The Brecon Beacons: our Welsh Apennines

February 21, 2018 Trip reports brecon beacons, britain, cribyn, edita, fan y big, hewitts, hill walking, italy, marilyns, nuttalls, peak bagging, pen y fan, wales, waun rydd 1 Comment

It’s been four months since we moved back to London, and we’d not been out into the UK hills. It takes effort to get out of London for a weekend of hill walking, but the effort is always worth it, and the Brecon Beacons are not so far away.

North Coast 500 bike ride: the videos

November 15, 2017 Trip reports britain, cycling, edita, mountain films, north coast 500, scotland 1 Comment

Once again, it’s time to give a bit more space in this blog to those of you who prefer to watch telly than read books. Here are the four short videos I made to capture the magic, the joy, the tears, the pain – and the farce – of our North Coast 500 bicycle journey.

Sore bums and saddlebags: cycling the North Coast 500

November 8, 2017 Trip reports britain, corbetts, cycling, edita, munros, north coast 500, scotland 15 Comments

It was four years since my last visit to Scotland, and I ended up returning in a most unexpected way. A few months ago I’d never even heard of the North Coast 500; now I’ve only gone and cycled it. The adventure took me beyond exhaustion, but somehow I got round. Here’s how.

5 beginner’s tips for cycling up mountains

October 12, 2017 Humour andes, britain, chimborazo, cycling, ecuador, north coast 500, scotland, sea to summit 11 Comments

The learning curve for beginners is always much steeper. Now that I’m safely back from my first ever cycling trips, I thought it would be a good moment to share some tips.

The truth about the first Lithuanian ascent of Sgurr a’ Chaorachain

September 6, 2017 Humour britain, conrad bartelski, corbetts, cycling, edita, false summit claims, first ascents, hill walking, munros, north coast 500, scotland, sgurr a chaorachain 2 Comments

False summit claims were back in the news when a Swedish mountaineer retracted his summit claim after studying photographs and realising he hadn’t reached the very top. He was praised for his refreshing honesty, but a similar story of mountaineering integrity also deserves attention.

The peat-bog method of training for a big adventure

September 1, 2017 Expedition dispatches an teallach, britain, chimborazo, corbetts, cycling, ecuador, edita, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, north coast 500, peak bagging, scotland 1 Comment

In the last three weeks I’ve cycled 830km across 1273 hills, hiked up 8 Munros and 4 Corbetts, and scratched 253,953 midge bites 37 times per day. I camped for 20 consecutive nights and have lost count of the number

Get me off this bike and back on my feet

August 21, 2017 Expedition dispatches britain, cycling, edita, hill walking, north coast 500, scotland, wildlife 1 Comment

There was a surreal moment during our cycle ride of the North Coast 500 a few days ago. I had pedalled myself to complete exhaustion up and over steep hills for nine days, and my legs had nothing left. I

When climbing documentaries were as popular as cookery shows

April 27, 2016 Humour britain, chris bonington, dougal haston, joe brown, mountain films, rock climbing, tom patey 2 Comments

Last year fifteen million people, a quarter of the population of Britain, watched the final of a cake-baking competition. In 1967 the same number watched a live broadcast of the second ascent of an obscure sea stack off the coast of Orkney.

The Snowdon Horseshoe: Britain’s classic hill walk

October 7, 2015 Trip reports britain, crib goch, edita, hill walking, moel siabod, pen-y-gwryd hotel, search and rescue, snowdon, snowdon horseshoe, snowdon mountain railway, snowdonia, wales, y lliwedd 14 Comments

There are many great routes up Snowdon, but for hill walkers the Snowdon Horseshoe is the very best, crossing three of the Welsh 3000ers in three ridge scrambles of varying difficulty. Our circuit of it last month included a little bit of drama.

Snowdon’s Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel: a little piece of Everest history

September 30, 2015 History alpine club, britain, edmund hillary, everest, history of mountaineering, pen-y-gwryd hotel, snowdon, wales 6 Comments

I completed a long-held ambition when I stayed at the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, at the foot of the Pen-y-Pass on the flanks of Snowdon. Staying for a couple of nights in a hotel may not sound like much of an achievement, but this one is extra special.