Blog Posts in Category: Mountaineering

Tomaselli via ferrata

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Via Ferrata Short Link

With a poor afternoon forecast we decided to have an early start on the Tomaselli via ferrata in order to avoid the crowds and make sure we were back down before the rain arrived. Apparently this route used to have the reputation of being the hardest via ferrata in the Dolomites. We joined the many other vans sleeping at the cable car station, which meant that we had as much sleep as possible before our early start. The morning was beautiful as there was not a cloud in the sky. The walk out of the car park was fairly brutal, and did lead to us questioning our decision to not use the lift, however the views were fantastic which did somewhat make up for the hard ascent. We made great time to the start of the route, as we were there before the cable car even opened. The start of the route was tricky, but not overly interesting as it required lots of cable pulling, interspersed with lots of very loose ledges. The second half of the route was significantly better than the first half. The rock was solid, the. Read the full article…

Giovanni Lipella Via Ferrata

Alastair BegleyDolomites, Via Ferrata Short Link

Due to a deteriorating weather forecast we decided to relocate to the Dolomites. On our first day we decided to climb the classic Giovanni Lipella route up the Tofana de Rozes. As it was a weekend we had an early start to avoid queueing on the route, which worked out really well as we didn’t have to wait for anyone all day. The route starts from a car park up a gravel road at 2000m, which made for an excellent overnight van camping spot. We woke up in the morning to rain which was a bit unexpected, but left the van anyway on the promise that it would soon clear up. The initial walk certainly woke us up and got the blood flowing, but we were soon at the Gallerie del Casterletto. The Gallerie del Casterletto is a set of tunnels which were created by the Italian military during WW1, and were fairly impressive due to the amount of height that was gained as we travelled through the tunnels. We ignored the sign to our route which exited the tunnels before the end, and climb to the top of the. Read the full article…

Reinhard Schiestl Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

With a morning weather window we decided to climb our local klettersteig as we could easily walk to it from our campsite. The route was called the Reinhard Schiestl Klettersteig, and it was graded “D” which meant that it was much harder than the previous route. The route started off as it meant to continue, with steep and strenuous climbing from the off. The hardest bits actually seemed technically easier than some of the easier bits, but just very exposed. Despite some drizzle on the ascent we made excellent time to the top of the route, and managed to descent back down to the campsite before it started to properly rain.

Wildspitze Traverse

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Austria Short Link

The Wildspitze was the main objective from our trip to the Sölden in Austria. I had intended to climb some other peaks first to acclimatise, however the weather had other ideas! We set off from a village high above Sölden called Vent. The day started with two chairlifts which gained us a considerable amount of height. We had elected to walk to the hut via another peak, the Wildes Mannle, this was a fairly short outing as lift station to hut only took us two hours. However it did get us a bit more mileage in our legs, and gave us a good view of the glacier that we would be crossing the next morning. After a lovely evening at the hut with fantastic evening light, good company and good beer we had an early night in the luxury of a 2 bed room. The next morning we woke up to dense fog which meant that we thought we were going to have to change our route to the normal route instead of the Rofenkarferner route. Thankfully after breakfast the cloud broke, so we were able to stick with our. Read the full article…

A weekend near Sölden

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

This year we started our alpine summer holiday in the Otztal in Austria. After driving out from Bristol we met up with some friends in the Sölden valley for the first weekend of the trip. After the long drive down we wanted a short day on the first day, we we headed for the classic Klettersteig Stuibenfall, a relatively easy klettersteig which climbs up next to an impressive waterfall. As it was the weekend, close to the road, and not too difficult we knew it would be busy, and we were certainly not wrong! We spent most of the route in some form of queue, but as it was such a nice day, and we were catching up with out friends this was certainly not a problem. From the top we decided to have an extended walk back down to the car along the valley. Unfortunately the Sunday had very unsettled weather, with just about no forecasts agreeing with how much rain there would be, or when it would hit. Due to this we made a plan in the morning to do a short walk up to a small hut. Read the full article…

Derry Cairngorm & Beinn Mheadhoin

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

Today was another day in the Cairngorms where we were able to use our bikes to significantly shorten the day. We climbed Derry Cairngorm & Beinn Mheadhoin which is a 31km day, of which 10km can be cycled which saves about 90mins of walking. The morning was beautiful with plenty of sun which made the cycle up from the Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge very enjoyable, it was just a shame about the headwind! Thankfully the sun stayed and successfully battled the predicted hill fog while we climbed Derry Cairngorm on the excellent path. This enabled us to make rapid progress while enjoying the fantastic views in every direction. When we got to the summit it was very windy so we didn’t stay there long, and the big hills of the Cairngorms were very shrouded in mist. We were soon at Loch Etchachan which is the highest loch in Scotland, which also had a slightly challenging set of stepping stones to cross the outflow given that we were only in approach shoes! After a steep pull up we were soon at the summit ridge of Beinn Mheadhoin. The summit. Read the full article…

An Socach

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

Due to weary legs combined with very strong winds forecast we elected to have a lie in combined with an easier day. We elected to climb An Socach, which meant that again we could make great use of the bikes on the approach along estate tracks. The cycle in was fairly short, but harder work than expected due to the headwind, which was a sign of how windy it was going to be on the summit ridge. We made good time on the ascent which as very sheltered, and had a bit of a shock at just how windy it was on the summits. It felt more like winter than may! Despite walking into the wind along the 3km summit ridge we made good time and were at the summit 2hrs after leaving the van. We then made a hasty retreat back along the ridge and out of the wind. The views on the summit ridge were excellent, we could see a long way in most directions as the cloud base was above all but the highest summits. After making good time on the descent we were back at the. Read the full article…

Western Fannichs

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

Due to a poor forecast which was marginally better in the afternoon we had planned for a lie in followed by a short day. However the weather turned out to be much better than expected, so suddenly on route to our planned outing we changed our mind as we drove past the Fannichs and decided to have a big hill day. Normally it would not be possible or sensible to head out on an 8 hour hill day at 1:30 in the afternoon, however thanks to it being the end of may in the far north of Scotland, the sun doesn’t set until 10pm! The vastly improved weather forecast turned out to be wrong, but we still had an excellent day. We set off in the sun and made good time up to the first Munro, however on the climb up a shower passed through which caused us to put our waterproofs on, and they remained on until the end of the walk. We had fantastic views for a lot of the time, however as we got to the summit of A’ Chailleach a horrible hail storm was passing through.. Read the full article…