Wildspitze Traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism Short Link

The Wildspitze was the main objective from our trip to the Sölden in Austria. I had intended to climb some other peaks first to acclimatise, however the weather had other ideas! We set off from a village high above Sölden called Vent. The day started with two chairlifts which gained us a considerable amount of height. We had elected to walk to the hut via another peak, the Wildes Mannle, this was a fairly short outing as lift station to hut only took us two hours. However it did get us a bit more mileage in our legs, and gave us a good view of the glacier that we would be crossing the next morning. After a lovely evening at the hut with fantastic evening light, good company and good beer we had an early night in the luxury of a 2 bed room. The next morning we woke up to dense fog which meant that we thought we were going to have to change our route to the normal route instead of the Rofenkarferner route. Thankfully after breakfast the cloud broke, so we were able to stick with our. Read the full article…

A weekend near Sölden

Alastair BegleyVia Ferrata Short Link

This year we started our alpine summer holiday in the Otztal in Austria. After driving out from Bristol we met up with some friends in the Sölden valley for the first weekend of the trip. After the long drive down we wanted a short day on the first day, we we headed for the classic Klettersteig Stuibenfall, a relatively easy klettersteig which climbs up next to an impressive waterfall. As it was the weekend, close to the road, and not too difficult we knew it would be busy, and we were certainly not wrong! We spent most of the route in some form of queue, but as it was such a nice day, and we were catching up with out friends this was certainly not a problem. From the top we decided to have an extended walk back down to the car along the valley. Unfortunately the Sunday had very unsettled weather, with just about no forecasts agreeing with how much rain there would be, or when it would hit. Due to this we made a plan in the morning to do a short walk up to a small hut. Read the full article…

Derry Cairngorm & Beinn Mheadhoin

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Today was another day in the Cairngorms where we were able to use our bikes to significantly shorten the day. We climbed Derry Cairngorm & Beinn Mheadhoin which is a 31km day, of which 10km can be cycled which saves about 90mins of walking. The morning was beautiful with plenty of sun which made the cycle up from the Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge very enjoyable, it was just a shame about the headwind! Thankfully the sun stayed and successfully battled the predicted hill fog while we climbed Derry Cairngorm on the excellent path. This enabled us to make rapid progress while enjoying the fantastic views in every direction. When we got to the summit it was very windy so we didn’t stay there long, and the big hills of the Cairngorms were very shrouded in mist. We were soon at Loch Etchachan which is the highest loch in Scotland, which also had a slightly challenging set of stepping stones to cross the outflow given that we were only in approach shoes! After a steep pull up we were soon at the summit ridge of Beinn Mheadhoin. The summit. Read the full article…

An Socach

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Due to weary legs combined with very strong winds forecast we elected to have a lie in combined with an easier day. We elected to climb An Socach, which meant that again we could make great use of the bikes on the approach along estate tracks. The cycle in was fairly short, but harder work than expected due to the headwind, which was a sign of how windy it was going to be on the summit ridge. We made good time on the ascent which as very sheltered, and had a bit of a shock at just how windy it was on the summits. It felt more like winter than may! Despite walking into the wind along the 3km summit ridge we made good time and were at the summit 2hrs after leaving the van. We then made a hasty retreat back along the ridge and out of the wind. The views on the summit ridge were excellent, we could see a long way in most directions as the cloud base was above all but the highest summits. After making good time on the descent we were back at the. Read the full article…