Gwilym's Adventure Blog

A much drier day in Snowdonia today with Andy. In the Crimpiau area looking a contour recognition and navigating by land features. This last two days have been working for Wet and High Adventures .

Today I was out in Llanberis Pass with long term client Andy looking at Mountain Leader Rope Skills and Navigation into Darkness. Not the nicest of days but it definitely could have been worse. Hope for a bright drier day tomorrow. 

Today I was again out with Andy and we spent the day on 1:25k, 1:50k and 1:40k maps in the Llanberis Pass staying down low to avoid the wind and wet. Unfortunately for me the day didn’t end too well thanks to shredding a tyre but AA via VW Assist were awesome and took me home (saved a long drive)

Today I was out with Andy who is on the Wet and High Adventures Long Term Instructor Development course. This was all about Andy leading today and he sucessfully and cleanly led 5 routes (including his first and 3 further Severes).

Well, it was wet again today, so we left the climbing gear in the van and climbed Tryfan via the north ridge and down via Bwlch Tryfan and Llyn Bochllwyd. Proper rain saw us wet through to our pants but that s just part of the adventure

Today I was in Snowdonia with Andy who is on the Wet and High Adventures Long Term Instructor Development Course. The forecast was for rain but it didn't appear as bad as expected so we headed to Tryfan Bach to get some routes done. Andy was looking to lead some routes. We climbed a number of routes from Diff to Severe and had a few small rain showers. That is until our last route when it came down with vengeance and soaked us completely on the top pitch.

Today I was out riding the Marin Trail in North Wales with Beth who is on the Wet and High Adventures Development scheme. She is getting ready to complete the MIAS course this summer and the more time on two wheels the better. A great weather day and 25 km covered

What a windy day! With wind speeds in excess of 140mph recorded on the summits, Beth and I hid in Glenmore Forest for some navigation training. We made it out to Ryvoan Bothy for a snack before heading back in. We still got a bit of a battering and some snow blizzards but it was much better than being completely beaten up on the mountain.

Today with more high winds forecast Beth and I headed into T'Sneachda to look at emergency shelters, crampon work and the all important avalanche awareness. We actually sat in the shelters to have our lunch and they worked really well. On coming out the wind had picked up and there was a lot of snow moving about so we navigated out along with a lot of other people leaving the corie. The van was rocking at the car park as the wind was picking up.

Today I took Beth to climb Fiacaill Ridge before heading up onto the plateau and navigating round to the summit of Cairn Gorm 1244m. What a day, cold, low wind and winter is definitely back on the agenda

Today with forecasts in the mountain of 100mph winds and rain, Beth and I headed to Huntly's Cave near Grantown on Spey to look at ropework and belay building. We were dry under the over hang and the rain stopped after a while and the blue sky appeared. Unfortunately the routes were still very greasy but we still managed to climb a Diff at the end of the session

Back into the coire today with Beth who is on Wet and High Adventures Long Term Development Scheme for some winter skills tuition. A lot of snow loss from yesterday including all the "flat ice" area having melted away. However we had a great day with some navigation, footwork and ice axe skills, decision making and beating the weather back to the car followed by coffee and cake at The Active Cafe