Huw Griffiths

Monday, 1 September 2008

Switzerland - August 2008

I'd always wanted to go walking around the Matterhorn, breathing the pure Alpine air and experiencing mountain walking on a scale that doesn't compare to what England has to offer.

And so, in the August of 2008 I joined an organised walking group of about a dozen keen walkers and we flew out to Geneva. We later arrived at the wonderfully scenic Alpine resort of Zermatt, situated in a valley with dramatic views of the Matterhorn, where we stayed in a basic chalet style hotel for the first night.
For the rest of the week, we generally slept in even more basic but civilised wooden chalet huts high up among the Alpine peaks, which exist so that walkers can continue on a high altitude circuit without having to carry tents and camping equipment. The huts provide rugs and bunk beds along with an evening meal and breakfast for a very early start the next morning.

Zermatt

One of the nice things about Zermatt is that they have a zero emissions policy for transport; so the only cars allowed there are electric cars. That way the air is kept pure, and there is no noise because the cars are silent. If only Britain could adopt the same approach.

We would carry a picnic lunch between us and sit down to eat with wonderful views that you could happily look at all day long.

On the last day of the week we were glad to be able to relax in Zermatt, visiting the Matterhorn museum and enjoy walking around town without big rucksacks on our backs. I went up in a helicopter that flew around the top of the Matterhorn. We could see climbers on the summit.

Monday, 31 March 2008

Snowdonia - March 2008

Tryfan (918m), in the Ogwen valley of Snowdonia, is one of the most famous and recognisable mountain peaks in Britain. Many walkers climb this rugged mountain throughout the year. Some scramble up the north ridge, but the popular route up is via the west side. At the top are two large stones known as Adam and Eve.

I first saw Tryfan on a Snowdonia trip in 2003 and decided to definitely return one day to climb it.
A November 2006 trip to Snowdonia (Mark's idea), when we had to abandon an ascent of Crib Goch on the Snowdon horseshoe half way along the ridge due to poor weather, did not see the weather improve enough the following day to make an ascent of Tryfan worthwhile, so it was to be another two years before a Tryfan trip came to fruition. But the March of 2008 was one of the coldest for a long time, with much ice to contend with on the route up Tryfan.

Tryfan as first seen, on approach up the Ogwen valley.

The icy climb up the west face.

Near the top.

Amazing scenic backdrops as Mark and I pause for a photo.

The Adam and Eve stones on the summit of Tryfan.

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

Outer Hebrides Cycling Trip - July 2007

This was an epic long bicycle tour that I went on, over the course of ten days, with friend Mark in the July of 2007 to the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles. We took our bikes up on the train to Scotland, eventually arriving at Oban where I'll never forget a seagull that swooped down and grabbed a sandwich straight out of my hand as I was having lunch!

After wild camping at Oban we then caught the ferry the following day to the southernmost island of the Outer Hebrides archipelago, Barra. The sea journey out to Barra is a lengthy 85 mile route, taking five hours.

After wild camping on the Barra coast for the night, we cycled around the island the next day to explore it well before taking another ferry on to the next island in the chain, South Uist.

After cycling up to the tip of South Uist we crossed the causeway to the Isle of Benbecula. Causeways are a common feature of the Outer Hebrides; man-made, solid, flat 'bridges' of stone and rock with a road on top that join one section of broken up land to another.

From Benbecula we crossed another causeway to North Uist. We took the west route because of the more interesting coastal scenery including the distant triangular shape of the remote island St Kilda 40 miles out to sea. It was also nice to see Golden Eagles now and again. We eventually arrived at a ferry port where we took another ferry across to the Isle of Harris, a much hillier place with proper mountains.

We had decided on our way to Harris that we would climb the highest mountain on the Outer Hebrides, which is called 'An Cliseam' (799m). So we hid our bikes out of sight from the main road and hiked up to the summit of this lonely mountain. As usual, there were no other people around, which added to the peaceful atmosphere of the place. At the top we found ourselves level with the clouds, looking down at a most spectacular panorama of these islands.

We then cycled on to the northern Isle of Lewis which borders Harris in the south. Lewis is comparatively flat, and we headed all the way to the northern most tip of Lewis where there was a lighthouse. We relaxed there for a while and looked east over the sea across to mainland Scotland where we could see mountains fifty miles away, which was a memorable sight.

We then had to cycle back the way we had come to Stornoway, the largest town on the Western Isles which we had cycled through on the way up Lewis. After spending some time there, we continued another 37 miles on down to Tarbert where we could catch a ferry to Skye.

Cycling the 58 miles across Skye was quite interesting. An alternative route would have been to have simply caught the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool on the mainland, with a 33 mile ride from Ullapool to the nearest railway station. This would have bypassed the need to cycle down from Stornoway to Tarbert which we didn't really want to have to do again, but we decided that we wanted to cycle across Skye.

After crossing Skye, we took the ferry across to the port of Mallaig where we could put our bikes on the train and head back home. We had cycled a total of 320 miles.