in April. When not in his boat, he's got a few walks in this month, a couple of repeats of the
from North Cardiff.
#Team Up and Under
Lucy
and
Andy:
Another pair who have been 'relatively' quiet with a bit of illness
hanging round. However they still manage more adventures than most! They
managed to get out to
play in the snow that fell in the Beacons, but they didn't need all the cold weather gear they were hoping to use. Lucy also managed a few
trail runs, getting out on her regular 10 km
Sirhowy route, as well as exploring the
Senghenydd dyke and
Eglwysilan which turned into a lovely 13km circuit. Lucy and Andy have already got thier summer plans sorted too, with flights booked to
Yosemite in
September. Training has already started for this (please don't ask Andy
about his "Crackinator"...), mainly indoor as the weekend they spent in
the
Peak District was too cold to be outside, so they ended up at
Awesome Walls in Stoke.
Quiet is all relative...!
George H: For this month's antics, George has been up in
North Wales with a few friends for some mountaineering. We climbed up
Idwal Slabs and
Cneifon Arete to get to
Bristly Ridge . On his second day there, they did
Clogwyn Arete, and on Monday, some bouldering and my first ever outdoor sport session.
George L: Jetted off to
Thailand, where he'll be radio-tracking
Banded Kraits; a super
venomous snake. George will be living in the Thai rain forests, and not content with the Kraits, there will also be
Pit Vipers and
King Cobra's to contend with - If you're interested, you can
follow his exploits here.
Kate
and
Joe: Have been skiing in
Bulgaria which was pretty great. Fresh powder with a little sun made it an awesome trip.
Stuart: Stuart's been out and about, both
on the water and
in the mountains. The first trip of the year was out to
Flat Holm Island, a local favourite. He also joined a group from
Sea Kayak Cymru for a trip from
Abereiddy to Abercastle, a cold, cold winter paddle which makes you think about new warm kit! Stu's another of the team to head to
Pen y Fan in the snow - he found a short stretch with just enough Ice to try out his
Salewa Condors and new Crampons -
Petzl Charlet Vasaks. He's also found time while at home looking after his kids to make some more wooden paddles,
which are looking amazing.
Mark: Mark has just been out training in January, and was on the
Run Walk Crawl recce for the
SW100 last weekend - They covered part one of the route 'only' 25miles from
Cardiff to
Treorchy - hopefully the conditions will be more favourable in June.
Ed
: January has found Ed mainly in the climbing walls around Bristol -
TCA,
UCR,
Redpoint and
Bloc. Ed had a walk around
Cheddar Gorge (too hungover to do anything vertical!) but was good to meet up with climbing friends from a
Dolomites trip a few years back. He was using his new
Garmont Vetta boots for this walk, which he's really enjoying -
read his brief appraisal here .
Ed also lent his axes to a friend to go to Scotland at the start of the
month - they got more use on that trip than on Ed's own trip up with
CUMC in December!
February is shaping up to be more eventful, with a number of weekends planned. We''ll let you know how it goes next time.
James H
: James is busy preparing for his trip to
Everest Basecamp in
April. While he's been increasing his kit slowly over the last few
months, training has started in earnest. He also has been out in the
Beacons in the snow and dark. One of the latest pieces of kit for the trip is a
Jottnar Alfar, which we haven't seen him out of yet.
His
shoulder is also recovering nicely from the operations, and he's been
back on the water for the first time in 14 months in a white water boat
(his new
Dagger Nomad), but on the flat water sections of the
River Taff. He's also been spending on river kit as well - with a
Sweet Supernova or
Peak UK Adventure Double keeping
out the wind and rain on the dark, cold evenings on the water. There'll
be reviews of these coming over the next few weeks. James also put off
his Uni work by putting together a
video of his trip to Val Sesia a few years back, and, shoulder willing, plans to return to get more footage this year...!
Sara
and
Norman
: This month has been fairly busy, celebrating
Sara's birthday and prepping the boat for leaving
Cape Town and
South Africa for the last time hopefully for this trip. They managed to get a weather window a few days ago, and are on the way to
St Helena and
Ascension Island.