A quick reminder that our Open MIC Night is a week earlier than normal this month to our host Alan Mannouch being away next weekend. This Sunday also sees Alan doing a big bike race on Anglesea so with our blessing he’ll wrap things up a little earlier than normal at around 10:00 pm.  Hope you can make it & enjoy a relaxed evening with us.

Monday 30th July dawned bright & with me having tried to level the fitness playing field by over cooking the running during the weekend Dave & I headed off to Switzerland, the perfect climbing pair? Today was to be reasonably relaxed, a 2/3 hour journey, park up at Tasche, taxi into Zermatt & then the Gornergrat cog railway up to the Rotenboden station at 2, 815 metres. From here a relaxed 3 hour walk in to the Monte Rosa hut, our base for the night. Time had appeared to be on our side as we made a lazy start but

This is long as I am also using it as a personal diary for the experiences I went through on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Massif over two &  a bit days, please forgive me. After a relaxed evening & a bit of a lie in, Wednesday was planned to be an easier day. Tim & Ali picked us up from the camp site at 10:00, we again headed through the tunnel & into Italy, I do like Italy! This time we turned left at Entreves & headed North East up the Val Ferret for reasons that I’ll

I set off for my first Summer Alpine trip for 2 years on 12th July & reached the Grand Champ camp site at Les Bossons late afternoon the next day to soon be greeted by Kean & Sandra who were relaxing in the high 20 degree heat. Within hours two accidents put a slight damper on things but thankfully nothing in the league of what curtailed my previous summer visit when a certain rock took out Tim Blakemore’s leg early on our climb on the Aguille Argentiere in 2016. My accidents were self-inflicted first walking into my ice axe &

Well yes despite an absence of running blogs over the last couple of months I am still running but first a brief final mention about the Y3P’s at a walk. Despite saying so myself I was reasonably pleased about a blog I drafted covering my third visit to the Yorkshire 3 Peaks in little over a month in May of this year, Then disaster struck my Internet connection failed & I lost well over an hours work. My head sank & needed the high altitude of the Alps several weeks later to clear it. That said I still can’t find

If you managed to stay with my Reach Out for Nepal Day blog posted yesterday you’ll know that Paul Jones & I have lowered the fastest known time for the Cafe’s ‘Siabod Challenge’ from my previous best of 7:03 set in 2014 to 6:27. I am of course under no illusion that had Paul not been supporting the first leg of my wider charity run he would have gone considerably faster & I’m sure having enjoyed the route he will do exactly that in the future. As for me with my first Ultra race only 3 weeks away I might

It’s hard to believe that this years event is now almost 6 weeks past us, my apologies for not putting this report together before my Alpine excursion, there is only one true excuse, please bear with me whilst I explain. The week after ROFN I’d planned to do two blogs the first would cover my 3rd trip to the Yorkshire 3 Peaks to walk it with friends & the remarkable co-incidence & treatment I received when my car broke down that same evening as well as going on to give an account of the Stockholm Marathon. The second would be

This month sees our regular Open MIC Night come forward by a week due to it’s host, Alan Mannouch, having other commitments over the Bank Holiday weekend, so get your practising in early & out the 18th in your diaries.

October looks like being a busy month for us Event wise. Already in the diary are Team 333’s AGM (27th) & The Little Adoption Shop Quiz (20th, full details on our Events page) but now we can confirm that 5th October sees us host IFMGA Mountain & Ski Guide Tim Blakemore who will present ‘A year as a Mountain Guide’. We are delighted to be able to announce this, initial details are now on our Events page with further details to follow shortly. Please book early to get an insight of a Full time Outdoor Lifestyle that could change your

I could use the excuse that it’s been a busy couple of months & that I seem to have been here there & everywhere recently for failing to blog with my usual attention to detail but in truth that would not be good form, so simply put I apologise for my failure to update on both the important & less important events connected to either the cafe or myself this summer. I plan to correct this in the coming days, covering Reach Out for Nepal, Siabod Fell race, Forthcoming Events as well as my own exploits although the latter will

The exhibition opens on Sunday at 2 30pm. In the evening there is a lecture at Plas Y Brenin given by Mr Andrew Davidson, the Chief archaeologist for Gwynedd Archaeological ,’Moving Through The Landscape: the development of Road Transport in north-west Wales. For more information visit: http://www.stjulittas.org/

A final reminder for this Saturday’s race in conjunction with the Capel Curig show, full details on our events pages but more than just a race to make coming to Capel on a predicted glorious Saturday, Race prizes, Gaby’s Goulash, River plunge, Tug of War & Show attractions. Please note I am hoping to not insist on mandatory kit but please put it in the car just in case the weather gods are wrong!

I am very pleased to confirm that once again Cotswold Outdoor have donated the major prices for the forthcoming Siabod race being held at 2:00 pm on 7th July 2018. For those competing at the sharp end of the field here is a list of what’s up for grabs:- Race Winner & Ist Female each get Rab Expedition Kit Bags 2nd Place in Race gets a Vango Folding Gas Stove 3rd Place in Race gets a 1.5 Litre Hydraulics Reservoir 1st Local gets a Petzl Tikkina 150 lumens Head Torch A big thank you to Rosemary, Chris, Meta & all

Just a quick final reminder that our annual fund raising day for the rebuilding of the devastated Melamchi School in Nepal is only days away & it would be great if you could come along to support us in any way possible. For full details of the events taking place between 5:00 am & 11:00 pm just go to either the Nepal or Events pages on our web-site, it’d be great to see you! If nothing else join us for our curtain closure Mike Lees’s relaxed & often hilarious Quiz which gets under way at 8:00 pm.

It is a busy few weeks coming up & we hope that you will be able to support these events in Capel Curig. First up is our Reach Out for Nepal Day on 23rd June, a wide variety of events & sales are taking place at the cafe throughout the day starting with Paul’s annual charity run at 5:00 am & rounding off with Mike Lee’s charity Quiz Night which gets underway at 8:00 pm. For full details simply click on our Nepal or Events pages. We hope you can take part on the day, if you want to sponsor

Just a quick note to confirm that we will be keeping our doors open later than normal this coming Sunday to help you maximise your time Outdoors in what might still promise to be great weather. To help you plan your days below are our full opening hours this coming weekend but please note last hot food orders are 30 minutes before we close i.e. 5:30 pm or 7:30 pm respectively. Friday – 7:30 am to 6:00 pm. Saturday – 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. Sunday – 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. Monday 7:30 am to 6:00pm.

Following the double co-incidence of bumping into Julie for the first time last week (read my latest blog if you want to know more) we are delighted to announce that we have 15 Signed copies of her excellent book about her motivations & insights into her Fell Running & the challenges she has faced. There is an excellent review of the book in the latest copy of ‘Fellrunner’ magazine but for those of you unlucky enough to not have it on subscription here goes a brief review by me for whatever that’s worth. I bought & read Julie’s book despite

I have to face facts, I have slowed down, the reasons could be varied, too much recently?, too much slow stuff?, age?, wine?………….. the list goes on but despite this I am enjoying myself & this was proved once again last week which saw two races in 3 days. First up (Sunday before last) was the 2 Lakes race around Llyn Brenig & Llyn Alwyn under glorious skies & quite a lot of heat. Placed O.K. but was 7 minutes down on last year but what a lovely route this is when the sun shines, worth a walk or a

Just a quick reminder that we will be keeping our doors open longer than normal this Sunday, hopefully that’ll allow you more time to enjoy Snowdonia in what looks like being good weather before needing to return to re-fuel. Below are our opening times for this weekend, please note that last orders for hot food are half an hour before we close. Friday – 7:30 to 18:00 Saturday – 7:30 to 20:00 Sunday – 7:30 to 20:00 Monday – 7:30 to 18:00 Hope you have great plans & that we see you at some point.

Once again I have to thank Dorina who pointed out half an hour before I set off for the Moel y Guest race that I would be somewhat early because it is next Tuesday & not tonight so please accept my deep embarrassment at getting references to it in my blog earlier today wrong. Do I fancy still planning to run in the Joe Brown series tonight, frankly no as it’s half an hour further from home & would delay our evening meal to past 9:00 pm, hardly fair on the workers who are getting up at 6:00 tomorrow morning,