Dave who?

My brother just sent me this; it's made up of all the most commonly used words on my blog, which is pretty cool.

Anyone would think that I kept going on about some bloke called Dave....

Echo Wall trailer live

We have the trailer for the Echo Wall film up on You Tube for you. Have a look! Dave is taking pre-orders from his shop now here.

Echo Wall send day

Dave leading Echo Wall, Ben Nevis. This is a video still from my filming.

Looking at the weather forecast on Saturday showed that Monday and Tuesday were to have a lovely high pressure over Fort William but more importantly, over the Ben as well. Dave dually phoned Kev Shields, a climber friend from Ayrshire, with the pretense of asking him up to see some of the amazing new routes that, as yet, are unclimbed on the Ben. Oh, and they happen to have been in amazingly close proximity to Dave’s project when he was ready for the lead. Everyone knew what he was up to. He can’t pull the wool over my eyes that easily. If he got good conditions, I knew he’d be going for the lead on Monday night.

Dave starting the scary bit of Echo Wall (video still from the other camera)

Good grief, the walk-in was hot. Unbelievably hot. No matter how many times I do it, the walk-in is always a killer. I think that if the route was beside the CIC hut, it would have been a doddle. It’s the long, slippery stumble up Observatory Gully that gets me every time. I guess it’s that remoteness which made it more fun for Dave but not so much for me. Hopefully, I won’t have to do the stumble up Observatory Gully much more as those conditions came good on Monday night and he got the route led.

A looooong way. Thank god for ipods

From my filming position, I watched Dave on the screen as he climbed up and past me. I seen him cast a few glances in my direction which make me squirm a bit when I watch the footage back, it’s like he’s having one last look at his wife. When I’m filming people doing hard/difficult things, I feel oddly detached from the event, like it isn’t really happening. It’s like you’re watching it on TV, not happening in real-time in front of you and this case was no different so I wasn’t scared for him - just concentrating on filming and trusting him to know that the time was right to lead it.

Getting too hot in the late morning sun

Dave didn’t top out ‘til about quarter to ten at night so it was a dark walk down to see the boys (who are working) at the CIC hut who were waiting up to see how the day went (you didn’t fool them either, Dave!) and then a hungry walk out to pizza and coke at home at 2am.

Dave relieved and happy after doing the route. Now lets go home for a cup of tea, it's getting dark.

Yes I am there…

The past couple of days have been spent relatively normally, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. Or maybe I’m being too casual about it? What is now dawning though, is that I really am making a film and I only have a couple of months to get it ready for release in time for autumn.

Oh my god.

Kev and Dave. Can you tell they work for the same clothing company?

More freezing filming on Ben Nevis

Yes it was that cold!

Yesterday we managed to get back onto Ben Nevis to work on Echo Wall for the first time in a month. I wasn’t looking forward to the long slog into the north face again after losing some of my hard earned fitness from the spring. I thought it might have got a bit warmer up there but it was still too cold to expose anything except nose and eyes from underneath the layers of duvet jacket!

Climbing the ropes to get to Echo wall

Dave had a good day and managed to link all the sections of the climb together (with lots of grunting). So he might just be able to lead the route finally at some point. But for now Dave is away to the USA to lecture and I have to edit some footage for the shows before he leaves tomorrow – oops – better go and get on with it. I hope you like the pictures.

Dave on the last hard move on Echo Wall

Dave resting in the middle of Echo Wall, hanging upside down by a jammed knee!

The spooky mist rolls in again, certainly adding to the intimidation factor of filming up here on the north face.

A long day in the hills

On Sunday after only a couple of hours sleep, Dave and I got up at 5am, collected Joe French, a local climber and filmmaker and drove up to Ben Nevis to begin the long walk in. The objective of the day was for Dave to free a route on the Ben called ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’. Dave had fallen off the crux pitch five times previously and hopes were high for today. I’ve never actually watched a winter climb before, or even been in the hills in winter conditions so it was rather a full on day for me and I’ve been suffering for it a bit over the past couple of days. My job was to film long shots from the corrie floor whilst Joe’s partner in Heather Hat, John Sutherland, was filming from the top of the Garadh to the side.

Dave and Joe about to set off - Joe blissfully unaware of what was ahead.

Photo: John Sutherland

Dave took about 2 ½ hours to lead the crux pitch and so far as I cold tell from the distance I was at, everything looked like it had seemed to go ok. When Joe began seconding though, that was a different matter. He came off on a traverse with an awesome scream followed by some choice language. I was too far away to see exactly what was going on (my eyesight isn’t the hottest at long distances since having laser) – turns out his axe stayed in place whilst he popped off and all his weight was hanging from his wrist, caught in the loop and the rest off him was dangling in space. He managed to free himself (that was the choice language part) and he sat slumped on the rope not answering any of Dave’s’ repeated shouts down. I didn’t know this at the time though and was in two minds out about what to do at his point. Joe had either knocked himself out and was hanging injured (the right way up, thankfully) or he was in shock. Either way, there was nothing I could do so I must admit I considered bailing rather than watching. I’ve always said that I find winter the most worrying time of the year because of fear of the unknown but after watching that I think I would probably prefer waiting until they were down to find out they were alright – ignorance is bliss, after all.

John came over and spoke to Joe and calmed him down and talked him through what to do to get himself out of the situation. Ordinarily, Joe would know fine well but I think he was in a bit of shock and luckily uninjured, it is pretty exposed up there and I certainly don’t envy him.

Dave and Joe on the impressive face of the Comb

Even though it was quite a nice day, I thought it was super cold, especially sitting in roughly the same place for 7 hours. Not as cold as Dave though, who phoned me when Joe got to the belay after the crux pitch. He told me he was a little bit cold but I didn’t believe a word of it. I was able to move around and was wrapped up in probably the biggest down jacket you can get as well as down trousers. Dave had slimmed down his rack considerably as he felt the weight of it was a factor in his previous failures on the route and I knew he wasn’t wearing much either as he didn’t want his movement restricted. He had been at the belay for 2 ½ hours by now, holding and hauling Joe and he was slurring his words when he called me. Joe told me later that Dave was curled in the foetal position when he got to him, shivering uncontrollably (thankfully) and his lips were actually blue. You’ve got to give it to Dave for telling me he was a little bit cold so he wouldn’t worry me. He was probably sub-hypothermic.

I sat watching and filming until 5pm when I had to go down before it got dark. Dave and Joe weren’t so fortunate about when they could decide to up-sticks and leave – they topped out in the bright moonlight about 9pm and they got back to me at the car at 10.30pm after bringing the hardest winter route in Britain back to Ben Nevis with Don’t Die of Ignorance XI, 11.

To Spain and Back

Hanging about, waiting for something to point a camera at

All has been quiet on the blogging front from me and Dave for a while as I handed the reins of Velvet Antlers over and I followed Dave out to Spain to film him on a climbing trip. Not so long ago, we bought an all-singing-all-dancing camera to make our own climbing film with. Things got off to a stonking start as the very first thing I filmed him doing was soloing an 8c. As far as we are aware, this is the first time an 8c has been soloed.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

About 10 years ago, Dave had a fall when he was soloing an E8 on gritstone when a pebble snapped; the result of which was a broken ankle and a promise to me that he would never solo another route again. Until one day he asked if he could solo an 8b. Surprisingly for him and probably more surprising to me, I agreed. He must have caught me in a really good mood - he soloed Hurly Burly at Dunkeld before I could change my mind. He never specifically asked me if he could solo this 8c, Darwin Dixit at Laboratori, it has just been rumbling away in the background for some time now as good training for a trad route on Ben Nevis that he has his eye on, where he would need to know that he could do 8c climbing on an exposed, unprotected trad route.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

Watching him solo this, I was surprisingly unemotional about it. Maybe it was because I was detached from what was going on as I was watching it on a screen. Probably, there was a bit of that and a bit of my (usually) unwavering confidence in him – if he tells me that he thinks he can do this, then I have to believe him. He’s been right so far, after all.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

Ready to jug

Getting the camera angles for film and still shots was an experience in itself. I’ve seen the Hot Aches guys and crew from To Hell and Back jugging up ropes but studiously avoided partaking myself until now, resulting in a strained ab. One definitely needs to do more stomach crunches before bedtime. Whilst we were out in Spain, they were experiencing unseasonably cold weather and really high winds, so even once I had jugged up the ropes, a strong wind was constantly waving me back and forth despite plenty of anchor ropes making filming that little bit more difficult. I’ve done photo shoots before on the rope but usually abbed in and this time I had to spend a lot longer than usual up there and for someone that is not terribly at home dangling at great height, I’d better get used to it quickly as there is plenty more of that ahead of me.

Dave climbing Los Ultimo Vampiros Hippies 8c, Margalef

Stuff we chose for our hampers part 4 – Gillies Clootie

It’s really no wonder people get so worked up about planning their weddings. It really is quite important for things to be just right. A wedding is your chance to tell most of the people you know something about yourself and your style.

The style we wanted for our wedding was ‘Scottish’, ‘chilled’ and ‘informal’. We reckon we hit the right note and so we still look back and think it was a great day and we were very comfortable. You know I think that in an ideal wedding people should really feel at home. Sometimes big gatherings get so formal and I think that limits the fun a little bit (sure, or course some alcohol later on helps make this dissolve, if not swing quite the other way!). But if you choose all the details for your wedding accordingly, I think it’s possible to side step this issue and put everyone at ease and in the mood for a good time from the word go.

And every detail is important – the venue, the food, the arrangements etc etc. But the food is possibly most critical. Whisky is powerful stuff, but even the thirstiest Scot cannot ceilidh dance into the wee small hours on an empty stomach. We went to a wedding some years ago in a very majestic Scottish castle, but ended up doing mass minibus runs to the local chip shop. There was no food at the reception and everyone was too hungry to dance and needed party fuel urgently!

For our wedding lunch we took our family to The Oak Tree at Balmaha on Loch Lomond. If you are in the area it carries a strong recommendation from us! Our chosen dessert was Clootie dumpling. Clootie is like so many features of Scottish style, culture, or food; quite traditional in origin but is so damn good that it’s easy to give it a modern twist and make it something pretty cool. In this case, a little high quality vanilla ice cream or, if you prefer to keep it ‘retro cool tradtional’ then some fresh custard, and bingo – You have just fuelled a room full of people to complete many dance floor pounding hours.

Whatever you want to burn off your Clootie doing, you’ll find a generous hunk of it in our Sheer Belter and Pure Stoater hampers.

Stuff we chose for our hampers, part 1 - Brew Ha Ha

It’s a known fact – the Scots love to drink. We heard somewhere that folk outside of Scotland thought our national drink was whisky; Who told them that?! Of course if you go by gallons consumed per second in Scotland, it’s gonna be tea that stands out by a mile. Many of those gallons per second are consumed at Velvet Antlers towers, by Dave, who makes a cup of tea while he thinks about making a cup of tea. So let’s say he’s developed a fine sense of a good cup of tea.

For our hampers we chose Brew Ha Ha tea – a Glasgow company that we thought took tea a seriously as us and had a fair dose of cool factor. Brew’s the daddy?

…you are!

As we all know though, a good tea bag is only one part of the process of constructing a cup of tea worth talking about. It’s a dark art. According to Dave, Scotland is still split by those in the ‘milk in the bottom of the cup before water’, and the ‘strictly milk after the tea has brewed’ camps. We want to get some data on this to settle the issue. Please vote below!

Dave MacLeod's introduction

Since Claire kicked off the Velvet Antlers blog with her own story, I better tell fill in the other half of the Velvet Antlers picture. I got started in working for myself as a rock climber, running lectures and coaching sessions or writing guidebooks or articles about my favourite sport.

Working for myself in a little ‘niche’ interest area like climbing taught me some amazing things. Before my first experiences in business, I always thought, like many folks, that things in life ‘should’ be a certain way. And if they weren’t that way, it was someone’s fault for not sorting it out. Through my climbing related work, I learned that if you find things that aren’t as they should or could potentially be, it’s your own responsibility to do something about it. And what’s more, it’s possible to change some quite big thing you might not have though possible.

I guess this is not news for plenty of people, but it was a big wake up call for me. As soon as I started thinking with this mindset, I got excited for all sort of projects as I’m sure most young business people do. So when Claire raised the idea of Velvet Antlers hampers and talked to me about how no one was making a product with a Scottish identity that was, to put it squarely, ‘cool enough’. I was really psyched to work on it with her.

Apart from bouncing the ideas and processes back and forth between us to develop the idea and the products, my main tack so far has been to build this website. Although I’ve run my own websites for a year or so and built them up myself, this was my first time designing and building a site from scratch. If your savvy about sites and web design, I’d really appreciate if you commented anything you noticed about the site that I could improve. I really am a novice here so need all the help I can get.

Next up for me will be trying to talk to people about the hampers we’re making (including through this blog or course) .

We are Velvet Antlers

I’ll start this blog by introducing ourselves and Velvet Antlers. Velvet Antlers is new company selling luxury hampers filled with the very best food and gifts that Scotland has to offer. It is run by Claire (me!) and Dave MacLeod; Dave being my wingman, there to provide moral and technical support when called upon, which is quite often, as it happens. My background is quite varied, like a lot of people I guess.

My professional background is in retail management in Glasgow, which all changed when we took the life changing decision to move to the Scottish Highlands. I still wanted to carry on doing what I was doing though as I had worked hard to get where I was and the perfect outlet for this was combing my passion of fine food with the joys of internet shopping. The decision to move to the Scottish Highlands was borne out of the desire for Dave to be nearer the mountains (more later!) and a keen willingness from me to live in a place that I have fallen in love with. Who can argue with this as a view out of their office window?

So what do I do when not making hampers?

Another big passion of mine is photography. I trained in photography, graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2003. I’m still as keen as ever to take photos, and I will regularly post my latest work on here to keep you up to date. They are usually of this guy...

Dave, being a keen (and rather well known) climber, finds living at the foot of Ben Nevis is pretty much an ideal spot for him to live. In between finding new climbs and helping me run Velvet Antlers, he gives lectures to international audiences and coaches climbers around the UK and Europe.

Velvet Antlers is here to provide you with amazing Scottish food and gifts. I’ve used my art-school training, fine food tasting, retail experience and knowledge of Scotland to provide something that not only looks contemporary and unique but tastes pretty damn good too. So welcome on board the Velvet Antlers blog, subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with all the latest about Claire and Dave MacLeod and the latest in our adventures with Scottish food.