Blog Posts in Category: Locations

Via Delle Trincee / La Mesola

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Via Ferrata Short Link

After a very wet first night in the Dolomites we woke up to a fantastic day so headed up for a classic via ferrata. We decided on Via Delle Trincee / La Mesola which is predominantly a ridge traverse which provided stunning positions and views of the Dolomites. The start of the route was the crux which provided a sharp warm up, this climbing quickly lead to amazing exposure and stunning views of the Dolomites. After the first section of via ferrata we found our first evidence of the WW1 heritage, in the form of a lookout tunnel and a traverse with evidence of old buildings and fixtures in the rock. A steep down climb lead to the end of the second section of via ferrata, and most of the good climbing. The final section was filled with history with numerous WW1 buildings and lots of tunnels. This was really interesting but it must have been a hard place to have served in the war. After navigating our way around the tunnels we soon came to the end of the via ferrata, and make a quick descent down to the. Read the full article…

Walking in the Western Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Walking Short Link

At the beginning of July I headed up to the Lake District for a long birthday weekend, we spent the weekend with the Avon Mountaineering club in the beautiful but remote Duddon Valley before heading over to Eskdale on Sunday. On the first morning we woke up to a spectacular day, with almost wall to wall sunshine it doesn’t get much better in the Lake District. There was a reasonably cold wind, but this didn’t matter as we weren’t able to climb as Becky had broken her finger earlier in the week. We elected to walk the obvious circuit from the campsite which included most of the peaks around the Old Man of Conniston. The circuit was great, with a short walk up a track to a picturesk tarn before making an abrupt ascent up to the ridge which connects all of the peaks. Once we had gained most of the altitude the views were stunning in every direction. To the south west we could see down the Duddon valley and out to the sea, to the north we could see Scafell, Scafell Pike and Crinkle Crags and to the. Read the full article…

Overnight on Conival & Ben More Assynt

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

After two days of walking and a day cycling we had one day with some mild dampness, before another sustained spell of good weather. We took this as a good opportunity to enjoy a rest day before heading out for dinner. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and without a breath of wind, we quickly decided it was too hot to go walking and we needed to go and get some brunch (definitely not the wine…). As the day continued to heat up, we did indeed decide that it was too hot to enjoy walking, but we could make the most of the conditions by waiting for it to cool down before climbing Conival and sleeping on the summit. Due to the lack of phone reception we didn’t actually realise that it was forecast to be 30 degrees, or that the far north of Scotland was the hottest place in the UK. We left the car park after 7pm, and the walk up still felt brutally hot. I am pretty sure I have never been hotter walking, even in the. Read the full article…

Far North Munroe Bagging

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

We have recently got back from a trip to the far North of Scotland where we were Munro bagging and road biking. Initially we headed up about as far north as it is possible to go in Scotland to climb Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope. These are often climbed in a single day, as they are both relatively short days and are close together by road. Thankfully the weather saved us from having an epic day climbing both, as we had two days in a row with good weather in the morning and rain forecast in the afternoon. Ben Klibreck was an enjoyable walk which followed a natural ridge line up, with a feint path for most of the way. The views from the top were very different to most of Scotland, with lots of moorland combined with the views of Ben Hope, Ben Loyal and Ben Mor Assynt. Ben Hope was a very dull peak, but not as bad as Mount Keen! It was again another early start due to forecast rain, although it never materialised. The walk up was fairly harsh with lots of ascent in a very. Read the full article…

Costa Blanca Bolted Multipitch

Alastair BegleyCosta Blanca, Rock Climbing Short Link

While there is lots of excellent single pitch sport routes in the Costa Blanca, it is also an excellent destination for bolted multi pitch. This year we didn’t climb as many multi pitch routes when compared to last year, but the quality of the routes that we did climb was excellent. Carillo-Cantabella, Leyva After landing at Alicante we headed down south to Leyva, which is a spectacular mountain crag above a forrest filled valley. It is more famous for some of the harder routes, but there is an excellent mid grade route called Carillo-Cantabella. It is a five pitch f5+ with two pitches of f5+ and the rest being slightly easier. The bolting on the route was excellent, and the climbing was interesting with a technical sequence though the crux and un unexpected steep corner at the finish. Marin On the last day of the trip we headed to Marin which is 45mins away from Alicante airport. This was an excellent destination for quality lower grade short multi pitch routes, as the crag had a plentiful supply of 2 pitch bolted routes between f4 and f6a. We climbed the class f4. Read the full article…

Espolón Central

Alastair BegleyCosta Blanca, Rock Climbing Short Link

It isn’t often that a long easy rock route is quite as striking as the like of Espolón Central on Puig Campana. From the valley the climb follows the obvious ridge of rock up the centre of the rock face, which looks improbable at the grade of Hard Severe from the valley. We set off on a beautiful misty morning which gave us a beautiful inversion at the start of the walk. We had a bit of a navigational error at the start which meant that we had an unnecessarily hard time getting up onto the plateau, however we made good time up to the crag and found other teams in front of us on the route. By the time we had geared up the first pitch was free, and we didn’t need to queue again for the entire day. The climb started as it meant to carry on, with excellent well protected climbing which was interesting but not too difficult. The first five pitches gain the rocky spur at the base of the main ridge, then the next nine pitches headed straight up the main ridge. This section was the. Read the full article…

Clogwyn y Person Arete & Crib Goch

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling Short Link

We had an excellent weekend in North Wales in Snowdonia prior to Lou and Mango leaving for Munich. The first day was meant to be fairly damp, but we enjoyed a surprisingly dry day on the classic north ridge of Tryfan. Instead of heading straight down we stayed high and headed over to Y Foel Goch which was an enjoyable end to the day and it was great to see a different perspective of Snowdonia. The second day had an excellent forecast so we decided to head for the classic scramble of Clogwyn y Person Arete which climbs a ridge up towards Crib y Ddysgl. The scramble was excellent, with sustained scrambling for numerous pitches before the ridge eased and we were able to walk up to the top. It was just a shame that the route was in the shade! Unfortunately by the time we got to the top, Snowdon had started to form it’s own weather system which meant that we were still not in the promised sunshine. Thankfully we were still well below the cloud which meant that the traverse of Crib Goch was as stunning as. Read the full article…

Munro Bagging in the Cairngorms

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Walking Short Link

With the forecast far to warm to consider doing any winter climbing, it was back to Munro bagging for the last three days of our Scotland trip. On the first day we headed up to the Drumochter Pass to climb Beinn Udlamain and Sgairneach Mhor. The weather was beautiful, if not a little windy and throughout the day we were treated to fantastic views in every direction. On the second day the forecast was particularly uninspiring with extensive hill fog, lots of wind, warm temperatures and some drizzle. Due to this we elected to complete the second munro out of a pair which Becky had climbed one of previously. We made very quick progress up to 900m due to the high snow line, and there being a stalkers track most of the way up. Unfortunately once we left the first col the snow cover made for hard walking and the thick hill fog meant we were walking on a bearing and pacing to navigate. After an age of seeing only the red needle on the compass and trying to work out if I was going up or down we eventually made it to the summit,. Read the full article…