trad climbing Archives

Taking flight in Persia

timdhowell@googlemail.com Uncategorized April 26, 2022April 26, 2022base jump, base jumping, climbing, iran, trad climbing, travel, wingsuit

Dawn is just breaking in over the horizon. Zohre is perched on a limestone ledge, hanging out over the abyss, tethered to the wall with an anchor. As I take a photo she is painting her nails. It’s not a vain plight for the instagram followers but a sign of liberty. Out in the mountains she can show her personality. The mountains for most offer freedom, but for Zohre it’s freedom in the most literal sense. The mountains are a place where she can dance, put on her lipstick and wear the clothes that express herself as an individual, such things would be frowned upon in the cities.

The longest climb in Africa

timdhowell@googlemail.com Climbing, Travel November 22, 2019May 5, 2020adventure, africa, big wall, bigwall, chambe, climbing, malawi, mount mulanje, trad climbing, west face

I was dropped off at the Mozambique/Malawi border by a three strong gang of motorbike riders – I had a lot of kit. Behind the haze huge granite domes loomed in the distance, a seemingly endless amount of granite. I was surprised how swiftly my visa was issued but before both feet left the room I was ushered back in to see a ministry of health representative. After much rustling of papers he mentioned my paperwork wasn’t in order, but five dollars would fix this problem.

Between the Sea and the Sky

timdhowell@googlemail.com BASEjumping, Climbing, Travel October 20, 2019May 5, 2020base jump, base jumping, big wall, climbing, greenland, trad climbing, wingsuit

Growing up I was surrounded by sailing. I would walk to nursery along the foreshore listening to the cables slapping against the masts. But while my friends grew up to become national champions and presidents of the local clubs, I instead looked up to the mountains. On ski holidays I would gaze up at the snowy summits and wish to climb them without the use of lifts. As a christening present a family friend promised me a set of sailing waterproofs when I came of age, and on my 21st birthday he reminded me of this offer. Instead I asked for a contribution towards my first parachute.

Falkland Island new routing.

timdhowell@googlemail.com Climbing December 6, 2016April 7, 2020climbing, climbing topo, falkland, falkland islands, island, the falkland islands, topo, trad climbing

Access

Traveling from Stanley to MPA at around mile 22 a prominent crag can be seen on the right.

Description

The quarzite rock is of good quality, lots of top anchors and mostly good protection, tho the routes will probably need cleaning. There is a lot more chance for development in the area the north side of Mount Harriet has some long slab crack climbs, and the south face has some steep climbs with small roofs that could make for some hard routes.

When we first had a chance to climb in the Falklands I did a lot of research and contacted people to see if there any any routes had been recorded, apparently a scrapbook of routes does exist in the Gyms office on the camp, though no-one knows of it now, so for that reason I believe that some of these climbs might have been climbed before, but here is the first record of it online: