Adventures with Four-Legged Friends

This is Stanage, Stan, Stanny or Stan-face to his friends. He is my adventure buddy. We enjoy running, mountain biking and heading into the hills together.

A couple of people have asked me: How did you train Stan to go scrambling?

Well I didn’t give him much of a choice! From a puppy I used to put him in my backpack and he’d come along for the adventure.  Stan would like to share one of his favourite days out: A winter ascent of Crib Lem on Carnedd Daffyd. 

On a weekend in February 2019 when the Snowdonia National Park declared ‘the mountains are closed!’ We decided to rebel against the rules and head into the mountains. There was a dusting of snow but we were prepared with all the appropriate gear and unwilling to sacrifice a rare winter day on the hill. A group of seven humans and one pup set off into the Carneddau for an adventure! This was Stan’s second winter, the first one he was only 6 months old so this was his first proper winter adventure. He’d done a fair bit of scrambling in north Wales and plenty of running up and down crags in the peak district so I was sure he was competent. 

The walk up to the route was great fun for Stan, chasing snow, leaping, bounding. Good solid fun. We got to the base and sat to put on crampons and get out axes. Another group, who were taking the day out very seriously asked if Stan was going up the route with us. We said of course! They judged…..

Actually, as this was Stan’s first winter route and I wasn’t sure how he’d react, I was fully prepared to back off, but we kept that quiet….

He started off strong, enjoying the challenge. Then we got to a tricky traverse across the snow slope. To us this was a few easy steps at a relatively easy gradient. For Stanny, this was SCARY! He didn’t know if he could do it. He sat and had a little cry. Then we made a human chain and he happily traversed above his wonderful friends getting a supportive cheer as he passed. Easy peasy. Once the traverse was done, back to some easy ground. Stan was loving life. So much so he nearly chased a snow ball straight back down the route.

The next tricky bit came when we got to a few rocky steps. Luckily the friends were there to lend a hand again. One friend at the bottom and one friend at the top helped Stan up using the grab handle on his harness. Easy. At this point, we over took the judgey couple who were plodding up. I think they were a little shocked to be over taken by a dog! 

After the last rock steps we reached steady ground easing off until we reached the top. Yes Stanny! We stopped at the top for a quick snack. On a mountain day I make an extra sandwich for my adventure buddy so Stan had half a PB and Jam bagel and saved the rest until later. From the summit we were in normal walking terrain. We made the scramble into a wonderful day out by walking a beautiful horseshoe route taking in the summits of Carnedd Llewellyn and Yr Elen. Plenty of snow chasing, sliding and the rest of his PB and Jam bagel fuelled Stan around the horseshoe. Conditions were wonderful with some sunny spells and light winds. Stan’s eyebrows froze. The human friends did some bum sliding and Stan chased them managing to grab their legs on the way.

What a day! Stan finished his epic adventure day by curling up by the fire for the whole evening whilst the humans ate and drank wine.

For scrambling Stan wears a Ruff Wear Webmaster harness and due to the cold had a Hurta Summit Parker. He protects his paws with Musher’s Secret.