Mendips

A fun day of challenges in the Mendip Hills

Peaks Climbing

First outdoor climbing, got to lead a few times. The heavens opened at around 3pm on the Saturday so we went to the lovely Little John pub for 5 hrs! I ended up being the designated driver. Nice to see Clay, Ross and Will.

Snowdonia 1 2013

October 2013 saw around 45 students travel to Tremadog in Snowdonia National Park for a weekend of windy, wet and cold UBES fun!

The first day was forecast to be very poor weatherwise. Unbeknown to us, this was going to be the worst storm to hit Britain in years and actually one of the lowest pressures since records began was recorded that weekend.. Walks in the Carneddau, Glyders, south of Beddgelert, and along the Nantly ridge took place with many groups having to link arms at the top of summits due to the adverse weather conditions. The day turned out to be fine in the earlier stages but by 4pm it was gushing from the heavens like never before, only a large bowl of UBES slop could brighten our spirits!

My group takled the mighty Nantlle rigde, arguably the most scenic formation of Northern Snowdonia outside the 3 main mountain ranges; Snowdon, Glyders and the Carneddau. We made good progress up the very steep slog from Rhyd-ddu, and as the weather improved the further we traversed along the ridge, it became more likely that we'd complete the whole thing! Sure enough, but not without some moderate scrambling, veering off route slightly and some seriously speed gusts, we reached the sixth and final peak in good time.

The descent to the base of the valley was quite pleasant, with some off-piste slogging down steep slopes and across rivers proving to be wildly entertaining. This was, however, until we reached the quarry system just north east of Moel Hebog, where absolutely chucked it down. We were very glad that we descended the ridge when we did! After a few hundred metres of ascent, taking some time out (yes even in the terrible conditions!) to gaze in wonder and awe at a huge pit and caving system, and finally descending around Llyn-Y-Gader we ended up back at the vehicles, soaked to the bone.

The Bunkhouse that we stayed in is owned by Eric Jones - a prolific Welsh climber and mountaineer, and has a spacious but cold barn with a climbing wall. We enjoyed a lovely but somewhat quantity lacking slop dinner, cooked by our very own chefs Ben and Dom (along with everyone else who did the chopping and helped out. What followed turned out to be the strangest 'licking the pans and plates' session I've ever been involved in, not that I've witnessed any before I must add! I never thought that so many intelligent, grown men could go so mad over a scrap slop juice, a chick pea and thin pieces of Sainsburys basics bread'. Sadly, (or luckily) this wasn't caught on camera. The evening culminated in worryingly violent games of suspended sock wrestling!

We arose bleary-eyed the next morning to an even worse forecast: walking conditions up high were described as tortuous, meaning sadly no high summits! Nevertheless, my group had a fantastic day trudging around the southern area of the Snowdon massif in attempt to summit the legendary mountain's subsiduary peak; Yr Aran (747m), a feat that the whole team deservidly acheived. Setting off from Beddgelert, the earlier stages of the route were far from satisfactory due to route finding issues and at one point a Farmer having some strong words with us... After much wall hopping (many people renamed the walk the 'wall walk' for this reason) we found the main, broad ridge leading to the summit. It became windier but as we rose the people who'd been on the previous day's Nantle ridge walk were blessed with beautiful views of the route. The steep drop from the first summit to Llyn-Nantlle-Uchaf actually looked quite daunting from this angle.

From the wind battered summit of Yr Aran we descended to the north towards Snowdon, then, once at the saddle, dropped down following the Watkin Path Back to the car park a few miles up the road from Beddgelert. It was pleasing to see that they'd almost finished the hydroelectric project dubbed 'Snowdon Hydro' (http://ntenvironmentalwork.net/snowdon-hydro/) as back in June the path was an absolute state in some sections to say the least.As night began falling, we just had enough time to bag Llyn Dinas. Around 15 people got fully submerged, fully naked in the lake, which must be some sort of record.

The weekend was bags of fun and we definitely did our best conquered the adverse conditions. A big thank you to everyone who helped out, all the group leaders chefs etc, and well done with all the fantastic walking!

Tim lewis

Brecon Beacons 2013

Brecons 2013 article

Corsica GR20 2013

The toughest trek in Europe. Yes, this is how many describe the gruelling GR20. Spanning the length of Corsica, this monster of a route covers over 190km, rises in total to the tune of 13,000m, and contains a huge range of landscapes, terrains, vegetation and geology. This was our challenge, and to say that we underestimated it would be an understatement!

The 10 of us arrived in Bastia in the northern half of the country, and after checking into our beachside campsite we cooled off in the fabulously warm Mediterranean, contemplating our fate. The next day we took some time out to grab some last minute supplies (including gas which was very expensive!) and made our way south to our start point. We met two lads at the start and they proudly told us that they completed the route north to south in 7 days, we had 14: piece of cake we thought!

The first day of the trek proper really demonstrated the difficulty of the challenge. A gruelling 20 km of ascending to the first refuge in sweltering heat took its toll but we were rewarded along the way with stunning views of the sub 2000m rough landscape which make up the southern half of the country. Day 2 saw half of us tackle the Alpine variant of the route to the second hut, with the others opting for the lower, more forestry route. We cooled of and washed in a lovely river before embarking on the last climb to ‘camp 2’. The next morning, Jane and Michelle decided, due to injuries and the temptation of city hopping around Western Europe, to depart and therefore headed off to the East back down what was increasingly becoming the beautifully rugged central spine of the island.

Over the next two days we walked along many ridges, camped high up on stony hillsides and witnessed some very spectacular dawn cloud inversions. At one point a donkey ate my spork! The heavens opened on the afternoon of day 4 and if it wasn’t for Laurence deciding to put up the tent for shelter, we’d all have soaked to the bone! (Steve, Lauren and Feo weren’t so lucky). Feo and Lauren decided on the evening of day five to do just the southern half on the trek, and so took two leisurely days to hike to Vizzavona. Steve joined them for company. The five of us (Myself, Dom, Laurence, Tom and Ben) decided we wanted to press on and make up as much time as possible, so we doubled up the next two long but reasonably flat days, ending up at the half way point, the small village of Vizzavona, in good time for a beer, and a proper sit down meal.

With food stocks replenished, a sense of encouraging optimism was in the air as we ascended the seemingly never-ending southern valley of Punta Muratello leading up to a high col of 2100m. After another large ascent and ridge walk that day, we arrived in camp suitably knackered to a superb view back to the col. Our introduction to the Northern half was a good taste of things to come. Over the next 5 days we made good progress over rugged terrain, overcoming certain issues such as a fox trying to eat all the food and peeing all over my bag in the night (long story). Before we knew it and after yet more perfect blue sky days we stood over the part of the route that walkers fear the most: the Cirque de la Solitude. This steep descent and ascent (parts are diff climbs) barely sees the sun and is littered with chains. We didn’t find it that bad in all honesty and were at the next campsite in no time. At the end of the next day’s scrambley ridge, moral was lowish due to increasing tiredness, when an amazingly upbeat and cheery Steve Gibbs marched into the campsite having run the last 6 stages of the trek in 3 days! This amazing feat did have an adverse effect on his lightweight boots though, and he had many a story to tell about his epic journey.

We were on the home straight now and soon enough, we descended to Calenzana, the finishing point, and stuffed out famished and alcohol deprived faces with everything from fruit to crisps to camembert. Anything other than smash, cup-o-soup and dried bread did the trick! The final three days of the holiday were spent sightseeing and swimming in northern Corsican cities and Nice, where we had a fabulous time on the beach cooking a huge spag meal costing just over a euro each, and drinking cheap red wine. This, combined with our attire of sweat stained shorts and base layers, (yes we did wash our clothes en route) must have been quite a sight for the normal city goers, visiting one of the most expensive and prestigious places on the French Riviera, a stone’s throw from Monaco!

Many thanks to Steve for organising such a great trip! The squat toilets, freezing showers, gruelling descents and burning quads were definitely worth the sense of achievement felt on completing 190km, and a Scafell pike a day thirteen days on the trot.

The terrain just south of Vizzavona

The morning after the fox attack...

A typical mountain refuge

Bristol 10km shirt = good base layer

A high col - 4 days to go!

The calm before the climb to the Cirque

Arriving bleary eyed to our next northern Corsican town - l'ile rousse

l'ile rousse beach

Spontaneous cooking in l'ile rousse

Nice Beach (!)

Welsh 3000s/ML training

Epic 2 weeks in Snowdonia with John. Got a great 3000s time, weather was perfect.

Snowdonia/Cader Backpacking

5 Day trip to all of Snowdonia with Oli, Mike, Aaron.

Managed to climb Cader Idris and Snowdon

Very Very hot!!!

AGM 2013

Snowdonia campsite, great weather, Crib Goch, Snowdon Horseshoe.

Got elected as expeditions officer!