Stills breathing!!

Although after the "summer" we had barely at times. The Asthma/wheezing or whatever the hell it was has abated slightly. Claire and I are on our way back from a very windy/rainy Scotland trip, we managed two Munro's on one day and that was it for high level walking, however one of my (many) New Year's resolutions is to update the blog a lot more...

Happy New Year to all and see you in 2014

Restoration and tourism - the Llanberis quarries...

after our excursion up Ordinary Route on Saturday, Claire and I elected for a gentler Sunday morning with a trip to Pete's Eats (go if you've never been and are in Llanberis) and then a wander around the lower slate quarries...

As you come down the Llanberis Pass and see the scarred flanks of Elidir Fawr it does appear that the quarries are a hideous blot on the landscape - and to a point they are. They come from a time where no-one gave a damn about tourism and how things would look to later generations....and yet...

When you actually go around them they have an interesting ambience. The area has managed to put some great tourist trails around them whilst still keeping some of the old buildings and machinery and making everything work really well.....most interesting.

Obviously - we were also interested in the climbs; most of the climbing is up on the upper tier which we didn't get to (and is usually approached from Dinworic), however we saw enough on the lower tiers (including the seminal 'Comes the Dervish - the first and still one of the best slate routes) that we are both inspired for future visits. Slate is also climbable all year round and dries almost instantly :-); both as climbers and interested visitors we'll be back..

Weekend in Wales..

Claire and I had planned a weekend in N. Wales with Suilvan - and with the promise of a decent weather forecast we drove over on Fri night. The repairs to the Ogwen Cottage complex were done and it looked nice and shiny as we rocked up late on Fri night - it looked even better on Sat morning when we saw that the pay and display machine was not working!!! My student recollections of car-parking in N. Wales was that it was horrendously expensive; we'll have to see how this pans out.

Lliewdd from the car-park.

Waking on sat morning it was a bit greyer than we had hoped, however it was still a decent morning and we had our first decision; what to do :-). Our original thought was a long day in the hills with a walk down a minor road before heading up into a cwm to do a 4 pitch V.Diff route before continuing over a couple of summits and dropping to the car. With me feeling far from 100% (although I am a fair bit better), and a slightly iffy day we elected on a slightly gentler day. Fortunately an obvious solution was at had - The Idwal Slabs. 

The Idwal Slabs are in Cwm Idwal - a gentle 30 min walk from the car-park and with several classic routes at very amenable grades. In my past life I'd done a couple of the routes on the Slab, and very nice they were too. When we got there we decided upon Ordinary Route (Diff) for Claire's first ever multi-pitch route, and I set off up the first pitch. The pitch was absolutely lovely, it was polished but not ridiculously so, and the protection was bombproof. I could have used a lot more, however I didn't want to disrupt the flow of the climbing too much. Claire, despite climbing with a rucksack, came up very stylishly (no knees I think!!) and I was soon on my way up p2. Now, a lot of the ground of the slabs is very samey and very open, and I think I wandered off-route a little bit before setting up a belay. The climbing was certainly at the correct grade; however I don't think I belayed at the correct place...whatever.

The last pitch was a little different - I elected to take a more direct line, which led to one reachy move that was at least a grade harder than what had gone before it. The plus sides of this were that I was able to belay to two giant boulders on top and wait for Claire - who promptly pathed the route - very well done Claire...

The view from the Lunching Stone was lovely - but there was a definite bite to the air..so we set off on the exposed scramble upwards to pick up the easy way off...at the top of the scramble there are some fixed slings for an abseil down a polished groove - you could down climb it but the penalty for a slip is severe and it was also good to get some abseiling practice in as well!!

All in all  - a lovely day - followed by a superb view of the hills from the Capel Curig car-park, where we parked before a serious gear fix at the shop!!

One summer - Traverse of Black Hill...

Claire had a couple of days off and it was nice to go out for a long walk on one of them - our first decent walk for a while to be honest.

  Claire and I parked at Dovestones and set off up the road towards the Chew Reservoir. This was actually over half the ascent for the walk as the Chew is the highest reservoir in England. Once there, we set off on the path that follows the right edge of the reservoir and intersects the Pennine Way. The first bit of the path was pretty clear as can be seen from the shot - some bits were less clear. Despite the heatwave of the last couple of months there had been enough rain to ensure that Claire was able to work on her bog-leaping skills......there is quite a lot to be said for doing this in winter - although how easy it would be to find the path would be debatable.

The two paths meet at Laddow Rocks - a great moorland grit climbing area that I hadn't been to before - it certainly looked impressive enough to make a trip worthwhile. Oddly, despite being so remote, it was one of the first of the grit crags to be climbed on in the period between the wars. This was largely down to access issues than anything else, with the land around the Eastern Edges being privately owned and kept for shooting etc.

Having had lunch, we followed the Pennine Way as it climbed Black Hill. Higher up the path is paved - I had never been on Black Hill before, however all reports said that prior to it's paving it was a nuclear wasteland of bogs and groughs. The paving is pretty unsightly, however it seems essential to trying to manage the erosion as well as make a walk halfway enjoyable, rather than just an obstacle course of bog-jumping etc.

Laddow Rocks

From the summit of Black Hill, we had some options. One was to go across country on a path that was supposed to exist and end up on highpoint of the 'Isle of Skye' road (no idea why it is called that!!) From there it was a couple of km walk on the road down to a car-park where we could drop down to the reservoir and collect the car. The path didn't exactly look obvious (to put it mildly), so we elected to follow the PW to Wessenden Head, which added another 3km or so to the road walk.

The path down was actually lovely, with good views towards Marsden and the Calder Valley. The flagstones did make for some pounding on the soles of the feet - which was only exacerbated by the road walk. Interesingly, arriving at where we would have come out had we taken our original path, there was no sign of it. I must explore this further as it would be interesting to see where it starts from/finishes and how 'bad' it is in places....must be a strange form of masochism. The road walk wasn't great - however we did eventually arrive at Binn Green, from where we could descend to Dovestones and back to the car. The walk was about 11 miles, which we both needed - and it was also good that my chest and cough felt fine - encouraging at least.

Climbing by the sea....

Not quite as simple as it sounds when one is based in North Devon....some of the cliffs are a little 'adventurous' (for that read loose!!) whilst others have pretty horrible approaches...add that to the tidal part and that I am only leading around severe at the moment...


Claire and I looked at a couple of venues; however we did get one nice Diff route down on the reverse slab of Brownspear Point. The approach was by a lovely low tide boulder hop which takes you round into a secluded bay that is not possible to get to from above. The route was a lovely diff - with good but spaced gear and some lovely padding. From the bottom it looked like you could abseil off some blocks above the cliff...however when I got there there was a steep loose grass/rubble slope up to the blocks which looked awful loose....

Discretion being the better part and all that, I lowered off a perfect nut 6 and Claire could have a run up and down the slab. It would have been nice to do some routes on Lundy, however with the bird bans in place and me not feeling 100% it would have been dicey - ditto for routes on the N. Devon coast....would be nice to go back soon though...

Sunset from the campsite

Sutherland.....and the garden..

Sutherland is ours!!! We fell in love with the cottage we rented when we moved down to Ashton from Penrith and agreed a price to buy it. It has taken a while...however we now own Sutherland (as we've chosen to call the cottage). What else could we call it with Suilvan, Arkle and Foinavon all here (the latter two are our little Marmot Mammoths)..?

Having brought the place we can now do a few things to it - and one of those is the back garden. We've got a compostor and some enclosed raised beds to grow veg as well. It's unlikely we'll be self-sufficient or be able to retire in a life of untramelled luxury from growing and selling things....however it is nice to produce our own stuff.

This isn't exactly the correct time to grow most things - however we have got some Spinach, Carrots and some spud bags...a test to see what we can do before really gearing up for it next year. Along with this, we have the compostor going already - hopefully it'll produce some lovely home compost for next spring. A woodstore should arrive soon as well  - getting us ready for winter..

Spuds....with some of our herbs..

The compostor...

Maybe this spinach will make me climb better!!

One summer - mystery illness

Got this bug about 6 weeks away, from the Head of Dept at the school I was working at at the time....still not entirely sure what it is, however it has left me in periodic coughing fits at times that make  running and cycling very difficult.

I certainly improved during my time away on Lundy and in Devon, probably relaxing and the sea air. When we got back, I was able to go for a run with Claire with no problem and thought all was well.....unfortunately it wasn't. I managed a gentle run in heavy rain last week which is good - and I've certainly got better than I was before we left for Devon, however I'm still not right.

Cycling is especially a challenge as I cough so much I nearly fall off - clearly not great. On the plus side, walking seems ok (although we'll see more next week) and climbing is also good - we've just come back from a wall session and I can feel things starting to click a bit now which is good - although I could really do with some endurance and power....

Some more from Suilvan...

well, I've been back at home (Sutherland they've called it after the humans brought it) for a couple of weeks - although I've been promised that the humans are going to take me away again on Wed for a few days.

Before that I took the humans down to Devon - to the same place I stayed at last year. It was a bit quieter  than the year before - there weren't as many vans to talk to. It did get busier towards the weekend, however there seemed to more caravans than vans which was a shame, even so, it was nice to have some time away from home.

It was strange though - as the little ones and I were left for 3 days in Ilfracombe, the humans went to a place called Lundy, apparently I was not allowed to go...am not impressed....

One summer - Tryfan Bach

Tryfan Bach is a great little cliff just off the main A5. It's a 180' slab with plenty of holds and most of the routes having loads of gear as well - although a couple are a little blank. I did a lot of early leading   there in the mid 90's and have taken others (including Liz) there to do some leading as well. Getting back into climbing - and moving to Oldham which is a lot closer to N. Wales than Cumbria ever was!! - it seemed like a good idea for a revisit.

We 've actually been about 3 times and done most of the main routes on the slab. As it is purely for wussies (with nothing harder than VS there) the atmosphere is usually pretty relaxed. Claire, being Claire, ran up the harder lines and then had a bit of a wobble on the Moderate Arete which I did as the last climb of that day!! - oh well.  We tend to try and get there reasonably early and leave about mid-afternoon, as the crag starts to get mega busy at that point. Most of the routes have a little polish, but there is nothing too bad and it's a great place to go.

Looking to the hills of the mainland from Anglessey

One summer...

start of a series where I'll blog about what the two of us have got up to over the summer of 2013.


Bouldering at Wimberry

Claire has climbed before - however that was a fair few years ago - and I have barely climbed in 5 years  - so we are both rusty. Having done a few climbs at Windgather Rocks ( a lovely grit outcrop in the W peaks which specialises in easy routes) we thought a session getting us both used to the vagaries of smearing and using pebbles would be good - it was.

We found a lovely slab by a stream and had a prolonged play on it - even at my peak of climbing ability, I was far worse on grit than any other type of rock. Part of this is due to my aversion to jamming whilst I am also used to the positive holds and long pitches of the Lakes and the Dolomites - so the session was very good for me as well...

Lots of updates...

sorry for the lack of posts - things are busy here with teaching and running around as well....

However.....

we left Suilvan in Anglessey; where we had a lovely weekend of climbing and walking by the sea - followed by some routes on Tryfan Bach (Little Tryfan); a great place for people getting back into climbing/newish to climbing as Claire and I are. I found the place to be good and it was good to be able to lead some easyish and safe routes. It was a glorious day, just lovely to be out and about again in N. Wales - as can be seen from the photo's

Looking across to the mainland from Anglessey

Suilvan returns...

Yes I know it's been a long time - I've been left out in the cold and wet so much the humans had to 'jump me' last weekend...and I can tell you it wasn't pleasant!

So, I seem to have got somewhere else to stand as well - the humans have moved to somewhere near Oldham, and the move was very stressful. I was crammed full of boxes and was driven up a horrendously potholed hill (the female human had got lost it appeared!!). Once there, I was left alone, with lots of cars to talk to but no other vans. Apparently, there are lots of vans around as the humans talk about 'Friends of Suilvan' they see on their travels the whole time...but I was left at home.

Last weekend was different though -they took me out and changed my tyres for summer tyres and tonight I am sat in N.Wales. I've never been to North Wales before - I must say it does rain a lot!! It's nice now however and I'm parked up for the evening - it is nice to be back out again and to be useful. The weather is not good for tomorrow - so am not sure what the humans will do as yet - they were muttering about going climbing; however I suspect they'll go for a walk by the sea, as they did today. The female human loves the sea, whilst the male human muttered something about nice cake at the cafe when they got back!!

Will report back further later on...it's nice with the sea breeze here...

Northern Corries walk..

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 has all the pictures of this lovely day...

Although it was unbelievably warm in Aviemore, (warm enough to leave the crampons in the car) it was still hard snow on the plateau of Cairngorm (which made it a bad decision that I made...). We had got to the summit via the Ptarmigan restuarant and a bacon buttie stop!!

Once on the plateau we were confronted by an icy wind and some lovely views. The wind was manageable with the correct clothing and was not as strong as on Driesh nor as gusty..the views as you can see from the photo's were lovely indeed.

The real excitement of the day came on the final descent from the summit of Coire an Lochain. I should have made us use ice-axes and put the ski poles away....I don't know if Claire slipped or was bored of walking and thought she'd slide 100' down the hill!! No damage was done - and I actually enjoyed a lovely sitting glissade down the rest of the snow patch. Being serious for a minute - it was good to practice our ice-axe braking - the paramount skill for use in winter, especially in Scotland.

The weather and views were amazing throughout the day - and we actually moved pretty quickly as were back at Suilvan just gone 3pm with a lovely walk under our belts. I have been to the Northern Corries many times, largely to climb, and this was the best weather day I have ever had. It is also good to see how things 'fit together' in the Cairngorms - especially for Claire who had approached the hills she's done in the range from several different directions...

Mayar and (nearly) Driesh..

New Year 2013 dawned with a lovely morning  - cold and crisp - although with a little bit of wind. Claire and I decided to 'first-foot' Driesh and Mayar, the two local hills to Glen Doll which neither of us had ever done before. The fact we were parked at the foot of the hills meant we could have a leisurely start to the New Year, and the fact we were following one of the trails in the forest to the edge of Corrie Fee made the navigation easier.

Corrie Fee was a revelation - I had heard of it as a good place for winter climbs and it certainly is - it also has lots of things for walkers, botanists etc..the pictures are on photobox:

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/3436739 along with the photos of the other days I'll be blogging about.

The stalkers path up Corrie Fee was actually quite arkward to follow - with patches of ice here and there which meant wearing crampons was not really practical, yet some parts were tricky. I should probably have suggested we got the ice axes out earlier - Claire was perched on a nice steep slope when I unslung her axe!!, however once they were out we could amble onto the plateau and make the last ascent onto Mayar.

From Mayar the way is obvious, over a couple of miles of rolling plateau before the final ascent to Driesh. As we passed the col, we blessed the good weather which meant that the way down was easy to find. However the wind was picking up with some quite strong gusts where staying on one's feet was not altogether easy. I should also have suggested we put on crampons at the bottom of the final climb to Driesh which had some rock hard snow on it. My experience means that, with an axe, I am pretty happy on this terrain, however Claire found it quite unnerving. Stopping to put the crampons on, a debut for my new pair, was quite tricky with the wind picking up and gusting around...I was finding it  quite arkward to stand up (memo to self: more mince pies next year!!) and Claire was finding the whole thing quite unnerving. Claire has a veto on all our winter expeditions - probably 80% of my Munro's have been done in winter so my experience is much greater than hers in this environment) - she used it and we went down.

Stomping down was good practice for Claire in crampon usage - a field she hasn't had to use much given the weather in the last two years. She descended the tricky descent path in excellent style - there was quite a nasty run off if you got it wrong. A last section through the forest and a tough (for me) on the knees wander along the forest road and we were back at Suilvan. After a drink or two and some cake it was time to hit the road again - the forecast suggesting that Aviemore was the obvious location, if there is one place to beat a thaw it would be there...we both left Glen Doll quite sadly; its a lovely place and there is so much to do there...

New Year trip to Scotland..

Claire and I had left Suilvan for xmas, which we spent in the NY Moors in the lovely village of Rosedale, after a trip to Newcastle. However, we picked him up after xmas and all 3 of us headed North for a week over New Year.

Our first base was Linn of Dee near Braemar - which for poor Suilvan involved a horrendous journey up the very steep and narrow road from Pitlochry. We'd gone that way in the hope of scrounging a free cuppa from my Mum and Peter - however they were up on Ben Vrackie so no deal!!

We awoke the next morning to snow on the ground and a lot more falling out of the sky! With the cloud down and us not being especially fit it didn't seem terribly sensible to hare off onto the Cairngorm Plateau, so we ambled along to the rebuilt Bob Scott's bothy which is near Derry Lodge. This bothy has a great history which is recorded in the superb Mountain Days and Bothy Nights by Dave Brown and Ian Mitchell - highly recommended. It has been re-built, although not by the MBA, and we met two of the builders when we arrived for our drink and cake stop. They are also 2 of the people who help look after the recently re-furbished Hutchinson Memorial Hut further up Glen Derry,  a place I've never been to but would love to go.

Our two Scottish companions did seem a little miffed that people were using the bothy as a brew stop, so they would have been even less pleased to see the party of students that we met on the way back who were going to do just that!! To be honest - going onto the plateau probably would not have been the best idea given the weather so they were probably quite sensible to do so. As for us, we drove into Braemar and had a cup of tea at the Fife Arms whilst we pondered our options for the next day.

There was a 'warmth' to the air next day that pre-cursored the thaw that we did get later in the week - although there was a strong and biting wind. Our plan was to relocate to Glen Doll for New Years Eve (nice and quiet) and so we went up Carn Aosda, one of the hills to the W of the Cairnwell Pass. With a biting wind, we were glad of the nice starting height, and the smallness of the hills, as I was certainly feeling far from 100%. Claire could add another tick to her book and it was nice to get some views occasionally, as the two previous times I've been on the hill I've seen exactly zip....

Then it was a long drive to Glen Doll and a  lovely meal in the Clova hotel before tootling down the big car-park at the end of the valley - the youth hostel has closed - and a convenient ignoring of the 'no overnight parking' signs...easier for one of the party than the other!!