Winter Warriors - The Beginnings
What makes an amazing climbing friendship? Gemma and Charlie are delivering our 2020 winter mountaineering courses and they tell all about their heartwarming story....
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Winter Mountaineering Tag
Mera Peak - Part 2: The Summit
'I’m not getting out of bed for less than $10,000.' My alarm melodies. It's 1am on 13th October, 2018. I hear people shuffling around outside the tent of our summit camp, 5800 metres high in the Himalaya. I lie for another 20 minutes until Durjee calls “tea?”....
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How to Get into Mountaineering
Mountaineering can sometimes be seen as an expensive and inaccessible hobby that most people can only dream of trying out. The Jonathan Conville Course seeks to break those boundaries and ensure that young people aged 18-30 can take their first steps in this exhilarating sport...
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#inversion Christmas Giveaway
Adventure travel company inversion are offering an incredible prize to one lucky Womenclimber - a free place on their upcoming ice climbing adventure in the stunning Pyrenees. The trip, running 19th – 23rd January 2018, led by MIC Simon Edward, includes transfers, half-board accommodation, guiding &...
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Women's Winter Week Review
At the start of March for Women Outdoors Week both Plans y Brenin and Glenmore Lodge, the National Mountain Centres, ran a series of winter training courses specifically for women. We've caught up with avid hiker and Mountain biker Laura Hall who attended the week long winter mountaineering course run by Plas y Brenin in Scotland. Here's how she found it....
Shino DLX Glove // Trespass // Review
Love: the soft inner & general feel
What I would change: Women-specific or Slender-hand fit
Price: £65.99
Dry hands, that luxury above all luxuries, on a day out in rainy hills. However ‘waterproof’ any glove proclaims to be, it’s simply not possible to keep them dry when there’s a stonking great hole to shove your soggy hands into. Most gloves have been disappointing in one way or another. I therefore went into this review experiment with very low expectations. My review is of the Trespass Shino unisex Adult GLX Glove in size XS/S, which boasts the following features:
My First Winter Climb
On January 19th 2013 an avalanche swept four people to their deaths in Glencoe. It was an event that shocked a great many people. Me included. I was on the mountain on that day. A year later I returned to Scotland to do a Winter...
Read MoreTop tips to identify and deal with hypothermia
Ensuring you're properly prepared is important at any time of year, but in winter it is essential to ensure a walk in the snow doesn't lead to a miserable day or even a life threatening situation. Here's Womenclimb's top tips to identifying hypothermia as you head out this winter, and how to deal with it should the unfortunate happen.
Getting out in Winter: Stay safe
Mountain Rescue Services are staffed by volunteers. Stay safe in the hills using their download as a guide. Read on to go to the download...
Winter is here. If you are considering learning new skills to make the most of Scottish winter, or perhaps just thinking of going out with friends or family over the winter weekends, there are many ways to enjoy the winter season. Here's essential information from Mountain Rescue England & Wales about how to stay safe in during winter.
Ready for a Winter Adventure?
If you're ready for a new challenge and want to move beyond summer hillwalking or into winter mountaineering or climbing, Plas Y Brenin and Glenmore Lodge, National Mountain Centres are running a series of exciting courses for women in spring 2017, in Scotland, as part of...
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Getting Close to Emily Roo // Intimate Climber Bio
Emily Photo Credit: Jen Randall Emily Roo rocks; a strong, independent person, with an untethered passion for climbing. She's 5ft 4's worth of fun, laughter and motivation, hiding a serious commitment to alpinism and exploring untouched areas of the planet. In 2016...
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Buy a man a book...
And you educate him! Looking through the shelves at Waterstones or any bookseller you would imagine that women never do sport. So this Christmas, how about making a difference by buying a man one of these incredible, exciting, adventurous books. We've gone to the trouble...
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What to Pack - Scottish Winter
"2016 was my first experience of the full power of Scottish winter. As a complete beginner, I headed into the mountains for some training with my friends and colleagues. To say the least I learnt a lot. And from their combined advice and experience I was taught how I should pack for a real winter."
A day out mountaineering in the beautiful hills of Scotland.
Steph Heeley talks us through her top tips of what to pack for a successful day out mountaineering in winter.
Packing for a Scottish Winter Day Out
Packing for a cold winter day in the Mountains should be split into two categories:
- The car
- The bag
Getting into the Outdoor Industry
Getting into the Outdoor industry doesn't always seems easy. Whilst it has been a man's world for a long time, things have changed and thousands of women now work in the industry, with thousands more training every year. A career in the outdoors can be incredibly...
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Georgia Pilkington // Climbing the Matterhorn
Her family jokes “she can climb The Matterhorn, but can’t go into a shop”. Georgia Pilkington is British Deaf Climbing Champion and cofounder of Deaf Climbing UK, she has also recently been diagnosed with Autism. As part of the Autism at Height team, Georgia attempted to climb the Matterhorn in August, she reveals to Womenclimb how the experience has changed her.
Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald // Review
Beth Thomas, long standing Womenclimb contributor, tells all about the book Freedom Climbers, by Bernadette McDonald:
This is hands down the best climbing and mountaineering book I have ever read, fact or fiction.
Climber Bio // Rocio Siemens
'You are not alone. Being afraid is normal.'
These are the words of Rocio Siemens. Rocio (pronounced Rotheo) is a 5ft 5 (165cm) tall Spaniard who started climbing at the age of 21. Depending on how stretchy the material is she is a size 10 or 12. Born in 1975, she is 41 years old at the time of writing. She is an International Mountain Guide and an IFMGA member who climbs all sorts of winter and summer routes in the UK and beyond. Her short answers are an incredibly insightful look into the life and experience of this climber. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Ella Williams // Climber Bio
'Climbing for me is like a dance, when I am in the moment I don’t have to think about what I’m doing.'
Ella Williams is an outdoors instructor living in North Wales. At the time of writing, she was 29 years old, born in 1987, having started rock climbing at the age of 26. She is 5ft1 (155cm tall). We met Ella on a climbing weekend in north Wales in 2015, where she showed her love of sharing the outdoors with others. This is a really beautiful piece of writing, enjoy.
Winner: Women in Adventure Film Comp
In it's second year, the Women in Adventure Film competition, run as a collaboration with BMC TV and in association with ShAFF, has become THE place to showcase new films of women in adventure. This year's winner, Kosmos, is a delight of colour, sound and...
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Katy Stocks - Researcher Extraordinaire...
In an interview with Katy, we get to the heart of her passion...
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Ten Questions to ask yourself before a Winter Climb
If you're new to Winter Climbing, you might want to get into a routine of asking yourself key questions, before a climb, to prompt yourself to stay as safe as possible.
We've compiled a list of some important questions:
Winter Mountaineering, Mixed Climbing and Ice Climbing - What's the difference?
In our efforts to give a succinct overview of Winter Climbing, we thought it would be useful to provide other short definitions as follows:
Winter Mountaineering is generally considered to be something different to Winter Climbing and to be larger in scope or scale than ‘climbing’.
Fundamentally, mountaineering most often involves summiting a mountain. It also often refers to longer ‘classic’ lower grade routes – usually no harder than Grade II, very occasionally graded II/III.
It is usual to climb a mountaineering route with a single axe, although on the harder ones many people now carry a second tool ‘just in case’!