Saturday, 30 January 2016

Mountaineering Decisions and Moel Elio (726m)

I've been out on a training day with a team that I am going to take trekking in the Alps this summer. Conditions for hill walking were less than ideal first thing and the 90mph winds were going to make walking difficult and my ability to teach anything severely reduced. So we did what all good mountaineers would do - went to Pete's Eats and had a brew while the storm passed!

There is an excellent (free!) facility above the cafe, in the form of a map room for expedition planning and a classroom for teaching in. We made use of both. The map room was perfect for looking at where were are planning to climb in June, then after ordering a round of hot drinks, I gave a lecture on understanding mountain weather. It was the perfect environment to be learning and discussing all things mountaineering and by the time my lecture was done, the wind had eased, the rain stopped and the sun was even making an appearance! 


And best of all, there was still time for a quick ascent of Moel Eilio. We walked from the cafe, straight uphill, through the village and up onto the hillside!


The snows have melted, but the ground is still really saturated and boggy, which gave rise to a few comedy slips! It still required a decent effort walking up, as the wind hadn't completely given up  (still gusting about 50mph at times), but at least it was at our backs for the descent!

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