A Sunny Late May Bank Holiday in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

I spent last weekend walking and scrambling in the Lake District with some friends from uni. It was a brilliant weekend with fantastic weather, over Saturday and Sunday we did the classic route of Helvellyn via Striding and Swirral edge, except with a twist. On Saturday we ascended Helvellyn via Striding Edge and then continued north along the ridge over White Side, Raise, Stybarrow Dodd, Great Dodd and Clough Head. Once we reached the end we descended down to Dockray and a well earned pint in the sun. After an evening lounging in the sun and enjoying a BBQ we got up to another day of sunshine and headed up to the classic grade 3 scramble, Pinnacle Ridge up St. Sunday Crag. It was great fun and we even found the start without too much difficulty, I was surprised while climbing the ridge just how crampon scratched the rock was on a classic summer scramble. Once we were at the top I continued with Rich up to Fairfield, down to Grisedale Tarn and then up to Helvellyn including all the subsidiary peaks before descending down Swirral Edge before finishing on Catstycam.. Read the full article…

April Climbing

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

It has been a pretty manic month with lots and lots of climbing making the most of the good weather we have been having. Since the start of April I have managed 51 rock climbs all over the country including, Pembroke, The Peak, The Lakes, Wye Valley and Avon Gorge. It has been a brilliant start to the climbing season and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer.

Eventing and Pointing

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Over the past month I have managed two days of equestrian photography, firstly I headed up to Withington Manor Horse Trials to take photos of Katherine competing. Since I had no SLR last summer it has been around two years since I last did any eventing photography and it felt good to be back. I did feel fairly rusty and need some practice to get the hang of it again but I was fairly pleased with what I managed. The next day I headed down to to Larkhill racecourse to take photos of Katherine doing her first point-to-point on her new pointer, and try my hand at pointing photography for the first time. It was a great weekend and I am sure there will be more equestrian photography over the summer.