Winter Training

The shorter winter days dis-courage a healthy exercise regime although the incentive to maintain even a moderate level of fitness provides the essential target to aim for prior to the clocks going forward again in the Spring.

Even spinning the wheels only a few days a week during the winter months will help with the cardiovascular exercise.

Christophe Le Mevel of Garmin show how the professional cyclist trains during the sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude.

Stage 6 - Tour of Britain 2012

It was always the intention of Wandering to be a spectator on this stage of the Tour of Britain but Lord Twynyrodyn expressed a curious interest when it was mentioned in a conversation between them, so it was two Strollers that made the short journey to the Storey Arms at mid-morning.



The start of this stage was from the National Trust's Powis Castle completing a loop of Welshpool before a fast descent of the Honddu valley. Soon after leaving Brecon the A470 gradually begins the climb in the shadow of Pen-Y-Fan, as the steepness of the gradient increases after Libanus, which starts the seven-kilometre SKODA King of the Mountains climb up to Storey Arms.



There were big crowds lining the route north of Storey Arms as we took our vantage point. Because of significant head-winds the peloton was behind schedule as they thundered past heading towards the open moorland that eventually descends to Penderyn and Hirwaun.



A brief climb to Ystrad Mynach through Nelson and Parc Penalta, towards Llanbradach to the edge of Caerphilly. The route passed Caerphilly Castle taking the one-way system the wrong way in order to maximise the approach to the climb, which proved to be one of the iconic moments of this years Tour of Britain.

The stage was eventually won by Leopold Koenig, of the Team NetApp with Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, of Endura Racing taking second place on the stage and overall GC winner.

Brief video footage taken by Wandering as the peloton passed our vantage point on the climb to the Storey Arms!!

Mercy

A thought provoking video from the Dave Matthews Band.

"Mercy" embraces the song's themes of unity and harmony in a new collaborative video, made with the help of a few thousand fans. According to the band, 14,334 people provided original photos and videos for the inspirational clip.

Matthews recently told 'Billboard' that he hopes this release "inspires [people] to find the things that they love, inspires them to feel good, to feel love, or ambition, or feel powerful. Whatever they need."

"Mercy" is realesed from the Dave Matthews Band's latest album, Away From the World.

Cold - Inside a Climbers Head

"What am I doing here? We have to get down" Climber Cory Richards films himself and 2 colleagues attempting to bag a first winter ascent of the 8000m+ Gasherbrum II. Cold is a representation of what goes on in a climber's head - thoughts about their family, their life and their doubts and fears.

Simone Moro stepped to the top of Pakistan's 26,360-foot Gasherbrum II, held his hands aloft, then finally collapsed, placing the point of his ice ax into the summit and resting his forehead on the adze. He shook there, sobbing like he'd just won Wimbledon, with the whole of the Karakoram Range sweeping around him in a swirl of incoming clouds. It was 11:38 A.M. on February 2 — the dead of winter.

Over the years, 16 teams had attempted winter ascents of Pakistan's 8,000-meter mountains K2, Broad Peak, and Nanga Parbat. All of them resulted in failure. No team had ever attempted Gasherbrum II in winter.

Philippe Gatta

Last year, Frenchman Philippe Gatta, 8586m Kangchenjunga - not bad for a runner - he raced across the Sahara, climbed hard rock in the Calanques and the Dolomites, visited Lapland, Nice and the Mercantour and even found time to be filmed for the Berghaus TV advert - he's the fella running along the narrow mountain ridge, the footage is in the following video.

We Didn't Start The Fire

American history teacher's have praised the 1980's lyrics of this Billy Joel song for their educational value.

Through the displayed images in the embedded video you can begin to 'see' precisely what your 'ears' may not hear.

The lyrics in the song are Joel's homage to the 40-years of historical headlines since his birth in 1949. It's surprising what Joel was able to put into the music and lyrics lasting less than five minutes.

Glastonbury

The summer solstice, Wimbledon and that music festival held every now and then at Worthy Farm, Pilton all seem to attract the worse of the British weather!

Still if there wasn't any mud it wouldn't be quite the same.

Elbow (who celebrate twenty years playing together) and Coldplay (who return to play the festival for the third time) performances from the Pyramid Stage.

Nb. Well, it looks as though the BBC have gone all bolshi and claimed copyright on all of the Glastonbury coverage. Disappointing because I pay my license fee which allows the BBc to cover the event and I should be able to see the performances on any medium.

Napes Needle

The Napes are a cliff face to the south of Great Gable. W. P. Haskett-Smith's ascent of the remarkable detached pinnacle of Napes Needle in June 1886 is thought by many to mark the origins in England of rock climbing as a sport in its own right.

Sponsors Berghaus produced this atmospheric video of British climber, Leo Houlding, on Napes Needle.

Skomer Island - The Video Diary

Previously unseen footage from the recent visit made to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park:



This was brought to you by 'Tydfil Strollers on Tour 2011'.

Skomer Island

There was considerable debate the night before whether to queue first to secure a ticket for the ferry and then return for breakfast, or to turn up in the dinning room before 8.00am hoping that we could start eating as soon as possible and then leave for Martins Haven to catch the ferry to Skomer.

Sue soon kindly explained that if we queued first then we definitely wouldn't be able to return in time to eat breakfast - as it turned out this was some good advice.



So it was an early shower before eating a full cooked breakfast, with cereal and toast before departing the Clock House after a splendid overnight stay. A ten minute journey to the car park at Martins Haven and we soon discovered that we were in the first twenty customers for the ferry (that only holds fifty).

We didn't know it when we booked the date for our visit to Skomer that the island had been closed for the previous three days for the annual bird count, but it was fortunately re-opened to visitors today!



You are unable to pre-book the ferry (the cost was £10 each), it's first-come-first-served, so at 8.30am we purchased our landing ticket (£8 each) and settled down to patiently wait for the first ferry at 10.00am. We were able to watch the volunteers land at Martins Haven over the next hour as they returned to the mainland following their 3 day stay on Skomer.

The breeze and swell made the fifteen minute crossing to Skomer really pleasant for the packed Dale Princess as Fat Alex, the skipper, negotiated some dangerous looking rocks that poked through the surface of the sea.

After landing at the jetty we then climbed a few hundred feet to the meeting point where one of the volunteers working on the islands provided us with a brief welcome and introductory talk. The bird count earlier in the week had identified 22,000 pairs of Manx Shearwaters and 13,000 pairs of Puffins. The burrows used by the Puffins and Manx Shearwaters litter the island like bomb craters.

The Island is about one and a half miles long and one mile wide and will only cater for up to 250 visitors each day; volcanic rocks make the scenery spectacular, with hosts of wild flowers in early summer.



We decided to start the 6.5 kilometre perimeter walk around the island to the south passing the Neck and visiting South Plateau and The Wick (a geological fault has created an impressive large, flat cliff face opposite a giant slab sloping into a thin wedge of sea), where we saw Razor Bills, Guillemots, Herring Gulls, Oyster-catchers and Puffins.



Passing the spectacular Mew Stone we were then amazed to see these cute Puffins brazenly walking across the path immediately in front of us at Skomer Head!



After a visit to the trig. point at 79 metres (no Nuttalls on Skomer to visit!), we then looked around the self-catering accommodation available for over-night guests to stay on the island and visitor centre on the site of the 19th century old farm, that were refurbished in 2007, before crossing the island to return to the landing jetty where a grey seal was basking on a rocky outcrop in the cove.




The return journey to Martins Haven through Jack's Sound, was made even more enjoyable by the warm sunshine and clear blue skies.




This is a really magical place.

Apparently Springwatch and Ray Mears are filming on the island in the next few weeks.

The Mountain

Time lapse photography from Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd

Fields of Gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Among the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold



Driving through the country-side the current vision of bright yellow fields stretching into the undulating distance are Rapeseed rather then Barley. However, this probably wouldn't have enhanced the lyrics of the original song!



Mainly grown for the production of animal feed and vegetable oil for human consumption. Rapeseed oil is also used in the manufacture of bio-diesel for motor vehicles.



The majority of European cars and trucks now run on diesel fuel and an estimated 66% of total rapeseed oil supply in the European Union is expected to be used for bio-diesel production in 2011.

Ueli Steck

Stunning footage of the record-breaking Alpinist speed ascent in the Alps - climbing the Eiger in under 3 hours! Literally racing up an 8,000 feet mountain that other mountaineers may take days to summit.

Celtic Connections - Dartmoor

127 Hours

After listening to an interesting article broadcast on the radio about this film, I thought I'd take a look to see what background information I could find.

This is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s (played by James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Robbers Roost, Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the mental strength to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clemence Poesy), family, and the two hikers (played by Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident.

James Franco, gives a stunning performance as the loner who thinks he can master nature. Though he leaves few markers on his trail, Ralston is cut from a different cloth than most other extreme sports fanatics. Ralston is not in search of meaning – just an adrenaline rush.

The film met with significant critical acclaim, with much of the praise going to Franco's performance. Well worth a look.

Walks of 2010 - A video diary

Watch the seasons change as the walks we enjoyed during 2010 gradually progress through the various months of the year. From the snow of the deep mid-winter at the start of the year, through spring to the clear blue skies of summer, through autumn and back to the early snow and ice as the year ends.

Fairytale in New York

Times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times, they are a-changin'

Lyrics written in 1963 by Bob Dylan to record the radical social changes taking place at the time. Ironically in another period of significant protest and social change, with the student riot in London this week, the meaning is just as relevant today as it was at the time of the civil rights issues and Cuban Missile crisis back in the early Sixties.

Crib Goch - Part 2

Filmed from a slightly different perspective.



Crib Goch is the wettest part of the United Kingdom, with an average of 4,473 millimetres (176.1 ins) of rainfall per year, over the past 30 years

To the south of the arête lie the lakes of Glaslyn and Llyn Llydaw. To the north is the Llanberis Pass.

Crib Goch which is classed as a Welsh 3000er, is often climbed as the first part of the Snowdon Horseshoe, which includes Garnedd Ugain, Snowdon and Y Lliwedd, before returning to Pen-y-Pass.

The background music used on the video is from the soundtrack to 'The Last of the Mohicans'

Crib Goch - Part 1

Watch this easy scary stroll along Crib Goch, a knife-edged arête in Snowdonia National Park!



The highest point on the arête is at 923m above sea level. An extremely narrow path leads over the arête and three rock-pinnacles to a grassy col at Bwlch Coch.

This first part of the ridge is very exposed and presents a serious risk with significant drops on either side. This has resulted in several fatalities, even of experienced mountaineers.

The Snowdonia National Park Authority describes it as "not a mountain for the inexperienced".

On fine days the ridge may be very busy and queues can form. To avoid any long queues on the ascent from the east, it is possible to ascend Crib Goch's North Ridge, which adjoins the main ridge. It is recommended that only walkers with the required climbing skills and the right equipment use this particular route.

If you enjoyed this there is more to follow soon!!