Dan Osman - 400ft speed solo climb

The late Dan Osman speed-soloing "Bear's Reach" on Lovers' Leap in California. It's a 5.7, which roughly equates to about a 4b in UK technical grade, but still.... it's a jawdropping feat of nerve - or utter stupidity, depending on how you look at it. I remember telling Mal Fraser about this video on our outdoor climbing course, and Mal's response was typically pragmatic: Mal: "Dan Osman...... hmm....American lad, is he?" Me: "He was, yeah" Mal: "Was? Well there you go then." Says it all really :)

To Stanage

We've been absolutely run off our feet recently, and not had as much climbing time as we'd have liked, but Lise has been practically bouncing off the walls with barely-contained glee about her upcoming Mountaingirl Bouldering Techniques Workshop in (where else?) Stanage on Oct 14th. Looks like a great course, and the chance to learn from some of the best women climbers in the world is one not to be sniffed at. So I'll be travelling up with her and doing some regular climbing with the rest of the usual suspects while she's learning the tricks of the trade.

Depending on how brave I feel, I might have another go at the truly evil Right Twin Crack, which reduced both of us to gibbering defeated wrecks last time we attempted it.

Edmund Hillary's 16mm Footage of First Everest ascent

I just got sent this link to a truly fantastic video on Google - Sir Edmund Hillary's 16mm footage of the first successful ascent of Everest. Sadly it doesn't include any footage of the final summit ascent - IIRC in Hillary's book I believe he says that they didn't take the 16mm camera on the summit bid as it was too heavy, but there's some fantastic footage from the days when mountaineers wore brylcreem and thick chunky sweaters, and contemplated tricky routes with a few knowing nods over a pipe. Great stuff.