James Pearson has a great new video of his Chad adventures which you can see below...

James Commented

"To cut a long and sandy story short, the trip was one I will remember for a long long time – simply incredible.  After a day in the air, and 3.5 days driving through the sand, we got our first glimpse of an alien world, the most isolated from civilisation I have ever felt.  An un-climbed land!  It was hard to believe, but according to our guide (a climber himself, and one of only a few people guiding in this area, with 40 years desert experience) we were the first group of climbers to visit this place!  There were spindly arches and towers in every direction, a virgin playground of your life's best FA's just waiting to be explored – the pictures hadn't lied.

In the 10 days we spent living in the area we climbed many routes, ranging from easy scrambles up sandy choss, to proud lines of patina topping out perfect towers.  The crew from Camp 4 Collective were by our side the whole time capturing every ascent in glorious, jaw dropping beauty – the video and stills are some of the best I have ever seen.

The situation in Chad was thankfully a lot safer than I had feared, and apart from a few "minor incidents" our time in the country passed with minimal threat of mortal danger.  The nomadic people of the Desert were some of the hardiest people I have ever encountered.  To my ignorant eyes, this barren expanse offered nothing one could survive upon, yet these people somehow forge an existence out there, and seem to do so in relative comfort.  They were usually very friendly and on a few occasions our camp was visited by wandering locals, bearing a gift of warm Camel milk - actually pretty good! What a place..."

Quick update from Andy Marshall Wild Country and Red Chili climber:

"Made it out last weekend for some climbing been getting out a litle more lately which is class! Alll work and no play.... was able to make the 2nd ascent of a route i wanted to do last year but a wet streak at the top never seemed to dry up so figured a new sequence and avoided the wet bit. Got a few photos from my mate Craig. he's pretty top notch with the old camera so was good to know he was getting some good shots. Thanks for the shoes and t shirt as you can see from the photos they where most welcomed!

An Bealach Eile E8 6c - Hard technical climbing with really fiddly bad gear and not very inspiring gear either. The first half is just off a big ledge so its a no fall off route very committing all went fairly smooth. the top half moves from being on good holds to a section were they just dissappear and its small crimp crushing time with some fancy footwork it too went ok bar getting a little tired and pumped at the top nothing that a few power grunt's didnt sort out ..put up by Ricky Bell a few years ago and i followed him on it so been meaning to get back to do it myself. its good to get out tradding again been a cold winter of bouldering nice just to be out on the crag."

Thanks to Craig Hiller for the photos you can see more at http://www.hillerscapes.co.uk/

James Pearson sent Pembroke standards a little higher on his first visit with his twin ascents of Point Blank E8 6C and Daddy Cool E8 6b.....

He describes his ascent of Point Blank from the rest on From a Distance:

"I surveyed the line of holds leading diagonally left and began to assess my options. When the rock on this cliff is free from chalk, it's exceptionally difficult to see even a few holds ahead of you, and so on-sighting comes down to staying calm, thinking quickly, and a good helping of luck.

James on Point Blank Ph Dave Simmonite....

After the first section of climbing on Point Blank, James arranged good gear and committed to the runout:

"All I could see were the double barrel pockets 6m above, and as my only other option involved staying where I was for an indefinite period of time, I decided on pushing upwards, a little blind but full of hope. After a lot of feeling around and a few awkward moments, I found enough small edges and slopers to reach the twin pockets. Whilst good enough to relax a little, they were not jugs, nor did they take any easy gear and so I pressed on until the sanctuary of the top break finally came – perhaps 10m from the last Friend."

With his recent surge in sport climbing fitness, Pearson thinks that harder routes are possble:

"When I viewed life wearing the blinkers of a UK trad climber, on-sighting E8 was something I considered as almost godly, but now I realise it is far, far away from what is possible even at this current time, let alone in the future. Sure, there are many E8s that I wouldn't dream of attempting in this manner, climbs that whilst perhaps technically easy, are so insecure and in a deadly place, that I personally can't justify the attempt. However, there are just as many E8s and above that are well-protected but physically hard, that become possible once one's physical level surpasses a certain point. You just have to be able to hold on..."

And on his Blog he described the ascent of Daddy Cool....

I set off with an idea of the sequence that turned out to be around 50% correct.  The other 50% was made up on the fly, which was fortunately not too taxing as there were several good crimps where you could stand a lot of weight on your feet.  After placing a psychological friend in a vertical flared crack, and having a mini-moment with an “about to break off crimp, I arrived at the crux.  A series of 3 awkward moves, the last of which was the most awkward of all lead to the sanctuary of the mid height break and much needed gear.  I calmed my breathing, climbed to the last crimp, placed my right foot uncomfortably high on an uncomfortably small edge… and 2 seconds later, I was safe.

Read more about James and see videos here...

I'm a big fan of Mike Hutton's work, his photo's are bright and sharp and seem to capture that 'moment' really well. And luckily for Wild Country he seems to have a knack of capturing 'our' climbers - so in his gallery here you can see some pretty amazing shots of Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker two of Wild Country's most prolific climbers and new routers.

Here's a great shot of Tom Randall on Sketch City, first ascent....

You can see some of Mikes shots at his new Gallery here....

Well it's here!!!

The world's first review of Helium Friends from Climber Magazine.....who luckily managed to get their paws on the only set of Heliums in the world. And surpise surprise, they really liked them.

The review stating 'I was surprised how impressed i was'

You can download this review on our PDF below.

Enter our Helium Competition here.

Enter Climber Magzines Helium Competition on their website...

Read all about Heliums here.