Geography Reunion

It was awesome to catch up with the Phis Geog crew in the lakes for a few days.  CJ and I also squeezed in a couple of days climbing.

Team 'Phis Geog' powering along Sharp Edge approaching Blencathra

We spent the day on Blencatha, reaching it via the awesome Sharp Edge.  Sean, John, Toddy and CJ all took it in their stride amongst the hundred other people out on the hill that day.

Perfect weather for a jaunt 

CJ on Via Media VS, Castle Rock of Triemain

CJ leading up a very soggy Toutdale Pinacle.

HK360

When I was offered a job for Outward Bound Hong Kong, I was dubious about the ‘adventure potential’ of Hong Kong.  I instantly thought of, tall buildings, rich people and stress.  I was however, pleasantly surprised.  To the north of the country, 40% of the area is national park surrounded by a stunning coastline which is crammed with isolated beaches and islands.

Incredible scale industry in China

After working for 4 months in a relatively small area, I just had to go and explore the rest of the Hong Kong coastline to see what exciting things were lurking.  

I decided to take 4 days off work and circumnavigate the island, covering a total distance of 186 km, round all the major landmasses (HK island, Lantau, Lamma and mainland HK).  The only problem was that Hong Kong isn’t an island so the route involved a 30 km portage through a major city.

Wonderful Scenery close to OB

The trip was brilliant.  A real test.  I dodged 15,000 ton cargo boats, bargained with angry Chinese border guards and slept in remote noodle snacks.  What I will always remember is the incredible landscape; towering buildings, mammoth power stations and smoking industry quickly turns into rough peaks covered in lush forest, filled with monkeys, birds and snakes all adding colour. 

Dodging huge ships bound for Victoria Harbor

As in Scotland, I found all of the people I met extremely welcoming.  They offered floors to sleep on, help with portaging and, importantly, smiles in abundance.

Lush vegetation on Lantau

I would recommend HK as a great place to sea kayak.  Stunning coastlines, incredible food and warm seas.

Thanks to Tom Parrick, Yaz, Patrick and Ed for making the trip possible.

HK360 from Jonny Hawkins on Vimeo.

Hong Kong Climbing

The lack of white-water rivers in Hong Kong was a fairly frightening thought.  4 months without getting freezing cold and a decent trashing seemed like torcher.  However, in a land made from volcanoes, rock replaced water and provided a new means to get my adrenaline fix.

Tom at the incredible trad crag, Waterfall Rock

There are cliff faces all over Hong Kong ranging from classic trad. Kilt Rock esk columns to huge multipitch sport faces.  Lots of the routes over-look the immense cities below cresting incredible situations.

Patrick smearing at Beacon Hill

On every day off, I would persuade the OB crew to jump into a manic green minibus and spend a day in the sun on the rock.

Mick laybacking up the magnoificant multipitch, Gwilo 5a***

During my 4 month stay, we visited nearly all of the classic crags in Hong Kong and slowly began to scrabble my way up slightly less slabby and juggy routes.

Giles at Lion Rock

It was an awesome way to spend my time off and really nice to get to know the incredible OB staff even more.  I hope to see all of the again in far flung places in the world for more climbing adventures.

Jeremy at Central Crags overlooking 'The City'

Glen Morriston

I spent a few days with Chris Dickinson at his new house in Glen Morriston.

 The first day we headed up Creag a'Chaorainn with the intention to climb the grade II East Ridge. The going was slow wading through the fresh powder so one on the top we managed a shorter grade III climb,

The second day was a bit warmer so we decided to explore the potential of a nearby quarry for some dry tooling.  We top roped various problems and experimented with ramming the axes in the rock in as many way as we could imagine.

Avalanches, Sleeping under stones and Powder swimming

It was great to catch up with Max Hunter for a day in the Cairngormes. We attempted The Seam, however bailed as the route was super snowy but turfs very unfrozen!

Max on The Seam

I then met up with Annie LE and Huw for a two day winter mission in Glen Avon. Naving across the plateau went very well however our descend down Diagoanal Gully turned pretty scratchy. Whilst testing the stability of a side cone, it avalanched, wiping Huw off his feet carrying him a good 10m down hill. This put us on edge so we made a hasty decent and out the way of the unstable windblown snow.

Descending Diagonal Gully

Once in the Glen, we were short on time so headed straight to shelter stone to sleep.  This is a huge boulder with a space for 5-6 people to sleep.  As expected it was a super cold night with snow blowing onto us through the build stone walls.

Glen Avon

The next day, we tried to climb Castle Ridge on Shelter Stone wall.  Poor gear and bad route finding meant we didn't get very far before bailing and wading up 1m powder back onto the plateau and straight to the Skiing-du.

On the third day, we managed a climb!  The Hastons Line, III, on Mess of Pottage was super snowy but we all had a lead and finished slightly later then hoped...

Annie (Green blob) leading off on The Haston Line

Topping out in the dark before naving across to 1147 and down to the Ski Center car park.

Winter "train" in

I have wanted to do this for ages. Catch a train from Fort William to the Corrour station on Ranoch Mor then hike into the bothies and climb some hills. On top of this adventure it was winter and I was told that there were 20 soldiers on a training mission watching the vallies goings on.

Over looking the Mamores from the Grey Corries.

The Grey corries was my first target, so after an early start, I headed up the glen and started wading up on the the tops.  After two summits, an enormous amount of buffeting and with two very tired legs, I decided to bail off the ridge back to the bothy for a well earned rest.

The Grey corries from Stob Ban

For day two I adjusted my ambitious plan of two Munros to climb Stob Ban instead.  The climb was really nice, strong winds but perfect skies graced me all day with no one else around,

Stob Ban during a beautiful winter day

Work experience at Gordonstoun

With time before I head out to Japan I decided to get some work experience at Gordonstoun School near Elgin.

The school has very impressive facilities with a strong emphisis on Outdoor Education.  The kids study duing the morning then attend activity session and services in the afternoon rangeing from roler skiing session to Art classes to the fire bragade.