January 2020
All About Snow in Stob Coire nan Lochan
Having covered much about movement skills on the Weekend Winter Skills course yesterday today was pretty much all about snow. The team and me trekked up into Glencoe's Stob Coire nan Lochan where we talked [...]
Brilliant on Buachaille Etive Beag
A real change in the weather for the start of the Winter Skills Weekend. With Nigel, Andy, Luke, David, Al and Louis we've been up on Stob Coire Raineach the northern top of Buachaille Etive [...]
Zig Zags, Gearr Aonach
Todays crux was without a doubt getting out of the van in Glencoe! It was wild and Rachel & Cath would have been happy to head straight to the pub I think. A leap of [...]
Better on Beinn a Chaorainn
Whilst Rob was in Glencoe with Rachel today I was on the East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn with Russ and Jonathan. In comparison to yesterday it was a lovely day with even a touch [...]
Dinnertime Buttress
We have had a good dup of snow overnight in the Highlands and thankfully the wind has dropped a bit since yesterday. Cath needed a rest today with a sore knee so Rachel and I [...]
Blown about in Storm Brendan
That's the start of a three day Scottish Winter Mountaineering course but it's not been met with the best of weather. Venturing onto any exposed or high ground was certainly not an option given the [...]
Snow and sunshine
The last two days of our winter skills week have thankfully been significantly better than the first two! We have had some steady snow showers and some lovely spells of sunshine. Yesterday was stunning all [...]
Scottish Winter Skills Week
I am up in Scotland now for the start of our winter program North of the border and have kicked off with our Winter Skills Week. I have been joined by Claire, Anna, Niall, Peter, [...]
December 2019
Bochclwyd Horseshoe Winter Round
Having got back from the Alps at the weekend I was pretty pleased to find snow on the mountains and a good weather day in the forecast. Huw was also free so after a brew [...]
There is plenty of snow!
Well there is no shortage of snow in the Alps at the moment, it has been chucking it down here for the last couple of days and it looks like Scotland is getting the same [...]
Ski Week in Chamonix
I am out in Chamonix this week with my good friend Bryn. We are making the most of some early season snowfall to warm up for winter and get some early off-piste skiing done. We [...]
New – Mountain Biking Trips & Courses
Regular readers of the blog will know that I have been getting out on my bike quite a lot over the last year or so. Mountain biking is something I have enjoyed since I was [...]
Advanced Navigation
I was joined today by Julie, Ben, Ben and Andy for our contour only, advanced navigation day. As the name suggests we spend the day looking at navigation in the mountains using some maps that [...]
Intro to Scrambling
I have been out with Tristan, Mark, Ben and Anthony today on the second day of our intro to scrambling course. They have had some pretty wild weather and yesterday Tarquin took them up the [...]
November 2019
Trail Magazine join us for winter skills
In this months Trail Magazine we are joined by Jenna and Jake for a winter skills weekend in Scotland. We had some fantastic weather and its always nice to hear about the course from your [...]
Film Safety Workshop & Avalanche Workshop.
I have been part of a film safety workshop this weekend at Plas Y Brenin, playing with all things rigging. As a member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors I need to stay current by [...]
ML Training – Day Four
The ML Trainees and I have been mostly playing with ropes today! We headed to the Llanberis Pass and looked at security on steep ground with the emergency use of the rope. It has been [...]
ML Training Day Three
We have been looking at the hazards of steep ground today and have based ourselves in and around Cwm Idwal, Seniors Gully and Seniors Ridge. We looked at coaching movement skills, risk assessment, spotting, route [...]
ML Training Day Two
A simply stunning day today in Snowdonia for the second day of the ML Training. Today’s overall aim was a Quality Mountain Day and we definitely got that. We were able to avoid the snow [...]
ML Training Day One
I have been joined by Jan, Ryan, Tom, Alice and Mark this week for our last Mountain Leader training course of the year. There is still plenty of snow high up above about 800m and [...]
Crimpiau and Crafnant
For the second day of our Mountain Skills course we needed to stay below the majority of the snow line and so headed over to Crafnant from Capel Curig and then up over the Crimpiau [...]
Mountain Skills Course
I have been joined for the weekend by Clare, Jo, Kes and Kevin for our two day mountain skills course in Snowdonia. It was a bit of a surprise to be putting my winter tyres [...]
North Ridge of Tryfan – Intro to Scrambling
For the second day of our intro to scrambling course we headed up the North Ridge of Tryfan in some fantastic weather. Poor old Richard couldn't join us as he managed to lock his keys [...]
Intro to Scrambling – Seniors Gully & Ridge
I have been joined by Richard, Marcus and Keith for our two day intro to scrambling course here in Snowdonia and we kicked off the course today by heading into Cwm Idwal, up Seniors Gully [...]
A Fine Morning for the Snowdon Horseshoe
It might prove short lived but there was a fine spell of weather in Snowdonia this morning. I was out enjoying the sunshine with Gavin who after today has just one of the Welsh Hewitts [...]