Morwind – Aonach Mor

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

I was pretty keen to get out today after spending a blue sky day in bed yesterday due to feeling ill, however the forecast was less than promising. We decided to head up Aonach Mor due to the lift allowing us to have a lie in, surprisingly due to the wind the chair lift was running which enabled us to get very high on the mountain without doing any work. Conditions on the mountain were terrible at the start of the day, with warm air, hill fog and lots of wind. We made our way up to the summit hut and were sheltering behind the hut trying to decide if it was worth going for a climb. Eventually we decided to abseil down Easy Gully and have a look, with the idea that if the conditions were bad then we would walk around to the climbers col. As we made our way down Easy Gully we met up with another pair who were heading for White Shark, which looked like it was in pretty good condition, but I don’t know how they got on. As we got to the base. Read the full article…

Green Gully

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

I had a brilliant first winter climb of the season today, and what a contrast to last year as the weather and conditions were fantastic. We climbed Green Gully. and the conditions were fantastic. We had first time placements all the way up, some of the gear wasn’t brilliant due to this and the top belay above the last crux step was awful. The climbing was brilliant and the route was not banked out or stepped out at all which made the climbing much more enjoyable. The walk in was beautiful as the sky was completely clear and starlit, it was a shame that there was no moon as I have fond memories of walking into a moonlit Ben Nevis. Due to a very early start it was still very dark by the time we were at the CIC hut and started the next slog up into Coire na Ciste. During this walk we met up with an SMC member who had been staying in the CIC hut, apparently Point Five was climbed yesterday and was reported to be in good condition. The snow was not ideal for walking up, but. Read the full article…

A fantastic 2014 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, General Short Link

As we are fast approaching the end of the year I figured it was probably time to have a look back through what I have been up to this year. It has been a fairly contrasting year when compared to last year, which was mostly significant due to the significant amount I achieved in winter and in the Alps. However, this year with terrible weather and conditions during winter in the UK and in the Alps during summer. Despite this I still managed some great routes in Scotland and had an even better time in the Alps taking some chances and being lucky with weather and conditions on the routes we did manage. This was also the first year I have undertaken technical & committing routes in the Alps, rather than busy trade routes, and I am now looking forward to more alpine adventures in 2015. The Flèche Rousse, North Ridge of the Weissmies and the North Face of the Tour Ronde were all long, serious and committing routes. On the first two routes there was no one else attempting the routes which makes you feel very isolated and committed. Additionally,. Read the full article…

Walking on the Black Mountain

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

I have just returned from a rare weekend away walking in the mountains of Wales. On Friday after work I headed out to the Back Mountain with the Avon Mountaineering Club for a fun weekend of walking, drinking and playing silly games. We were staying in the quiet valley of Ystradfellte, as per usual in winter we arrived in the dark so it was great to wake up and be greeted by views the next morning. In order to make the most of the weather we made a reasonably early start, defrosted the cars and headed over to Glyntawe which was at the base of an obvious ridge up to Fan Brycheiniog. We were supposed to be meeting Phil at the car park, who had decided it would be a good idea to get up 2 hours before daylight and walk to meet us there! This didn’t quite go to plan and he was a bit delayed, so Pete and I decided to stay and wait for him while the others headed up the mountain, the idea was that we would catch them up. Phil was only shortly behind and we headed. Read the full article…

Sandbagged by my mother in Cornwall…

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

I have just returned from the Avon Mountaineering Club’s annual September trip to Cornwall, we were staying in the fantastically located Count House which is located right next to Bosigran. It felt more like mid summer than mid autumn during the trip thanks to warm weather, blue skies and plenty of sun. On the first day I headed down to Bosigran with Rich with the aim of climbing Bow Wall and Suicide Wall. I had been debating Bow Wall all week as it is a super classic E2, however it has a reputation for being hard, speaking to my mum earlier in the week she informed me that “I don’t remember it being too hard, you will be fine”. From the bottom the line looks pretty intimidating and I jumped on the route as the first route of the day, before I could get cold feet. The start of the first pitch was easy but pretty bold climbing, but thankfully the gear improved as the climbing got harder. I was soon at the first crux, a steep crack up to the base of a large overhang, after arranging gear I was. Read the full article…

Lundy Rock Climbing

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

After visiting Lundy for the first time last year I have been looking forward to heading back to the island this year. Since getting back from the alps the excitement had really been building as I got back to full climbing fitness and started reading the guidebook and creating a very long and ambitious ticklist. As my last few days at work dragged on I found myself spending more and more time looking at the forecast charts and getting over excited as it looked like a stable period of high pressure was building, and this weather didn’t disappoint as we had 4 days of sunshine! We had a very successful trip where over the course of 4 days we climbed 14 routes with 26 pitches, 32 stars and which totalled 714m of vertical climbing. The highlights of the trip for me were: Day 0 We drove down to North Devon on the Friday evening so that we didn’t have to get up early to make the drive down to catch the ferry. We left Bristol in good time and decided to make the most of the evening light by heading to. Read the full article…

South Devon Climbing

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Armed with a positive forecast I made the decision to head down to South Devon for 2 days with Tom over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon we headed down to Berry Head where we climbed the classic HVS Moonraker before heading to the Dewerstone on Sunday to climb the classic Central Groove and Gideon. Moonraker is described as “One of the UK’s greatest HVSs” which is quite a statement and was always going to be hard to live up to, it is also a bit of an adventure as to approach the base of the route you have to solo a low tide traverse, which is graded around Severe. This traverse makes the route seem far more committing, as you either have to climb the route or swim out… The route was fantastic with P1 and P3 being the highlight, P1 was very steep and sustained with some fantastic exposure and P3 was an outrageously steep but amenable corner, looking down was very exciting at this point! While we were climbing we had a number of highs thanks to the fantastic climbing and wildlife keeping us company, however we did. Read the full article…

Rébuffat Route – Aiguille Du Midi

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

With yet another weather window of only one day we decided to head up the Aiguille du Midi cable car and climb the classic Rébuffat Route on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi. It was very bizarre being in Chamonix in the morning and an hour later rock climbing at 3800m. The descent down the arete out of the Midi was spectacular with a massive cloud inversion, with only some of the larger peaks sticking out of the cloud, during the approach to the midi and on the descent it became clear that there had been a large amount of snow in the previous days storm, this combined with the very cold air temperatures made us wonder if the route would be climbable. As we approached the climb there were two parties in front of us, but it turned out that they were backing off due to ice. We decided that it didn’t look that bad and decided to continue and have a look for ourselves, and I am so glad we did! We decided to climb the route with our boots and crampons at the bottom, with. Read the full article…