we set the pads and Andy was first up. Strong from his trip to Switzerland, Andy made light work of the difficult lower section and finished off in style, naming the new line 'The Magician' (see my earlier post) and grading E7 7a or highball font 8a. After a bit more practice on the top I stepped up for the solo having not linked the whole thing. A few failed attempts on the crux section and then I managed to hold the slopers and found myself on the top moves. Fortunately they felt less delicate on the solo and I topped out without problem.

Read what Andy has to say about it on his blog; we both thought this one of the best hard problems we'd done in Northumberland.

Thanks to Darren Stevenson for the photos above and below left.

Weekend in Scotland

2007-04-17T22:22:00.000Z

Had a lovely weekend holiday in Scotland sightseeing and walking around Arran on Saturday and the Galloway Forest on Sunday. I'd never been to Arran and was impressed at how unspoilt the island was. We even escaped most of the mist:

Cheekily managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of bouldering on the granite boulders on Arran's East coast. Here's a little clip of a nice roof that was one of the Stone Country projects & probably a first ascent:

On the Sunday we hung out with some goats, checked out some waterfalls and learnt all about Robert the Bruce.

Monday it was back in the Northumberland hills where Darren and I found ourselves some nice projects for the summer. Keeping this information well clear of Andy, he will only find out in exchange for the whereabouts of his secret boulder field. Finished the day at Rothley on some classic aretes and did some photos for the forthcoming bouldering guide. 1 day of rest before the BIG project!

Slow Week

2007-04-13T15:28:00.000Z

We were back in the Northumberland hills on Monday and back on the highball project which is turning out to be a bit epic. Things didn't go to plan, a blustery wind crashing into the arete making the balancy top moves even more precarious. To add to this we were both fairly confident that the climbing would feel easier on the second day and expected to get up it straight away...as it turns out however the climbing is just plain difficult! Andy got through the powerful bottom section but had to turn back as the wind picked up. I was also getting close and then ripped a hole in my index finger which put an end to my climbing for the week. All very frustrating and it left us feeling like this...!

We'll be back to finish off next week when Andy returns from Europe. Meanwhile I've been doing some long days in the office and making a little progress with my research (more on that soon). My desktop at home is playing up though which is really starting to annoy me. Nevermind, I'm away to Scotland for the weekend and will hopefully come back fresh to tackle another busy week on Monday.

Easter Weekend Day 2: Going High...

2007-04-07T16:37:00.000Z

Day two of the easter weekend and once again we beat the bank holiday traffic out of Newcastle, this time to go into the hills of Northumberland to work a new highball problem.

The day was made all the more entertaining by Andy going through his full emotional rollercoaster! First up he was depressed because we weren't sure if we could take the purest line up our project. So on I went and started working the moves; some horrific arete-hugging on slopey nothings and made a little process thinking that I would do the moves after a break. I brushed the two bad holds and left it for the now slightly more motivated Andy to try. But sure enough there was worse to come, as Andy reaching the crux section exclaimed. "How am I supposed to hold that, what do you think I am, some kind of #@*%ing magician!?" whilst trying to hang the vertical sloper I'd just brushed for him. What a big baby!

But sure enough I was right on the money with my holds, it was just 2 very hard moves. Soon Andy had the route linked in one go, now thinking he is some kind of magician...

...and I linked the hard section. We are back on Monday to finish the job off. Hopefully we'll both get it done and give Northumberland another highball classic. Tomorrow is a rest day...!

Scarpa Day Out

2007-04-06T19:31:00.000Z

Today Andy, Martin and I had a day out at Trowbarrow in Lancashire where we enjoyed some bank holiday sun and tried some nasty limestone problems. It was my first time testing my new Scarpa pad which was great. Andy tried Isla De Encanta and did a funky problem to the right. Meanwhile I tried some slightly easier stuff and my shoulder wasn't too bad which is good news. Tomorrow we're going high...

Photos (clockwise from top left): Martin fires up the Boosters; The Scarpa mat trio; Earl breaks Smith's shades; Me trying to keep (and look) cool.

Useful code - opening n files

2007-03-29T14:12:00.000Z

This is mainly for my own memory and to send others in the right direction when I get asked...

A common task in Fortran is to open N files, named say output1.dat, output2.dat...to...outputN.dat. To do this you can use a concatenation operator "//":

program N_files
! program to open n files and write "testing" in each one
integer :: i,N
character(len = 15) :: file_name
N = 11
do i = 1,N
write(unit=file_name,fmt="(i2,a)") i,".dat"
! // is a concatenation operator
file_name = "output"//file_name
open (unit=1,file=file_name,action="write",status="replace")
write (1, *) "testing"
close(1)
end do
end program N_files

That should save me some time next time I've forgotten how to do it!

Addicted to CSI

2007-03-27T15:35:00.000Z

I'm currently slightly concerned about my addiction to CSI, the main cause of which is undoubtedly FiveUS where you can watch the show every night!
Anyway if you are a fellow fan then you will appreciate this impression of David Caruso's remarkable overacting in CSI Miami...

Routesetting epic

2007-03-23T08:04:00.000Z

Just back from an epic week's routesetting with Andy and ready for a day off! Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Aberdeen setting at Transition Extreme, a new climbing wall/skate park combo serving North-East Scotland which looks something like the artist's impression below:

We set 22 brand new routes up the lead wall including a couple of spicy numbers up the steepest section and then added 15 problems to the bouldering wall which was very enjoyable with new EP holds.

Our main trauma was the fact that Aberdeen had no accomodation on the Tuesday night; hotels, B&Bs, guest houses, you name it they were fully booked. So it was an hour's drive to a hotel and an hour back in for a stressful Wednesday morning and then thankfully back to Newcastle in the evening. Thursday there was no time to rest as we had the second round of the BRYCS to set at Rock Antics in Newton Aycliffe and then a meeting in the evening.

I'd like some rest now but must get some uni work done and then off to Sheffield tonight for a comp...aarrrggh!

Scrap Paper

2007-03-20T17:07:00.000Z

When both of the computing officers in your department come striding in to your office and surround your desk you know that you've done something wrong.

"Recognize that?" Anthony asks me, handing me the first page of CMBFAST's main subroutine code.

"Erm...yes."

About 3 weeks back I printed off the entire subroutine, some 120 pages, so that I could read through and de-bug it while I was away from the office for a couple of days. I felt slightly guilty that I'd sent such a large document to the printer but nevertheless I did need 1 hard copy.

So imagine my horror when I found out that one of the department's printers had been churning the thing out for days! The guys kindly offered me a small fraction of the print-outs to use as scrap paper!

European Championships/Outdoor Show 2007

2007-03-19T17:35:00.000Z

Over the weekend I was representing Great Britain at the NEC in Birmingham where the 2007 Outdoor Show and European Bouldering Championships were taking place. Unfortunately I wasn't competing in the big event, however fun was to be had selling programs and raising awareness of the team.

In the comp it was a tough event for the British guys and girls with only Dave Barrans from Manchester making it through to Sunday's semi-finals. Dave climbed well on Sunday but didn't make it to the final in which Juliette Danone of France and impressive young Austrian David Lama became European champions. Also a mention for Sabine Bacher who competes for Austria but is based in York and trains with the British team - Sabby climbed brilliantly to qualify for the final and is now kitted up as new sponsored girl for E9uk.

The dyno comp was on Sunday and my one chance of glory at Birmingham '07. However my opposition was formidable to say the least, with current world record holder Peter Wurth amongst other talented jumpers! I managed to jump my personal best height of 2.55m (only 5cm below the British national record) to take equal second place with Peter and polish giant Tomas Olesky. However it was Ukranian Sergii Topishko who stole the show equaling a world record height of 2.70 metres! What can you do?!

We had great fun selling the mags at the Outdoor Show and I'd like to mention some fellow exhibitors who were great fun: Podcamping for their extremely generous contribution; Tickalert who were a great laugh but probably think that we are slightly mad; and not least London Camera Exchange, stockists of Crumpler Bags. If you've spoken to me recently I'm bound to have talked about how great their bags are and how rockin' the little man on them is. So imagine my excitement when London Camera Exchange's stand had a giant crumpler-man statue atop its roof! Well, after some bargaining and a bit of selling for them (!) they let me take him home - now looking good in our living room!

Black tie

2007-03-14T21:05:00.000Z

Some of my more eagle-eyed readers may have spotted me on the BBC Look North news on Tuesday night looking slightly smarter than usual in a report on the SportNewcastle Annual Awards Ceremony at the Civic Centre.

No I didn't gatecrash the party, I was invited as part of the Newcastle University Elite Athlete Squad. It was a great night with a lot of famous people about, with the major awards going to Newcastle Falcons coach Steve Black and reigning Paralympic and World Champion Stephen Miller who was Newcastle Sports Personality of the Year 2007.

For the record the menu was as follows:
prawn salad - pork loin in mustard sauce with seasonal veg - raspberry brulee - coffee & chocs

BUSA Bronze

2007-03-12T00:09:00.000Z

On Saturday I was representing Newcastle University at the British Student National Championships (BUSA event). Our first team of 3 climbers took 3rd place overall in an extremely tough field. Much thanks to my teammates Rosie (centre above) and Corry (Right) for the awesome effort they put in!

Squash and shortbread

2007-03-08T11:02:00.000Z

Well done to pete in my office who absolutely hammered me at squash on Monday. We were playing triple or quits on shortbread and I now owe him 3 packets (the other 2 respectively for bets on the good-looking nature of 2 university personnel). The question is should I pay up...?

Shoulder Recovery

2007-02-22T14:38:00.002Z

Haven't climbed for a couple of weeks through an injured shoulder but, after some physio and taking it easy, it seems to be on the mend.
Tonight I'm coaching the Rock Solid NE junior team and will give it some stretching then tomorrow I'm going to test it out at the climbing works bouldering league round 2. I didn't enter the first round but this is more about getting back to fitness and getting used to their comp wall where I have 2 competitions next month: The BUSA national championships and an International Open.
Will report back soon...

VIP

2007-02-19T20:02:00.000Z

Tomorrow afternoon I'm a guest at the official opening of Newcastle University's sports centre; a good chance to do some networking with people who could help with 'project X'.

In the morning I'll be at Sunderland setting 10 more high quality boulder problems and in the evening I guess I'll be back in the lonely office debugging again! Busy day!

Blue Skies

2007-02-18T20:59:00.000Z

More random British weather...Woke up yesterday morning to clear blue skies, unfortunately it had rained all day and night so we were limited for venues to climb at.

Andy and i decided to take a risk and head west to Callerhues, just outside of Bellingham. Good decision there, but the 7c+ problem we wanted to try was more than a little damp so we had no luck on it. Absolutely roasting hot, hard to believe it is February! Here is a small vid of a nice problem at Callerhues called Air:

Today I was back in a particularly lonely office debugging my program whilst every man and his dog was enjoying the continuing gorgeous weather - not fair!

New Scarpa Website

2007-02-16T21:30:00.000Z

The n ew scarpa website went live today and is looking excellent. This coincides with the release of a new range of performance rock shoes.

The site has sections for all of the sponsored team with questions, blog posts and a gallery. There's also a page for video clips of us in action! My page is currently full with interview questions I don't really remember answering! Looking forward to logging in and adding some more stuff.

Photo: Testing the new Scarpa Boosters on Medaille en Chocolat (7a), Fontainebleau. Thanks to Darren Stevenson for the pic.

Seminar Number 2

2007-02-15T15:53:00.000Z

Today I gave a talk to the postgraduate forum on 'the consequences of abslolute time'.

This covered aspects of special and general relativity, stasis chambers (which may be able to locally slow down time) and the cosmological arrow of time, whilst touching on some of the research I've been doing.

Andrew Baggaley did a great job providing home-made cheesecake for the talk, compliments to the chef!

Seminar Number 1 / Earl sends Torque

2007-02-14T17:57:00.000Z

The first of two seminars by me this week. Today I chaired a presentation on our recent High Performance Computing winter school, given by 7 postgrad students in the department. As my part of the seminar, I gave a brief introduction to PDEs and Finite Difference Methods.

Meanwhile while I was hard at work, news came through that Andy has finally completed Careless Torque (8a+) down at Stanage. Good effort and hopefully with one less peak destraction we can get a good day in the Northumberland hills on Saturday and send somemore projects.

Off to practice for my next seminar tomorrow afternoon.

Teaching and Marking

2007-02-13T22:25:00.000Z

This semester I'm teaching tutorials for the third year module, MAS3111, Partial Differential Equations with Applications. This is a good module so should be quite enjoyable...first tutorial is tomorrow.

I'll be marking for the same module and also for MAS3110 Instabities. Along with this (I'm feeling quite stretched out this semester!) I'll be doing drop-in sessions for first year students once a week.

New problem

2007-02-03T23:27:00.000Z

"You have added much in several ways...If I have seen further than others, then it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Isaac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke, February 5 1675.

Today I added a new highball problem (in the olden days they used to call these routes) at Bowden Doors. This takes a line up the middle of the blank wall to the right of the route Giant's Ear and is an interesting combination of different climbing styles.
The route starts up a short existing problem, a dynamic slap from a starting jug to a slopey ledge. It then makes a difficult mantle and and a hand swap on a hold which could technically be referred to as 'nothing'. All that is left is the scary slab above which involves delicate balancey moves and and a massive stretch for the finishing ledge, at this point moving out of the range of the mats below.
All went smoothly on the day and I didn't take the biggest fall i could have. Thanks must go to my dedicated spotting team (many of which have done a bit themselves!).
The problem is now called The Shoulders of Giants and I've given it a grade of highball Fb7c(V9) but is probably also E6 6c.

Beyond the Threshold

2007-01-28T11:22:00.000Z

So I passed the 25 year mark in style a couple of fridays ago, I thought I'd blog about what life is like after 25!

Much the same thankfully, however my research took a new direction last week. I started my PhD studies back in September looking at boundary conditions for the Universe and evolving the governing equations using a Runge-Kutte routine in the hope of finding instanton solutions. This produced interesting results for certain forms of the inflaton potential, however we've now put this on the backburner for a while. Following on from some work that my supervisor has done on warm inflation I am going to spend the next month or so working with the CMB observations and the program CMBfast. We hope to make some predictions of the non-gaussianity of the CMB radiation which may be tested against the highly-anticipated results of the forthcoming Planck satellite.

In the meantime I'm off to St Andrews for a week to attend a winter school in High Performance Computing.

GB Team Interview: My Occupation is...

2007-01-17T18:35:00.000Z

On day 7 in font we filmed team interviews with every member of the British bouldering team. Having organised much of the filming I was last to go. The photo below shows team coach Gaz Parry and team members Kate Mills and Rachel Seymour - it was quite tense in the room as everyone has to be silent for the camera to pick up the audio.

The photo was taken about 2 seconds after I described what I study at uni:

Thanks to Darren Stevenson for the photo.

Back from Font

2007-01-09T07:59:00.000Z

Back in the Uk and thankfully some rest for my aching elbows. Not much time to rest for anything else though as I have plenty of research to catch up on.
Here's a video of me failing miserably on a desperate 5+ slab (I'd like to claim it was just damp!) at Buthiers in Font:

Some good audio!

Font Day 5

2007-01-05T18:03:00.000Z

Day 5 in font and we've been really lucky with the weather. Folowing Andy and Gaz around has taken it's toll however - we didn't really try anything easier than 8a for the first 3 days! Moving into the second part of the trip now- the british team arrived today for a teambuilding weekend. Things started off with some excitement. Last night in the steakhouse (!) Andy bet me that I couldn't do Berezina first go as a warm up (a problem i had tried previously and failed on) . He claimed if I suceeded then he would climb the problem in only his underwear.

And so thismorning a large crowd gathered looking to catch a glimpse of the scrawny man's bare legs...

I'll spare you the rest, it ain't pretty!