Outdoor Gear Blog - CheapTents

CheapTents Outdoor Gear Blog

…not just tents…a camping equipment blog too!

Paul Roberts climbing a crag

Paul Roberts climbs Pitch 2 of the El (5.8.3)

Following on from our recent blog post, in which solo climber Mike Dunne talks about his loves and hates of the climbing in the Lake District, we are pleased to present a post written by a climber from the United States.

Paul Roberts is from New York state and has spent the past 3 years climbing in many parts of the USA, from New Hampshire to California. In June this year he’ll be launching a cross country/get to college/climbing trip that will take him climbing all over the country, ending in Prescott Arizona where he’ll be studying adventure education and environmental policy at college.

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Mountaineers wearing crampons cross a snow field

Snow traverse using crampons. Source: Flickr by ribekak.

If you are thinking going mountaineering then you will need to get some crampons, this may also mean buying new crampon compatible boots. But what if you’re thinking of going hill walking in the winter? There may only be small sections of the hike where there is hard snow and ice. You may feel that buying crampons and compatible boots is too expensive and unnecessary. Fortunately there is a solution! Winter hardware manufacturer Stubai have brought out 4 point and 6 point crampons which can be fitted onto most B0 boots.

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Mike Dunne tackles a bouldering problem

Mike Dunne Climber

We always enjoy hearing from you, our readers, about the adventures that you have been having in the great outdoors. Not only that, we like to give you the opportunity to use the CheapTents blog to promote yourselves if you’re looking for sponsorship. Recently we were contacted by Mike Dunne, who loves climbing in the Lake District. We asked him to tell us about his climbing experience, his thoughts on the climbing scene and who he rates as a climber.

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The Sony Walkman allowed people to listen to music whilst they were doing outdoor sports.

Sony Walkmans were massive! Source: Flickr by daryl_mitchell

Ever since the invention of the Sony Walkman outdoor enthusiasts have been able to take their music with them on their adventures. Back in the good old days it meant lots of extra weight, there was not an ultralight option! If you moved abruptly the cassette anti-rolling mechanism couldn’t cope and your tunes would speed up or slow down. Not to mention that if you wanted more than 90 minutes of music you needed to carry a collection of cassettes. Now with ipods and smart phones the technical issues have long been resolved and you can take more music than you can shake your walking pole at for around 100 grams.

Motivational Music
for Mountain Climbing

Having your music with you when you are walking, running or climbing is great for motivation and can keep you going when pain and/or boredom sets in. Maybe you dance along to the beat or at least run in time to it!

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Have you ever bought a rucksack thinking “oh, I can fit this this and that into this rucksack” and then found that you could not fit as much in as you thought? Well, you wouldn’t be alone, I myself do it at least once a year … I usually find I am disappointed that something I thought would fit actually doesn’t. So, in this post I will be taking a look at 4 sizes of bag 65+L (Large), 45L (medium), 35L (medium) and 25L (small) to see what items actually fit into the rucksacks. The idea is simply to give you a feel of the amount of room in each bag, meaning you can make an informed decision next time you need to buy a rucksack for your great outdoor adventures.

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BMC LogoA while back the UK coalition government announced the creation of the Big Society. It has been hailed as a way to give power to local communities and criticised as a way of introducing spending cuts. One potential drawback is that it could give more power to people who are intent on pushing their own financial agendas. But, what about us outdoor enthusiasts? Are there likely to be any positive or negative outcomes for hikers, climbers and mountaineers? There are certainly people out there who are not sympathetic towards walkers and climbers, and who may try to use it to hinder our activities. All is not bleak however, enter the BMC. The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) has recently published an article about how it intends to embrace the Big Society for the benefit of its members and the natural environment.

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This weekend news headlines read “man falls 1000ft from mountain”, the mountain in question was Sgurr Choinnich Mor, around 5 miles east of Ben Nevis. The climber in question was Adam Potter, an experienced climber from Glasgow.

Sgurr Choinnich Mor

Sgurr Choinnich Mor, The Aonachs and Bealach Coire Easain - Source Flickr by pamilne

At 2.30pm on Saturday, just moments after reaching the summit Adam began to fall. As his friends looked on in horror Adam tumbled down the mountain 1000ft, approx 300m and 1/3 of the mountain’s height, glancing off 3 craggy outcrops. As he tumbled off each outcrop Adam must have felt almost like he was flying as he plummeted.

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The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation UIAA have produced an instructional video about ice climbing which they have posted on YouTube and is embedded below. It is called Basic Ice Climbing and is presented by four-time world champion ice climber Ines Papert. Considered the best female ice climber in the world, Ines Papert specialises in climbing frozen waterfalls, so she certainly has the necessary credentials for the ice climbing instruction.

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Swiss Alpinist and speed climber Ueli Steck is famous for his fast and lightweight approach to the world’s hardest and highest mountains. Sponsored by Petzl, Scarpa, Leki and Mountain Hardware, Ueli Steck has set the speed record for the Matterhorn (1 hour 56 minutes), Grandes Jorasses (2 hours 21 minutes) and the North Face of the Eiger (2 hours 47 minutes). Has has also summitted Gasherbrum II (8035m) and soloed Makalu west pillar (8463m).

The Matterhorn is one of the most famous Alpine Mountains

Speed climber Ueli Steck climbed the Matterhorn in 1 hour 56 minutes. Source: Flickr by Jeff Pang.

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Mt. Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest mountain standing at 19,340 feet, thats almost 6,000m. It is due to the extreme altitudes that Kilimanjaro is considered be hard to climb. Earlier this month Matt Cutts (the head of Web Spam at Google) climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for Charity:Water.

Matt Cutts, Head of Web Spam at Google

Matt Cutts of Google Source: Flickr by Tony Young

As a bit of a tech geek I have known about this trek for a while, however to explain why Matt took on this challenge who better to explain than himself.

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