http://climbers.net/blog/ Climbing photography & Web site design. weekly 3 2009-01-06T14:56+00:00 2009-01-06T14:56+00:00 Copyright (c) 2009 Climbers.net Climbers.net (mailto:webmaster@climbers.net) http://climbers.net/blog/New-ROCKFAX-Western-Grit Nick Smith 2009-01-06T14:56+00:00 Due for publication in April 2009 is the new ROCKFAX guidebook to Western Grit. A major upgrade to the award-winning 2003 edition, it ranges from the popular Staffordshire gritstone edges of the Roaches, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw up onto the remote Kinder and Bleaklow moorland crags. Also contained are... http://climbers.net/blog/For-Sale-Lots-of-Canon-SLR-camera-gear Nick Smith 2008-12-12T17:57+00:00 Everything I'm selling here is in superb condition, with no faults or optical marks or scratches. Each item comes in original boxes, with manuals, and any original leads, software, etc. I've had excellent results with the equipment, but I'm selling it all to fund the purchase of my next camera... http://climbers.net/blog/Great-run-in-the-wind-rain Nick Smith 2008-12-04T13:58+00:00 I was dragged out this morning in the freezing cold and driving rain to Firbeck village, just North of Worksop. My running partner, Alicia, has been running sections of the Rowbotham's Round Rotherham International Trail Event in preparation for running this 50 mile race in a couple of weeks time.... http://climbers.net/blog/Second-ascent-of-The-Groove-at-Cratcliffe-Tor Nick Smith 2008-11-22T21:35+00:00 While out photographing some friends bouldering at Cratcliffe Tor, I was lucky enough to see visiting American Kevin Jorgeson doing the 2nd ascent of the breathtaking route The Groove. Originally climbed by James Pearson, he graded it E10 but has since suggested it is actually E11 (!) Kevin... http://climbers.net/blog/Mystery-guidebook-cover Nick Smith 2008-11-13T15:05+00:00 I received some exciting news today that a major new guidebook may well be using one of my photos on the front cover! :) I got a front cover shot last year for one of the ROCKFAX Pokketz guides, but if it happens, this would be my first full-size guidebook cover. The guidebook will be out in... http://climbers.net/blog/Video-of-climbing-in-Kalymnos Nick Smith 2008-10-26T14:56+00:00 I've just come back from a whole month spent climbing & taking photographs on the Greek island of Kalymnos :) I'll be uploading a gallery of the best shots from the month soon, but in the mean time, here is some video footage of me pushing myself on a very steep F7b from a couple of years... http://climbers.net/blog/Running-walking-on-Kalymnos Nick Smith 2008-10-10T14:17+00:00 I'm currently staying on the beautiful Greek island of Kalymnos, and yesterday I tried out some of the walking (from the Kalymnos hiking map, €6 in several shops). Don't underestimate the walks - the map might have a 'trail' drawn on it, but that doesn't mean there is anything much on the ground!... http://climbers.net/blog/Major-Upgrade-to-the-UKC-Logbooks Nick Smith 2008-09-08T13:49+00:00 Let's start with some statistics: the UKC Logbook database has 94,400 routes on 8,500 crags across the World. The 5,400 users who have set up their logbooks have recorded nearly 600,000 ascents and only the much older 8a.nu has more recorded ascents. It won't be long until UKC Logbooks becomes the... http://climbers.net/blog/Moved-to-new-server-hardware Nick Smith 2008-08-31T08:08+00:00 Over the last 3 months we've been hard at work moving all our web customers from our own server hardware (owned & managed by Climbers.net) to new, more powerful hardware owned & managed by a dedicated web hosting company, Rackspace. We've hosted web sites on our own hardware for the last 9... http://climbers.net/blog/Broken-and-Lost Nick Smith 2008-08-18T11:32+00:00 I haven't had much luck with my camera gear this Summer :( First up was my Canon 5D SLR. After a very successful photo shoot of Ray's Roof in Staffordshire, I returned home and found that somehow the LCD on the back of the camera had become smashed! It went into my rucksack in one piece, so... http://climbers.net/blog/Boycott-the-Beijing-Olympics Nick Smith 2008-07-31T15:50+00:00 I love sports, and I normally enjoy watching the Olympics and supporting the dedication of athletes in the UK and from all over the world. However I've decided to not watch any coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on TV, in newspapers or websites. I'm doing this for two main reasons - firstly... http://climbers.net/blog/Exhibiting-at-Cliffhanger-12-13th-July-Sheffield Nick Smith 2008-05-29T07:12+00:00 We're very excited to be exhibiting at Cliffhanger this year - an annual festival for outdoor people in Millhouses Park, Sheffield, 12th & 13th July 2008. There will be the British Bouldering Championships, dyno competition, free climbing wall, caving, mountain biking, Orienteering Ultra Sprint,... http://climbers.net/blog/Its-all-gone-dark Nick Smith 2008-05-12T11:42+00:00 The standard Climbers.net website is uses light colours, with plenty of white space. However some people prefer to view photography with black or dark backgrounds, as you can get better visual contrast, so we've added a new option to the site: At the bottom of every page there is the option... http://climbers.net/blog/Gear-Garmin-Forerunner-50 Nick Smith 2008-04-24T16:44+00:00 I've resisted the urge to splash out on a fancy GPS-tracking/heart rate monitor/watch for several years now (most unlike me ;) ) but I've finally given in and bought a Garmin Forerunner 50, with the foot pod & heart rate monitor. I decided against the GPS-enabled versions because they are quite... http://climbers.net/blog/Getting-back-into-running Nick Smith 2008-04-11T09:32+00:00 My running is very much stop/start unfortunately: a couple of months of regular running and then a few months off, either because of injury or a lack of motivation. I had a series of nasty colds in December/January last year and didn't want to risk any aerobic exercise, which then ended up turning...