Rock Climbing at Portishead Quarry

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Today was certainly a plan c day, but it turned out to be a great day out. During the week I was trying to find someone to go to Scotland with me for the weekend, however all my regular partners were busy so it didn’t happen. In order to make the most of the good weather I then made plans with Neil to head up to the Peak for the day on Saturday to do some rock climbing. However early on Saturday morning the weather forecast changed to be for rain in the Peak, due to this we had a lie in and went climbing locally instead. The main slab at Portishead Quarry is a fantastic looking bit of rock, which surprised us both and once we arrived we were very keen to start climbing. Due to the aspect of the rock and surrounding quarry we were in the sun and sheltered from the wind which was fantastic as it meant that we could climb in base layers in January which was fantastic. We started up Pharos (HS) which was straightforwards but lovely climbing and a good warm up as. Read the full article…

A wild day in Coire an t-Sneachda

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

After looking at the weather forecast Zack somehow persuaded me that it would be a good idea to get up early on new years day and drive over to the caingorms. So after being careful not to drink too much on Hogmanay we drive over to the Caingorms with 3.5hrs sleep! When we got to the car park I had a feeling we might be unsuccessful when we had to fully kit ourselves out to protect from the spindrift and wind, and this was at the car park! On the walk up we battled against the wind and the horrible melt-freeze crust on the wind scoured areas and eventually made it to the coire. The view behind us on the walk up was spectacular, snow covered mountains in the sun! Apparently a team headed up to Mess of Pottage but we couldn’t see them, another team had turned around in front of us due to the wind and we saw a few people on our way back down who thought they were going to get to the coire and turn back. Our conversation to decide if we were going to. Read the full article…