Aonach Eagach in Winter

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

My main aim for this trip was to do on this trip was a winter traverse of the Aoanach Eagach, however I was willing to wait until the conditions were right as I didn’t want to not enjoy what looked like it should be a fantastic mountaineering day out. Thankfully the conditions didn’t disappoint and with the forecast for Tuesday being brilliant we made the decision to go for it. After a 5:30 alarm we made it to the carpark or 7am and started the slog up to Am Bodach in the dark and made it to the top within two hours, unfortunately this early speed was not going to be kept up! The conditions were not quite as good as forecast but they were still fantastic, with a high cloud base, clear skies and not much wind and this lead to fantastic views all the way along the ridge. I climbed the ridge with Hannah and Ruth, however as they were both inexperienced having only done Number 4 gully in the past I was guiding them along so we spent a lot of time moving together on a rope. Read the full article…

North East Ridge of Stob Ban

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

The weather forecast on Monday was pretty good and suggested that the lower summits should be free of cloud and that there may even be some sunny spells so most of our group were heading to do Stob Ban via the East Ridge before heading along the ridge to Mullach nan Coirean, a walk which I did last new year in hill fog and gale force winds. I was planning on heading to Aonach Mor again with Jon to do some ice climbing, however after the fail of the previous day this time we had a backup plan which was the East Ridge of the North Buttress of Stob Ban, a grade II/III route depending on how closely you followed the ridge. Again we got to the gondola station to find them on hold due to wind and after a coin toss we waited until 9am when they were reviewing their status. This turned out to be pointless as at 9am they reviewed and were shut until midday so we changed to our backup plan. As we were not optimistic about them opening we re-packed our bags removing the ice. Read the full article…

Remote Winter Walking up Fraoch Bheinn

Alastair BegleyMountaineering, Scotland, Walking Short Link

For the first day of our Scotland trip no one wanted to have a long day so I was going to go ice climbing on Aonach Mor with Stephen and Simon due to being able to get ski lifts up to circa 900m while the others were going to do a grade I gully on the west face of Aonach Mor, however this plan was changed as when we arrived at the gondola station at 9am the lift was on hold due to the wind being much stronger than forecast.Due to not wanting to waste the day we headed back to where we were staying to head NW where there was supposed to be better weather, after a quick look at the map we decided to head up Fraoch Bheinn via the South Ridge and Descend down the North. The drive down the side of Loch Arkaig was fantastic but much longer than expected and I have never driven on a road like it, however eventually we did arrive at the end and start walking. We arrived at the snow line fairly quickly however all the way up the south. Read the full article…

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…

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.

A fantastic 2012 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, General Short Link

Well its coming up to the end of the year and with no trips planned until new year this seemed like an appropriate time to summarise my 2012. I have done so much this year, taken up two new hobbies which have taken over my life, rock climbing and ice climbing. Rock climbing very quickly became my hobby of choice this year, I have progressed very quickly and within a year have gone from never having lead trad climbing to beginning to consolidate climbing at E1, this year I have done: I have had a few lucky moments though with a 25 foot fall in Pembrokeshire on Manzoku and a ground fall from 6m at Haytor on Haggis but thankfully I walked away from both with only bruises. I am looking forward to what next year brings and am currently training hard in indoor climbing gyms over the winter months to ensure that I enter the next climbing season as fit as possible. As well as rock climbing this year I also have started ice climbing. I got into ice climbing in a weird way as I lead my first. Read the full article…