Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today I was out with staff and students of Haygrove School on the Quantock Hills for their first day of DofE Training. It was cold and dry so the students had a good time and made a few navigation errors so that they could learn from them.

Yesterday and today I was on the Mountain Training Development Coach Award Training at Aber Rocks with Paul Smith. Just the one picture I am afraid. Lots of coaching theory and practice covered.

Today I was again working for Peak Mountaineering on the first day of a Winter Skills course. It was wild on the hill so we found some snow only 400m from the ski centre carpark and looked at footwork, using an axe, crampons, ice axe arrest and avalanche awareness without fully exposing ourselves to the wind.

Today (on what turned out to be a blue sky low wind day) Olly and I walked into Corie An T'Sneachda to climb a route. On the walk in we looked the options and headed over to Mess of Pottage with a view to climbing Hidden Chimney. I did get as far as having my harness on and one crampon when Olly dived for one of my gloves that had travelled less than a metre for me and messed up his old knee injury. A rest did not improve it so we headed to the moraines for Olly to practice his emergency shelters and then hobbled (him not me) out back to the van. Olly had bought some new axes and this was to be their maiden voyage and as he is back home tomorrow they will have to wait for next year

Yesterday's weather stripped a lot of the snow back but there was still plenty for Olly and I to have a ski tour up the Fiacaill a Chorie Chais, over Cairngorm and then ski the full length down to the car using some of the pisted snow. We then headed round to a patch of snow to work on Olly's snow anchors and ropework for when he takes his WML assessment.

Today with wild weather up in the hills I spent some time catching up on admin in the Active Cafe. Olly and I then snatched a few minutes outside at the Hayfield setting up my old skis for him to use tomorrow for our planned tour.

On the third and final day of working for Peak Mountaineering . The clients Phil and Jasmin wanted to climb Cairngorm and get some views, so that is exactly what we did. Ascent via Fiaciall a Corie Chais and descent via a coffee in the summit station) I still have spaces on my 2 Day Winter Skills/Guided Mountain this coming weekend. Disclaimer: Not all Scottish Winter Days are like this but when they are, it is awesome.

Back out on the hill today working for Peak Mountaineering . The clients and I headed into Corie An T'Sneachda to look at emergency procedures, steeper ground and navigation along with the ever present avalanche awareness. We even had a bit of "whiteout" time today which was great to practice navigation in. We saw a couple of Red Grouse today but still failed to find them a Ptarmigan as they requested. There is always tomorrow.

A great day out in The Cairngorms teaching a Winter Skills course for Peak Mountaineering . Today we looked at footwork, stopping a slip, ice axe arrest, avalanche awareness and general hill travel. We were lucky enough to see a couple of mountain hares during the day

Today Stu and I triggered a slide on the West Face of Aonach Mor. Why? Here are my thoughts Last night we looked at the SAIS forcast This showed that the W/SW aspects were the least likely to be affected with a forecast of LOW We chose to go to The West Face of Aonach Mor and climb a route called Golden Oldy (II). This would have put us on the lower risk side of the mountain. Winds were forecast as low speed Easterly and picking up during the afternoon. This of course would move snow over to the west during the day but hopefully later in the day. Our plan was simple. Skin up to the summit of Anoach Mor, ditch skis, either down climb Downhill Gully (1) or walk round to the Aonach Mor/Aonach Beag beleach and approach the routes from there. These would mean we did not have to carry skis and they would be at the top for our descent. During our planning phase we had considered the weather, the party (2 competent mountaineers) and the terrain During the ...

Today I joined Jez, Mike and Oreo (the spaniel) on a nice walk up to the summit of Craig Meagaidh.Although the weather was not quite as good as forecast it was good to be back up in Scotland and out on the hills without being blown over or rained on

A quick high water blast from Dulverton down to The Anchor Inn at Exebridge. Medium flows made for a quick journey with the main play spots washed out.

Today I paddled the Upper Barle (Withypool to Tarr Steps) as the water levels were high enough to make this a worthwhile run. I have not paddled this section for a long time so it was nice to be back on it. It was a mixed group with me in the Open Canoe, Will in the OC1 and Mike and Leon in Kayaks. The level did drop during the day so hoping for some more rain tonight.

Back down in the South West for a week before I head back upto Scotland. Today I was on the Lower Dart in the Open Boat being a Guinea Pig for a MWE Course run by Inspiring Adventure . As always, with Gary running the show a lot was learnt and a fun day had by all. Water levels were a bit low but the rain due over night should sort that out