The snow arrived in Capel Curig earlier than expected on Saturday morning & helped me cement a plan I’d already settled on during the drive in, ‘no breakfast please, I’m off for a run’. I was lucky enough to be breaking trail in a light covering of snow & flakes falling all around me as I initially circled West around Capel before heading North East to Llyn Bychan thoroughly enjoying myself. This joy turned to a bit of concern as I turned towards Swallow Falls & into a biting headwind for the first time. Hands soon froze & had to

We are delighted to have been nominated again this year for the above awards. Having won last year & been twice runners up it would be great if we could win it again. It truly gives Dorina, Gaby & all their hardworking team a lift to know that they are appreciated by our customers. To vote for us is easy (must be if I could do it), simply google ‘The Great Outdoors Awards 2019’, click on News & then onto Readers Awards, you’ll find us in the ‘Walkers’ Café or Restaurant of the Year’ category. If you do vote why

Where to start, well not Rugby for sure. Firstly Café events:- Our next Open MIC Night has been moved to Saturday 23rd November. Then a new date for your diary, on 22nd February 2020 we are delighted to be hosting Jim Langley & Paul Gannon who will give a presentation about their forthcoming book about Alpine Flora & Geology. Knowing Jim & Paul this should be a fascinating insight for those Alpine enthusiasts who often gaze in wonder, click our camera’s but are not always sure what we are looking at. Ticket prices & more details should be available in

With our hosting Nicky Spinks’ presentation this Saturday evening we will be closing early for normal trade at 6:00 pm with last hot food orders at 5:30. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. For those with tickets for Nicky’s presentation we will have a limited hot food menu until slightly later with last orders at approx. 6:30 pm subject to demand in order to allow us to re-set the café ready for the evening.

First things first – It’s the Snowdon Marathon this Saturday so good luck to all the runners & all those who help make the event what it is & to those of you who plan to come out & cheer us on, it means a lot & is always warmly received. Taking a fall a little under two days before a race is never ideal prep. Then add to that 3 back to back runs during the 3 days immediately before race day itself (not tapering in most people’s books). Then add to that  a typhoid jab just hours before that

Just a quick pointer to four events we’ve just added/amended on our Events page. The first in an amendment to our Reach Out for Nepal Day 2020 which has been moved forward to 16th May 2020 due to Paul going AWOL in June & July to the Karokoram, for latest details (including Paul’s run which he hopes many of you can tag along with him here & there) simply go to our events page. Secondly once again this December Mike Lees will be hosting our Christmas Quiz in aid of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation, a great fun night out

With the rain lashing down all night over the Coed y Brenin it seems appropriate to wish for drier conditions for tomorrow evenings Petzl Night Trail. The race kicks off at 6:00 pm with 90 teams of 3 as well as 44 Solo competitors. The race covers a 3K mostly single track loop (anything but flat) as many times as you can before 9:00 pm with the last lap having to start before the 9:00 pm cut-off. The fastest teams will be aiming for 12 or 13 laps (roughly a Marathon) with the fastest solo’s aiming for 11 or 12

Shorter in distance than Day 2 in both distance & words but not by much, you are pre-warned. The B & B normal breakfast serving was again 8:30 but when booking over the phone I had chanced ‘I’m doing a long run any chance…’ ‘Yes O.K. how about 8:00’ so 8:00 it was, thank you. Never too old to learn today I went for the whole hog, it came quickly & went down well. My overnight recovery had seen me wake early & too tired to get back to sleep but at least it gave me time to prepare mind

PS. After writing this I was worried that it had become longer than planned but, looking back on something that took place over 3 weeks ago, the day’s journey needs some detail to do it justice, my apologies as ever. With Breakfast not being served until 8:30 it was agreed with J & M that today (despite it’s length) would not be an early start. I pushed my luck & walked into the Breakfast room 5 minutes early & got a pleasant surprise of a smiley face & ‘what would you like sir’. Clearly taken aback & not thinking clearly

The idea for this sowed itself soon after my return from the Alps but with August being our busiest month even I had to accept that it would have to wait until September. My plans were further delayed by Auntie M aka Marion going on an un-booked holiday to visit family down South. So two options got pencilled in Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th this would mean dragging Marion back early but if the weather window favoured this option so be it. Or preferably week commencing 16th September. Marion worked on the weather & so I decided w/c 16th which

Don’t sigh with relief too much because there will be a blog about the Llyn at some point soon but for now it is all about the Trailfest race last Saturday:- If you are a Trail or Fell Runner & have not yet run this race I urge you to put it in your calendar for 2020. Dyfi & Sian Roberts have given so much to running & mountain biking in Snowdonia over many, many years & their route from Tanygrisiau to Porthmadog shows their wealth of knowledge, it is quite simply sublime. In the week leading into the race

I seem to be making a habit of putting conflicting things in my diary this year, can only be an age thing. My latest calendar duplication (created by a good long term weather forecast for next week) is to finalise my timing for the Llyn Penisula run into the same week as the Trailfest race (see our events page, a race well worth entering & with a slightly changed course this year), ‘smart one that Paul.’ Having bumped into race organisers Sian & Dyfi yesterday whilst topping up on Gels etc. at Matt Ward’s very enticing Salomon shop I duly

After 14 Days in the Alps which had seen me run on seven of them & climb on five, I’d scaled 8 summits & run over 130 miles so Saturday (Day 15) was to be a rest day with some retail therapy & lunch in Chamonix. During this lunch I’d eaten snails & then arriving back at the camp site we walked to Steve’s & Judy’s hotel with me becoming increasingly concerned, my dodgy stomach was back, ‘I’ll run onto the toilet & see you in the bar’. For the next seven days my stomach played havoc with me, it

Day 5 – Tre-le-Champ to Les Houches The day dawned warm & sunny after the late storm of yesterday with once again storms forecast for mid-afternoon. Judy drove Steve & I back towards our finishing point of yesterday parking a little below it giving the canny Steve the chance to create a lead over me. ‘Paul, I’m not doing the whole TMB but you are, you’ll have to trot back up & start from there’ before he headed off the other way. This gave him about 400 metres on me by the time I’d picked up his trail & got

Day 4 – Champex to Tre la Tete. A new Dawn, a very new Steve. Breakfast was not served particularly early in this backwater & I feared the worse as the owner appeared to be on his own but give the man his due he didn’t hang about & our pastries, meat, cheeses etc. were served elegantly & swiftly. Judy was first to join me with Steve following soon afterwards duly decked out in running attire. Fuelled up Judy then drove us up the Champex & took photo’s of us with the clear & still waters of the lake behind.

Day 3 – Courmayeur to Champex. Day 3 was now to be a rest day for Steve, looking back & in the ideal world we should have delayed our run giving Steve a rest day on Monday but the weather forecast of storms later in the week had forced us to run at the first opportunity, we were where we were. I breakfasted alone (well if you don’t count 20 Japanese guided TMB walkers, (stop being righteous Paul because to be fair they were all lean & fit’), began with an appetite but soon felt that every mouthful was a

Day 2 – Refuge des Monttets to Courmayeur. The large communal dorm. together with the adjacent excellent toilet/shower block gave us a civilised night’s rest allowing my ever sensitive bowels to sort themselves out, mostly. Some weeks before back in the U.K. Steve & I had revised our plans changing a 4 day schedule for the run to a 5 day schedule meaning that Day 2 would be a short day (now even shorter after the extra 6.6K end to Day 1). After a good breakfast we were in no haste to get away & were among the last to

This may need splitting into several blogs but I’ll start typing & see how it goes. PS. Having now typed Day 1 the run definitely needs splitting into several blogs (from my personal diary point of view, sorry). Two days after Judy & I descended off Mont Blanc’s Western flanks we drove into Geneva’s airport & picked Steve up. By the time we got back to our Les Bossons camp site he would have little over 12 hours (more than half of which would be taken up by sleep) to prepare his kit, mind & body for our Tour du

We are delighted to confirm the above event has now been confirmed & tickets are now available. For full details of this very exciting event simply go to our Events page to find details about it as well as how to reserve tickets.

Apologies for the confusing title but basically this covers Days 3 to 5 of my climbing with Judy & Tim. Day 3 – The day dawned with me in the now over familiar toilet block but thankfully my stomach was beginning to settle down & the worse of the heatstroke was behind me. There was no need for an early start so Judy & I had a pleasant breakfast before Tim arrived & we bundled heavy bags which included our climbing boots because we were anticipating a pleasant walk into the Refuge des Conscrits in shorts & trainers. There was