Blog Posts in Category: Walking

Walking up Pen Y Fan

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to the Brecon Beacons with the expedition society at my university for a weekend. It is always a really fun weekend as after the walk on the Saturday we have a Christmas dinner, this year we cooked for 40 people! The weather on the Saturday was a superb winter day with mostly clear skies, sun and a sprinkling of snow on the higher slopes of the mountain. Pen Y Fan is a mountain I climb all the time due to it being under hour from home in Bristol, but I normally climb it from the other side so it was nice to do it a different way as we walked in a loop which started and finished at the Youth Hostel we were staying at. This meant we went up from the Storey Arms and then back down another ridge on the same side of the mountain, which also had the advantage that we were sheltered from the very strong and cold wind that we were hit when we joined the ridge which went up to the summit! Due to the great weather conditions the views from. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyLandscape, North Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia with the expedition society I am a member of. We went up with twenty people and braved the elements by camping in north wales at the end of November which was a tad chilly. Thankfully we were treated with good weather and it didn’t rain once all weekend which is a change to the last 3 weekends I have spent in Snowdonia! On the first morning we headed up the north ridge of Tryfan which is one of the classic scrambles of the region and is a great first scramble as many people in the group had never done it before! It took us quite a long time as 20 people move slowly but this ended up being good as early in the climb the summit became covered in hill fog but by the time we got to the summit it had started to clear and by the time we had finished lunch we were treated to a fantastic view! That evening we were treated to a cloudless sky which was stunning as we were camping in the middle of nowhere so there. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in the Austrian Alps

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria, Landscape, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

As you may be aware from my previous blog post I have just got back from a family holiday in the Austrian Alps, we went to an area called Saalbach-Hinterglem to do mountaineering, walking and downhill biking. This post will cover the mountaineering and walking and at some point some waterfall and river photos may or may not appear. When we left for the holiday we were hoping to be able to climb Austria’s heighest mountain but as with all the best laid plans, that fell through due to the weather not being good enough in the second week and due to the height of the peak it is not a good idea to be up there in bad weather! And also as the hut for this route was at 3400m we could not do it in the first week as we had to acclimatise. It was however still a great holiday for walking and mountaineering as we managed to do a couple of great Via Ferratas, one of them being the first one that I have actually found challenging and by the time I got to the top I could hardly lift my arms. Read the full article…

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia for a long weekend of scrambling and mountaineering with the Expedition Society from my university. As we headed up the forecast was not looking good at all but we all remained positive and the weather was better than initially forecast though we did have to alter our routes slightly due to the weather. On Saturday we scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan which is a fantastic scramble though unfortunately when we went up we were in hill fog and rain which remained until we had left the summit but as we were walking up to the Glyders after Tryfan it cleared beautifully and we were treated to fantastic views and sun. This improved weather stayed all evening which enabled us to have a BBQ to end a great day. On Sunday our plan was to do the Snowdon Horseshoe which is one of the classic routes in Snowdonia which includes Crib Goch which is a fantastic knife edge ridge. As it was a bank holiday weekend we headed to the car park for 7:30 to ensure we got a space as it fills up early and. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

In my previous blog post I described the first half of the week I spent in Scotland (click here) and this is how the rest of the week went now I am back at home after a long drive back from Fort William. Wednesday was a wash out due to heavy rain all day causing severe weather warnings to be issued for the western highlands so we stayed at the house for most of the day apart from half an hour when we headed out to the loch near the house we were staying in and in the process of doing that got soaked! The weather did however improve on Thursday so we headed out for another attempt at Aonach Mor but this time via a gully on the western side of the ridge but due to a lack of snow in the gullies from the warm conditions we ended up just doing an improvised scramble up to the top which was great fun and challenging in a few places but not before we practised some glissading on a small patch of snow we found in the valley.  When we got to the top we were greeted by our first view of. Read the full article…

Winter Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking, Winter Climbing Short Link

This week I am up in Scotland with my university’s expedition society to do winter mountaineering. We have however been plagued with poor weather and lack of snow since we have been here but thankfully that has not stopped us! On the first day we went up to Stob Ban to teach winter techniques to the unexperienced people in the group showing them how to use ice axes and crampons and do important techniques such as ice axe arrests. Due to the ridge to the summit being on cloud for most of the day we did not head up to the summit and ended up just teaching in an area of snow we found near the coll. On the second day gale forces were forecast but we decided to give walking a try and headed up to Aonach Mor but it turned out the forecast was correct and when we got to the gondola station we were in the cloud with horizontal rain and winds that seriously impeded motion. Due to this we just headed back down the downhill track which looked like an amazing track to bike on which I plan. Read the full article…

An afternoon walk on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Today the weather was far better than forecast so when I woke up I headed to Dartmoor with my housemates for an afternoon walk in the beautiful scenery and stunning weather that Dartmoor had to offer. I haven’t walked on Dartmoor in the day time since Ten Tors training when I was in sixth form at school and my lasting memory of it from then was just of constant rain, and when I went last year it was in the night time for a joint training with mountain rescue and cave rescue so for obvious reasons I couldn’t see much! So it was great to be out today and be able to appreciate Dartmoor in the excellent albeit cold weather. The walk was timed really well and as we were walking down the ridge back to the car the sun was setting and providing us with beautiful golden light.

Summer Holiday

Alastair BegleyScrambling, Switzerland, Walking Short Link

At the end of August/start of September I went to Fiesch in Switzerland with my family and some family friends for 2 weeks of mountaineering, downhill mountain biking and climbing.  We had a fantastic time while we were out there but of course with me being a photographer my camera went everywhere with me (apart from the biking).  At some points I did question why I was doing this, for example, when I was walking up a 4000m mountain and had 5kg of camera gear on my shoulder!  But overall I am so glad I did as some of the sites we saw were fantastic. While we were out there we experienced all types of weather, the start of the holiday was 30 degree temperatures which makes strenuous exercise more difficult but it then cooled down and we had lots of sunny weather but nicer temperatures but also snow at resort level!  But despite this we didn’t have a single day when we didn’t get out even if it did mean wrapping up warm and going for a walk while it was snowing! I thought I would share these 6 photos that I took. Read the full article…