This weekend was the BMC's Expedition Planning Seminar at Plas Y Brenin. I delivered the opening lecture about the use of IT and Google Earth to aid expedition planning, which turned out to be a fairly unknown concept for many in the room both young and old!
More details on the BMC's website.
Taking advantage of the cold weather in Snowdonia, myself and Clay headed up onto the N face of Glyder Fach. We climbed a gully in the vicinity of Main Buttress, not entirely sure of the exact route, and descended very wet after the weather turned a little more Scottish post-midday. A good chance to test out some new kit though!
On a map, Bristol and Bath can't be too far apart. So why catch a train when you can walk between them? Leaving just before darkness from Bath at 3pm, we managed about 9 miles to Keynsham before we'd had enough of stumbling around in the dark and caught a train. Not all adventures end in success!
The first weekend of November was the annual Tyne Tour trip, although it was a first for me. Against a backdrop of snow-capped moors we ran the Tyne and the Tees with an all-night party and ceilidh in between.
Tintern Abbey, is a brilliant ruined construction, just round the corner from some great limestone crags in the Wye Valley. A sunny Saturday before the rain came in gave a sociable atmosphere at the bottom of Shorn Cliff. Completed three single pitch routes with Becky, including an unplanned adventure up the direct finish to No Musketeers.
Both days began misty and dreary but soon cleared to give fantastic weather for some gritstone action. We managed to tick a number of the classic routes at both the Roaches and Bamford, including the photogenic Gargoyle Route, and my first E1 on Wrinkled Wall.
