Once again, I seem to have been here there and everywhere recently! We had a great few days at Fort Martin at the start of the week, with an ‘even earlier than usual’ Christmas dinner with some of the family in anticipation of spending quite a bit of December away from home. Back up in North Wales, I’ve been busy preparing for some ‘back to back’ expeditions, which has involved a lot of equipment sorting and preparations. One trip is heading towards the Arctic and the other towards the Mediterranean, so it’s quite important that the right stuff ends up in the right place!

But today, I’ve out in the Carneddau mountains, inland from the North Wales coast, with a group of students (not just wild ponies!), who I will be leading on a trek in June 2025.

It was the first time the whole team had got together, so it was fun to learn a bit about each other as we hiked the ridgeline.

There was a storm warning for the evening, so we didn’t venture too far into the heart of the mountains, in case it came early. The views were good, but there was a feeling that change was in the air.

A bit of rain did arrive, but it gave good opportunity to practice using the ’emergency tent’ as well as somewhere warm and dry to have lunch.

We finished the day with a ‘team meeting/de-brief/warm up’ in the little cafe in the village of Abergrwngregan, before heading back to base to batten down the hatches. A ‘Force 12’ on the Beaufort Wind Scale is forecast tonight -I’ve not seen that forecast here before – and the scale only goes up to 12!!… We’ve said a fond farewell to the re-cycling bins and hunkered down in The Cottage….