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…

Climbing at Symonds Yat

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

With the largest piece of coursework of my degree due in within two weeks I am of course heavily procrastinating at the moment, with the beautiful weather on Sunday I was desperate to get out on some rock to make the most of it before it got cold and wet again this week but no one in Exeter wanted to play. So I drove up to the Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley picking Simon up from Chepstow on the way to introduce another one of my friends to outdoor climbing. This meant going back to VDiff again to determine what Simon could climb so we climbed the classic VDiff of the crag, Snoozin’ Suzie, which was fantastic and a great introduction for Simon into outdoor climbing. Climbing up out of the woods and being presented with a view of the Wye Valley was just fantastic! After this we headed over to the other side of the crag to climb up a big pinnacle, up the opposite side to us is a classic VS which is on my to do list but that can wait for another day. We headed up a. Read the full article…

Mountaineering in the Caingorms

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Scotland, Walking Short Link

Following on from my previous post about Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis I have just spent the week mountaineering in the Caingorms where we had a fantastic time. Other than the day we did Ben Nevis we managed two other walks, a day trip over to Glen Coe in order to visit Ice Factor, a visit to some waterfalls where we went for a rather cold swim and a trip to Dalwhinnie distillary. On the day we arrived there was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was really warm so we had a BBQ outside, but with the crazy Scottish weather 3 days later we woke up to large amounts of snow on the ground! On the first day we went for a local walk which I tried to do at New Year but had to turn back on that attempt due to being unable to stand up in the wind. It was a horseshoe walk up to  Sgor Gaoith and along the ridge to do a few other tops as well, it was a fantastic walk which we were able to relax nicely on to enjoy the summit views. On Monday. 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…