Scrambling in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Scrambling Short Link

Last weekend I ran a trip up to the Lake District with my university’s expedition society. The aim of this trip was always to do some great scrambling and thankfully we got the weather as the wind was not too strong, it didn’t rain in the daytime and we even had some nice views on both days! Last time I was in the lake district scrambling was 7 years ago where I remember climbing the grade 3*** route up Pinnacle Ridge with my parents and while we were at the top eating lunch we had a flypast by the red arrows. The routes we did this weekend were much easier but still very enjoyable and were the two grade 1*** routes in the Lake District. On Saturday we headed up Blencathra via Sharp Edge and down Hall’s Fell ridge which was a lovely route which actually took us a surprisingly small amount of time and we were finished in time for the rugby! The great thing about Sharp Edge is the view that you get of the ridge as you walk in and with people that had not done much scrambling before. Read the full article…

Winter Climbing in South Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

This cold spell that is currently all over the UK has advantages for those of us that are mad enough to go winter climbing and after some snow and a cold spell there is some great winter climbing up the north face of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. Thursday saw me take a day off university and head over to the brecons with my mum for a day out in perfect weather with sun all day and cold temperatures. Due to it not having risen above freezing all week the snow was still powdery but that didn’t matter due to it being so cold the turf had frozen up nicely which is the important thing on Pen y Fan. It was a bit of an odd way of starting a climb as to get to the base we had to walk up to the summit of Pen y Fan to descend down the other side just to climb back up the north face. Though this did mean we got fantastic views on the way up with the early morning sun. When we got to the base of the. Read the full article…

When Scottish Weather Fights Back!

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Over the new year I headed up to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands for some winter mountaineering and climbing, the weather however thought otherwise! Over the 9 days we were up there we had to battle with gale force winds most days, rain/snow every day though due to a thaw there was no snow when we got there, but the fresh snow then lead onto having too much snow with a huge avalanche risk! We did however do stuff on all but one day which was the day the whole of the UK was hit with storm force winds! Over the course of the week there wasn’t a time when there was snow and a low avalanche risk so we couldn’t get in any winter climbing, though we did manage two great ridge walks in winter conditions and another aborted walk in winter conditions. On the days that we couldn’t walk due to the weather being too bad we went biking at low level, but on each day we went biking we kept finding closed paths due to storm damage, we ignored these signs on the first day and ended up having to. Read the full article…