Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Good day today, coffee, cake, lunch, more coffee and then a nice afternoon at Chudleigh with good mate Olly for some chilled cragging in the sun.  6 pitches, 4 different routes all on warm and somewhat polished limestone.

Once the rain stoopped and the sun came out I spent the afternon bimbling around at Bosigran soloing a number of the easy routes. So Alex Honnold , you aren't the only one and you didn't have to descend wet grass slopes in Tennie Guides! The routes I climbed were Alison Rib, Gendarme Ridge, North East Ridge and the classic Commando/Bosigran Ridge. All on dry rock and in warm sunshine.

Day 3 of the Rock Climbing Instructor Training course took us to a very warm and sunny Chudleigh South where the day was spent baking in sunshine whilst doing lots of climbing and setting up Top and Bottom Ropes, as well as abseils and discussing potential problems that may occur. 4 keen candidates, not a spot of rain and having Jamie along to observe made the day very nice and easy to work on. There was another large group at the crag and we all managed to work around each other with no problems. This is was working as a climbing instructor is all about. Working for Wet and High Adventures Ltd , a provider of the majority of Mountain Training awards.

Today for the second and final day of the Mountain Training Intermediate Rock Skills course for Wet and High Adventures Ltd we were at Chudleigh South looking at how to set up Top Ropes and of course, got lots of climbing done as well. 5 different routes between the showers and a couple of abseils. This is the first Rock Skills course we have run and I really like the syllabus. Although each course will be different depending on the candidates initial skill set we certainly got a lot done over the 2 days.

Still up in The North West Highlands, Jake, Mandy and I climbed the Cioch Nose which is near Bealach Na Ba on the road to Applecross. The last time I was here was on motorcycles in June 2016. It was a day of two halves weather wise. Windy and sunny at the and low wind and mist at the end. The routes itself has been on my list for some time. It has 3 pitches of nice climbing (pitch 3 being by far the best) followed by 2 pitches of reasonable climbing before and walk and scramble up the upper tier on rock that seemed to get looser and looser the higher we went The walk back from the top of the climb kept the interest going with a number of down climbs and short scrambles all the way along the ridge.  Quite a few other parties on the route today some of whom need to learn a little bit about etiquette at shared belay stances!

As winter is having a little holiday and Scotland is warm and summer like, Rich and I headed to Cummingston on the Moray coast for some easy stress free seaside cragging. 7 routes climbed during the day with the obligatory coffee and cake afterwards. You know it will be a good day when there is a slide from the car park down to the old railway line (pic one) which we obviously had to use on the 5 min walk in

What a lovely day at The Dewerstone with Steph and Justin for their first mulit-pitch climb. We looked at how to use a guidebook before climbing up Pinnacle Buttress with both of them building their own belays along the way. We also had time for some abseiling to get back down before reviewing some of the skills we had learnt over a coffee.

This weekend I have been on Dartmoor working with The Abbey School as extra instructor to support their climbing weekend. Yesterday was at Haytor with a evening bouldering/weasling session at Bonehill Rocks and today was spent at Hound Tor. A great warm and dry weekend with lots of climbing, bouldering, weasling and general fun in the sun.

A day out in the sun at Goblin Combe with Outdoor Education students from Bridgwater and Taunton College today looking at Top Roping and belaying. Only a small group of 5 so plenty of time for each student to climb. We finished by looking at how the ropes were set and and discussing different anchors.

Another great day climbing at Bosigarn with Rich. Only a couple of routes today as we were both keen to miss the Bank Holiday traffic on the way home. Slightly delayed by having to relocate an Adder from the place we were staying. Learning from a previous experience that was very painful, I used a broom to relocate the snake outside

Great day out at Bosigran with Rich. Just getting some mileage in and getting back onto some warm and dry rock. A little misty at times which added to the atmosphere. 9 pitches done with a relaxed start and now sitting in the sun chilling out.

At early o'clock I walked out to have a look to see if Torpantau was frozen with my cousin Will. Sadly it wasn't but we still had a nice little walk through some deep snow drifts on the way out and back. There was ice on the edges but the main pitch was still flowing. I reckon it needs at least another day of sub zero to form but the sun was hitting it full on as we left so to much damage may get done today. Anyway, we then headed to a much warmer Penalta for a couple of lovely rock routes.