Blog Posts in Category: Locations

Le Buet Traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

After driving through the night to get to Chamonix, we arrived early in the morning to be greeted by heavy rain. Due to the forecast saying that the weather would improve as the evening approached, we headed off on our pre planned acclimatisation route. Our plan was to head up the valley from Le Buet to a few hundred meters above the Refuge de la Pierre a Berard where we were going to wild camp before heading up to Le Buet the following day before descending via Le Cheval Blanc and the Col de la Terrasse. The weather had started to look bright so we headed up the valley, but unfortunately the rain hadn’t finished and we got hit by another heavy shower on the way up. Eventually we reached an excellent bivi spot with flat ground, plenty of access to water and a stunning view. It started raining very heavily just before we headed to bed, and I learnt the hard way that getting into a bivi bag in the rain without getting everything wet is a tad awkward, but I was very pleased to end up in a. Read the full article…

Climbing & Wild Camping on Cloggy

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

In order to make the most of the brilliant weather we are currently experiencing, myself and Nick took some impromptu holiday and headed up to North Wales for two days of mid week climbing. Online reports were suggesting that the eternally wet Cloggy (Clogwyn Du’r Arddu) was dry, so we decided to head up for two days of wild camping and climbing on Cloggy. We left Llanberis early in the morning with ridiculously heavy rucksacks, it turns out that climbing and wild camping gear combined are pretty heavy and we were both pretty glad to get to where we were going to camp. After relaxing in the sun for a bit while we put the tent up and boiled some water to rehydrate we headed up to the base of the cliff. The first route we climbed was an E2 called Jelly Role, the first pitch of which is always wet and the guidebook description made it sound awful, and it didn’t look any better while we were there. I was supposed to be leading this wide, wet, slimy crack but I couldn’t sum up the courage to leave the. Read the full article…

Classic climbing in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Rock Climbing Short Link

Both of the previous bank holiday weekends have involved good weather and very little traffic, both of these rare events had to come to an end at some point. On the journey up, while stationary in yet another traffic jam, I was pondering why I was bothering heading up to the Lakes for the weekend due to the awful forecast. After what seemed like a very long drive we eventually arrived at the campsite, and we arrived in between the showers which was great. Shepherds Crag The first day was supposed to have a weather window in the morning before the rain arrived, so I headed to Shepherds Crag with Rich to get some early climbing in. The first route we jumped on was The Bludgeon, a two pitch E1. Rich headed up the first pitch which has some straightforward but rather bold climbing, which wasn’t helped by the damp rock. Once I arrived at the belay I wasn’t feeling too psyched due to the start of the route being soaking wet litchen covered rock, which means it has no grip. After traversing away from the belay I ended up. Read the full article…

Classic Climbing in North Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

I have just returned from an absolutely fantastic weekend in North Wales with the Avon Mountaineering Club. I spent the weekend climbing with Andrew, and we made the most of the dry weather by spending two days climbing in the Pass and one day climbing at Tremadog. Having never climbed in the Pass before, I never quite understood the hype about it, however having climbed there it is an utterly inspiring place, with great lines, on good rock, in a fantastic setting, what more could you want! Over the weekend we successfully climbed 6 routes, of which 5 were Rockfax top 50 lines, and I also got spanked by an E2 at Tremadog. The final ticklist for the weekend was: We woke up on the first morning expecting it to be freezing due to a frost being forecast, however it was surprisingly warm. After a quick breakfast we headed out of the campsite early to ensure we got a parking space at the boulders before all the spaces were pinched by walkers. After a short walk and scramble we were soon at the small ledge at the base of Cenotaph Corner,. Read the full article…

Central Gully on Lurcher’s Crag

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Another good weather forecast meant we could get another day out winter climbing, however due to the avalanche risk it was necessary to chose a route carefully. We decided to head to Lurcher’s crag to climb Central Gully as it was west-south-west facing and we knew that it had been climbed recently. After my big day yesterday I was feeling very tired this morning when I woke up and wasn’t feeling too optimistic due to cloud cover and drizzle. However, as we drove over to the Caingorms it began to clear and we had a fantastic walk in with beautiful scenery. Snow conditions under foot were great due to having refrozen, however the route through the Chalamain Gap was awkward with iced up rock and lots of wind and spindrift being funnelled through the gap. The view down the Lairig Ghru as we traversed around to Lurcher’s crag was fantastic as it was lit up in the sunlight, however it was an awkward traverse with more icy rocks. We were expecting to be following others up due to the footprints in front of us but thankfully everyone else headed up. Read the full article…

Ledge Route & Carn Mor Dearg Arete

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

With a good weather forecast and still not much in condition for climbing due to loaded slopes I decided to have a big day out mountaineering on the Ben. My plan was to head up to the CIC hut and solo Ledge Route before heading up to the summit of Ben Nevis and then descend via the classic Carn Mor Dearg Arete. It became clear on the drive over that the weather wasn’t as nice it was was forecast to be, but I was up and driving so I carried on. On the walk up through the forest it started raining fairly heavily which soon turned to snow once I exited the forest, this made the walk up to the CIC hut a fairly damp affair. I made good time and was at the CIC hut in 1hr20mins despite headwinds and snow below the hut, there were a number of other parties out heading for objectives such as waterfall gully and one party was planning on heading to the Minus Face. I was grateful of the party heading to Waterfall gully as it meant that I could use their footprints. Read the full article…

Golden Oldy

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

With the snowpack still not stable on north through east facing aspects and a good day of weather forecast we decided to head over to the west face of Aonach Mor to climb Golden Oldy. It became clear in the morning that it wasn’t going to be as nice a day as forecast as the wind was pretty strong at the gondola station and it was snowing. The approach to Golden Oldy was really hard work due to deep snow with a murderous crust. By using the gps and a good set of directions we managed to find the start of Golden Oldy without any difficulty where we were met by three parties behind us and it was good to get some confirmation that we were at the base of the route. I soloed the entire ridge while Richard and David moved together alpine style. The conditions on the ridge were fantastic with mostly helpful snow however the weather was awful with lots of wind, spindrift and hill fog. As we approached the snow aretes towards the top of the ridge there was no exposed rock which made protection hard. Read the full article…

Raeburn’s Route

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

After 2 days of walking into crags with winter climbing gear, just to turn back around due to a mixture of bad weather and snow it was great to get out and actually climb something. We left the car at 8 and made quick time up to the coire as we made it up in 1hr20mins. It was a very pleasant walk in with little wind, no rain and even some frozen snow on the old footprints. We cautiously made our way up to the start of Twisting Gully however we turned back just before the gully entrance due to large accumulations of windslab. We then made a new plan, as we knew Mike Pescod climbed Raeburn’s route the day before we headed over to that and were soon at the initial chimney. The first pitch was absolutely fantastic with really interesting climbing, however the climbing was fairly insecure as there was lots of useless snow and almost no gear. It certainly got the adrenalin flowing at times as most of the 6 pieces I placed on a 50m pitch were just for my head… Andrew made quick work of. Read the full article…