The tickets for these exclusive presentations are now available to purchase both at the shop and online

SAVE £13 Buy all 5 Lectures Tickets before 3rd November for only £45

Please get your tickets as soon as possible as our lectures always sell out very quickly. Buying your ticket on the door you risk being turned away due to the capacity restrictions at the venue.

See you there!

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Thursday 4rd Nov 2010 (£12.00)

Vin Cox - The Great Bike Ride

On 7th August 2010 climber, cyclo cross champion, Vin Cox became the fastest person to cycle around the world obliterating all previous times by 31 days! 29,000 kms (18,225 miles) in 163 days. The bike he used, personal struggle stories and film of this outstanding achievement by a British cyclist is an exclusive first presentation by this very likeable character.

How did he do it and manage to shave off 31 days from all other times? Was he motivated by charity or pride? Don’t miss this.

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Tuesday 7th Dec 2010 (£12.00)

Timmy O’neill - It’s All About The Fun

A very rare chance to meet and listen to one of the funniest, yet seriously focused climbers in the World today. An unassuming American, Timmy is dedicated to charity work and his disabled brother yet more renowned for his appearances on some of the best and most outrageous climbing film: Front Range Freaks, Returns to Sender, First Ascent… The earliest exponent of daring slackline tightrope crossing in Yosemite, etc.

“You’ll never know what to expect at a Timmy O lecture, but it is always dramatic and humorous” Climbing Mag.

He loves Europe and the UK but rarely gets an opportunity to climb here even less chance to entertain an audience. Exclusive.

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Tuesday 4th Jan 2011 (£12.00)

Dave MacLeod - Tottally Focused

Since Johnny Dawes first ascent of Indian Face on Cloggy in 1986 only 3 climber have dared repeat the route, all pre-placing runners and confirming the grade of “Death E9″. Along comes unpretentious Scotsman Dave, breezing the climb in less than perfect weather, no pre-placed gear or practising, and dispelling the myth of the grade to “Just another soft touch E9″. All in a day’s work for the master professional climber.

He’ll also talk of his new route on the massive cliff of Sron Ulladale in the outer Hebrides, being trashed by an Atlantic storm hanging alone from a rope. His previous appearance at the Winter Lectures was a sell out!

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Tuesday 1st Feb 2011 (£12.00)

Ron Fawcett - Rock Athlete

The legendary happy go lucky Yorkshire man who brought climbing into the modern athletic arena. He was brought to the attention of the World in the BBC films ‘Lord of the Flies’ which included his classic cry often repeated by climbers to this day “Come on arms do your stuff!”.

Soloing 100 Extreme gritstone climbs in a single day and making outstanding first ascents of climbs such as Strawberries and Master’s Edge… trademark routes of one of the UK’s finest climbers.

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Tuesday 1st Mar 2011 (£10.00)

Local Spot

Several short presentations by local heroes, there is always a treat in store at the Local Spot. They may not be national or International superstars but their stories are non less riveting and dedicated to serious mountain adventure, informative and often hilarious entertainment.

A popular evening.

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All profits from these lectures go to the Youngsters in the Mountains Fund

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Raffle Prize Sponsors

But what a coincidence, Dave MacLeod will be back at the High Sports Winter Lecture Series 2010/11 in Shrewsbury for another spectacular talk on 4th January. It’s your chance to meet the man, ask him all about The Great Climb, his hurting ankle, training secret tips and his other recent exploits and victory on Indian Face.

In the meantime check out the video!

It is very important for all local climbers to know these and to adhere to them otherwise we may lose a beautiful local crag.

Click on this link to see the new terms.

Pat

On 3rd June, just 39 days 9 hours and 6 minutes later, Spyke touched the summit cairn on Ben Hope in Sutherland to complete the fastest round of the Munros. The previous record was 48 days 12 hours set by Charlie Campbell in 2000.

For a detailed day-by-day report of this extraordinary achievement please visit Munro Round 2010 Blog.

At the end of a more recent climbing road trip to the Lofoten Islands, where undoubtedly some of the best granite climbing in the world exists, we decided to cross back over to the mainland exploring the west coast mountains as we drove south and home. Climbing in Norway is still like it was in Scotland prior to Gary Latter’s excellent guides Scottish Rock Vol 1 & 2; myth, mystery and general location confusion of the many classic routes and crags, there’s plenty on offer, but where ?

With a passion for Arctic terrain, ideally stuffed with granite towers and crags, all born out visits to the Northern Territories of Canada and Norway, I was blown away by the mass of rock in the Tromso and Narvik area as we drove south, and so accessible. Slingsby & Weir didn’t mention all this, obviously keeping the secret to themselves - 500 lifetimes could never do this place justice!  Around every next corner a new and exciting piece of mezmerizing rock, “come climb me” lines to die for, all seemingly untouched. Damn, why do I have to go home to work !

Ed Webster’s Lofoten guide and more recently the ’easy to use’ Rockfax guide to the Lofoton Islands have certainly helped to dispel some of the mystery of this northern playground, revealing a boundless treasure right on the UK doorstep. But the eagerly awaited next phase now unfolds thanks to a fabulous new guide STETIND & NARVIK.

Packed full of Alpine style rock routes, multi-pitch trad and bolted routes, roadside sport climbs, bouldering unlimited, you name it.. Talking of roadside, whilst heading south we stopped in a lay-by where a perfect granite slab zoomed up from the gutter for at least 10 pitches and made Etive and Idwal look like a practice crag, you didn’t have to exit the car to belay the first pitch. The S&N new guide at £37 may initially seem a tad expensive but it’s all in English and beautifully produced. Combined with the Lofoten Rockfax guide I challenge anyone to come up with a better destination for an extended granite climbing adventure, certainly far better than the over hyped, dusty, crowded, dog pit of Yosemite.  Try it, experience the rock, the culture of the sub-Arctic, the Northern lights, almost 24 hour daylight and maybe even bag yourself a few new routes, there’s still years of untouched rock….. the down side; take your own beer.

First up, Angus Kille and Finn McCann have both made successful ascents of the beautiful rolling arete of My Piano (E8) at Nesscliffe.

Also at Ness, the ginger-ninja, Mr Tom Fenwick has sent the technical test-pieces of Yukan II and Tombola, both at E7.

Olly Dreghorn has made the first ascent of an outstanding line at Harmer Hill. The route, which at the moment we are calling Dreghorns Groove (until Olly gets of his overly-modest arse and gives us a real name), climbs the groove to the right of the bolted arete and provides hard, sustained, technical moves, with no protection. Having never really headpointed anything before Olly was unsure of the difficulty of the line, and reservedly proposed a grade of E6/7 6b. Having tried (and failed) the line on top rope with Ed I would guesstimate it to be significantly harder, maybe more along the lines of E8 6c.

Rumor has it that Ed is aslo coming close to completing his project at Nesscliffe, which will leave the crag with another high-end route (E7ish maybe?).

More recently I joined Ed and Tom for a quick trip to the Roaches. We got loads done including a group send of the awesome highball- The Cube (V5). My personal highlight of the trip must be soloing Willow Farm (E4 6a). Admittedly It was above pads, but at ten meters high it was still enough to provide quite a rush.

Also during the trip Tom made an ascent of Wings of Unreason (E4 6a), which he completely cruised, Check out the video below.

tom on wings from grady on Vimeo.

willow farm from grady on Vimeo.

These are some of the fresh DVDs and Climbing / Cycling Guides recently added to our ever growing on-line stock range. Take a look!

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Core

CORE goes to the heart of climbing. Join an international cast of the sport’s most dedicated athletes as they stick it when it matters most. Shot in 35mm Ultra High Definition, get ready to see every detail of some of the nastiest pieces of rock ever climbed.

A close examination of each character offers perspective beyond just their achievements on the stone. From Helsinki to Hueco, Africa to Italy, the enclosed forests of Tuscany to the vast open space of the American West, this film is… Read more and see the trailer

Out of the Shadows into the Sun

This was Leo Dickinson’s first film and the first filmed ascent of the north face of the Eiger. Two 16mm cameras and 5000ft of film, Eric Jones, Cliff Phillips and Pete Minks are drawn into an adventure dreamt up in a pub in North Wales… Read more

Wild Walks 2

Join Cameron McNeish for another series of Wild Walks from BBC Scotland’s Adventure Show, exploring the superb variety of mountain walking that Scotland boasts… Read more

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A55 Sport Climbs

In recent years there has been an enormous amount of activity in developing the sport climbing crags and new climbing areas along the A55 expressway corridor in North Wales between Llanddulas and Penmaenmawr. Sport climbing is becoming increasingly popular in the UK… Read more

Froggatt to Black Rocks

Ramrodded into its 528 joyous full-colour pages is more information, inspiration and fun than you can shake a clip stick at. From predictably amazing Froggatt sizzlers to whole crags you’ve never heard of – Upper Matlock Quarries, anyone?… Read more

Canadian Rock: Select Climbs of the West

384 pages, 800 images, all colour. The most anticipated guidebook to rock climbing in Canada. This full-colour guidebook brings together into a single collection 1200 of the great rockclimbs of Western Canada, from Squamish to Lake Louise to the Ghost River Valley… Read more

Classic Dolomite Climbs

A modern topo guide (using UIAA symbols) describes the finest dolomite climbs (of all grades) giving attention to the often complex descents. This guide has reinvigorated interest in one of the most challenging rock-climbing areas in the world… Read more

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100 Greatest Cycling Climbs

A road cyclist’s guide to Britain’s hills. From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide covers the roads that have worked their way into cycling folklore… Read More

Wales Mountain Biking

A collection of 20 classic Welsh mountain bike rides, between 12 and 50km in length. Split into three sections, South Wales, Mid Wales and North Wales, this book includes classic loops such as The Gap Road in the Brecon Beacons and Pen Trumau in the Black Mountains, routes in Pembrokeshire, and the Gower, the Elan Valley in the Cambrian Mountains, Moel Famau in the Clwydian Hills and classic routes in Snowdonia - including options for the awesome ascent and descent of Snowdon itself… Read more

Cycling in the UK

An introduction to the National Cycle Network. In 1979 a few volunteers got together to transform an abandoned railway path from Bristol to Bath into a cycle track. Thirty years on, over 12,000 miles of the National Cycle Network branch across the UK… Read more ]]> http://www.highsports.co.uk/blog/?feed=rss2&p=2460 http://www.highsports.co.uk/blog/?p=2271 http://www.highsports.co.uk/blog/?p=2271#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:04:57 +0000 Stuart http://www.highsports.co.uk/blog/?p=2271 Call it what you want, ozone, global warming… who knows. But it’s fair to say that Spring is now officially Summer so if you don’t want to miss out strike early. With endless settled weather forecasts, crystal blue skies and long days the first plan of Spring (Summer) was hatched, time to hit the road !

We set out on our road touring bikes from Shrewsbury, as lightly loaded as possible, on route to Mynydd Mawr, the furthest point west on the Lleyn Peninsula. The aim to avoid main roads and include some of the highest road/track passes in Wales, away from the tourist spots of Snowdonia.

As a ”warm up” first day for my pensioner riding partner, actually a good excuse for me, we headed south over the Stiperstones towards Bishops Castle and then along the Kerry Ridgeway for an over night bunkhouse stop, 25 miles.

Next day winding our way through the tranquil scenery of deep cut hills via LLanfair Caeireinion, Dolanog, along Lake Vyrnwy to the top of the Bwlch y Groes pass (highest road pass in Wales) then down for a well deserved pint and their famous “lamb & leek” pie meal at the Red Lion in Dinas Mawddwy. Also overnighting at the Red Lion was the long distance walker Ian Whyte. Ian’s quest is to walk from Land’s End to John O’Graots via the highest point in each of the 84 counties of mainland Britain, 3,500 miles, for Cancer Research UK. Our unexpected Welsh Crossing of paths was one to celebrate and remember. Averaging 35 kms(20+ miles) per day Ian started his walk in March and hopes to complete sometime in September with only one day off in every ten! You can track his progress at his website. Ian was heading to the summit of Aran Fawddwy and then Bala we were heading west to the coast. We parted company offering a promise to send him his next pair of favoured Meindl Borneo walking boots to wherever he was out on route with our compliments, the least High Sports can do to support this incredible effort.

Please also help to spur Ian along by donating on line at www.allinone-walk.org.uk

Not exactly an adventure I’d relish but Ian’s quest provided the inspiration to get our stiff legs moving after a hard previous day. In glorious fresh morning sunshine we climbed, and often pushed our bikes, up out of Dinas Mawddwy up almost vertical lanes through mountainous forest country eventually down to the slate mining village of Corris. Then gated lanes beside Tal-y-Llyn lake, and into the delightful Dysynni valley and along below Bird Rock. From here a long climb via a narrow tarmac lane leads up the SW flanks of Cadair Idris, eventually the tarmac turns to a rideable dirt road and a high mountain pass. Following a high valley dirt road for a few miles you’re finally rewarded for all the mega effort; a spectacular view point at a gate by a forest over looking Fairbourne, the Barmouth estuary, Cardigan Bay and the last part of our trip the Lleyn Peninsula.

Rough to start the descent soon turns to blasting down endless winding lanes, past picturesque tarns, crossing the estuary by the wooden railway bridge to Barmouth. From there on the only unavoidable section of main road to Harlech. Luckily it was early evening, the traffic was light and a strong tail wind pushed us swiftly along to Tremadoc, fish & chips and a nights bunkhouse stop at “me old mate Eric Jones cafe”.  Expecting a lift to the nearest pub from the man, we arrived only to discover he’d been rushed to Bangor hospital for emergency treatment, post knee surgery operation a few days earlier which had gone wrong, inconvenient or what ! (Pleased to say he’s well on the way to riding his bike again and serving the best All Day Breakfast). 129 miles clocked since leaving Shrewsbury.

An early bed on a soft mattress in Eric’s bunkhouse, loads of tea and an early full English in the cafe, was only ruined by some guy whittering on about “how he’d recently split from his wife, lucky lady, had to find meaningful solitude by retreating to a deserted island in Scotland, poor listening sheep”. Combined it had us fully revived, but pedalling fast out of Tremadoc to avoid the onset of depression on such a beautiful morning, our fourth day of sunshine.

So far the wild flowers, typical of Spring, along the way had been a wonderful distraction from sore arse pedalling and occasional vertical uphill walking but now on the Lleynwe were being treated to something special. Relentless banks of roadside primary colours stood out on a vividly backdrop of the perfect cow munching Kerry Gold butter making lush green grass. An absolute pageant of varieties around every corner, all intensified by a clear blue coastal sky and sun. The coconut smell of gorse blossom mixed with bluebell was unforgettable as we breezed along the lanes heading west. Springtime on the Lleyn Peninsula has a uniqueness which I doubt can be bettered and the display only builds as you head further and further west to the eventual journeys end on the summit road of Mynnyd Mawr and a final bonus view back along the Peninsula. Whatever you do don’t drive the LLeyn, cycle it, and get the full benefit of our Spring (Summer). Running short of time we had a “panic ride” to get us back to Pwllheli and our 5.38pm train home. 4 days and 198 miles.

The excellent value train journey back to Shrewsbury takes 4 hours, cost us £20 (bikes go free). This journey has to rank as one of the world’s best train rides. The track hugs the coast, a treat of stunning views and bridge crossings all the way to Machynlleth, then winds its way inland through the beautiful hills of the Marches to Shrewsbury.  If you never do our bike ride, then do the train trip with your bike, then amble about the Lleyn in Spring time (Summer) you’ll not be disappointed !

Thanks to Laurie Dempsey my faithful pedalling partner, the UK Spring time and Wales for making the miles so memorable !   24-28th May 2010.

The 2010 High Sports KILLER LOOP on Sunday 18th July - a 50mile/5,000ft of ascent bike challenge doubled in rider numbers this year, and hosted its first tandem entry. With over 50 riders this year the final proceeds from the event allowed us to make a double charity donation; half to the Youngsters in the Mountains fund and the other half to the Shropshire Hospice. Well done to all involved !

Riders set out at minute intervals with only a map and details of how to get to the first checkpoint where they collect details for the next stage and so on passing through 3 more checkpoints taking them back to the start and finish, at Minsterley Village Hall. Every year the course is different creating a sense of mystery to the event. Apart from free food at the finish a free KL t-shirt for those completing the distance in under 4.5 hours adds to the motivation to finish.  Most who endured the course agreed it was a classic route this year taking in some of the toughest, steepest, highest and most scenic parts of the Shropshire hills; inc the Wenlock Edge, Long Mynd, Corndon and the Stiperstones with only one recorded minor crash, caused by an out of control horse box down a country lane.

The emphasis of the event has always been that it’s a challenge and not a race, but most riders seem to want the pain and suffering to be over as quickly as possible, this year was no exception, with some blistering overall times. See the results here. 17 year old Joe Donnelly cruised home in 3hours 36mins (a cycle racing club somewhere ought to home in on this very talented young rider). The tandem team of Simon Dawes & Jackie Sayer completed in 4.42 hrs and rode every hill including the Burway up onto the Long Mynd. Impressive! But every rider should be proud of their achievement, whatever the time taken. “It’s not about winning or the time, it’s about getting your arse out of the house onto a saddle and being out in the fresh air somewhere new, using your muscles until the cramp and enjoying the crack with other folk”.

Thanks to all who contributed in a big way, the marshals (Charlie Leventon, Chris Roberts, John Thorpe, Ian & Sandra Cathcart, Alastair Cathcart & Richard). Catering girl Alison Cathcart for all the free sandwiches, homemade cakes and endless tea & cold drinks at the finish and Pauline Richards for her annual contribution of wicked homemade chocolate and assorted cakes for the knackered riders. But of course thanks to the riders for supporting this ever more popular July event. Hope to see you in 2011 for an even tougher KILLER LOOP.

Stuart C.

Click on this link to see more photographs courtesy of Charlie Leventon.

In a previous High Sports lecture series, Dave shared with us his experiences on Echo Wall, and after practicing Indian Face in preparation for his project, had seemed to have lost interest.

However, according to his blog, Dave was eager to make only the fourth ascent of the world’s first E9 after a couple of sessions on a ‘flying visit’, despite infrequent rain!

Monday’s successful lead ascent (28th June) was recorded, and may be part of a film for us to look forward to.

Nice one Dave!

This picture is a courtesy of Dave MacLeod Blog