Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

I was blown away watching the climbing world championships here in Chamonix last night (Coupe du monde d’escalade). I’ve never seen competitive climbing before and it’s a seriously watchable sport. Last night was the speed climbing finals. Basically two climbers go head to head on a massive, specially built artificial wall. Both climbers start with one foot on a timer pad and race up the wall to hit the timer button at the top. Then they swap sides and climb again. The best aggregate score goes through.

When I arrived the women were just finishing their quarter final stage. They were incredible. The wall was huge, overhanging. I think maybe if I practiced on it for a week or so, I might be able to get up the climb they were on using a top rope. It would probably take me about 10 minutes. These girls are the best in the world and they were up and back down in under 30 seconds.

Then the men came on and I saw something truly extraordinary. The purest display of athleticism I’ve ever seen. Manuel Escobar from Venezuela finished the climb in about 12 seconds. Words don’t do it justice, not even pictures.

Here’s my usual flickr slideshow of photos, but to really get an idea of the athleticism involved you need to watch the videos below. There’s a big difference between men and women in this sport, so once you’ve watched the incredible ManuelEscobar, click the ‘Woman’ button to see the woman on the same climb.

Video of Coupe du Monde d’escalade (Climbing Word Cup)
Speed Climbing Finals July 11th 2007, Chamonix

I was quite rightly informed by a friend today that this blog’s been getting a bit dark recently. He’s right. These are dark days indeed. Wet, cold and dangerously skint.

I took some photos earlier and re-touched them a little to show how the valley looks to me at the moment.

View the whole flickr slideshow

My great friend Phil and I have taken trips together since we were kids. At school we surfed together, after school we’ve travelled, skied and hung out in bling spots all over the world, but for a while our sporting interests diverged a little. Phil spent a lot of time in South America mountaineering while I spent those years scuba diving.

With moving to Chamonix and the climbing/ski touring I’m doing we’ve decided it’s time to do something together again. This summer we’re going to try to achieve something Phil has had on his list for many years. The Matterhorn.

Climbing the Matterhorn is hard. It’s high, it’s cold, it’s long, it’s steep. It’s a challenge. There are several possible routes up it, the main 2 choices being the Hornli Ridge and the Italian Ridge. The Italian is more difficult and more committing, but on the plus side, shorter and less crowded. It’s the Italian Ridge we’re thinking of doing.

The idea has been firming up since I saw Phil in Suffolk a few weeks ago. The last couple of emails we’ve exchanged have changed in tone from gung ho -’how hard can it be?’ to ‘right, let’s actually do this’. A significant difference and one which has made me feel the first tang of fear.

We’ll be doing some training. Neither of us are very experienced with this type of climbing (called Alpinism). There’s all kind of technique to learn about; crampons, rope-work, self arrest. These are best NOT done for the first time half way up the Matterhorn. In addition there’s fitness and acclimatization. My experience with altitude has taught me I don’t react well to the thin air, so I’ll be spending some time at the top of the Aiguille du Midi prior to to the climb. And it’s probably a damn good time for me to stop smoking cigarettes too.

What did I do with my Sundays when I lived in the smoke? Well… I might have dragged myself to some market or other, spend the afternoon in the pub if I was feeling a bit adventurous, make some dinner, play a bit of xbox and probably go to bed early with that sinking feeling of Monday morning bearing down.

And now? After the Aiguillette d’Argentiere last weekend, Martin and I drove up to Barberine to go climbing. The village of Barberine is in France, but the hike to the massive granite cliff we were aiming to climb took us over the border to Switzerland. I say border - really it was a piece of string across a path over a very beautiful river.

There followed afternoon climbing the smoothest, slipperiest granite I have ever seen in my limited climbing experience. It was really hard at times, but Martin and I are getting quite good these days, and although we’re far from climbing the 200 metre, 6-7 multi-pitch routes to the very top of the cliff, we can certainly monkey up a couple of 6a graded pitches here and there. The picture on the right is the view we were rewarded with when we completed the hardest pitch we’ve climbed together yet (The village at the bottom is Barberine).

This is real climbing now. Out in the back country where the stakes are much higher and the sense of achievement equally so. If you’re interested in more details about the climbing, then have a read of Martin’s account here.

One thing hasn’t changed though. I’m going to bed early this Sunday too. After all, Monday is Monday and I’ve got work to do tomorrow.