Winter climbing conditions may be horribly unstable in Scotland
right now, but at the Ellis Brigham ice wall in Covent Garden, it's
always winter - a bit like Narnia, but more technical.
Wicked ice queen for the morning was Darren Christie, aka 'Weird
Darrren', who front-pointed in at the last moment as a substitute for
the winner of our Mountain Hardwear Ice-Climbing Masterclass
competition. Unfortunately we couldn't track down the original
winner, but every cloud has a silvery lining.
Togged out in the latest Mountain Hardwear kit, our Darren (right) was
introduced to the steep white stuff in the heart of London by two of
Britain's leading climbers, Tim Emmett (left) and Neil Gresham and is now
totally bitten by the joys of vertical water ice:
'It was just totally amazing, and I want to go again!!! Arms hurt
a bit, but in a good way?'
Darren's forum tag is now, erm, Vanilla Ice. Our man Jonathan
Pritchard was there representing OM and took some pics of our Darren
in actiion. Poor old Jonathan was all geared up and ready to climb
himself, when a paying customer showed up and bumped him out of
contention. Never mind, I'm sure the London ice falls will be in nick
soon enough....
Anyway, here are a couple of Eagle-Eye Pritchard shots of Darrrn
in freeze frame action, plus Mr Emmett being masterful :-)
Weird Darren
The indoor ice wall at the TNF store in Manchester is open for business with 40 tons of ice just waiting for a good kicking from your expertly wielded crampon points :-)
