Ice Mines - Sweden

We now have several photos from last month's film shoot in Sweden. The story is still firmly under wraps until it's US network premiere, but a few photos of the filming task are shown here by way of a teaser.

L-R; Daniel, Ben, Dave, Will.

I need to chose my words carefully as this was not my adventure, I was just freelancing on camera, as was Christain Pondella, the stills photographer. So let's just say simply that this was truly the most crazy, ridiculous, stupid, brilliant, totally bad ass piece of climbing I have ever witnessed. Or as us understated Brits would say, 'rather interesting'.

Ice climbing has hitherto been a quite logically a 'terrainian' activity, by that I mean 'above ground', as your would expect.

Dave Brown jugging into position to film, 150m underground.

But last month, Canada's Will Gadd and Sweden's Andreas Spaak took the sport into seriously 'sub-terrainian' territory. Film crew and photographer followed.

I teamed up to shoot camera with British camaraman Ben Pritchard (well known for Slackjaw climbing films as well as many TV credits). Also onboard was Christian Pondella, a well respected US outdoor/adventure photographer.

Condensation on lenses is a major problem in this environment. Warming the camera up against a 400 watt studio light for 10 minutes sorted it out nicely. Will Gadd and Dave Brown.

At this stage I can't tell you what happened. Sorry, but I'm sure you understand... It will hit the TV, mainstream press and climbing press over the next few months. All that I can say is that we shot a hard-core climbing movie in the most unbelievable fantasy land, like some holywood sci-fi film-set---

--- Only that on one day Ben and Christian were nearly wiped out by a cutain of ice falling from 100m directly above them. At the time I was filming the climbers as they explored deep underground and I was feeling totally elated. Then the ice came down on the guys and I felt rather stupid at my elation.Tonnes of ice exploded in every direction. Quite miraculously they survived. This beautiful place was suddenly very serious. It was truly sobering.

Dave Brown starting the 150m ab at the second ice mine. A long way back up.

Thankfully it all ended well, a cracking film in the can, and for me just a few days back in the UK before heading back out to Sweden, this time to climb on sun-kissed granite boulders!

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Dave B

Ice Climbing World Cup - Romania

The small mountain town of Busteni in Romania is certainly not the easiest place to travel to from Scotland. Reaching the venue of the final round of the Ice Climbing World Cup took us a round trip total of 4 train journeys, 4 flights, 3 taxis, 1 mini-bus and plenty of walking.

The effort was worth it though. Busteni have invested 200,000 euros into an excellent ice climbing structure, 25m+ high with huge overhangs and roofs giving 30m+ ?? routes. It's a shame that a heatwave arrived two days before the comp and for a second time this year the ice routes had to be heavily modified with artificial holds.

Barbara Zwerger finishing 4th in the women's final

I headed out there with the two other British climbers, Fiona Murray and Kev Shields, again as a combination of photography trip and also competing myself. I hesitate to use the term "British Team" because unlike most competing nations, Britain does not provide any support for this form of climbing competition. Other countries have a team selection process, provide coaching and of course fund their climbers to compete. At the opening ceremony it always feels quite odd. The "teams" parade under their nation flag. Our country doesn't even know that we're there.

Evgeny Krivocheitsev

The competition series was very close in the men's, with Markus Bendler (Aust), Evgeny Krivocheitsev (UKR) and Alexei Tomilov (Russ) in contention for the title. In the women's event Jenny Lavarda (It) had won the prvious two events and needed only to finish top 8 to take the series.

Steph Maureau during the women's final

Isolation Hell.
I drew 44th starting position which meant I had to endure 7 hours in the isloation room waiting to go out and climb. The more seasoned competitors were clearly used to this and came prepared with sleeping bags and thermarests. Evgeny was out 49th and happily spent most of the time dozing away in his down coccoon. Being a long way down the starting list is also limits the opportunity for getting good photos, I missed both Fiona and Kev completely.

Andrea Copaescu (Romania) during qualifying

British Results
Fiona returned to collect her gear after climbing and was fuming (at her climbing). She'd being going well then messed up on one move and suddenly got really pumped. Ended up 9th missing the final by one place.

Women's route inspection

When I finally emerged from isolation I actually managed to climb quite well, really enjoyed it and got pretty high on the route. 23rd place is nothing special but it's not bad for me - just missed getting into the semi-finals. After watching the rest of the comp I learned what I did wrong at the point I came off. At certain points of a route you need to spot the solution quickly otherwise your energy drains away. Comp experience comes slowly but I'm psyched to do more and try and finish higher up.

Kev Shields (photo thanks to Fiona)

Kev Sheilds also had an ok-ish competition. He climbed well, 30th place from 49 is pretty good considering he has one hand missing, but again he's psyched to do better.

Comp Results
In the women's final Steph Maureau (Fr) climbed well reaching 2 holds from the top. Jenny Lavarda then followed and though tiring looked like she would reach the top but made a mistake 1 hold from the top. Last out was Petra Muller (Swiss) who dug deep on her competition experience and made no mistakes to top out and win. In a slightly different order the series went to Jenny 1st, Petra 2nd and Steph 3rd.

Jenny Lavarda

In the men's comp the final routes looked staggeringly hard.
Jack Muller (Swiss) hadn't reach the top in qualifying or the semis but he seemed to find an extra endurance gear and got really high. Tomilov then powered his was to the top, cutting loose plenty but hanging on for ever. Bendler who is one of the most asthetic climbers put on a flawless display and reached the top much faster. Then Evgeny followed and almost made it look too easy, 40 seconds faster again. So Evgeny took the title and the series, Bendler 2nd and second in the series and Tomilov 3rd and also 3rd in the series.

Alexei Tomilov

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I've enjoyed the World Cup this year. Hopefully next year the comp will be 'spur-less', which is after all the way that most of us climb these days.

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I almost forgot to mention my climber rescue!

Maria Shabalina (Russia)

I was up in a crane taking photos when Maria Shabalina managed to end up in serious trouble. As she came off her ice axe handle caught on a hold and the pick impalled her on the back of her kneck. As you can imagine, hanging free suspended just by the pick of an axe in your kneck is a bit painfull. So the crane driver zoomed me over to her and I lifted her off. Fortuately no serious damage done. Phew.

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Dave

UK National Mixed Climbing Championship

The Ice Factor at Kinlochleven, Scotland was the venue this weekend for Britain's major annual mixed climbing competion sponsored by Go Fast Sports and Beverage Co. Once again the BBC were in attendance, recording the action for a 50 minute program to be broadcast in March [BBC plus Satelite channel]. (I will update on the exact date and time of broadcast nearer the time).

Kev Shields on his way to competing the ice route in the men's final [all pictures Hot Aches Images]

This year Dave MacLeod and myself spent a very long day route setting in both the Ice Wall and Rock Climbing areas. In fact Dave Mac's day was particularly long; starting at 4:30am in Birmingham where he had been lecturing the previous evening, after a flight then coach journey he joined me at lunch-time and we laboured through until 2:00am - setting, testing and tweaking the routes to make sure that we would split the field up. Jo and Tom from Cubby Images were also on board to help out with setting and testing.

Competitors preparing for competition at The Ice Factor

I hadn't really appreciated before just how hard route setting can be. Competitors want good, interesting, challenging routes that test the whole range of skills of the particular climbing discipline. We also need to split the field up, ideally with only one climber reaching the top of the routes in the final, and with the rest of the field all reaching different high points. The pressure was definately on us, particularly with the TV covering the event. For the TV, they really don't want the winner to be falling off halfway - or having to explain to the public the intricacies of countback; just one climber getting to the top of both of the routes in the final was our brief!

On Saturday morning a large field of eager climbers assembled. Good news was that a combination of decent prize money and appalling weather had tempted many of the country's best climbers away from their winter climbing objectives towards the challenge of competition!

BBC filming - Dougie Vipond and Duncan McCallum commentating.

The qualification round went pretty much to form. 6 routes ranging from easy to "brick-hard" split the field up nicely. On to the finals consiting of the combined score of a route in the Ice Wall plus a route on the Dry Tooling wall...

Fiona Murray heading to the top of the women's final ice route.

In the women's competition Fiona Murray, fresh from a great performace in the Ice World Cup the previous week, topped out easily on the final Ice route and carried a substantial lead through to the final dry tooling route. The men's competion was much closer, with 5 climbers getting very near or finishing the ice route.

Alison Banwell in the women's final.

Onto the Dry-Tooling final. Once again Fiona cruised to the top, to win by a big margin. Anna Wells pipped Alison Banwell into third place. However the mens competion was wide open, any of the top 7 men could potentially win.

One of the great things about The Ice Factor climbing wall is that the lead wall angle is adjustable. By the press of a button it can be moved from slightly overhanging to VERY OVERHANGING!

So Dave MacLeod and I had a long conference after watching performances on the ice route. How steep to make it? We took a decision, 2/3rds steepnes - grade M9, and watched on nervously, conscious... "BBC - just one person to reach the top please".

Blair Fyffe (Lochaber avalanche forcaster) in the men's final. Tells the BBC he is "now a better climber than his [legendary] father"!!

In reverse order, the first few climbers reached between 1/3 and halfway. Then Edinburgh Fire-Fighter Ali Robb, a very stong all-round climber, climbed fast and looked certain to reach the top until a small mistake spat him off just three holds from success. The next few climbers got pretty high too, but when Edinbugh student Tony Stone started climbing, expectations were high. Tony is one of the strongest climbers I know. I've trained with him a lot and though he is not keen on competition climbing he would definatly "cut it" if he were to do the Ice World Cup curcuit. I had telephoned him to pursuade him to enter. "You need the prize money - youth".

Ali Robb heading for second place in the men's final.

The BBC interviewed all the contenders during the final. Classic moment of the day was definately when they asked Tony "What's the hardest route that you've climbed"- a rather cliched question. Tony thought for a moment before replying "probably The North Face of The Eiger a couple of months ago". The interviewers jaw visibly dropped "gosh".

Back to the story. Tony cruised up to halfway. At the first real crux that Ali Robb had made look easy, Tony had to dig deep and crank really hard. But then he switched back into cruise mode reaching the top with plenty of time to spare.

Tony Stone on route to victory -despite an unintentional ice axe juggling act, nearly dropping an axe near the top.

Last out was the joint leader Kev Shields. Fresh from a great world cup performance Kev had cruised the first Ice Route. However this time he just climbed too slowly, deciding to figure of 4 on several occasions when he could have used his feet eats up time. At the halfway point he had only 90 seconds left and despite switching to sprint mode he was never going to make the top.

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So one male and one female reached the top. BBC very happy. Easy for the viewers to understand. This year there is going to be a lot more climbing on mainstream TV (more info here in months to come). Some people may think that this is a good thing, others disagree. I deal with the media on a regular basis and really make it my mission for climbing to be represented as WE understand it, rather than sensationalised or trivialised. Sometimes it feels like banging your head against a wall, but the BBC team at this comp really are very good. The same team produced The Climbers and The Edge series for the BBC. Hope you enjoy the TV program!

Jo and Jamie - It was a long night...

Full results will posted soon on Scottish Climbs

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Dave B.

Ice Climbing World Cup - Italy

After 3 good days climbing at Ueshenen we headed for Val Daone hoping that the normally cold venue of the first leg of the Ice World Cup series would somehow manage to still have plenty of ice despite the warm temperatures elsewhere. 110 competitors were due to turn up for the biggest event ever.

Fiona Murray in the women's final -All Pictures Hot Aches Images

As it turned out the ice structure was in good shape, right up until the morning of the mens qualification. Then the temperature rose to +18c and warm strong winds devastated the prospect of climbing much on the ice. So instead the organisers bit the bullet, reduced the number of qualifying routes and got an army or joiners out to transform the structure into a huge dry-tooling wall. – Not as good as normal, but at least they managed to still stage a good event.

Scotland's Kev Shields (right) during the qualification round

Hari Berger
Hari’s absence this year was so noticeable, having dominated the event for the last three years. He was remembered by a film presentation, and hopefully a considerable amount of money was raised for his family.

Hari Berger winning the Ice Climbing World Cup, Norway 2006

Kev Shields
Scotland’s Kev Shields climbed remarkably well in his first international competition, finishing in 34th place out of about 85 men. Remarkable because Kev has no left hand and is only able to use an ice axe with a prosthetic attachment developed by Glasgow University Prosthetics Department and with support from Black Diamond. Despite the prosthetic he is still at a major disadvantage by not being able to swap axes and use other techniques. Kev’s achievement certainly impressed the organisers as well as other competitors and he was awarded him a medal for achievement!

Kev Shields on the second men's route

Kev receiving his medal (he didn't get a kiss from Barbara - to his eternal regret :)

Fiona Murray
Fiona was in good form and continues to improve. In the qualifying round she was timed out one move from the top on the first route, and did fine on the second to qualify for the finals in 6th place. Called “mama” by the other women climbers on account of being almost double the age of some of them (she’ll kill me when she reads this) she didn't climb as well in the final and finished in 8th spot.

Fiona Murray shaking out during the qualification round

Comp Results
The men’s event was dominated by the usual suspects. There are about 6 men, all of whom are capable of winning on their day. This time Markus Bendler pipped Simon Wandeler courtesy of an out-of-bounds decision that I thought was a bad call.

Markus Bendler during the men's final

In the women’s event Jenny Lavada from Italy, an 8c sports climber, was well ahead of the rest of the field and topped out on both final routes. Last year’s leading female climbers faired less well, notably with Anna Torretta having a torrid time.

Jenny Lavarda

Full results here

I had a terrible comp myself, although my exit was a bit ‘Peter Sellers-esque’; a third of the way up the route an advertising hoarding cut loose in the wind and engulfed me. I spent a minute or so hanging upside down trying to get the damn thing off me, getting more and more pumped. When I was finally free I moved onto the next bollard only to realise I’d left an axe on the previous one. No way back!

Still, it’s been a good week for all, good routes ticked and a lot of good photographs too. Now I’m back in the UK and this week will be route-setting for The UK Ice and Mixed Climbing Championships hosted at The Ice Factor next weekend

Tool Time

Today Fiona Murray succeeded in a quick (spurless) ascent of Tool Time M10+ at Ueshenen, Switzerland.

Fiona Murray, preparing to send Tool Time M10+

"Hardest" is a word that we seem to have been using quite a lot recently with our filming and photography, however this ascent is right up there as well. It is not only Fiona's hardest mixed ascent, but also several notches above anything else by British females. I really don't know where it stands by world standards; in the past there have been female ascents up to M12, but under the modern standard of climbing spurless the top grades are much lower. I'm sure a few must be climbing harder - certainly Ines Papert, but very few.

One third of the way up Tool Time, an awkward double handed fig4

With only three days in Switzerland, red-pointing a hard route was going to be a tall order. After two days of hard mixed climbing we all really needed a rest day, but with only one day left it had to be "send day".

Fiona Murray on Tool Time

I actually managed to send the route first myself, which is definately not something that should be seen as a precedent by the people we film or photograph, if you are reading this, Dave MacLeod or James Pearson etc.. then don't get any ideas -jumars are our prefered mode of ascent... It nearly killed me, not danger, just the sheer physical effort.

Fiona then stepped up and despatched it with far more style and technique. And she's still buzzing now as I write.

Lowering off the route

Next stop, Val Daone, Italy for some competition.

Searching for Ice

Back in the UK Diff has been getting more impressive ascents on film. More news of that to come soon.

Meanwhile I have been chasing around Europe in search of climbable ice. A kind of free holiday, do some climbing then go to the ice world cup and get some good photos to pay for the trip. That's the plan anyway - if we find anything climbable

We landed in Italy and drove to Innsbruck, only to find it in the grip of a heatwave. In fact the whole of europe (apart from UK) is having ridiculously warm weather. So after walking up to the crag at Drylands, Innsbruck we decided to bail and go to Kanderseg in Switzerland instead. In fact I realised something was wrong when we passed a guy rock climbing with his shirt off next to where the mixed climbs are meant to be. Fortunately, over here in Switzerland it's a bit colder. Most of the ice climbs have dissapeared, but at least the mixed crag at Ueschinnen is climbable - if somewhat lean. In fact the ice was actually on the way back to building up again today.

Fiona Murray warming up at Ueschinnen

Kev Shields climbing an excellent M7+

Fiona Murray working the moves on ToolTime M10+

Tooltime turns out to be one of the best routes at the crag. Fortunately it doesn't need any ice, although a fat ice curtain at the top would be a nicer way to finish it for sure.

So two more days at Ueschinnen before we head to Italy.

Cave Action

Yesterday, when most of Britain was out shopping, I headed up to Birnam with Fiona Murray for another blast on our respective climbing projects. Now is the time that the training really needs to be coming together. Only 3 weeks left before we head out to Austria and Italy.

Diff meanwhile was down in the Peak, scoping out some fiming locations.


Will Gadd and Kev Shields climbing at Birnam, Feb 06 (Photos; Hot Aches Images)

Fiona has been training on Scott Muir's brute route Fast and Furious (which featured in Fools With Tools) and on the last few visits has come tantalisingly close. At the same location I've also got a new project that I bolted in the autumn which I've been steadily getting stonger on.
Tony Stone at Birnam demonstrating that mixed climbing is the perfect excuse to grope a woman's arse.

Over on my project I had decided that it was time to sort out the gear at the end of the route, so I relocated a couple of bolts and added a decent lower-off. Stupidly I hadn't brought a spanner, so the last bolt and lower-off were just tapped in and hand tightened into the nearly horizontal roof. I'd fix it properly next visit, not expecting to get anywhere near that point on my climbing attempts. This route is way harder than anything I've climbed before.

Dave on Project X

Funny how things happen. My high point on the route before had been halfway. But this time I managed to keep going and going, fighting like mad. I nervously clipped the final bolt but a single moment of doubt about the bolts before launching into the last two moves drained my energy, and I was off.

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Fiona Murray is a very stong winter climber and on this sort of terrain is certainly the country's best female. With 3 M10s under her belt, Fast and Furious is nevertheless her hardest objective yet. Sure, it's only really a training route, but it's still hard.

Fiona Murray on Caveman M10- Hoarhouse Cave, Canada (2005)

Fiona competing in the Ice World Cup 2006

On the third attempt of the day Fiona finally succeeded on F&F. "First Dickless Ascent" as the Canadians say, a poignant way to refer to female firsts.
Three years ago the route was graded M11 and climbed using heelspurs to rest at various points. Nowerdays mixed climbing grades have been realigned and the style of climbing is to not use spurs, and so on routes like this there are no rests. On the new grading scale F&F is now M10+ (or M10 if you do use spurs).

It's a good feeling to still be getting better at climbing after nearly 20 years at it.

Well we weren't filming at Birnam. Been there, done that. Next stop should hopefully be our delayed trip down to the Peak, next Tuesday.

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Dave B

Hari Berger

It was very sad this morning to learn of the death of Hari Berger on the "Eiskapelle" near Salzburg.

I have only met Hari a few times, but he was a very inspirational climber, super-psyched and super talented. I interviewed him recently for a magazine article about his new routes in Chile and his ambitions for more ice climbing in the greater ranges. That makes his death on an innocuous sounding small glacier seem harder to comprehend.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Hari Berger in Norway, on his way to winning the Ice Climbing World Cup Series 2005/6 Hot Aches Images

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Dave B

A Day Of Training

Today I didn't much feel like working. All the urgent stuff is out of the way, so I was glad that Mike Tweedley and Tony Stone turned up at 11.00 for some training in The Schoolyard - (the Hot Aches climbing wall that is conveniently located next to our Haymarket base).

Perhaps they were inspired by hearing yesterday the The Ice Factor are going to host The UK Ice and Mixed Climbing Championships in January. Once again the BBC will be televising it on The Adventure Show (BBC Scotland and Sky channel ??)

Tony, Mike and myself were the top 3 brits in last year's males comp so it's time to buckle down again. First we sorted out some overdue roof repairs on The Schoolyard roof, then some route setting was in order. Last year's competition featured some whacky route setting (this year Dave MacLeod is doing the honours), so Mike decided that we need to emulate some of that madness.

Tony Stone with drill. Doing what you're not allowed to do down your normal local climbing wall.

Tweedly innovative as ever - invents a new climbing technique... axe between the legs. Thigh power.

You may recognise Mike from our first movie Fools With Tools.

Three years on and happily nothing changes.

Tony Stone, fresh from an ascent of the '38 route on the Eiger, struggles to climb a 3ft log. (actually he's cruising but he still gets some stick).

Later Dave MacLeod called round with Cubby after a day's filming for the BBC at Aberdour. He was running low on stock of E11, so now he has plenty of stock to run to Christmas. You can buy E11 along with a range of other DVDs from his online store.

That's enough. Need to get one with some work now.

Diff has been updating our website so check out the latest.

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Dave B