"The best climber is the one having the most fun" Alex Lowe
Winter was ending by the time I turned up. The weather system nicknamed The Beast from the East by the media had combined with Storm Emma to bring freezing conditions, blizzards and strong winds to the UK. This late season storm had been the last blast of winter. It had been gone a week when I visited the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons, but I could see the remnants of this wild weather. Read more
Forecasts of 45mph winds, with gusts up to 65mph, meant that it didn’t seem like a good idea to climb a mountain in Snowdonia last weekend. So I decided to do some fairly low level walks. On the Saturday I walked from Capel Curig to the pass near Crimpiau, and down to Llyn Crafnant. I then walked around the western shore of the lake, before heading over the ridge to Llyn Geirionydd. From there I walked through the woods back to Capel Curig. Every so often bright sunshine broke through to create more rainbows than I have ever seen on a hike. Read more
I had a fun weekend of contrasts in the Brecon Beacons, with snow and ice on the tops and waterfalls and rain in the valleys.
Delightful cottage with all mod cons, less than five minutes walk from the beach and a short walk from bouldering in a rocky cove.
OK, the advert for the holiday cottage I rented for my family holiday on Anglesey didn’t read like this. Perhaps the ad should have. It was great being able to do a little bouldering on the beach and an added selling point for staying in that part of Anglesey.
It was actually a happy coincidence that I happened to be staying close to a small bouldering venue. It was only after I’d booked the cottage that I found out about the bouldering at Lon Isallt Bay when I was researching the bouldering on Anglesey on UKClimbing.
Lon Isallt Bay is a small, pretty and sheltered cove on the Holy Island part of Anglesey between Porth Dafarch and Trearddur Bay. Read more
I really enjoy exploring new climbing venues. They’re not new in the sense that they are untouched (I don’t climb that far off the beaten track). They’re just new to me and that makes them intriguing. That is part of why I enjoyed bouldering at the RAC Boulders in Snowdonia for the first time last weekend. It really felt like a discovery because I’d driven past the RAC Boulders fifty or more times before and never realised they were there.
What I found was that the RAC Boulders are brilliant fun. There’s interesting and varied climbing on a couple of boulders with a good selection of lower to middle grade routes (which suits me). It’s also, conveniently, only a few minutes from the road while being surprisingly quiet and tranquil. Read more
I finally got a chance last weekend to do my first trad leading since my injury and surgery. After getting frustratingly rained off Stanage a few weeks ago, it was great climb in sunshine on Tryfan Bach. A day of climbing on Tryfan Bach’s beautiful slab, its with well-protected, low-grade climbs, was just what I needed to get reacquainted with leading trad and to clear my head.
My son, Leo, got to the top of his first peak today. Snuggly wrapped on his mummy’s back, he got to the top of Craig Wen in Snowdonia. Summiting a 608m peak is pretty impressive when you are eight months old, can’t walk yet and have to battle cold winds and rain. I’m proud of how well he did. It feels good to be introducing him to the mountains and I’m really looking forward to going with him to the tops of many more peaks.
I couldn’t see where the cries for help were coming from. The rocky hulk of Tryfan was almost black in the twilight and was shrouded in cloud. I could tell the shouts of help were definitely coming from high on Tryfan’s west face, but they were just disembodied voices in the growing dark.
I was in a group that had climb Tryfan earlier in the day before moving on to climb Glyder Fach next door. It was November and we had decided to head down by the Y Gribin ridge as the light dimmed. Cutting cross-country to get back to the cars, we heard cries of “help!” and headed in their direction to see what we could do. Read more
Guest Blogger – a post by my fiancee
Well, after two years following Robin up crags and cliffs, we decided that 2012 would be the year I would learn to lead. Aside from the fact that it’s frankly rather cool, I had several reasons I wanted to progress to leading. Firstly, I wanted to start pulling my own weight in our climbing partnership, we both want to have a stab at longer multi-pitch routes where leading through is necessary, and lastly, you haven’t really experienced trad climbing until you’ve been reduced to a quivering wreck…
Women usually climb very differently to men, so I decided I wanted a female guide to help me through my first foray into leading. As we climb mostly in North Wales, Robin contacted Libby Peter, and we hired her for two days at the end of July 2012. Read more
There are times when there is no doubt that you should tell someone that they’re not properly equipped for a day in the mountains and should turn back. One example of this happened earlier this month when a stag party attempted to climb Snowdon dressed in pyjamas and trainers, in a storm and by the scrambling route of Crib Goch. Unsurprisingly, this stag party got into trouble and had to be talked down by phone by mountain rescue.
According to the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, this stag party was just one recent incident of groups heading up Snowdon without suitable clothing and equipment. Although trying to climb a mountain in nightwear is an extreme example, my experience is that it’s not uncommon to come across people hiking, scrambling, rock climbing or doing via ferrata who look like they don’t have the right clothes, equipment or skills. These people can be putting themselves at risk and can take up the valuable time of mountain rescue if they get into trouble. What I wonder is whether there is a moral obligation on all of us to tell these people to turn around or change what they are doing. Read more
