Blog Posts in Category: Mountaineering

Malvern End to End

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Walking Short Link

For years as we have driven up the M5 we have commented that we should visit the Malvern Hills, however never quite got around to it. As we still have to stay fairly local, cannot go to the mountains and cannot stay away we decided this would be an ideal time to explore the Malvern Hills. So that we could have a big day out, and not just walk out and then back we decided to do the full traverse of the Malvern Hills, stating at Chase End Hill in the south and finishing at End Hill in the north. This provided a walk of about 16km with 750m of ascent. After parking the van at the north end of the ridge we headed down to the south and started walking shortly after 5. This meant that if we made good time we should just about be on North Hill by sunset. The start of the walk was very quiet, on small paths with lovely views. It was also very hot! We had occasional views of the bigger hills in the distance on the first half, and they looked a. Read the full article…

Quantock Hills Sunset

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Walking Short Link

With the easing of the lockdown restrictions we headed down to the Quantock Hills for an evening walk. We chose the evening as we thought it would be quieter, and also to coincide with sunset. During the walk we saw about 10 other people, so we definitely made the right decision to wait until the evening. It was great to be out in the hills on a beautiful summer evening with a lovely sunset, even if they were only hills and not mountains.

Hidden Chimney

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

It has been a few years since we winter climbed in Scotland, mostly due to injuries and conditions. This year we decided we wanted to get back into it, but unfortunately conditions were making it difficult. The option with the safest approach seems to be the Mess of Pottage at Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms. We decided to climb hidden chimney again as a suitable re-introduction to Scottish winter, unfortunately so did a large number of other people. The walk in was surprisingly easy given how much snow was on the ground, and by the time we had arrived in the coire the cloud had lifted and showed us an excellent view of the crag, and the army of climbers in front of us. Thankfully not many teams had already approached Hidden Chimney. We started the route behind out friends James and Jon and had a very enjoyable climb. It wasn’t too cold and the conditions on the climb were excellent, and very different to last time we climbed the route. There was some very poor crag etiquette going on with a team climbing over us and the team. Read the full article…

Geal-charn Mor

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Walking Short Link

With the weather looking significantly better in the east we chose to do another Corbett to make the most of any of the better weather. The start of the walk took us up the Burma road, which was fairly snowy from a low level. Despite the snow we were able to make good progress and enjoy the brilliant views back towards the Cairngorms. As the snow became deeper we all put on our snow shoes, which made the path easier, but I don’t think they made a significant difference. As we left the path to head up to the summit the poor weather came in, so the compass came back out. The show shoes also started to provide a significant benefit and we were certainly grateful for them. The descent was lovely and it was really great to see the Cairngorms from afar and from up high. It was really impressive seeing the vast expanse and how easy it was to identify a number of the major features of the range.

The Fara

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Walking Short Link

The weather forecast for the first day of our trip wasn’t brilliant, so we elected for a short day on a local Corbett called The Fara. The walk in along Loch Ericht in the morning was beautiful in the sunshine, the estate gatehouse was very impressive. After a relatively short distance we were at the start of the steep ascent up a clearing between different plantations. The start of the ascent was brutal as it involved a very steep ascent with very deep snow. As we got to the top of the plantations the gradient eased off, and the poor weather started to come in. Becky was able to make good use of her new snow shoes which made the going much easier for her. As we ascended the weather deteriorated and we were soon in the white room and unable to tell what was up from down. As we were approaching the summit we had to make a detour to avoid a slope which was fairly loaded with wind slab. After some quick lunch at the summit we made a hasty descent back down. It was fairly easy going. Read the full article…

Nantlle Ridge

Alastair BegleyLandscape, North Wales, Walking Short Link

After a number of years of wanting to do the Nantlle Ridge, we finally ended up in North Wales with a weather window which would enable us to enjoy the ridge at it’s best. As the weather was best in the morning we started fairly early, which enabled us to see a beautiful sunrise as we were leaving the hut in Rhyd Ddu. The start of the walk soon woke us up, but once we were established on the ridge it was just brilliant. We had wonderful views in every direction and good weather, apart from the very strong wind! The scrambling was not extensive, but some of it was fairly involved if you stayed on the ridge crest rather than skirting off on the path to the side. The final section of ridge before the descent was fairly hard going underfoot, and if I were to do the ridge again I might have descended sooner. We had dropped a car at the end the night before, but somehow avoided having to do shuttle runs as Becky managed to hitch a lift with the only person we saw all day,. Read the full article…

2019 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Landscape, Mountain Biking, Mountaineering Short Link

Last year was a year which was dominated photographically by snow, this year is unfortunately the polar opposite as winter never really turned up in the UK and weather didn’t allow us to spend that much time high up in the Alps in the summer. Despite the lack of snow it was another excellent year, with plenty of good walking, good photography, ski touring in the alps and excellent scrambling, via ferratas and climbing in the Italian Dolomites. Winter South of the border there was even less snow than in Scotland, however we were fortunate enough to make good use of the one snowy weekend with a walk in the Brecon Beacons. Other than the lack of snow we were lucky to have some excellent walking conditions while we were in the mountains, the highlight had to be walking up to High Raise from Grasmere in the Lake District. Scottish Winter We had a week booked in Scotland with the Avon Mountaineering Club, and there was absolutely no snow below the highest tops. Thankfully the lack of snow was made up for with a week of excellent weather, which allowed. Read the full article…

Beinn a’ Creachain and Beinn Achaladair

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

After a very cold night and hard frost we woke up early for a reasonable day out climbing Beinn a’ Creachain and Beinn Achaladair. These hills are connected by a ridge and are the expanse of hills that you see when driving across Rannoch Moor towards the Bridge of Orchy. In the morning everything was white, there was ice on the inside of the windows and the doors were frozen shut! We headed off up the valley and made excellent time initially as we wanted to move quickly to warm up. Unfortunately this good progress came to a rapid halt when the footbridge we were relying on was not really there anymore, and the remains were certainly not something that I was willing to cross! At this point we elected to carry on for another 4km up the estate track to the next bridge, which also meant climbing a path less ascent up to the ridge. Despite the extra time walking along the valley, it remained stubbornly in the shadow of the mountains which meant that we stayed fairly cold. While this did add a significant amount of time onto. Read the full article…