A brief view into the life of Marmot athlete Will Sim

Our UK athletes are always keeping t busy with various projects and expeditions. Every so often it’s nice to sit them down for just five minutes and gain a better understand of whom they are ad what they do.

We recently fired across number of mountain orientated questions to Will Sim our Marmot UK alpine athlete and Chamonix resident.

Here’s what Will had to say for himself:


How did you get into climbing?

I guess from living in the Lake District and seeing mountains all the time I wanted to do something which involved them. For a few years before I knew anyone who climbed I read FRCC guidebooks endlessly and aspired to do every route in them.

Who are your climbing hero’s?

Colin Haley for being so motivated and having the balls to ignore weather forecasts, and Jude Spanken for not knowing the meaning of forearm pump.

What is your favorite UK route?

Probably either Astral Highway on the Ben, or Saxon on Scafell.

What is your favorite Alpine route?

For elegance and position something really easy like the Kuffner would be hard to beat.

Do you ever get scared on lead?

I'm usually always scared on lead...

What routes do you aspire to climb in the future?

I'd like to do some big Alaskan lines which can be done in long pushes. Other than that the Brenva, Freney and Brouillard faces of Mont Blanc really interest me.

You’re stuck in an alpine hut during a storm. What three luxuries would you like to have?

Three sleeping pills.

What advice would you give to climbers coming out to the Alps for the first time?

Climbing in the Alps is so far removed from climbing in the UK. So although it’s much more fun and rewarding to throw yourself in at the deep end you have no base of experience to shape the judgments you make, and in climbing judgment is everything. You can skip years of the learning curve by spending time with an experienced alpinist or even just observing how things are done out here.

When the student is ready, the master will appear.

We love hearing from Marmot customers who have been out using their clothing and equipment deep in the heart of the UK’s mountain ranges.

Dr Simon Beames from the University of Edinburgh Outdoor Education Section can be seen above teaching students how to create snow bollards on top of the Cairngorm plateau.

Simon has selected a perfect choice of clothing system for the spring conditions which consists of Marmot’s Genesis Jacket, Tour Pro pants and Work Gloves.

For more information about the outdoor education course offered by the University of Edinburgh click on: http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/outdoored/

Lucy Creamer: The first UK woman to climb 8b+

Lucy Creamer has just become the first UK woman to climb F8b+.

On April 5th Lucy became the first UK woman to climb a route called ‘Kalea Borraka’ based in Spain. The crux of the route is found in the very last couple of moves at the top of the huge 40 meter head wall. This caused havoc for Lucy’s attempts of linking all of moves together due to heavy rain storms soaking the final moves each time it rained.


Frustratingly Lucy had to be patient and wait for the line to dry each time it rained to allow he to then get back on the route and rework the moves. Finally on April 5th Lucy managed to link all the moves together in one go and complete her aim to be the first UK woman to climb 8b+.

Congratulations Lu !!!

The Big Skin E8 6c

Only two weeks have passed since Ricky climbed his new route Freshly Baked E7 6b and he already climbed yet another new hard line at Fairhead in Ireland.

Ricky’s new route takes a far more direct line through a route he put up last year called ‘A bad skin day’. This new line has been at the foreground of Ricky’s plans for quite a while now but patience has been required until conditions and confidence allowed an ascent of this amazing line.


Here is a small snippet of Ricky’s description of the route:

The wall stays in the shade most of the day and so the holds on the crimpy section felt nice. The crux is getting established above an overlap near the arete about a third of the way up the wall. A really insecure move on two gastons. Bit of a nightmare but was fine on lead. Trippy little headpoint mindset took over. The middle of the wall is much easier but no gear until a massive hollow flake and a bit of sky hook trickery. I used a bungey cord to hold a wee hook down on a good edge above the hollow flake. Then you get to the safety of the gear on A Bad Skin Day and finish up it. Amazing wall. So nice to climb on it.

Called it 'The Big Skin' E8 6c



A Big thanks once again to Craig Hiller for the amazing images of Ricky.

Marmot customers push kit to the max.

Who ever said winter climbing in Scotland was easy is a liar.

Here we see Marmot’s Genesis Jacket being put though to its paces in a place called Fairy Glen in Scotland.

Ryan and his climbing partner Henning were both trying to get into a remote Scottish Corrie winter climbing but the pair were beaten back by server blizzards.

It’s great to see Marmot enthusiasts using our kit in the environments they are built to be used in. Even ones are harsh as this.

Our hats go off to Ryan and Henning for getting out their in the deep heart of winter and a big thanks to Henning Wackerhage for allowing us the use of these images.

Two new Alpine athletes to talk about!

Back in September last year we began looking fresh talent that could help us promote Marmot’s alpine clothing and equipment which is growing exceptionally fast in popularity here in the UK.

The hunt was on to find a new UK athlete based in the Alps and who was pushing the boundaries of hard Alpine climbing. A tip off headed up coming from one of UKclimbing’s gear reviewers called Jon Griffith who is based in Chamonix and knew of two up and coming alpine climbers.

After some careful research and some very positive recommendations we finally came across not just one, but two new athletes.

It gives me great pleasure introducing Gavin Pike and Will Sim to the Marmot UK team. You are going to be seeing plenty of images and stories about these guys and what they have been get up to over the year ahead.

Below are a selection of images of both Gavin and Will in action on a number a hard Alpine lines in the Chamonix area.

Gavin Pike in action:




Will Sim in action:





You can also see what else Will has been getting up to on ski's and with his axes on Alpine Exposures website: http://www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions

A big thanks you goes out to Jon Griffith for allowing us to use his image of Will in action.

Katy Whittaker takes on Thumbelina

Katy Whittaker has just informed us that she has climbed Thumbelina E7 6c at Inca Rock in Staffordshire.

Information is a bit thin on the ground but Katy reported making a ground up ascent of this high ball problem only last weekend.

I have no doubt we will be hearing more from Katy soon.