End of Trip Goodness...shikading

Wow, two months and 10 days later and we are back home! Our epic European Road trip has come to an end and what an amazing trip it was. We visited so many amazing places, climbed some incredible routes and met so many awesome people from all over the world!

So, after the World Cup we then headed back down to the South of France, where we had a few days at the brilliant crag Orpierre ticking off a number of classics, including Ed boshing out his hardest of the trip being Je suis une Hyene 8b+. He also came very close on Mission Impossible 8c, which I am sure would go down fine next trip. We also met up with our good friend Ollie Ryall who was one of the first people to get us leading sport routes abroad. He lives out there and run's his own business Climbapiedia.
From there we went further south to the classic, old school crag of the 90’s Volx. We had a heard a few mixed stories about the crag, but wanted to check it out for our self. So yeh it’s polished, pretty old skool and not Ceuse but it’s still freaking awesome. We had a great couple of days there, cranking out some steep ass routes that never get wet! It’s a brilliant venue. Highlights were Heuco 7b+, Shoashing 8a and Ed fighting his way up Grotesque 8a+.
After Volx our final destination was to head up into the mountains to Briancon and hook up with a great guy that we had a met at Ceuse, David Falt. He kindly let us stay at his place for the last a few days of the trip and gave us a tour of all the best crags in the area. We checked out three very different crags all around Briancon, firstly Tournoux then Roche du Brume and the last day at Entregue. We managed to send some wicked routes at each crag with the best being Direct du Coeur 7c+, Cost of Freedom 8a, Espoir Karsherise 8a, La Cour des grands 7c and La Tordeuse de Melezes 8a. It was such a great end to our trip and a massive Big up to David, Camilla and Milton for letting us stay with them. Thanks so much guys, you were awesome! We shall be back for shore! And so all that was left for us to do was make the long drive back up to Calais, catch the ferry across to Dover and then the home straight to the glamorous village of Over Haddon!

Here are a few interesting stats from our trip:
• I drove our amazing van over 5000km through 3 countries!
• We walked up to Ceuse 25 times in a month!
• We climbed at more than 15 different crags
• Clipped the chains on around 300 routes, 65 of graded 8 and above!
• Used up 11 of the 350g Mega sized chalk bags!!
• Swam in 8 different pools/rivers/lakes
• And of course we ate loads baguettes, quite a few pizza’s and drunk a hell of a lot of Brewskys!!

E.N.J.O.Y!!!

Imst World Cup!!

Ed----
In between the outdoor climbing I did 3 competitions, 2 Europeans and 1 World Cup.

The first of the competitions was in Bulgaria. It was the 2nd EYC competition. I managed to come 4th place (my best in a European!!)

The 2nd of the competitions was in Austria, this was the 3rd EYC. I managed to make the final again but did not climb as well and came 10th at the end.

10 days after this it was the main event, The World Youth Climbing Cup, again this was held in Austria in Imst. It was a fantastic competition. This is by far the best competition result I have ever had!! I managed 2nd place in the final! VERY SYKED!!!! Before this my best World Cup placing was 17th!

Here's a stash of photo's from the comp, Check em out!!

2nd leg....Austria

We are now in Austria chilling out in the little town of Imst in the Tirol region. We left Ceuse now over two weeks ago, stopping off at Arco in Italy for 3 days on the drive over. Ceuse ended awesomely with loads of people sending ther projects and getting some great end of trip photo’s of the routes. Arco was then fun on the way over where I had a few sessions up at Massone. It was awesome but way too hot for that time of year! Was much nicer to hit the pool at the campsite and have a celebrated Italian ice cream in the town!







Austria now is much different, a totally different scene over here. We have had a few days out on the rock in the Zillertal, Otzal, and Neiderthai checking out some wicked new areas and a few we had been to 3 years ago. The climbing here is so different from what we had got used to over in the South of France! Its all much shorter, more bouldery, pretty crimpy, tough on the skin and on ‘Gneiss’ rock!! Ed competed in the European Youth Comp in Imst a couple of weeks ago where he came 9th and has just qualified for the semi's in the Wold Cup this weeknd. Venga Vamos!!!!

CEUSE!!!!

Was up everybody.....
We are at Ceuse and have been here for over 4 weeks now!!! We have had an amazing time out here doing loads of incedible routes, meeting some amazing people, doing alot of walking up and down the infamous hill and alot of chilling out in the sun!
What a beautiful place to be!!






Here are some of the incredible routes we've done so far:

My Ticklist:

La Femme Noir 7c (os)
Galaxy 7c (rp)
La Chose 7c (rp)
Berlin 7c (rp)
L' errance d'une Passion 7c (f)
Hyper Mickey 7c (rp)
Vagabond d'Occident 7c (onsight)
Blanches Fesses 7c (os)
Corps etranger 7c (os)
Les Rodhodendrons 7c+ (rp)
Teuchipa 7c (os)
Tenere 7c+ (os)
Privalige de serpent 7c+ (os)
Makach Walou 7c+ (os)
Mirage 7c+ (os)
Le Migicien de Riga 7c+ (rp)
Carte Blanche 8a (Redpoint)
Bourinator 8a (Redpoint)
Petit Tom 8a (rp)
Coulur du vent 8a (rp)
Les Collenetts 8a (rp)
L'ami Couette 8a (rp)
Dolce Vita 8a+ (rp)
La Femme Blanche 8a+ (rp)
Seurs Froids 8a+ (2nd go)

Ed's Ticklist:

Monnaie de singe 8a 3rd go,
Berlin 7c onsight,
Rodhodendrons 7c+ flash,
Galaxy 7c onsight,
Le privilege du serpent 7c+ onsight,
Mirage 7c+ onsight,
Petit tom 8a flash,
Radote joli pepere 8b 2nd go,
Blocage violent 7b+ onsight,
Dolce vita 8a+ 2nd go,
L'errance dune passion 7c onsight,
La couleur du vent direct 8a+ 2nd go,
La chose 7c onsight,
Le colenette 8a onsight,
Le magicien de riga 7c+ onsight,
Bibendum 7b+ onsight,
Bourinator 8a flash,
Carte blanche 8a flash,
Suerus froides 8a+ onsight,
Vagabond d'occident 7c onsight,
Blanche fesses 7c onsight,
Correspondence imaginaire 7c+ onsight,
Corpes etrager 7c onsight,
Violent illusion 8b 4th go,
Queue de rat 7b+ onsight,
Makach walou 7c+ onsight,
L'amie de tout le monde 8b 2nd go.

Ed goes today for a comp in Bulgaria while me and Ethan have a few more days left at Ceuse. Then Ethan heads home on wednesday and I head over to Arco for a few days then onwards to Zillertal in Austria for all of August. Super Pysched!!!!!

Yorkshire Hit & New Van!!

ED’s POST!!!!! -----------------

Just had a 5 day hit up in North Yorkshire at Malham and Kilnsey for my half term! This was to try out our amazing new van and see what were the good sides and bad for the up-coming euro road trip. We drove up on the Saturday morning and climbed everyday up to Wednesday evening. We were also treated with an amazing ascent of All Out 8b+ by Chris Savage!! The weather was not great to start off but gradually got better as the weekend ended. Our ticklist over the last week of climbing from Yorkshire and peak area included-

Ed-

The Jekyll (7c+ on sight)
Dead Calm (8a 2nd go)
Le Lapin (8a 2nd go)
Cold Steel (8a 2nd go)
Mid-Ledge Spread (8a+)
Soft Option (8a+ 2nd go)
Brick Top (8b)
La Connection (8b 2nd go)
Brief Encounter (8b)
Massala Martyr (8b)
Austrian Oak (8b)

Sam-

Myra Hindley (7c onsight)
This is the sea (7c+)
Zero Option (7c+)
The Jekyll (7c+ 2nd go)
Cold steel (8a)
Le Lapin (8a)
Dead Calm (8a 2nd go)
Soft Option (8a+)
Hot Flushes (8a)