The ascent of Moel Siabod was the first of two hikes myself and Paul did mid-March. We camped at Swallow Falls, near Betws-y-coed, and the second, more exciting hike/scramble will be the subject of my next post!

We chose Moel Siabod as it sounded a bit different to the usual peaks in Snowdonia, less well trodden but interesting none the less. The hike didn’t take us very long, and apart from some scrambling on the approach, it was a fairly easy walk. We were unlucky with the weather, a low cloud base and light rain reduced visibility, but this didn’t slow us down particularly.

Overall this was quite enjoyable, and a good warmup for the much longer route we took the following day.

For this trip myself, Natalie, Paul, Kat, Boris, and Kat went to Talybont-on-Usk for the weekend, staying in a rather nice bed and breakfast called The Malt House. This place is highly recommended; the quality of the accommodation was very high, breakfast was fantastic, and the owners were very hospitable and helpful.

Shortly after we arrived on Friday evening we headed over to The White Hart pub to acclimatise ourselves. After a very nice meal we rounded off the evening with a six player game of Settlers of Catan.

Saturday saw us set out directly from Talybont-on-Usk, straight onto the hills and on up to Bryn. We took an early exit at this point due to poor weather conditions, if the weather had been better it’s not unreasonable to think we could have made it to Fan y Big and even Pen y Fan. This is the route we took:

We were out for about four hours in total, and after we got warm and dry again back at the B&B, we headed over to The Star Inn. This had a wood fire going, lots of real ales available, and was very comfortable. More board games and merriment followed 🙂

On Sunday we did the Henry Vaughan walk after breakfast (route below), which was quite enjoyable as the weather had improved considerably!

So this was a couple of hikes in the Brecon beacons just before Christmas with Paul.

On Saturday we took a bit of an unconventional route starting early from the Storey Arms, heading up Fan Fawr, and then heading back to the start via a circuitous route taking bearings. The views were spectacular due to all the snowfall, and we experienced quite variable weather (the horizontal sleet biting into my cheeks was my favourite, hehe).

Sunday was another early start, this time we walked from Brecon up Pen-y-fan. This was quite a bit tougher then yesterday’s walk as we took the northern approach up to the summit; again there was considerable snowfall which made things very interesting! The final approach was pretty much a white out the whole way, and the ice axes actually came in useful for the last bit of scrambling 🙂 Lots of other hikers were out and even one or two people skiing.

So this time a larger group went on a hike up Mount Snowdon, not a terribly difficult walk but we were blessed in terms of the weather. The views were stunning and it was excellent fun! This is the merry band of hikers 🙂 (Paul had to miss this one due to work commitments unfortunately.)

As is compulsory, we rewarded out efforts with many beers back at the hostel (which conveniently was attached to a pub with a flexible definition of last orders!). My camera misted up on the way to the summit, hence this blur-o-vision shot of me at the top 🙂

Myself and some friends spent last Friday hiking in the Lake District, setting out from Seathwaite and ascending Scafell Pike (which is at an altitude of 978 metres). The walk took approximately 10.5 hours including some rest stops, and covered about 19 km. The last hour or so was done in the dark, which slowed us down somewhat towards the end. There was still quite a bit of snow left near the peak.

Weather-wise we did quite well, however it was very foggy so we didn’t get enjoy the spectacular views at the summit. On our descent to Wasdale Head we did get some decent views of Wast Water though.

The route was captured using Trails for iOS, which is a really polished app and very easy to use. The battery consumption was my main worry given that the app would be sampling our current location continuously, but my creaking iPhone 3G easily lasted the duration 🙂

This is the route in google maps, some segments weren’t accurately captured because the location couldn’t be determined, but overall it’s fairly representative.

And here are the chaps who I did the hike with 🙂

This one was with Paul, Dave, and Boris, and not the most pleasant of hikes on account of the terrible weather. Beautiful Welsh valleys I’m sure were hiding behind the finest cloud I’ve ever seen…

We flew into Geneva on a Friday evening and made our way to our base in Chamonix. We had two nights booked into Chalet Whymper to acclimatise and for last minute preparations (maybe a beer or two as well!), before beginning the Tour du Mont Blanc on the Sunday morning.

We followed the Cicerone guide fairly closely, taking the anti-clockwise route round.

I came down with food poisoning or something mid-route and we had to stop in Courmayeur for some recovery time. We were able to continue the walk though and still in the 11 days we’d planned.

Overview of stages:

Refuge log:

Here are some photos taken on the trip, not in any particular order!

This was another practice hike for the Tour du Mont Blanc, this time heading up to Glenridding with Paul and tackling Helvellyn. A very pleasant day out, nothing too crazy and not the baptism of fire that the Fairfield Horseshoe was!

This snap looks suspiciously photoshopped, but is genuine I promise! 🙂

To prepare for our trip to the Alps to do the Tour du Mont Blanc, myself and my friend Paul went to the lakes in March 2010 to do the Fairfield Horseshoe. This was my first proper hike in years, and even though I considered myself reasonably fit, this proved to be a wake-up call because it was rather tough! Anyway, despite this the walk was truly spectacular; there was considerable snow coverage and the weather was clear enough to give some great views.

We set off from the campsite at Rydall Hall and picked up the route in Ambleside. To approximate the load I’d be carrying in the Alps I filled my bergen with all my gear, which sounds like a good idea but the difficulty of the walk and snow coverage meant I was in for a treat… Anyway, we got to the first rest stop, had some lunch, and took in the views.

Once I’d got into a steady rhythm it was alright, but I’ll freely admit up to this point I was having a lot of trouble. My legs kept cramping up at one point, requiring me to lie down and stretch out, but this didn’t last for long (you lose legs!). I suspect if I’d had my bergen on properly it might have been slightly easier (you can clearly see here I’d let one strap loosen up).

This is me walking off into the distance:

And this is one of Paul:

The views as the sun was setting were beautiful, they more than made up for the pain of the ascent!

The descent was quite tricky, we were running a bit later than expected and ended up walking off the hills in darkness. We took it slowly and had torches with us so it was reasonably safe, though not the most enjoyable part of the walk. The beers and food once we’d showered and hit Ambleside however were awesome 🙂 The total duration of the walk was about 9 hours.