Using OpenCV to take images from my laptop webcam, I built a program which can classify colours into 8 categories: black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow, and white.
It functions by taking the average red, green, and blue intensities of the pixels in the image (or a central square), and then converting this image into a 3 bit colour depth. This colour is then mapped directly to a word associated with it, and that word is outputted.
The method for converting the colour to a more extreme classification is simple, but I think there is a better way of calculating it. If the value of the colour is over a threshold value (128), then this value is returned as 255, else it is 0.
This picture shows an image taken from my webcam of the post-it note
This image is then cut down to a smaller square of the central region of the image
This picture is what the colours are seen by the computer once the colours of each pixel have been set to the maximum value.
Here are two photos of me at Yad Moss Ski tow (About 7 miles south of Alston in county Durham). On the left is the original photo, and the photo on the right has been passed through a function to make the colours more ‘extreme’.
From this image it is then easier to classify the colours to form an average colour, as there are only 8 colours available!
During the Summer Holidays of 2018, I spent roughly 5 weeks in a tent.
One week of which was in a little village called Kandersteg in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps.
Based about 30 miles south of Bern, Kandersteg is surrounded by panoramic peaks, and is home to KISC (Kandersteg international Scout Centre), where I was staying.
My visit to Kandersteg formed part of my Queens Scout Award to “Take part in a project at a campsite abroad”. My project was to find out about what the scouts staying at Kandersteg thought about the camp and area. I did this via a questionnaire that I had pre-made and printed with me, walking around the campsite asking both scouts and leaders to fill it in.
I spent a total of eight nights and seven full days in Switzerland. These were split over six nights at KISC, one night in camping Rendez-Vous, and one night in an alpine hut
I set off late on the 24th of August taking the National Express Bus to Luton airport, from where I flew to Basel-Mullhouse airport on the French-Swiss border, about 70 km north of Bern. From here I used the Swiss rail network and a special ‘Scout Rail Ticket’ (Bought in England from the STC – Swiss Travel Centre ) to go to Kandersteg, arriving late on Saturday. As I had arrived later in the evening, the KISC reception was closed so I opted to stay in the public campsite closer to the centre of the village, close to the Oeschinensee cable car. In the local shop I bought a bottle of petrol for my MSR stove, but the petrol wasn’t very good quality, meaning cooking was much more difficult, requiring extra pre-heating and more fiddle pressure regulation with the bottle. All my pans got covered in a sooty mess!
Day 1 – Sunday 26th
I spent the morning organising my gear, including re-locating to the scout campsite. The Kandersteg policy is that each independent group are allocated their own campsite field. Due to me being a group of size one, I had an entire field to myself! For the rest of the day I was gathering responses for my questionnaire.
Me outside the Kandesteg main receptionMy small tent alone on the campsite. Another scout group from Cornwall seen in the background
Day 2 – Monday 27th
Just a 10 minute walk from the entrance to KISC is one of the most scenic Via-Ferrata routes in the alps. Via-Ferrata is Italian for ‘Iron Path’ and is a way of traversing up rock, but still being protected in case you fall by clipping yourself onto cables or staples that have been fixed into the rock. With Via-Ferrata’s being graded from K1 (the easiest) to K5 (the most difficult), the K4 grade route was quite difficult as well. To take advantage of the good weather, I set off early in the morning and reached the bottom of the route just as the sun rose over the Blüemlisalphorn. The route winds it’s way up the path of a waterfall, crossing long Tyrolean bridges, overhanging traverses and arête edges gaining a total of 350 m to the ‘Allemenalp’.
From here I descended south by foot to drop straight back to the campsite, where I dropped my harness and helmet back at the tent, and picked up the walking gear to have a quick wander up to the famous ‘Oeschinensee’ alpine lake.
You can just make out the route going up the right hand side and then traversing left to the top of the waterfall. It was here I met the first bridge.Here you can see how you traverse across the rock face, by stepping onto the pegs in the rock, and clipping yourself to the cable on elastic straps with carabiners on the end.One of the many ladders on the route, this one actually twists 180° to then face the rock The Oeschinensee alpine lake, with the Blüemlisalphorn behind
Day 3 – Tuesday 28th
Today in brilliant weather I decided it was time to climb a proper mountain. On the West side of the Kandersteg valley is an impressive ridge line. To get halfway up the mountain side I took the Allmenalm cable car to the alm I had visited before at the top of the Via-Ferrata. From here I walked higher up the mountain until I hit the top of the ridge. From here there were beautiful panoramic views covering the entire Kandersteg valley and even further beyond, just 18 miles away I could see the tops of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau!
From here I then followed the knife edge ridge summiting First (2549m) and Stand (2320m), and then descended back into the valley on the Golitschepass.
My proudest photo; the view from First. The sharp ridge can be seen on the right, and the Oeschinensee on the left.The summit of First
Day 4 – Wednesday 29th
The brilliant weather began to break today, but I thought I might just be able to squeeze out a route on the Oeschinensee. On my map it showed an ‘Alpine Route’ traversing round the far side of the lake. I took the cable car up to the top of the lake in high winds and low cloud, when the weather turned even worse. There were thunderstorms down the end of the valley but they shifted up to the lake, dropping heavy rain, strong wind and lightening. I made the wise decision that clinging onto a metal cable covered in metalwork was not the best place to be in a thunderstorm, so decided it would be a day to continue with my questionnaire.
The overcast alpine lake. The route would have traversed across the rock to the left
Day 5 – Thursday 30th
It was still raining today so I took into action my wet weather plan. In the village of Kandesteg just next to the tourist information was the scouting museum which was in an old bunker. It was mostly a room full of scouting memorabilia from previous Jamborees and history about how scouting came to Kandersteg with Baden-Powell’s permanent mini-jamboree. Next door was another museum with the history of Kandersteg as a whole including the creation and significance of the alpine passes.
Inside the scouting museumStacking pans high cooking Spaghetti Bolognese
Day 5 – Friday 31st
One of the things that I really wanted to do while in Switzerland was a multi-day hut tour. With only a couple of days left I found a short route that left from Kandersteg to the Lotschenpass hut. The weather had improved slightly: there was only light rain and the thunderstorms had stopped.
Having packed the night before I was able to set off early, and in the dark for the long day ahead. The route started by following the river Kander south, then heading east and up to the Lotschenpass glacier. Crossing this was technically easy, however with the low visibility I heavily relied on the wands to traverse the glacier. This was my first time on a glacier, and I was alone. The map classed the route as a ‘Berg weg’ – meaning mountain path, so I was confident in my ability to cross it without a guide or previous experience. For most of the route it was on the glacial moraine covering the ice, so crampons weren’t needed. From the top of the glacier it was only a short walk to the hut.
Here you can see the foggy conditionsNext to me is one of the wands that I was following. These marked the safe path to follow.This was the “hut” I stayed in – more like a hotel!
Day 6 – Saturday 1st
Eager to set off early and get back to camp, I woke up at 430 and was ready to leave as soon as they opened the door. For breakfast I brought with me a dehydrated porridge and muesli packet, which I filled up with hot water from the kitchen. It was cold and had snowed overnight, meaning the ground was covered in a thin layer of snow and a bit of ice. Without an axe or crampons with me it was pushing the limits of what I was comfortable of doing. Luckily the weather just remained cold and not much more snow fell. From the hut there is a peak about 2 hrs away called the Hockenhorn.
At 3293 m, it was taller than any mountain I had climbed before.
The approach was quite simple, following the ridge and cairns. This was classed as an Alpine route, meaning that there was no defined paths, and even if there was I wouldn’t have been able to see them! Luckily the most difficult part of the climb was a scramble at the end to reach the top of the peak. With it being covered in snow I spent a lot of the time falling over as I slipped on un-seen rocks and drops, but I managed to get to the top in one piece. I only spent a little bit of time at the top, due to there being no view whatsoever, and the cold temperature meant my water was starting to freeze. The drinking tube from my water bladder had already frozen solid!
On the way back I followed the same route back to the hut, where I warmed up and dried off by the stove. From here I continued along the lotschenpass to drop into Ferden, where I caught the bus to Goppstein train station, and took the train back to Kandersteg.
This was the light snow I woke up to at the Lotschenpass hut. A wind turbine can be seen, one of the ways the hut generated it’s electricity. It got it’s water from underneath the glacier.Me on the summit of the Hockenhorn, the summit cairn seen just behind me.Behold the brilliant view I witnessed
Day 8 – Sunday 2nd
I packed all my gear up the night before and left it in the drying room, meaning I could leave early morning on the 8 am train. To get back I just reversed the route, taking the train up to Basel-Mullhouse, flew to Luton, and then on the national express bus back home. Having being used to the Swiss rail and bus network, it would only by typical that the bus from Luton was 30 mins late!
Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to climb on “The Gritstone Crown of Yorkshire” – Almscliff Crag.
Almscliff is a renowned climbing hotspot situated between Pool and Harrogate with a wide range of climbs graded from Moderate to E7, an ideal location for learning to trad climb.
What is ‘trad’ climbing?
Trad climbing is a way of climbing a previously unclimbed rock face with no access to the top, while still being protected in case you are to fall. This is done by placing pieces of metal into the rock, and clipping the rope to it, so that if you fall the rope catches you as it is attached below you. Trad climbing is considered a much more ‘pure’ form of climbing as opposed to top-roping.
It was here I climbed the classic 3* fluted columns (HVD), Pinnacle Flake (S) and Pinnacle Direct (S)
Thoroughly enjoying myself on Pinnacle FlakeHanging off a hand jam placing gear
These ‘multiplication curves’ are patterns generated from connections between points on a circle.
These points around the circle, each being numbered from 0 to the number of points that there are. The ‘seed’ of the pattern is an integer by which the number of the point is multiplied by, and a line is drawn from the point to its corresponding multiplied point.
An extra step is needed in case the ‘number’ that the line needs to be drawn to is greater than the number of points. To work around this, you take the multiple take the modulus of the number of points which are on the circl
The ‘workhorse’ line to create the patterns is given by:
numberOfNewPoint = (seedNumber * current point) % number of points on circle
