Hey there, V12 fans. Again, it's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I'd justify why I've been busy, and highlight some of kit that's been keeping me alive.

My climbing photography has been taking up a large proportion of my summer activities. Actual climbing has taken a back seat and I've been lucky enough to get involved in some pretty big projects.

The most satisfying of these was going out to the Dolomites with Matt Helliker and Emma Twyford on their successful mission to climb Camilotto Pellisier on Cima Grande. The meat of this is six over hanging pitches up to 8b+. This calls for some tasty rope work and jumaring skills. Matt and Emma fixed the lines so they could easily rap out if the weather turned and things got stormy, and for me to go up and get shots of them working the route. I thought I'd show some of my kit being used on the wall.

The photo shows the third belay on Camilotto. I've jumared up the white and black static, belayed into the master point, and transferred on to the white and red static, which is fixed to the next two pitches above. The jumar has a Petzl Rollclip clipped into the top eye. This awesome bit of kit is not only securing the rope in the jumar (often overlooked), but has a large roller which makes jumaring with a grigri a breeze(ish), everyone who has jumared before then tried again with a Rollclip is impressed. If you jumar, just get one! Attached to that, is a piece of kit I've written about before, the Petzl Evolve Adjust. This adjustable twin lanyard has me clipped into both the belay and the jumar. I can quickly set these to any lengths I want, quickly and safely.

Finally, the DMM Ultra O Kwiklock. I'm moving over to these as my standard locker for this kind of work all the time now. I've used the Locksafe (green) gates, but the two stage action I find a little faffy; the Kwiklock on the other hand are a treat to use, and most importantly no more unlocked screwgates!! I'm sure there is a case for the rope rolling over the mechanism and opening it, but compared to how many times people forget to screw up their crabs I feel totally confident in these little fellas. I also use the Kwiklocks for my belay crab, again helping to keep things safe whilst my age addled brain forgets everything thrown in its path.

So just a quick post for you, I'm off to Yosemite in a months time, so I'll check in again afterwards. ????

T'ra for now, John.