Time Passes – Techniques Change

If I ever get the chance to go back to this place, oh how I would do it differently these days. Miao Keng in China is one of the worlds deepest shafts and at 509m, it is taller than the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. When I was there, the forever blackness below my feet reminded me of that fact. It only took 2 hours to abseil down to the floor, passing 32 re-belays.

The intensity of photographing in big pits is awesome.

The upper section of the mighty 509m deep Miao Keng shaft in China

Climbing Big Roofs

Dave Williams aid climbing in the Vestibule of Peak Cavern aka The Devil's Arse

Recently, I have made a few posts about climbing in the roofs of caves – see here & here.
Well tonight (Thursday 13th) at 20:00 on Scottish BBC2 – The Adventure Show focuses on two of Britain’s leading rock climbers; Dave Macleod and Alan Cassidy as they attempt two innovative first ascents – one deep underground and the other in a huge cavern. This film follows them as they inch their way from darkness into light, climbing out of giant caves. More news on the UKClimbing site here.

The huge cavern is none other than my old playground – Peak Cavern. The route they have climbed (or something similar) is one which we first put up in 2009, when I assisted Dave Williams and his brother John, from Disley on the edge of Manchester. Dave had worked a bolted route over several months with meticulous dedication and persistence, topping out halfway up the face of the cliff outside the cave in Peak Cavern gorge.

Should be well worth the watch …if you are in Scotland!

Dave Williams completing his aid route out from the back of the Vestibule inside Peak Cavern

Waterfalls Showcase

Nice surprise to see two familiar photographs.

Showcase of two of my cave photographs on the back cover of the latest British caving magazine – Descent 225, highlighting waterfalls inside caves from both the UK and France.

Back cover of the latest issue of Descent magazine

Cave Photography in Extreme Conditions

The final piece to the Three Counties Cave Connection jigsaw has been published in the UK’s caving magazine – Descent 225.

Whilst flicking through my copy of the magazine I remember the difficulties of photographing in such extreme conditions where we were limited with space yet surrounded by mud, wet gloopy mud! Hopefully the results show the hardship that the explorers endured to reach their ultimate goal.

Cave Climbing at Gogarth – Anglesey

I always enjoy taking cave entrance photographs. On this day, the weather was clearly on my side and as I shot, looking out from the backwall of Gogarth, the setting sun was perfectly placed to silhouette the climber abseiling into the cave.

In Crete talking about Crete

Drawing from my diary of Mavri Laki valley high in The White Mountains, Crete

This weekend I will be on the island …Crete that is, presenting my cave photography work in various forms. I can’t really stand up in front of the Greeks and give a talk about my cave photography without at least mentioning our three-year saga as students, scouring the barren limestone for caves high up in The White Mountains. After all …we did have a fun!

So a small selection of images from these great times have been added to the talk which now covers five expeditions that influenced my work.

The dust bowl we called home for 4 weeks in 2006 and again in 2008 in The White Mountains, Crete

Climbing in Caves

Thors Cave in the Manifold Valley (Staffordshire) is a 7.5m wide, 10m high limestone cave that has been a focus of local climbers for years. I thought the mixture of ‘cave’ and ‘climbing’ would make for a pretty cool photograph. I went along with two friends who were climbing in the roof of the cave. Unfortunately for them, getting the balance between the glaring light from outside and dark interior meant we had to wait a while for the sun to set. Still, they didn’t seem to mind all that much. On the bright side, we just made last orders in the local pub!

Matt Pickles makes light work climbing a route in Thors Cave

Escaping Innsbruck to Explore the Mountains

According to the local weather forecast, yesterday was supposed to be wet, overcast and more like England. However, it was exactly like the previous three months. Unfortunately for us, most of the Rodeln tracks have melted and lost the best of their snow. Therefore we ventured further a field, where no buses ran to explore the mountains outside Innsbruck. We drove to a place very close to the Italian boarder and just east of the Brenner Pass, called Navis.

We climbed 500m up beyond pine forests, reaching a stunning viewpoint at 1882m at the head of the main valley where the six of us enjoyed hearty Austrian cuisine overlooking the beautiful view.

We will almost certainly visit Stöcklalm again …but maybe next season now!

Aerial View Above the Cloud
Yesterday, I joined a bunch of guys making an extreme adventure film about Freestyle Skiing up on the Nordkette. It was a great thing to see! I watched in amazement, and wondered if I’ll ever be that good?

Floating Over the Sea of Cloud
Once again, Innsbruck was engulfed by a thick sea of cloud that lingered around all day. Meanwhile up on the Nordkette, several hundred meters above the fog was another world an extreme freestyle world.

The weather being as it was, I was always going to have my camera with me in the hope that there would be some wild crazy kick ass stunt jumper taking to the skies.

Flying through the air above the sea of cloud on the Nordkette