Tag: Wind

Mr Alderson’s group – Wednesday

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IMG_0387After Mr White had courageously swapped his cake for some extra eggy bread, after his third breakfast we set out for an activity day. The twisty winding roads towards our destination caused motion sickness for Rachel, many others were exhausted from the previous days, however we soldiered on to complete another challenging, eventful and exciting day. Today was a more relaxing day which involved map reading, orienteering and more walking!

We always look forward to our soup breaks, especially after a tiring climb. Lewis and Dan were very eager to stop after their new craze for soup. We were split into two groups and went different ways where we would eventually meet each other half way to our destination. Mr White’s group were twenty minutes in front of Mr Alderson’s group and decided to eat their lunch in a tree sheltered area lounging on a mass of soft mossy cushions. Mr White marched on ahead whilst we stayed in our comfy den until we heard a strange whistling noise gradually coming towards us, we became unsure but when we heard Mr White calling “Bon Bon” calling his dogs to come (us) we were relieved. The other group finally turned up, we walked on then Craig and myself (Maddy) led the way and the teachers both let us do our own thing…we immediately went the wrong way. Everybody stopped at the riverside and the teachers started to attach large ropes to trees across a fast rushing river. All of us were anxious because the teachers deliberately didn’t tell us what activity we were going to do until we put on extremely uncomfortable harnesses and helmets on.

We did a Tyrolean Traverse circuit going crossing the river twice. Charlie Burgess bravely went first and excelled at it. Rachel’s turn came next falling over the big drop before the river. Mr White set a challenge to see if we could go on top the rope, which proved quite challenging sitting struggling looking stupid in the middle of the rope in mid-air. Lewis managed to get on top of the rope, however did not hook his foot so ended up dragging himself with the rope between his legs which seemed to be quite painful as he sat on the other side near on crying.

On the walk back we split apart from the teachers. They went an easier route around the lake and we went the hard way which was proven by Lewis falling over about 5 times on slippery branches and rocks. Being apart from the teachers made us feel very independent and we were hoping that we wouldn’t get lost on the way back to the minibus!

By Rachel & Maddy

Born Slippy

Posted on | By JVoss735 | No comments

We started our journey to Cable Bay (Anglesey) for our sea level traversing. It was very… amusing with the anonymous Human Jukeboxes providing a very O.K.ish performance. As we got to on the bay Jez (our instructor) provided us with a safety briefing after that we started climb up a wall and started to traverse

To start off it was really slippery and got worse as we went on.As we came round a corner there was a few big waves that nearly took us out. Just as we thought everything was going alright someone slipped in and got soaked up to the waist, it was quite funny. We also had to go on some stepping stones which were also slightly slippery and not very stable. Which also meant more people started to slip over.

Next we had to go through a cave to reach the cliff top. It was a bit of a tight squeeze which made us have to shuffle up to the top with our backs against the side of the rock. Once everyone got up we went back to the minibus to get some extra equipment for the rest of the activities and lunch.

Today’s lunch was not as good as yesterday but the shortbread was AWESOME!!!. Next we had to put on our harnesses, some people to soooo long but we got it done in the end. Jez took us back down and set up the next challenge for us…We went a different way than to begin but still had to traverse along a wall. This one was mostly climbing up rocks and over rock pools eventually we got to a grass area where we stopped and until they called us over. There was a rope leading us up to the cliff top for support which we attached to our cowstails and helped us get to Mr White who was taking mug shots(again)

Mr White, probably the best American I have ever met!!!

As we got to him we walked up a tiny bit and got straight to the terylene which was a bit like a zip wire but you were pulling yourself back. We had to try flip over the top however only one of us managed to do it.

There was friendly bet going on between one of us and Troll. If he couldn’t flip over the rope in 2 tries we got 2 Yorkie bars but if he did we owed him one. Obviously we won but as him being such a sore loser he tried to divert the bet. Which he didn’t let us agree on and he won anyway. Jess Voss the ninja flipped over and made it look easy whilst the rest of us tried and failed.

Then the weather went horrible but we were able to take pictures of a rare double rainbow 🙂 on the way back the human jukeboxes were making O.Kish music until the girls joined in. When we got back we were very surprised, after being last back every day so far, we were first back!!

Written by Jess Voss and Pepee le Peui

One step from death….

Posted on | By PGreenstreet509 | No comments

Hello It’s Poppy Greenstreet & Lauren Rigney, 😀

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Today was our first day in Wales and also the day we nearly died!:O

Once out of the minibus we walked through a muddy field and saw the grave of Bedwellin & learnt the story of his brutal stabbing, leading to his death.(He was a dog not a dude) We then saw his statue made out of bronze. He was the size of a horse and we were told he was actually that size!

Next we walked through the grass & came across a train track. We didn’t know if it was a live rail or not, so we got Robert to test it out(sorry!!;)) Luckily, he didn’t die, meaning it was safe to cross:D Then our leader gave our a map (Poppy,Lauren&Charlotte). Silly idea if u ask us, but we made it through the ledge next to what we called the ‘Death Water’! We were told that if we fell we probably wouldn’t survive, as it was a strong current for grade 5 canooers that if they took one turn probably would drown!!!!!

Next we stopped for lunch, and told stories about Halloween and zombies, but soon after that we climbed a steep slope. We moaned the whole way up about how steep it was and how much our legs hurt, but once we got to the top we realised it was almost flat. We kept asking if we could drink the water but the leader told us you can only drink it at the top. This was our inspiration for getting to the top, we wanted to taste victory like Bear Grills!:D

The way up, was like torture! ‘Only 2/3 of the journey to go’ said ‘mister Sir Man’(As we call him ;D) at this point Me&Lauren were in tears& wanted to give up, but we thought of the water to put our minds off things. Our leader showed us an old gold mine, and in the rocks we could discover fools gold, which is fake but people used to trade it for money. Only Sam found a little, but it was worthless (Typical!) This is when Lauren let go of the map and the wind took it resulting in it flying to bottom of the mountain, slapping someone round the face, we were in hysterics!!!! 😀

When we stopped for the second time we got a perfect view of the Irish sea. There was a waterfall right next to us but we couldn’t drink from it because we were told there was sheep poo. in it- eww! Next we got told a story about the two dragons and our leader’s sound effects made me and poppy laugh so much that we felt a 6-pack coming on. I choked on my roll and thought I might die. The sound was something like this (ee-wee-wooo-ee-wooo-wee) LOL!

After, we finally reached the top through hard work and team effort! Our leader read us a story about the mountain opposite where the king built his palace. We were told we wouldn’t be able to drink water from the mountain today and felt heartbroken.

When we got halfway down we finally found water we could drink and were SO HAPPY! We ran to the water and filled up our bottles, we tasted the victory in the ice cold valley water. Robert ran to get his water and tripped over, spilling his coffee all in the valley water. We asked him if he was okay and got the reply ‘I’m fine, just casually sitting here chilling. OH NO MY COFFEE!’. He was okay.

When we got to the bottom, although our feet were aching and numb we felt proud of ourselves. Today was definitely better than going trick or treating. We don’t want to climb another mountain, but we’ve just been told it is one of the smallest mountains and tomorrow we have to climb Mount Snowdon… Wish us luck!

Wednesday, Snowdon (Mr. Alderson’s group)

Posted on | By Dominic | 1 Comment

Today was our highest mountain climb. We took a path called the Pyg on the way up which was named after the closest building to the bottom of the path, who’s initials were p.y.g. Mount Snowdon is 1085M tall, the highest mountain in England and Wales. Ten minutes into our ascent we were forced to stop to put on our water proof clothing because the rain started straight away, not scheduled until after lunch. We were faced by many waterfalls during our trip created by the rainfall. We had to step over the water falls, which were very slippery. Some people had a drink from the fast flowing waterfalls. When we were near the summit we found a finger stone ( a large post marking junction in the path) with lots of coins (mostly Pennines) stuck in it. When we past this it was about 20 minutes from the summit and we had a very windy journey up the last leg to the summit.

Mr Alderson's group at the summit of Snowdon
Mr Alderson's group at the summit of Snowdon

When we got to the summit we saw one of the Snowdon mountain railway trains. As you can see in the picture of the summit we were very wet and it was extremely windy. Dan Wells was on his knees at the summit because of the wind and height. 🙂 We walked down from the summit and walked past the Snowdon café, now closed for winter. We took the long Miners path back to our minibus. The path was quite well built and easy to walk on but very tiring. We got to the minibus shortly behind the other group who we saw coming down from the summit. We were soaking wet because of the rain and wind but we had a 10 minute minibus ride back before we could get dry. It was a great achievement being at the top of Snowdon and also being the highest person in England and Wales who was standing on the ground. On the way back we went through the Llanberis pass which was a spectacular veiw. When we got back we put all of our clothes in the drying room and went for dinner. After dinner a group of 9 went to the climbing wall, including Sam and me. When we got back we had a hot drink and went off to bed for the end of a very tiring day.

Wednesday, Mount Whack…Snowdon (Jez’s Group)

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Hi liam and Craig writing, we have just got back from climbing Snowdon. The day started by our group following a path called the Miners Track, which was really long. We were ticking off key features on our map to make sure we did not get lost on the way. On the way up some of the group were singing, while  Jez and Mr White were talking about their favourite films…..Watership Down.

When we reached the summit (1085m) we were battered by 40mph winds, very chilly.

Got to go to dinner now, more will follow.

Dinner was good, pizza and wedges and then most of the group are going to do some problem solving with the cool Jez, while myself and Craig are going indoor climbing, someone else will finish this…..

Hello Mr White here to say a few words…. The team are doing very well and are taking on the challenges set with great enthusiasm. Yesterday (its now Thursday morning) myself and Jez felt they did very well as it was tough work, battling our way up Snowdon. It reminded me of the Pass of Caradhras in the Fellowship of the Ring, young brave hobbits facing a world very new but exciting to them. Anyway i need to tuck into my bacon and eggs and find some of the team to continue this.

Morning! Mia, George and Steph here. So now we’d reached the top of Snowdon and everyone was overjoyed! But now we had the trek downwards through the mist and clouds with gusting winds almost knocking us of the mountain! We started off back down the Miners Track past the Ritual Stick singing ”i love rock climbing, put another penny in the ritual stick!” LOL!

After the Zig and the Zag we took the Pyg path back down to the car park, making sure we were still infront of Mr.Alderson’s group! Our highlights of the day were;

Walking stick swapping

All of us continuously singing all the way down to the bottom

Reaching the summit

Having to answer the most ridiculous questions ever (Jez & Mr White)

Mounatin whales!

Speak soon…. Whack

Tuesday, Snowdon (Anne’s group)

Posted on | By CBanham505 | 1 Comment

Today we were trekking up the very daunting mountain formally known as Snowdon. Snowdon is 1085 metres above sea level. Some people say being small is an advantage, and in many cases it is, like getting through small spaces or getting a kids bus fair, but when it comes to trekking up mountains this can be a bit of a disadvantage. Trust us, we know! First we went up Pyg path, which was not too bad but was a bit steep and tiring. As we got further up it got, let’s just say it was more than a little bit gusty, in other word gale force winds which tried it’s best to throws us off the mountain. During this there were many times where we nearly fell off the mountain and we had to support each other. Soon it got too dangerous and we had to head down, this is easier said than done. Walking down this very steep slippery bank, with gale winds and tons of rain, not what I would call fun. Slipping and falling all over the place and various people (me and clover), very kindly George (Kup) grabbed the back of my back pack as I was getting swept all over the place and nearly pushed over as well as me (Clover) almost get pushed off the side of the mountain by Vicky who had been pushed herself. We had a very amusing lunch in a yellow parachute like tent thing, which we had to sit on so it wouldn’t fly off, it felt like we were in a steam bath as it steamed up so badly. We headed back to the van on the path called Miner’s path, this was much easier than the way up. As expected we were all wet and windswept when we got back to the van. We were all rather relieved the we were sitting down and soon returned to find we were back first once again so we all had a nice hot showers. So over all it was a rather eventful day!

Tuesday, Tryfan (Mr Alderson’s group)

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Mr Alderson's group on the north ridge of Tryfan
Mr Alderson's group on the north ridge of Tryfan

On Tuesday we climbed the very difficult mountain called Tryfan the mountain is only 915M high but you need to scramble up the whole mountain straight from when we stepped out of the car park, we were climbing over huge rocks and boulders. The weather was not that bad when we started. We got about half way up the mountain and had a bit of lunch and then it started to rain very heavily so we had to put our water proof clothes on which was very hard because we were already wet and it was hard to get the trousers over our boots. The weather was terrible and it was raining really badly and there were really high winds. With the winds and rain it got very hard to climb the mountain. When we got very near the summit we had to stop for lunch on a very steep and slippery hill because we were protected from the wind there, but not the rain. Many of us got soggy sandwiches 🙁 When we got to the top of the steep hill we started to get blown away by the very high winds. We then had a short trip over some rocks and boulders to get to the summit ( Adam and Eve). Adam and Eve are the two large parallel rocks at the summit which look like people from a distance. We stopped for a minute at the summit and then started our decent down the sister path to the one we had lunch on, this was not so steep but still slippery. By this time the rain was chucking it down and we were drenched, Mr. A said it was the hardest rain he had ever walked in. When we got to a man made path at the bottom of the slippery rocks we started another decent. This was on grass which was very slippery and lots of people fell over, even Mr. Alderson. Melissa decided the fastest way down was by sliding on her face.  When we got to the bottom of the path, after many falls, we started to walk over the rocks to the minibus. When we got back we had to sit in our wet waterproofs which was a horrible feeling.  We got back to KMC and the seats were very wet! 🙂

Monday, Team Whack (Jez’s Group)

Posted on | By Eilish | No comments

Today we climbed up Tryfan the mountain that all other mountains want to be like when they grow up. It was 915m high, and it took us 4 hours to reach the top. A grade 1 scramble that involved Team Whack (Jez, Mr.White, Alicia, Eilish, Steph, Mia, Phoebe, Liam, Craig, Georgie, George) taking on an exciting (dangerous) adventure.

From the word go, it was ridiculosly high and vertically ridiculous. We had to work as a team to haul each other up steep gorges. Eilish felt sick having to push Phoebe’s rear end every five minutes. Luckily she didn’t have too many beans for breakfast. Half way up we looked down to see fighter jets passing beneath us.

We also bumped into three Norweigen soldiers hacking their way over the mountain.  By two o’clock we finally made it to Adam and Eve and took a short break, sheltering from the 50mph wind gusts and cloud eating.

Photos and descent to follow as we need to eat … Alicia and Eilish…Whack Out

Hi, Georgie and Mia here, just had spag bol, it was WHACK. LOL. So, after we put on our waterproofs we set off to go down the rest of the mountain. It was like a human land-slide, mud, wet rocks, rain, wind, and a lack of balance 🙂

Mia fell 93 times, encrusting her clothes in mud. Craig slid at every opportunity to join Mia in the mud. It was a pathetic exuse for steps, and reminded me of a water-slide, minus the swimming pool.

Highlight of the days were;

  • Georgie doing a forward roll into a bog.
  • Phoebe repeatedly saying ‘i cant do it!’ lol 😉
  • Mr. White’s singing that drove everyone crazzzzyyyyyy.
  • Jez’s definition of ‘dangerous’ being ‘exciting’ lol
  • Liam thinking every rock is worth money, so filled his pockets.
  • And George saving my life (Mia) after I nearly fell down the mountain (“about 32cm’s Mia”- Mr White)

A whack day with a whack group, have a whack night!

Mia & Georgie. Blog tomorrow, WHACKOUT!

Monday, Pen Yr Helgi Du (Anne’s group)

Posted on | By EHampton521 | 2 Comments

Today we were separated into four groups. My group were assigned to climb Pen Yr Helgi Du, which translates as Peak Of The Black Hound. Me and Izzy were just like ‘Sirius Black!’ 😉 It was 833m above sea level, and it was what one would call torture. First we had to climb up this very very VERY VERY steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, but my group found out that if you walked backwards it would take off the pressure from the back of your legs and was alot easier. Then we had to climb past this massive lake and it looked so sparkly and appealing 😀 We were climbing on all this slate and rocky stuff and I kept slipping to reach the saddle, which was called; Bulch Eryl Farchog, which means Pass of The Knight Eryl. Once we got to the saddle we had our lunch and took lots of photos. After our break we set off for the summit. It was a really hard rocky steep climb, but everyone was really supportive and helping each other and we all eventually got to the summit and we were all really proud of ourselves and me and Izzy and George and Vicky went and stood on the edge and the wind was like blowing us around, it was like 1000838947 mph 🙁 We started our descent, and it was really steep and hard and challenging, but then the worst possible thing happened. There was this like mud puddle thing and I stepped into it cos i thought it was like 1mm deep. But I put one foot it and the next thing i knew I was shoulder deep in mud and sheep  poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D: D: D: D: George and Izzy and Joe heaved me out and I was drenched in brown muuuuckk. it was absolutely disgusting, but after a while it turned into a LOL situation. Vicky couldn’t stop laughing 🙂 But we continued the steep slatey discent and we walked past like billions of herds of sheep and climbed over about a hundred stiles but then we got to the minibus at ten to three. We started to drive back to the centre and drived past the A teams minibus and saw them at the top of another mountain and we were like WHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 🙂 our team chant throughout the ascent and descent was; “THINK OF THE SHOWERS”. Our team wanted to get back first so we could have first showers. We got back to the centre at half three, before everyone else, and me and Izzy got first showers and had everything done before the other teams got back.

Overall, an eventful day but definately enjoyable. Can’t wait for tommorow;)!

From Eden xoxoxo