I have just got back from an excellent three days climbing in the Wye Valley. As I effectively finished my degree on Thursday I headed home for the weekend, on Friday I met up with one of my school friends and headed over to Wintour’s Leap which is a fantastic crag 10mins from Chepstow. To start with we climbed the classic Hard Severe of the Wye Valley called Zelda. This was a fantastic climb which contained a bit of everything including some bold and exposed moves on fantastic rock. After we had completed that climb we headed back down but this time over to Fly wall which contains shorter climbs and climbed another classic route of the crag, Freedom, which was graded at Very Severe. It was another great climb which involved some crack climbing techniques which I don’t have much experience at before a very bold traverse right before the final few moves which certainly got the adrenalin flowing.

On Saturday I headed further up the Wye Valley to Symonds Yat with Mum where we spent the afternoon climbing four routes there. I warmed up on Golden Fleece with the direct finish making it a Hard Severe which was fantastic, though committing to the direct finish was tricky due to it being fairly bold. After this we headed over to the classic VS of Symonds Yat which was Whitt up the Pinnacle. This was just fantastic climbing all the way up in a fantastic setting, unfortunately to do it in the sun you have to climb it late in the day which meant that we were climbing in the shade, though topping out and being hit by the warm sun was wonderful. After we had lunch we completed another two routes, firstly the Druid which was a fantastic sustained VS which certainly got my adrenalin flowing as I climbed up, we then finished the day by climbing another VS called Exchange which was fairly straight forward apart from one step left half way up, though due to some careless rope management I ended up struggling with rope drag towards the top.

On Sunday evening on the way home from my Gran’s house in Herefordshire I stopped off at Wintour’s Leap again, this time with mum where we headed to Fly wall to do a few short climbs before the sun set. It was a fantastic evening with completely clear skies, and climbing with the sunset chasing you up the wall was wonderful. To start with we warmed up on Butterfly which is a fantastic VS with some apparently bold moves, not that I noticed them as it was just my style of climbing so shot up it. After this I attempted to climb my first HVS, Swatter, so Mum lead the first Pitch of the Split in order to get to the start of the climb before I lead Swatter. This involved a tricky mantle up onto a ledge before a bold and committing traverse above an overhang. It took me a few false starts to fully commit to the traverse, though eventually I committed with adrenalin flowing and made the move before continuing up the rest of the climb. According to UK Climbing, Swatter is a hard HVS so I didn’t give myself an easy route to try as my first HVS! Considering my first trad lead was 2.5 months ago I am fairly pleased with myself that I have already lead a solid HVS route.

With the largest piece of coursework of my degree due in within two weeks I am of course heavily procrastinating at the moment, with the beautiful weather on Sunday I was desperate to get out on some rock to make the most of it before it got cold and wet again this week but no one in Exeter wanted to play. So I drove up to the Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley picking Simon up from Chepstow on the way to introduce another one of my friends to outdoor climbing.

This meant going back to VDiff again to determine what Simon could climb so we climbed the classic VDiff of the crag, Snoozin’ Suzie, which was fantastic and a great introduction for Simon into outdoor climbing. Climbing up out of the woods and being presented with a view of the Wye Valley was just fantastic! After this we headed over to the other side of the crag to climb up a big pinnacle, up the opposite side to us is a classic VS which is on my to do list but that can wait for another day. We headed up a climb called Vertigo which was a severe which Simon sailed up and standing on the top of the pillar was just fantastic, it was just a shame the sun went behind a huge cloud at this point! With the sun starting to get low in the sky it was time to abseil back down and climb the final climb of the day.

From where we were we had the choice of a long walk around the edge of the crag or a short VDiff (The Little Red Edge) climb up to the top, so we chose the climb. It was fairly bold as far as VDiff climbs go as I don’t have any tiny cams so in the 10m climb I placed 1 piece of gear half way up and one piece at the top of the climb before the scramble to the belay!

It was great being back on limestone as I am far more comfortable on it than on Dartmoor’s Granite, and I am looking forward to climbing with Simon again and getting on some harder routes this summer as he lives 30mins from my house and on the way to all the great local climbing venues! I have now also set myself a target for the end of the summer which is being happy leading HVS routes, which should be possible especially as I will be able to go out and second climbs with my parents at harder grades to improve my technical climbing ability.

Following on from my previous post about Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis I have just spent the week mountaineering in the Caingorms where we had a fantastic time. Other than the day we did Ben Nevis we managed two other walks, a day trip over to Glen Coe in order to visit Ice Factor, a visit to some waterfalls where we went for a rather cold swim and a trip to Dalwhinnie distillary. On the day we arrived there was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was really warm so we had a BBQ outside, but with the crazy Scottish weather 3 days later we woke up to large amounts of snow on the ground!

On the first day we went for a local walk which I tried to do at New Year but had to turn back on that attempt due to being unable to stand up in the wind. It was a horseshoe walk up to  Sgor Gaoith and along the ridge to do a few other tops as well, it was a fantastic walk which we were able to relax nicely on to enjoy the summit views.

On Monday the weather forecast wasn’t great and we needed to sort out winter boots, crampons and ice axe hire for the group so went to Aviemore and visited every outdoor shop before we headed to a local waterfall where a few of us went for a rather cold swim! On Tuesday we woke up to 3 inches of snow on the ground where we were staying and with more snow forecast and strong winds we couldn’t go up high, as we were planning on Ben Nevis on Wednesday we had another day off from the mountains and 5 of us headed over to Glen Coe for a sightseeing trip and to go to the indoor ice climbing wall at Kinlochleven which was fantastic, though after climbing 7 routes my arms were pretty tired!

On Wednesday we got up early and headed to Ben Nevis for a fantastic day which is described in my blog post,  Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis, though once me and Andrew got to the top we waited for the rest of the group to walk down together as they had climbed the Carn Mor Dearg Arete which took longer than our climb. As the weather was so good me and Andrew were at the top for two hours and we didn’t really get cold it was just fantastic! Due to getting back at 11pm we had the day off on Thursday so went for a trip to the local distillery which was great, and it smelt amazing! On the last day there was hill fog down to ~600m so we went for a local Glen walk which was pleasant though interrupted by a river crossing which involved getting wet feet so here the group split and some of us walked down the side of the river to Newtonmore to keep out feet dry and the others carried on with the planned walk.

Last week I was up in Scotland for a week, the intention was to go winter climbing but after stunning and really hot weather the two weeks before we headed up there was very little ice left so the prospect of doing any winter climbing was looking very unlikely.

However due to a sudden change of weather over two days, from having a BBQ on the first evening then on Tuesday morning we woke up to several inches of fresh snow and freezing temperatures, this mixed with a northerly wind quickly sent Ben Nevis back to great winter conditions on the easier routes such as Gardyloo Gully. Armed with a positive weather & avalanche report from SAIS stating that on the northern aspects there was a low avalanche risk due to the northerly wind scouring the faces we made the decision to get up early and head up the north face of Ben Nevis.

We  headed up to the CIC hut very early leaving the car at 7am and got to the CIC hut less than two hours later where we had to hide from the bitter wind as the weather forecast was not as good as expected, so we layered up and made the climb up Observatory Gully towards Gardyloo Gully (Winter Grade II/III) as the weather improved all the time. It was hard going up Observatory Gully due to all the fresh snow which had accumulated on the flatter slopes, though eventually the gradient steepened as as it did the snow quickly changed into beautiful hard névé. After some steep climbing we arrived at the start of Gardyloo Gully where we roped up and started climbing. The first two pitches were fairly straight forward but seriously lacked any protection. On the first pitch I placed one piece of gear and set up a belay at the second as I was approaching the end of the rope and hadn’t found any protection for ages! Once we got to the third pitch the gradient steepened again though now there was enough gear to protect the climb, there was even some ice towards the top where I was able to place some very sold ice screws.

At the top of the third pitch was the start of the ice cave which was fairly unique, here there was also a fantastic ledge to belay off and once Andrew had climbed the pitch we enjoyed a fantastic lunch on the sheltered ledge with a fantastic view. Once we had finished refuelling I started climbing the ice pitch which was a surreal experience, climbing up into what can only be described as an ice cave which the exit was a short vertical section of grade III,4 ice according to my guide book. After the cave there was the final steep slope up to the summit where I set up an ice axe belay and belayed Andrew up while I was providing much amusement to members of the public that couldn’t believe that I had just climbed up the gully.

Once we got to the top the views were absolutely fantastic and the conditions were amazing, there was almost no wind so we spent two hours at the summit waiting for the others in our group to arrive who climbed up Ben Nevis via the Carn Mor Dearg Arete. Once they arrived we headed down the Pony Path with them as the sky cleared to provide us with a beautiful sunset as we walked down to the Ben Nevis Inn for a well deserved pint after a fantastic day.

Making the most of the fantastic weather at the end of March I headed over to Dartmoor on two separate occasions with Stephen and Rosie for a few days climbing.

Firstly I headed to Haytor with Stephen where we climbed Honeymoon Corner (Severe), Levitation (VS 4b) which meant I learnt what bold climbing was and found it slightly scary due to there being no gear placements! Before finishing on Raven Gully (S 4a) and heading home for steak and ice cream!

On Friday I headed back to Dartmoor but this time to Hound Tor with Rosie. It was her first time climbing outdoors so we started off on a nice VDiff and then progressed onto a few HVDs which were great. Mixed in with these I lead my first VS 4c called Suspension Flake which was absolutely fantastic.

After we had done lots of climbing at Hound Tor we headed over to Haytor so Rosie could have a go at a Severe called Raven Gully and despite having lead it twice before I somehow managed to take a fall on it, which was also my first fall while trad climbing!

I have just got back from what was quite frankly an unbelievable weekend in Snowdonia. It was an odd trip as there was supposed to be 17 of us heading up but the minibus broke down en route and didn’t make it so it was just my car of 5 people.

On the first day we did the standard ascent of Tryfan, albeit with a few hard section that I added in for myself as always! It was great though as there was no hill fog and for most of the time it was dry so for the first time in 5 visits I could actually see the mountain I climbed and had great views from the top without being blown off! After we had done this we headed back to the campsite to endure another night of heavy rain, but that’s fine as its going to rain at some point over the weekend so its better that its overnight!

On the Sunday morning we headed up to Pen-Y-Pass car park to do Crib Goch, our plan was to just do Crib Goch and head down. We got to the car park really early to make sure we didn’t miss out on a parking spot but as it wasn’t meant to clear until late morning we cooked a fry up in the car park! As we headed out the car park Crib Goch was still in cloud but as we were climbing up to the start of the ridge it cleared. Getting to the start of the ridge and seeing the knife edge route you are going to walk along all the way up to the top of Snowdon is a truly spectacular site. This was made even better by the sun coming out for the majority of the time and there being almost no wind so it was really enjoyable to be on the ridge.

We took our time on the ridge as there were a few people who were new to scrambling with us and we were planning on going down the quick and easy way from the top of Snowdon, but while we were at the summit some people there that were raising money for an expedition to Alaska suggested that we carried on with the horseshoe, and after a quick group discussion we decided we would kick ourselves if we didn’t! Due to it starting to get late we made a quick move off the top and towards the final ridge up to Y Lliwedd and by this time the weather had completely cleared and there was not a cloud in the sky and with the sun starting to get low the light was just beautiful.

As we were descending off the other side of Y Lliwedd to complete the horseshoe the sun set and it was beautiful seeing this in the mountains, a sight I have never seen before (seen many sunrises in the mountains though). Using head torches we made it to the miners track but by the time we got there all the stars were out in the crystal clear sky so using starlight we headed back to the car down the miners path, with a few stops to admire the stars, I even lay down on the track for a while watching them.

We got back to the car at 8:30 making it a ten hour mountain day of which I enjoyed every second, while walking down the miners path I was thinking about mountain days out that could beat this day and came to the conclusion that this was my best every mountain day out in the UK and was only beaten by a handful of routes in the alps!

Over the past few weeks there has been some fantastic weather so I have taken a few days off university and headed out to Dartmoor for some trad climbing in the sun. Trad climbing is a very new sport for me so I am currently learning all the basics of placing my own gear on easy routes though they are still really great climbs. Sitting on a belay as the sun is setting and you are belaying your partner up the rock is just fantastic.

Unsurprisingly my camera comes climbing with me as always and these photos are taken by a mixture of being sat at the top looking down or by hanging on an abseil rope to get into a position half way up the climb, there are even some photos of me leading my first trad routes as I gave my camera to a friend.

Last weekend I ran a trip up to the Lake District with my university’s expedition society. The aim of this trip was always to do some great scrambling and thankfully we got the weather as the wind was not too strong, it didn’t rain in the daytime and we even had some nice views on both days!

Last time I was in the lake district scrambling was 7 years ago where I remember climbing the grade 3*** route up Pinnacle Ridge with my parents and while we were at the top eating lunch we had a flypast by the red arrows. The routes we did this weekend were much easier but still very enjoyable and were the two grade 1*** routes in the Lake District. On Saturday we headed up Blencathra via Sharp Edge and down Hall’s Fell ridge which was a lovely route which actually took us a surprisingly small amount of time and we were finished in time for the rugby! The great thing about Sharp Edge is the view that you get of the ridge as you walk in and with people that had not done much scrambling before the slight disbelief as the ridge we were about to climb was enjoyable.

The initial plan for the Sunday was a walk up to Great Gable from Borrowdale where we were camping but due to the forecast of rain and hill fog it was decided that it would be far more enjoyable doing another scramble than a walk in the rain and mist. So we headed down to Great Langdale to climb Jack’s Rake which turned out to be a fantastic scramble. On the walk in I got bored walking so kept getting distracted by the rock and doing lots of extra scrambling which was great fun and added a lot of interest to the walk in. Once we got to Stickle Tarn we pointed out where we were scrambling to the group to slight disbelief as from the tarn it does just look like you are scrambling across a very exposed rock face, though when you get to the scramble it was clear that the exposure would be limited and there was not really any exposure on the climb as expected for a grade 1 scramble. At the top I chose to climb up a more ‘interesting’ route which I realised half way up was definitely a good example of exposure and very committing scrambling but the rock was fantastic and despite the holds being small they were very grippy so it was fine and lots of fun which certainly got the adrenalin flowing!

I am now looking forward to the summer when I plan on going back up to the lakes with a few friends to do some harder scrambling in the fantastic scenery that is on offer there as well as the other classic ridges as I only have vague memories of everything there despite having done loads due to being much younger when we did most of it.

This cold spell that is currently all over the UK has advantages for those of us that are mad enough to go winter climbing and after some snow and a cold spell there is some great winter climbing up the north face of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons.

Thursday saw me take a day off university and head over to the brecons with my mum for a day out in perfect weather with sun all day and cold temperatures. Due to it not having risen above freezing all week the snow was still powdery but that didn’t matter due to it being so cold the turf had frozen up nicely which is the important thing on Pen y Fan.

It was a bit of an odd way of starting a climb as to get to the base we had to walk up to the summit of Pen y Fan to descend down the other side just to climb back up the north face. Though this did mean we got fantastic views on the way up with the early morning sun. When we got to the base of the north face we had two routes to chose from, a rib and a gully, in the end we chose the gully so I could gain some gully experience. We started the climb moving together with some runners in between us as the ground was not to steep, but after not too long it started to get steeper and more technical so we started climbing in pitches. There was some fantastic climbing after we started pitching the route including some great mixed climbing over rocky steps and even some ice forming allowing me to place a decent ice screw! When we got to the top it was nearly sunset and the wind vanished which was fantastic as it meant we could sit and eat some food on the summit as the sun was setting. This also meant that I got a rare photo of my on a mountain in all my winter gear.

Until we headed up Pen y Fan I had never actually done an ice climb above Scottish grade II, and I went from that to leading a whole grade II route myself! Though that was not the only first of the day, as it was also the first belay I have ever set up, the first multi pitch climb I have lead, the first time I have placed protection outdoors and the first time I have used two axes in an uncontrolled environment!

I had a fantastic day and am really looking forward to heading up with uni friends in the next cold spell, or if that doesn’t turn up Scotland in April where I will hopefully get to do a few more grade II gullies.

Over the new year I headed up to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands for some winter mountaineering and climbing, the weather however thought otherwise! Over the 9 days we were up there we had to battle with gale force winds most days, rain/snow every day though due to a thaw there was no snow when we got there, but the fresh snow then lead onto having too much snow with a huge avalanche risk! We did however do stuff on all but one day which was the day the whole of the UK was hit with storm force winds! Over the course of the week there wasn’t a time when there was snow and a low avalanche risk so we couldn’t get in any winter climbing, though we did manage two great ridge walks in winter conditions and another aborted walk in winter conditions. On the days that we couldn’t walk due to the weather being too bad we went biking at low level, but on each day we went biking we kept finding closed paths due to storm damage, we ignored these signs on the first day and ended up having to carry our bikes over/through lots of fallen trees!

The first walk we did was up the north east Stob Bàn and down the west ridge, there was a weather window early in the day so we got up before light and walked in the dark for 2 hours in an attempt to get to the first ridge before the cloud arrived, unfortunately the cloud came in earlier than forecast and was there when day broke. The ridges were great and I think would have been stunning if we could actually have seen anything! Though this was the one day of the holiday where the winds were low so being out on the mountain was nice and relaxing without having to worry about standing upright and the wind chill.

For our second walk the weather was supposed to be better to the east so we got up before daybreak again and drove over to the Cairngorms National park, where we climbed Càrn Bàn Mór with the intention to then walk along a ridge and do a horseshoe walk, though when we got to the summit again we were in hill fog, but also winds that you could hardly stand up in and horizontal frozen snow which was incredibly painful if it hit any exposed skin, so after finding the summit with the aid of GPS we aborted off the mountain back down into relative shelter.

After this walk there were a couple of days that we could not go up high due to the amount of snow/wind that was forecast so we went mountain biking again, but we also went to Ice Factor where you can go indoor ice climbing with a top rope. So not only can you practice/learn indoors out of the wind with no spindrift, you can also learn in complete safety and improve your skills before you hit the ice outside.

On the final day however the forecast was better, though high winds were still forecast and the met office mountain forecast said that any prolonged exposure to the wind on the hills would lead to hypothermia, this however did not stop us trying to get a good view so set out with a few escape plans in mind for in case it was too cold/windy. We headed up a grade 1 scramble/grade 1 winter route up out of Glen Coe and onto the middle of the three sisters, Geàrr Aonach, and then headed up the North East Ridges of Stob Coire nan Lochan before heading down the north ridge. All day we had fantastic views apart from 30mins or so on the NE ridge when we were in the cloud, but as we hit the summit the cloud rose and left us with fantastic views and a reminder of how beautiful Scotland can be in the right conditions. I even had to get a photo of me, so handed the camera to my dad and went and posed to get a rare shot of me on a mountain in winter gear. The decent down the N/NW ridge was stunning with great views so I placed myself firmly at the back and got my favourite photos of the trip of my parents descending the ridge with the view of Loch Leven and snow capped peaks in the background.

I am heading back up to Scotland, though this time we are heading to the Cairngorms, at the start of April with the Expedition Society of my university and am hoping for some slightly more favourable conditions in that week to enable some winter climbing and some winter walks with great views.