December 2019
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 [...]
Mountain Biking Snowdonia – Tour du Moel Siabod
After yesterdays soaking in the Rhynnogau I was all set to get wet again today, especially as I drew back the curtains to see nothing but cloud this morning. I had decided to start a [...]
Mountain Biking Snowdonia – Pont Scethin
Having spent the week in the Cairngorms in some lovely weather I was feeling psyched to get out on the bike and explore somewhere new for the day. My inspiration came from Pete Bursnalls book [...]
Half Term in the Cairngorms
We have enjoyed a family holiday in Braemar this week, staying at one of our favourite haunts. Mar Lodge is owned by National Trust Scotland and has been divided into apartments, this was our fourth [...]
October 2019
The Mountain – On ITV in England, Scotland and N Ireland on Monday 28th October.
"Snowdon - the King of Snowdonia's peaks. On the busiest mountain in Britain it's no surprise that the mountain rescue team is also the busiest". Series one of the "The Mountain" aired in 2014 on [...]
Mountain Biking on Snowdon
With a good forecast and a day off, Huw and I headed up Snowdon yesterday on our bikes for a day of Mountain Biking on Snowdon. It was a beautiful autumnal morning and I only [...]
Milestone Buttress and Tryfan Bach
No where near as wet a day as I was expecting but it's been pretty damp none the less. Chris, Jamie and me took scrambling as a bit of a substitute over rock climbing today [...]
Wet end to the ML Training Course
I swapped in for the last two days of the Mountain Leader Training Course. The end of the course is usually when we go out overnight and this is what we did this time. Starting [...]
ML Training – Hazards of steep ground
We have had another lovely day in Snowdonia today and the ML Training team and I have spent it looking at the hazards of steep ground. We looked at the emergency use of a rope [...]
Y Gribin, Lliwedd – ML Training
We have had a lovely autumnal day in Snowdonia today and I took the ML Training team up the Gribin Ridge onto Lliwedd for a day of security on steep ground training. We looked at [...]
Mountain Leader Training
We kicked off an ML Training course yesterday here in Snowdonia with Heather, Lizzie, Colin, Awi, Tim and Pieter - the latter three having travelled over from Holland to do the course - impressive! Yesterday [...]
Moel Siabod – Mountain Skills
It has been a significantly better day than forecast today and so it was a really pleasant surprise to spend the day under blue skies and sunshine as we headed up Moel Siabod via its [...]