Coming into this summer I had a simple plan. I was going to focus on climbing big alpine routes. Smaller, technically harder routes would be put to one side. This would be the summer of smashing out mega classics and getting beastly fit but super weak. To a large extent I did just that. Though I…
Take a ride back to 1980 and the era of enchainment alpinism, the linking together of multiple routes in a single push, was about to kick off. Over the course of the next decade Europe’s top alpinists would put in jaw-dropping feats of endurance, enchaining multiple hard routes in a single push, often solo. Some…
It’s funny how motivation and psyche can fluctuate. If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago if I wanted to climb the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, I’d have said no without a moment’s hesitation. Why spend a long day climbing cold and loose rock on an austere face when I could be…
Tim Oliver Alpinist 