Scrambling in the Ogwen valley

Last night the rain was monumentally heavy. Very high winds in the valley didn't bode well for today so we wonderd what the day would bring. As it tured out the secnd weather front seemed to have caught up with the first, hence the spectacular results last night. We went round to the Ogwen valley and went up and down various scrambles including the excellent Cneifon Arete.

Who knows what the weather will do in the next rew days but it was nice today.

Wet (again) Tremadog and Great at Gogarth

The rain was very heavy at Tremadog today so we lowered our aspirations and kept the big boots on.

Yesterday at Gogarth was very windy. A big swell was on and high tide at 2pm encouraged us to go to Holyhead mountain where we enjoyed ourselves on a host of single pitch routes.

The weather looks to continue being wet and wild for the next few days.

Wet at Tremadog, Windy at Gogarth, Wild at Idwal

I though i better update this as i am running out of adjectives beginning with W and am having a day off so i don't need to use weary!

Iv'e been down in North Wales this last week but the weather has been similar to the Highlands, wet and windy. Ive been searching out dry rock at Tremadog and big boot climbing in the wet. We have been looking at advanced problem solving and crag rescue with scenarios such as an unconscious leader fall hanging in space on a traverse 5 pitches up and the more exciting leader triggers a landmine in a crack and must have his second come and de-activate it and then rescue them (we got a bit creative).

Gogarth has been damp but dried out well in the strong winds and gave good sport. Well done to the Scottish ream on Positron; good effort. As is the way, Gogarth has seen much better weather than Llanberris and where there has been an inch of standing water in the pass there has been sunshine on Anglesey.

Idwal has seen a few teams on the slabs, we have been using this as a venue for teaching scrambling and the efficient use of a short rope.

I've been shooting on a new camera this last week, a Panasonic LX3. The 24mm to 60mm lens is very nice and early results are promising. It is a compact that allows you full manual control of aperture and shutter in the way of an SLR and can work with filters which is a real bonus when you are shooting at altitude or in snowy conditions. it is obviously not as weather proof as the Pentax Optio range so i will have to take a bit of care with this one. I'm hoping for some good shots next week as we go on a few journeys around the Snowdonia classics and i actually read the instructions this weekend.

Long distance walking in the lake district

I'm now back in Scotland watching the rain lash the window after returning yesterday from the lakes. We walked over several peaks and passes each day and looked at detailed navigation work as we went.

The high crags were all dry last week but the rain sweeping the country will have changed that drastically. The picture shows Pavey Ark above Langdale.

Scrambling in the lakes (and dodging the rain)

The contrast to last weeks wall to wall sunshine is very apparent. The lakes have seen some heavy showers but thankfully none have been for more than 30min to an hour and we have had sunshine each day allowing the sunny aspect crags to dry from what i have seen.

We have been out in the hills around Buttermere and Grassmere and are moving on towards Langdale and Scarfell and then back to Buttermere at the end of the week.

Hopefully the weather will be kind.