Bwlch y Sygyn

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

Yesterday night Archie and a few other classmates went to the ‘beacon’ climbing wall with our instructor Jez. We brought with us harnesses and climbing shoes that we got from the store room just outside the main building of the Kent Mountain Centre. We drove over in a ford transit with around 9 other people (excluding Jez) it was a large building in an industrial park, when we went inside we saw that it was very popular with around 40 people in there. The walls were 20 meters high and they were packed with multicoloured routes. All of them had manual belays because all the routes went to the ceiling. I had fun as I went on some of the harder routes but they were descent. After that we went on some fun routes using auto belays they were called CrAzY cLiMbS, they may sound babyish, but they were so much fun.
In the morning, Aiden and four other members were woken up early as we were on duty; it felt too early for me. Fifteen minutes before breakfast (breakfast is normally at 7:45), I had to be at the centre’s dining room for duty (duty means serving everyone else and helping the kitchen staff with the washing up). It went very smoothly and all was well when we were briefed for the day. Our instructor Mary told us that we were going to go to a great mountain called Bwlch y Sygyn and then go past a beautiful river and woodland. Everyone was feeling ready to go when we finally were on our way.
Our first stop was a lake named Llyn Dinas (meaning Fortress Lake). Here Mary told us that we were going to have to fend for ourselves. She gave us some maps and gave some short but much needed directions then drove round to the other side of the mountain to meet us at the top. She also left us a tent like parachute for when we got to the top (as there were high winds) and a first aid kit. Our Teacher (Ms Webster) was meant to wait five minutes but then follow just in case we needed her help.
We set off with our maps and food we followed a rocky trail that zigged and zagged. When we were following the path, we had many stops to have a breather as it was very steep. We kept going until we found a ‘throne’ (a large seat shaped boulder) and Stopped as one of our group mates was tired and twisted his ankle. We then continued on after a long break and then stopped at a ‘building’ made of rocks. From here we could see Ms Webster but we soon moved to the signpost where we finally met back up with Mary. After having most of our lunch in the yellow parachute, we then continued to the summit of the mountain where it was very windy!
After that cold experience, we went back down the mountain where we begun the second part of the adventure. From here, we followed a path to a derelict copper mine where we used rocks to ‘mine’ through to some copper nuggets. A few of our group, including ourselves, found some and we were very pleased with ourselves when we were allowed to drink from the river. It was great and we didn’t want to stop, however we still needed to follow the bulk of it to our final destination.
After following the river for a little while, we reached a small village called Beddgelert. It was named after a famous dog that protected a duke’s son yet the duke thought the dog had killed his son and slayed the dog. Here we did a little shopping and headed back to the coach for a trip back to the KMC.

By Aiden and Archie

Day 3 (Tryfan)

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

On Tuesday we went rock climbing for our evening activity, it was at a public climbing centre. The group that went were led by Jezz (our instructor) we stayed there for around 2 hours. It was really exiting we climbed up many walls which ranged in difficulty we arrived home at around 9pm then went straight to bed we were all exhausted.
On Wednesday we had a mountain day we were going to be climbing Tryfan a really tall mountain which means three sharp points in welsh.we gathered our kit and met in the courtyard at 9:30 and we where then on our way. During the drive to the mountain we saw some very interesting things including the longest zip wire in the northern hemisphere (zip worlds titan). when we arrived at the mountain there was a large lake to the left of us called lake Ogwen. When we first started to climb it was very cold and at the beginning it was nearly all walking up uneven steps ,it was very tiring. when we got around a quarter of the way up the climbing started this wast the exiting part. we had to be careful not to loose our footing on the way up otherwise we would be sent plummeting the the floor,luckily no one fell every time we thought we might be getting close to the summit it kept going up and up into the clouds.the climb up was very dangerous we had to use all our strength to pull ourselves up the rocks.
when we finally reached the central peak we saw to huge stones which have been named Adam and Eve welsh folk law states that this is where the first people on earth were we were in the clouds at this point.the air around us was very foggy and hard to see though, however from the bottom of the mountain nobody would be able to see us. as we started the decline we were all very tired. the route down was very steep and hard to get your footing so much that a lot of us fell over from this we had to be careful of were put our foot due to the loose rocks that could easily fall.after the difficult part was done we had reached the easier part of the decline or so we thought. on the hill down the was a set of rocky stairs which were awful they were small and very uneven.we all fell over a lot.
we had made it all the way down the mountain then we reached the minibus and were out of the wind and on our way back to the centre and going to have dinner day 3 was nearly done.

By Jasmine and Mei

Evening climbing wall visits

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

Across Monday to Thursday evenings, everyone visits The Beacon – an excellent public indoor climbing wall in Caernarfon which is a few miles from the Centre.
We will add more images to this post as the week progresses.

Tryfan

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

On Monday night there were various activities for different groups. Lily’s group went to a public climbing wall. After a short minibus ride with Keith and Karl, we arrived and practised on a small wall. We then got harnessed up and began climbing, belaying and helping each other. Almost all of us climbed to the top of each wall; we did traversing, bouldering, top-roping. Then we went back to the centre listening to the minibus’ music.
I did problem solving it was alright, on the first activity we had a bomb in the middle of a rope circle and then had little ropes that we had to tie together and then try to get the bomb out of the middle. We had to put a hard hat and goggles that blacked out so you couldn’t see anything and we hat to go and follow a rope and at different bits there were bags with things in them and we had to remember what they all were and repeat the order of them at the end. the last challenge we had to transfer tires onto a hoop it was very hard but we did it. my group did very well and got full points on two activities and got a total of 25 points.
After a quick biscuit and drink break, we were all exhausted and headed to our dorms to get ready for bed.
Mrs Webster banging on the door, we woke up tired. we showered got dressed and went down to breakfast. I had toast, cereal and orange juice to drink. We then met with our team leaders and they introduced the day’s activity. We were told we were climbing Tryfan.
We went on the mini bus and set of, we left the mini bus and all of us put on our coats because it was proper cold we started the mountain and were told that it was going to be fun, we found a rock that said on the back to bring to the top so we did. we had to come over some hard obstacles and nearly fell off.
Compared to yesterday, there was a lot more climbing rather than walking.
Once we got to the top we ate lunch, we went down a different way from when we came up which was good because it was quicker on the way down. On our way to the minibus, we stopped by a field of short legged ponies.
Then we all fell asleep in the minibus at dinner time we ate pizza or mashed potato and for pudding we had jelly and ice cream or toffee sponge cake.
We love you Keith and Karl
By Lily and Finn

The Range

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

Monday night most of us were doing problem solving in the outside area of the centre others went to a public climbing wall outside of the centre. The challenges consisted of ‘Isotope’ , which was a puzzle where you had to pull a bomb of a ring which you could not step inside , the only way to extract the bomb was using the pieces of cord provided and 2 others.

Cutting to today (Tuesday) our activity group went to a place to the west of Anglesey which we refer to as the range. It was a 30 minute drive there with no traffic and when we got there we had a 2 minute walk with our Ikea bags down to sea level. there we had set up our bags and put on our harness’ on ready for the sea level traversal. We climbed across rocks and jumps to the end of where the instructor JEZZAAAA (our nickname for Jez) had placed for us it was fun and exhilarating. While we were eating lunch there was a dog named Genevieve, who was a neek of a pug, ripped Dominique’s roll out of his mouth and ran over to Jasmine and dragged her muffin across the floor and then was tied up by his master and walked away. After that we had fun on an obstacle called the Tyrolean Taverse where we went across two cliff face by hanging from a cord and shuffling along it. There was a trick which you did, in it you would swing your legs round the rope and balance on the top (back-flip) Then crawl across but instead of hanging under it you crawl across it. Hayden (me), Rowan and Mr Stavri were the only ones that successfully did. The next activity that we did was the ropeless traverse (or journey) across the sea level, we made our way down, and walked across the rocks with water splashing straight at our legs and making us soaked. We got to an edge about 2 or 3 metres above the water and Hayden being the degenerate he is yeeted (thrown) himself of the edge and proceeded to complain about being wet and cold (using remarks such as: tHiS iS ThE wOrSt ExPeRiEncE i HaVe eVeR hAd.). After seeing this everyone dropped in instead of jumped and didn’t go down into the water. That night we had pizza or jacket potato.

Hayden & Rhys

The Gorgeous, Green day of Gorging

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

Last night, a group of 8 went to the local rock climbing and did various challenges. These included bouldering, free climbing and top-roping. This activity took around 2 hours to finally complete. After the group arrived back at the centre, everyone went to the dining room and had a hot drink with a biscuit of their choice. After an hour of talking everyone went back to their dormitories, some had a shower and some got ready for the night.
As Mrs. Webster pounded down the door, we awoke for the morning. We scrambled out of bed at 6:45 and it was tiring. We searched through our suitcases to find clothing to wear for the adventure ahead of us. Our bodies felt like someone had pulled and pushed on all of our muscles and we felt like mushy peas. Our feet dragged along the floor as we went down to the dining room.
Breakfast began at 7:45, where we were greeted by the staff and the duty group. We ate until our bellies were full, as we didn’t want to hungry on our activity. We were all very curious about what we were doing for the day, as we had different options for the week. After we had finished our breakfast, it was compulsory to collect our packed- lunch boxes and fill up our water bottles for the day.
At 9:00 we gathered in the common room to meet our group leader (Mary) that we have for the week and soon after went to our assigned meeting room. We discussed what we were going to do for the day and what we need to pack and wear in our KMC backpacks. Mary told us where Afon Ddu Gorge. Afon means river and Ddu means black. In welsh you swap it around and so it means black river. We had 20 minutes to go to our rooms and get all the equipment we needed as were told we were going to get extremely wet. The drive was about 40 minutes and had some incredible views along the way.
We started off at the gorge climbing rocks and not getting wet at all. Slowly but swiftly, there were more rocks to climb and more water to go through. A lot of the group slipped over along the way until the very end. Just over half way there was some of the most pure and unfiltered water you will ever taste from the mountains that we could drink. We had to harness up at some points to climb through and over waterfalls, and we always had to help each other up and down. Towards the end we had all soaked through our many layers and were dripping from head to toe. Our wellingtons were as good as waterfalls. We worked our way down a steep hill back to the mini bus and got out our spare clothes. We changed into dry, and comfy fleeces and jogger, then hopped back onto the bus and finished our lunch. We were all so tired. It was such a picturesque day and was filled with natural life.

By Rhiannon and Amelie

Snowdon

Posted on | By Mr Alderson

Last night (Monday), We (minus some girls and the bloggers) were split into 2 groups and had to finish challenges within the 25 minutes we were given. The first challenge was where we had to sort numbered tyres into their correct groups. Kian’s team didn’t complete this task as they were not working as a team. The second task they had to remove a bomb from a circle by using some rope. They worked well as a team but were still unable to finish successfully. The final task they were blindfolded and had to identify what was in the bags as they followed a rope through the trees. Kian’s group lost by 8 points.

Some of the girls and I went to the public climbing wall with Karl and Keith and did some transverse climbing, bouldering and top-roping. we quickly got harnessed up and began helping each other climb by belaying. after starting on an easier transverse wall we were in groups of three on three different walls, after each of us attempted to reach the top we swapped walls and once we’d attempted all three walls we did some bouldering which was where we were given the choice of which wall we wanted to climb without a harness. finally, we all ten of us got back in the bus for a short mini bus ride back to the centre.

the next day, we went and collected our breakfast and lunch boxes after being woken up by Mrs Webster and Shaheer. our group then met with Mr Alderson in the lecture room and learnt how to count to 8 in Welsh. we discussed what we were going to do that day and set off to gather our things and get in the mini bus. we were dropped off in the car park at Pen-y-Pass and began our journey to the summit of Snowdon on the miner’s track. it was wide enough that a land rover could drive up it. We had to face many challenges to face including a very uneven steep path and a vertical rock face later on. we also had an encounter with some sheep. As we went up the mountain the temperature fluctuated so at some points we only had t-shirts and jumpers on and other times we had hats, gloves, coats, jumpers and more jumpers.

we then continued onto Gribin Ridge after walking on stepping stones to cross a river. On the way up the mountain we came across a butterfly who was near to dying. we carried on up the mountain but this time climbing and gradually working our way to the top. we trekked up the steep Watkin Path for about 200m. from there on we took our own direct route towards the summit of Snowdon. we encountered lots of grime that looked a lot like snow and ice as we got higher into the clouds. it was tricky so lots of us slipped and Kian died around seven times.

we eventually reached the summit and almost got blown off the top. we were surprisingly joined by many dogs. after we took some photos and had some lunch a bit further down, we stopped for lunch. We walked down a uneven path for a long time and at the bottom we met some sheep. We then waited for Jez who took us back in to the centre in the mini-bus. it was a very adventurous day.

By Kian and Millie

A Fun Day Out at Pen Yr Ole Wen and Carnedd Dafydd

Posted on | By Cstavri

Today we went to two spectacular mountains, Pen Yr Ole Wen and Carnedd Daffyd. We started off the day with a hectic morning of packing everything we needed to prepare to set off. we hopped in the minibus and travelled to the foot of the mountain. When we got there everybody put layers and layers of clothes on ready to walk up the mountains. Almost instantly there were lots and lots of sheep and we learnt about the dye markings on sheep. As we were walking up the mountain lots of people were already lacking behind and we’d only been walking for about ten minutes. As we were walking up the mountain someone noticed a wall and Mr Alderson explained what it was. It was built pointlessly in WW2 by the Italians (who were helping the Germans out) who the English had captured and were now prisoners of war. It was built to stop the Italians from fighting meaning they were useless. As we carried on we all came face to face with a big scramble of rocks and had to climb our way to the top. once at the top Mr Alderson came up with a game to navigate your way and lead the rest of the group to a certain point. Millie started us off taking us to the exact point she was asked to go to. Next was Reid who didn’t quite manage the exact point but lead us to a great view of the mountains in Wales. After that it was Eleni who again got to the right point followed by Tim and then Tanzin who took us to the summit of Pen Yr Ole Wen.

It was very cold, but the view was spectacular. There was a very big cairn where Kian added to the pile and from up there we could see lots of beautiful waterfalls and realised how high we actually were. We decided to have our lunch up there. After lunch we got going again coming across a little bit of snow. Everybody got really excited and as Kent never has snow. Josh however, got very excited and picked up a massive pile of snow which he carried till our next break. As we progressed we managed to get up Carnedd Daffyd which was a far easier walk up even though it was quite a bit larger, we didn’t stay up here for long though with members of the groups legs really hurting so we started heading down. This is where it got really, really messy. Tanzin and Kian fell over into mud and freezing cold water, star fell over 3 times trying to walk down the mountain, ending up very wet at the end. Tim also fell over a few times getting his gloves very wet after falling into a stream. Millie, Eleni and Josh didn’t slip once, going down the mountain very cautiously. As we proceeded down the mountain Josh came across a very peculiar item that turned out to be a horse bone and as we turned a corner, we saw a wild horse that was very beautiful and spectacular to see with the amazing horizon in the background. Some R.A.F jets came past us which were really quick trying to not be picked up on the radar. Then we saw the foot of the mountain and everybody sped up as they were really tired and ready to relax back at the Kent Mountain Centre. We had a really good day and we all really enjoyed ourselves and we are all looking forward for what’s in store for the coming days.

By Tim Allan and Josh

Our first trip today :)

Posted on | By Cstavri

Today we ventured up Y Garn one of Wales’s mountains that stands 947m above sea level. When standing at the bottom of the mountain there were many stunning views of mini waterfalls covering all over the cliff faces. The higher you got up the mountain the more exotic views you experienced. Before we got to the mountain there were still amazing views on the way. Everyone in our group walks at different paces so some people had to stop for a while to let the ones falling behind to catch up. Even though it was quite tiring, once you got to the top it was worth it. You could see all the surrounding mountains, rivers and houses, even some piles of slate down by the river below which makes you then realise how high up you actually are. Over parts of the cliff there were quartz covering the cliff top. There were a variety of different sizes each with a unique look.
Throughout the day we all did many things. Some were stupid and some.. Yeah. It all started when Lilly decided it would be fun to fall into a deeply muddy puddle and coat her leg with mud. Then everyone followed. Issy fell down the mountain because she’s quite clever. Simon Decided to try giving a rock a hug by falling into it, lets say it looked quite painful. Kai tried falling into a waterfall and got a bit wet. Rebecca almost fell over everything even though she’s not clumsy. Grace and Lucas. Well they didn’t fall and stumble like the rest of us. That leaves one. Finn. Once we arrived back to the centre Finn had fallen asleep but didn’t wake up at first. Honestly we questioned whether he was dead at first but after a few slaps and a bottle to his head he woke up 🙂
This was our pretty good day

By Issy and Rebecca

The first day and some high cliffs

Posted on | By Cstavri

The route we walked today was called the Nantlle Ridge. It consists of three mountains that all overlap to form a ridge. The three mountains are called; Y Garn, Mynydd Drws-y-coed and Trum-y-Ddysgl. The first mountain is Y Garn. It was the physically hardest to climb because we had to get up to the highest average height to stay there because with a ridge you don’t go all the way down when you switch mountains you don’t go to the foot of it so after the initial accent then the next three hours are not very physical because you don’t go up or down very much. It was all very exciting and even those who were not massively enthusiastic to go up in the first place were very happy to be walking after getting into the rhythm of things. The first mountain was the hardest as I said and when we got to the top, we got a little taste of the first scramble as we went to the EAGLES NEST. At the EAGLES NEST we ate our lunch and then we headed on towards the traverse. The traverse was the most exciting part of the walk, with challenging lips, climbs and amazing bravery from the group. We all stood on this rock and took photos of us staring out to the distance.  As we took in the amazing views, we saw our progress and felt quite proud of ourselves.

The view was a glittering sea, almost like a giant mirror, to our right and the raw power of mother nature to our left. As Snowdon put on its cloak of clouds like Harry Potter and his cloak, we pushed on to the descent. from the top the steep descent looked like a drop of undefeatable descent. as we got ready from a break and I was ignored by a dog. Dom, Reece and Hayden had a great time rolling through the grass. then Dom found his own Minecraft house. Then we walked through the magical forest and made bear noises and Dom did a scream when we jumped out at him. Then we walked along a road and everyone’s feet hurt and then we drunk from a mountain waterfall and then we trudged back to the coach. Then we got back to the KMC and had dinner and then sat here writing these very words.

By Tom and Rowan

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