Despite forcasts of heavy showers and thunder, the whole of Snowdonia was bathed in sunshine today. Myself and Clay gave Erinna an introduction to multi-pitch trad climbing at Tremadog, and then finished with a couple of the more interesting VS routes before heading back to PyB for the BMC AGM.
Is Google Earth ruining expedition planning? I thought no, and spent half an hour trying to convince the BMC AGM's Friday night audience to agree. Responses ranged from amazement, shock, cries of “but he's only 12”, and one particular individual was seen sobbing into his hands with horror at what the internet could achieve. Job done I think.
Spent the morning introducing Matt to outdoor climbing at Birchen Edge. He excelled himself and followed me up some of the classic routes of the crag such as Camperdown Crawl and Topsail.
The village of Jutta, at 2150m in the Georgian Caucasus' was inaccessible by road due to multiple avalanches and rock fall. So we hiked in for an hour from the valley floor, and then set off in search of Chaukhi Mountain. Progress towards the impressive 3842m craggy mass was hampered by heavy snowfall, and after 5 hours we returned back to the village and car.
From a base in the Georgian village of Kazbegi (Spetasminda), we hiked up the hill past Sameba Church to the edge of the Gergeti glacier. Mt Kazbek, otherwise known as Mkinvartsveri ("top of glacier") stands at 5033m tall in the Caucasus mountains between Russia and Georgia.
