Blog Posts in Category: Rock Climbing

Multi Pitch Sport Climbing in the Rhône Valley

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing, Switzerland Short Link

After descending from the Mönch we sat through a few days of bad weather in Grindelwald, as the forecast was looking better to the south west we decided to head down into the Valais and stay in the Rhône valley. We were expecting Sunday to be fairly wet all day, but when the rain stopped in the morning we decided to make the most of the unexpected good weather and head to one of the low level crags in the Rhône valley. We decided to head to Bramios which is next to Sion as it had multi pitch sport routes which appealed to both of us more than the single pitch alternatives, the multi pitch routes also had the advantage of being in the shade as it was boiling in the sun. We decided to climb Arete Sud, a five pitch f5c+. After a surprisingly tough start to the first pitch, the first few pitches were all enjoyable climbing with an excellent arete at the top of the second pitch. The third pitch wasn’t very clear from the guidebook as there were three lines from the belay. We decided to head. Read the full article…

A Dream of White Horses

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

I have been lucky enough to spend another weekend up in North Wales, the original plan for the weekend was for lots of moving together in the mountains, but poor weather combined with me feeling ill meant that I ended up spending two days at Gogarth. According to both mountain forecasts, Friday was supposed to be a sunny day. However, when we woke up in the morning we discovered that the forecasts were very wrong and it was in fact raining. After breakfast in Capel Curig we headed to Castell Helen, unfortunately on the drive over I started to feel pretty sick and it didn’t go away after the walk to the crag. I decided to abseil in anyway and we climbed Blanco, which has some fantastic climbing and amazing rock formations, given my sickness and lack of energy it felt pretty hard and at the top I decided that it was best to head back. The next day was forecast to be sunny, but given the deluge which had hit the mountains the day before we decided to head back to Gogarth for some warm sunny rock. After another. Read the full article…

Gogarth Climbing

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

As a climber who claims to love sea cliff climbing, there was one major sea cliff in England & Wales where I have yet to successfully climb. About three years ago I had a bit of an epic on Main Cliff which resulted in having to abseil into the sea. It has been high on my list of destinations to return to, but it just hasn’t quite happened. Due to the weather crapping out in Snowdonia, after a brilliant day on Lliwedd we headed over to Gogarth for two days of sea cliff climbing. Day 1: Lighthouse Arete Direct, Castell Helen We had a chilled out start to the day due to having had a long day the day before, which was followed by a few whiskies due to it being my birthday. The morning was lovely in North Wales so it was a shame to have had a lie in while it was sunny, but we enjoyed a chilled out breakfast in Capel Curig before heading to Gogarth. Due to the forecast being for rain, there being strong winds at the carpark and me being a bit ill, we decided. Read the full article…

Birthday Adventure on Lliwedd

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing Short Link

Many times while walking the classic Snowdon Horseshoe I have looked across from Crib Goch at the impressive cliffs of Lliwedd and have been drawn to them due to their scale as the shady cliffs tower above Llyn Llydaw. You don’t have to read far into the climbing at Lliwedd to realise that it is far more than a multi pitch crag, due to a combination of it’s size, the rock and it’s location in the mountains it seems to attract far more than it’s fair share of epics. I headed up to North Wales with Becky for my 25th Birthday weekend, and armed with a good forecast following a dry day we decided to head up to Lliwedd to have an adventure. Instead of opting for one of the more popular 12 pitch easy routes, we headed for a 5 pitch E1 called Terminator, followed by a 180m diff up the final arete of the face. I knew route finding was likely to be a problem at some point on the face so had planned to make sure I read the guidebook lots on the walk in while inspecting the. Read the full article…

Stag Weekend in North Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Rock Climbing, Walking Short Link

It’s been a while since I have written a blog post, which is more due to the shear volume of climbing I have been doing, rather than the lack of climbing. I have been having an excellent season and have been making good headway into E2 and am now looking forward to the rest of the season. Last weekend I was due to head up to North Wales for a friend’s stag do, and given the nice weather three of us decided to head up a day early and do a mountain route in Snowdonia. We decided on Grooved Arete and were pleased to discover that we were the only people on the crag when we arrived in the morning. The weather was fantastic but very warm and humid in the sun which made the approach pretty warm. I lead the entire route to save time due to thunderstorms being forecast in the afternoon. The route was fantastic with lots of interesting pitches, although there was a surprising amount of polish which was a bit of a shame. The standout pitches for me were the second main pitch, the third main. Read the full article…

Easter Weekend in Cornwall

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

After a brilliant but long winter have been looking forward to it warming up and allowing the rock season to start. After missing the few warm weekends we have had in late March I was beginning to get frustrated, but thankfully a good high pressure system arrived in time for the Easter bank holiday weekend. I headed down to Cornwall with the Avon Mountaineering Club for the annual easter trip. There was a good group of people down for the weekend which made for an enjoyable social weekend. On the first morning I headed to Chair Ladder with Rich, wanting to continue from my successful season last year I jumped straight onto Excelsior, a multi pitch E1. The second pitch was my lead and standing at the bottom it looked pretty intimidating, but as soon as I started it all came back quickly and I enjoyed the brilliant and sustained pitch which turned out to be the crux of the route. The rest of the route went easily with Rich making light work of the committing move around the overhang on the third pitch and I quickly climbed the very bold and. Read the full article…

Sandbagged by my mother in Cornwall…

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

I have just returned from the Avon Mountaineering Club’s annual September trip to Cornwall, we were staying in the fantastically located Count House which is located right next to Bosigran. It felt more like mid summer than mid autumn during the trip thanks to warm weather, blue skies and plenty of sun. On the first day I headed down to Bosigran with Rich with the aim of climbing Bow Wall and Suicide Wall. I had been debating Bow Wall all week as it is a super classic E2, however it has a reputation for being hard, speaking to my mum earlier in the week she informed me that “I don’t remember it being too hard, you will be fine”. From the bottom the line looks pretty intimidating and I jumped on the route as the first route of the day, before I could get cold feet. The start of the first pitch was easy but pretty bold climbing, but thankfully the gear improved as the climbing got harder. I was soon at the first crux, a steep crack up to the base of a large overhang, after arranging gear I was. Read the full article…

Lundy Rock Climbing

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

After visiting Lundy for the first time last year I have been looking forward to heading back to the island this year. Since getting back from the alps the excitement had really been building as I got back to full climbing fitness and started reading the guidebook and creating a very long and ambitious ticklist. As my last few days at work dragged on I found myself spending more and more time looking at the forecast charts and getting over excited as it looked like a stable period of high pressure was building, and this weather didn’t disappoint as we had 4 days of sunshine! We had a very successful trip where over the course of 4 days we climbed 14 routes with 26 pitches, 32 stars and which totalled 714m of vertical climbing. The highlights of the trip for me were: Day 0 We drove down to North Devon on the Friday evening so that we didn’t have to get up early to make the drive down to catch the ferry. We left Bristol in good time and decided to make the most of the evening light by heading to. Read the full article…