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…

Rock climbing in Borrowdale

Alastair BegleyLake District, Rock Climbing Short Link

On our bank holiday weekend in the Lake District we managed to do a surprising amount of climbing considering the amount of rain which was pouring down over the rest of the country. On Sunday when we drove up after the tents were setup we headed to Shepards Crag in Borrowdale where I lead the classic VS which was Adam. I found it fairly high end for VS due to some tricky climbing and also some runout section on easier climbing higher up the route. Having said this the climbing was fantastic, it was my first time on the rock type which is found on Borrowdale which is a kind of volcanic rock and thought it was fantastic. After this Dad lead Aaros which was my first E1, albiet seconding not leading, but was great to get some harder climbing under my belt as a second to improve my own climbing. After we finished our 6 hour mountain day on Monday and got back to the campsite, instead of relaxing and enjoying the sun we headed out to Quayfoot Buttress to climb Mandrake. Mandrake was a fantastic HVS which had. Read the full article…

Classic Scrambling in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Scrambling Short Link

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend I was originally planning on heading to Pembroke to go sea cliff climbing with my parents however the weather had other ideas and due to a forecast of wind, cloud and rain we played a game of hunt the good weather. As in general the good weather was up north we headed up to the lake district to go scrambling and rock climbing there, but we were armed with guide books for Snowdonia, Yorkshire and the Peak District in case we had to chase the good weather around in the north. The best forecast of the week was on Monday so we went for a mountain scrambling day in the sun and headed up to Great Gable via Napes Needle. Here we did a modification to the classic grade 2*** route which involved ‘Threading the Needle’, scrambling up Eagles Nest Gully, Arrowhead ridge and finishing up Pinnacle Ridge on Westmorland crags. It was a fantastic day out and the weather was clearing throughout the entire day and after the first half an hour we spent the entire day in t-shirts in the sun. It was fantastic. Read the full article…

Sea Cliff Climbing in North Devon and West Cornwall

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

With the continuation of the recent good weather and having effectively finished my degree I have been making the most of the sun. Due to this last week I headed to Baggy Point in North Devon and Bosigran in West Cornwall to go sea cliff climbing. On Thursday I headed to Baggy Point with my housemate and we went to one of the few slabs that are not restricted due to bird bans. When we got there there was a thick sea mist covering everything but as it was still warm and was forecast to clear we headed to the crag. As we abseiled down to the foot of the climb it was still foggy but as soon as I started climbing it cleared and became a fantastically sunny day. Abseiling into the base of a sea cliff makes the climb much more committing than a climb at a normal crag where you can walk down to the base, combine this with having to climb before the tide comes back in makes it a surreal experience. The section of Baggy Point that we headed to was called The Promontory and. Read the full article…

Olympic Torch on Clifton Suspension Bridge

Alastair BegleyGeneral Short Link

Having missed the Olympic Torch in Exeter due to heading home to go rock climbing, I figured I should probably see it in Bristol. On the morning I was due to go back to Exeter the flame was leaving Bristol via the Clifton Suspension Bridge, this seemed like an iconic place to go and see the flame. So with a very early start and hoping the fog would burn off on the drive there we headed to Bristol. We got to the suspension bridge about 40mins before it was due so managed to get a great location viewing the suspension bridge from the side. The fireworks and streamers were a surprise as the runner crossed the bridge, once the runner was across I went for a run along Clifton Down to keep up with the flame for more photo opportunities. It was a great morning and there could not have been better weather for it and I am very glad I went to see it in the end as I nearly didn’t go which would have been a shame for such a once in a lifetime event.