George Cave

A Rainy Cwm Idwal

Torrential rain on leaving the bunkhouse, so rather than slog up a horrendously wet mountain, we ran round a lap of Cwm Idwal then headed for the pub.

Azerbaijan Border Caves

A few hours drive south of Tbilisi, along the Azerbaijani border are a series of incredible 6th Century caves. The monastery of David Gareji was expanded over many years and is filled with 12th century frescoes and Soviet period graffiti. An incredible place, overlooking the semi-desert on the border between these two countries.

Banff 2013

The only mountains I saw this weekend were on a projection in the Union Chapel. It was interesting to note that almost all of the non-climbing/expedition films were quite lacking in story and shown primarily for the quality of the cinematography. The Reel Rock story of Honnold was particularly funny, if only for the awkward discussion on his love life.

Birchen Edge for Beginners

Spent the morning introducing Matt to outdoor climbing at Birchen Edge. He excelled himself and followed me up some of the classic routes of the crag such as Camperdown Crawl and Topsail.

BMC Expedition Seminar

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.

Brecon Beacon Backpacking

We traversed the high points of the Brecon Beacons, from Fan y Big to Corn Du on the Saturday, and following a wild camp a long walk back around on the Sunday. A thankfully dry weekend for my first trip across the South of Wales.