Intro to Navigation

Having moved house this weekend it was very nice to get out into the mountains today. I was joined by Dawn and Gillian and assisted by my oldest son Josh! We headed up towards Y Foel Goch from Capel Curig and had a mixture of sunshine and some heavy showers which looks set to be the weather pattern for the next few days.

Hill Skills & Navigation Course

I have been joined this weekend by Sean, Clare & Chris for a weekend of navigation and hill skills. We have had lovely blues skies all weekend with a fresh NW wind today and some cloud cover. Yesterday we headed up the back of Pen Y Pass Youth Hostel looking at micro navigation and use of the compass, mountain weather and emergency procedures. Today we went up Pen Yr Ole Wen and Carnedd Dafydd to out all of the skills into the context of a mountain journey.

Snowdonia Mountain Challenge with Barry McGuigan

I was joined for the last two days by returning clients Monica and Jane along with Monicas brother Liam and retired world champion boxer Barry McGuigan. Our aim was to complete the Snowdonia Mountain Challenge to raise money for the Rod Kesson Benefit Fund http://www.rkbf.org/

The Snowdonia Mountain Challenge is a tough and grueling attempt to climb all of the mountaineering peaks over 3000 ft in the Snowdon and Glyderau ranges of the Snowdonia National Park over 2 days. The first day involved a 7:00am start up the Miners track on Snowdon. We were greeted by the entertaining sight of the Llanberis mountain rescue team installing a piano near the summit for a recital by Bryn Terfel later in the day. Barry entertained the workers to the delight of the assembled photographers before we headed over Garnedd Ugain and along Crib Goch. This was Barrys first taste of scrambling but the other 3 were all experienced and we enjoyed having the ridge almost to ourselves.
We dropped down to the Llanberis Pass before starting a long and arduous climb back up the other side to the summit of Elidir Fawr. We were climbing in the heat of the midday sun and starting to feel the pain! Blisters were also starting to make their presence felt in the team.
Our journey then took us up to the summit of Y Garn completing over 7000 feet of ascent before we dropped down to the Ogwen Valley via Cwm Idwal for a pick up 13 hours after we had started.

The following morning we climbed the Gribin Ridge, a grade 1 scramble that leads to the summit plateau of the Glyders. Barry and I engaged in a chin up competition on the Cantilever Stone much to the dismay of the ladies! We bagged our last two summits of the challenge, Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach before descending back to the Ogwen Valley for tea and medals!
You can view the photos at my gallery and donate to the appeal here: www.justgiving.com/barrymcguigan

Rock Improvers - Day 2

We headed to Holyhead Mountain today where the sun always shines - and it did! Tim & Sophie lead all day with me alongside them and pushed their grade up to Severe on New Boots & Panties, Mrs Murdoch and Steps. We revisited skills from yesterday including how to self protect an abseil and building good belays. A great couple of days.

Rock Improvers Course

This weekend I have been joined by Tim and Sophie for a rcok improvers course. Both have been climbing for 3 years and want some feedback on belays, abseiling and tips on pushing their grade. We climbed Charity on the Idwal Slabs today. It was overcast this morning but has developed into a beautiful day.

Rock Improvers Course

I spent the last two days with Jason and Tom on a rock improvers course. Both had done some climbing before and wanted to improve their existing skills and build confidence on the sharp end. On Tuesday we climbed Hope and Lazarus and the first couple of pitches of Ordinary Route on the Idwal Slabs whilst yesterday we headed to Holyhead Mountain and climbed a range of routes with both guys leading. We had fantastic sunshine both days again!

South Stack - Isle of Skye

We fancied a bit of an adventure today so decided to climb the sea stack that is pictured on the back of the guidebook for Skye. South Stack is situated off the very North tip of Skye at Rubha Hunish. We climbed the route Willie Hunish (VS) and used two tyrolean traverses to get to the base of the route without Simon and Paul getting wet - of course I had to swim the ropes across. A beautiful day to end a cracking week.

Pinnacle Ridge, Sgur nan Gillean

We had an overcast and slightly damp start to the day today but it has brightened up nicely as the day has gone on. We decided to do Pinnacle Ridge which is a great mountain route described by the guidebook as one of the finest rock courses in Britain (whatever a rock course is!). There we a couple of other guided parties doing the same thing and the clouds swirled around us atmospherically giving the impression of voices in the mist. The route includes a good abseil off the 3rd pinnacle as shown in the photo and we enjoyed a dip in the mountain pools to cool off at the end of the day. Simon & Paul refused to sign the consent form for swimwear shots so just me I'm afraid!

Sea Cliff Climbing at Elgol

We headed over to Elgol today to do some sea cliff climbing. A short walk along the top of the cliffs provided us with some beautiful views of the Cuillin and the smaller islands of Eigg and Rum out to sea. We abseiled down our first route, accompanied by a few midges who were sheltering from the Easterly wind. Jamie Jampot (VS 4c) was dispatched pretty quickly to escape the blighters. We then scrambled down the side of the cliffs and did a fun sea level traverse to the foot of Fertility Right (Severe) which Simon lead in good style. By now the midges were too much so after a bite to eat we headed to the Schoolhouse Buttress and climbed Schoolhouse Rock (VS 4c) as it started to rain. We then escaped the rain in the café for tea and scones!

Jack of Diamonds - Hard Severe

It has been another gorgeous day here on Skye, like May always used to be. I have been coming to Skye every year since a teenager and it never disappoints. The combination of lochs, sea and mountains together with perfect gabro rock (so grippy it wears your fingers out rapidly) means that any trip here feels special.
Today we headed back up to Sron na Ciche. This crag is divided into 3 parts, The East Buttress, Cioch Buttress and Western Buttress. Whilst we were on the Cioch yesterday in the shade we looked enviously on at people climbing Eastern Buttress in the sunshine so today that’s where we went. We had our eyes on Shangri-La a classic VS but we were beaten to it so climbed Jack of Diamonds instead. This is a 100m Hard Severe that leads to the top pitches of Direct Route (Mild Severe). This gave us about 7 pitches of climbing in all and took us to the top of Sron na Ciche. We got some great views across to the Cioch which is shown in the photo

Isle of Skye - Rock Climbing Course - Cioch Direct, Slab Corner, Trophy Crack & Integrity

Regular readers of this BLOG will recognise Simon and Paul who are regular clients and friends. We have all headed up to Skye this week to do as much climbing as the weather allows and some mountaineering if it gets wet.
Today the weather has been fantastic with bright blue skies, sunshine all day and enough of a breeze to keep the midges at bay.
We headed up towards the Cioch, scene of the famous sword fight in the film Highlander, and climbed Cioch Direct, 150 m Severe. We enjoyed lunch on the Cioch itself and then climbed Tropy Crack, E1, 5b, 4b and then Integrity, Mild Very Severe.
Ice creams were enjoyed back at the beach at Glenbrittle!

Shorn Cliff - No Musketeers

Yesterday evening I headed down to Shorn Cliff with a friend of mine, Terry. I haven't climbed at all of the Wye Valley crags, there are a lot of them tucked away deep in the Forest of Dean, but of the ones that I have climbed at this is my favourite.
The climbing tends to be technical in nature with the rock being a slab rather than the usual brutish steep climbing you get on Limestone. The rock is also not as polished as in many places and the 30 minute walk in means that it is normally quiet.
All of the routes are single pitch but are about 25m long. This one is HVS 5a but I decided to do the direct alternative which puts a direct finish up thin cracks over a bulge to a grade of E1 5c. The way I climbed it the last move involved pulling up on one finger with my right hand into a dyno for a hold for the left. I didn't catch the hold and took a whipper which was a bit of a nuisance. My last piece of gear was only a meter or so below me and held (it was a micro wire!). So there we go, no onsight for me! Terry then climbed One For All, a lovely Hard Severe before we headed home.

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!