Sunshine, Mountains and Cloud Inversions!

The Lakes in early February

The Lake District trip earlier this February was one of my favourite UBES trips. We were lucky to have beautiful sunshine all weekend, basically no wind and the not-yet-melted snow from the flurries the week before to play in (a great combo).

Saturday morning’s drive from Thirlmere to Glenridding was spectacular: low morning light and misty fields. From there, a group of us tackled Striding Edge, bumping into another group at the summit of Helvellyn who’d walked up from Thirlmere. Striding Edge was in basically summer conditions, with no ice and patchy snow; we felt a bit silly in our crampons!

We met a woman who reminisced of her student days, when her university hiking club would hire a minibus from their union for £5 for the weekend, fuel included! How times have changed.

Looking down onto Red Tarn from Red Tarn Cove (spot the UBESters!)

…Some things will never change, and we stopped at Red Tarn, after descending via Swirral Edge and a snowy, bum-slidy gully, for an inevitable lake bag. This involved hacking through 4’ thick ice and very little dignity. Luckily, Hugo’s Jetboil restored some warmth to icy limbs.

Alex’s pleasant afternoon dip

In the midst of these naked antics, we spotted Laurence, Ben and Duncan on V-Corner (III) on Red Tarn Cove.

The boiz on V-Corner (III) on Red Tarn Cove

Another group had a brilliant day on Blencathra, via Sharp Edge (involving equally heroic *assisted* (people lowering other people into icy water holes…!) lake bags), and another an ‘awesome’ epic, doing a long loop encompassing Langdale Pikes, Bow Fell and Crinkle Crags.

Team Sharp Edge

On the Sunday, Striding Edge and Sharp Edge were revisited, along with some some lower level walks. It was another beautiful day, with stunning cloud inversions.

What a weekend!

For more photos check out our Flickr page!

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

Castle Ridge (III), a winter adventure.

Castle Ridge, a classic winter route on the UK's highest mountain!

Check out the short video below! 

Ben and myself set out early on Sunday the 28th December 2014 to tick my first winter climb of the season, and Ben's first ever!

After an early morning 5am alpine start, we walked in from the North face car park up to the CIC hut to start our route.

The line of the route can be seen as the ridge on the far right of the picture below.

 

We were met with beautiful views as the sun finally rose over the mountain side and lit up the snow covered slopes.

We got to the start of the route, geared up and got excited.

Once on the route we started moving together up the easier angled slopes, only stopping to pitch the 2 difficult sections, including the "awkward chimney."

The whole route seemed to last a lot longer than the 200m stated in the guide book, with us topping out Carn Mor Deag just as the sun was going down, after a full day of alpine style winter climbing!

 
 



Laurence