News

I carried out a spot check on behalf of the Licencing Service on an activity provider who was visiting the Cadair Idris area today. All went well and the students seemed to be having a good time with the added bonus of some good weather for their Silver D of E expedition. The photo is of the Mawddach Estuary and Cadair Idris.

As I suspected, the weather was awful on Snowdon during this charity fundraising event last night. I was working for Jagged Globe as safety cover on the mountain - unfortunately it was during the night so we had to stay awake all night. I was posted to the start of the Llanberis Path but the other marshals had a pretty hard time of things with winds gusting 5o mph and heavy rain for most of the night.

I've been out and about over the last 4 days helping out on a Gold qualifying D of E. We visited areas such as Ogwen, Llyn Cowlyd, Lledr Valley, Nant Gwynant, Beddgelert, Rhyd Ddu and Llanberis. I think all the students did really well and kept their spirits high even through the horrible weather we had on Sunday. Here are some photos I took during the event: The Road over to Llyn Cowlyd. The track up to Bwlch y Rhediad Group at Bwlch Cwm Llan Golden-Ringed Dragonfly Y Garn from above Llyn Cwellyn

I was up in the Lakes over the last couple of days visiting the guys at Haglofs in Staveley. We went for a 8 mile paddle last night from Windermere almost to Ambleside in tandem sea kayaks. A big thanks goes out to Paul Vousden (from Haglofs) for sorting a very enjoyable outing. Today we ran through the Haglofs Spring/Summer range for next year which looks fantastic. We were very well looked after by Neil, Paul and Vicky who were great hosts. Many thanks. Check out all the Haglofs gear at http://www.haglofs.se/

I had a long day today working for Jagged Globe as safety cover for a charity event called Sea to Summit which raise funds for intensive care research. The day started at 4.30 in order to get to the summit of Drum by 7 o'clock then as soon as the last team had gone past it was my responsibility to follow them to the Ogwen Valley to make sure they were OK. The ultimate target for the 6 teams in this class was to reach the summit of Snowdon - my target, thankfully, was to get to the Ogwen Valley which in its self is 18 km (12 miles) and over 1230m (4,000 feet) of ascent. The greatest challenge today was the heat which was unrelenting so my admiration goes out to all the teams who competed and raised money for the Intensive Care Society . Well done everyone. Photo 1: Tryfan from Carnedd Dafydd Photo 2: Yr Elen and Cwm Caseg from below Foel Grach.

As I suspected and with great relief the magnificent peak of Tryfan is in fact higher that they thought. The official height has been confirmed as 8 feet (2.5 m) higher than the current elevation and is now 3,010' (910m) above sea level.

We had a fantastic and constructive day on the East Face of Tryfan today looking at short roping techniques. I was joined by Alice, Mo and Chris who were keen to look at both ascending and descending difficult terrain. We decided to make an ascent of Little and North Gully (I/II) and then a descent of South Gully (III). The weather was fantastic throughout.