The Bursars, Russ and Slattergator travelled up early Thursday in the Russ bus we left just before 5am!  The early start gave us an enjoyable afternoon walking up Skiddaw and then we found a little man with ice creams on the way down. Later in the day we met up with the other Torneo that contained the Nepal team plus Hannah, Besty and Chris Laws.

That evening due to a slight hiccup in the accommodation we had fish and chips for dinner, we then got to Great Tower where due to the hiccup we were to spend the night on the floor in the ecology room (luckily they had new mattresses for us to sleep on). Before we splet though Ollie (Event Director) and the other drivers did spend some time planning the next day whilst the Nepal team and Bursars explored the site – for many of us our first trip Great Tower.

Besty, Hannah and Chris Laws made a good choice by opting to sleep out overnight, rather than sleeping in a room with 20 other people. Everyone else arrived late that night – we did all switch to HSX time (1hr forward to make the most of the daylight hours).

Day Two

Breakfast was at 7:30 – two brioche (different shapes) and a cereal bar as there was no where to cook. We then split down into three groups – Multi pitch, Walking & Nepal team.  The multi pitch team went to the Langdale Valley and climbed up near Stickle Tarn, for some it was our first multi pitch, so we mainly concentrating on gear placements.  The walking group met the three over nighters (apparently Chris still snores) and did a 12km walk up Hellvelyn.  For theNepalteam this was their first group activity to Bowfell.

That night we moved into Windermere lodge where after dinner in preparation for his ML Assessment Steve Knaggs gave a talk on flora and fauna.  Educating us on everything from symbiotic relationships to Parmelia Saxatilis.

Day Three

The Nepal team plus a few others went single pitch climbing, for some their first experience of real rock. Three Bursars plus Dave went for some more multi pitch – because of Steve’s talk we were able to identify the moss we were trying to climb over. Steve and Mike had an epic day’s scrambling. Alan, Besty, Chris Laws and Rich Batstone did a section of the Bob Graham Round. This left a few of the others to summit Scafell Pike. That evening we had roast dinner – it was good.

In the evening we socialised with other network members – getting to bed at an unreasonable hour.

Day Four

TheNepalteam went for another walk to the old man of Coniston.  Stu demonstrated how well waterproof trousers foam if you forget to rinse them and it rains. He must be congratulated on actually wearing them as opposed to getting soaked with your trousers nice and dry in your bag.

Ian, Jeremy and Rich Brimelow went mountain biking.

The climbing group did the piece of classic rock “Little Chamonix”. If the wind blows and your gear falls out it suggests more work is needed on placements.

Joe did a talk about rope work for his ML and how important the over hand knot is, brilliant laugh practicing different types of abseils inside.

Day Five

The journey home – started unreasonably early, 6am in fact.

By Rosemary..

So the leader team are currently busy recruiting Explorers to participate in the upcoming Nepal in 2013 expedition. We’ve done a number of presentations to explorers across the county to promote this exciting opportunity but if we haven’t managed to get to your unit here’s the low down!

The expedition will consist of a 6 weeks in Nepal undertaking a range of activities including:

• A community development project with the Himalayan Trust, founded by Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Everest in 1953.
• Trek to Mont Everest Base Camp
• Climb Kala Pattar, a 5,545m peak on the opposite side of the Khumbu Glacier to Base Camp see the sun rise behind Everest
• The opportunity to climb Island Peak, a 6,189m snow-capped peak

Interest? For more information HSX are holding a presentation into the expedition in the Sky High Conservatory at Ferny Crofts, at 11am on Sunday 4^th March. We look forward to seeing you there!!!

Can’t make it? No worries. For more information contact expedition leader Chris Slater at chris.slater@hsx.org.uk and he’ll send you all the information you need.

Following the success of Sky High and Nepal 2007, HSX will be visiting Nepal again in 2013, with a group of 20 explorer scouts, with the aim of trekking to Everest Base Camp, Summiting Island Peak (6189m) and carrying out a 2-week community project with the Himalayan Trust.

The six-week expedition will be in September/October 2013 and is open to all explorer Scouts from across Hampshire.

Expedition leaders; Chris Slater, Joe Doherty and Ollie Robinson will be holding an info presentation in the Sky High Conservatory at Ferny Crofts @11am on Sunday 4th March 2012.

The Nepal 2013 ad can be viewed here: NEPAL 2013 POSTER

Anyway, we travelled up on Friday night. 10 of us left from our various bases and we met at the Scout Hut in Ystradgynlais, where Richard Brimelow (event director) greeted us with Hot Cross buns… Yum!! Before myself & Chris Laws (Atacama veterans ) gave the most amazing and educational lecture ever on nutrition. With the group all feeling very informed & educated we got our heads down for some sleep, which evaded some of us as we were battling with ‘first night camp excitement’.

On Saturday we split into two groups which were being lead by Steve Knaggs & Chris Slater as they are working towards their Mountain leader qualification. We agreed to rendezvous that evening at Llyn Y Fan Fach about 10km north of the town where we started for our overnight camp.

We set out carefully navigating our way through the town and across the road, which seemed to take for ever, before finally hitting some hills.. We then completed navigating legs, whilst also picking up some of the Black Mountains famous Air Craft crash sites…

Now either this was luck or perfect linked groups, but both teams arrived at the overnight camp at exactly the same time. It was at this point and we had been thinking it for a while, that we realised how blooming cold it was. So we wrapped up as warm as we could and put our tents up and had dinner. Luckily for us, there was a rescue hut there, so we did get to sit inside. when I say inside, it had walls, a roof & some benches.. Luxury in this instance.. Dinner was light weight obligatory Cous Cous, veg & Chorizo…

As some of the group headed to bed, Adrian, Steve, Chris & myself headed out for some night nav practice and with 100% success rate we headed back to our tents for a very very very cold night sleep… My 1 season sleeping bag, thermal top, jacket & gillet struggled to keep the cold at bay even whilst i was being sandwiched by Chris & Steve..

The next morning, we had breakfast (muesli cereal bombs) and headed back to the hut. Whilst walking back, we did get to enjoy the snow that started and then laid after we had left…

A great weekend with some great hill walking & wild camping… Thanks to Richard Brimelow for organising and thanks to all who came along..

We had slight power issues at the presentation this evening, but the team still delivered a great presentation.

We already have there ‘montage’ uploaded…. You can view it here…

In otgher news, Craig has sent details of the welcome presentation out. If you’ve not got the email, then the details are as follows…

Merry Christmas from all of us here. Paul and Zoe cooked up a wonderful meal for us all yesterday with a great combination of home comforts (yorkshires) and local dishes (fresh black beans direct from South Belize, just 4 days old).

On Christmas Eve, we joined in with the local celebrations in the village. They hosted a party by the beach with a band and lots of food and drink.

Today we are packing up, ready for the Thunderbolt to San Pedro early tomorrow morning.

Ian

We are back from Fireburn. We spent the night in the fieldbase that the last expedition put the roof on. The forest has changed quite a bit since then, as in 2007 there was a big hurricane and the jungle was flattened (the building was okay). The jungle is till regrowing to it’s former glory, and although the forest is still dense on the lower levels, the canopy is rather patchy.

Was a great couple of days, plenty of photos to share on our return. Makes us appreciate the convenience of living near a village.

Final full day on the project today, finishing off a few loose ends. Most the team are off shopping in Orange Walk tomorrow before the Christmas celebrations start.

Oh, we got the Christmas parcel through thanks

In other news, we are approaching the completion of our various projects over here. A few finishing touches on the main cage, planting grass in the area around it, tidying up the site, and building 14 panels for some further cages.

Thanks for all your messages on the blog, the team always look forward to hearing from you all. We are mostly excited about the possibility of a Christmas package, just hoping it makes it to Belize City by tomorrow as this is the last time Paul will be heading that way before we leave.

Ian