March 2008 brought the 3rd Mountain Festival to Llanberis.  I was honoured to open the festival with my talk 'Between a Sausage and a Hard Place'...

This was basically a collection of tales from different trips, along with a more in depth talk about bouldering in Wales, and how bouldering and training in this area lends itself well to climbing hard abroad (the grades here are so much harder than the rest of Britain and abroad, and the diversity of bouldering in Wales sets you up very well for most problems you will encounter anywhere else).

The other issue involved in the talk was the environmental impact we have on the areas we visit, in some cases, leading beautiful bouldering (and route climbing) destinations with limited access, or in some instances, closed.

On the lighter side of things, this was followed by much hardcore drinking, followed by a bit of softcore bouldering!  I guess the highlite of the weekend for me was the grand premier of George Smiths film 'Upside Down Wales'.  This is a must for any enthusiast, and I was really pleased to have apperead in this film, along with some of my more old school heroes from my local area, whom I looked up to during my first few years of bouldering.  All in all, a class act.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots used in the show - enjoy!