Dream of White Horses

On Saturday evening after work I met up with Andy at South Stack car park and we headed off to Wen Zawn to climb A Dream of White Horses HVS 5a, 5a, 4c, 4c. This is a legendary route and I have wanted to climb it for some time. We abseiled down to the Wen ledges and climbed the latter half of the 1st pitch as the tide was not low enough to do the start of it. We shared pitches although it didn't really make any difference whether leading or seconding as the route is a monster traverse around the zawn and any fall by leader or second will require a lot of prussiking! There are more photos on my gallery page.

Intro to Climbing Course

This weekend I was joined by Stuart, Kelly, Becky & Kevin for an intro to climbing course. We headed to Holyhead Mountain on Anglesey on Saturday and climbed a range of routes including my favorite Severe "New Boots & Panties". We had some beautiful sunshine all day and some great climbing.

On Sunday we headed to Llangollen for a day of Sport climbing. Again we got loads of climbing done and an abseil off the top of the quarry.

Old Man of Hoy, Bank Holiday Adventure

8:30 Friday morning Sid, Andy, Tom and I left Worcester headed for the Orkney Islands, in particular the Island of Hoy. By 10:00am we were sat in stationary traffic on the M6! Thanks to the wonders of Sat Nav we found a burger bar somewhere in Staffordshire and then slowly wound our way North.
We arrived in the port of Scrabster at the far North of Scotland at about 9:00pm, just 20 miles away from John O Groats. In no time at all the perfect camp site was found behind a stone barn on a neatly ploughed field but with handy parking for the car! After a brief look at the ferry timetable we decided an early start would be in order to catch the 9:00am ferry. The next morning we were proud to claim our first place in the queue, only to establish that there wasn't a ferry until 12;00pm!
We arrived on Hoy at 3:30pm and having been given a shocking forecast for Sunday decided to route march across to the Old Man.

For those that haven't heard of it before the Old Man is the sea stack shown in the photo. It was first climbed by Chris Bonnington and chums and was the subject a year later of a BBC outside broadcast with an all star cast. It is graded E1 4b, 5b, 4b, 4c.
The route starts at the bottom of a broken pillar at the end of a walkway that links the stack to Hoy. This walkway was once an arch that collapsed 100 years ago to form a causeway. We started at about 5:00pm with a guidebook time of 6 hours. I teamed up with Tom who was on his 2nd ever multi pitch route! The traditional climbing calls were scrapped and replaced with "safe" and "GO". It was dry but very windy so things needed to be simple and of course with the threat of darkness fast!
The first pitch is straightforward and allows you to get your head into gear before the crux second pitch. This involves a delicate traverse followed by and offwidth chimney through two overhangs. The holds were all very dirty covered in sand and I was glad of the wooden wedges left in place by Bonningtons team! Tom took over the lead on the 4th and final pitch which was superb, a steep crack with good holds and lots of gear and we topped out to a very windy summit.
We decided to use 4 abs to avoid rope jams with the last one being particularly spectacular hanging free over the sea. We reached the ground at about 9:00pm.
Sid and Andy joined us a little while later, all of us ecstatic and knackered! We made our way back to Rackwick bay and slept in the car until it was light enough to find the bothy and sleep some more!
You can view more photos and a short film will follow on my gallery pages, follow the link on the right.

Escaping another childrens party

My two youngest boys were at a childrens party yesterday afternoon whilst Josh and I were climbing at Symonds Yat. This afternoon they had another one and I came perilously close to going! Fortunately a good friend of mine, Terry, came round for lunch and fancied an afternoon cragging. We headed back down to Symonds Yat with Josh and climbed Snoozing Susan. This is Symonds Yats only alpine route which can be 3 pitches, admittedly the 2nd pitch is only a walk though! It is a lovely V Diff and we managed to avoid the rain. We then headed down to the South End and did a 35m abseil over the mouth of a large cave, known locally as "Alecs Ab".

Symonds Yat with Josh

I have got this weekend off so after a morning at home I took Josh, my eldest son, to sample the delights of our local crag, Symonds Yat. Josh has climbed there before but only in a top rope environment a couple of years ago. We abseiled down to the foot of my favourite climb, the long stone pinnacle. We climbed the easiest route, Vertigo (severe) and sunbathed on the top looking down the river Wye. We did another short route afterwards and then enjoyed tea and cakes in the cafe.

Grooved Arete, Tryfan

Claire joined Simon and I today for a day of rock climbing on warm rock in the sunshine. On days like today you wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world and I definitely have the best job! We walked up to the Heather Terrace on Tryfan and climbed Grooved Arete - an 8 pitch Hard Very Difficult rock climb that finishes on the summit ridge of my favorite mountain in North Wales. The photos show the first pitch complete with rock graffiti (why do people still do this - some cretin has scratched their name not far from here), Simon & Claire on the Knights move, Claire on belay and climbing pitch 7. Another brilliant day! Photos can be viewed at the gallery.

Main Wall & Gambit Climb

Regular client and friend Simon decided he wanted to celebrate his 40th birthday in style - he couldn't think of anything and so booked me for a couple of days instead! The plan was to have a day of rock climbing with just the two of us and then a day of easier climbing or scrambling with his wife Claire joining us. Originally we had planned an overnight bivvy as well but this got binned with a wet night forecast.

Today we headed up into Cwm Glas and climbed Main Wall and then Gambit Climb.
Main Wall is a 6 pitch Hard Severe that climbs through some outrageous mountain architecture and has some truly awesome settings. Check out Simon on the hanging belay! There are one or two places where you have to look down at your feet and all you see is a big, big drop! The sun was shining all day giving us the warmest day of the year so far so once we had topped out we headed upto the Clogwyn-y-Person Arete abd climbed Gambit Climb. This is a 5 pitch Severe that is described in the guidebook as the best easy climb in North Wales! It was great and we then scrambled up the arete, across the ridge of Crib Y Ddysgl and back down for beer! You can view all of the photos at my gallery - click on the link on the right of this page.

Milestone Buttress

It was a cold and wet day today with 50 mph winds and still lots of snow on the tops meaning that we needed to stay low. The Milestone Buttress was the obvious choice and we did the grade 3 scramble across the front of the buttress before abbing off for the practice!

Private Guiding - Advanced Scrambling

Returning client Jason joined me this weekend for some advanced scrambling. Today we climbed the Idwal Staircase and the Cneifion Arete. It was pretty cold but stayed dry for the day and we were nicely sheltered from the easterly winds. We looked at some abseiling skills on the Gribin facet at the end of the day

Cneiffion Arete

We had another great day today with more beautiful sunshine making it feel very Alpine. We spent the morning doing some skills in Cwm Idwal with Chris and Tom on the sharp end of the rope learning to lead for roped scrambles. We then headed up into the nameless Cwm and did the Cneiffion Arete. This is my favorite scramble in North Wales and starts with a couple of rock climbing pitches followed by a steep ridge with small steps and pinnacles giving a very Alpine flavour.

Advanced Scrambling Course

I was joined today by Tom and Chris for a couple of days of advanced scrambling on grade 2 and 3 scrambles. The met office forecast has been the same for the last 7 days in a row now, forecasting heavy showers later every day. Thankfully it has been wrong everyday and we had another beautiful afternoon of sunshine. We started off on Tryfan Bach before heading up onto the East Ridge of Tryfan and scrambling up Bastow Gully Butress and descending the North Ridge. We also managed a quick abseil off Tryfan Bach on the way back down.

Navigation & Hill Skills Course

We headed up onto Pen Yr Ole Wen this morning and across the Carneddau in lots of snow. It was more like a winter skills course at times but the snow was soft enough not to need crampons and axes and we all had a wonderful time - even managing a spot of bivvy bag sledging on the way down!

Navigation & Hill Skills Course

I was joined for the weekend by Laura, Sarah, Sturat, Les, Keith & Racheal for a 2 day navigation and hill skills course. Today we spent the day looking at micro navigation with great views of Snowdon and fresh snowfall.

Navigation on the Caneddau

Monica and I headed onto the back of the Carneddau today to hone her navigation skills some more. We spent the day looking at typical WGL navigation points and enjoyed a mixture of weather and some fine views out to sea.

Litlle & North Gullies, Tryfan

Monica and I headed up the East face of Tryfan today via Little and North Gullies and descended the North Ridge. We rounded the day off with some navigation below Tryfan, finding ring contours, pools etc to help Monica prepare for her Walking Group Leader assessment. We had a few snow showers but plenty of sunshine too. It is very beautiful in North Wales at the moment with crisp blue skies and snow capped peaks.

The Gribin, Lliwedd

I have been out today with Monica, a returning private client who is up for 3 days of navigation and scrambling in North Wales. We did some navigation this morning around the lakes from Pen y Pass and then headed up the Gribin, a grade 1 scramble, and across Lliwedd. There was plenty of snow about but it was all soft and mushy so we did not need crampons. It looked great though!

Intro to scrambling course

I have been out this weekend with Cath, John, Tony and Terry on an intro to scrambling course. We headed up Seniors Ridge to Glyder Fawr on Saturday and then up the S.E ridge of Moel Siabod on Sunday. The weather was beautiful with blue skies, sunshine and the odd snow shower. The cold Northerly winds made their presence felt but the snow was soft on the ground and crampons were not required. You can view more photos here http://www.expeditionguide.com/gallery.htm

Mountain Leader Training

I am back home again now after the two day expedition on the Mountain Leader Training course. The weather was very wet and windy and the candidates truly experienced wild camping! The photo (sponsored by Petzl!) shows us out on night nav.

Mountain Leader Training - North Wales

I drove back from Scotland on Monday and had a quick break at home before driving up to North Wales for Tuesday. I am working this week for Blue Peris Mountain Centre http://www.blueperis.co.uk/pages/index.asp on a Mountain Leader Training Course. This is a 6 day course looking at the skills required to lead groups in the UK mountains in summer conditions. I am working the last 4 days of the course.

The last couple of days have been spent looking at mountain weather, mountain rescue, improvised rescues, water hazards, river crossings and ropework. There is a fair amount of snow about on the tops and we have had some beautiful blue skies, sunshine and snow capped peak type views.

Tomorrow we head off for a 2 day expedition with an overnight camp and a night navigation excercise. The forecast is for blizzards, high winds, rain and sleet so I will be earning my money!


Rob

Stob Coire nan Lochan

We headed into Glencoe to put all of the skills covered yesterday into a mountain journey. The weather stayed kind all day with the odd snow shower and plenty of sunshine.

Winter Skills Weekend

I was joined by Sam, Nick, Tamara, James and my Mum & Dad for this Easter weekend for a winter skills course. The conditions are some of the best we have seen all year with long days, blue skies, cold crisp weather and lots of snow about. We headed round to Aonach Nid using the Gondola to maximise our time on the snow and had a great day looking at ice axe and crampons, snow shelters and avalanche avoidance.

Ice Factor - Teaching Practice

Today was a wet, windy and mild day so perfect weather for the Ice Factor!

Curved Ridge, Buachaille Etive Mor - Teaching Practice

Simon and Andy lead Curved Ridge today whilst I acted as team photographer! We had another stunning day and managed to cover lots of skills from buried axes to direct belays and moving together Alpine style. The boys did well and we were down by 4:00pm which is all the better considering this was only their 4th day of winter climbing. Lots of snow due to come in over the next couple of days so the ski crowd will be pleased!

Morwind, Aonach Mor - Teaching Practice

We decided that the luxury of a Gondola ride was the order of the day today and headed for the East face of Aonach Mor. The weather forecast had predicted temperatures well below freezing but at the bottom of East gully it was 1 or 2 degrees above. We decided to avoid the routes with large cornices above and climbed Morwind. This is the original line of the crag but only had its first ascent in 1988. The route is graded III, 4 but felt harder today with unconsolidated snow. It was snowing lightly all morning which added to the atmosphere and made it nice to see the sun as we topped out.

Comb Gully, Ben Nevis - Teaching practice

It has been another beautiful day in the Highlands today. I bet there were a lot of sickies pulled this morning judging by the amount of people out on the Ben. Andy, Simon and I climbed Comb Gully, IV, 4. The first pitch was well banked out but the next two were steep and on great snow ice. The cornice was easily avoided on the left and the views from the top were stunning. Number 4 gully gave a rapid descent. There were teams all over indicator wall, Blair had climbed Hadrians Wall Direct and reported a poor first pitch of unconsolidated snow. Green Gully was apparently in good nick and the Cascade looked fat.

Dorsal Arete & Twisting Gully - Practicing teaching winter climbing

I am back in Scotland and the sun is shining! I have been out with good friends of mine, Andy and Simon. They have joined me for 6 days winter climbing having never done any winter climbing before. This is a great opportunity for me to practice everything that I learnt at the start of the month on my MIC training and they get a week of instruction free of charge! We had an awesome first day in Stob Coire nan Lochan under blue skies and sunshine. We did some refresher winter skills in the Coire then climbed Dorsal Arete taking in the pinnacles and a left hand finish which went at about grade III. We descended Broad Gully and then climbed Twisting Gully at III, 4. We definitely made the most of the good weather and the longer daylight hours at this time of year and the boys did great!
The snow needs to consolidate a bit more to be really good but it is forecast to be cold over the next few days and their is an aweful lot of snow about. Its all good!

MIC Training - last two days

The last two days have been very wet, windy and warm - ideal winter conditions! Yesterday we headed up Dinnertime Buttress in Glen Coe and had to drop off the ridge and do some skills in the shelter of the wind.

Today we headed up to the Grey Corries to look at teaching snow and ice lead climbing and managed to find some shelter from the wind. Home tomorrow!