George Cave

Silvretta Traverse: Day 4 Descent

After our week of poor weather the clouds cleared for an incredible descent of untouched powder beneath blue skies. A great end to our first week of ski touring.

Digging a Snow Cave

We had two nights at the Wiesbadenerhütte and another forecast of heavy cloud, snow and no visibility. To make the most of the day we skinned up the hill for an hour and spent the next three digging a large snow cave into the slope. It was a pretty incredible palace.

Silvretta Traverse: Days 1 and 2

We began our traverse with a very challenging descent from the top of the Ischgl resort in a thick whiteout. Foolishly following two French guides for a short while, we eventually abandoned them and made our own way down to the hut (they later turned around and followed us!).

Day two was a pleasant skin up and over to the Jamtalhütte, stopping only to cut Steve's rental skins to size so that they fitted his skis correctly. Technical problems sorted, our third day took us up to the Ochsenscharte and down the descent to the Wiesbadenerhütte.

Ski Touring Training

To prepare for our Silvretta Traverse we hired a guide for a day's avalanche training in Galtur. We spent the morning probing for buried markers in the snow before heading off-piste to dig pits and assess the snow pack.

Hen Cloud Classic Rock

The snow had melted, but the winds were still blasting the crags with freezing swirling gusts. Hen Cloud was another poor choice of crags on a blustery day but myself, Steve and Erinna still managed to tick off a couple of Classic Rock routes before hiking over to the Roaches for a third on the Upper Tier. An enjoyable first day of 2015!

Pembrokeshire Coastal Backpack

On a dry but breezy weekend we backpacked the Pembrokeshire coastal path from Castlemartin to Tenby, choosing not to carry on to Saundersfoot so we could watch the World Cup Final! No good coastal backpack is complete with a tank, impressive sea stack and ancient church nestled into the rockface, so fortunately we got all three. Spent the night in Manorbier, which provided endless wordplays.