Snowdonia 2

This weekend, forty of us set off for a wintry weekend in Snowdonia. In case anyone was wondering what we got up to, I thought I’d write a brief trip report! 

Going crazy on the Carneddau

On the Saturday, ten of us optimistically set off up the Miners’ track in search of a winter climb on the Trinity face of Snowdon. Despite the thaw the day before, we found Central Trinity in slightly slushy, but climbable condition.

One party soloed, and two parties roped up for the snow gully, which cuts straight up from Glaslyn to the top of Snowdon. It had a chockstone and a teeny bit of almost ice to give interest, and it was great to get the axes out. We were slightly bemused when we topped out to see crowds of people crawling up to the summit in trainers, and then sliding back down again.

An intrepid group of UBESters on the wintry Glyders

Other walks took on the Carneddau and the Glyders, finding plenty of wintry excitement and a fair bit of scrambling too. Tim lead one of his classic slogs, taking in twenty kilometers of epic Welsh hills, and returning late enough that people were talking about getting in touch with Mountain Rescue (It's okay; they were either joking, or had had a considerable amount to drink). 

We all returned ready for a nourishing dinner, however we were not aware that disaster was about to strike. A hole was discovered in the rice pan. The starchy water gushing onto the stove somehow managed to ignite, creating a small fire and a lot of excitement. After consuming copious quantities of delicious slop, cooked at last, the Saturday evening contained its usual dose of organised fun, a bonfire and a disco! 

One of the climbing officers gearing up for a very serious climb

On the second day, which was warmer, wetter and windier, several groups set off to take on some of the smaller peaks. A group of twenty took on Moel Siabod, some of us attempting to run it, to greater and lesser degrees of success. Other walks included a miniature 'three peaks', involving the all important driving aspect of the more grandiose UK wide challenge.

There were many lakes bagged this weekend, one of the more ‘heroic’ ones on the Sunday walk up Cnicht, was described by the bagger himself. “It was too shallow so I had to wade out into thigh deep mud, and the weather was like a moist apocalypse, but less exciting.” Sounds like great fun!I had a great weekend; I really hope everyone else did too.

A massive thank you to everyone who helped organise it, and I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

A postgrad officer looking like a pro!

Topping out on the summit of Snowdon

A Monday Night Cycling Microadventure

 

While some UBESters are scaling alpine pinnacles, others are traversing Transylvanian ridges and some are journeying as far east by bike as they can get, some of the rest of us are spending the summer hard at work on our PhDs, medical degrees and summer placements here in sweltering Bristol. No adventuring for us then? Well think again, this is just what the 5-9 microadventure concept is for. Anna and I (Dave), being the studious types we are, had been discussing a weekday evening microadventure for quite some time and this week we finally had the weather and the gap in our schedules to make it a reality.

The concept: get out of the city at 5pm, get in some adventure, bivvying and swimming and get back to work the following morning.

The transport: rag tag team of road bikes, mountain and trail bikes with panniers & rucksacks.

The team: Anna (medic), Tim & Jon(engineers), Tom (PhD chemist),& Dave (PhD biologist).

The destination: Brean Down on the Somerset coast.

 

Road selfie!

Under Tim’s roughly printed guidance we set off in the heat covered in bags, helmeted and head-torched to the nines on a picturesque ride taking in Nailsea, Yatton and that village where the Thatchers cider factory is.. The 55km journey was almost too easy and had to be livened up with some super dodgy on-the-move selfies in true UBES fashion.

Cows!

Shortly before the ominously named village of ‘Uphill’ we realized that the fastest route to Brean would be off-road. With the three road cyclists suitably nervous we set off through kissing gates, herds of cattle and lumpy-bumpy tracks until the sun set and we got some real adventuring under-way ragging it down pitch-black tracks all the way to the fish & chip chop in Brean.

Chip shop!

After a hearty dinner including extra free chips from the owners who clearly pitied our Monday night insanity we headed off down some even bumpier tracks to the end of Brean Down peninsula, home to Brean Down Fort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brean_Down_Fort) which would be our slightly creepy bed for the night. We found a spot in the moat and settled down in our bivvy bags to watch a few shooting stars and check out the milky way.

A view only seen by Tim..

In the morning, Tim was up at 5am to catch the sunset and take photos of the rest of us sleeping (cheers, Tim..). One short hour later we were on our bikes and avoiding the local goats on our way to Burnham-on-Sea for an ill-judged and extremely muddy dip in the sea.

We hopped on the train at Highbridge and were back in Bristol in time for work. That is, of course, if work starts at 11.30.. All in all, a great foray into weekday microadventuring to remind us all that you don’t need to have fancy touring bikes or mountaineering equipment to enjoy all the excitement the UK has to offer.

Dave Wilby

@goinginanyway (twitter.com/goinginanyway)

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