Hmm seems like Ed Hamer's getting pretty strong, as well as fit as well as good...drat!!!
Hey up guys,
I just wanted to give you a short write on my second 8B/V13, its called Louis Armstrong in parisella’s cave. It took me about 2 sessions. Here is a list of my last problems over the last month,
Keen Roof 8B, Louis Armstrong 8B, Vanilla Sky 8A+, Wrestling With My Dangerous Soul 8A, Soul Crusher Low 8A, Quarantine 8A, Dark Art 8A, Dark Beta 8A, White Light 8A, King Cannibal 8A, Recreational Violence 8A, Magnum 7C+, Soul Crusher 7C+, Black Crow 7C+, Monster 7C,
The Pheonix 7C, The Vision 7C, Into The Light 7C (flash), Everything Before 7C (flash), Black Tufa Reservation 7C, Seamen Stains 7C (flash), Candy Kaned 7C, Titus 7C, Heartland 7C, Jack The Nipper 7B+, Free Mason 7B+, Frodo 7B+

I have slowly been ticking my way through some brilliant problems that the grit has to offer. First up was a great session up at Row Tor were I managed to make the 3rd Ascent of Dave Mason’s ‘Pink Lady’ (8A). It’s a must do problem with some very hard tension moves on some pretty small undercut’s. As there was still enough light I went down to finish the day by ticking ‘Domes Sit Start’ (7C) which has now turned out to be my favourite problem on the grit. A great day with some video footage to come!!

Next was the Roaches, I had been meaning to go and try Tetris for ages and finally decided to go and check it out. We arrived, the boulder was completely dry and I managed to make a quick ascent of Tetris (7C) followed by a surprised flash on Columns (7C+), Great Day.
After those two amazing session’s on the grit, the weather crapped out again BUT this didn’t hold us back as I decided to go and meet up with Ted and Ethan and hit Stoney, the place of all dreams. Surprisingly the conditions were incredible and around 30 problems went down between us that day. Some of these include Arm bandit (7C), Denses White Ladder (7C), Pete’s Power Pull (7C+), Nasty Traverse (7C+), Jerry’s Problem (7C+) and an un-named 7B+.

After talking with Ethan and Bails we all decided to go and check out Turningstone edge near Eastwood Rocks but on the other side of the valley. Our aim was to try and climb ‘River Of Life’ (8A). As we arrived the conditions were awful. The rock was all wet and the psyche was low. We decided to try and dry the holds and see if we could dig out some of the moves. After around 30 minutes of drying we realised that there was potential for climbing on it. We all gradually worked out the beta and finally I managed to make a send of it. Ethan and Bails were very close to sticking the crux and will deffo get it next time! Good effort Lad’s!!!

Wild Country are proud to unveil their 2012 UK climbing team - a group of reckless and hardy individuals who help us test and promote our gear whatever the danger and cost to themselves...! Well, it’s not exactly like that, but, led by James Pearson, the Wild Country climbing team is peopled with climbers that we feel help represent the values and ideals of Wild Country across the spectrum of the sport.

So, leading the way with a slew of hard ascents in 2011, from almost flashing E10 to multi-pitch monstrosities like Joy Division and flashing 8b+ is James Pearson, now living in France but originally a Buxton lad and working with Wild Country since 2004. There’s a superb video of James in action on his E10 flash attempt here - http://vimeo.com/25140891.

James Pearson seen here on his flash attempt on Muy Caliente E10

Hot on his heels are the incredibly talented ‘Wideboyz’ team of Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, who as well as tackling the worlds hardest offwidths – and the first ascent of Century Crack E9 (as you may just have heard about) have produced a load of awesome grit routes in the past few years filling some very cool gaps on the Peak District edges – you can see some Century Crack footage here - http://vimeo.com/35270800.  Sheffield based there’s also Ben Heason who’s been working with Wild Country for years and is still sending 8b+ and E8, and the enigmatic Miles Gibson – the quiet man of the legendary super-desperates ‘Superstition’ and Superbloc’ on the gritstone. Also Peak based the youthful Hamer brothers have both been performing superbly in 2011: Ed probably outdoing his brother Sam with his fantastic results in the youth world cup climbing comps with a  couple of 2^nd places – but Sam showing he’s no slouch winding his neck out with few E8’s on the grit to even the scales – see the Hamers’ in action here - http://vimeo.com/26593785.
Last, but not least, long term teamer, Katherine Schirrmacher is hoping to build on her hard trad and grit E7 ascents after a year out to have a baby and build a very successful guiding business and will be starring in and sharing her technical knowledge in Wild Country’s ‘how to’ video series later this year.

Then up in Lancs the super psyched Jordan Buys is joined this year by his wife and partner Naomi to make an all action team. Both are multi discipline masters, mixing bouldering, trad climbing and sports climbing to a very high standard Jordan to 8c and E9 and Naomi to 8a+ and E7.  See Jordan in action here: http://vimeo.com/34862987

Over in Yorkshire, Jenny Woodward, has an incredible resume and after a bit of a stop start year last year after having a baby and suffering a few injuries and only sending up to 8A+(!!!) has some even harder projects on the go...watch this space!

Further north, in the Lake District, Dave Birkett and Adam Hocking are both climbing at the highest level and still doing stunning new trad lines and bouldering at the highest level – there’s a great video of Adam on a new E8 here – http://vimeo.com/25808567

New team member Naomi Buys in action on Snap Decision E7 6C Ilkley...

Meanwhile in Scotland the evergreen Malcolm Smith of has been relentless on rock with a recent new 8c+ Blood Diamond, while the fearless Kev Shields simply sets new standards for his bold soloing and some great winter ascents. And across the ‘pond’ in Ireland Andy Marshall has been representing Wild Country and has also sent some pretty rad lines including E8 2^nd ascents and plenty more.

Our boulder team (thought that terms a bit restrictive as they’re more than that) is headed up by the amazing Ned Fehally who seems to be taking bouldering up a notch as well as blurring the lines between highball and routes making some very hard ascents in 2011 including Samson E8 7a, and the Prow E9 7a both solo. See Ned in action here: http://vimeo.com/33103583. Nigel Callender also manages to continually impress, sending 8b+ - http://vimeo.com/20435941 - while studying to be a doctor in Newcastle and taking advantage of the awesome sandstone of Northumberland. Then in the south east the strong Ben Read is helping  establish a new wave of sandstone desperates as well as writing guidebooks and promoting the excellent climbing around there. Joining these guys this year is year is Stewart Watson, a very strong climber who’s been competing internationally in boulder comps for a number of years and is adding 8c ascents to his pretty awesome bouldering CV.

We also have some young climbers doing well and with Tara Hayes we have one the most up and coming of the UK junior competition climbers who in her first year managed to grab an overall 6^th place in the European Youth B standings.

So a big thanks to all those I’ve mentioned and anyone else who’s been flying the Wild Country flag - and you can see more about all Wild Country’s UK team at our website here:

And to get any news from the team first and fastest you can follow Wild Country on:
Twitter - @wildcountryuk
On our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wild-Country/97486098594
Or to watch all our videos our Vimeo page is here: http://vimeo.com/wildcountry/videos

Here's young gun Ed Hamer doing what he does best - climbing very very well on something that's very very steep!!!!!!

Sam Hamer reports on him and his brother's latest adventures - this time in Turkey...

"We have just returned from an amazing two week climbing trip to Geyik Bayiri, in western Turkey. This was our first time visiting the country and what a very special place it is! We headed out there with our great friend Andre, a London resident and super psyched climber. We had an absolute blast of a trip!

So, the start of the trip involved a quick dash down to London town where we all met up and stayed the night at Chez Andre’s. The next morning involved an early start, with a taxi ride straight to Gatwick, then followed the usual airport shenanigans and then boom, we were on our way heading east. Destination = Antalya !! After a rather long 4 hour flight (we didn’t care, we were going to Turkey baby!!) we arrived in the city of Antalya. It was pretty late on, but an organised taxi was waiting for us outside to take us the last bit. We arrived at our final destination of the Climber’s Garden in the dead of night, quickly putting up our tents and then hitting the sack!

The next morning we awoke to an amazing view of where we were going to be based for the next two weeks. There was rock everywhere we looked!! And best of all, the main and best sector (Sarkit) was less than five minutes from our tent! It really was a climber’s paradise.

The first few days we took it pretty steady, ticking off some of the classics and then gradually stepping it up a gear to send some amazingly steep, super long, tufa infested routes!

Here were some of our best sends of the trip: Sarkit Souls 8a, Flat Rate 8a, Plastik fantastic 8a, Troja 8a, Turkish Airways 8a+, Milestone 8a, Trio de ligoville 8a, Fun in the sun 7c+, High Hopes 7c+, Family affair 8a+, Ikarus 8a+, Freedom is a battle 8a+, Truth Hurts 8a+, Richfest 8a, Chain erection 8a, Parrelle universe 7c+, Neptunalia 8a+ and Serpedon 8b+

Weather wise, it was pretty chilly for most of the time and we did have four days of torrential rain which were a write-off and dampened our moods slightly. Not to mention soaking everything in our tent!

Apart from that, all in all it was an amazing trip. One of the highlights was spending two of our rest days getting more of a cultural experience of real Turkey! This included a stroll round the local Sunday market, a rub down at the Turkish Baths, smoking strawberry Shisha and consuming large amounts of kebabs, Turkish delights and Bazlama’s.

So as they would say in Turkey, Serefe!!!!"

Ed Hamer onsight on Parallel Universe 7c+

Silver Medal at Kranj EYC and Misja Pec  beasting!!

I have just spent the last 10 days in Slovenia with my good friend Luke Tilley. We both arrived on the 17^th November into Ljubljana and competed in the Senior World Championships at Kranj that weekend! It was my first senior competition and, as my last Junior comp was to be at the end of the week, it seemed  a perfect opportunity to dip my toe in the Seniors and see how I faired. After completing the two qualifiers which felt very do-able, I missed the semi-finals by 4 places, which was a cool way to start ! I know that it is possible to get some good results next year for the GB climbing team in the Seniors.

 After competing on Saturday, we then had an amazing day trip to Misja Pec which is a superb limestone sport climbing area near the coast. We met up with Gasper who is a good friend from the Slovenian climbing team who gave us a lift. I started the day by warming up on a tricky 7b+ Hugolina, and then climbed a cool 8a+ 2^nd try called Sonce v oceh. I finished the day by sending Marjetica 8b+ 2nd go which was really cool. The crag has all types of climbs from long pumpy, tufa routes to short bouldery, powerful climbs. We all then headed back to watch the finals of the Senior comp in Kranj that evening. The next few days consisted of training at some of the boulder gyms in Skofja Loka which are great training venues. On the Thursday myself and Franz (member of the Swiss team)found a lift again to Misja Pec. When we arrived the weather was amazing, enabling us to both warm up on a great 7b+ called Figa and then onsighting a brilliant 7c+ called Pingvin. My aim was to try and send Missing Link 8b+. After working out the moves I managed to send it 2^nd attempt. This was a fantastic day and thanks to Franz for the support.

Kranj EYC Junior competition

After spending a whole day at Misja Pec we had to head back to Kranj to meet up with the rest of our Junior team members who flew out that evening. We all had a good rest day on Friday sauntering around Kranj, which is a beautiful town, and then competed in the last  European Youth Cup of the season. This was also my last junior European cup so it had to be a good one!! I felt very good on the qualification routes which put me in 3^rd place through to the final. I then came out on the Sunday feeling psyched and managed to bag Silver Medal. This was my highest placement ever in a European Competition. I have now ended the season with a 2nd place World ranking and 4^th in European ranking. It  has been a great 4 years in the junior climbing team and I’d like to thank so many people for the encouragement and support throughout those years but particularly Ian Dunn and John Elison who are outstanding team leaders and have played a key role in my success this year. I am so keen to get started with the Seniors next year and the British Bouldering team but hope also to continue in supporting the Junior team through coaching, and competition preparation.  I am back in the UK now till Christmas hoping to get some cool trad routes done and training hard over the winter months..