November Grit

Mild, foggy and still; this November's had its damp days but the eastern rim of the Peak District emerged from the cloud on Sunday around lunchtime while I was out with Tim on Baslow Edge. Sarah and Catia had headed off for a walk in the fog an hour previously and we'd found the silver Baslow Grit to have good friction underfoot.
Neither of us had done much climbing at Baslow. It's a low edge with short routes so we carried bouldering mats, intending to climb without the restriction of rope and harness. Once the sun burned through the mist we climbed on in the bright autumn warmth for a couple of hours until the arrival of the women and, just as importantly, the picnic. You can find more pictures by clicking here.

Castle Naze

I've not been keeping up with the blog but I don't think it's down to a lack of things to report. Economically times remain difficult but I've been working hard to generate possibilities and painting a great deal.
The turning back of the clocks each year means the end to evenings out on the gritstone crags and I've not been very dedicated in recent times to finding opportunities to climb during the shortened daylight hours. I also find motivation harder when the rock is greener and more moist though, I know - the winter is supposed to be the best time for grit climbing.
Anyway, I'm determined to climb outdoors throughout this winter taking advantage of the best of Peak District weather at weekends. I may even sneak away for the occasional midweek foray if Fidel can free his hectic daily diary!
To that end I've had a couple of Sunday cragging trips to Castle Naze in the last month with Jill, Paul and Fidel. I like Castle Naze despite it's diminutive size. The rock is mostly good (if you ignore the 'top-outs') and clean. There's protection on most routes and there's plenty in the medium grades, though I've found some of the HVSs well up to their grades. Here's Jill on 'The Fifth Horseman' and Paul on 'Nozag'. Click here for more pictures at Castle Naze.

More Drawing

The new term has started for the Eccleshall Library Life Drawing Class. I've managed to get to a couple of afternoon sessions and have made a few drawings that I'm pleased with. My greatest challenge is to not overwork by drawing for too long. The shorter poses of up to 20 minutes have more life and energy in them. the marks are more powerful and sweep across the form, simplifying it into forms. If I draw for longer the drawing often becomes fussy and cramped - I can't seem to help getting into the superficial detail.

Autumn approaching

I've been away from this blog for a few weeks now, focused on other things and probably just a bit lazy! I've just finished working for Endeavour (www.endeavour.org.uk). I've worked part time for this young person's charity for some years now, charged mostly with organising their annual Canoe Challenge fundraising event. Whilst I like to think the event is better than it ever was, we've always struggled to raise money from doing it so we've decided to give it a miss for 2011 and I've moved on to new things.
So, I think the current double-speak is that, 'it's a new opportunity for me!' I'm looking for something to add to my 'portfolio' of work. I'll take a few weeks to make some decisions whilst keeping busy trying to raise my game and being proactive on my training & development freelance work, my painting and my walks leading. I've been planning next year's walking holiday for my Suffolk based group and painting hard in my garret. Some pictures of painting to come in the next few days but here's a taken during the 2010 Canoe Challenge.

Summer in Ailefroide

The dust has settled after our trip to the French Alps and I'm only now getting around to writing a note for this blog. Catia, Fidel, Tanya and me spent two weeks camping at Ailefroide surely one of the best campsites for climbers in France - a controversial claim but if I can't be subjective in my own blog...?
Anyway, the setting always reminds me a little of photos I've seen of the Yosemite valley; granite cliffs towering above grassy meadows and conifer woods. The camping ground extends right across the valley bottom and there's enough room that even when busy there seems to be plenty of space. We arrived to the early evening smoke of many camp fires.
We quickly settled down into the camping routine, breakfast coffee and croissants then out to the crags to climb. We spent some time on the Ecoles d'Escalades and later Fidel and I had a couple of days on longer routes, including the easy 12 pitch classic Palavar les Flots.

Mont Pelvoux from the Glacier Blanc Refuge (more pictures here)

We went walking too and ended the trip with a mini expedition; firstly a night at the Glacier Blanc Refuge followed by a 4:30am start to attempt the 3300m high Pic du Glacier d'Arsine. That 'Facile' route turned out to be a tottering pile of rubble and felt a bit unjustifiable so we retreated from the col at 3200m. After a second night, this time at the Ecrins Refuge we settled for a tour of the dry Glacier Blanc, wandering through the maze of crevasses and winding our way back, eventually, to the valley.

Painting Demonstration

I spent yesterday down at The Gallery, Williams Yard in Melbourne doing a painting demonstration in the gallery. The main aim of this was to be available to people thinking of enrolling in the painting course I'm teaching there in October.
I always find it interesting painting with an audience - perhaps it brings out the show-off in me. People said nice things and were surprisingly interested in the spectacle of rapidly drying acrylic paint! I went with one blank canvas and a second painting, of Mount Kenya, that was well underway. In the morning I worked on the Mount Kenya painting which was inspired by visiting and climbing the mountain in 2001. I'd taken many photographs on that trip and subsequently made a number of drawings and paintings. This, the latest in the series was a morning view of the upper part of the mountain from Shipton's Camp from where we started our climb up the North Face Standard Route. It's still in progress but nearly finished.

I also began a painting of Froggatt Pinnacle a rock feature on the Eastern Edges of the peak District, well known to climbers.

Camping in Langdale

I've found that it's always worth the effort to get away when the weather's good and last weekend we found time for 36 hours in the Lake District. Catia and I met up with two nephews, Jake and Aaron (They'd brought along John, their dad) who had reserved us a place on the Old Dungeon Ghyll campsite. It was an opportunity to remind ourselves of how to put up the big tent before next week's holiday in France.
After getting settled in on Saturday we headed out for a walk around Crinkle Crags. Anything's better than the 'ordinary' drag up to the saddle between Pike O'Blisco and Crinkle Crags so we took to Browney Gill, scrambling up over slippery rock and through a narrow ravine. The Bells took to the water in a small pool on the way, but not for long.

From there, up and over the Crinkles with great views all around, taking in the short, sharp step up to the highest point on the ridge. It is one of my favourite walks in the Lakes. From there we took the descent down The Band and straight into the pub to re-hydrate. The rest of the pictures from this web album can be found here.

New Paintings

I've begun work on a couple of new paintings. The larger of the two is a 70cm square canvas and it's to be an alpine mountain painting of the Barre des Ecrins, a mountain I climbed on last summer. I was talking to Catia about the square format, which is slightly unusual (rectangles which are wider than they are high are 'landscape format' and they are the norm for landscape painting).

I said to her that my mountain paintings often seem to fit more easily in a square. Unlike flatter landscapes that seem to recede from the viewer in progressively thinner and more horizontal bands, the space in a mountain landscape is interrupted by the vertical wall of the mountain. The mountain face looms more claustrophobically to block the space to fill the square view and the eye is drawn up in a series of diagonals. For me as a mountaineer the 'normal' (easiest) routes to climb these mountains often follow a sequence of zig-zagging lines from the broad base to the summit. I hope that the viewers eyes follow the painted planes on the snow as they follow one of the many possible climbing lines.
In this painting the summit catches the morning sunrise; a golden goal that draws you upwards. The morning after I watched this sunrise and photographed it for my painting I was on the mountain, crossing the boundary from the cold nightshade into the golden sunshine after several hours of walking up the steepening glaciers.
I thought I'd give you a look at the painting in progress and I'll show it again when I think it may be finished.

Summer evenings on Stanage Edge

Managed to get out onto Stanage last night. However many times I go out in the evenings to climb after work I never get tired of it or take it for granted. To live just a few miles from the best climbing crag in Britain is a privilege. Tim, Fidel and I drove out and were joined by Vic who brought Allessandro (sic) who's staying with Vic in order to be tortured on just such an occasion. We were after a few photographs of Allessandro climbing for him to take back to Italy as a warning reminder of how dangerous it can be to holiday in Sheffield.
Here he is climbing Leaning Buttress Indirect.
For more photos click here.

Catching up with last week's climbing

Played truant last Thursday heading off to North Wales with Tim for the day, starting early at 6:00am from Sheffield. We were hoping to go up to Dinas Mot in the Llanberis pass to climb 'Nexus' there but arrived to threatening weather. A breakfast conference at Pete's Eats seemed the best idea. An hour later, loaded down with a good breakfast we headed off to Gogarth, on Anglesey for some proper sea cliff climbing.
I always forget how intimidating it is taking the amusingly named 'easy way down' to the main cliff. We were heading to 'Cordon Bleu' which climbs across the southern part of the crag.
Although it starts easily enough (as vertical grass climbing goes) it does begin downwards, without much protection and a bit of loose rock here and there, so I found the first pitch quite tense. The climbing after that is wonderful, poised on positive holds high above the blue sea.
Tim got to lead the hard pitch (which wasn't as hard as it's grade suggested) before I wandered off onto a Maltese variation on the next pitch, having lost my way in a wide groove. Here's Tim weeding his way across ledges on the first pitch. (Click https://picasaweb.google.com/joemallia6/CordonBleuHVS5b for more pictures)

Art Exhibition

Had a busy weekend down at Melbourne, near Derby, helping at the launch of a new art gallery (http://www.mycapturedimages.co.uk/index.asp). Debra organised a private view of the first exhibition on Friday night so I went down to help hang the show on Friday. Given that the place was a building site just a few days ago she'd worked wonders to get it ready and the gallery, with its new exhibition, really looked good by the evening. Several of my paintings are showing, including this large acrylic of Stanage Edge, everyone's favourite climbing crag.

I'm also going to be teaching some courses in photography and painting at The Gallery starting in July and September respectively. Do call in to have a look at the show if you're anywhere near Derby in the coming weeks.

Drawing Class last Thursday

I've been life drawing on and off for many years. A class that meets at Eccleshall Library on some Thursday mornings often has an afternoon session of a couple of hours and I've been trying to get down there whenever I can. Life drawing is very intense - the concentration required for me to see properly often makes me forget to breathe for a few moments! But I'm drawing pretty well at the moment (well, I think so!).
Here's a drawing from last Thursday.

This requires more discipline

So it's months after the first post and I'm finally getting round to writing the second one! I think blog writing needs more discipline if I'm going to make it worthwhile. It's not as though I've nothing to write - quite the reverse: I've been so busy doing things I seem to have found it impossible to take time to write about them.
Most notably I've been climbing a lot on Peak gritstone, once in Wales and taken my favourite walking group for their annual walking holiday. We went to Abruzzo in the Italian Apennines, staying in the fantasy hilltop village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio. I'll leave you wanting more and just add this photo:

After the clocks change

The weather closed in last week - April showers reminding me that Spring weather can be fickle. I took my camera out a few days ago, keen to use my new lens. I managed 20 minutes in good evening light in the Burbage valley. It was rushed but I still got some worthwhile pictures.

Now the clocks have moved forwards I've been out on real rock. I was bouldering last Monday and got a few routes climbed last Friday at Lawrencefield, with Tim, but didn't take my camera out into the flat evening light. The climbing felt good and challenging enough for the start of the 2011 season. Of course, many have been climbing outside for months, but I don't really get going till I can get out in the evenings.