One Month

I've been back in Hong Kong for a month now and as we enter October it is definitely cooling off a bit.  This month has been a mix of work and play - days in the office, staff training, working on a program and the odd day climbing, gorge walking, hiking and running.  

 Cooling off at Tung Lung Pier in the middle of the staff training week.  Pilky (furthest away) going for the "gaynor" while Tom front flips.

 Abseil at lovers rock all set to go for the annual staff adventure race.

 The day after staff training.  Tired and hungover but ready to go at the Zawn of Cape Collinson.  L to R Giles (potentially still a little drunk), James, Elle (hiding) and Gabbie

 Giles and Elle on neighbouring routes in the Zawn - this wall is great for an easy day sport climbing with a good progression of easy(ish) F6's

 Same as above, different angle.

 Matt in the pool of Yellow Dragon Waterfall on Lantau island on a day off.  A group of us had a great day hiking and swimming in the gorge followed by a solid bush bash out of the top of the gorge.  Hong Kong definitely has some beautiful natural places still to explore.

 Giant Golden Orb Weaver (or Large Woodland - not as cool a name) spider hanging out - taken on the hike out of the yellow dragon gorge.

 Yesterday James and I decided to break our rule of not going multipitch climbing on the big crags till it cooled down and went off to climb "Sunset Crack (S4b)" on Kowloon main wall, high above the city.  This turned out to be the full adventure experience, slogging uphill for 45mins in the heat, bush bash/scramble to the base followed by 5 pitches which may be a little undergraded (hard to tell as my left shoulder is not to happy right now so I was not really using my left hand).  James here on the finger traverse pitch - brilliant route for the grade though probably hasnt been climbed in years!

 James relieved to get through the crux with our somewhat limited rack of trad gear.

Swimming below the main fall in the brides pool gorge on staff training.  This day was so hot we were barely hiking 15mins before looking for the next pool to dip in.

Now I have a couple of days off to relax and get out and about in Hong Kong a bit more.  Its so easy to fall into the trap of going to the same places but with a group of interested people I'm hoping to see more places that I haven't yet seen in and around Hong Kong.

Fast Transistions

As ever I did not give myself much time to transition from one job contract (and country) to another.  My last few weeks in Scotland saw the seasons change to a definite Autumn and the super breed of midgies (no see ums for the americans out there) appeared as well.  I managed to fit in a couple more adventures before leaving even with the high winds, rain and midgies.  The first was a group effort in too Ardverikie wall on Binnean Shuas with the hope of another climb the next day.  In true style we walked in around 3pm to pitch camp and have a go at the route as a party of 5.  Amazingly the midgies and rain held off most of the time we were actually climbing (except the second belay spot) and we were soon back at our beautiful camp getting eaten alive by midgies....

 Walking in to Binnean Shuas, Hannah up front and Joe behind - note the cheeky bottle of Rose wine on the side of Joe's bag.

 Looking down the route at Hannah and Laura on the second Belay.  I dont think they were particularly impressed with me taking photos while the midgies swarmed.

Laura after her first ever outdoor climb.  Drinking wine through a midgy net - Classy!

 The camp below Binnean Shuas.

The last adventure was my last full day in Scotland for a few months.  Ruaridh agreed to meet me at the northern corries car park in the Cairngorms even though the forecast did not look too impressive.  What was impressive was that Ruaridh had not climbed in a couple of years but was happily flying up the classic Magic Crack (HVS) with frozen fingers and toes and some very windy belays.

 Ruaridh trying to work out the wet lower pitch of the climb.

 Ruaridh looking fairly happy in the middle of the crux on the upper pitch.  (With cold fingers and toes this pitch felt a lot harder than HVS!)

 Ruaridh cruising the final few moves of Magic Crack.

Then the next day I was in Hong Kong and today had my first day out climbing.  A bit of a change from Scotland.

James (top left) on one of the warm up routes on Bunker wall.  I only climbed three routes today due to sweating so much..

 At least there's something to do when it gets too hot!

 Climbing access Hong Kong style.

 And of course the sunset on the ferry ride home.  It is as ever a shock to jump between two such radically different places but soon the busy season will be in full swing in Asia and I will soon be back in Scotland for the snowy and icy stuff.