Oh the Adventures that Await

As is probably a common theme on these little websites, keeping up with the blogging is a lot harder than originally thought.  I am aiming for one a week but that is just not happening these days.

Planning adventures is always fun and exciting but going on them is another matter.  I am slowly getting more extreme which is making everything more and more fun and hopefully soon I will have learnt a lot about myself and will have many amazing stories to tell (not really of the people I have met on these adventures as you will soon see)!!

The Imminent One 

The next adventure will be to either Morocco or Winter Mountaineering in the Torridon Mountains, Scotland.  I really hope that Morocco comes off as our aim is to rock climb (free climb) 500-800 meters of vertical cliff face with the possibility of ice climbing the top few pitches.  

This means sleeping and living on a portaledge on the cliff face.

This will hopefully last a whole week including the driving to the National Park, walking to the cliff and the return journey after a successful climb.

If we go to Scotland we might have an expedition involving Pac-rafts which would involve walking for days across the barren Scottish wilderness, doing the odd mixed winter route up a crag followed by a raft down a river, very much inspired by Alastair Humphreys (http://www.alastairhumphreys.com).  Either would be great and amazing.  

Other adventures in the mix - Canoe trip around Canadian islands, bike trip around Eastern Europe, walk across a desert pulling a sled, possibly a sailing trip somewhere as well as many mini adventures.

Nothing else really going on for the moment but looking forward to a well earned week off next week...aaahhh

Lots Going Down in the Wild

So, my 'wild' life has been a mixed bunch over the last month or whenever I last tried to keep this thing going.  I have been out climbing a lot and really pushed my grade going to some interesting Lake District venues with the one and only Richie Emmerson of Alfresco Adventures, who had some 'shit psyche' after crushing the shortbread I was about to eat after he had just got ready to do a climb at High Crag, Buttermere!!

Haha, half way up our warm up multi pitch route at Black Crag, Borrowdale.  Later we did Raindrops, a quite out there E1 5b which was awesome and quite exposed.

After two weekends of pushing our selves I though that booking myself into do my first wine dinner talk at the Wynyard Hall would be a good idea, it is one way to learn and I am excited for it.

Keeping my father in the loop of learning about house is interesting but he cooked an amazing white source pasta with a (what was meant to have been spag bol but he forgot to defrost the bol) vegetarian bolognese.

The drinking of wine has new heights of awareness and have realised just how much I am learning which is nice, especially with a course coming up in Sept which I have just received the pack for = thick.  

Also found some great new music which I am loving and re-discovered some of my regular favs (listening to Emancipator as I write).  Bondax, Clean Bandit, Dead Sara have been refreshing and Bonobo, Ben Howard and Ennio have brought back many memories for listening' gone bye.  I just love the feel that good music gives you and have such a grudge against the rubbish that is out there on the radio 90% of the time.  For the best argument as to why people who sing this trash that other people write then listen to Steve Hughes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMqaAI_ebA).

I am now, as of earlier today, planning 5 expedition trips over the course of the next 6 years covering 5 different terrains - Sand, Rock, Snow, Land and Sea.  I have so far got two nailed with an expedition style ascent of Mont Blanc winter and alpine style and a big wall climb in Morocco (4000m ascent) up a sheer cliff face with Richie.  Just the others to plan but ideas so far are an endurance marathon/long arctic esq style expedition across a desert much like Alastair Humphreys has recently completed.  

Very exciting to say the least and maybe some more home made knee braces!!

Absence

So I have been away, not abroad but 'sorting stuff out' as I seem to do a lot of.  Nothing is simple at the moment and a lot has happened, changed and is happening with a whole load of 'stuff' still to come on down from the airy sky of the future into the material moment of the now.

I find it interesting to see how people react and interact with their environments and the direction in which other people take in life - musicians, outdoors sports athletes, bums, my brother (who is a gamekeeper and has just moved out of home), my friends who have ll moved into London, self employed outdoors instructors/ropes access friends, farmers and the people who are lost in it all.

Hearing of an ex moving out to work in South America who once seemed quite lost all those years ago and my brother who lives a life of relative solitude but and needs to 'snap' back into the world of the living makes the mind think of what is, should, could and would be.  Being only a snapper at 24 and the whole of the proper adult life to look forward to; this is a time to find what makes someone tick and to become comfortable and happy in a lifestyle.   

What lifestyle would be your ideal right now and what is stopping you?

Lifestyle:  I would be a travelling climber, musician and adventurer learning languages by living in a country with a small bohemian house in the south of France near the Alps and a main house in Yorkshire which I designed myself from scratch.  I would brew beer and make some wine and be as self sufficient as possible.

Stopping me:  Money mainly but a little more guts would help (also not having to let people down would hep kick start it) 

Half way up the 40m route and the worst still to come, quite a bulge coming up.  The two pointy noses in the background is the climb featured in the picture below of which I am under the first nose, June 2013

The first bit of gear in a classic 3* route at Whitestone Cliffes, North Yorkshire, June 2013

Back in the Game

Good to be back on out climbing, pity it was on the plastic stuff.  The technique was still there but 'OH MY DAYS' where has the fitness and strength gone?

The route ahead

Building up to climbing on rock again seems a long way away but summer is here, or has it already been!!  Ached all over this morning and the office day did not help.

So here is to many summer days spent beneath and on a crag with warm drinks, some music and some dodge food; I raise my glass of Klein Steenburg Bordeaux blend to that.

Wildlife, Wine and Wassup

So the time has come to think about the joys of booking holidays.  Going from a care free life of playing hard and working hard but work was hard to find to a life of working hard and playing hard but play had to be planned a week in advance. 

Having the simple of life of the outdoors is a joy and drinking wine is a joy, especially after having a 1 on 1 tasting session with someone who knows what they are on about...not in a pretentious way mind.

 

THIS....

Or                     THIS?

So the dilemma continues between the drinking lovely wine and having a job that I love and that of the outdoors, adventure and the unknown.  Not a major dilemma to deal with but a massive lifestyle change has already begun.

Now just the rest of the direction of life to deal with, I think staying at home is on the cards for now = ideas to do up the house in a rustic style, coming right up in a few weeks time? 

Thinking Ahead

Lots on and lots to do.  the wine trade is going well with plenty of new business coming in and many reams of paper to type out.  But there are several other things on my mind.

The Frogeye Sprite is far from finished and has hit a bit of a dead end with the paint job being 5 weeks away and I am anxious to get that old project underway.  As for my other passions in life, I feel as though I have lost touch with them.

The rock climbing has taken a rather solid back seat at the moment but  I am consciously reminding myself that it is something that brings a lot of stability to ones life on the whole.  I miss being outside as a whole but who can complain when your office day gets interrupted by  a family esq voice booming from down stairs 'Ben'.......'Ben', 'Yes', 'Wine tasting'.  

I tried some South African wines today which included some more of the Indaba wines, including there sharp citrus Chenin Blanc, their luscious and delicious Merlot and there slightly disappointing Bordeaux Blend 'Mosaic', not bad just not as appealing after tasting the Merlot.

After taking them both home, the home crowd agreed.  The Bouchard Finlayson Pinot Noir on the other hand may be £23 odd squid but is out of this world, one of my first 'wow' moments in the wine industry (still young and un-educated but)!

       

The Lovely Vinyard's of Domaine Boucabeille

Another Day, Another Dollar

There has always been one thing that has confused me to do with human nature...urges.

Why do we have the urge or desire to do what we do?  I always think about the modern urges that we get such as being warm and not going outside (which baffles me as the outdoors are only the best place to be).  I say this because of a conflict of 'urges'.  Spending a day in the office writing up spread sheets was not hard or boring but is that because I get to be involved in the wine industry or is it because I love those spread sheets?

I get urges to go climbing, to get drunk on proper drinks like Ale and Wine.  I also get urges to go on adventures which I will post the plans for a few of them on here soon.

What urges do you get that seem foreign to other people? 

It Takes 2

My second attempt at my Climbing, Outdoors and Wine blog shall commence.

I hope people will like it and I hope I get enough the same amount of time on it as I think I will do in my head.

Here goes nothing

Half way up our 280 meter route in North Wales