Essentially it was an endurance event MTB race - 10 hours non-stop! It was in Kirroughtree in Sctoland which is a MTB park. We did it as a team of 3 but you could do it as a solo (i know 10 hours non-stop MTBing!), or pairs or trios or quads! We were also in the mixed senior category and I came second. We narrowly missed out on 1st by 6 minutes. Not bad over 10 hours 22 minutes racing I reckon!

I’m loving the grit and determination in that photo!! True spirit!

-Aisling-

Photo kindly sent to me by Vanessa!
UPDATE: Photo from Xpressphoto.

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - I watch Russell Davies blog for my interest in mobile technology and was pleased to see this little expedition of his. On his first (and last?) ascent of Ben Nevis he strapped Nokia N95 to his chest strap on his rucksack and set it to post live photos & GPS location to the internet every minute.

On the way up it worked for precisely three minutes. But, on the way down it worked for a bit longer, so this video is about an hour of descent from the top of Ben Nevis, compressed into a minute, down to about 1000m, where it stopped working. Not sure why. I like it though, it works as proof of concept. I’m not sure what the concept is exactly, but it’s proved.

Watch Video:

a bit of a descent of ben nevis from russelldavies on Vimeo.

The Flickr set of photos is worth looking at too.

Quirky, but a nice project.

-Robin

(Image Credit: Russell Davies Flickr Set)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) - Shane Ohly has set a new winter record for the ramsay round in 29hrs and 59mins and 34seconds. To date there have been only 45 successful finishers of the ramsay round. Charlie Ramsay was the first person to complete the round in 1978 in a time of 23hrs and 58 minutes. It was another 9 years until the next successful attempt and also the first person to complete the round solo an unsupported.

Shane Ohly:

“My round was solo, unsupported and largely ‘on-sight’ as my recce efforts earlier in the winter were consistently thwarted by poor weather.

I chose to travel clockwise taking on Ben Nevis and the Aonachs first. I wanted to get the highest and most technical section of the round completed first, when I was fresh, and I also didn’t fancy descending the stony path down Ben Nevis at the end of the round.

The first 10 hours or so were a joy. I chatted with walkers on the summits, felt fresh and was comfortably keeping under my sub 24 hour schedule. Then my body died. I’ve analysed my food wrappings and calculated I ate less than 5,000 calories the entire time I was out! I was basically ‘bonked’ for the last 2/3 of the round. I don’t know why I stopped eating but it’s something I need to think hard about before my next attempt. The last 1/3 of the round was truly painful. I was seeing sleepmonsters (think mythological creatures) and hearing music (despite being alone on the hills). In the final stages, cutting down through the forest near Achriabhach, I caught myself on some brambles and nearly burst into tears. As for winter conditions, I was hoping for the hills to be ‘whiter’ than they where. However, I am happy that the Round was sufficiently wintry and in keeping with the other winter rounds of the Ramsay.

I definitely believe that the Ramsay Round can be done in sub 24 hours in winter and I have already decided to have another go next year. The whole experience was fantastic with the long night section being particularly memorable….and cold!”

-Eoinod-

I received an email from Claire MacLeod to let me know about the inaugural Slacklining Masters, which will be held in Fort William, Scotland, “will be kicking off at 12pm on Saturday 23rd February at the Lochaber Leisure Leisure Centre playing fields with the Grand Final at 4pm.” Dust off your slacklines, tie them off to some trees, and get practicing!
It’s being held as part of the Fort William Mountain Festival (running from 14th - 23rd February) which seems to have a pile of events running throughout the week.

Entry is free, and the “entry forms are now available to download here ” (Warning: pdf)

“The cash prizes for the comp are now totaling a whopping two grand.
UK Champion = £500
UK 2nd place = £300
UK 3rd place = £200
International Champion = £500
International 2nd place = £300
International 3rd place = £200″
Check out Claire’s post here and I’m sure you’ll want to subscribe to keep an eye out for more updates.

- Neal :) -

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It’s “Groovy Shoe” time. We got to be careful not to show Eoin these or he’ll be off to Japan to buy a pair of New Balance ‘Trail Busters’. Check out this page of aqua/violet/turquoise/dark-pink/salmon trail running shoes. Thanks to Gráinne for telling us all about these in a this comment.

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THIS SUNDAY (18th Nov)! The “Off Road Duathalon” (Aisling already warned you!) starts at 11:00am in the North Wicklow Mountains, Ireland.

The race will consist of a 2.5k trail run and 12k off road bike and a 2.5k trail run. (Not as easy as it sound’s) The first run starts on a gradual uphill then drops down for 1.2km turn around and straight back up a nice steady climb up to transition, the bike course starts with a downhill on a forest road for just over 1.5km which will give plenty of time to recover from the first run and allow you prepare for the climb back to transition, this lap will be ridden 3 times before pulling back into transition for a quick change back to running shoes and out onto the run course for the final lap.

Contact Rob Cummins www.wheelworxbikes.com and Mike Jordan www.thecycleinn.com

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The Dublin Voyagers Canoe Club are just back from a river expedition in Nepal. Hardcore!

Voyagers is a roof-rack river kayaking club that has operated in the Dublin area for over twenty years.

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Sarunas (DCU Rock Climbing Club - Trips Officer) sent us a mail to say Dave MacLeod has announced on his blog that “To Hell and Back” is now online to watch but in fairly low res.

Follow the journey of Scotland’s top climber Dave MacLeod as he attempts to ascend Hell’s Lum in the Cairngorms.

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And finally, how fantastic is it to have new ‘Guest Posts’ on the scene! Thanks to Stewart Wallace & Rick (of Tango & Cash) for their great posts. I must note that Mr 8a’yton is knocking about in here too these days.
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Phew! Keep ‘em coming!!!

-Robin.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (Team Geared Up) - BBC Scotland followed Ulric Jessop on the 2007 Red Bull X-Alps paragliding challenge. The X-Alps race is an 850km flying and mountain climbing race across the European Alps where competitors armed only with their paraglider must scale high enough to jump and get the maximum distance before repeating. The route goes from East to West along the main rib of the alps.

X-Alps the documentary is showing on TV tomorrow.

The documentary, X-Alps, The World’s Most Extreme Race, will be shown on BBC Scotland on Tuesday 30th October at 7:00pm.

It will also be available on the BBC IPlayer service for those in the UK. Thanks to Paratiger for the email to tip us off about this.

-Robin-

NEWBRIDGE, KILDARE (Team Geared Up) - What did all the adventurers do to deserve this?!

We’ve already had Joe Simpson’s ‘Beckoning Silence’ last night, Beyond Endurance tonight, and now there’s a choice of items to watch on Wednesday. If you’re in Dublin there’s an Irish Mountaineering Council slideshow, and now Dave MacLeod’s ascent of an E10 is being shown on television on the same night! Phew….

For anyone who’s forgotten what this route was all about, BBC’s own description says it all:
“An intimate and frightening portrait of the consequences of one of the world’s best climbers becoming obsessed with a new route in the heart of the Cairngorm mountains.”

Dave MacLeod’s blog is reporting that if you don’t get BBC Scotland, you can get it on Sky on Channel 990 (can someone confirm?) and it might possibly end up online on BBC Scotland’s own site

Courtesy of Dave MacLeod’s blog

- Neal :) -

NEWBRIDGE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - O.k., I normally don’t post specifically about these sort of things but having received an email from Dave MacLeod today promoting it, I thought it would be worth giving a mention. As it’s about to enter winter, we’ll all need some inspiration to keep us sane when the weather isn’t playing ball and we’re stuck indoors.

The makers of E11, last year’s classic and winner of numerous awards, have released their latest movie, Committed.
Basically, the official press releases sum up the movie: “A year at the cutting edge of hardcore trad climbing……
One theme is consistent: Committed.
Some of the highlights include James Pearson on Grit’s hardest route, The Promise E10, Sonnie’s visit to Rhapsody E11, myself repeating Divided Years, Blind Vision, Trauma and other E8s and E7’s onsight. There’s Katherine Shirrmacher doing her first E7, Jude Spanken cruising E6 onsight. Oh yeah and what about falls? Alan Cassidy hitting the deck from the crux of Yes Yes, rolling around in eye watering pain afterwards (you’ll see what I mean!), Neil Mawson taking a harrowing groundfall from Meshuga “the route you are not supposed to fall off”, Adam and James throwing themselves off the last move of Angel’s Share E8. Adventure, fear and inspiration. 78 minutes plus DVD extras.”
And of course, Dave himself, cranking up some hard routes of his own :)

Anyway as an added bonus (and the reason behind Dave’s email) was to let me know that Dave is bundling an e-book with the DVD if you purchase it through his own personal site.
In short, “I’ve put together a free E-book to go with the Committed DVD to add a little extra to the film. The film is about hard trad – the E-book is about how to go out and do it yourself. How to Climb Hard Trad is a 5 chapter printable PDF e-book…..It won’t be available anywhere else.” (Quote from Dave’s site).

Direct link to the Dave’s page is here

Trailer for the movie can be found here on Hot Ache’s website

- Neal :) -

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) - Angela Mudge and Kilian Jornet are the champions of the 2007 Buff Skyrunner World Series. Mudge retained her crown from last year and Jornet becomes the youngest ever champion Skyrunner World Series at the age of just 19. He captured his title with an impressive 4 wins out of 4 races in Andorra, Malaysia, Japan and Spain(Zegama).

The race, held in the Sierra de Aizkorri, had a marathon distance (42,195km) and an accumulated ascent and descent of 5.472m. It was a very technical and difficult route, crossing the highest peaks of Euskadi (Aratz, Aizkorri, Aketegi and Aitxuri). Jornet put himself among the leaders at the beginning of the race, along with the Segovian Raúl García, and members of the Catalan team Tòfol Castanyer and Jessed Hernàndez, and local racers Zuhaitz Ezpeleta and Fernando Echegaray. This group quickly broke away from the rest of the 450 participants, and it was predictable that they would compete for the final victory.

Sleepmonsters.com for more

-Eoinod-

(Image Credit: Sleepmonsters.com)

DERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Just picked this interesting offer by ITV up via the BMC’s website! Are you a single guy? Passionate about keeping fit and being active? Believe in a healthy, clean-living lifestyle? Up for a challenge? ITV is making a new dating show and wants to find single men aged 30-45 who love being active and keeping fit to take part. ITV is especially interested in hearing from climbers and mountaineers.

If this you and you’re up for a challenge please get in touch with ITV. Email or call with your phone number and a picture of yourself as soon as you can. Contact Sarah.Rubin@itv.com / 0044207 737 2801. Or call Hedi on 0044207 737 8842.

-Bren Whelan-