Friday 29 January 2010

4 Boasts

What an absolutely crappy week this has been. I have been sinking beneath an ever growing mountain of work with a constant stream of people hassling me for things I haven't managed to do yet.

On Tuesday morning I came down stairs to find a magpie on my living room. Bloody big thing it was! The cat was chasing it around to no avail (being as it was bigger than the cat). It must have got in through the cat flap. I finally managed to get the thing out of the patio door (but not before it shat down our curtains) after about 10 minutes of struggle - and get myself off to work.

Lucy informed me that it is bad luck to see a lone magpie (something I was not aware of) and this rang true the next day when I crashed my car on a roundabout I have crossed a thousand times (incidentally, for the last 18 months I had been referring to it as 'the roundabout of death'). Then I spent the whole morning trying to figure out (via about 10 phone calls) who the bloody insurers were for my company car (even our finance director didn't know) as it had just changed the previous week.

But hey, I have managed to line up quite a few interesting bits of time off in the next six months. Each and every one of which I am excited about for different reasons.

In February I will be undertaking a 5 day winter mountaineering course. I recently sold my kidney on eBay to pay for boots, crampons and goretex jackets and am very excited about putting them to good use! I got the following email through from the course instructor today:

"Tower Ridge is a route that I would choose for the course but its a long route, so you will need to still be fit enough by day 4-5 of the course in order to go for it. Try to do as much airobic training bettween now and your arrival." I was hoping to get through it on strength of mind alone. I didnt realise I needed fitness!!

I was seconds from posting up a picture of Tower Ridge and then realised that both my mum and Lucy read this blog and after viewing the pictures - If I post them up I may not be allowed to go!

In May I am heading to Lake Garda and the Dolomite in Italy with Lucy, my friend The Nurse and his other half. He is my regular climbing buddy and we are going to tackle some via ferratta routes before retiring to the lake for some relaxation (and maybe a visit or two to Milan / Verona / Venica)

The best way I can describe Via Ferrata is that its like mountaineering or climbing but with fixed wires and ladders. We did some of it in a past visit to the Tatras in 2007.

In July we do the Hadrians Walk in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust. I have been enstrusted with preparations and leadership of Team Bandicoot. We are going to be a small team (I am hoping for between 12 and 15 people), but we should get on great and there is nothing I love more than romping through the countryside in the sunshine. Conversely to the Pennine Way last year - we will also get some good nights sleep in hostels rather than tents which will be welcome for most (though secretly I would rather camp).

In late July / August, Lucy and I will be heading to Lebannon for a week - for a wedding in Beirut! This is somewhere we would probably not have chosen to visit (as there are so many places in the world we want to go), but I am really looking forward to it and it will be really interesting to get an inside view of such a different culture.

Apparently we will be spending some of our time in a small border village where we have to get signed in and out. The hills are supposed to be amazing here too, but the warnings about land-mines have kind of put me off somewhat.

So really I cant complain.

Also I just spent half an hour blogging when I was supposed to be working.

Sunday 17 January 2010

A Hughes in Iran

Ok, so my blog posts appear to be following a bit of a theme (you can see the last post on the subject here), but I really like this bit of the film, with the red bus traveling across all kinds of dangerous mountain passes. It seems to pretty much capture the spirit of the adventure.


Plus I got 7 comments on the last post, which is pretty spectacular for me, given that I pretty much never post comments on other peoples blogs (though I do read them!). I am one of those annoying people who sneaks silently through blog posts, keeping myself informed, but never giving my hand away (or at least thats how I like to think of myself).

Blogging time is going to be pretty short in the coming weeks, given that I have just worked all weekend and am most likely going to have to do the same next weekend. I have some good stories all banked up in my mind that I want to transfer to paper, but am having trouble finding time and motivation to spit them all out.

Also, when is a guy supposed to climb god dammit!

Anyway, here is the video. I particularly like the bit about leaving the engine of the bus permanently running to stop diesel and oil freezing.



p.s. For information Clive, mentioned in the first sentence is my uncle.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Snow

This Christmas I got a brand spanking new set of crampons for a mountaineering course I am doing in Scotland in February. Given that we have had an unusually large amount of snow recently, I wanted to go and try them out in the hills and I am glad I did!


The main problem with the idea was actually getting to any kind of hills being as many of the passes in the Peak District are closed at the moment. I managed to make it as far a Ladybower reservoir (with a bit of wheel spinning) and did a few miles over Wym Hill (i jut looked at the map for the most contour lines close together). 

It was pretty cold (I think around -3 deg C). But being as I had all my gear together for the course - it was not too bad.

I took a few pictures too (though they did no kind of justice to the actual views):

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I particularly like the sheep which had been burying its face in the snow:

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Sunday 3 January 2010

A Hughes in Afghanistan

I haven't had much time for blogging recently as it has been a pretty hectic Christmas travelling all over the place from Solihull to Holmfirth to Leeds to Sheffield back to Holmfirth and to Sheffield again. Coupled with a couple of trips out and some nightmare new year sales visits to the hellish shopping centre just a small trip from the house. If only I were XXL or XS I would save so much money.

All in all its been a good Christmas I have to say. I have had some excellent climbing sessions and got the opportunity to try out my new crampons in the snow on Mam Tor in the Peak District and went walking with friends and an excellent night out in Sheffield for new year. Maybe Christmas isn't so bad.

One of the things I got from my Dad when I went up to see him was a working DVD (I previously had a faulty one) of 'Pillock Conquors the World', the story of how he travelled on a double decker bus from England to Australia with 9 guys who formed the band 'The Philanderers' when he was younger than I am now. You may have heard me mention it previously.

The footage I find most interesting in the film is the bits where they are traveling parts of the world which would be completely un-crossable in todays political climate. Such as eastern Iran, Afghanistan and the infamous Khyber Pass

At present the Khyber Pass is an area of conflict between the Taliban and the Pakistani Government. The Philanderers drove straight through it in a bright red bus!

This little piece of video shows the passage of the group through Kabul. A prize (consisting of respect) to any non-related person who can identify my dad.