Gwilym's Adventure Blog

  Well done to the 2 teams that finished their expedition. The last two days have been drizzly and generally damp but this didn't stop the groups being in good spirits.

Having spent the best part of last week doing admin and spending time in school preparing for this coming year, on Monday I headed North (everywhere is North from Plymouth) with 3 staff and 9 students to The Lakes for the second round of Gold DofE expeditions. Both teams have now completed 2 days (half of the exped) and we have had dry but cloudy weather meaning good walking conditions. The highlight (or lowlight) of today was visiting the Pencil Museem with Simon whilst waitng for a team to come through Keswick

Highlight of the trip On our fifth and final day we took on a route on the Piz de Lech next door to out via ferrata on day 1. Called Castiglioni/Detassis route, this was a full adventure with nice pitches, wet pitches, loose pitches, poor pegs, and scary pitches. There is a reason this route is not in the selected guide. Still, it was great and we survived and got down in time for cappuchino and strudel before our long journey home started. All in all a great trip and well worth the 2300 miles of driving

  Finally we ditched the cables and ladders and got climbing. An amazing route on Piz Ciavases graded at D+/IV  which is around S 4a/b in English, An amazing 8 pitch route with interest on all pitches and a less than simple 90 minutes descent including walking, crawling, abseiling. There is a reason this climb is in the selected climbs guidebook.

This sums it up   After a walk into to find a route (Italian Guide book writers are not good at directions!!) we arrived to find 14 other climbers in front of us so it was another day on the via ferrata and we took on the infamous Cesare Piazetta graded at 5C and at one time puported to be the hardest in the area. Well after a steep and strenous start it settled down and kept the interest going with a steep chimney and wobbly bridge

Another day of via ferrata as the weather forecast was not great. It actually turned out fine with only a small showerlater on. Another 3B called Brigata Tridentina which ended up crossing a rather scarey bridge.

  An epic journey which started at 16:30 on Sunday in Plymouth and ended 28 hours later in Corvara, Italy last night. Today Rich and I headed up on the cable car for some Via Ferrata on Piz de Lech. This was graded at 3B and was a great first day.

  After such a good day yesterday and having put the murky world of Sport climbing far behind them, Leon and Hannah took on the multipitch routes of Mucky Gully and Pinnacle Butress at The Dewerstone. Another 6 pitches of climbing done in glorious sunshine.

Hannah and Leon have climbed some indoor and outdoor sport routes but want to convert to the world of trad. We had a great day at Haytor and Hound Tor and climbed a total of 6 routes with Hannah and Leon leading 2 routes each. The weather was nearly perfect and we made it back to the cars before the showers turned too heavy.

Today I was down at Church Cove assessing candidates from the Royal Navy Surf School for their Beach Lifeguard Qualification. Sun, Sand, Surf and a great result with a 100% pass.