hiking Archives - The Climbing Company

Prince’s Trust in Devon

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk October 4, 2015 October 4, 2015 Courses, Instructional, work

This week I have been working for Reach Outdoors, with the Prince’s Trust in Devon. We have been with a fantastic bunch of young people, looking at helping them gain confidence, develop team work and leadership and improve their communication skills. all through outdoor activities and a planning and review process. These weeks are always super rewarding (sometimes a little hard work too!), but this weeks group were awesome. Throughout our week with the Prince’s Trust in Devon, we have been walking on Dartmoor, Gorge Walking and Rock Climbing amongst other things. The weather has been unreal, especially for the start of October! Lets hope next week is even half as good! Though it does look like the weather is on the turn…

Climbing with the Prince’s Trust in Devon

Gorge Walking with the Prince’s Trust in Devon

Walking with the Prince’s Trust on Dartmoor

This weekend has been spent in Dorset, getting some sunny sport climbing done on Portland. Coming from Pembrokeshire where every trip entails an adventurous abseil into a big crag for some trad climbing, it was great to rock up and do some relaxing sport climbing after my week with the Prince’s Trust in Devon…

Climbing on Portland

Climbing in Pembrokeshire

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk September 29, 2015 September 29, 2015 Courses, Pembrokeshire, work

Last week we had a few days off at last! And it was a joy to be out on the crags climbing in Pembrokeshire for fun! As we hadn’t been on the limestone in a while, we spent a few days down there. Initially with Alun, but Bramble also got out of his kayak and came with us one day! Great company and some new places explored, and steep, adventurous routes done!

Climbing at St Govans

Steep ground Climbing in Pembrokeshire

Climbing through the Blow Hole

After a few days personal climbing in Pembrokeshire, I had a great day teaching lead climbing skills to Steve and Nikki. Being strong indoor climbers they picked up all the new skills quickly, and both did their first lead climbs in the Porth Clais area. Amazing weather and good company, hopefully they will both be back out on the cliffs again soon!

Steve on a course lead climbing in Pembrokeshire

After a busy Monday to Friday it was a quick trip to North Wales for the weekend… I was attending a “Train the Trainers” course at Plas Y Brenin. Run by Mike Raine, this course is aimed at those delivering training to candidates going through the national governing body awards, such as the SPA and ML. The goal is to get like minded people to explore different teaching styles and models, using mock clients. An interesting couple of days, and a joy to be in the hills in such amazing weather!

Teaching ML rope work in Snowdonia

Coasteering and Climbing in Pembrokeshire

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk September 21, 2015 September 29, 2015 work

This last week has been a good one! The water has been as good as it gets; clear, calm, clean and some good low tides – great for some Coasteering and Climbing in Pembrokeshire! I have been working for TYF as well as getting plenty of climbing in… These September days, once the school holiday crowds have gone, truly are magical in Pembrokeshire…

We’ve had some great days Coasteering at both St. Nons and Abereiddy, with some lovely low tide explores, as well as some bigger swell adventures! Plenty of seals around too, with the pups appearing on the beaches. Be aware if you see any to keep your distance and stay quiet, don’t linger too long as the mums might not come and feed them whilst you’re there…

Coasteering at Abereiddy

In the “tumble dryer”, Coasteering at Abereiddy

After a few days in the water I was glad to be on dry land, accompanying a school group on a coastal walk, looking at map skills along with environmental issues, with the fantastic weather giving us awesome views over to Strumble Head, one of my favourite vistas in Pembrokeshire…

Looking over to Strumble Head

A weekend away climbing in South Pembrokeshire completed a really brilliant week! We did some fantastic climbs on Range East, and some new routes, but what will linger in my mind longest is the Lemon and Dill sauce we had at the Stackpole Inn! Amazing and highly recommended! We spent the day in the sun climbing in the Blockhouse Buttress area, slightly off the beaten track (due to it’s long by Pembrokeshire standards 20 minute walk in!), the area contains some fantastic routes, so go check them out!

Climbing on Range East

Alun and Sophie following a route at Blockhouse Buttress…

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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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Walking, Climbing and Coasteering in Pembrokeshire…

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk July 10, 2015 July 10, 2015 work

This week I have been working walking, climbing and coasteering for TYF with the schools they have had staying with them in Pembrokeshire. The week started with a few days coasteering and climbing in the St Nons and Porth Clais area, where the swell proved to be entertaining.. The kids coped amazingly!

Big swell climbing in Pembrokeshire

Finally the swell died down to make coasteering far more accommodating! The last couple of days were spent walking sections of the awesome Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, looking at fauna and flora along the way as well as a spot of rock-pooling and scrambling. The weather was superb and as always with good company… Now I’m off for a month in South America – no matter what far flung places I go to, I always miss Pembrokeshire though!

Walking to Abereiddy Headland

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Second week in Dartmoor

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk May 31, 2015 May 31, 2015 work

Our second week in Dartmoor followed the same format as previous. Working alongside some great instructors we put the MOD apprentices through their paces with a day Rock Climbing at Hound Tor, a 2 day exped over Dartmoor and a days Mountain biking at Haldon Forest..

As well as the days working we managed a quick evening hit to Hound Tor to solo some of the routes there, and a great evening in the sun Bouldering at Bone Hill – I had not been there before but the area is awesome! Well worth a visit… Glad to be back in Pembrokeshire now after a couple of weeks away, and looking forward to getting some routes done on our stunning coastline!

Climbing at Hound Tor

Walking on Dartmoor

Climbing at Hound Tor

Mountain Biking at Haldon Forest

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MOD apprentice week in Dartmoor

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk May 24, 2015 May 24, 2015 work

This week I’ve been working on behalf of “Wet and High Adventures” with a group of engineering apprentices from the MOD for Bridgwater College. A busy week aimed to develop their problem solving and team-work and to provide a bit of bonding for them! We climbed, mountain biked and hiked throughout Dartmoor from out base at the brilliant “Dartmoor Expedition Centre”.

Our first day of climbing coincided with the only bit of rain for the week, so we headed indoors to the Dart-Rock Climbing Centre. An excellent place for the guys to take their first steps. We spent the morning looking at good climbing technique on the bouldering wall, before learning to belay and get on some routes. A few of the guys even managed some lead climbs – on their very first day climbing – great effort! We finished the day with an awesome inter-team bouldering comp…

Our 2 day hike over some fantastic scenery was couple with amazing weather – a real treat, and the guys coped well with the navigation and physical nature of the long miles – we did have a fair few stops in the sun by the river though to soak up the rays!

Our final day mountain biking on the excellent Haldon Forest Trails was a brilliant end to the week. Starting on the skills track with the burms, drop-offs and other obstacles, we developed their personal biking enough to finish the day on one of the tricky red trails. A fun week at work with some great people – really nice to be working with a bunch of super highly experienced instructors – and another week of it starting tomorrow!