I’m coming up to my first year as a rock climber; it feel I’ve been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. My initial plan 11 months ago was to go and meet Ollie out in El Chorro for a spot of sport climbing and I felt a couple of weeks at the Arch climbing wall in London would be sufficient. Having never climbed before I underestimated the difficulty of the sport.
However 12 months later and I’m ready to go. I’ve booked my trip for December and putting in the hours down the gym to make the most of my time out there.
When I briefly moved back to my parents house this summer, whilst waiting to move in with my girlfriend, I did a fairly large amount of bouldering outdoors at a crag near my house outside Bath. I felt I lost a lot of my strength over that time period; there were no climbing walls near me and the local rock was so rough and undeveloped that you couldn’t get much done in a session. But now I think I’m getting back to where I was and I feel my technique has significantly improved. Watch this space.
I am on to my third pair of climbing shoes now, and I think there the best yet. I was surprised at how quickly they have all worn out. The toe went on both pairs, preventing a resole. I imagine its all part of the climbing shoe manufacturers evil plan.
I got a bit carried away when I got my second pair (Scarpa Instinct Slipper) believing the hype that tighter is better and that all shoes stretch. I squeezed my size 12’s into an 8 1/2. They hurt a lot. Whilst I was more confident on slabs the pain was simply not worth it. They were just too aggressive for my level of climbing. Lesson learnt.
I didn’t know what I was going to get this time round. Maybe it was fate that the pair the shop assistant guided me towards, La Sportiva Miura (the most expensive pair in the shop), fit me perfectly. . After squeezing into a pair, I was informed that I should go one size smaller as ’Sportiva’s stretch a lot’. I had flashbacks of the dammed Scarpa Slippers. I tried the smaller size and found myself back in a world of pain. Fast forward two weeks and there the easily the best shoes I’ve had. Looks like he knew what he was talking about. I’m now set with a new pair of shoes, one month to train, and a climbing holiday booked in December.
A lots happened since I started climbing a year ago. I found a new sport, my bodies changed, my priorities have changed, I started a company based around climbing. It’s definitely a lifestyle sport. Here’s to the next year!
I start this post with the news that Ollie has returned from his latest 7 week road trip taking in the Ariege & Siurana as well as many smaller crags and bouldering sites across the Pyrenees (info coming soon). I’ve been to Tottenham & Islington as well as many small pubs littered across Northern London. Whilst were only a few hundred miles apart it seems like worlds.
It’s been go go go at Crashouts HQ. Since launch we’ve been reaching out to property owners in Spain and France. The response so has been very encouraging. We’ve got close to 50 properties with some great properties in the Costa Blanca and El Chorro, perfect for a winter escape. We decided that Kalymnos would be the next logical area to go into as the season is in full swimg its one of the most exciting climbing areas in Europe.
We’ve also added country maps to the France and Spain country pages, making it easier to search through the areas. Over the next couple of months we’re working on expanding the area information including more details on crags, galleries, and trip reports. Property owners will also have the chance to add a profile to give their property advertisements a personal touch.
My winter trip is now booked. I’ll be escaping the cold British winter and heading to El Chorro in the south of Spain. I’m going with my new climbing partner and I’m feeling motivated to spend all November training to get the most out of the trip. This will unfortunately mean cutting back on some of the staples in my life, namely beer and bacon. What we do for our sport eh?
So here we are. Four months after a drunken conversation in one of the less salubrious drinking establishments of north London, we have launched Crashouts.com.
Sitting in our garden with slightly sore heads we began to work out if our idea had any legs. Armed with a business plan Ollie had written 6 months prior and a fair few cups of tea, we started laying the foundations. With no major commitments or responsibilities in either of our lives we decided to give it a go. The initial time frame was to have the website up and running at the start of August in time for the Autumn climbing season; only a few days late then.
The intervening months were spent choosing the countries and areas we were going to target. Spain and France were obvious contenders for their wealth of climbing and natural beauty coupled with the fact Ollie had been climbing throughout both over the last year.
Countless Skype conversations later we had an outline of what we wanted to build. It has been quite revealing how much extra work this has entailed from our initial prediction, albeit seeing it finally come together has been all the sweeter for it.
Over the coming months, its our target to have plenty of properties for climbers to rent in the major areas of Spain and France. Alongside this we intend to keep updating the information on the website; adding a few more pages and constantly updating the blog from different climbing spots in Spain, France and England.
It should be noted at this point, the real reason for this entire enterprise is to allow Ollie and myself to go climbing under the guise of work. Whilst I’m more than happy to be based in London and looking forward to climbing in British areas from Portland to Malham, I’m slightly envious that Ollie will be climbing in Siurana, Ceuse, The Verdon Gorge and might be stopping off at Fontainebleau.
I should take a moment to say thank you to everyone who gave use permission to use their climbing holiday photos. The response we got from the community was quite staggering and the enthusiastic words of encourage have been great motivation. We intend to add more images to the area pages to showcase all the great images you kindly let us use.
We are really keen to grow the website into a community of holidaying climbers. We want to get you lot involved with features such as voting on favourite routes, and sharing trip reports.
Chris