Heathrow Hikers - Outdoor Group for West London

From the Editor
Tenerife
Virginia Water
Hiking Trivia
Hiking Snowdon and Quad Biking in north Wales
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The event calendar for 2007 has started with a roar, with three events occurring this month.

January’s trips were a good cross-section of the spectrum of outdoor events covered by Heathrow Hikers: a local one-day walk, a weekend away with hiking and outdoor activities and an overseas hiking and sightseeing trip.

Our grand plan for Tenerife was to summit Mt Teide, at a respectable 3 715 metres high (12 198 feet) and do a bit of sightseeing in the main city. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, off Morocco’s west coast, and officially part of Spain.

We arrived on Tenerife at 7pm on Monday and headed by rental car to the Parador, our hotel for two of the three nights. The Parador is a state run hotel and the only accommodation in the national park. It's at 2 100 meters in elevation which would help us get acclimatised to the altitude before our climb up Mt. Teide.

On Tuesday we woke up early, had breakfast and checked out of the Parador. Before we could get going on the hike, we needed to buy some gas canisters for our camp stoves. Unfortunately, none of us knew the Spanish translation for "camping gas" nor did we know what the sign for an outdoors store would look like. Our search took us through three villages encountering numerous blank stares in response to the phrase "camping gas por favor". We would get directed to stores down the street who would then direct us to the store had just come from. Eventually (2.5 hours later) we found a large hardware store that did have the correct canisters. Once we were fully kitted out it was time to get back to the mountain and get cracking.

Unfortunately we got lost.

You would think that it would be simple, just head for the highest point on the island. Nope. The streets aren't terribly well signed, there was a ton of road works and mostly one way streets. Eventually every street seemed to be going downhill – definitely the wrong way. We eventually came to a well marked street that was going in the right direction (uphill) so we took it.

We got to the base of Teide and began the ascent around 2pm. There was a French camera crew at the bottom of the hill interviewing hikers about mountain safety asking intelligent questions such as "What if one of you has a heart attack?" We're all in our 30's and very experienced hikers so a heart attack was unlikely but their camera man sounded as if he was going to have one since he would run ahead to get shots of us walking and after we'd pass by he'd run by again to get some more. We left them in our dust (literally, it was really dry) and continued on our way.

The first four of kilometres follow a gravel road and were fairly easy. At about the three kilometre mark we encountered the first of the Teide Eggs. During a volcanic eruption when the magma is flowing down the hill the top layer cools a bit and hardens. Because the hill is pretty steep and the magma has a bit if momentum, some of the harder stuff starts to roll downhill. As it rolls, it picks up more magma similar to rolling a snowman. Some of the eggs are over 15 feet tall and rolled farther than the magma flows. This results in these massive black rocks resting on light sand.

At about 2 950 metres (in elevation) the road ended and the trail became a lot steeper. This is about the same point that we really started to notice the lack of oxygen. The trail was a series of switchbacks and we gained elevation quickly but we were all breathing heavily and had to take lots of rest breaks. After a couple hours we finally reached the Refugio where we would spend the night. We knew that the Refugio would be closed at this time of the year but there was supposed to be an annex that had beds for eight people. The Refugio was undergoing renovations and they were using the annex for storage for their building supplies. Fortunately they had left one of the storage rooms unlocked so we rearranged some of the bags of cement and swept the floor. Because I thought there would be beds, I hadn't brought an air mattress so it was a very rough sleep that night. The forecast was for minus 9 degrees that night but I had brought 2 sleeping bags so I was nice and warm. We went to bed at 8.30pm but it was pretty uncomfortable so we didn't sleep much that night.

Chris on Mt. Teide - Photo by Gary Box

We got up at 5.30am in order to watch the sun come up at the summit. In reality, we had been awake for some time but just didn't get out of our sleeping bags. It took a bit longer to get to the summit than we expected but it was still a pretty spectacular sunrise. We made the summit around 8.30am, puttered around for a while looking at the steam vents (third highest volcano in the world) and admiring the view.

The descent was far faster than the ascent. On the way back to the Refugio we stopped to check out the ice cave. It was a pretty large cave but there wasn't any ice to be found. Back at the Refugio, we ate most of the food we had left (better to eat it than carry it), made our way back to the car and checked back in at the Parador.

After a well deserved nap and shower we headed into Playa des Americas for some dinner. Playa des Americas is the main tourist town on Tenerife and is full of crispy Brits. There were plenty of English-style pubs and restaurants but we settled on an Italian restaurant on the oceanfront. After dinner and a brief wander around town we headed back to the Parador for a round of beers and to plan our last day on the island.

For our last day, we started out in Candelera to check out some statues of the original inhabitants (Guanche) of the island. While there we checked out the local cathedral where they forced the Guanche to convert to Catholicism. It wasn't much different than most churches.

Next up was to visit Santa Cruz to check out the military museum. It's mostly dedicated to the only defeat of the British Admiral Nelson. They had a large model that showed the island's defenses and had a narrative of how the battle progressed. They also had the canon that was responsible for injuring Nelson (it required amputating his arm at the elbow).

Last up was to view Los Gigantes (The Giants - no need to bust out the Spanish/English dictionary on that one) which are 600-metre high cliffs rising out of the ocean. These were on the opposite side of the island so we drove down the north side of the island, which we hadn't yet seen. The north side is much greener than the south side as it gets way more rain (and is why most of the resorts are on the south side). There lots of banana plantations lining the highway and plenty of villages built onto the cliff face. Before we knew it, we were clear across the island and took the scenic route to Los Gigantes. The road was an engineering marvel. It travelled from sea level to well over 1 500 meters in less than 10 kilometres. It was practically a single lane, with numerous pullouts where you could let oncoming traffic pass.

When we finally reached Los Gigantes, we had our last authentic Spanish meal: pizza. Just kidding, it was actually called Paella Valencia which is rice, chicken, red pepper and green beans. It was pretty tasty even with the green beans. After that, it was back to the airport for the flight home.

Article submitted by Chris Tillapaugh

With the short days of January we decided to make our first day walk of 2007 a short one, and a local one at that.

Virginia Water was the start point for us, with our group made up of a mixture of familiar and new faces.

For such a short walk there were a number of points of interest along the way, the first of which was a large totem pole, a gift to the Queen from the people of British Columbia, Canada. Later on the walk we reached the Roman ruins, stolen from Tripoli in Libya. After spending a period of time at the British Museum they were brought to Virginia Water where they have remained since.

All too soon the walk was over, so we decided to drop in the pub for a drink and a chat before making our way home.

Article submitted by Gary Box

Did you know – and this is according to the internet, so it must be true ;-)

1. Hiking is great exercise – it can burn 20% more calories than normal walking (is that from walking back and forth along the fence line looking for the Public Footpath marked on the map?).
2. An estimated 12% of the Finnish population is involved in Nordic walking (their version of hiking).
3. The Guinness World Record (2006) for the world’s lightest tent is manufactured by the UK’s own Terra Nova Equipment. Weighing in at a mere 930g (under 2 pounds) this includes the tent, inner fly, pole and 12 pegs.
4. The record for the world’s highest formal dinner was set by a group of Australians who climbed up Peru’s Mount Huascarán (6 758m) / 22 204 ft) in 1989. Their equipment included a bespoke Louis XIV dining table and chair set. Trout was one of the three courses served.
5. The 10th Playtex MoonWalk took place on 19th May 2007 at Midnight in Hyde Park, London. At 11.30 pm an estimated 17 000 participants will either walk a half marathon or a full marathon. (Anyone keen?)

Article submitted by Suzanne Nottage

A group of us headed to Snowdonia for some Hiking and Quad Biking. Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and England at 1 085 metres (3 560 ft). Our accommodation was Craig y Deri, a modern looking and well furnished place that sleeps 10.

We began the drive to Pen-y-Pass for an ascent of Snowdon after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast. We chose Snowdon as many on this trip had not walked it before. The easy route of Pyg up and Miners down was our best bet since we were starting very late.

Two of our number decided to be ambitious and try the Crib Goch route but the conditions and late start meant they had to head back, a wise choice in the circumstances. The rest of the group continued to the top, battling snow near the top.

The route down was trickier for some. The slippery surface was a real test for those who did not have great footwear. In these sorts of conditions hiking boots are strongly recommended (unless you enjoy suffering!). Once back at the car we headed for a much needed meal.

The end of the evening was spent relaxing in our accommodation, celebrating Vicky’s birthday with Cake, Candles and Cava. This was Vicky’s last weekend away with the group for the foreseeable future as she starts a job in Paris in February. Hopefully we will see Vicky again soon, perhaps in the UK, maybe even in Paris!

On Sunday the weather was a bit grey. Vicky and Chris decided to try Quad Biking whilst the rest of us looked around the town, stopping for teas and coffees. We returned to London later that day but are sure to be back in North Wales before the end of 2007.

Click on the links for some commercial pics of Snowdon and our accomodation.

Article submitted by Gary Box

If you have any articles or images you wish to contribute to the next issue of Compass please email them to Suzanne.

Please try and submit articles as early as possible but not later than the 3rd week of the month if you wish it to appear in the subsequent issue.

Thanks.