by Ian | Feb 16, 2012 | Training, Trip Report
Our January training weekend took us to the Black Mountains & namely Ystradgynlais, a small town north of Swansea. For thos of you who went to Smudge’s Stag Do, it’s the same town.
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..
by Ian | Jan 31, 2010 | Expeditions, Peru 2010, Training, Trip Report
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
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
by Ian | Nov 5, 2009 | Peru 2010, Training, Trip Report
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!!!
by Ian | Oct 28, 2009 | Event Report
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……
by Ian | Jan 19, 2009 | Training, Trip Report
What a great weekend…
Firstly we had a good number of people there… Russ, Tom, Lawso, Smudge, Footlong, Everest Dave, Brimelow, Ollie R, Chris S, Nutmeg, Tom R, Besty, Steve & myself.. Also we test stayed in a new place… Coetmor Mill, which everyone agreed was a better place even though it was cold and didn’t have mattresses or comfy chairs!!
Anyway, Saturday we went into three groups.. one group headed over the Carnedd range, one group headed over Tyrfan to the Glyders and Group Russ went shopping… It was a great morning that soon turned into 100mph gusts and torrential rain.. Luckily the Carnedd group were down before the rain started, leaving Group Glyder to get soaked…. Nice..
Saturday night was interesting.. No TV…. We had to survive with just our own conversation, a roast pork dinner and an hour long reason on why the iPhone is the best thing out there…
Sunday, after packing and cleaning the building, we were in two group… Group one did some ML training and Group two visited a tea shop and Group three (Footlong) went for a run…. Also, whilst on the ML training session, we had the great idea to come up with some ML training videos…. Watch this space for more info…
Great weekend as always.. Thanks to Everest Dave for being Event Director… Thanks to the drivers and thanks to Russ for cooking….
Check out the picture page for more pictures….
Alan
