Four Days of Climbing on Cornish Granite

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

I have just got back from a brilliant four days sea cliff climbing down in Cornwall with my parents. Having spent most of July waiting for any nice weather to go on a climbing trip we were finally greeted with a a weather forecast which consisted of sun for an entire week so we headed off. On the first day we headed to Chair Ladder where we climbed a couple of VS routes to adjust to the rock, and it definitely took a bit of getting used after plenty of climbing on limestone. The first route that we climbed was South Face Direct which was graded at VS 4c, although a few moves felt hard for 4c but this was probably because we were not used to the rock. It was a great route with some stunning climbing and locations, though route finding wasn’t so straight forward and I did end up belaying in the wrong place which was slightly awkward given that we were climbing as a group of three! After we had done South Face Direct we abseiled back down and climbed a classic VS called Diocese which was VS 5a, the first. Read the full article…

Graduation!

Alastair BegleyGeneral Short Link

Something a little different to normal as last week I graduated from the University of Exeter with an engineering degree or in its longer form as a ‘Master of Engineering with Honours in Mechanical Engineering Class II Division I’. I did not know what to expect from the day but it was a truly special day, surrounded by friends and family celebrating finishing four years of study and the best four years of my life where I have done so much with caving, walking, climbing and even a bit of whitewater kayaking where I have had fantastic experiences, made amazing friends and gained many useful skills which I will take with me for the future. I am very lucky as I am leaving university with a placement on the Rolls-Royce Professional Excellence Graduate Development programme so it is after 18 years of study that I am finally leaving structured education and heading out into the working world.

First E1

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Four months, 1 week and 3 days after my first outdoor lead climb ever and first outdoor climb in 7 years I have progressed from climbing up VDiffs to now having climbed my first ‘Extremely Severe’ climb. I headed to Wintour’s Leap with my Mum due to the weather improving late in the day where we climbed an HVS called Dazed and Confused which was great and I felt great while climbing it so thought I would give my first E1 a go. After some deliberation it was decided that I would climb Ecliptic an E1 5b and it went really well with me getting to the top with a huge sense of satisfaction, though it seemed significantly less scary than when I jumped up from VS to HVS a few months ago.

Jegihorn Via Ferrata

Alastair BegleyScrambling, Switzerland Short Link

After three high mountain days we were all beginning to need a rest day but as there was only one more day of good weather forecast we decided to carry on and head up to the Jegihorn via ferrata, it is a rather special via ferrata as it climbs up to a summit of 3206m with stunning views of the Saastal mountain ranges on the ascent. The walk into the start of the via ferrata at 9am was unbelievably hot due to being sheltered from the breeze though thankfully once we arrived at the start of the route there was a breeze which reduced the temperature to a great level. The route was unlike most other via ferratas I have done as for the most part there was just a cable for protection while the climbing was scrambling on the rock and pulling on the cable which I have only encountered once before on a very hard via ferrata in Austria last year. This type of via ferrata is more fun, though it also creates more exposure due to it being harder scrambling than following metal rungs up the mountain,. Read the full article…

Weissmies SSE/WNW traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Switzerland Short Link

For me this was the aim of the trip, it is what I wanted to do if many different factors came into play and while I really wanted it to happen I was unsure if it would. Thankfully everything went perfectly and having made a choice on days based on the weather forecast we committed to the route and I am so glad we did as it was just such a fantastic two days as it had everything that an alpine route should have (apart from bad food at the hut!) as it had a beautiful sunrise, an amazing cloud inversion, a snow slope, a rock ridge, a sharp snow arête, great descent, glacier crossing and a different descent to ascent. We approached the hut via the Furggstalden ‘via ferrata’ to add a bit more interest to the long ascent to the hut (almost 1000m) in the strong afternoon sunlight, it was a lovely ascent just very hot and I struggled with a very painful back due to carrying the rope and have now decided that my bag isn’t great at carrying large loads for extended periods of time. I was hugely. Read the full article…

Allalinhorn

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Switzerland Short Link

After a very successful first week in the French Alps we headed out to the Saastal area of the Valais in Switzerland. We had a very rainy drive over and put the tent up in showers but the forecast for the rest of the week was positive though it turned out to be a lot better than expected for alpine stuff due to being more concerned about the morning than afternoon. I was leading three of my friends as none of them had been to the alps before, walked on a rope and one of them hadn’t even worn crampons. Due to this we started on an easy first peak called the Allalinhorn where it’s possible to get a cable car and underground railway up to 3454m which meant that with 575m of ascent it was possible to get to the summit of a 4027m peak which is fairly impressive! The other reason for doing this peak was for more acclimatisation purposes before we attempted the Weissmies later in the week. On leaving the underground railway we were greeted by very hot weather so we started walking in tshirts on very soft snow, which. Read the full article…

Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

Towards the end of my first week in the French Alps I headed up the Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere (3751m) on my own which made it my first solo alpine summit, this was due to having left the hut to hut walk early due to a member of the group injuring their knee. Choices for the route I was going to do was limited as it had to be a single day route, had to not involve a glacier crossing and also had to not involve any technical climbing. This lead me to an obvious choice of the Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere as it is a simple rock ridge, followed by a snow ridge, snow slope and rock ascent to the summit. I set off from Le Saut at 4am in the pitch black and managed to find the small path up through the meadows which was a brutal ascent up to the start of the ridge, but thankfully as it was 4am there was no sun and it was very cold, this combined with not actually being able to see how far up I had to go. Read the full article…

Tour of the Vanoise

Alastair BegleyFrance, Walking Short Link

Along with a friend I was involved in organising a hut to hut walk somewhere in the Alps this summer for fifteen members of my university expedition society. We decided to head to the Vanoise National Park where there is a dedicated hut to hut walk called the GR55 or the ‘Tour of the Vanoise’. The entire route is a 10-12 day tour but due to only having a weeks holiday we modified the route slightly just to do the eastern loop of the Vanoise over five days. The route was to start and finish at Tignes 1800 where we were staying in a youth hostel and headed up to the Refuge de la Leisse on the first night, before carrying on to the Refuge du Lac Blanc on the second night, Refuge de Vallonbrun on the third night before descending down into Bonneval-sur-Arc before the final days walking up to the Col de l’Iseran and heading down into Val d’Isere. The first days walking started out in the rain though with the forecast set to improve we were optimistic, though there was an extra 300m of height gain todo. Read the full article…