Perfect Winters day on Snowdon

A trek up Snowdon was the order of the day in near perfect conditions, the sun was shining and not a breath of wind. High up on the mountain the recent snowfall is now starting to consolidate and with the continuing cold spell forecast weeks ahead things are looking good for winter climbing routes coming into condition later this week.

Winter Ascent of Tryfan

Today Dan, Alex and myself made a ascent of Tryfan Picking our way up from just behind Milestone Buttress. We put our crampons on and got our axes out low down just so as we could practice moving around on rock although crampons were needed high up on the hill. Winter has really set in up in north wales, will it stay????

Carneddau Navigation Course - Winter has arrived

Iv been out with Huw Gilbert today running a Navigation Course for Rob Johnson high up in the Carneddau. The 4 clients on the course got a little more than they bargained for with full on winter conditions on the hill. Theres been a considerable amount of snow fall over the hills today with temperatures well below freezing and with this forecast to continue it is looking promising for another early welsh winter climbing season.

Winter Skills Courses Now On Sale

Things are shaping up in Scotland with all the early signs of another good winter on its way. SAIS started there avalanche forecast service early due to the early arrival of winter.

My range of winter skills courses are now online. Visit www.verticalworlds.com to book now. I am offering a range of courses Cairngorm winter skills 2 Days, West Highlands winter skills 2 days, Snow Shelter expedition 3 days, Winter Skills 5 days.

SPA Training

The later part of the last week I was working on a SPA training course for members of a local climbing club. Thursday took us to the shores of Llyn Trawsfynydd where personal climbing issues were looked at followed by a trip to Plas Y Brenin for a evening session on there wall. Barmouth slabs was the order of the day on Friday, it is by far the best group crag I have come across which I visit on a regular basis with groups. The only down side is it gets very busy although the crag is very extensive so a spot can always be found.

Peak Mineing/Caveing

Early monday morning pete, rob and myself jumped in a van and raced over to the peak district for some caving. We had plans to head down P8 Jackpot which is a classic underground trip. Arriving in the car park we head out across the fields to find a manway in a depression in the ground. Lifting the lid we were alarmed as to the steepens of the entrance shaft as nothing was mentioned in our guide, but nether the less we continued on. After some half hour things still were not adding up and we came to a tight squeeze which we all had a go at but all unable to fit through. at this point it dawned upon us we were in the wrong hole!!! We had actually gone down P7. Back up on the surface we found our intended cave P8 which was a fantastic but very wet requiring some small amounts of technical ropework. Following day our plan was to head down Rota Hole which involved a 68m decent down a vertical shaft. Arriving at the top pete head down first with his light disappearing into the depths of the mine. All now down in the mine we found a few other roped SRT sections which we explored. Having explored the mine it was now time for the long SRT back out and long it was back up 68m shaft which took around 25min each.

WGL Training Course

Over the past week I have been working on a WGL training course for teachers wanting to start providing DofE in there schools. Due to the fact the WGL syllabus dose not require a expedition to take place during training and the main purpose of the course was DofE there LEA requested a bolt on expedition to this course. The course kicked off monday lunchtime with a introduction to the scheme followed by a intro to navigation and route planning lecture. Tuesday saw us heading out into the winds up onto Trawsfynydd to put this into practice. Due to forested high winds on thursday night we decided to bring the expedition forwards to wednesday night where we head north to Graig Wen with a camp overlooking Llan Festiniog. Both days were spent on navigation and other aspects of the syllabus with a roundup to the week on friday sending the team out at Bwlch Oeddrws navigating on a pre set orienteering course.