Here at quest adventures we run activities all year round, including the winter months. This is because the temperature of the river remains relativity constant throughout the year, meaning that it will be just as cold in the winter as the summer. However, new challenges arise with the change in air temperature so here are some interesting additions to activities that were made due to the winter weather. The Welsh winter in Cardiff, Swansea and South Wales is extremely beautiful and usually we have snow blanketing the countryside.

Firstly the story of the iced over gorge. In order to test our capabilities and assess the gorge during more extreme conditions, we conducted a training day once where the gorge was iced over. When I say iced over, I mean completely iced over. The ledges of the waterfalls were frozen and some of the smaller falls were iced over completely, creating the most beautiful setting I’ve ever seen in the Brecon Beacons. However, it did create interesting obstacles while trying to navigate the gorge. We were forced to chip away at the ice on the ledges in order to make the jumps safe, and extra precautions were taken in order to traverse the gorge itself. With the extra challenges came more and more enjoyment.

In another incident that took place during a Canyoning training activity was one where we pitted ourselves against a fast flowing river. In order to not get swept off our feet, we used our ropes to stabilise each other and worked as a team to traverse the river. With this, we were able to certain how a high river flow was best navigated and what activities we could get out of it. Being at the complete mercy of the river was very humbling and I’d love to see the river like that again.