Gwilym's Adventure Blog

In order to help us recover form the descent yesterday, Rick and I cycled down to Lake Geneva for a swim, rest and lunch before cycling back along the lake and up to his house. The lake was about 24 degrees and although vis seemed a bit murky it was probably all the bathers. I could still see a few fish about. I am not sure that cycling uphill in 30 degree heat is to be deemed a rest day but it was good fun all the same. My short visit to Switzerland has been very successful but tomorrow morning I will be on the motorbike riding back to catch the ferry home. I hope the weather has been as good at home as it has been here.

Me going up  Having a rest Me in descent After a decent evening meal and a night in the Rothornhutte , we were woken up at 04:00 for breakfast (well a fairly pathetic breakfast to be honest) and started heading up. We had a snow plod, a scramble up a ridge and a glacier crossing before we arrived at the base of the Rothorngrat route on the Zinal Rothorn . The first half of the route was easy and we soloed along. Unfortunately I was not as acclimatised as I would have hoped for and I started suffering at around 3800m so Rick did a good job of getting us moving together on a rope for the final 200m of climbing. Even though I was feeling rough it was a very good route. We than endured a total of 2600m of descent with a 20 min break at both the Rothornhutte and and Trift Hotel before arriving back in Zermat at 7pm

This morning Rick and I drove to Tasch, took the train to Zermat 1600m and then walked into the Rothornhutte which was a 1600m climb to 3198m. The view on arrival was stunning. This was a long haul uphill with climbing bag and took around 6 hours.

Rick in blue, his shadow up and to the right, my shadow belaying further up the ridge After a decent meal and reasonable nights sleep in Cabane D'Orny at 2831m, Rick and I had an early start (after seeing an amazing sun rise) and a short walk to the base of Aiguille D'Orny for our second route, La Moquette . This was a 8 pitch route taking us up to 3150m before heading down via Cabane D'Orny to the chair lift and back in the valley by 2pm. We are now back at Rick's place in Lausanne planning the next few days.

This morning Rick and I caught the chair lift up from Champex Lac and after a 2 1/2 hour walk in arrived at the very welcoming Cabane D'Orny . I quick drink to refresh ourselves and we headed up to Aiguille de la Cabane (2999m) to climb Bon Accueil which was 6 pitches from 4b to 5b. We swung leads before an abseil/walk descent and back to the hut for a chill out, relax and acclimatisation.

Having had a few days of meetings. I drove up to West Wales yesterday afternoon to stay at a friends house in Ceridigion. This morning Ken, Ian and I drove over to St Brides and met up with a number of other divers including my sister to do a few dives at Stack Rocks (5 mins off the beach by RIB). Vis was a bit poor on Dive 1 but better on the second dive (all pics from Dive 2). A lot of lobsters in the pots but none that I could get hold of for tea. My new (ish) drysuit performed well as expected making for warm and dry dives.

Having picked this new Triumph Tiger 800XRx up in July I have now fitted it out for touring with the Givi Outback range of hard Aluminium Cases. Initially I fitted a Givi B47 plastic case I had lying around but I didn't like the look and wanted something bigger as I have some big touring plans coming up. The first job was to fit the Aluminum Base Plate SRA6401 which was easy enough to fit but required me to drill 17mm holes in the plastic of the Tiger tail area. The instructions were clear and the holes are pre marked already. I only had a 16mm bit so this meant a bit of filing after drilling but it all worked well and lined up. The plate looks tidy and has a very secure fit as would be expected as it it motorcycle specific. Fitting time was around 1 hour (but 20mins of this was spent looking for a 17mm drill bit). Next the Givi Trekker Outback 58 ltr  OBK58A arrived. I had dithered over the 42ltr or 58ltr but decided I would later regret it if I bought the smaller one...

Today I headed down to Dartmoor with Gordon and his son Johnathon for some climbing tuition at Haytor. We started by looking at setting up a Top Rope on Step Across (Diff) and Bulging Wall (V.Diff) which Johnathon climbed. We then built some belays and placed gear around the crag and then he seconded me up Zig Zag (Diff) before leading it with me on a rope alongside. After 4 days climbing in a row the kit is hung up and it is now a couple of days of meetings and admin before next weekend's diving trip.

After a weekend's work, I decided to have some more climbing and joined Jez in the sun at a couple of the Sport Crags just of the A55. Penmaen Head and Castle Inn. We climbed a number of routes in a relaxed, sunny environment before I headed off for the long drive home