Adventures Archives - The Climbing Company

Pembrokeshire Coast Path

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk January 5, 2016 January 5, 2016 Adventures, Pembrokeshire

Running the Pembrokeshire Coast Path…

Despite not having been back long from India, this winter seems to have gone on forever! No-one will have escaped the fact that it’s been one of the wettest, windiest and miserable on record! It may mean that the Ski season in the Alps has been a slow starter, but it doesn’t have to stop you getting out and exploring, even closer to home.. During the first week of the New Year, we decided to get out on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and combine some New Years (much needed) fitness training and some exploring the nooks and crannies of the area we live…

Hidden beaches on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path

Having lived in Pembrokeshire on and off for eight years, and spending most of my work and play time outdoors, I have been on most parts of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and, without a hint of bias, honestly believe it to be one of the best, most scenic, most picturesque and rugged wild places in the British Isles…

Looking West on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path to St. David’s Head

In an attempt to be able to draw a line around the whole Pembrokeshire Coast Path on the Ordinance Survey map I have on my wall, we made a conscious effort to go out and explore some more of it. And it’s making this effort, especially at this time of year, that really enables you to discover new places, see amazing sights and not feel like a dire winters day is wasted! So, come rain or shine (usually more rain and wind!) we have been out running on the coastal path. The guides say the total distance is 186 miles, and climbs over 33,000ft, and given that you’re rarely likely to encounter another soul on certain parts of it, it feels pretty wild and remote.

Just a small part of the wild, rugged and remote Pembrokeshire Coast Path

During our exploration of the coastal path (which is a National Trail no less..) we’ve discovered beaches we had no idea existed, seen remote beaches full of lazing Seal and spied whole cliff faces with not a single established rock-climb on…

Some blue skies between all the recent storms of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path

It wont be long till the Springs here, daylight hours get longer, and with any luck the weather will be better. But on these dark, wet winter months, don’t stay inside and have unproductive days – the Pembrokeshire Coast Path should be explored all year round!

Get out there and explore the Pembrokeshire Coast Path!

More details on the coastal path can be found here…

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Bank Holiday Weekend Climbing in Pembrokeshire

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk September 2, 2015 September 2, 2015 Adventures, Courses, Instructional, work

What a great couple of weeks it has been! I’ve been too busy climbing, working and exploring in Pembrokeshire to write any blog updates, so here is a sum up of the last couple of weeks, and the bank holiday weekend climbing in Pembrokeshire…. The weathers been almost non-stop good, great tides and magical sunsets, great clients and new routes climbed to boot!

We had a great day with Sicco and Hannah, a father and daughter from Germany (who thankfully spoke perfect English…). Hannah was psyched to get on any climb she possible could, and at only 9 shows great promise for the future should she keep it up, whilst dad Sicco had done loads of sport climbing previously – so he cruised his first trad lead climb here on the Pembrokeshire sea cliffs.

Sicco happy having led his first trad route!

We had a day out with some local instructors who have got their SPA assessments coming up. This award lets them take groups of novices onto single pitch crags, a vital stepping stone in the ladder to being a successful outdoor instructor. We went through top and bottom roping, group abseils, and problem solving. We were luck to have some willing guinea pigs come along for the guys to practice on too!

Teaching SPA Skills to Instructors

It’s almost a tradition now for people to spend the bank holiday climbing in Pembrokeshire, and with the release of the excellent Climbers Club Pembrokeshire guidebooks, we are definitely noticing the area is getting busier, with crags that were relatively unexplored before, now having frequent visits.. Luckily for us we know more secret spots (and whole crags with no routes on!) so we were able to escape the crowds with Si and Elliot on a learn to lead course over the Bank Holiday Weekend…

Seconding a climb in Pembrokeshire

We visited several crags on the first day, looking at loads of belays and rope work, gear placements and of course climbing heaps of classic routes, and on the second day, from being relative novices, both Si and Elliot were doing their first trad lead climbs. Great effort guys and thanks for a great weekend with good company…

Lead Climbing Course in Pembrokeshire

I was lucky to have bank holiday Monday off for a rare change, and was rearing to get out and have a climb, and being super sunny and warm, a dip in the sea. Not many places in the work you can go on what is one of the busiest tourist days of the year, and have the crag to yourself, right by the turquoise sea, watch Porpoises and seals and swim in the warm(ish!) water to cool off as it’s too hot! Magical! Gotta love bank holidays in Pembrokeshire climbing with the cliffs to yourself!

Stunning St David’s Head

Once the crowds had departed from Pembrokeshire, the weather was still awesome, and the tides perfect for some exploration. We spent the day looking at lead climbing skills at a very unexplored crag near Newgale, with some excellent established routes, great to learn to lead climb on, it should be more popular – but we’re not complaining! We had the pleasure of doing a couple of first ascents during the day, the most memorable being up a pinnacle, with a proper pointy summit necessitating a counterbalance abseil decent. Throughout the day our only company was a couple of seals that watched us pretty mush non-stop… I’m excited to get back here and check out more of the new routes…

Exploring new routes in Pembrokeshire

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Coasteering in Pembrokeshire

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk August 24, 2015 August 24, 2015 Adventures, Courses, work

After a beautiful start to the week, and a day climbing in South Pembrokeshire at Saddle Head in the sun and a warm afternoon in North Pembrokeshire at a crag near Solva, the rest of the week was spent Coasteering!

Coasteering in Cathedral Caves in North Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is renowned for it’s Coasteering, and in a commercial sense it all started here back in the 80’s. There are a phenomenal amount of different places to Coasteer, not all suitable for groups, some being really adventurous Coasteers!

Coasteering in big seas in Pembrokeshire

I think I’ve spent a total of nearly 20 hours in the water this week, luckily there’s a big element of scrambling and climbing whilst Coasteering in Pembrokeshire…

DWS whilst Coasteering in Pembrokeshire

We not only run many rock climbing courses, but are able to take you on these fantastic and wild Coasteers, come and check out what it’s all about and have an adventurous day Coasteering in Pembrokeshire with us…

Big jump Coasteering in Pembrokeshire

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Ruminahui Ascent

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk August 7, 2015 August 7, 2015 Adventures, Courses, work

The group had slightly more ambitious plans after their hike on Chimbarazo. An ascent of the technical 4700m peak Ruminahui was the goal. As we were well acclimatised by this point we made swift progress on the easy lower slopes, and were rewarded with spectacular views of a family on Condors floating above us on the mountain.

It was cold and blustery in the way up, with no views of what lay ahead, but it got much steeper the higher we ascended, and soon we were scrambling.

We got the rope out to protect the group for the last 20 meters or so, but they all managed to get to the exposed summit, their first bit of proper climbing at 4700m!

We didnt linger too long on top as it was pretty chilly and windy, once back down the rope we were able to move faster and warm up.

The clouds parted on the decent to give us some spectacular views… Well done on your ascent team… If your in the area, Ruminahui is well worth having a go at climbing, but it’s no pushover!

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Trekking on Chimbarazo…

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk August 1, 2015 August 1, 2015 Adventures, work

This month I am in Ecuador working, taking a bunch of school kids trekking in the Andes, followed by some time in the Jungle and doing some sight seeing and exploring…

We flew into Quito and took it easy for a few days, as the altitude in Ecuadors capital city is over 3000m. We had a nice day out walking up nearby Ilalo Peak to get great views of the city. Once we transferred to a place called El Chaupi we spent a few days acclimatising by getting out in walks, notably up to 4000m on Cerro El Corazon- the team started feeling the altitude here!

Our main trek was around Chimbarazo, at 6300m it’s summit is famous for being the point furthest from the centre of the Earth, due to Equatorial bulge…. Our high point was planned to be the Whymper Refuge at 5000m.

The first night in our tents at 4200m was a wild one! The weather was bad enough to batten down the hatches and stay in the tents for 15 hours… The scenery the next day made up for our rough night though…

The third day was a long one! Trekking up to the refuge at 4800m took a good 10 hours. The team really pushed hard and we arrived in a flurry of snow to warm drinks and a welcome rest! The views from up here once the cloud cleared in the morning were awesome!

The final day we headed up to 5000m at a slow steady pace, it was only a short walk up to here and the bright sunshine warned everyone despite the strong winds and cold weather. Our descent was truly awesome. After traversing to a historic cave that has been used for over 500 years for Inca rituals, we had a long sandy descent, reminiscent of running down a sand dune – for a thousand meters!

A great time was had by all, and a big sense of accomplishment for the guys who have done very little of this sort of stuff before. The acclimatisation stood us in good stead for our next ascent….

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Awesome week Climbing and Surfing in Pembrokeshire!

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk June 8, 2015 June 8, 2015 Adventures, work

It’s been one of those weeks that just makes you super happy and content. Some great work with great people, in one of the Worlds best locations for Rock Climbing and Surfing, plus plenty of time off to get out Bouldering, Climbing and Exploring for myself!

A blustery week made for some challenging conditions on Tuesday for the group from GRIP that we were climbing with at Wolfs Rocks with Coastal Adventures, a really top group who challenged themselves and pushed their comfort zones in difficult conditions, and so many of them achieved so much more than they believed they could – a great satisfying and rewarding day…

Climbing with GRIP at Wolfs Rocks, Pembrokeshire

The following day the merciless winds had thankfully died down and we spent the day at the incredible Whitesands Beach, Surfing with Dragon Activity Guides, with a group of super keen school kids, who having all been surfing before, were competent enough to get loads done and really be able to enjoy the properly amazing weather! The waters warming up and with a view like this I could spend all day everyday on the beach!

Surfing at Whitesands

We managed to get a load of climbing in over the next few days, first up was a quick afternoon hit at Caerfai, one of the best Sandstone slabs in the St Davids area, offering some great routes, especially in the hs-vs category, with some harder test pieces too. A short walk in and a wicked view too!

Climbing at Caerfai

Next up we headed South to climb on the Limestone of South Pembrokeshire. I hadn’t been here in ages so it was ace to get to the wonderful Becks Point and Fishermans Ledge, for some relaxing easy angled, non serious slab climbing. One of the best aspects of climbing in Pembrokeshire (apart from the 5 guidebooks worth of climbing within half an hour of my house!!) is the great variety of rock, we have such a diverse range giving us all sorts of climbing…

Climbing at Becks Point

We spent Sunday again around the Sandstone of the St Davids area, climbing at Porth Y Fynnon and Porth Clais. With some really great single pitch sea cliffs this is one of the best venues to make your first steps sea cliff climbing. Some of the areas best routes in the v diff-hs grade range are here, with plenty of trickier ones. Get the tides right and you can get so many wonderful routes done in a day… A great week with great weather, always leaves me psyched for the summer ahead!

Climbing at Porth Y Fynnon

Team ascent of Red Wall, Porth Clais, Pembrokeshire

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Sunny climbing/mountain action in April!

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk April 24, 2015 May 5, 2015 Adventures

These last few weeks I’ve been pretty busy! We’ve just had our first cloudy day here in Pembrokeshire in what seems like ages so I thought I’d reflect back on what has been a memorable few weeks…

In the week before Easter we ran a 5 day Learn to Lead Climb Course for Jack and Dave, and spent the week climbing loads of classic routes, then came the Bank Holiday, and the start of the properly great weather! 4 days off in a row for some personal climbing and 4 GIANT ice-creams in a row from the amazing Gianni’s in St. Davids – if you’ve not been there check them out – the best and most random flavours of ice-cream! Soph and I did loads of great routes and explored some new areas…

Soph climbing at Keyhole Buttress

Once the Bank Holiday fun was over I met up with Dan for a days climbing, and as he was already an experienced lead climber it was basically just a day out climbing for fun – work should be like that everyday!

Dan leading Red Wall

Beth came out with me for a couple of days, she was mega psyched to climb loads and learn how to keep her son safe on the crags, a really nice person and very keen to learn made for a awesome couple of days and some great routes.

Beth seconding at Caerfai

Next up was a trip to Snowdonia to work on a Mountain Leader Training course with Phill George. Phill and his other instructors are mega experienced and very laid back, so they are always a pleasure to work with. The candidates we had were all very competent, so yet again, a really easy week teaching micro nav, ropework, night navigation, leadership and expedition skills was had! Our final day of exped over the top of Lliwedd and the views to the coast were truly magical…

On top of Lliwedd on an ML training expedition

Back to the sea-side now for a weekend with local climbing instructors teaching them sea-cliff rescue skills to improve their personal climbing. Over the 2 days Dan, Johnny, Matt, Ricky, Ben and Alex learnt all sorts and gained a valuable day of professional development for their Mountain Training log books… It’s great fun teaching these high end skills and I think it’s so important for climbers venturing onto sea-cliffs and multi-pitch climbs to learn them.

Ben picking Matt up on the abseil to rescue him!

Most recently I have just spent 3 days with Andy and his son Igor, on holiday over from the Alps (lucky them!) they were keen to do heaps of climbing and for Andy to learn how to keep Igor safe when they go out climbing together… We did dozens of routes, all of which Igor (11) got up with ease – very impressive climbing from him this week, all by the sea, in glorious weather. On my last day with them I managed to sneak in a few solo climbs afterwards, then an awesome sunset surf!

Andy belaying Igor at Pen Y Cyfwyr

A fantastic few days with these guys has left me feeling really positive and psyched for the summer of climbing! Now I’ve got a bit of time off to catch up on admin and get out climbing for myself, there’s a few cliffs I’ve got my eye on some new lines – so maybe the next update will be some new routes!

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Avalanche O’clock on Meggy

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk March 8, 2015 May 5, 2015 Adventures

Want to know what 2 days of warm weather and some torrential rain do to the snowpack? Then look on… 1 word – AVALANCHE!

We were heading out to Meggy in the hope of checking out some of the avalanche activity from the last 2 days. Knowing there would be some interesting conditions we had already decided on an easy day out and to avoid going onto any snowy sections. This decision was rightly backed up by the view from the carpark, a huge full depth avalanche on the hill above, almost 300m wide.. Plenty more were visible from the road too.

Large full depth just above the farm

We left the Meggy car park amid glorious sunshine, t-shirts and sunglasses were the order of the day, but not for long! To be fair, the weather was a vast improvement on the last couple of days – in that the winspeeds were under 100mph…. Once up in the Coire conditions got, well, pretty grim. People say the Cairngorms are the windiest place in Scotland, well I reckon it’s here! Windspeeds were definitely stronger than forecast, and I cast my mind back to my last visit to Meggy – having to resort to crawling on all fours following a bearing in a white out, the wind intent on not letting me stand…

Anyway, back to today. There were folk out, someone being overly optimistic with some skiis (ski-touring conditions it aint), 4 guys even coming down having been snow-holing – well, they are certainly “braver” men than me, it must have been dire in the thaw in a snow hole!

Have a look at the picture below of a couple walking into the debris zone of a huge, deep wet snow avalanche, from below you could clearly see the fracture lines and hundreds if not thoushands of tonnes of soaking wet soggy snow ready to go… You can see the couple outlined lower left for scale. Sensible decision?

Spot the people bottom left in the snow…..

It was everywhere, every aspect that had snow on and at most altitudes, there had been significant slides. We had it all, huge full-depth avalanches, massive wet snow avalanches, surface sloughs, monumental cornice collapse, smaller point release avalanches, even what looked like crevasses and seracs!

I like to think the fact we have had so little human involvement with avalanches this year is due to more information, better understanding, more people taking a more serious attitude into the hills, and being better equiped, certainly after the terrible winter we had a couple of years ago. It would be horrific if that happened year after year, and fortunately it does not, but there were definitely some people perhaps stepping over that line into the danger zone today. And why? There was nothing to climb, all slush and rubble, skiing would have been rubbish, and the weather on Meggy was at times awful….

Lots of people have been wondering what conditions for climbing would be at the minute, well the pictures below of the Post Face etc give you a bit of an example of how black it all is, and what the cornice collapses have done. The weather took a nose dive whilst in Coire Adhair, so sorry for the blurryness of the photos!

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Scotland so far….

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk March 6, 2015 May 5, 2015 Adventures

Each Winter in Scotland seems to have certain characteristics, I remember a few years ago it was the “Windy Winter” a couple of years ago was it the “No Snow Winter”, this year it seems to be the “Winter of Giant Thaws”. Apparently this Saturdays staggering rise in temperatures, is due to a blast of air from the Caribbean coming in on the jet stream… Well it still doesn’t feel Caribbean up here in Aviemore right now!

Walking into the Northern Corries

There has been a big amount of snow fallen, but being Scotland these snow falls have coincided with strong winds, meaning snow cover on the East side is poor, though it is good in the West. That is until this Giant Thaw sets in! Why does the weather never play ball to our plans?! I guess it’s one of the reasons that leads to Scottish Winter Climbing being so rewarding, and being such a great training ground!

Carn Mor Dearg Arete on a winter skills week

The CIC hut on a winter skills week ascent of Ben Nevis

The fluctuating weather aside, we have made the most of the conditions with our Winter Mountaineering courses, as well as plenty of personal climbing and skiing…

Skiing in Scotland

In the month or so we’ve been up, there has literally been 2 properly great days of weather, this has led to some testing conditions for our clients! Fair enough the preceding month was staggeringly great, with no wind, perfect ice, sunshine (what’s that?!), it just so happened that we weren’t here then! (yes we were in the Himalaya so can’t complain too much..)

So, to keep us motivated whilst the weather does what it does up there (how much snow will we be left with on Sunday when the weather improves?!) – here are some pics of the last few weeks to inspire and remember… (and yes the weather IS going to get better – but were soon to depart to sunny Pembrokeshire!)