Thanks BBC weather

There are rainy days, in Aberdeen, that take away any hope to climb outdoors.  Then there are passionate climbers who.... just trust BBC weather!

The price to enjoy a spectacular evening feeling somehow proud to be part of a small elite that has the courage to dare has been climbing on wet, slippery rocks.

It has been a good exercise to climb in the mountains and, most important thing: so much fun!

Someone one of his first leading yesterday (well done Greg!).

NEVER GIVE UP!

Luath Stones bouldering + BBQ

We had a nice funny bouldering+BBQ night at Luath Stones. A short walk as warm up, before to attacking the boulders all around, has probably attracted climbers from the AMC past, who usually hide among the walkers.

Later on the fire was started, to share a BBQ on the hills. 

AMC at 6190m

Congratulations to Mark who reached the top of Denali on 16th June 2016.

We look forward to having Mark climbing with us soon!

Big goals and big achievements

Some thoughts I had a few days ago, seeing the happy eyes of a friend who lead, after long time, a challenging route for him with satisfaction.

We do not claim to be great mountaineers who bring home difficult and competitive results. We are just normal people who love mountains and climbing. We have fun, we love to improve, we are driven by our personal goals. These goals will probably seem ridiculous to the most, but we pursue them with enthusiasm and passion. 

Conscious of our limits and dangerousness of this fantastic sport that is rock climbing, we gain experience from our experiences, we put ourselves into question, we try to learn and progress. Always toward that little personal goal, of which cares nothing to anyone.

The only thing that feeds us is our enthusiasm. It is the humility towards the rock and the loyalty to the loyal friends. Those friends who share this enthusiasm, who give us a bit of the their one, taking a bit of the ours. 

This is a game that costs a lot of energy. We have no surplus to spend on anything else than the healthy approach to climbing. Other personal motivations, the love, the family and more, keep us conscious and conscientious. 

So we leave to others everything that is not part of this path towards our goal, if they have time and energy to spend. Unfortunately we are not born champions, we have to work hard. 

The eyes filled with joy of a friend, who setting his anchor at the top of a route told me his great achievement, is the reason why I do the lot of things I do. 

There are big goals and big achievements.

Let's go ahead and then over.

AMC outdoor climbing course

Last news from the climbing course organized by the club: SO MUCH FUN!  

We scratched the head for a while, trying to find a way to organize a climbing course interesting to a group with so different backgrounds and experiences, but finally is has been a GREAT SUCCESS! 

We invaded Ballater with anchors and abseils

we set more anchors for blocking the belay, hoisting etc etc

and more anchors and abseils

The club has now a group of climbers properly instructed about the basics, and some more experienced climbers with techniques practiced and memories refreshed.

We had some braves who yesterday collected their first lead climb, just after the course, and some novices who played abseiling here and there. My compliments to these, fist leading are always epic moments.

Well done climbers! See you on Thursday, at out training session, to practice all what done, finish the opera with some basics and to climb more.

Keep climbing!

Morna+Juliette party & climbs before and after

Thanks to Morna and Juliette for having collected together so many AMC members in a nice location at Loch Tay. The wonderful sunshine completed the opera giving us an excellent weekend!

Most of the people spent two days walking on hills and Monroes but, as usual, climbers are devoted to climb...

Climbing spots at Dunkeld

Happy abseil!

 Heart of the weekend was the party. To get the most funny jokes you have to be there but...

BBQ, cakes and the protagonists

 The day after the group split in cyclists, climbers and hill walkers. 

Thanks to Morna and Juliette for the nice party and their incomparable usual kindness.

As epilogue of this weekend, I can say that we, as a group, are good hill walkers, we try to be reasonably good climbers, but in terms of BBQ and parties, we are truly ahead...!

Exercise together!

Some spots from the sessions of climbing exercises. One more climb together in the month and a good exercise to refresh memory about climbing techniques that without practice are sometimes forgot.

Shirley did her first lead climb. With Ruari guardian angel...

Discussion about anchor

To show to novices what we do can be so embarrassing! Especially when we discover to do different from someone else!! It's nice then to discuss about the solutions adopted by each one and to go back to the theory and the instructions we had, long time ago when we had a course. It's even more nice to have in the group someone very experienced and able to instruct all the group.

Show what we do to offer examples
to the novices is so hard!

Finally, the satisfaction is great: ready for new challenging funny experiences and with someone more leading now!

Thanks to everybody attended the session, to learn and to help. It was great! 

See you at the next training session!!