Mountaineering in the Caingorms

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Scotland, Walking Short Link

Following on from my previous post about Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis I have just spent the week mountaineering in the Caingorms where we had a fantastic time. Other than the day we did Ben Nevis we managed two other walks, a day trip over to Glen Coe in order to visit Ice Factor, a visit to some waterfalls where we went for a rather cold swim and a trip to Dalwhinnie distillary. On the day we arrived there was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was really warm so we had a BBQ outside, but with the crazy Scottish weather 3 days later we woke up to large amounts of snow on the ground! On the first day we went for a local walk which I tried to do at New Year but had to turn back on that attempt due to being unable to stand up in the wind. It was a horseshoe walk up to  Sgor Gaoith and along the ridge to do a few other tops as well, it was a fantastic walk which we were able to relax nicely on to enjoy the summit views. On Monday. Read the full article…

Gardyloo Gully

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Last week I was up in Scotland for a week, the intention was to go winter climbing but after stunning and really hot weather the two weeks before we headed up there was very little ice left so the prospect of doing any winter climbing was looking very unlikely. However due to a sudden change of weather over two days, from having a BBQ on the first evening then on Tuesday morning we woke up to several inches of fresh snow and freezing temperatures, this mixed with a northerly wind quickly sent Ben Nevis back to great winter conditions on the easier routes such as Gardyloo Gully. Armed with a positive weather & avalanche report from SAIS stating that on the northern aspects there was a low avalanche risk due to the northerly wind scouring the faces we made the decision to get up early and head up the north face of Ben Nevis. We  headed up to the CIC hut very early leaving the car at 7am and got to the CIC hut less than two hours later where we had to hide from the bitter wind as the weather forecast was not. Read the full article…

Rock Climbing on Haytor & Hound Tor

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Making the most of the fantastic weather at the end of March I headed over to Dartmoor on two separate occasions with Stephen and Rosie for a few days climbing. Firstly I headed to Haytor with Stephen where we climbed Honeymoon Corner (Severe), Levitation (VS 4b) which meant I learnt what bold climbing was and found it slightly scary due to there being no gear placements! Before finishing on Raven Gully (S 4a) and heading home for steak and ice cream! On Friday I headed back to Dartmoor but this time to Hound Tor with Rosie. It was her first time climbing outdoors so we started off on a nice VDiff and then progressed onto a few HVDs which were great. Mixed in with these I lead my first VS 4c called Suspension Flake which was absolutely fantastic. After we had done lots of climbing at Hound Tor we headed over to Haytor so Rosie could have a go at a Severe called Raven Gully and despite having lead it twice before I somehow managed to take a fall on it, which was also my first fall while trad climbing!

A Stunning Weekend in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling Short Link

I have just got back from what was quite frankly an unbelievable weekend in Snowdonia. It was an odd trip as there was supposed to be 17 of us heading up but the minibus broke down en route and didn’t make it so it was just my car of 5 people. On the first day we did the standard ascent of Tryfan, albeit with a few hard section that I added in for myself as always! It was great though as there was no hill fog and for most of the time it was dry so for the first time in 5 visits I could actually see the mountain I climbed and had great views from the top without being blown off! After we had done this we headed back to the campsite to endure another night of heavy rain, but that’s fine as its going to rain at some point over the weekend so its better that its overnight! On the Sunday morning we headed up to Pen-Y-Pass car park to do Crib Goch, our plan was to just do Crib Goch and head down. We got to the car park. Read the full article…

Rock Climbing on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Over the past few weeks there has been some fantastic weather so I have taken a few days off university and headed out to Dartmoor for some trad climbing in the sun. Trad climbing is a very new sport for me so I am currently learning all the basics of placing my own gear on easy routes though they are still really great climbs. Sitting on a belay as the sun is setting and you are belaying your partner up the rock is just fantastic. Unsurprisingly my camera comes climbing with me as always and these photos are taken by a mixture of being sat at the top looking down or by hanging on an abseil rope to get into a position half way up the climb, there are even some photos of me leading my first trad routes as I gave my camera to a friend.

Scrambling in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Scrambling Short Link

Last weekend I ran a trip up to the Lake District with my university’s expedition society. The aim of this trip was always to do some great scrambling and thankfully we got the weather as the wind was not too strong, it didn’t rain in the daytime and we even had some nice views on both days! Last time I was in the lake district scrambling was 7 years ago where I remember climbing the grade 3*** route up Pinnacle Ridge with my parents and while we were at the top eating lunch we had a flypast by the red arrows. The routes we did this weekend were much easier but still very enjoyable and were the two grade 1*** routes in the Lake District. On Saturday we headed up Blencathra via Sharp Edge and down Hall’s Fell ridge which was a lovely route which actually took us a surprisingly small amount of time and we were finished in time for the rugby! The great thing about Sharp Edge is the view that you get of the ridge as you walk in and with people that had not done much scrambling before. Read the full article…

Winter Climbing in South Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

This cold spell that is currently all over the UK has advantages for those of us that are mad enough to go winter climbing and after some snow and a cold spell there is some great winter climbing up the north face of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. Thursday saw me take a day off university and head over to the brecons with my mum for a day out in perfect weather with sun all day and cold temperatures. Due to it not having risen above freezing all week the snow was still powdery but that didn’t matter due to it being so cold the turf had frozen up nicely which is the important thing on Pen y Fan. It was a bit of an odd way of starting a climb as to get to the base we had to walk up to the summit of Pen y Fan to descend down the other side just to climb back up the north face. Though this did mean we got fantastic views on the way up with the early morning sun. When we got to the base of the. Read the full article…

When Scottish Weather Fights Back!

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Over the new year I headed up to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands for some winter mountaineering and climbing, the weather however thought otherwise! Over the 9 days we were up there we had to battle with gale force winds most days, rain/snow every day though due to a thaw there was no snow when we got there, but the fresh snow then lead onto having too much snow with a huge avalanche risk! We did however do stuff on all but one day which was the day the whole of the UK was hit with storm force winds! Over the course of the week there wasn’t a time when there was snow and a low avalanche risk so we couldn’t get in any winter climbing, though we did manage two great ridge walks in winter conditions and another aborted walk in winter conditions. On the days that we couldn’t walk due to the weather being too bad we went biking at low level, but on each day we went biking we kept finding closed paths due to storm damage, we ignored these signs on the first day and ended up having to. Read the full article…