Yorkshire Three Peaks - Sunrise Introduction Here are some Yorkshire Three Peaks tips and training ideas for someone walking the Challenge for the first time. The Yorkshire Three Peaks has…
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Understanding mountain weather Introduction As regular, or even occasional, hill-walkers and mountaineers, it's vital that we have an understanding of mountain weather. Therefore a number of my previous tips have…
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Rock Rings All over social media there are pictures of people building their own climbing walls during lockdown. Keen climbers are training harder than ever so that they are ready…
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Harvey Maps Mazzles Harvey Maps 'Mazzles' are a perfect way of putting some 'lockdown' time to good use. If you want to improve your map-reading and navigation skills, then one vital…
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Equalising slings Building belays during traditional climbing and mountaineering will very often involve equalising slings. Most often, I use the Figure of Eight or Overhand Knot method. To do this,…
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Sastrugi This tip is all about Sastrugi which, along with rime ice, are very useful in determining what the local wind direction has been recently. This knowledge plays a crucial part…
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Rime Ice Knowing about rime ice is an essential and potentially life-saving bit of mountaineering knowledge. As part of our avalanche awareness and planning, it’s crucial that we know where…
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Buys Ballot's Law It’s well worth knowing about Buys Ballot’s law. Buys Ballot was a Dutch meteorologist in the 19th Century who stated what has become known as his 'law'.…
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Improving belay anchors at a stance Sometimes we need a way of improving belay anchors at a stance on a multi-pitch rock climb. There could be a number of reasons…
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Shapes of karabiners There is an almost bewildering array of shapes of karabiners available. Shape, size, colour and other individual branding characteristics all combine to overwhelm the novice buyer. Some…
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thesummitisoptional.com
Mountain skills courses in the Lake District, Snowdonia and Scotland with a fully qualified mountaineering instructor (WMCI)
Avoid The Shroud (Black Crag, Borrowdale) and any neighbouring climbs for the time being.
