Blog Posts in Category: Sports

A Fantastic Day Skiing at Glencoe Mountain

Alastair BegleyScotland, Sports Short Link

With a good forecast but a high freezing level and lots of fresh snow around we decided that we didn’t want to be wading around in deep snow or getting up early after the previous day on Ben Nevis. Due to this we decided to go to Glencoe Mountain Resort for some skiing, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. After queueing for 1h30 to get our hire kit we eventually got on the chairlift and headed up to the ski area, the snow cover was fantastic. Unlike last time all the runs were open and you could see the summit. In the morning there were long queues for the chairlift due to the main basin t-bar being shut so I stayed on the upper mountain where there we only small queues. In the afternoon the main basin t-bar opened and meant that the queues on the lower mountain reduced significantly. The snow quality was fantastic and in the afternoon I managed two runs from the summit to the bottom of main basin almost on entirely virgin snow! At the end of the day I got one of the. Read the full article…

A fantastic 2013 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Alpinism, Equestrian, Landscape, Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Scrambling, Walking, Winter Climbing Short Link

Somehow we are already at the end of another year, and what a fantastic year it has been! I have somehow summed up my year in 100 photos again. The photos make it look like I didn’t do much rock climbing this year, but that is just that I don’t tend to take my camera to the local crags where I spent a silly amount of evenings in May and June. In total this year I managed 125 trad climbs, 30 winter climbs, 7 walks, 6 alpine routes, 3 scrambles, 2 sport climbs, 2 caving trips and 2 via ferratas. I have had such a good year that summarising the high points was pretty challenging: Despite having a generally fantastic year, there were certainly some less good moments: Late January in South Wales At the end of January there was the first proper cold spell of 2013 which extended down to South Wales. During this spell I managed three days out in south wales where I managed to climb four routes. A Week in Fort William: 9th-16th Feb The beginning of February soon arrived, and with it the start of a. Read the full article…

Barbury International Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Due to some friends visiting for my birthday I had no plans to head to the mountains, but due to a great forecast I dragged my friends along to Barbury to take some photos of my sister competing. I am still feeling rusty which is frustrating me as I just am not getting the timing quite right which is something I used to be much better at, but practice makes perfect and I am sure I will get there again.The showjumping was challenging as it was a huge arena and the best angle involved shooting into the sun! Due to this I made the best of the situation and did some running and managed to get a few jumps in. Katherine had a great round, and I actually thought she went clear but she had an unfortunate four faults which was a shame. A quick move was made to the cross-country and I discovered that the initial jumps I had been sent to were challenging photography wise due to the sun and position of the tapes on the course, in the end I got the photos by ignoring the tapes. Read the full article…

A Wet Day at Nunney International Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Due to a combination of having a rare free day at the weekend and Katherine competing at Nunney International Horse trials which is close to Bristol, I headed down to take some photos of her eventing. This is only my second day out eventing this year so I am still feeling fairly rusty and its on days like this I really miss my 5D3, however I am happy with some of the SJ photos given the poor light. When I set off the weather forecast said that the rain was going to hold off until the afternoon, and it did hold off for the Showjumping. It was a great course to take photos from the edge on as a decent angle could be obtained on loads of jumps, it was just a shame about the flat light. Katherine did a great round and managed a clear which she was very pleased with. While she was getting ready for the cross-country spots of rain started to appear, and the weather just went downhill from here with the rain getting heavier and heavier. By the time Katherine was going around the course. Read the full article…

Eventing and Pointing

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Over the past month I have managed two days of equestrian photography, firstly I headed up to Withington Manor Horse Trials to take photos of Katherine competing. Since I had no SLR last summer it has been around two years since I last did any eventing photography and it felt good to be back. I did feel fairly rusty and need some practice to get the hang of it again but I was fairly pleased with what I managed. The next day I headed down to to Larkhill racecourse to take photos of Katherine doing her first point-to-point on her new pointer, and try my hand at pointing photography for the first time. It was a great weekend and I am sure there will be more equestrian photography over the summer.

Skiing at Glencoe Mountain Resort

Alastair BegleyScotland, Sports Short Link

When my alarm went off at 5:30 we were very tired and didn’t manage to wake up, a few hours later we finally woke up at 9:00 having had about 11 hours sleep in the back of a car! Still feeling worn out, knowing that there was going to be a massive amount of fresh powder with the potential that we would need to turn back due to the avalanche risk we decided to make the most of the new powder by heading up for a days skiing at Glencoe Mountain resort. Due to wanting to learn to ski tour I decided this would be a good time to end my circa 12 year break from skiing while I have been snowboarding and I am very glad I did, it turns out that skiing is like riding a bike and you don’t forget. The viability on the mountain was awful in the morning and finding the way down was a challenge, however the snow was fantastic. After lunch it cleared on the lower mountain which meant that suddenly fantastic lines of unskied powder could be seen so I had a. Read the full article…

Snowboarding at Nevis Range

Alastair BegleyScotland, Sports Short Link

On the final day we decided to head to Nevis Range for some sliding, and this time the Gondola did actually open (but not before scaring us with a technical fault). It was the first time I have Snowboarded in six years and the first time in the UK. Due to only ever having snowboarded in the alps I have never had to use a drag lift or t-bar so was fairly apprehensive about them and also I had no idea how I would cope on the board after such a long time off. Thankfully it all came quickly flooding back and after a few runs of the blue while Simon was teaching Hannah how to ski I was keen to head off to some harder routes with him. This did however mean braving a T-bar, however it turns out they are not too bad and I managed to survive the whole day without falling off a lift. Me and Simon really went for it, skiing every route which was open but not in the Back Corries at least once and lots of them we did twice as we wanted. Read the full article…

Family Christmas & Boxing Day Hunt Meet

Alastair BegleyEquestrian, General Short Link

Well time for my last blog post of the year, after a very enjoyable family Christmas at my Gran’s house along with my Aunts and cousins. For the first time I actually got my camera out due to the 5D3 being so good that it can take photos at f/5.6 with no flash indoors and not be too noisy which meant that some lovely natural photos could be captured without people getting annoyed at the flash. On boxing day I headed to the boxing day meet with the Ledbury Hunt which is the meet that I always used to attend when I rode, but have now not been on horseback for 5 years! It was great to see so many people out on horseback despite the ban, and it was even better to see so many members of the general public out to view the hunt at the meet.