by Ian | Apr 13, 2013 | Nepal 2013, News
Following on from last week’s sponsorship update, the Nepal Team have yet more exciting news to announce! We are delighted to announce that headwear company Buff have agreed to help to support our expedition, with the team being issued with a set of Original Buff and one set of Polar Buff’s.
Part of the deal will see the team join Team BUFF UK, the company’s hub for sponsored athletes, providing regular updates on their progress throughout the rest of the training and the expedition itself.
Additionally, we will be producing our very own video, demonstrating how we wear our Buffs, which may be used for future promotional campaigns. You never know, next time you’re enjoying some Quality Shopping Hours (QSH) you might just be spot the Nepal Team in your nearest gear shop!!!
Once again thanks go out to Rosemary Harrison, whose hard work has helped land another great sponsor to support the expedition.
by Ian | Apr 3, 2013 | Nepal 2013, News
As is tradition in HSX, Easter can me only one thing… Three days of fun in the Lakes District!
The Nepal 2013 team decided to take this opportunity to join HSX out on the Fells to brush up on their navagation skills, practice some unexcepted winter mountaineering and ultimately a spot of team bonding!
Friday 29th March – Day 1
We arrived at Great Tower at 1 in the morning after a fairly uneventful, but very long, journey. Luckily for us we had an awesome mixed tape to listen to. Straight off to bed so we were fresh for an early start.
In the morning we split into our three patrols, kitted up in the winter boots and adjusted our crampons (just incase). The aim was for the Nepal team was to lead both in navigation and looking after the group.
We set off from the car park to summit Little Man, taking note of tick features and reading contours the whole way. We had to practice kicking in steps, a technique we learned in the Cairngorms, as there was lots of snow under foot. We summited Little Man, all 865m of it, and then dropped into the saddle as was very windy on top. After fighting with the group shelter we were finally settled inside to put on more layers and have a bite to eat (where some of us got a bit too excited and ate all of our lunch!)
We then headed up Skiddaw where the view from the top was beautiful, but flipping freezing, so we did not stay for very long. On the way down we met up with the other patrols and walked out as a team as we had heard that Lhotse’s route was full of unconsolidated snowdrift up to your waist!!!
We then headed into Keswick for a well earned hot chocolate and for some quality shopping time.
After a de-brief of the day it was announced Bloc had kindly sent us all a pair of sunglasses each, que a fight for the mirror to admire ourselves. And the news did not stop there. It has now been confirmed that we are one of the seven finalists for the Light my Fire adventure blog. This not only means that we get to write on their website we get to have lots of their great kit which will be a great help for our expedition.
After a bit of free time we headed over to the slab to practice our bouldering. This was a great challenge to practice our skills of transferring our weight on steep rocky inclines.
After a delicious dinner (we love the cooks) we started to prepare for the next day out on the mountains.
Saturday 30th March – Day 2
We started the day at Hartsop. We then walked up Pastino Beck Valley whilst practising some micronavigation. The conditions started off with some thin snowfall as we walked. As we passed Raven Crag the clouds started to come down the valley. Having stopped briefly for a snack, we started our ascent from Threshthwaite Cove to Threshthwaite Mouth. The snow was powdery and unconsolidated, which made the ascent more challenging.
As we reached the saddle we felt the wind begin to bite. From the saddle we could see our next destination, Thornthwaite Crag, enveloped in cloud. As we climbed towards the top we chased away the cloud, leaving clear view as we arrived on the summit. At the top we paused for a lunch break and rewarded ourselves with Ribena.
After Lunch we started making our way to the trip point on High Street at 828m above sea level. Up on the plateau walking through the snow was similar to Russian roulette, with some steps on solid snow and the next disappointing, up to your knees or higher in snow. Crossing the plateau we met up with the Nupste team who were taking the same route as us, but in the other direction.On a descent from the trip point on the way towards The Knott, Joe, our leader was demonstrating how to run downhill through the snow when his foot got caught and he faceplanted with …ummm… elegance! After we finished laughing with him we continued our way up to the summit of The Knott (739m).
We then began our descent through thick snow, doing a few ice axe arrests halfway down… which is much faster than walking and loads more fun. We found that Haveswater lake was frozen and it took a large rock to break through. Then we continued down the rest of the valley to arrive back at the car park.
That night we were treated to a lovely dinner followed up with delicious gateau.
Sunday 31st March – Day 3
We woke at 7am HSX time, had breakfast and prepared for the day ahead. The advance group left earlier to set up the climbs at Bowderstone Crag in Borrowdale. On arrival, we played the bean warm up game (involving throwing many interesting shapes representing ‘chilli beans’ and ‘jelly beans’ etc.). This was highly entertaining and limbered us up nicely for the climbs.
We rotated between the three climbs and all had a go at the quarry abseil round the corner. The abseil itself was around 30m in height and going over the edge was quite scary for most. There was also a mini cave at the bottom where we couldn’t place our feet against the cliff so had to abseil freely.
After our amazing morning we all went to the Bowderstone; finding out that the reason why they built stairs up to the top was due to tourists frequently getting stuck on the top and having to phone mountain rescue! This was an eye opener for a lot of us because we didn’t realise how much upper body strength was needed for bouldering. We also discovered a place underneath the rock where you could link hands with someone on the other side; much to the amazement of the tourists…
After our quest, we returned to our kingdom for a mighty banquet of Spaghetti Bolognese! Later in the evening Smudge taught us how to use the Petrol stoves and we learnt that they are highly effective and work well at altitude. Everybody finished the day by packing their bags for the return journey and got into bed ready for a day of travel the next morning back to the South Coast.
by Ian | Apr 2, 2013 | Nepal 2013, News
The Nepal 2013 are delighted to announce that they have been selected as one of seven finalist to take part in this years “Adventure Blog” run by Swedish company, Light My Fire (off of Spork fame!).
The team saw off stiff completion from other budding adventurers from across the globe, being selected from over 100 entrants.
As part of their sponsorship deal the expedition team will be documenting their adventure on the Light My Fire website, uploading pictures and reports from their training weekends, as well as during the expedition itself. This is a great opportunity for the team to show off to a global audience what exciting things the Scouting movement is up to and, more importantly, what HSX is all about… Adventure!
During the remainder of our the expedition programme the team will be road testing a range of Light My Fire products.
You can follow the teams progress at http://www.lightmyfire.com/adventure-blog.aspx.
A huge well done to Rosemary Harrison who helped to organised this.
by Ian | Apr 1, 2013 | JOGLE
With it being Easter, HSX as always have headed to the Great Tower in the Lake District. This year as we’re doing the JOGLE in May, teamHSX JOGLE decided to make it a training weekend and to be honest, I’m pretty glad we did as it was a tough one..
Unfortunately out of the eight of us doing the JOGLE only five could make it to the Lake District (Dave, Chris, Smudge, Craig & myself) as the others had commitments keeping them at home. We did though have an honorary member for the weekend as Footlong joined us as he’s training for a sportive and may join us for a day or two.
Thursday 28th April
Craig, Dave & myself were there early so we popped out for a short ride.. Just 20km from Great Tower to Bowness & Windermere. Craig had his brand new, never been on the road bike and he was really keen to get out.. However, four miles in to it’s first outing and Craig hit a pot hole and had a blow out, which resulted in us shivering by the side of the road whilst it was fixed.
(20km – 56min – 283m elevation – 636kcal burnt)
Friday 29th April
With everyone who was there now all together we headed out for a cheeky ride.. The weather although cold with plenty of snow on the ground was glorious, so we started cycling towards the Langdales to hit Hardknott pass.. However, this was very snowy and we didn’t fancy a repeat of Box Hill from December.. So we turned around and went on a tour of the Lakes where we hit Coniston, Windermere, 5 Chevron Hill ( a very very very steep hill), Stavely (Wilfs cafe & the largest bike shop in the UK) before heading home. By the time we got home legs were beginning to ache for some of us..
(113.6km – 5hr47min – 1,722m elevation – 3,444kcal burnt)
Saturday 30th April
What a day. All six of us covered our first 100mile bike ride. Not bad considering we were still nursing sore legs from the 70 miles the day before.. An awesome day. I finally visited Braithwaite, proclaimed myself “King Coaster” for my ability to coast very fast down hill (43mph), we had snow, forest tracks, pasties and ale of course for a great day out..
(160km (100miles) – 7hrs45mins – 2,373 elevation – 4,686kcal burnt)
Sunday 31st April
We had to help with climbing and abseiling in the morning, so we chucked our bikes in the van and left at 1400hrs from Borrowdale and headed back. Another great ride, I was pretty broken and dying slightly. However, we had a beer and took the Hawkshead ferry to make it a bit more fun.
(59.2km – 3hrs11mins – 1,122m elevation – 1,995kcal burnt)
After four great days cycling in the Lakes with fantastic weather, we’ve now all got to get our training it as we leave in less than two months… Happy training everyone..
by Ian | Mar 22, 2013 | JOGLE
Saturday 9th of May saw the launch of Hampshire’s new Scout Ambassador, James Ketchell, with a ride around various Scout huts in Hampshire meeting fellow Scouts and undertaking a few challenges en route. We thought this would be a great opportunity for the JOGLE team to meet up, support James and gain some valuable experience of group riding.
We met up on the Friday evening for a productive team meeting and stayed the night at Ferny Crofts, 0630hrs on Saturday was the less than welcome alarm call and by 0800hrs we’d sorted our kit out, filled our faces with porridge and were ready to depart along with James, the Ferny Crofts Gold Team and the other Scouts who were supporting him. Our route took us from Ferny Crofts across the Hythe Ferry through Southampton and on to Testwood Lake, here we left James to one of his challenges and headed out to Lyndhurst and back where we were able to practice our group riding and change overs. It took us a little while to get ourselves organised but by the end of the loop we were beginning to get the hang of it.
We rejoined James and the rest of the riders and headed for Romsey Scout Hut for a very welcome lunch, from there we headed to Chandlers Ford, then on to Whiteley and eventually ended up at Lyons Copse where the ride finished with tea and cakes! We covered around 60 miles over the course of the day, met some great people and ate some lovely food. As our first training ride together it was very successful and helped to iron out some potential issues, we’re now looking forward to our next group session in the Lake District, bring on the hills!
More photos from the day can be found on James’ Flikr page here
