Blog Posts in Category: Locations

RAF flying low level in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyAviation, North Wales Short Link

This week I headed up to the “Mach Loop” in Snowdonia to take pictures of the RAF practising their low level flying, it had been 15 months since I was last there due to work levels over the past year and 12 months since I last went to a lowfly area. The trip was cut short by a day at the start of the week and a day at the end of the week due to the awful welsh weather, the weather however while we were in the hills was ok good with not much rain though mainly overcast skies and lots of wind! There was so much wind at times standing up was difficult. The traffic was a little slow on all of the days and was mainly hawks this was due to RAF valley being on nights this week and 3 squadrons of Tornado GR4s overseas on training or operational duties. On the first day we were still being battered by really strong winds which made it difficult to stand up at times and was very cold, though at times the sun was out. I was expecting to blank due to the. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in the Austrian Alps

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria, Landscape, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

As you may be aware from my previous blog post I have just got back from a family holiday in the Austrian Alps, we went to an area called Saalbach-Hinterglem to do mountaineering, walking and downhill biking. This post will cover the mountaineering and walking and at some point some waterfall and river photos may or may not appear. When we left for the holiday we were hoping to be able to climb Austria’s heighest mountain but as with all the best laid plans, that fell through due to the weather not being good enough in the second week and due to the height of the peak it is not a good idea to be up there in bad weather! And also as the hut for this route was at 3400m we could not do it in the first week as we had to acclimatise. It was however still a great holiday for walking and mountaineering as we managed to do a couple of great Via Ferratas, one of them being the first one that I have actually found challenging and by the time I got to the top I could hardly lift my arms. Read the full article…

Downhill Biking in the Austrian Alps

Alastair BegleyAustria, Sports Short Link

I have just got back from a family holiday in the Austrian Alps, we went to an area called Saalbach-Hinterglem to do mountaineering, walking and downhill biking. This post will cover the downhill biking but the other two will be appearing at some point over the next few days. It is great biking in the alps as instead of having to spend ages pushing heavy downhill bikes to the top like in the UK and just because you do not cycle uphill does not mean it is not tiring, Especially when the runs have up to 1000m vertical descent and in a few hours you do 5000, of descent! The biking there was great and I did a mixture of biking with people I met on the lifts, with the owners of the chalet we were staying in and my family/friends. It is the first time I have ridden in the Alps with my camera and I am very pleased that I did! The runs were a great mixture of fast flowing open sections and very technical sections in woods. When I rode the x-Line which is the route with. Read the full article…

Vulcan and BBMF Low Level!

Alastair BegleyAviation, Lake District Short Link

This weekend was Windermere air show which is unique in the fact that it is in a mountainous area which means that it is possible to stand on a hill and take pictures of the aircraft displaying below you. Two years ago the Vulcan displayed there and I have been waiting for her to display there again ever since as the photos from it were just surreal. I did go last year but the Vulcan was not displaying and the weather was awful to say the least! On the Tuesday before the show the Vulcan confirmed to display so a last minute change of plans lead me to get up at 2:30am on Saturday morning to drive up to the Lake District from Bristol to ensure I got a parking place and a place on the small crag that is the best place to take photos from. Thankfully the weather was stunning and in addition to the Vulcan the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight were also displaying which meant that we got to see a Lancaster and Spitfire low level too and also them in formation at low level! When the Vulcan was due. Read the full article…

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia for a long weekend of scrambling and mountaineering with the Expedition Society from my university. As we headed up the forecast was not looking good at all but we all remained positive and the weather was better than initially forecast though we did have to alter our routes slightly due to the weather. On Saturday we scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan which is a fantastic scramble though unfortunately when we went up we were in hill fog and rain which remained until we had left the summit but as we were walking up to the Glyders after Tryfan it cleared beautifully and we were treated to fantastic views and sun. This improved weather stayed all evening which enabled us to have a BBQ to end a great day. On Sunday our plan was to do the Snowdon Horseshoe which is one of the classic routes in Snowdonia which includes Crib Goch which is a fantastic knife edge ridge. As it was a bank holiday weekend we headed to the car park for 7:30 to ensure we got a space as it fills up early and. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

In my previous blog post I described the first half of the week I spent in Scotland (click here) and this is how the rest of the week went now I am back at home after a long drive back from Fort William. Wednesday was a wash out due to heavy rain all day causing severe weather warnings to be issued for the western highlands so we stayed at the house for most of the day apart from half an hour when we headed out to the loch near the house we were staying in and in the process of doing that got soaked! The weather did however improve on Thursday so we headed out for another attempt at Aonach Mor but this time via a gully on the western side of the ridge but due to a lack of snow in the gullies from the warm conditions we ended up just doing an improvised scramble up to the top which was great fun and challenging in a few places but not before we practised some glissading on a small patch of snow we found in the valley.  When we got to the top we were greeted by our first view of. Read the full article…

Winter Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking, Winter Climbing Short Link

This week I am up in Scotland with my university’s expedition society to do winter mountaineering. We have however been plagued with poor weather and lack of snow since we have been here but thankfully that has not stopped us! On the first day we went up to Stob Ban to teach winter techniques to the unexperienced people in the group showing them how to use ice axes and crampons and do important techniques such as ice axe arrests. Due to the ridge to the summit being on cloud for most of the day we did not head up to the summit and ended up just teaching in an area of snow we found near the coll. On the second day gale forces were forecast but we decided to give walking a try and headed up to Aonach Mor but it turned out the forecast was correct and when we got to the gondola station we were in the cloud with horizontal rain and winds that seriously impeded motion. Due to this we just headed back down the downhill track which looked like an amazing track to bike on which I plan. Read the full article…

Cockpits of the RAF’s Fast Jets

Alastair BegleyAviation, North Wales Short Link

Due to various reasons recently I have not had time to do all that much photography and have not done any low level photography since October, so I have been spending some spare time re-processing some low level photos from this summer just to focus in on the cockpits. Thankfully in a week I spent in Snowdonia and the Lake Disctict photographing them at low level in June I had passes from all three of the RAF’s fast jets at the time, the training version of the Harrier Jump Jet the T12, The GR4 version of the Tornado and FGR4 and finally the training version of the Eurofighter Typhoon the T3. Though now unfortunately the Harrier Jump Jet has been retired from service so this is the last time I ever saw one.