Snowdonia Style 'Active Rest Day'

Arriving home from Ireland at 03:30am there was already light on the horizon as I drove the last stretch down the hill. I just about made it into bed before falling asleep.

A leisurely day was going to be needed and thankfully, The Cottage is the perfect place to hang out and recover quietly. The heatwave wasn't just in Ireland though. It was scorching in Wales too and we had to sit in the shade as the sun was killer. To cool off and catch up after the week away, Clare and I took a gentle walk up into the mountains to find a quiet lake to swim in. It was good to walk slowly and carry only a very light rucksack. Less than an hour from the valley floor, we found ourselves some secluded waters.

There was a lovely breeze blowing which kept us cool on the walk up, but actually made the thought of swimming a little less appealing. As I'd never swam in this particular lake and as we were there, we decided to go for it and were so glad we did. After the initial shock of the dive, the water felt beautifully warm! Even right up in the mountains, where I thought the water would be colder, it was lovely and we swam about while taking in the views. Brilliant.

All cooled off, we set off back to The Cottage for another nap.

Tryfan looked great as we walked back to the valley.

In the evening, our friend Martin was performing with his new band 'Bardd' in Bangor. We just made it in time for the start of the show - getting the last but two available seats! It was a brilliant show, with amazing musicians, poetry, and beatboxing which created quite a unique and mesmerizing sound. 

Afterwards, we went to the lake on the way home, where we hoped to get a moonlight swim. It was actually quite windy and the moon was still on its way up, but the light in the sky was beautiful and we had the whole place to ourselves. We swam together out to the middle of the lake, where we had a view of Snowdon and the Llanberis Pass. A pretty special moment.

Tales from the Wicklow Way

This week, I’ve been in Ireland, supervising some Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award groups along the Wicklow Way long distance footpath. After several warnings about bottomless peat bogs and constant drizzle from several of my Irish friends, we arrived in the midst of a heatwave. The heat has been extraordinarily incredible; the ground is tinder dry and the conditions brutal for hiking. The views have been about as good as they could have been though.

As ‘supervisor’, my role is to ensure that the teams are safe, but at the safe time, not interfering with their expedition. With such wide reaching visibility, Great Uncle Ken’s binoculars helped me keep tabs on them from afar.

Starting from the outskirts of Dublin, we’ve headed south along the trail, camping wild along the way except for one night in a hostel in order to connect to some WiFi to ensure some work jobs got sorted. The check point at Loagh Dan was tantalizing - the waters looked so inviting, but were so far away!



The heat might have been difficult, but I feel that the teams were at least given an easy job when it came to the navigation sections.

Sunsets have been magnificent and on Wednesday evening, Ed and I camped buts below the summit of Scarr after checking on the teams.



It was a bit of a hike, but even though it was late, there was plenty of light and the temperatures remained in the twenties.



After making the summit, I got my tent up and Ed unrolled his bivi bag onto the comfy heather.



And as the moon rise up into the sky, we had a brew by moonlight before the most comfortable sleep.



I didn’t even make it to seven before the heat of the sun forced me out of the tent. It was early, but brilliant to be up in the mountains with views in every direction.

On Thursday we passed through the tourist Mecca of Glendalough. Ice creams were obligatory.



And while looking for one of the teams we had a very refreshing swim in the lake. Later we found one of the teams had discovered a plunge pool and were bathing to cool down. Shortly after, Ed and I found a bigger pool with a water slide so just after they’d gone, we went to investigate. Just as I was getting in, Ed slipped from higher upstream and shot past me in the fast flowing water right into the pool. Very funny indeed. And oh so refreshing!



It was a tough day for the teams and (despite all this talk of swimming), Ed and I did quite a bit of hiking with a rucksack full of water to keep the teams hydrated and motivated. By the time we got to put up our own tents it was midnight.



We were pretty exhausted, but took a few moments to appreciate our moonlight situation over a brew before finally laying down.



It’s been unprecedented, to not be checking the weather forecasts. Needless to say, we woke to another stellar clear sky. 

Friday, our final day Ireland was a long one indeed. After checking on the teams in the morning, they eventually made it to the designated finish point, elated and exhausted. We had strategically moved it from the planned place so that they could finish by a river. Boots off and feet in the river were just what they needed! To finish the expedition, we had a meal together on the seafront in Bray on our way back to the ferry. It was a lovely way to de-brief and congratulate, before doing individual reviews and hearing the presentations on the ferry. We arrived back at Holyhead at about 01:00am ion Saturday 30th and it was 03:30am by the time I made it to my own bed after dropping students, equipment and minibusses off. All in a days work though....

Down by the River

The heatwave continues. And while we’d both have loved to have been out climbing all day, there was computer based work that couldn’t wait. Still, I didn’t mind so much as The Cottage is a nice place to be, especially when the garden is full of sunlight and warmth. By late afternoon, we had to go and cool down. We cycled down to the river and found that you could almost walk across at certain points without getting wet feet. I actually wanted to though, so with a mars ice cream in hand, stood in the shallows cooling off.

The water was so warm, we went and found another spot where we could swim. I was so refreshed afterwards, that it felt like a new day was starting. Such an amazing place to live.

Slade! Live in the Slate Quarry!

Well, the unpredictably crazy life of Ian Martin continues.... Today, I found myself (with about 60 seconds notice!), having to run a 400m relay race at School Sports Day! A few hours later, with stiffening legs, I was playing the bass guitar in an open-air concert! After the concert, I was busy packing equipment for next weeks expedition, when I bumped into an old student who invited me to a concert that he was going to - in Bethesda!?!

So after getting home, at about 8pm, I walked along our track from The Cottage and soon found myself in the slate quarry - at a music festival! Unbelievable! Mike Peters from the Alarm was just finishing his set and none other than Slade were about to take the stage!

I emailed Neil immediately, who replied saying he'd seen them in 1973 and they were quite good!

Bethesda, not being a big place, meant that I soon found student Jack and his crew and had a fabulous time dancing away in the moonlight! - they were indeed very good, especially considering they'd been gigging non-stop for the last 50 years! It took me nearly ten minutes to walk home afterward and I climbed into bed wondering if the day had just been a daydream!... Totally bonkers...

Equinox Expeditioning

After flying back (with great views above the west coast of France), from the Picos de Europa, I had a day to sort and wash my kit and get ready for the next expedition.

I’ll admit to being totally shattered, so was quite glad to have a quite day by myself sorting out budgets, kit, paperwork and general admin. The weather had been showery, but I took a stroll out from The Cottage at dusk where the light on the clouds was fantastic.

Then it was back on foot and out into the mountains!



I’ve been doing some expedition training with some 6th form students, which is always great fun. We had the mountains to ourselves last night and some great camping weather too.



With it being the longest day yesterday, it felt like it might never go dark, and was light again when I woke at 4am. 



My team have been following (mostly!) the North Wales Coastal Path, and I’ve been moving between checkpoints, keeping tabs on them and offering advice along the way.



I camped last night on the highest point (a peak called Moelfre) above Llanfairfechan. It was a terrible place really as it bore the full brunt of the strong northerly winds, (compared to the group who were nicely sheltered below!), but it was worth it to have a prime viewing position for the equinox sunset...

Back down to summer.

Our last day up high in the mountains of the Picos de Europa today. We would be leaving he snow behind and returning to the summer meadows below.

But first, one last peak to climb. Across from the hut, the peak of Diente de Urriellu and Neverón de Urriellu mark the skyline, but where the trail leads over the col to Refugio J.R.Lueje, there is a small peak (2170m), above the Corona el Rasu that the guardian had recommended as having fantastic views. It was only about forty minutes away, so we set off after breakfast to make a final ascent of the expedition.

We crossed a few small snow patches and climbed a steep gully with the help of some fixed chains and were rewarded with an incredible 360° panorama.



It made for a great high point (literally!) to finish on.



You can just make out the Refuge, just below the main peak.



As we returned to pick up some kit we’d stashed at the refuge, a helicopter appeared.



It transpired that a climbing team had injured a shoulder and needed airlifting off the mountain. It stopped by to pick up and drop off some medical supplies while we watched. The winchman stood very casually on the side as it took off!



Then it was downwards. We’d had no views on the walk in, so it was nice to see what we’d missed on the way up.





We could see down to the village of Bulnes. It looked a long way and I was glad I’d not chosen to descend that way!



Was pretty unimpressed with my €10 picnic from the hut - especially the mouldy sandwich, but civilisation was now only a few hours walk away...



Bare rock and snow gave way to grass, flowers a soon, grazing cows. The colours seemed so vivid after the grey scale and blue sky of the previous days.



Everything felt fresher and greener. 



In Sotres we had a celebratory drink, before returning to our camp cabin for a much needed shower and some fresh clothes. A trip to the bakery in Arenas de Cabrales followed by burgers and cheesy chips back at the camp replenished our bodies. It felt brilliantly luxurious to be clean, fed and watching he World Cup in the camp bar. A bit of temporary discomfort really makes you appreciate the little things such as a hot shower. I loved being up in the wild rugged mountains, but it’s still nice to come back to some comforts too!

Picos de Europa Mountaineering

We let our dinner companions from last night set off before us this morning. I waved them off as they set off down into the clouds before getting the lads out of their bunks. 

It was a classic hut breakfast of poor coffee, bread and biscuits, but there was no shortage of food at least. 

While the snow was still firm, we set off with crampons on, upwards into the mountains. 



It was a stunning morning, with blue sky above us and a sea of cloud in the valley below.



It might sound cold, all this talk of snow and ice axes, but I just can’t describe how hot it was crossing the last of the snow later in the day. The heat of the sun was radiating back up at us and it was intense. Like being under a grill on full heat. 



We crossed over the col above the hut (Garganta del Hou Sin Tierre, 2082m), and traversed around the snow covered bowl of Hou Sin Tierre. It was brilliant being back in ‘winter mode’ and we all roped up to prevent anyone slipping and sliding. It felt crazy that here I was back in crampons, walking across snowfields - especially as we’re in Spain! I’ve been used to shorts and sandals recently. As we climbed our chosen peak, (2275m, to the west of Col Los Boches), I was delighted to recognise the pyramidal peak of ‘Pos de Santa Anna’ that Clare and I had climbed years ago (left had skyline below). There’s a photo of us on the summit at The Cottage.



With impressive jagged peaks in every direction, the rock monolith of Naranjo de Bulnes still dominated the skyline.



As a little bonus, I guided two keener students up to a rocky summit (2275m). A roped pitch and the some short roping had us all grinning like idiots at the excitement and summit views. After lowering them down, I chose to leave a small sling and abseiled down rather than risk a solo down climb. The terrain was not too difficult, but the consequences of a slip would have been. Better safe than sorry.



On the rocky patches between the snow, the hardy flowers were putting in a show of colour. Moss Campion was everywhere.



Despite putting in some way-markers in the GPS, there were some cool cairns to help mark the paths.



We got back to the hut in the late afternoon and relaxed in the shade with cold drinks. Around 18:00, we went back out to climb the small peak (2186m) behind the hut. Near the top, the mists rolled in which was actually quite a relief as the sunshine was punishing.



Between the mists, the clarity was crystal clear.



An instructonal session on ice ace breaking, finished which a fabulous (but wet!) slide back to the hut and we arrived soaked and with snow packed down our tops. 



By the time we’d washed and changed, dinner was being served and thankfully it was much better than last night. Everyone ate well and a good debating session followed. The last of the light finally left the tower, signalling bed time. Look closely and you can get a sense of scale: there is a pair of climbers abseiling down the face. 



The hut was busy tonight, but I (along with everyone else) was very tired, so went straight to sleep, lined up on our Alpine bunk amidst the snoring, coughing and rustling of our fellow hut dwellers. It wasn’t even dark outside but we were all too tired to wait to see the stars...