Sunrise from the Cat’s Back

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

My parents live just below the Black Mountains in Herefordshire, and they are lucky enough to have one of the best ridges in South Wales on their doorstep. On a map it just looks like a small spur on the edge of the Black Mountains, which I suppose it is but it more than makes up for it as it is a superb ridge with fantastic views to the north over the Golden Valley and to the south of Offa’s Dyke. After the recent snow, and with an excellent forecast for the next morning it seemed like a good opportunity to get out and try and capture the ridge during sunrise. Due to the snow getting to the start of the ridge was challenging and involved the snow chains, but it was certainly worth it.

Skirrid

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Due to a very windy forecast we decided to head out for a short walk at a relatively low altitude, as even on the summit of Sugar Loaf the wind was 40mph gusting to 60mph. We decided to head up the small peak of Skirrid, which is to the east of the Black Mountains, and as it turns out has a fantastic view of Sugar Loaf and the Black Mountains. The walk around the base was pleasant, but a bit breezy. As we ascended up the steep north ridge it got progressively more windy, until about 10m below the summit. At this point the wind became exceedingly strong, to the point that standing up was very difficult! After a very quick walk down the south ridge we were back at the car in time to go for Sunday lunch at the Skirrid Inn.

Carnedd Llewelyn from Llyn Eigiau

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Walking Short Link

After a very warm January we were not expecting there to be snow on the mid January Avon Mountaineering Club’s trip to North Wales. However the winter seems to have just about started and we enjoyed a nice snowy walk in the Carneddau. The weather forecast was fairly mixed with one forecast suggesting that west was best and the other suggesting that east was best. Due to this we decided to go north in the hope we would get the best of what was available. The weather during the day was fine, it was cool and dry without much wind, but there was cloud above 600m all day which meant that we didn’t get any views which was a bit of a shame. We decided to walk up Carnedd Llewelyn from the northeast from Cwm Eigiau. Our plan was the walk up to Bwlch Eryl Farchog before heading to the summit having found a route from trail magazine which recommended it. However this didn’t look very probably from the bottom, and looked even less probable from the start of the steep bit. Due to this we retraced our steps and. Read the full article…

2018 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, General, Landscape, Mountaineering Short Link

Looking back over 2018 it is safe to say that photographically it was a year dominated by snow for me. In the UK we had an exceptional winter which just went on and on, combined with my summer of road cycling which resulted in very few photographs and then an alpine summer which resulted in more snowy photographs. UK Winter Our winter in the UK started with a weekend trip up to Scotland to see some of our friends before they departed to New Zealand for 2 years. We had an enjoyable day walking before a day hiding from the weather. We then were able to make the most of the excellent winter by getting some winter walking done in the Lake District on the Avon Mountaineering Club’s annual winter Lakes trip. Unfortunately due to the quantity of snow it was not possible to climb, but it was certainly a beautiful day. It was then time for the annual AMC trip to Scotland. This year was the first time the AMC went to Torridon for a week. The week of the trip happened to coincide with the beast from the. Read the full article…

Walking in the Brecon Beacons

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

After an unhealthy Christmas and New Year we were keen to get out walking this weekend. With a cold and dry but very cloudy forecast we headed over to the Brecon Beacons to do the circuit up Craig y Fan Ddu until point 754, before heading over to Fan y Bîg, Cribyn, Pen y Fan, Corn Du and back down the ridge to the lower Neuadd Reservoir. The light throughout the day was very strange due to there being a lower layer of grey cloud and an upper layer of white cloud. We spend most of the delay below the cloud, other than the top of Pen y Fan. It was very cold in the wind, and it certainly felt like our first winter day out this year! Due to a big fell race it was not quite the quiet day out walking we had planned, but it was still enjoyable to be out. It ended up being a 19km walk which we made good time on, we were back home in Bristol by 4pm.