February half term; time for the annual HSX training week in the Cairngorm Mountains of Northern Scotland.  Based at the Badaguish accommodation centre, a massive group of 34 arrived from Hampshire, comprised of HSX members and the Peru team

Day 1

The first day on the hill saw a late start for half of the contingent due their arrival at 7am.  The group that had arrived the night before kitted up and headed into Corrie an t’Snechda to catch a sneaky peak at the climbing conditions as well as brushing up on winter skills such as ice axe arrests, rouge blocks and kicking steps.  Lead by Nath and Smudge the team spent the day in the Corrie, unfortunately not being able to see a great deal! Team Peru hit the hill at a more sociable time of 10am(HSX), walking from Corrie na Cisite car park, with most of the team experiencing their first day walking in the snow.

Day 2

Our second day saw a more structured and unified approach with all of the HSX team heading for the hill at 0800.  Splitting again into teams, lead by Dave and Nath, both teams headed into Snechda for further winter skills practice and Anthony discovering the speed that you could travel whilst sliding with oil skins!  The The First of the winter climbs also being recorded with smudge soloing Aladdin’s mirror direct.

Day 3

The day began with most of the tenting people having to dig themselves out due to the large amount of snowfall overnight.  The heavy snowfall continued into the morning, providing complete white out conditions in the hills.  This provided me and bursar Tom an opportunity to brush up on our micro navigation with Nath, walking from Corrie na Ciste car park up to Cairngorm and down into Snechda where we met up with half of team Peru, lead by Bram and Chris Laws, who were working on their winter skills- snow bollards, dead-men and bucket seats.   The weather did finally clear about mid day!  Other HSX members paired up to hit the gully climbs in Snechda.

Day 4

The half way point saw the contingent launching several mini-expeditions.  Firstly team Peru accompanied by bursar Tom, bursar Anthony and Bestie packed and departed for a night in a Snow hole.  Unfortunately the Cairngorm road was closed and blocked, meaning a route extension with a walk from the lakeside car park.  The second expedition was Russ and Jeremy heading for the Orkney Islands.  They set off mid morning and arrived at John O Groats, unfortunately Jeremy did not have any photo ID so they were unable to make it onto the ferry however assure us they tried to find somewhere suitable to build a snow hole but were unsuccessful so had to put up with a hotel for the night!!

The rest of HSX split into climbing teams heading out to various climbs and gullies.  Rhys and Chris headed out with Harold and Rhys successfully passed his ice climb leaders award.  Fortunately all of the climbing pairs had reached the Snechda car park prior to the road closure.   Myself and Rob Kedge decided to hit the ski slopes for the day as the conditions were so good.  After queuing for what felt like hours we reached the resort.  Both being on blades (Robs first time) we hit a few of the easier piste’s first, then moved on.  Unfortunately Rob managed to “break” his knee after taking a fall avoiding an “idiot skier.”

Snow hole-ing - Joe Doherty (Peru Team Member)

We left Badaguish early in the morning and walked out to the snow holing but i cant remember where it was? We must have got there at about 11am; we set of work straight away with two Peru groups working on the top part of the snow holing section and one group and the leaders making snow holes on the bottom. Me Matt K, Bertie, Ross and Andy where at the top and soon found out that the top layer section had really hard ice and progress was slow and tiring. The original plan of pimp beds, columns, a bridge and a bridge going over the cold sump went out the window. The other team on the top section found it hard to unlike the bottom teams who could move the snow out easily with shovels in giant lumps.  Whilst we were hacking away at the snow with our ice axes the other team had made enough room for 8 people by 4pm.

We only had room for two people in our snow hole so me Bertie and Ross had to go to the big snow hole that Kat, Katie, Tom, Anton and Becki had made. We all crammed in and settled in for a cold sleep. During the night the snow hole dripped because the roof wasn’t flat keeping us up. Unfortunately Katie got very cold and I found my self in a bivi bag with her by the end of the night hugging her to warm her up as we changed her wet sleeping bag and gave her loads of jumpers.

In the morning we realised we survived the ordeal and had breakfast of baked beans and sausages, after this we set back to the hut and arrived at about 1pm. on the way back we were greeted with amazing views and scenery which made the whole experience worth while.

Day 5

Taken as a rest/easy day by many due to the snow fall overnight.  Myself and Craig were out on a Harold day.  We walked into Snechda, through about 1 ft of fresh powder in order to climb Aladdin’s mirror direct.  We started at 1100 and didn’t top out until 1530, however were greeted with fantastic views of the Cairngorms so well worthwhile.  Russ and Jeremy returned in the evening after their successful trip.

Day 6

Yet another crystal clear day.  Smudge and co visited Creag Meagaidh to discover less than ideal climbing conditions.  Half of the peru team were given their first chance to climb, following Aladdin’s Couloirs and Central Gully.  The other half was left in the capable hands of Rob and enjoyed a day in and around Aviemore.  Me and bursar Tom had an opportunity for another Harold day, we hit spiral gully and Fiacaill ridge.

Day 7

Last day on the hills.  The usual collection of climbing pairs hit the gullies, with the other half of the Peru team getting their chance to climb.  Craig and Rob led a trip to the Glenfiddich distillery which turned out to be a fairly long drive followed by a fairly long wait for a tour! Despite this, was a successful excursion.

Overall

A highly successful week with everyone achieving something, however most people achieving a lot more than they had planned to!  Thanks must go to Russ and Jeremy for all of the catering; to Smudge for excelling as Director of Mountainous Activities and to Chris Laws for co-ordinating the whole event.  Also to all of the leaders that took groups out onto the hill…(too many to name!)

We are pleased to announce 2 new sponsors who are kindly offering their support to our Peru team. Many thanks for your generosity.

http://www.buffwear.co.uk/

http://www.trekwear.co.uk/

For any other sponsorship enquiries, we would be delighted to hear from you – hsxonline@gmail.com

The annual HSX Scotland trip this year had 35 people in total attending which included the Peru team as part of their UK based training for the expedition this summer.

This year was full of snow and cold conditions as low as -12ºc, The first two days of the trip were filled with essential winter mountaineering skills to help them get through the week. The third and fourth day was spent building a snow hole from scratch then testing them out by cooking and sleeping in them for a night. The fifth day of the trip was another practical training day on snow and ice climbing techniques that were then put into good use over the next couple of days as the Peru team leaders took them climbing in breathtaking Scottish scenery.

Over the week HSX members climbed Ben Macdui  (1,309m) and Cairngorm  (1,245m). Also people went Skiing, Dry tool climbing, swimming completed Mambo’s Direct and visited John O’ Groats.

By Phil Nutbeam

HSX set off for North Wales on Friday 22nd Jan, we made good time at untill we arrived and couldn’t find the keys. An opportunity for a quick doze while Dave set off to Anglesey to find them.

I had drawn the short straw with the bursars and ended up with the sofa for sleeping on – wish it had a guard rail as I fell off both nights!

After getting to bed at 02:30, Saturday saw us get up early and after breakfast two groups set off for the Ogwen Valley, one heading up through the Devil’s Kitchen and the other doing Heather Terrace on Tryfan, whilst a third group headed for Snowdon. We hiked most of the day on the hills managing to find some patches of snow, for quite a few of the Peru team it was the first time in Snow boots.

In the evening we headed back to the lodge in Capel Curig for a tasty evening meal prepared by Brimlow and helpers, most of them crashed early as I tried to re acquire the sofa!

Sunday saw the Peru team head off for PT round the Lake at Snowdon, another team went off for a hike up Moel Siabod, a few of us went to find some bouldering but it was too wet so ?Rhys and I went off to Plas Y Brenin the outdoor centre to do some indoor bouldering whilst Besty and burser Tom went for a run up tryfyn.

After Lunch and a clear up we left for Hampshire. A good fun weekend enjoyed by all.

Mark How

Now in it’s 2nd year, the eagerly anticipated HSX Winter Adventure Race gave 18 competitors the opportunity to lose all feeling in their feet. Sub zero temperatures and some sneaky control placements meant some runners learnt some route choice lessons the hard way, by ending up waste deep in freezing bogs. The route planner (me) also learnt something about remembering to tell everyone about moving controls to a different location. Still, everyone returned with smiles on their faces and there was even talk of a summer race (anyone want to volunter to set the route?)

With only 2 teams arriving withing the time limit of 3 hours and 2 points lost per minute late, the scores threw up some interesting results. Overall winners were Alan and Chris, having collected all 10 checkpoints but returning around 20 minutes late, finishing with an impressive score of ~160.

Full results will appear below (when I manage to make it through the snow to work, where the piece of paper with the scores is)

Open Class
1) Alan and Chris
2) Rich and Rich
3) Craig and Tom
4) To come
5) To come

Rookie
To come

Solo
To come

Triple
To come

Female
Charlotte and Hayley

The HSX Christmas weekender is taking place on 18th – 20th December 2009 at Ferny Crofts, New Forest.

The weekend will include the following elements;

Saturday daytime: teamHSX Adventure race, this years race is the second of the annual competitions and this year the course director (Ian Furlong) say “bring your wellies”, it promises to be a wet one.
Saturday evening: HSX Christmas meal, this year being cooked by the Peru 2010 expedition team
Sunday: HSX annual forum, your chance to find out and lead exciting future expeditions and an opportunity to have a say on what we do

It would be great if you’re able to attend the whole weekend and we’ll be catering from Saturday breakfast until Sunday lunchtime. If you are unable to make all weekend but would like to take part in some elements of the weekend please let me know what parts you will be there for.

Please let me know if you are attending and when. craig.gregory@hsx.org.uk

HSX do the Brecons, by Chris Slater

Last weekend saw HSX head off to the Brecon Beacons for a fun filled weekend out in the hills! The weekend was a really busy one with 31 people heading up including the Peru Team and Mark and David from the Malawi team. Staying for the first time at the Glasbury-on-Wye Scout Hut, the HSX members slept inside on the floor of the hut next to the fire evicting the Peru team outside to sleep under canvas in the garden.

Saturday saw us divide into 5 teams, Smudge, Brimelow, Christian and Batstone headed off to do some climbing leaving the remaining 4 groups to tackle the Brecon Beacons. Starting from the village of Pencelli my group consisting of Lawso, Rhys, Hayley and Bursar Anton also joined by Dave?s half of the Peru team we scaled the dizzy heights of Fan-Y-Big, Cribyn and Pen-Y- Fan. The remaining two groups started the same route from the opposite end with the aim to meet half way to swap keys for the Tornados. After a great start of Lawso leaving his walking boots in the Tornado heading to the opposite end of our route we were soon on our way. Part way round we stopped for a half hour of kite flying shenanigans in the relatively blowy conditions (with Dave narrowly avoiding slamming the kite into the back of Anton?s head!!!). On our descent from Fan-Y-Big we met the other two groups swapping keys and hearing of Bursar Tom leaving his waterproof jacket in his tent (Muppet!). The day was topped off with a quick trip into Brecon for some QSH?s before heading back to the hut to cook dinner (we missed not having Russ!!!).

After dinner we were entertained by Everest Dave attempting a first attempt at traversing the wooden beams in the roof, complete with thermarest crash mats below for safety naturally. Not to lose face Bram soon scrambled up to have a go followed by Rhys, Bertie and McNab. Being Halloween we brought the obligatory pumpkin to carve, I took it upon myself to handle this important job, but was soon relegated to scooping out the insides, Bram just couldn?t stand seeing someone else having fun!!!

Sunday morning started off very wet, but in HSX we?re not put off by a bit of rain so we headed back out into the hills, with one group off to practice micro-nav, another group off for a 10km run and the Peru team off to do some PT after an epic drive to get to a waterfall. Luckily my group, off to do micro-nav manage to stay dry with the rain stopping as soon as we got to our destination. We all reconvened at the hut shortly before lunch to tidy up and have some grub before hitting the M4 for the homeward journey.

Oh and if Katie is reading this I?m still waiting for my cup of Tea!!!

What a year at the OMM it was. This year due to the rain and media storm last year, the organiser’s had moved the start away from the Event HQ, this added some time onto everybody’s day, but nothing too bad..

The Elan Valley, Builth Wells & Ian’s parents house were all great settings for The OMM. Having never been to the Elan valley before and having not experienced the legendary tussocks, I would go back again for a bimble..

Anyway…. Results.

Tim Clarke & James Fry came 40th in the Medium Score class….

Alan Braithwaite & Jon Hallam came 76th in the C Class…

Chris Laws & Dan Gray came 28th in the C Class…

Tom Percy & James Jones did not finish the C Class (we hope James’ knee is ok)…

Stu Rose & Terry Massey came 121st in the Short Score…

Neil Gregory & Andy Reed came 120th in the Short Score…

Ian Furlong & Selwyn Fisher came 11th in the B Class…

Well done to all and see you next year……