Search Dog Assessment

I have been out with SARDA Wales all weekend for our autumn Search Dog assessment. Skye and I were being assessed over 3 days as a lowland Search Dog team. It was a hard and tiring weekend but I am really pleased to say that we passed and so after two and a half years of weekly training we are now a qualified search dog team. Woo hoo! Five other dogs were also assessed and all passed too so it has been a great weekend. As a reward for the dog we managed to squeeze a bit of helicopter training in this afternoon with Llanberis MRT! 

Llechog Ridge

Robin and I were joined by Will today who kindly agreed to come along for the day as belayer so that Robin could get some leading done. We headed into the Llanberis Pass and made our way up the Llechog Ridge (2). The grade 2 version on the right hand side looked ideal for today as it has been very wet, I had not done the route before and so the route finding by Robin & Will was all for real! As a scramble its not bad low down but gets a bit heathery high up, it does have some cracking views though. Robin lead the day in good style with me climbing alongside offering tips and advice. A great couple of days.

Advanced Scrambling - learning to lead

I have been out with repeat client Robin today on the Idwal Slabs. We climbed Ordinary Route in big boots to look at the skills involved in leading grade 3 scrambles. We focused on gear placements and belays before Robin lead the scramble off the top of the Slabs. We then headed over to the Gribin Facet and looked at abseil set ups. We managed to stay dry all day despite it generally being overcast, a small ray of sunshine happened to be sitting over Cwm Idwal! 

East Face of Tryfan

Simon, Kristian and I headed up Bastow Gully Buttress (3) on the East Face of Tryfan today for the second day of our advanced scrambling course. It was little damp all day but we enjoyed the route and then used the North Ridge to look at some belay skills and abseil techniques. Some wet kit to dry out tonight though! 

Advanced Scrambling Course

I have been joined by Kristian and Simon for two days of advanced scrambling here in Snowdonia. We started off on North West Face Route (2) in Cwm Idwal, traversed across onto the Idwal Staircase (2) and up into Cwm Cneifion. We then enjoyed the Cneifion Arete (3) to ourselves and even managed to stay dry all day with just the odd shower somehow always going round us rather than over us. The autumnal colours and the low light are beautiful at the moment and the hills are almost deserted too, a lovely time of year to be out. 

Summit Success on Toubkal

I got home at about 3:00am this morning from a great week in the Atlas mountains, Morocco with 7 regular clients and friend and fellow instructor Paul who has been working for me this week.

The aim of the week was to climb Toubkal which is the highest mountain in the range and indeed Northern Africa and sits at 4167m. The whole team summited the mountain and have all returned home safe and well with a host of stories of adventure under their belts. We also summited two other 4000m peaks, a 3600m high pass and climbed a lovely grade one/two snow couloir on a rest day. There was snow down to the refuge throughout the week giving winter conditions every day.

We flew out last Monday, sadly my friend and regular client Mick was unable to join us due to a family illness which meant a team of 7 clients and myself and Paul Poole. We arrived late in Marrakech after a delay on the flights and drove to the mountain village of Ilmil where we stayed a night in a pleasant hostel.

Tuesday saw us loading up the Mule team with our expedition bags and then walking upto the Refuge de Toubkal, a high mountain hut that sits at 3200m which was to be our base for the week. We made our ascent in the cloud but were treated to stunning views of the snow capped peaks as we got ever higher.

On Wednesday we had an acclimatisation walk to a high pass at 3600m. There was lots of fresh snow about, the skies were blue and we had a great forecast ahead of us. We were all blown away by the beauty of the 4000m peaks that surrounded us and enjoyed a relaxing day of sunbathing, soaking up the views and taking plenty of photos!

With a good forecast we decided that Thursday would be summit day and we awoke to clear skies and made an early start from the refuge to climb Toubkal itself. As we climbed the weather deteriorated and became very Scottish! The winds were gusting 40-50 mph, it was raining and snowing and visibility was down to a hundred metres or so. Not what we had expected in Africa! Once over 4000m Andy decided that enough was enough and turned around with Paul. The rest of us pushed on and enjoyed the summit to ourselves strangely enough! A really good effort by all concerned as it was pretty harsh weather.

Friday was a rest day to recover from the previous days struggles. I had spotted a nice looking snow couloir from the hut and so we headed up and climbed it in 5 pitches in two teams. It was about Scottish grade one/two and on lovely firm neve with a slight step at mid height to add interest. We then scrambled back down and spent the rest of the day sunbathing, relaxing and recovering.

Saturday was our final climbing day and so Andy and I headed back up Toubkal and summited in beautiful sunshine with no winds and stunning views across the rest of the Atlas mountains and out across the Sahara desert. The others climbed Ras (4083m) and Timesguida (4088m) with Paul and enjoyed similarly stunning weather and views.

In high spirits we then descended to Marrakech the following day where we enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city for a night, taking in the street markets, the food, spices, carpet sellers, camels, monkeys, cobras and snake charmers all in total contrast to our week in the mountains.

A fabulous week in an exciting and beautiful part of the world and in great company, thanks boys and girls!

Away for a week

I am heading off to the Atlas mountains in Morocco for a week today so will be out of contact until the 1st November. I look forward to showing you the photos when I get back!

ML Ropework Day

I have been out with Mark again today looking at ropework for the Mountain Leader Award. We spent the day on the crags above Bens Bunkhouse in Nant Peris and went through the different scenarios that an ML might need to resort to the use of the rope. It was generally dry all day with just the odd shower of hail and with much lower temperatures than of late. No snow on the tops yet though!