Craig y Longridge -Quack!

Happy New Years! This is my new years goody, although its not the best video in the world it nevertheless took a long time to actually edit, every minute equating to an hour of editing! Once again, click on the vimeo icon itself to se it in its high definition glory.

I wish you all the best for the new year!
Love Jamie x


Craig y Longridge - Quack! from Jamie Maddison on Vimeo.

Back Up North Once More!

Yep that right, Im back up north at me dads for New Years. It also means I have a chance of getting some real climbing (well bouldering as I left my ropes back in Cardiff) done this holiday no freezing ice and snow nor any crappy bridge climbing! I already had a play at Craig Y Longridge this afternoon although the freezing weather meant the visit was pretty short!  After a brief warm up I jumped back on my project the Ascent of Man which is apparently a V2 (English 5c), something I don't believe for one second! Since my dad moved here I've been working Jacob's Ladder on and off ; it is used to get to the start of Ascent and only meant to be V0, but I still can't get it! Although at least with this latest session I've actually figured out how to do the next move, something which stumped me the two other times I've been here! I'll be heading back down soon, armed with my new video camera to show you all how bloody frustrating this route actually is!

Incidentally, from a bit of background research on http://craigylongridge.wetpaint.com/page/Seven+A+V3 

I found out that the route I sent half a year back that I initially thought was Seven A (V3) then had doubts whether it was actually Wobblebottom (V2) was in fact Seven A all along! How come I can do font 6a, or V3 at one end of the this crag and not be able to do V0 at the other! 

It makes no sense!

Boxing Day Bridging, In HiDef!

(To view in High Definition double click on the movie and it should take you to the Vimeo video page where you can select to watch it in HD, It is definitely worth it!)

Boxing Day Bridging from Jamie Maddison on Vimeo.

Scotland!

So we set off to Scotland! Once more to climb those snow filled corries. To battle bravely with the elements that will so persistently try and dick us in the A. 

What a silly trip it was to be!

Mat eagerly looks out of the window whilst Olly dreams of perfect conditions, or maybe the first idea of Rape has twinkled into in his subconscious.

Lois on the other-hand passes the time by pretending to be Gollum for the amusement of the rest of the Bus. 

Meanwhile Mat practices his modeling. 

Even after many, many, hours on the bus, Lucy is still brimming with enthusiasm! 

Crazy girl!

The first walk-in! And there's snow, lots and lots of snow!  

Never-mind getting up at 05:00 just to be here.

But thats not to say the conditions are good, in fact they are wank, wankyity wank wank. Thigh deep snow banks slow progress, the rock has now ice just a smattering of powder. 

Its rubbish!

"well that was fun" 

Drinking hots chocolate in the Ski lodge Cafe 

Contemplating the 'interesting' day we had just had up on the hill.

So what do we do instead? 

Go to Loch Ness.

Sarah loves it!

In fact we all do...

...Even jess, and she's a little slow. 

Owens not slow, he believes in Nessie.

But Sarah can't find him. 

So Nikki jumps in

Hoping her Albino legs will lure the monster out of hiding. 

Giving up the search, we all go jumping!

But Flash is the best.

Oh wait the weather is wank... again. 

Lets go for a walk says Lois, 

Lucy seems surprised...

... When we find waterfalls.

"Oh wait, what is that over there?!" 

Trees, wet trees. Thrilling. 

130mph gust close the roads

CUMC is forced to spend even more time in close proximity to one another! 

I think we went a bit mad.

Can anybody see mark's mustache? 

'Randy can't see no mooostache. He don't kindly to strangers'

'So watch uurrself or you'll have to meet my friend Earl...'

...and the rest of the Gang. 

Alright one last climb. My third route of the trip.

Another one?

Nooo!

Climbing was Easy.

This video below is the work of my journalism module About Photographs inspired and supervised by digital story teller Daniel Meadows. In this module one had to find a participant you have never met before and tell a interesting story in their life to the backdrop of old photographs taken by the participant. My participant (found on UKC) was called Rob Ward an old school climber currently living in LLandaff. Over a series of interviews I learned much about his climbing career and his life in a period of intense climbing he undertook in years 1970-74. There was so much that could have been said about him it was unbelievable; the difficulties lay in firstly cutting a story together into just over two minutes long, and secondly making the story interesting and understandable to non-climbing viewers. 

As the story began to take shape, it took on a bigger, more introspective role. Transcending the story about Rob returning to the alps (thirty four years after he first set out), to become a narration of the attitudes and spirits of climbers themselves. It analyzed how different the world of climbing has become in 30 odd years; how everything about the sport has changed and how Rob and I have climbed in two different world. In spite of this, one can identify the same spirit, the same yearning and the same passion in both Rob and I, regardless of the vast wastes of time that separate us. Ultimately the film tries to encapsulate the indefatigable essence of climbing, that which doesn't change with the times and fads. It tries to understand  why  we took up this passion that has consumed our lives. Whether it has been successfully or not, I leave to your judgment.

Climbing was easy.

The years before-

-I knew. 

back then.

Is it easy now?

or hard.

Sameness.

Do I feel the same-

-as they once did?

Do I act the same?

The Ghosts-

Playing.

Preceding.

A World apart from Me.

Memories of actions-

-once done.

Faded.

Forgotten.

I don't remember. 

Quarry XI, Mount Pleasant

The club had a meander into the valleys today, up to Mount Pleasant to have a look at the new crag that the South Wales Bolt Fund have been equipping. It certainly is interesting. Upon arrival through the woodland one is greeted by a huge grassy (and pristine) amphitheatre which stretches away a full 30, separated by two tiers. It is obvious that the routes have seen little traffic and are still largely off the radar as a good venue due to recentness of the development. Consquently, there are swathes of the place that are covered in supsect holds and the climber has to be quite wary (unless you 're mat of course) on what they are cranking on. The routes were generally quite good and relatively easy, making the venue ideal for those wanting to progress onto leading outside. The upper tier is generally slabby in nature and it is a real pleasure to climb on, searching for hidden but always super positive holds. Heather and I climbed together today, making fast progress through the entirety of the upper tier with 7 onsights apiece on 5 - 6a routes. The only route we had a bit of trouble on was Monkey Stole My Face (6a+... apparently), which had a super crux on it that thwarted all those that climbed it. I eventually aided through and found the rest of the route a doddle, around 5ish in grade. Heather was a bit more determined than I and after a few rests got the section without aiding. Good Work! On the injury side, mat managed to touch the floor from the third bolt when a hold popped (silly billy), I sliced my finger in two cranking of a crimp and Jack managed to pull down a kitchen sink sized boulder straight down onto his shoulder (poetically written!) So yeah injuries galore! I think the place just needs a bit more traffic- which I'm sure it'll get - before it becomes another awesome venue!

 I have taken a little bit more movie footage of the crag, once more with my trusty camera phone! So hopefully this will show a little better the true nature of the crag.

For records sake I'll also record the other climbs done, as they have not yet been put on UKC and I can't be bothered to write them up on the site yet! 

32. Project (5)

Rhondda Tan (5) 

Steroid Vest (6a) (excellent! **) 

Back to Black (6a)

Johnny Bionic (6a)

Slabadabadoo (5+)

Fisting The Night Away (5+)

Monkey Stole My Face (6a+/6b) 

North Wales

What a weekend! I have just got back from one of the best weekend away I have had with the club in a long, long time! The drive up was long and for the most part boring, that was until we came round a corner to be confront by a head on crash between two cars that had happened just moments ago. Luckily nobody was injured, but one of the cars proceeded to go up in flames! By the time the fire brigade had arrived the whole car was a inferno that took several minutes to put out. We kept on edging back and back down the road though, split between wanting to have a better look and not wanting to have the thing explode in our faces; as it turns out (rather disappointingly I might add) burning cars don't explode; stupid films giving the wrong impression! They just burn, very very well. A few hours later and we were at the hut, which is very nice and swanky with alpine style beds for us all to sleep on. I don't remember much about this night, except trying out lots and lots of different climbing problems on the beams and beds. This all stopped when I jumped from the bed to the beam and flip landing square on my back! Ouch! 

The next day half of us got a lie in as we were going to the Inter-Wales competition, whilst the others got up at the crack of dawn to go winter climbing. The lie in was truly nice seeing as I've been getting up rather early these past few weeks to do work. Then after a quick walk to the shop in the beautiful crisp winter morning that was North Wales, we all bundled into the minibus and set off for the climbing wall. I was definitely jealous of all the people doing scotland training though, the whether was brilliant!  All around us, we were surrounded by these beautiful snow capped mountains; I just wanted to go and run up them and try and find some winter climbing to be had! But we were to be stuck in the competition for most of day and so turned out minds to winning this comp. I did pretty goddamn awful in this competition t has to be said, scoring a measly 75 out of 250. I knew I did bad, I could feel that I wasn't in the right mind set, every attempt of a problem something went wrong, mainly because I was rushing it in my head. Too aggressive, too tense, I didn't let the sequences flow, just threw myself angrily at the wall.  But never-mind, at least our teams did well! Heather winning 3rd place in the women's competition and our first team coming 4th overall. 

That night, after a few hours messing around at the hut, we went to the bouldering comp party at a local pub with a hog roast!... That cost four pounds (not on your life). Olly, Tom and I also got called cheeky for drinking our last cans of foster outside the pub. Naughty, Naughty! The pub overall was fun; it turned out that I had broken a Bangor student's wrist whilst playing rugby against him in Font, woops! He seemed quite alright about it... luckily! Though his friend said he was mightily pissed off at the time, having to drive one handed to the hospital to get it checked out! And then I managed to accidently punch a girl in the face whilst imitating an over the head Ice-axe placement. (*cringes*) But apart from my bouts of clumsiness the rest of the night passed quite amicably. Oh and Johnny Dawes was in the pub!

The next day we woke up earlier. After a lot of faffing, arguing and cleaning we left the hut and headed for our last day of climbing. One bus went to the slate quarries for a crimpy day of fun, whilst the other minibus went into the mountains. Half went up a grade one scramble, whilst the others went up a grade three. I, equipped with marks size-to-small boots, went up the grade three and it was truly stunning! I even managed to use the ice axe a bit at the end in a Scottish II (ish) gully. But you can see a lot of this in the movie below so I won't endeavor to explain in any  more detail. 

After this gully, we summited the smaller subsidiary high point (we couldn't be bothered to walk to the summit) and then made our way down a boring ridge line that seemed to go on forever! An hour later we arrived back at the road, I grabbed a cup of tea and waited for everyone else to turn up, which they all did in due time. Then we hopped onto the bus and made our way back to Cardiff. It took a long time and it turns out my big toenail had gone black from the pressure in mark's boots and was extremely painful for the rest of the journey! 

And that was pretty much it! You will have to excuse the boring way that I have written this account, I feel I should be doing real work at this current moment, not some arty messing around with a blog! So I have written quickly what best I have recalled from this trip; hopefully if I have more time in the week I can develop something a bit more interesting for you all to read! I hope you have enjoyed it anyway! Hopefully see you all (well CUMC at least) at the pub tonight! 

Jamie

Extreme Peaks...

I've finally been published! I am now a proper journalist, woo! Well alright not really. To most of people who read this blog this is probably old news seeing as I was running round telling and texting everyone last week about it, however I have also been very stressed with my dissertation and haven't found the time to post up on the blog at all until today and so all you onliners might not of heard anything at all about it!

So for those of you who haven't heard, I was published in the latest edition of Cardiff University's flagship supplement Quench, which I have included in a scanned form of the article for you to have a read. Dedicated readers of my blog (cough* Ryan *cough) will have already ready read it as it was published several months back on this sight. But it is worth having another look as there description of me and the Facile we were on is hilarious!

Right now to write lots and lots about North Wales! Remember guys, Live life on the Edge, Jamie Madsison sure does! 

I can't seem to get it to appear as a thumbnail so please just follow this link to see the article:
http://www.pbase.com/bunchuk/image/106569244/original