Walking

[hollins]

Nice bluebell photos Hugo.
Here are a couple of photos of Mr Hollins being rescued last weekend after breaking his ankle on a wet grassy path in the Lake District.
They had been scrambling but had done the hard bit.
It happened in a place with no phone reception and so one of his friends had to go down the valley to call for help.
The mountain rescue team were fantastic and carried him on a stretcher for about 5 mins to their Landrover and on to a waiting ambulance.
It just shows it can happen to anybody as he is an experienced, walker, climber, skier etc!
Please be careful Jack and Hugo and anyone else on the hills.

[Jack]

Hope Mr H is OK Hollins?  Thank goodness for the voluntary Mountain Rescue teams and the fantastic work that they do!

[hollins]

Yes Jack, you are right. They do a wonderful job. He'd never had to call anyone out before thank goodness but it is good to know that someone is there to help if needed.
He is fine now, thanks, although not looking forward to 6 weeks in plaster.
He had made a bit of a mess of it, dislocated, two broken bones and torn ligaments.
He had an operation on Monday to somehow put wires in to repair the ligaments.

[Merddin Emrys]

Hollins, great pics, hope Mr H recovers quickly! I only just noticed your Devon pics too! Very nice down there! 
Hugo, Jack, more good pics of good walks!

[hollins]

Thanks ME.

[DaveR]

Oh dear! Hope Mr H makes a speedy recovery.

[Hugo]

Sorry to hear about your Hubby and I hope that he soon makes a full recovery.   As you say accidents can happen to anyone even the experienced people.
A friend of a friend of mine had a book of walks in the area as a birthday present last year and she and her husband who are both elderly went for their first walk in the hills above Sychnant Pass and when they were miles from anywhere she slipped on the grass and broke her leg.
The Air Ambulance were called in and her only comfort for the incident was that the pilot of the helicopter was Prince William!   The walking book never came out again.

[hollins]

Thanks both.
I am hoping the recovery is quick too as this is not a man for sitting down!
Hugo, that is quite a story!

[Hugo]

Yesterday, five of us met in the Ogwen Valley for a walk up Y Garn via its North ridge. Pete and Mel hadn't done the walk before so they were looking forward to it.   Conditions looked ok at the start with just a bit of cloud cover on the summit but in the mountains the weather can change quickly and it did later in the walk!    We took the short cut through the gap in the rock by the Ogwen Cottage to get to the wall and the start of the climb which is a stiff climb of about 900 feet, mainly on the crest of a ridge.  The last part is a reasonable climb around the top of Cwm Clyd  and that is when the clouds descended to around 2000 feet and the visbility was restricted.   It's a hard climb but we did it by having many stops on route and at the summit we sheltered in the windbreak to have some refreshments and catch our breath a bit.  Luckily for us the clouds then broke and we were rewarded with magnificent views all around.  We then followed the ridge to Foel Goch where we made a very steep descent and the weather turned again when the clouds came down and it started raining. Geraint took his time putting on his waterproof trousers and when he did it took him another 15 minutes to realise that they were on back to front.  The grass and rocks were getting wet and slippy and bearing in mind what had unfortunately  happened to Mr Hollins we were very careful coming down especially on the very steep sections.   It didn't stop Mel having a couple of falls on her bottom but she was ok thank goodness.   When we got to our cars we headed down to Capel Curig and to the new café there called Siabod and had a coffee while we discussed our next walk.   

[hollins]

I'm glad you all got safely down Hugo.
I read about this accident this morning.


A walker has been critically injured after falling while on a mountain in Snowdonia.

The man was with his dog on Carnedd y Ffiliast near the Atlantic Slabs, a steep rock face, when he fell a long distance.

Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue was called at 15:30 BST on Wednesday but an RAF rescue helicopter from Valley on Anglesey reached the casualty first.

The man was airlifted to hospital at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

Chris Lloyd, chairman of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue, said: "We believe the injured man was a solo walker out with his dog and he was scrambling up an area near the Atlantic Slabs.

"It's not a very popular area and a bit remote. It's high above the Ogwen Valley towards Penrhyn slate quarries.

"He's critically injured and is currently being treated in Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

"Members of the team will search for the dog tomorrow."

[Jack]

Great walk and pictures Hugo 
Nothing more rewarding than the clouds clearing for a few minutes at the summit after a long slog.

[Hugo]

Thanks Jack,  it's a good feeling once you are at the top and can see the views.   Mel said that it's the steepest walk she's ever done so I didn't have the heart to tell her that we'll soon be going up Pen Yr Ole Wen by the front route!       

[Hugo]

Today Pete and I decided to do a short walk that we have talked about for a long time but never done before.  I think Gwynant's walk from some months ago prompted us to do it.    It's an easy walk from Llanfairfechan to Penmaenmawr but along the shore so the only thing you have to do is to make sure the tide is correct.  We parked on Llanfairfechan Promenade and walked along the beach until we passed the A55 roundabout and found that there is a nice little promenade running below the railway and we followed that until we came to an old railway building and had a look around it. We then carried on along the promenade with the high buttress of the railway embankment to our right. The walking along the prom was easy until we came to a slippery section but we just moved down to the shore until we passed that section.  We soon approached the railway and road viaducts and stopped for a while to admire the impressive workmanship that has gone into the creation of both features.  There is no Promenade after the viaduct so you have to walk across the rocks which was easy as they were not slippy at all.   Along the rocks we noticed many cave entrances but they are all bricked up and not accessible which is probably a good thing.   One nice surprise for us that we didn't expect was a path from the beach which took us under the A55 and came out by the Penmaenmawr tunnel entrance and the cycle track that we followed back to our car in Llanfairfechan.    We then headed to Aber where I wanted to see the Roman Road that has recently been excavated but thirst things thirst and it was a trip to the Café in Aber for a drink and slice of a double choc cookie.       We then went to Cae Celyn and had a look at the excavations which I believe are ongoing.    A nice end to a long awaited walk.

[Hugo]

Llanfairfechan Shore Walk

[Merddin Emrys]

Hugo, very interesting, not seen that before.