Sunday 20 December 2009

Wintery adventure

With a dusting of snow on the hills it only felt right to go on a wintery adventure. An early start was on the order of the day 06:30 to be exact. Sam, Matt and I headed over to the Ogwen Valley to climb a route called 'Cneifion Arete' a grade 3 scramble with a bit of snow and ice thrown in on the day, a really nice start to the winter season.










Saturday 19 December 2009

Bushcraft Banter

Thursday and Friday saw Boulder Adventures and Totem's Bushcraft seminar. The idea to get some of our freelance staff round for a bit of banter about bushcraft. The two days consisted of each participant presenting a bushcraft topic and everyone else pitching in with there knowledge and suggestions, discussions then ensued to see how we would deliver it with our guests. The two days were very successful and we hope to be broadening our delivery of bushcraft sessions in the near future.

Picture courtesy of David Crombie
Picture courtesy of Sam Moore






Tuesday 8 December 2009

New River

Today was a new river day. Claire and myself had another staff training day which enabled Claire to get more time in a kayak. We headed over to a river called The Elwy. There we met up with one of our freelancers Martyn. We decided that we would not do the whole 14 km and just do the first 8 km due to the hours of day light. A fantastic day was had by all, with a couple of swimming lessons from Claire and Martyn but we will defiantly be returning to do the next section.






Monday 7 December 2009

Staff Training

Today was a staff training day. Claire and I decided to go kayaking on one of the local rivers, nothing to difficult as Claire was more interested in getting some coaching than been scared out of her whit, however there were a couple of sections to keep me smiling to. The last rapid on the section of river we did is Claire's 'Nemesis' after swimming a couple of times on previous attempts. However today despite been really nervous and the river been quite high, Claire got her line absolutely spot on and came out of the bottom with a huge smile. After finishing the river it was time for tea and medals, however I still felt the need to kayak something else, so we stopped at a waterfall on the way back home. I jumped out of the van ran up the road had a quick look, went to get my boat and had a go! However on the lip I was to far over to the left and ended getting a bit of a beating and subsequently exiting my boat! Just proves I'm human.

Cobdens Falls

This is were it started going wrong

A little bit of rock love

A spot of swimming

Claire Successful decent of Forestry Falls




Friday 27 November 2009

Sometimes work can be really hard.

The day started really early, around 7 am. Dave and myself running round all excited, it was time for a spot of kayaking before work. The idea to get a quick blast down a local run return to the centre and then start the days work. However todays work consisted of planning a bushcraft seminar for some of our freelance instructors, followed by a 'Russell Howard' lunch and then a spot of first time whittling for Claire and myself. It was such a hard day.










Claire's and my First Whittle

Friday 23 October 2009

Just like the old times

A couple of friends of whom I worked with in the Ardeche about 5 years ago, have been up in North Wales for the past week, and just like old times we thought we would get out and go kayaking. Unfortunately there has not been enough rain to paddle most of the rivers how ever there are always some low water Park and Huck sections, which in short involves parking next to a waterfall kayaking down and then moving on to the next fall.




Tuesday 20 October 2009

Introduction Time

This weekend my partner Helen and I made the most of the one day of sunshine to indulge in a spot of climbing. Helen had been indoor climbing maybe once or twice and had spent an evening at Brimham Rocks with me earlier in the year, so I felt it was time to teach Helen how to second a climb. So we headed over to the Ogwen Valley to a crag known as Little Tryfan. After a brief lesson we headed up the crag and had an amazing day in the sun.


The Blue Ninja

I have recently taken purchase of a VW Transporter T4, a must have accessary for every Outdoor Instructor, and kitting it out ready for future adventures is a task that is taken very seriously! I spent 2 evenings drawing detailed plans and expectations for the interior, and after finishing all my jobs around the centre I set about building 'The Blue Ninja' over the course of 3 days. With 90% of the work done its only the cosmetic side that needs completing once I have decided what colors and fabrics would best suit.







Friday 9 October 2009

Choppy Waters

Due to work and the darker evenings its been pretty hard to get out and play. However today I took a friend out for some kayaking instruction. The ideal venue I had chosen was Four-mile Bridge, a jet of water that depending on the tides is either going in or out of the Inland Sea over at Holyhead. When we got there it was apparent that a large number of other people had the same idea, it was heaving. Realizing that we would have to que to do anything we decided to head to Porth Dafarch for a spot of rock hopping. It was a fairly sporty sea state that offered quite a challenge for my friend and I found his eyes on stalks on several occasions! The day wasn't all scary as there was some nice waves coming on to shore for Dave to have a go at a spot of kayaking surfing.









Monday 21 September 2009

Spectacular Success

Two years ago a small team of us ventured towards LLan Festiniog near the Trawsfynydd Reservoir to explore a new gorge on the Afon Cynfal. It was a typical wet, foggy miserable Welsh September day but none less we kitted up and headed to the river. After some hour an half it was still raining and we found ourselves at the top of a very large waterfall 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm', still keen we rigged the rope and sent Tom down for a closer inspection. On Tom's decent he soon realised the rope we had didn't reach the bottom of the fall, so prusiked back up the rope. At this point it was still raining and it was apparent that the water had gone from a murky brown/orange from all the peat to a darker brown because of rising levels, after we quickly packed away the rope and all the gear we made a very quick exit with the river rising at some pace.
Two years on and Dave, Will and Myself went for another go, this time with spectacular success.
I will the let the photos do the talking. One thing I would mention that this gorge is very committing and requires an experienced team with whitewater and climbing knowledge.



'Rhaeadr Y Cwm' Previously defeated us.

Will and I preparing to drop the bag been shadowed by 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm'

Will exiting the 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm' pool

Re-packing the rope after an abseil down a awkward narrow fall

Will and I heading towards the light, but far from the end

Will on a sweet slide in a lower gorge on the same river