It seems I’m making decent progress with documenting routes we’ve recently opened, so I’m taking advantage of this to share another topo this week. This one is from an exploratory outing in Wied il-Bassasa last October. I had been to that valley a few times on walks, and had eyed the possibility of new routes to be done there. So it was with some excitement … Continue reading New Routes in Wied il-Bassasa
This write-up has been a long time coming. Far too long, in fact, given that I opened the ‘new’ routes almost two years ago. Unfortunately, unlike my earlier endeavours with Hendrik, these were only single lines on already well-established walls, so they ended up on the back burner. Here they are, though, finally seeing the light of day, in the hope that others will go … Continue reading New Routes at Monolith Buttress and Crucifix Cave
Lately it seems that I can’t quite keep on top of things. I never got around to writing a throwback post last week, and I’m again late with writing my first blog post this week. On the positive side, the first lecture of the semester, this morning, seems to have gone well, with a small group of students who seem keen to learn. But back … Continue reading Hendrik on Ian’s Wall
This blog post has been a long time in the making. As many of my readers will know, I’m a rock climber. However, I don’t think I’ve said much about my climbing background before. I started around 2009, while we were living in the UK, when a German colleague wanted to start climbing and was looking for a partner. And of all people he was … Continue reading Rock Climbing in Malta
Going back a bit with today’s photos, from late summer and autumn last year, and a couple separate climbing outings with Lara and Ken. Whenever I know we’re going to be in three, I like to take a camera with me, usually the small mirrorless one, as I know there will be opportunity to use it (while the other two are climbing and belaying respectively). … Continue reading Climbing with Lara
I’ve been meaning to share these photos for a while, but things conspired over the last several weeks to derail most of our plans. Now I’m finally catching up on things, so here we are, with a series of photos I took on a relatively recent climbing outing. The crag is known as Garbage Wall, next to Blind Cave, both of which had a number … Continue reading Christina Climbing at Garbage Wall
Several months ago, before the pandemic hit, my friend’s nephew Pete was on the island, visiting. We had been wanting to get him to try climbing for a while, so we took him to Wied il-Għasel and the Disney-themed routes at Scouts Buttress. As so often happens in winter on this island, the day was beautiful, the light gorgeous, and in short we were having … Continue reading Climbing with Pete
With the developing COVID-19 situation, it feels like these photos are from ages ago, when in fact it has only been a few short weeks. And the way things are going it seems like this kind of thing is going to be off the table for a long time. Over the last few days it seems like the only articles I’m reading about climbing (and … Continue reading Climbing in Lapsi
If you’ve been wondering at the relative silence on this blog over the past couple weeks, this is why. The weather has been mostly good, if a bit colder than usual, so I’ve been doing as much climbing as I can (and as my partners’ schedules allow). Highlights include sending two trad routes I had not done before, and separately introducing a couple friends … Continue reading Climbing the Babu Multi-Pitches
Things have been a little hectic lately, so I’m barely keeping up with my blog posts. I meant to write another post yesterday, but I guess that will have to wait. Instead, today I’m back with my usual throwback series, finally sharing the final photo from last year. The very tail-end of last year, that is. I’m sure I’ve said many times that the cooler … Continue reading View from Jacobs Walls
I’m finally nearing the end of the set of photos from last year that I still had to blog about. Just the one I’m sharing today and another climbing photo from the Christmas holidays. This is from the start of winter in the lovely valley of Wied il-Għasel in Mosta. As it happens, I was at this very place last Sunday, climbing the same route, … Continue reading Hendrik on Medical Incision
I must say I haven’t been doing much photography lately, so this week’s recent photo goes back a couple of months to a climbing session in Blind Cave / Garbage Wall on the Victoria Lines. I have already shared a few photos from this session, if you want to take a look. This time the photos are of my friend Hendrik-Jan leading the route Skappatura … Continue reading Hendrik Leading Skappatura Trad
Muddy Boots 