Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

Towards the end of my first week in the French Alps I headed up the Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere (3751m) on my own which made it my first solo alpine summit, this was due to having left the hut to hut walk early due to a member of the group injuring their knee. Choices for the route I was going to do was limited as it had to be a single day route, had to not involve a glacier crossing and also had to not involve any technical climbing. This lead me to an obvious choice of the Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere as it is a simple rock ridge, followed by a snow ridge, snow slope and rock ascent to the summit. I set off from Le Saut at 4am in the pitch black and managed to find the small path up through the meadows which was a brutal ascent up to the start of the ridge, but thankfully as it was 4am there was no sun and it was very cold, this combined with not actually being able to see how far up I had to go. Read the full article…

Tour of the Vanoise

Alastair BegleyFrance, Walking Short Link

Along with a friend I was involved in organising a hut to hut walk somewhere in the Alps this summer for fifteen members of my university expedition society. We decided to head to the Vanoise National Park where there is a dedicated hut to hut walk called the GR55 or the ‘Tour of the Vanoise’. The entire route is a 10-12 day tour but due to only having a weeks holiday we modified the route slightly just to do the eastern loop of the Vanoise over five days. The route was to start and finish at Tignes 1800 where we were staying in a youth hostel and headed up to the Refuge de la Leisse on the first night, before carrying on to the Refuge du Lac Blanc on the second night, Refuge de Vallonbrun on the third night before descending down into Bonneval-sur-Arc before the final days walking up to the Col de l’Iseran and heading down into Val d’Isere. The first days walking started out in the rain though with the forecast set to improve we were optimistic, though there was an extra 300m of height gain todo. Read the full article…

Rock climbing in Borrowdale

Alastair BegleyLake District, Rock Climbing Short Link

On our bank holiday weekend in the Lake District we managed to do a surprising amount of climbing considering the amount of rain which was pouring down over the rest of the country. On Sunday when we drove up after the tents were setup we headed to Shepards Crag in Borrowdale where I lead the classic VS which was Adam. I found it fairly high end for VS due to some tricky climbing and also some runout section on easier climbing higher up the route. Having said this the climbing was fantastic, it was my first time on the rock type which is found on Borrowdale which is a kind of volcanic rock and thought it was fantastic. After this Dad lead Aaros which was my first E1, albiet seconding not leading, but was great to get some harder climbing under my belt as a second to improve my own climbing. After we finished our 6 hour mountain day on Monday and got back to the campsite, instead of relaxing and enjoying the sun we headed out to Quayfoot Buttress to climb Mandrake. Mandrake was a fantastic HVS which had. Read the full article…

Classic Scrambling in the Lake District

Alastair BegleyLake District, Scrambling Short Link

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend I was originally planning on heading to Pembroke to go sea cliff climbing with my parents however the weather had other ideas and due to a forecast of wind, cloud and rain we played a game of hunt the good weather. As in general the good weather was up north we headed up to the lake district to go scrambling and rock climbing there, but we were armed with guide books for Snowdonia, Yorkshire and the Peak District in case we had to chase the good weather around in the north. The best forecast of the week was on Monday so we went for a mountain scrambling day in the sun and headed up to Great Gable via Napes Needle. Here we did a modification to the classic grade 2*** route which involved ‘Threading the Needle’, scrambling up Eagles Nest Gully, Arrowhead ridge and finishing up Pinnacle Ridge on Westmorland crags. It was a fantastic day out and the weather was clearing throughout the entire day and after the first half an hour we spent the entire day in t-shirts in the sun. It was fantastic. Read the full article…

Sea Cliff Climbing in North Devon and West Cornwall

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

With the continuation of the recent good weather and having effectively finished my degree I have been making the most of the sun. Due to this last week I headed to Baggy Point in North Devon and Bosigran in West Cornwall to go sea cliff climbing. On Thursday I headed to Baggy Point with my housemate and we went to one of the few slabs that are not restricted due to bird bans. When we got there there was a thick sea mist covering everything but as it was still warm and was forecast to clear we headed to the crag. As we abseiled down to the foot of the climb it was still foggy but as soon as I started climbing it cleared and became a fantastically sunny day. Abseiling into the base of a sea cliff makes the climb much more committing than a climb at a normal crag where you can walk down to the base, combine this with having to climb before the tide comes back in makes it a surreal experience. The section of Baggy Point that we headed to was called The Promontory and. Read the full article…

Olympic Torch on Clifton Suspension Bridge

Alastair BegleyGeneral Short Link

Having missed the Olympic Torch in Exeter due to heading home to go rock climbing, I figured I should probably see it in Bristol. On the morning I was due to go back to Exeter the flame was leaving Bristol via the Clifton Suspension Bridge, this seemed like an iconic place to go and see the flame. So with a very early start and hoping the fog would burn off on the drive there we headed to Bristol. We got to the suspension bridge about 40mins before it was due so managed to get a great location viewing the suspension bridge from the side. The fireworks and streamers were a surprise as the runner crossed the bridge, once the runner was across I went for a run along Clifton Down to keep up with the flame for more photo opportunities. It was a great morning and there could not have been better weather for it and I am very glad I went to see it in the end as I nearly didn’t go which would have been a shame for such a once in a lifetime event.

Limestone Climbing in the South West

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

With the recent sunny weather I have again been spending time out on the rock. I spent a day at Chudleigh Rocks in Devon with my house-mate where we climbed a lovely HVD route called Wogs to warm up before climbing Never On a Sunday (HS 4b) as Steve’s first Hard Severe. Ignoring the first few meters it was a lovely climb with a balancey move around an overhand on the first pitch and an airy traverse on the second pitch. It was also not too polished which was a nice change for Chudleigh which suffers quite badly from polish on some of the easier climbs. As the weather then went from being ok to being sunny and 25 degrees I headed back to Bristol for a few days to go climbing in the Wye Valley. On the first day I went climbing with Jackson and in the morning we headed to Wyndcliffe and climbed the two classic VS routes of Questor and Cadillac which were fantastic. In the afternoon we then headed to Wintour’s Leap to do some multipitch climbing on the North Wall. Due to a minor route finding issue at the. Read the full article…

Climbing in the Wye Valley

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

I have just got back from an excellent three days climbing in the Wye Valley. As I effectively finished my degree on Thursday I headed home for the weekend, on Friday I met up with one of my school friends and headed over to Wintour’s Leap which is a fantastic crag 10mins from Chepstow. To start with we climbed the classic Hard Severe of the Wye Valley called Zelda. This was a fantastic climb which contained a bit of everything including some bold and exposed moves on fantastic rock. After we had completed that climb we headed back down but this time over to Fly wall which contains shorter climbs and climbed another classic route of the crag, Freedom, which was graded at Very Severe. It was another great climb which involved some crack climbing techniques which I don’t have much experience at before a very bold traverse right before the final few moves which certainly got the adrenalin flowing. On Saturday I headed further up the Wye Valley to Symonds Yat with Mum where we spent the afternoon climbing four routes there. I warmed up on Golden Fleece with. Read the full article…