At this time of year you might be preparing to book onto some winter training. This is a popular topic of conversation around the camp fire and the pub etc. so since a small group of us did courses together at Glenmore Lodge I thought I would share my thoughts on our experience for anyone […]
The Roaches trip report – October 2019
Eleven keen and hardy souls packed themselves into the Whillans Hut at the Roaches for the mid-October Peak District trip, more in hope than expectation of good weather. The Whillans hut is an absolutely unique place to stay and wonderfully close to the rock (read cave…) – and it didn’t fail to live up to […]
Evening trip to Blaise Castle
I didn’t fancy driving out to the Wye Valley and George couldn’t make the Tuesday or Thursday meets so we teamed up and headed off to Blaise Castle (aka Trym Gorge) instead to climb at Lovers’ Leap. Starting from a lay-by opposite the main car park (which closes after 2100), we headed in what we […]
The Butterflies of Gower
Words by Simon, photos by Louise I’d had a pretty negative life experience of Gower; one abortive climbing trip, without guidebook, in such a distant past that the person I went with can’t remember it ever happened. That plus a family camping weekend in the rain in a packed, noisy campsite – sleeping in a […]
Skye trip report – May 2019
Christine and Dave It was with more than a little trepidation that we set off for Skye for a 2-week trip in mid-May. Despite May being the driest month of the year on average in North West Scotland (before the summer ‘monsoon’ kicks in and the midges really get going!), on both of the two […]
Starting the season in Portland
After a wild week when Storm Gareth whipped up some high winds and miserable greyness, it was an intrepid group of members who made the trip down to Portland in late March. No fear, it’s always sunny in Portland… After a night in the Bunkhouse With No Windows we sought the place most likely to […]
Scottish Tradfest
After an extremely successful haul of gullies and ice last year, Pete, Cameron, Niall and I hoped to build on our success. In the days before the Scotland trip this year however, it became apparent that all of or our new ice gear would be of little use. Instead we reached for our trad racks and […]
Scotland 2019 – Tower Ridge
Scotland in February: We were hoping for a winter ascent of the classic Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, but it was far from winter. If you were quick enough you could have done it in t-shirt and shorts, we weren’t and glad we didn’t, as we topped out at 18:30. Four of us decided to […]
Dog walker to Mountain Leader
In midlife I unexpectedly found myself with time on my hands. Wondering what to do with this unwanted and unappreciated turn of fortune, I considered the options. I looked into getting back into sailing but Bristol’s a bit far from good sailing locations, I thought about horse riding but couldn’t afford it and decided that […]