Latest News & Events Diary

"We are really impressed with the quality of the adverts. Judging hasn't been easy. There's some great talent out there and we appreciate the time it took for each of the 53 climbers to design their adverts. Yes we could tell you are all climbers as the designs featured an understanding of what the gear is about, and how it used on the cliff or mountain."

Read an introduction to the winners here: WINNERS: The Lyon Equipment Design A Banner Competition

The winners of the competition are here: THE FOUR WINNERS: The Lyon Equipment Design A Banner Competition

Latest Competition

Enter our latest competition the Marmot "On Sight" Film Clip Competition. with over £1,000 worth of Marmot gear up for grabs HERE including an Exclusive Preview of the Posing Productions film ON SIGHT

UKClimbing.com are pleased to host the annual writing competition in conjunction with the festival. Entries must be on the festival theme of 'Partners - Who Needs Them?' and must be under 1500 words. UKC will be judging the entries and will publish the top three.

The winning entry will be announced at the festival and will be read by writer and photographer Ian Smith. The prize is £150 and will be presented at the festival by last year's winner Jack Geldard.

Entries must not have been previously published. Deadline is 31st October 2008. Entries should be sent to UKClimbing.com via the Submit Article Function. Please include a name, address, phone number and email address with your entry and mark the title 'Writing Comp'.

Click here to read last year's winning entry Under The Black Cliff by Jack Geldard

For more info on the Festival: www.festivalofmountaineeringliterature.co.uk/

In their words: "The tin shed still stands - and stands for all we hold dear... ...What once housed the heavy equipment now holds our stories."

The new tin shed is an area of their website, which houses videos of their sponsored athletes or 'Patagonia Ambassadors'.

Of particular interest to UK climbers is the excellent video by HotAches Productions featuring Sonnie Trotter climbing Rhapsody.

Topping out on Rhapsody, Sonnie says: "Man I could not be happier right now!"

Direct Link to the Patagonia Tin Shed

The area is facing a threat from quarrying as various companies are about to be granted permission to harvest the valuable granite found in the area. More information (including an online petition) is available on the following sites:

• Climbing.com
• Stonemonkeys.com
  

Thanks to Robin Mueller and Glyn Jones for bringing this to our attention.

"Finally we made it! Five years have passed since Stephan Siegrist and I first ascended the route on the North Face of the Eiger during the hottest summer ever in 2003. Now, I was able to climb every of the 27 pitches redpoint.

Stephan belayed and supported me. Together we climbed this very difficult and demanding rock climb on the Eiger Northface. Two pitches have the difficulty of 7c+, one pitch 8a and the rest of the pitches vary mostly between 7a and 7b+." commented Steck on the Mountain Hardware Blog.

The route, Pacienia (meaning patience) was first climbed and equipped by the pair in 2003, although Siegriest had begun work on the route with Raul Bayard back in 2001. The route waited five years for a free ascent, which was done over two days; August 29 and 30 2008, with the pair swinging leads on the route's 27 pitches.

"Only when a route is free climbed, is she definitively climbed." said Steck. The pair didn't name the route until they had free climbed the entire line.

Sources: Mountain Hardware Blog, Alpinist,

Bah Bah Black Sheep was first climbed by Dave Graham in 2002 and has had several repeats.

Markus Bock repeated the route during a run of form in 2005, commenting: "Bah Bah is a really cool route, with a powerful tricky boulder." The crux of the route is reportedly a V11 boulder problem in its own right.

Read more on the UKBouldering Thread