Blog Posts in Category: Sports

A Fantastic Day Skiing at Glencoe Mountain

Alastair BegleyScotland, Sports Short Link

With a good forecast but a high freezing level and lots of fresh snow around we decided that we didn’t want to be wading around in deep snow or getting up early after the previous day on Ben Nevis. Due to this we decided to go to Glencoe Mountain Resort for some skiing, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. After queueing for 1h30 to get our hire kit we eventually got on the chairlift and headed up to the ski area, the snow cover was fantastic. Unlike last time all the runs were open and you could see the summit. In the morning there were long queues for the chairlift due to the main basin t-bar being shut so I stayed on the upper mountain where there we only small queues. In the afternoon the main basin t-bar opened and meant that the queues on the lower mountain reduced significantly. The snow quality was fantastic and in the afternoon I managed two runs from the summit to the bottom of main basin almost on entirely virgin snow! At the end of the day I got one of the. Read the full article…

A fantastic 2013 in 100 Photos

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Equestrian, Landscape, Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Walking, Winter Climbing Short Link

Somehow we are already at the end of another year, and what a fantastic year it has been! I have somehow summed up my year in 100 photos again. The photos make it look like I didn’t do much rock climbing this year, but that is just that I don’t tend to take my camera to the local crags where I spent a silly amount of evenings in May and June. In total this year I managed 125 trad climbs, 30 winter climbs, 7 walks, 6 alpine routes, 3 scrambles, 2 sport climbs, 2 caving trips and 2 via ferratas. I have had such a good year that summarising the high points was pretty challenging: Winter Traverse of the Cuillin Ridge An absolutely fantastic winter season which was ended perfectly by (1) and included many classics including Minus Two, Orion Face, Point Five & Tower Ridge A great two weeks in the Swiss Alps where I climbed 8 peaks Climbing American Beauty and Indy 500 on a fantastic day on Lundy Despite having a generally fantastic year, there were certainly some less good moments: Needing to call mountain rescue in the. Read the full article…

Barbury International Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Due to some friends visiting for my birthday I had no plans to head to the mountains, but due to a great forecast I dragged my friends along to Barbury to take some photos of my sister competing. I am still feeling rusty which is frustrating me as I just am not getting the timing quite right which is something I used to be much better at, but practice makes perfect and I am sure I will get there again. The showjumping was challenging as it was a huge arena and the best angle involved shooting into the sun! Due to this I made the best of the situation and did some running and managed to get a few jumps in. Katherine had a great round, and I actually thought she went clear but she had an unfortunate four faults which was a shame. A quick move was made to the cross-country and I discovered that the initial jumps I had been sent to were challenging photography wise due to the sun and position of the tapes on the course, in the end I got the photos by ignoring the. Read the full article…

A Wet Day at Nunney International Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Due to a combination of having a rare free day at the weekend and Katherine competing at Nunney International Horse trials which is close to Bristol, I headed down to take some photos of her eventing. This is only my second day out eventing this year so I am still feeling fairly rusty and its on days like this I really miss my 5D3, however I am happy with some of the SJ photos given the poor light. When I set off the weather forecast said that the rain was going to hold off until the afternoon, and it did hold off for the Showjumping. It was a great course to take photos from the edge on as a decent angle could be obtained on loads of jumps, it was just a shame about the flat light. Katherine did a great round and managed a clear which she was very pleased with. While she was getting ready for the cross-country spots of rain started to appear, and the weather just went downhill from here with the rain getting heavier and heavier. By the time Katherine was going around the course. Read the full article…