End of Easter Climbing

Today was the last day of Easter climbing for me. Chris and I climbed The Weaver E2 5c on Bwlch Y Moch in glorious morning sunshine then travelled down Warwick. The Weaver was an awesome route, possible one of the best routes iv done in Tremadog, the second pitch just keeps on going.

Chris Cruising up the First Pitch of Weaver 



Me on the Second Pitch of Weaver



Enjoying Morning Sunshine at Bwlch Y Moch




Recently I have acquired a Citroen Dispatch panel van. The plan is to do it up into a DIY camper for summer climbing and alpine adventures. Watch this space!   

 
Blank Canvas....

Interested in technology, sustainable energy, EV's and recycling. Keen rock climber and outdoor enthusiast. Co-founder of OpenEnergyMonitor

Comments

  1. Miss Merry17 April 2010 at 12:51

    Oi oi Glyn. Didn't know you blogged. How much was the van?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glyn Hudson17 April 2010 at 14:04

    Oi oi Little Miss Merry! I'v been doing it on and off since the summer. I see you have created a blog but not actually posted...I'm your first follower. Lucky me. Van was costly enough (by my standards). I see it as kind of an investment. Hopefully it will be pretty awesome in the summer. Cant wait to start doing it up. Just come off the phone with Amy, she is going to make some curtains and cushions for it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. jk18 April 2010 at 08:58

    Sweet glyn! And props for the van!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Miss Merry22 April 2010 at 03:12

    Awesome! Bet it will look lovely, and dabs a trip :) Yeah I will do a blog post eventually... Actually started writing one the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Trystan Lea27 April 2010 at 10:37

    Awesome Glyn, look forward to seeing this van!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glyn Hudson27 April 2010 at 16:29

    Yeah! You can help me build a bed in the back! Can't wait to get started, will be a good project.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Citroen Dispatch - Split-charge relay leisure battery setup

Image
Since I'm interested in electronics/electrics and I like my electronic gadgets when I converted my Citroen Dispatch van into a camper a couple of years ago I made sure I put in a large 12V auxiliary/leisure battery. The actual battery I used was not a normal leisure battery, it was actually borrowed from a friend left over from a wind turbine project, I think it's originally from a UPS system. With 110Ahr capacity it's big enough to power my four large LED light units (Four units of 8 x 3mm LED's in series) for one months continuously, change a phone for 8 days continuously or power a laptop for 36 hrs continuously (assuming a 50% discharge of the leisure battery).  A leisure battery is different from a normal car battery in that it can handle 'deep-cycling', while lead acid car batteries should always be topped-up and never let to run down on a regular basis.
I added a split-charge relay and ran a wire from the engine bay to charge the leisure battery when …
Read more

Zero Carbon Future (low carbon present)

Image
It’s well agreed that in order to avert dangerous climate change we must reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this century. The next 20 years are set to be an incredibly exciting time as we work hard to switch our energy systems away from fossil fuels to a zero carbon energy system. As climbers, mountaineers and adventurers we can see first hand the damage climate change is already having on the mountains we love.

This transition to a zero carbon future does admittedly sound daunting. The good news is that there is a lot of evidence that this transition can be done in a way that is socially and economically beneficial with no loss in living standards using technology that we currently have today. See the Zero Carbon Britain Report for a tangible plan for how this can be achieved. A key component of every zero carbon strategy I’ve seen is the electrification of transportation and elimination of flying.  It's amazing the carbon reductions that we as individuals c…
Read more

North Wales to Fontainebleau via Electric Car in winter

Image
We recently took a trip to Fontainebleau, a magical forest just south of Paris that contains lots of awesome sandstone boulders which a great for climbing on.

Unfortunately it was a bit damp (100% humidity!) therefore we didn't do much bouldering. We did however do some tricky boulder trainer ascents and fantastic fell running and forest exploring, the highlight being the awesome 25 Bosses Trail (17km, 830m ascent).

We drove to Fontainebleau from North Wales in our Nissan LEAF electric car (EV), a return trip of 1300 miles (including driving around at our destination) in winter. It wasn't very difficult (even in our 'old' 2nd hand 24kWh EV), however a bit of prior planning goes a long way.

Electric cars emit significantly less carbon than petrol/diesel vehicles and can be close to zero carbon if charged from renewable sources e.g solar PV  / wind. I charged the EV from a 100% renewable tariff at home, the UK ElectricHighway rapid charge network is also 100% matched rene…
Read more

Electric Campervan DIY conversion: Nissan e-NV200

Image
Recently I've been working hard on converting a Nissan e-NV200 24kWh electric van into a campervan. I'm happy to report that the conversion process is nearly finished.



I used to own a diesel Citroen Dispatch campervan which I converted myself many years ago. This van served me well on many trips, however, as soon as we got a Nissan LEAF electric car a couple of years ago I sold the Dispatch campervan. I couldn't justify the high cost of running a diesel van compared to an EV and driving an internal combustion vehicle just felt old and wrong. The future is certainly electric. Switching to an EV is one of the most effective ways of reducing personal CO2 emissions, see my blog post Zero Carbon Future (low carbon present).

In an ideal world, we would be a single (or no car!) household, we managed for 12 months car sharing, however, it was sometimes very hard to arrange car sharing around work etc. We're now back to the luxury of being a two-car household. However, we are n…
Read more

Sold: Citroen Dispatch Campervan

Image
UPDATE: Van has now been sold

With a heavy heart selling my beloved camper van. I'm just not getting use of it anymore after getting an electric car. It's been a reliable companion for many adventures for the last 7 years. I bought the van in 2010 and converted it myself. It passed an MOT and service last week with flying colors. I've kept a full service history.

- 2004 Citroen Dispatch converted campervan
- 153k Miles
- 1.9 Diesel
- 2x side sliding doors, 1x side window
- Remote central locking
- Three front seats
- Double bed

The Good
- Full service history, last service May 2017
- 12 months MOT, passed with zero advisories
- Two owners: I’ve owned the van since 2010 (since 93k miles)
- Leisure battery with split-charge relay
- Dual USB charger, 3 x cigarette lighter sockets from leisure battery
- 12V water pump and integrated 25L water container
- 4x bright low energy LED lights
- Custom foam sofa / mattress
- Plastic storage drawers
- Secret secure storage compartment!
…
Read more

Honeymoon - Exploring Norway by Train & Tesla!

Image
Norway, a country of stunning coastlines, impressive mountain ranges, extensive wildernesses, 24hr daylight and the world’s hardest sport climb. A place that generates 98% of their energy via renewable sources and is the world leader in EV adoption. A land of top-notch cinnamon buns and the hygge culture, creating spaces and moments of cosiness, comfort and contentment.

Visiting Norway is something that we had been talking wistfully about for the past few years. Our honeymoon seemed like the perfect excuse to finally splash out (we knew a trip to this amazing country would be more expensive than a typical European adventure). So this summer we made it happen.


Here's a short video edit playlist of our trip:


Overland Train As with all our trips, we started by consulting the excellent train travel knowledge database that is The Man in Seat 61 and adapted one of his suggested UK-Norway schedules. We made our outward journey quite relaxed to allow us to have half a day in London and sp…
Read more

Céüse 2017: N.Wales to French alps in an Electric Car!

Image
I'm writing this post on a rest day while on a climbing trip in Céüse in the French alps having driven here from North Wales in our Nissan LEAF electric car (EV) fully loaded with 4 people plus camping and climbing gear. As always climbing and hanging out at Céüse was very pleasurable, it's one of my favourite places.

Here's a little video edit I made of Céüse and the climbing, shot using a DJI Spark mini drone (new toy!):



Driving to Céüse in an Electric Car (EV)  On the news today there has been much talk about EV's as the government has announced a ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2040. This is great news. Although I expect no one will want to drive a petrol car long before then after experiencing an EV. The government announcement today has sparked lots of concern from non EV drivers that it's not possible to travel long distance in an EV. I hope this trip will demonstrate otherwise, albeit with a bit of planning.
We drove a 2nd hand 2014 Nissan LEAF with a 24kW…
Read more

Morocco Overland (Climbing in Talambote/Akchour)

Image
I'm currently travelling at 300 km/hr, sitting on a TGV fast French electric train on my way back to the UK after a couple of weeks climbing and exploring in Morocco. We travelled overland to keep our carbon footprint to to minimum*; first via electric car to London then high speed electric trains through France and Spain and finally a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco.
Overland Travel We followed the excellent Seat 61 London > Morocco train booking guide for advice on booking trains and ferries. Seat 61 is an amazing source of information for everything train related. We have their knowledge to book trains as far as Sicily (see blog post) and even China (see blog post)!  
To maximise available time we left home on Boxing Day. Since there were no trains running we drove to London in our Nissan LEAF electric car. We have done this 280 mile drive many times before; there are so many rapid charging options at motorway service stations the journey is straightforward …
Read more

Deep Blue Sea 7b+ Eiger North Face

Image
I hunkered face down onto the smooth glacial rock where we were biviing at 2700m on the West Flank of the Eiger, I tried my best to make the breathing hole in my bivi bag as small as possible around my mouth to stop the rain coming in. Luckily, after a while the rain eased, I peeled back the layers of down sleeping bag and gore-tex to see stars directly above us but dark clouds and lightning flashes all around us. The mountains looked amazing illuminated in a silver flash every few seconds. I shut my eyes and tried to get some sleep, but it was difficult to block out the constant strobe lighting; it was like trying to sleep in a silent disco!







The alarm went off at 4:30am; it was dark, but the sky was clear and the rock around us was surprisingly dry. It's on! Excitedly we brewed coffee, ate breakfast and geared up.




Jon and I were 'in position' to climb Deep Blue Sea a 9 pitch route (6b+,6b+,7a,7b+,7a+,7a+,7a,7b+,4c) on the Eiger North Face. The route was put up in 2001 by Ra…
Read more