Climbing on the Milestone

Gareth, Chris and I have headed to the Milestone Buttress in the Ogwen Valley today to progress their climbing as a self sufficient team. They lead Rowan Route and Pulpit Route for themselves with me alongside offering advice when needed - which wasn't very often at all as they are both super competent. They also arranged two abseils for themselves, recovering the rope successfully on the second one :-). It was dry all day and sheltered from the wind so it was a lovely day.

Castell Helen

The boys and I have been enjoying the sunshine on Anglesey today. We climbed Lighthouse Arete Direct on Castell Helen this morning and then headed over to Holyhead Mountain to look at gear placements and belay building this afternoon. It has been an absolute scorcher, welcome summer!

Tremadog

It has been a beautiful sunny day at Tremadog today and Gareth, Chris and I were climbing in T-Shirst - hard to believe after yesterdays damp and cold! We climbed Hail Bebe (V Diff) and Oberon (S) progressing the boys multi pitch climbing and abseiling skills and soaking up the sun - lovely!

Climbing on the Idwal Slabs

I have been joined for the week by regular clients Gareth and Chris for our 5 day learn to lead climbing course here in Snowdonia. Despite a misty, moist start to the day it actually stayed dry and we climbed on the Idwal Slabs to give a multi pitch start to our week, refreshing old skills and adding some new ones. The boys lead the scramble descent for themselves and we had the crag to ourselves.

Triglav Success

I have been in the Julian Alps of Slovenia this week with Adele, Rachel, Rick, Simon and fellow instructor Tarquin. Its been a superb week of lovely weather and mountaineering, although a tad colder than last year meaning there has been a bit more snow about. We kicked the week of with a 3 day journey to climb Triglav and neighbouring Kanjavec, staying at the Triglavski Dom and the Dolic Hutte along the way. A great effort all round - well done folks!

Having descended to the valley the team then climbed to the window on Prisojnik via its North Face, descending the South Face to give a brilliant round trip. Soak up the photos!

Slovenia - Julian Alps

I am in Slovenia this week, enjoying the wildlife, hospitality and majesty of the Julian Alps. These beautiful limestone mountains sit on the border of Austria and Italy and at this time of year offer a quiet and stunning beautiful setting to enjoy some great trekking and easy scrambling. The autumnal colours are always a real treat and with a good forecast for the week ahead we should have a lot of fun - bring it on!

Tour of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team Base

Have you ever wondered what its like inside a Mountain Rescue base? Come and have a guided tour...

August was the busiest month ever for the Llanberis MRT

In my spare time I am the current Chairman of the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team. I generally avoid blogging about anything rescue related but last month was the busiest month in the teams history with 34 rescues in 31 days - thats a big ask for a group of volunteers. You can read the full story here: http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=69944

One Step in the Clouds

I have bene out with Charlie & Dan again today and having scoured the weather reports the obvious choice was Tremdaog - its didn't disappoint and we enjoyed wall to wall sunshine all day! The boys were climbing well and we used Oberon (S) to look at climbing in parallel and abseil retreats and  One Step in the Clouds (VS 4c) to look at multi-pitch climbing in series. A great day out, thanks boys.

Climbing & Surfing

We have had some nice sunshine on the coast the last couple of days and so I have been enjoying some climbing and surfing. Today I have been out with Charlie & Dan who are on my mentor scheme. We were looking at teaching lead climbing and at the same time developing the boys coaching and climbing. Each of them had lead a VS route in the past but managed to climb two each today so a great effort. The surf has been messy because of the wind for those that are interested in such things :-)