The Flash: Rock+Run Blog

The Cuesta from Blue Ice is a sleek, modern rock climbing harness from the Chamonix-based French brand. While Blue Ice might be known more for their alpine gear, the Cuesta is very much a rock climbing harness – though the version that has adjustable leg loops would no doubt be at home in any mountain environment. I’ve been easing my way into the early season for rock climbing here in the south of the UK with the Cuesta in tow (along with gloves, hat and many layers!). 

This week's video is a break from the harsh realities of our more common world class climbing video recommendations, yes V17's hard and no, sadly we aren't that strong. In Casually Explained's summary of Rock Climbing, you'll find ample relief from the real thing with a tongue and cheek take on the sport and our wonderfully diverse community. Enjoy!

Deuter have been making some of the best packs on the market for over 100 years, and manage to keep surprising us with new ideas and designs of their packs. This season is no different with the release of updated versions of some much loved packs.

Fresh for this spring/summer season is a brand new range of revised and improved rucksack models from German powerhouse, Deuter. Having been in the game for 125 years, Deuter know their way around the pack market but, with an evolving clientele and ever changing mountain pursuits, this is the most radical range update and redesign we've seen from Deuter in some time. Fast and light is the name of the game for this year's range and the new and improved models come with this ethos at the heart of their design, complimenting the Deuter packs we already stock. Perfect for intense missions in the mountains, a real highlight of the Spring range actually comes from the new waterproof additions to the Deuter collection with the Vertrail and Durascent packs, but more on these later.

What are the secrets to climbing well? Well, while there's no magic bullet solution to rock climbing mastery, some relatively inexpensive bits of kit can make a heap of  difference!

This week's video follows Lake District local, Aidan Roberts, takes centre stage once again in the latest epic climbing film from Wedge. A 40 minute feature length, Mastery documents Aidan as he pursues a new limit of cutting edge bouldering, searching for new test piece projects both locally here in the Lake District, and further afield on the world class granite of Switzerland. Of course, Mastery documents Aidan's time on and subsequent send of Shawn Raboutou's 9A, Alphane - it's pretty incredible, you'll have to see it to believe it. Enjoy!

Do you ever wash your climbing rope? No? Well this week's video might make you consider it. Hard Is Easy are back with another geeky video from the Mammut testing labs and this time it's the turn of dirty ropes. Taking a deep dive into effects of dirt on your climbing ropes durability, Ben finds out whether it's a good idea to wash your climbing rope or not. Testing this on both dry treated and normally finished ropes, the results are pretty surprising... Enjoy!

Want to get stronger? Of course you do and you might be thinking that campusing is the perfect way to do this. Correct. But, do you know how to use campusing effectively, using proper technique to get the most out of the exercise? Well, in this week's video Hannah Morris is joined by Norwegian coaches and Climbing Bible authors, Martin Mobråten and Stian Christophersen, who delve into the dynamics of campus training, proving it isn't just a bravado based party piece reserved for your local crushers. 

We've picked out a few of our favourite women's climbing shoes in a concise top 5 buying guide, taking everything from performance levels and intended climbing terrain to cost into consideration.

This week's video comes straight from Sheffield where we're taken on a whistle stop tour through time alongside Adam Ondra and Magnus Midtbø. Embarking on this journey around some of the UK climbing scene's most significant spots with legends Jerry Moffat and Ben Moon, Adam and Magnus cut their teeth on some Sheffield classics. In this one we visit Pod's Wall, a tricky, pre-indoor brick wall testing ground found by Pete O'Donovan in the late 70's, and Moon's famous school room where board training was officially birthed. 

Organic pads have long been at the pinnacle of the bouldering mat market, becoming the premium go-to for keen boulderers everywhere with unique patchwork patterns and the unbeatable quality that can only come from a handmade product. But, are Organic pads still the best in the business? I've been test driving a full Organic pad set up with a Full Pad, Simple Pad, Slider Pad and the Muffin Protector and Load Flap accessories to find out just how good they really are.

This week's video comes from our backyard here in the South Lakes where supreme Scot, Will Bosi, takes on a host of the 8th grade classics. Taking in the quiet, woodland covered limestone of Woodwell and the crisp rhyolite of Kentmere, Bosi samples some of our favourite after-work venues - the only difference between our respective trips being the difficulty of the climbing!