3 Peaks Challenge

Posted on 6th Jun 2007 by essiep

15 to 22°C. Lifting cloud on Ben Nevis, some snow, and hot sunshine on Snowdon.

I’ve only had 3½ hours sleep since Sunday, my knee is sore occasionally, but fine the rest, (just don’t pivot on that leg).

Ben Nevis– 3½ to summit, 2½ hours down.

that decent was the most exhilarating thing I have done for a long time. Crossing the icefields was fascinating, especially when the real danger became visible through the mist. The summit is on a curving ridge, but an ice-sheet cut the corner. It had a series of cracks where the next section of the ledge was ready to break off and fall hundreds of metres below. We were equipped with rope/compass and heading to take if visibility got worse. We would then take a heading of 220° for 150m before continuing on 270° back onto the bare rock. The ice was melting from below, such that some strides plunged your leg up to the knee revealing a cavity of dark rocks.

Descending was extreme fun, Carl was urging us two on (as a breakaway pair) aiming to beat the clock. He’s call out encouraging time targets, significant turns and pressure to speed up. When he ran out of words he’d just growl! It got faster as the minibus came into sight, the last hundred yards was a sprint for the bridge. In fact, I ran past my colleagues from the first group, over the bridge and straight for the minibus. I’d run out of water ½ before so I stabbed my finger into the 4x2l water bottle pack and dragged out a 2 litre bottle of mineral water. Then I could start relaxing and winding down. It took a very long time to come down after that.

Scafell Pike 5½ hours (3h 05′ up with the group, 2:22′ on my own back down)

The problem one; descending this was beginning to hurt my knee, but the time lost on the ascent was enormous- the group had taken 18 stops- I felt the need for none. We could have taken an hour off that time if so many of the others had had breakfast. You just can’t take on five hours of exercise on an empty stomach- but they tried to. It was also a shame that the van was so slow- it would only do 60mph on level ground, we were too late to see the sunrise on the summit. Beginning the climb was darkness, but most of us had turned off our headlights within 15-20 mins as dusk broke.

Snowdon 3h 40′ solo, incl. 15 mins at the summit.

I took this at my own pace, which resulted in a curcuit time 2 hours faster then the others (/boast). The air was clear at the summit, A milky light just allowed Anglesea to be seen- if you knew what to look for.

I ran the last mile off Snowdon to get a better time and then waited for the others. Those who’d withdrawn met me there with a bottle of water and a round of applause! I needed that drink- it was the last of 11 litres g;ugged down my throat on that day.

I’m cycling in to work tomorrow to try to loosen up the legs; sleeping now since only had 3½ hours sleep since Sunday.
G’night.

Video-head

Posted on 24th May 2007 by essiep

14°C, sun, humidity.

Video: we’ve hatched a great idea at work ( or at least I like it!). Carl has a head mounted video camera, we can use it to make a video of the 3~peaks challenge. We’re carrying on the fund-raising after the event which would get some support if these is a flashy video to view, put on the plasma screen. By Flashy I mean it can be embedded into Flash and played in a Flash-componant player via a web-page.

Computer bits bought online: today the new case finally arrived. After visiting the Post Office 3 times, it’s finally here. Opening the huge and heavy box, 9 little shards of black plastic fell out.

Weight loss: only 14 stone now, hell-bells- where has it gone? Less joint stress for the climbs I suppose. I don’t like loosing weight though.

Final arrangements

Posted on 23rd May 2007 by essiep

23°C, clear sunny & more humid.

3~peaks: final plans are set, we’re staggering the start. The 3 summits group are going up Nevis at 10am, then the 24hr group start at 16.00hrs. We may cross each other near the bottom. The second group don’t have a break on making the descent, they just eat something warm then get in the minibus to drive immediately to Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head. Then both make the technically challenging Scafell Pike together and finish Snowdon together.

This video is made by another team with higher aspirations than we, their level of fitness is higher and they seem to have spent more time training in the gym and less on mountains than we have.
See the BMW c4 videos.

Actionscript 2

Posted on 15th May 2007 by essiep

18°C, rain then showers and sunny bits.

Actionscript: it’s such a frustrating process, full of errors and unfathomable messages. I spent quite a bit of my free time working through a tutorials book today and am trying to reproduce what I’ve learnt today at home. The only clear conclusion I can draw is that I have learned little. Every step is stifled by tiny, inperceptable errors, sometimes deleting an object and making it again in exactly the same way sorts it out. It shouldn’t be like this.

Meeting: 3~Peaks.

Posted on 8th May 2007 by essiep

14°C, showers.

Debrief meeting: rather a gloomy feedback session; three have pulled out, I got a ticking off (which was expected) and facing up to reality- it was called-for. I continue to stagger with a tight lumber and less than cheerful outlook. Lets make sure that we don’t become the subject of an article like this.

This shot looks like our ascent, I took the route on the right, following zig-zags in the scree. Most of the others went left. Blow is a link to a map of our route- purple was the intended route and red where we went in error in that thick cloud and hail.

Still, many of us want to beat that mountain- so we’re going back soon. In the meantime I have some shopping to do- mainly safety gear and a bigger pack to carry it in.
Let’s see what I can find.

Scafel Pike

Posted on 7th May 2007 by essiep

From 14 to -2° & back

3~Peaks: It’s 02.45 am, Rosie & I just got back from Cumbria where we attempted Scafell Pike today. We failed ot conquer the mountain due to a number of reasons: the catalist was the weather, my inadequate clothing and an injury I sustained climbing what ne now know is a dangerous Col on Scafel. That coincided with the weather throwing it’s worst at us just as we made our way up the most difficult part- a narrow, steep ascent up loose gravel/bolders while fending off hailstones and strong winds.

At a the top of the Col (Corrie), we sheltered and waited for the remainder of the party. This is when the shivering began, partly from the cold and the rest from the pain of my back injury sustained as I caught myself from falling on that last tracherous climb. The scene was set for me shivering violently while trying to stretch my lower back and the others trying to warm me up with layers of clothes. At this point they decided to lead me below the clouds to recover some body-heat. The direction was wrong though and we ended up using the next five hours getting back to civilisation. It’s been a very long day. Lengthened by having a sleep in a service station at Sandbach to avoid the rsik of an accident driving after mid-night following our adventure.

Poor Rosie was just as cold as I was, but I was there by choice. She was because I took her when she could have spent the day snoozing in a nice warm house. I felt quite guilty about that, especially since she was so hungry up there.

I have one or two pictures that could be posted, but right now- I daren’t switch on my camera until it’s dry.

Locked

Posted on 30th Apr 2007 by essiep

19°C, cold NE wind. Non-stop sun, no cloud.

"All through the night, the wind looks for the grief it belongs to"

WS Merwin

Oops: what’s the daftest thing you have done recently? After working late with some 6th form technologists- I loaded the car with things in the boot at about 17.40. Drop the bag in and go back for the last things. Flick the boot down and "ker-clunk". That was the central locking, the boot is safely shut, my keys are safely inside it. That is a problem.

Actually- rescue was only 3/4 hour away, not a big problem after considering several solutions and too mundane to recall here.

One package booted in was the last of the ICT coursework. A kid who’d ignored the deadline until today, funny how those who have the most time to complete, in effect an unfair advantage can slo produce the lowest quality work of all. Marking pressure is now receeding, and think time can go back to some paitning. It should be quite an advantage having two canvases on the go.

Beautiful day despite occurances. A pair of mallard ducks decided to control the traffic going home. They were Jaywalking, but more colourful than any Jay.

Ofsted away

Posted on 22nd Mar 2007 by essiep

9°C, rain

IWM, Manchester: Trip with school to visit the Imperial War Museum, Manchester. There’s a good way to avoid ofstead. It is indeed an excellent place, but are we facing loads of Video capture ( there were 8 cameras issued to the group). Below is a photogrph from the Shard Tower, since it was such a dull day, turning it black & White is an obvious thing to do.

Just think: I can play video games again, paint pictures again and look forward to my new mp3 player. I decided it was worth getting an upgraded one, it’s light, holds plenty and will be useful for shutting out distractions while working. I distract easily, not to mention procrastinate.