Blog Posts in Category: Winter

An unplanned trip to Torpantau Falls

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

Today was the last day of this cold snap and I continued to make the most of it by having another day of holiday. We started the day and headed to Craig y Llyn hoping to manage a few routes in the day and expecting it to be in condition given the length of cold weather we have had. As we arrived in the car park the sun was just beginning to appear over the trees and made for a beautiful landscape with crystal clear blue skies. After the obligatory pre climb faff we started the walk in and quickly realised that we were the first to walk along the “path” since the snow, although we were swimming again rather than walking. It was very hard work and most of the time we were up to our knees, we both ended up waist deep multiple times but eventually we arrived at the top of Central Icefall, our first climb of the day. As we were kitting up I was a bit concerned about the lack of ice and upon starting the abseil I looked around at the cliff and realised that the ice that. Read the full article…

Ice Climbing at Craig Cerrig-gleisiad and Craig y Fro

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

After the success of Sunday’s trip to Torpantu and with a thaw arriving on Friday I booked two days off work to get out ice climbing in the Beacons again as it is just too much of a good chance to miss! Today I headed out with my housemate, Rhys, and a uni friend, Zack, they are both new to water ice climbing so after getting permission from the CCW we headed to Craig Cerrig-gleisiad to climb Waterfall Gully a grade II/III climb. The walk in to the bottom was quick and easy where we geared up and left our bags, this was a severe contrast to the ascent up to the gully which was more of a swim than a walk up knee deep unconsolidated snow. After what felt like ages we arrived at the bottom of the ice pitch and it looked great and was certainly in grade III condition. It was a fun climb but it was unfortunately very short and after the ice there was more swimming up to the top. We descended down Central Gully to head to Miners gully but there was nice ice so we. Read the full article…

Ice Climbing at Torpantau Falls

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

I have just got back from a brilliant day ice climbing at Torpantau Falls in the Brecon Beacons. The waterfalls are located on the east side of Gwaun Cerrig LLwydion and are accessed by a road which passes alongside the Talybont reservoir and then goes steeply up the hillside. This road was “interesting” after the snow on Friday and I am very glad we took snow chains as we would have not got up without them.We started the walk with my housemates but left them soon to traverse around the side of the escarpment to the waterfall. This took around 45 mins and involved spending most of it in knee deep snow, however as the snow was a fine powder it was not hard going! As we were walking around we had no idea of what the condition the ice on the fall would be in, however as we traversed around and could see up the gully it was clear there was ice all the way up, if a bit thin at the start. We roped up at the very bottom ice fall however this was largely pointless as any. Read the full article…

Winter Climbing On Snowdon

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

With the recent cold snap there has been a lot of talk around down south about the beacons coming into winter condition. As I had holiday which I had to take before Christmas I took a punt at the start of the week and booked Thursday off as it was due to be the last cold day before the thaw. However when Wednesday night came reports were coming from locals who had been to scout out the conditions on Wednesday and it turned out that nothing was in good nick so rather than spending the day at home we headed up to Snowdonia for the day, this involved setting my alarm for 2:15! We arrived at Pen-y-Pass car park at around 7 with a beautiful starlit sky and started walking towards Trinity face along the miners track. It was a beautiful walk in as dawn broke and then as we were walking around the lakes the sunrise started with a beautiful horizon and the top of Snowdon being kissed by the sun, it definitely reminded me of alpine days. Once we got to Llyn Glaslyn we noticed the waterfall up. Read the full article…

Gardyloo Gully

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Last week I was up in Scotland for a week, the intention was to go winter climbing but after stunning and really hot weather the two weeks before we headed up there was very little ice left so the prospect of doing any winter climbing was looking very unlikely. However due to a sudden change of weather over two days, from having a BBQ on the first evening then on Tuesday morning we woke up to several inches of fresh snow and freezing temperatures, this mixed with a northerly wind quickly sent Ben Nevis back to great winter conditions on the easier routes such as Gardyloo Gully. Armed with a positive weather & avalanche report from SAIS stating that on the northern aspects there was a low avalanche risk due to the northerly wind scouring the faces we made the decision to get up early and head up the north face of Ben Nevis. We  headed up to the CIC hut very early leaving the car at 7am and got to the CIC hut less than two hours later where we had to hide from the bitter wind as the weather forecast was not. Read the full article…

Winter Climbing in South Wales

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

This cold spell that is currently all over the UK has advantages for those of us that are mad enough to go winter climbing and after some snow and a cold spell there is some great winter climbing up the north face of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. Thursday saw me take a day off university and head over to the brecons with my mum for a day out in perfect weather with sun all day and cold temperatures. Due to it not having risen above freezing all week the snow was still powdery but that didn’t matter due to it being so cold the turf had frozen up nicely which is the important thing on Pen y Fan. It was a bit of an odd way of starting a climb as to get to the base we had to walk up to the summit of Pen y Fan to descend down the other side just to climb back up the north face. Though this did mean we got fantastic views on the way up with the early morning sun. When we got to the base of the. 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…