5 Things You Should Know About Climbing Mt. Snowdon For The First Time

I’d never considered climbing Mount Snowdon, until one day my boyfriend suggested we give it the go. It’s the second highest peak in the UK and the highest in Wales at 1,085m above sea level. We decided to climb the first half of the horseshoe, known as the Crib Goch route. As a first timer, here’s what I learnt…

Crib Goch is not an easy hike

It’s a scramble. For those who haven’t been introduced to the world of scrambling, it is literally what it sounds like: scrambling on your hands and knees across rocky ridges with 300m drops on either side. Crib Goch is the hardest route up Snowdon. It was terrifying at times – particularly when passing people running (yes, running) the other direction – but the views were spectacular. You can see all the way across to the sandy bays of Anglesey. I really felt like I deserved my sandwich at the end of it.

Stoke up on breakfast at Pete’s Eats before your go

You need a big breakfast before you climb Snowdon. Head to Pete’s Eats in Llanberis for a proper Full English and a cup of tea. It’s a Snowdon institution. If you’re coming through Capel Curig instead, stop at The Pinnacle Cafe. I can vouch for their top vegetarian Full English – plus it’s got good outdoor shop where I pondered over a new pair of hiking socks. Lesson learned: wear good hiking socks.

Snowdon is busy. Really busy.

The Snowdon Mountain Rescue Team once described it as the “busiest mountain in Britain”. They weren’t wrong. As we pulled into the packed car park at 9am, there was already a snaking line of eager hikers making their way up Snowdon.

You can get a train to the top

After a sweaty three-hour scramble to the top, we made it. As I glugged down my last dregs of water, I could see something mechanical crawling up the mountainside in the distance. “What’s that?” I asked my boyfriend “Oh it’s the train up from Llanberis.” Yep, people actually get the train up here.

It’s really worth it

Arrive early – some people start hiking at 6.30am on busy days. Pick a day with bright blue skies for the best views. Wear thick socks with your hiking boots. Bring snacks for the route/to help coax nervous friends over sheer drops. You won’t regret it.

It took us around three and a half hours to hike from the Pen Y Pass car park to the summit of Snowdon via Crib Goch and an hour and a half down via. the Pyg Track.

How To Not Lose Your Buzz After The First Week Back On Your Snowboard

Last week, I cried in the middle of the mountain. Tears streaming down my face and misting up my goggles. I wasn’t injured, I wasn’t in pain. I was just totally frustrated at my snowboarding.

It sounds stupid, right? My boyfriend was patiently coaxing me down the hill. I’d asked him for tips on perfecting my turns and getting more movement in my snowboarding. I wanted to be ready to tackle steeper slopes and deep powder. And yet I was totally pissed off.

My legs weren’t bending enough, I wasn’t getting the right flow, my coccyx had taken a beating.

At the beginning of any holiday (or in my case, season), I suffer from lack of confidence and stiff legs. Who doesn’t? But it’s not the be all and end all. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be a shit snowboarder for the rest of your life.

Here are my tips for when your legs are shaking and you feel like throwing your snowboard at the nearest tree and/or good snowboarder…

Chill out, man

There is totally no need to stress. No one is watching. No one really cares if you look like a complete div. Getting stressed out will only ruin your day (and probably your riding partner’s).

Take a deep breath. Smile. Plough on – or just take a break. Go and get yourself a well-deserved beer, before having a second go at it. No one expects you to be ripping on day two or even week two.

Take lessons

OK, so your boyfriend may mean well when he tries to give you some technique tips, but it’s an all-round better idea to get yourself a lesson. Private lessons are best, as the instructor will totally focus on what you want to achieve from your snowboarding and give you some exercises to take away.

It sounds almost stupidly simple, but when you’re on a season and skimping as much as possible, you’re probably not going to want to fork out for a lesson. Do it, it’ll totally be worth it.

Practice, practice, practice

You’re going to fall over. A lot. But that’s OK. As a wise woman once said, if you’re not falling over, you’re not trying hard enough. Get out there every day you can, even if it’s a total white out or you’ve only got the morning to spare. Every minute you spend on the mountains is another minute of experience. So ignore that hangover, pull on those thermals and get out there!

Count the small victories

Flats are my enemy. Every time we scoot to a chair lift I don’t know – and there’s a big flat run up – I  end up unstrapping and walking the rest of the way. Picking up speed is terrifying at first, but when you get the hang of rocking edge-to-edge, you’ll be well chuffed when you finally make it all the way along the bastard cat track.

I’ve now started riding all the way up to the bottom of the lift I could never quite reach before. Small victory, but still worth counting.

You're not as bad as you think you are

Get rid of those negative thoughts, woman! You are not as bad as you think you are. In fact you’re better than half the punters on this mountain. Buck up those ideas and get shredding.

Photo credits from top: Roxy/Matt Georges, cottageintheoaks.com, Billabong, Helen Schettini, SASS Global Travel, Jamie Anderson

A Really Great Mini Documentary About Living In Antarctica

It’s bigger than Australia, it’s home to around 5,000 people every year and it’s the only continent that’s never seen a war. Temperatures can dip as low as -89°C. It may be the coldest, windiest and driest place on earth – but this film will make you want to visit (and possibly live in) Antarctica.

Welcome To Union Glacier charts the lives of 10 people who live in a camp on the Union Glacier in West Antarctica. It’s a hub for scientists and tourists coming to explore the region. It doesn’t show any grand achievements or epic adventures, just the ordinary lives of people living in an unusual and remote place.

If you like Wes Anderson-style films and adventure travel, then make sure you settle down with a cup of tea and watch this film tonight.

How To Keep Fit In The Winter

When the nights start drawing in and the days are cold, it’s hard to stay motivated to get that butt out the front door and do some exercise. In the mountains, skiing and snowboarding just isn’t really enough. Particularly when you think about all the cheese and alcohol that’s being taken in.

So whether you are in the mountains or just need some motivation to get out the front door, here are a few tips from me…

YOGA

I love yoga in the winter. It’s a great way to stretch out after a day stuck behind a desk or even to ease those aching muscles after a shred session. In London, there’s a fab class called Yoga For City Surfers – it’s a nice mix of male and female landlocked surfers who want to stay in shape. If you want to practice at home, make sure you try Yoga with Adriene – she is the bomb.

INTERVAL TRAINING

I hate the term ‘interval training’. But it is a really great way to work out in the winter with other people. In Morzine, we go to a bi-weekly Tabata class in a really nice lady’s apartment. Tabata is like circuits – it’s eight exercises done eight times over for twenty seconds with ten seconds rest in between. Six women in a living room huffing and puffing might sound like a squish, but it’s really motivating and man, do you ache the next day. Get on Google to find your local class or try the nearest gym.

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RUNNING

Do you ever get that weird pain in your throat when you run in the cold? It really puts me off running when the temperatures are freezing outside. However, it is totally possible. The key is layering up. I love these tops from Sweaty Betty plus their running jacket and would buy ALL of them, if it didn’t seriously affect my bank balance. You can even run in the snow and ice with these grippy running studs from Yaktrax.

SWIMMING

It might sound totally obvious, but swimming is one of the best all-round ways to keep fit. It’s super low impact, so if your body is under a lot of strain or injured it won’t make it worse. It works out legs, bums, tums, arms, the lot. Plus it’s nice and warm and doesn’t involve going outside when you don’t want to.

WALKING

Get out for a winter hike. It’s so easy – and you don’t feel like you’re working out – but the number of times I’ve kept off the pounds just walking to and from my house is unbelievable. Take a friend, borrow a dog, ditch the car and walk instead.

Photos by Johs. Musaeus and myself

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Ski Snacks: Soft Melted Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s December, so it’s time for a cookie recipe. This is a truly great cookie. Think warm buttery soft chocolatey goodness. When you break it open, the chocolate chips are still melty inside. That’s what you want in a cookie.

This recipe is from Averie Cooks and the original recipe is in American measurements. So here’s the converted version I’ve used, hence why the numbers are a bit weird. My boyfriend proclaimed them “very, very good” which is praise indeed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 15 large cookies

Ingredients

113g soft unsalted butter
55g soft full fat cream cheese
150g light brown sugar, packed
50g granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
288g plain flour
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt, optional and to taste
342g chocolate chips or chunks

1. Mix together in a big bowl the butter, cream cheese, sugars, eggs, vanilla essence and beat until well creamed. If you have an electric mixer, set it to medium speed. Otherwise, get those arms working!

2. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Then add in the flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt. Mix until all combined.

3. Fold the chocolate chips in by hand.

4. Grab a tablespoon and spoon each mound onto plate. Flatten them with your hand. Cover in cling film and put in the fridge for two hours. (Averie Cooks says don’t cook without chilling first, otherwise they’ll come out a mess) I went and watched this documentary while they chilled.

5. Pre heat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place the mounds on, at least 2 inches apart. No more than six to eight cookies per tray.

6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges have gone slightly brown but the middle is still pale and undercooked (they keep cooking while they cool). This will keep them gooey when you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool on the tray for five minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack.

7. The cookies will keep at room temp in an airtight container for one week. You can also keep the dough in the fridge for five days before baking.

Make sure you check out more of Averie Cook’s recipes here. The quadruple chocolate soft fudgey pudding cookies look insane.

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What I Wish I'd Known - Nora Ephron Aged 65

I found this extract in Nora Ephron’s book I Feel Bad About My Neck a few years back. Nora wasn’t an adventurer (in the typical sense) but she did win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally, was nominated three more times, wrote dozens of books, plays, essays, articles and has some very sound words of advice.

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What I Wish I’d Known

• You can’t be friends with people who call after 11pm.
• The world’s greatest babysitter burns out after two and a half years.
• You never know.
• The last four years of psychoanalysis are a waste of money.
• The plane is not going to crash.
• Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five, you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five.
• At the age of fifty-five you will get a saggy roll just above your waist even if you are painfully thin.
• The saggy roll just above your waist will be especially visible from the back and will force you to reevaluate half the clothes in your closet, especially the white shirts.
• Write everything down.
• Keep a journal.
• Take more pictures.
• The empty nest is underrated.
• You can order more than one dessert.
• You can’t own too many black turtleneck sweaters.
• If the shoe doesn’t fit in the shoe store, it’s never going to fit.
• When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.
• Back up your files.
• Over insure everything.
• Whenever someone says the words “Our friendship is more important than this,” watch out, because it almost never is.
• There is no point in making piecrust from scratch.

Buy a copy of I Feel Bad About My Neck from Wordery from £6.98. Photos from Indie Wire and O+M Co.

The Art Of Surf Posters

Surf posters lend themselves perfectly to graphic design. Clean lines, block patterns and citrus colours capture the warm essence of tropical surfing. Here are a few of my recent favourites poster finds...

From top to bottom: Sunshine & Swell Lines, Australia Surf Club by Gert Sellheim, They R Forecasting Surf by Katherine Maclaine, Surfing Poster by Hey Coso, Rio de Janiero by Tom Veiga, The Gentleman’s Surfer,Tycho by Matthew Fleming,  Le Chant Des Orques by Studio Posti

Surfing In New York: Three Women's Experiences

For many people, surfing isn’t about tropical beaches, warm water, bikinis and perfect waves. It’s about numb fingers, neoprene hoods and fighting for scrappy waves in the North Atlantic.

This mini surf film, Away by Elisa Bates, is probably about as far away from California as you can get. It’s shot in Rockaway Beach in New York, just an hour from downtown Manhattan. A cold, east coast break with inconsistent waves but a core community of regular surfers

Bates interviews three very different women who all surf. Not your stereotypical surfers, these woman have high-pressure jobs, kids, a life in the city that involves nothing to do with surfing.

It’s shows a lesser seen side to surfing – but one Brits will definitely empathise with. Worth a watch!

Book: Wild By Cheryl Strayed

There are two things I can’t resist in a new book: an adventure and a strong female character. Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling memoir, Wild, has both.

It was published back in 2012, a memoir by a relatively unknown writer. Now it’s being released as a Hollywood movie starring Reese Witherspoon. But it was the book that I was far more interested in…

Strayed is just 22 when she suddenly loses her mother to cancer. Within four years, her marriage has disintegrated and she finds herself  battling with her relationships and a serious drug addiction. Then, after  a spur of the moment decision in an outdoor shop, Strayed decides to get her life back on track – by walking 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert to Washington State along the Pacific Crest Trail – completely alone.

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As Strayed sets off on her epic hike through the wilderness, we see flashbacks to her former life – the heartbreaking decline as her mother is ravaged by cancer, the helpless attempts to mend her broken marriage and a downwards spiral into cheating, poverty and drug abuse.

A journalist from the Scotsman described how Wild “pretty much obliterated me”. Twenty pages in, I was already wiping tears away on my commute into work. But it’s not a sad tale. Well, at least not all of it.

It’s Strayed’s personality that interested me more – a strong, independent woman taking on a challenge most would steer away from for fear of travelling alone. Aside from a couple of odd characters, Strayed notes how she was struck by the kindness of strangers. Those who left food for her, invited her in when she was down to her last 69 cents or gave her a lift when she was nearly caving under the weight of her backpack.

It’s no surprise this book topped the New York Times Bestseller list. But it does have its critics – from people angry at Strayed for bringing unwanted attention to the PCT to others who think Strayed’s tale is ‘nothing special’. If you’re a hardcore hiker, then this isn’t for you. It’s not detailing every step of the landscape. Strayed is simply writing about what she knows.

For me, it was a book that’s beautifully written, painfully sad and captures what it’s like to heal and ultimately forgive yourself. By doing something as simple as hiking through America.

Buy Wild on Wordery for £6.27. Photo via. Cheryl Strayed

#HalfMarathonProblems: 7 Tips For Running Your First Half Marathon

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Two years ago I signed up to a 10K run. It was painful. Now I’m three weeks away from a half marathon – and I couldn’t be more terrified. At school, I was the girl that slunk back to avoid cross-country. I couldn’t run for more than ten minutes without feeling like I was about to die. My brother says I run with crazy abandon like Phoebe from Friends. I am not built to be a runner.

And yet here I am, dragging myself out of the house three times a week to pound the pavement, in the hope that I will just about make it over the finish line. 13 miles is a long way.

Clearly I am by no means an expert, but here are my survival tips learned from experience so far…

• Buy good running trainers. I thought trainers could last forever. It turns out you need a new pair every 300 miles because the cushioning wears down. As soon as the ache appears in your lower legs every time you run, it’s probably time to invest in a new pair. Buying a new pair of trainers totally revolutionised my running.
   
• Buy new kit. If I’ve got new brightly-coloured running kit, it motivates me to get out the door. I would highly recommend LuluLemon running pants, they wash well and last forever. Sweaty Betty has someflattering running tops that look great and this super lightweight running jacket for drizzly ‘grey dome’ days.
   
• Try compression socks. I get serious calf pain – everything from shin splints to muscle ache. A sceptical friend of mine actually says compression socks actually work – they are meant to increase the blood circulation in your legs, reducing pain after running. Sweaty Betty has some compression leggingwhich I’m dying to give a try.

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• Regulate your breathing. This again was something I didn’t realise before I started, but regulating your breathing to a rhythm helps a lot. Some people find running without music makes this easier.
   
• Change up your music. However if you do run with music (like me) changing up your playlist is a real lifesaver. I have songs I now associate with difficult hills. Delete them and whack Survivor by Destiny’s Child on there. It’s saved me in moments of despair and actually made running, erm, fun.
   
• Don’t worry about training schedules. According to these online running schedules, I should just quit now. It’s great to stick to a schedule but I’ve got personal aims – running three to four times a week, completing at least nine miles before the big day – and then just making it to the finish line. Which follows nicely onto the next point…
   
• There’s no shame in walk/run. I thought you had to run the whole thing to be considered a ‘true runner’. Now the more I’m reading, the more I realise the walk/run technique is nothing to be ashamed of. Hills destroy me but it doesn’t matter. If I power walk to the top and still run a further five miles afterwards, that’s pretty good going.

Have you got any tips that help your running? Do jot them down in the comments below.

Photo via. hannasroom.com and Sweaty Betty

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