The Flash: Rock+Run Blog

For a bit of context most of my fell running is in the Lake District, and my go to shoe for years has been the classic La Sportiva Mutant. My only issue with these shoes is that during the colder months my feet get absolutely freezing, making winter running extremely uncomfortable. So when I got the chance to try a pair of the new La Sportiva Tempesta GTX I absolutely jumped at the chance! So let’s see how they have squared up over a few hundred frozen winter miles. 

The King of climbing’s YouTube scene is back with his latest video, this time from Saas-Fee in Switzerland, the host resort for this year’s UIAA ice climbing world championships. Magnus is there to check out the ice climbing game and, having never climbed with axes and crampons before, is introduced to the basics, both on ice and the dry tooling competition wall. In the capable hands of UIAA’s Robert Adie, Magnus experiences his first ice on the training top rope before heading out to some beautiful real ice.

Nailing the essentials, the EB Red weaves uncompromising performance into one of the most accessible and superbly comfortable climbing shoe packages I’ve ever experienced. In today’s market of soft, floppy slippers, the Red stands out with a rather traditional set of features, prioritising classic edging performance and precision over the volume jumping status quo. Being a bit of a small edge enthusiast, I immediately felt right at home in the Red with its stiff, full length sole and asymmetrical profile providing a solid foundation of technical abilities.

This week’s video comes straight from the fantastic Peak District where Five Ten athlete, Will Bosi checks out Voyager, a super classic boulder first ascented by Ben Moon back in 2005. Voyager has become an iconic boulder in the Peak with its striking aesthetic and unique style of cutting-edge, overhanging gritstone. Unlike many of its gritstone counterparts, Voyager’s difficulty comes from its tiny, razor sharp pebble pulling rather than tenuous smears or technical hold fondling. To make matters worse for Will, the crucial crux hold broke 3 years ago and the climb has remained unrepeated since with the final sequence of moves now proving far more difficult.

Collaborations or ‘collabs’ are a quintessential part of the content world, boosting profiles and combining skills. In this week’s video, Adam Ondra and Stefano Ghisolfi collaborate to take on Arco. With these two being at the pinnacle of the climbing game, the potential is endless in a playground like Arco which is teeming with untouched rock and open projects. One of the very best ways to improve as a climber is to climb with someone who is better than you. This should expose you to better techniques and climbing styles whilst giving you a huge motivational boost. If Stefano and Adam can apply this to their partnership then the potential is endless.

Thousands of Brits may flock to Europe each year for their alpine fix, but there’s somewhere on our little island* that might just tick the box for the majority of you. This write up takes you on our little tour of Scotland’s Misty Isle: Skye. 
*connected to the mainland via the aptly thought name; Skye Bridge, built in 1995.

In typical Scotsman style, this week’s video from Dave MacLeod is short but sweet. With fellow Scot, Will Bosi, having made the first ascent of Below Zero at the start of January (the stand start to Macleod’s boulder, Zero, 8B), it was only a matter of time before Mr Scotland himself turned up to dispatch the problem. Found on the Wobble Block at Rooftown, the climb takes in everything the rock has to offer, notably featuring a hideous undercut rollover crux that Dave dispatches with ease on his send attempt.

Lightweight, compact and extremely versatile – the Rock + Run AT2 rings are the ultimate portable performance training tools, proving to be the perfect device for training on the go and warming up at the crag. Ticking every finger training fundamental at a competition killing price, the AT2 rings have to be the best portable climbing option on the market – here’s why.

This week’s video is special not only for its big grade and cutting edge climbing but for its sheer historical significance within the British climbing community. In September 2019, Emma Twyford became the first British woman to climb 9a with an epic tick of Big Bang, a Neil Carson route at Lower Pen Trywn. Having first been shown at the 2019 Kendal Film Festival where it won ‘Best Climbing Film’, this fantastic David Petts production is a diligent account of the years leading up to Emma’s ground-breaking ascent.

If you’re completely new to climbing, or even if you have only ever sport climbed or bouldered before, your first ‘trad’ climbing experience can be daunting. Here we take a look at what it takes to become a safe and competent trad climber.

Looking for a bad weather beast to take control on the hill? Thanks to a deep, studded tread pattern, reinforced upper and Gore liner, the La Sportiva Lycan GTX is the quintessential winter off-road shoe.

Adam Ondra is back with another feature in our weekly video series. This week Adam visits the beautiful crag, ‘Beckov’, in Slovakia to check out an unclimbed project bolted by Tomáš Pilka in 1994. Having failed to climb the route when he first visited in June 2020, Adam returned to polish off 27 years of unfinished business with what became ‘Absolutorium’ 9a.

This week’s video hit comes straight from the beautiful Swiss valley of Val Bavona where we’re spoiled rotten with Swiss native, Giuliano Cameroni’s fourth ascent of Off the Wagon Low (8C+/V16). Off the Wagon’s original standing line is perhaps the most iconic boulder problem in the world, originally being discovered by Dave Graham with Nalle Hukkataival claiming the first ascent in 2012.

Typically, painful, grim and dirty, offwidthing is one of the darker arts of the climbing world, especially for us Brits with the fair isles of Britain yielding little in the way of any decent offwidth climbing. So, if you’re like me and haven’t got a clue about offwidths then this video is a nice introduction to the kit, the techniques and, most importantly, the taping.

Soft, sensitive and oh so French – the Nebula is the ultimate homage to EB’s climbing shoe heritage, nailing the same fundamentals that made their very first climbing shoe so successful whilst epitomising the modern climbing shoe’s evolution into an expertly engineered sending weapon.

In 1968, five friends set out on a 5,000-mile road trip in a white Ford van bound for South America. They packed surfboards, skis, and climbing gear and documented the whole trip on a 16mm Bolex camera. The film is, of course, Mountain of Storms, the legendary documentary of a life changing trip which ended with an awesome first ascent on Cerro Fitz Roy – there’s nothing like a bit of Patagonian alpine action to whet our winter appetites.

The second of our weekly videos comes from the heart of Llanberis where renowned climbing hardware company, DMM, are celebrating a spectacular 40th year in business. This enchanting video recounts the company’s humble beginnings with its 3 cofounders forming the business in 1981. Having first met whilst working for Clog Climbing, Fred Hall, Richard Cuthbertson and Paul Simkiss recall tales of working for Heinz beans, debt collection and the interview rejections that brought them together in the 70’s. From here, the rest was history, going on to shape a company that has become a cornerstone of both the Llanberis and the worldwide climbing communities. 

This Friday (10/12/21) you can catch our very own Ben Robinson’s attempt to become the first person to complete the last great Lake District challenge yet to be overcome in winter, The Frog Whitton. The route includes 96 miles of cycling over some of the hardest mountain passes in the UK, interspersed with 6 miles of open-water swimming. Weaved throughout the challenge is the story of Ben's inspirational transformation from dangerously overweight to ultra-distance athlete in just 12 months.

For some, the first flurries of snow make for a fun filled winter season ahead. However for others, initial excitement may give way to a feeling of trepidation. Here in the UK, the majority of us don’t get a lot of experience playing out in the white stuff - so it’s easy to get caught out if you aren’t prepared. 

Another Friday and another weekly video but, this one is particularly special. In 2019, Nirmal Purja, or more commonly known as Nimsdai, embarked on his ‘Project Possible’ – an insane mission to summit all fourteen 8000 metre peaks in a record breaking 7 months. Having only entered the world of big mountain climbing in 2012, Nimsdai made his first 8000 metre ascent two years later, summitting Dhaulagiri in a return trip of just 15 days. From high altitude novice to Project Possible in 7 years sounds ridiculous, but Nims is pretty unique.

A 55 mile trail running challenge, covering 13 limestone summits around the Kent Estuary feeding into Morecambe Bay.

The Bay Limestone Round was established in the summer of 2020 by local Tom Phillips, as a way to get some long distance routes in whilst the world was in lockdown. In addition it has proven to be a great way for people to raise funds for charitable causes, with £12,000 raised in 2020.

Dave MacLeod is back with another video of cutting-edge trad in the Scottish Highlands. This time Dave has company in the form of fellow Scotsman, professional climber and YouTuber, Robbie Phillips, who has been partnering Dave on the quest for Scotland’s next bold trad line. Well, that line came in the form of ‘What We Do in The Shadows’, E10 7a; first discovered by Phillips at Duntelchaig, the route features 8c level climbing on gear with a 7C+ boulder crux right at the death. 

Midtbo and Ondra are back with another fantastically insightful video. This latest episode in their continued collaboration comes from Ondra’s famed home crag, Moravsky Kras, in the North of Brno. If not for Ondra, this quaint, bizarre climbing location might have been known to committed locals only but, through Adam’s development, the crag has become one of most concentrated areas of hard climbing in the world.

EB were the original climbing shoe company, making the very first shoe specifically designed and created for climbing on rock. Officially founded in 1950 after French shoemaking extraordinaire, Edmond Bourdonneau, bought Pierre Alain’s fledgling rock shoe company, EB soon became climbing’s household name.