AY2022-23: In Review

What a year it’s been for the Outdoor Club! From scenic sunny climbs near Malaga to wet and windy hikes in Wales, it has been a busy year for us and our 120 members.

First Term: Day trips, Snowdonia and the Peaks

We kicked off the year with two day trips - one hike in the beautiful Chess Valley and a day of climbing at Harrison’s Rocks, both easily accessible by train from London. By the third weekend, we were ready for something more: we got into several cars and made our way up to Snowdonia for a mixed activity weekend where we spent Saturday climbing at the amazing Dinorwig slate quarry and Sunday hiking up mount Snowdon. Of course, we had perfect, cloudless views - until we got to the top, when we were blanketed in cloud.

After another day hike to the south coast, our second weekend trip was to The Roaches in the Peak District, where we stayed in the Don Willans hut, where Outdoor Club is practically a regular at this point! We spent two days hiking and climbing in the area before making our way back to London.

Winter Tour - Lake District

We’ve got a full post about winter tour here! We went for a fantastic few days to the snowy Lake District, where we did plenty of walking in some snowy scenery, as well as climbing Scafell Pike and doing some bouldering on the beautiful Langdale Boulders.

Second Term: Snowdonia (the sequel), Peak District and the Brecon Beacons

Second term kicked off with a return to Imperial’s hut in Snowdonia, with beautiful snowy summits - on the first day, some of the group decided to climb Snowdon in the snow (but considerably better weather than in October!) and the rest of the group returned to the Dinorwig slate quarry and did some slightly more ambitious climbs, culminating in an ascent of a 40 m wall in the dark! The second day saw us up one of the UK’s best scrambles up Tryfan in the snow and made for some excellent photos.

A few weeks later we went to stay at the (worryingly named) Fallcliffe Cottage near Hathersage and spent both days of our trip climbing the Horseshoe Quarry near Eyam. The final weekend trip of our second term took us back to the Brecon Beacons, where we stayed in a really cool hut Ystradfellte, from where we climbed at Dinas Rock, as well as climbing Pen-y-Fan (at midnight!) and exploring the beautiful moorland in the area.

Easter Tour - El Chorro

El Chorro, near Malaga in Spain, turned out to be a real haven for sport climbing when we went there at easter! We spent a week lead-climbing and hiking intensively, as well as doing a Via Ferrata and enjoying the swimming pool at our AirBnB!

Summer Term and Summer Tour

Because of various things outside our control, we had one weekend trip in summer term - but luckily it was a great one! For the first time in history, the weather was better in Wales than in London - we escaped the rain to go to Gower for two beautiful days of climbing, hiking, swimming in the sea and camping!

The Outdoor Club 10-person tent made it’s return for our two nights in the campsite, and we spent the first day climbing on the sea cliffs above Rhossili Beach until the tide came in and forced us to move. We then went back to the campsite, packed up our food, and went down to the beach for a barbecue and campfire at the water’s edge.

The second day saw the group split, with some choosing to climb while the rest of us hiked out to Devil’s Bridge across the causeway which is only accessible at low tide.

Summer Tour

The first summer tour since the pandemic! We went to Fontainebleau, just south of Paris, for a week of bouldering and hiking.

‘Font’ is the centre of French (and probably European) bouldering, and our randomly-selected campsite on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau had several locations with hundreds of problems within a 5-minute walk. We spent four days bouldering and enjoying the campsite’s swimming pool, and decided that for our ‘rest day’ we should go to Paris (spoiler: it wasn’t a rest). After walking more in Paris than on any other day of the trip, we had comprehensively seen the sights and enjoyed some quality French baguettes so returned weary to the trusty tent in Fontainebleau for a well deserved rest - before returning to the boulders the next day to try some cool dynamic problems before heading back to London the day after.