The staple of multiday walkers. If you can’t re-stock for lunches, this is one of the only cold options. Pastries and sandwiches will become highly dodgy on day 2 of any walk, and who wants to stop and cook during the day? Some do, and that must be the tastiest option. Personally I can’t be bothered. It’s …
I’ve taken to buying old books on ebay, and I recently got one called Backpacker”s Handbook by Derrick Booth. Ok, the cover”s good for a laugh. It even has them posing in jeans on the front (which he does, to be fair, say is not recommended wear for the hills). Originally published in the early …
Originally posted on the Walk Eryri Blog a few years back and the images are rather poor as they were taken with a mobile. This was my first day in Loch Ossian YH. On leaving the train, it was a quick walk to the Youth Hostel where I was greeted by Nick and told where …
Beinn Na Lap and Around Loch Ossian from Corrour Read More »
Originally posted on the Walk Eryri Blog a few years back and the images are rather poor as taken with a mobile. This was my second day in Loch Ossian YH with an ascent of Leum Uilleim. The next day saw much the same sort of weather as yesterday. Rain and wind, with very little sun …
This route originally appeared on the Walk Eryri Blog a few years ago. The weather forecast had been eagerly anticipated the previous night and it shaped the next day ‘s walk as it was anticipating not just foul weather, I can cope with that, but lightning. That I don‘t really fancy. So Carn Dearg and a couple …
Carn Dearg from Corrour Station – originally posted on the Walk Eryri Blog a few years back. Arriving on the sleeper at Corrour, i had managed to sleep much better this time thank you. An easy walk was all i wanted though, and the easiest walk left was that up Carn Dearg (and Sgorr Gailbhre). I …
The Munros of Chno Dearg and Stob Coire Sgriodain are more often ascended from Fersaid/Fersit to the north, but the approach from Corrour is much more epic! Some walks are easy. Others are tiring. Not many get that Epic label, and this was one of them. One of the hardest mountain days I’ve had. In perfect …
Walk up Chno Dearg and Stob Coire Sgriodain from Loch Ossian Read More »
I wanted an anemometer to see how strong the winds really were that were rocking my tent. I want to be able to relate the speeds given on the forecast to something i can see on the hill. So i wanted one of these. Their basic model, XPlorer 1, is just a wind speed meter …
I was thinking about this on a run the other night. I’d decided to take a slight detour to take in, possibly 400m of forest trail. Decent trails like this are an absolute rarity around Caernarfon, where you’ve either got roads/tarmac cycletracks or the usual farmland ROWs that are either impassible, muddy or require a …
Ever wondered what happened to all those people who would complain that we all got pissed on the 31st December 1999 because it wasn’t the Millennium for another year? Well they’re at it again, this time measuring mountains… The idea is that a bunch of guys (and maybe gals) want to re-survey Tryfan so as …
I’m fed up of dried meals in a pouch! I want to take some real food with me next time, but I don”t want to take loads of pans with me. The solution? A rice cooker – or basically a cosy for ziploc bags. It” light too, at 30g. Plus i reckon it”s far too …
Did my little walk up Mynydd Mawr yesterday. I was stunned as to how quiet it was walking across the Uwchgwyrfai Common, and how unseasonally warm it was. The only thing that was against the day was the exceptionally poor visibility. Moel Eilio, barely a couple of K across the valley was just a faint …
The final section of the course was an expedition with night nav. We did a bit of rough walking and navigation to get up to our campsite in Cwm Edno. It was almost ghyll scrambling up past the Afon Edno, much more interesting than the faint footpath. As it was due to be windy, we …
Day 3. This was a bit of a shock to my system. Ropework. However, i only needed to use one knot, the overhand (or is it underhand?), and that was easy enough. A mentally challenging day to anyone unfamiliar with ropes, but at least there wasn”t much walking involved. I”d have found concentrating on the …
Had a great weekend with Phil George and the rest of the group. Small group, but means that contact time was maximised. Day 1. Met at Pete”s Eats. Didn”t know there was a flexibility to the 9am meeting time, so missed out on breakfast (will do me good). Met up with a couple who looked …
I finally did my 1st aid course last weekend. I hadn’t really looked forward to doing it. I couldn’t see what i could learn in 2 days that i could use with confidence in a real situation. The last time i’d done first aid was in St John’s when i was 13. We went there …
After I’d moaned about my phone not being waterproof in a previous post (might as well complain that it always bloody rains on my walking days for all the good it does), i bought this straight off ebay. Well, i had some cash in Paypal so it seemed the sensible thing to do – almost …
What is it? SPOT is a personal beacon that transmits SOS messages, or “I’m safe” messages so you can notify friends and family that you’re safe at the end of a walk (especially relevant in remote areas without mobile signals). First Impressions. It’s very much like a little orange GPS without a screen. In the same way …
This was a bit of an expedition, having to book the sleeper weeks in advance. And as for Bargain Berths, forget it. I think only the psychic manage to get hold of them. I then spent weeks looking over the maps of Lochaber, deciding on a route. The Grey Corries and a bothy trip was …
We’ve had the old arguments of mobile phones and hills, but here’s a new one for you. Netbooks on the mountain? For those of you who’ve been sleeping in Millican’s cave for the last twelve months, a Netbook is basically a small laptop (7-10inch screen) with decent battery life and optimised for browsing ‘tinternet on …
I’d never stayed in a youth hostel till this trip. Why bother, I’ve lived within convenient distance of the hills. I can camp if it’s foul weather, or make use of the one and only mountain bothy in North Eryri if it’s worse. So this was a change of tack for me. I was greeted, …
1 – the obvious one. If, and ONLY IF, you are in an emergency situation you can phone mountain rescue. An emergency does not include running out of jelly babies, or that the cafe on Snowdon’s closed. Phone if someone’s in danger. Often, people ring up and they’d either be ok walking off on their own …
