Sea kayaking Mallorca

A few more pictures from Mallorca, this time from sea level but still featuring the imposing 300 mtr high north face of the Caval Bernat Ridge. I would be fascinated to hear if it has been climbed from the sea. I don't know enough Spanish to try googling this though.


We hired kayaks from Atemrausch in the lovely village resort of Cala Sant Vicenç. Atemrausch is a small company recently started by Caroline and Stephan that organises various outdoor activities and hires outdoor sports equipment.


Caroline guided us on our trip showing us some local points of interest and chatting generally about island life.


The hour and half trip cost €22 each which struck me as ridiculously good value considering we both got a kayak and guide in the form of Caroline for that. So if you are holidaying in Mallorca and want to try something different, go and visit them or check out their website if you are interested in kayaking, diving, snorkelling or just hiring a bike. They can organise kayak trips for you whether you are an absolute beginner or have some paddling experience. Caroline even took photos of us whilst we paddled and the email with them attached was waiting when we go home. It was a great touch - I wish them all the best in making a go of their business, especially in a year when tourism is down on the island due to the economy.


Caroline told me she had the day previously whilst out leading a trip bumped into the the German mega-star climber and adventurer Kurt Albert who was kayaking around Mallorca for his holiday.



This struck me as superb idea, and will be added to the long list of other improbable things I must try to do one day.

Torque nut testing

I went out climbing at Kauhala the other night with Diana. Climbing with D is great because it's possible she actually chunters on more than me when nervous and trying hard and, indeed, even when not. So that's saying something. And being Californian it of course comes out as a stream of consciousness in a Hunter S. Thompson-esque way. One moment she is berating the utter inadequacies of the American healthcare system as she has seen it first hand, then it is the superb "hmmm... I seem to be having nebulous commitment issues..." whilst sketching on incredibly thin holds some way above the bolt. I normally can't get much more existential than "oh... fuckerty fuck fuck".

No nebulous commitment issues now. D on Kaikenalku, 6a.

After some sport routes I knew I had to do something where I could try out the new Torque Nuts, so in the gathering gloom I donned a headtorch and set off up Don't Layback Crack.

Torque nuts ago-go

Some years ago this little route scalped Jody, trapping his foot for some time, leading to much panic and an eventual leader fall. I fared little better this time, and found out as I pulled over the top it had, amongst various other scratches and scrapes, bitten a chunk out of the inside of my right index finger on one of the jams which still hurts now, and the one of those pretty new torque nuts that I hadn't placed whilst climbing is now blotched with blood. I hope the UKC readers know I doing this for them! :-)

Britain is crap/great

Britain is crap because it has the Daily Mail and people who will pay for it. Britain is great because it has Ben Goldacre on national prime time radio:

And the blog he mentions, The Daily Mail Oncological Ontology Project, really does exists. So that's two reason for Britain being great against one for crap, so great beats crap on points. Hurrah!

Will unusual birds come home to roost?

According to YLE, the Finnish security police SUPO (Finland's only real intelligence agency and something of mix between MI5 and Special Branch in the UK context) has started following developments in Afghanistan for possible spin off effects on Finland.

Which leads to the rather bloody obvious question: what? They weren't before?!?!

The timing of this revelation may be totally coincidental, but it's hard not to wonder whether this has been sparked by the political ruckus that followed the comments of a friend of mine (and indeed the original co-founder of this blog), Charly, who suggested in op-ed piece in Helsingin Sanomat that Finland was now part of a war in Afghanistan.

Ghosts in the machine

I was for various reasons (one of which was this brilliant piece of radio from Radiolab) googling a friend who died a few years ago. He's still there, in google, but he's fading. Other people have his name now and they are doing things that Google notes. Vesa is, being dead, at a distinct disadvantage in the rankings because despite doing lots of things noteworthy in his unfortunately too brief life - they are now all in the past. He never got chance to start a Facebook page, so someone else with his name has got that one. He went too early to see the explosion in the popularity of blogging. But his name is still there - it's not gone completely, a ghost in the machine, and some of us still remember him as well in our more organic memories.

The picture above is of me, but it was taken by Vesa - back when photos were on film and had to be scanned. He made the webpage for the climbing club and for some reason I ended up on the front page; I wasn't really even a member, I just went out climbing with them because they were nice guys. I had completely forgotten about it, and it was googling his name that led me to it, the entry tunnel to a now defunct website, but which lives on lurking forgotten on some server. I too am also a ghost in the machine.

Vesa - you are getting a climb named in your honour mate! It's not a very good one, but hey - neither of us were ever really very good climbers were we? ;-) Rest easy now.

Michael Yon in Afghanistan

Michael Yon has been doing a series of excellent dispatches showing life for the British Army in southern Afghanistan. It is a good insight into the daily reality for the Brits and Gurkhas out there, and show the kind of terrain, physical and social, they are operating in. All the pieces are interesting and his photos great, so just go to his website and have a look.

His article on the Lithuanian military cooperation with Japanese development aid was particularly interesting if you are interested in crisis management and reconstruction, but I did note the now classic handwear being sported by one Lithuanian soldier in this photo!

DMM Torque Nuts

I've just received some of the new DMM Torque Nuts to test for UK Climbing. I will be using them for the first time this evening, but you have to admit - regardless of how they perform, they're rather pretty aren't they? (click the photos for high res versions)



And you'll all be pleased to know they still make reassuringly traditional clanking noises when carried as a bunch.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #6

First day back at work. First day cycling into Helsinki in a month. First idiot of the autumn who thinks that the pavement/cycle path makes a good place to park his truck whilst he pops into the café next door for a quick donut and coffee.

As I tried to inch round the truck on the 15 cms or so of the pavement that he hadn't selfishly and dangerously parked on, my back wheel slipped off the kerb and I went down, falling into the road. This was the result.

So to the driver of truck registration number "SIO 655" - thanks a lot. You are a thoughtless and anti-social knobber of the highest order.