Author: David Crombie

The Padarn Watersports Centre in Llanberis offers exciting adventures with Snowdonia as a backdrop year round but this weekend Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th April 2024 we are postponing kayak hire. The Met Office has issued a weather warning for wind which will create difficult conditions on the lake. We will still delivering instructor lead sessions on the lagoons of Llyn Padarn and locally for those pre booked. If you are still planning visiting Padarn Country Park this weekend we would suggest one of the many low level local walks or a visit to the National Slate Museum. Hopefully we will see you back with us soon for a kayaking or watersports adventure on Padarn Lake Llanberis. Visit our kayak hire page for more information or booking online.

Welcome, at last, to watersports season.

The winter winds have been and gone and spring has sprung here in Llanberis. The weather and the water are warming up and we are ready to hire out kayaks for people to enjoy exploring Llyn Padarn lake.

Sit-on-top Kayak rental was so successful last season, that we are doing it bigger and better in the 2022 season. We have more boats, we have smaller boats to suit smaller people, we have more changing areas, more customer kit lockers…. all at the same price.

For £25 each you can hire a kayak for 3 hours, plenty of time to explore and have a good adventure. This, of course, includes a paddle and buoyancy aid. For no extra cost you can have the use of our wetsuits, wet shoes, watertight storage barrels and phone cases.

Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), at 1085m is the highest and most iconic mountain in the National Park, the views are excellent whilst out there on the lake…. on a cloudless day

In the mountains of Wales, you may have heard, it sometimes rains, making a moody and dramatic scene….. but we will still rent out boats. Kayaking is not a bad idea at all on a rainy day.

Please get in touch with us here at Boulder Adventures by phone or email if you have and questions and to book your kayaks. 01286 870 556 / [email protected]

You can find us at Padarn Watersports Centre, Llyn Padarn, Llanberis. Go to the far end of the Slate Museum Car Park by the little railway line.

 

At long last, after 2 years of delays, Boulder Adventures could deliver, as promised, on an action packed adventure course for Mulberry Academy Shorditch, the Alpkit Foundation competition winners from 2020, delayed until March 2022.

The Alpkit Foundation make small awards to people, groups and schools that work to remove the barriers in getting outdoors and experience wild places. They support grass-roots direct action projects that tackle issues such as diversity & inclusion in the outdoors, participation, education, conservation and protection of our natural environment and health & well-being.

Mulberry Academy is a London based school that won a competition to give some of their pupils the opportunity to adventure in Snowdonia. From Monday to Friday they resided in Llanberis at Bryn Du Mountain Centre, everyday they were up and out early, in good sprits, whatever the weather to explore the natural environment.

With help from Boulder Adventures instructors they built their own rafts and tried them out on Llyn Padarn, on a cold but beautiful evening.

 

A local climbing crag was popular with this group, lots of nerves and excitement before we got going. Most of them, having never done it before, enjoyed climbing to the top of the rock face and with help from their friends holding the rope, lowering safely down to the ground again.

 

Gorge Scrambling requires team work and resilience, this group had a great time splashing and climbing up the beautiful Afon Du river.

The students really got to know each other this week, they were a mixture of year 8 and 9 pupils who would never normally be in class together.  They lived, cooked and shared rooms together, they tried new things and left their comfort zones and achieved together. By the end of the week they were a very good team and new friendships were made.

 

Thanks to Miss Bartlett from Mulberry Achademy for entering the The Alpkit Foundation competition, for organising, for driving the minibus and bringing plenty of enthusiasm to the week. Thanks to the pupils for being good sports and getting involved.

 

 

 

 

Last review 7 August 2021.

We are open and back to work and continuing to reopen aspects of our business

Please note that Welsh Legislation can differ from other UK nations and we may operating at more limited service than expected.

Sorry if it is not business as normal while we ensure we move with caution.

School and Youth Group information for residentials is awaiting an update.

Self-Catered accommodation is currently available at the Bryn Du Mountain Centre. Now we have moved to alert level 0 we do not have restrictions on number for exclusive use groups.

Kayak Hire from the Padarn Water Sports Centre is operating but not every day, we recommend pre booking and definitely checking we are open before just turning up.

Adventure Activities are available to private groups please see the individual pages for specific information.

Pre booking and payment is strongly preferred for all services to enable social distancing and reduce physical interactions. We will also be asking in advance for contact details of all of those visiting us to aid any Track and Trace should we become aware of any customers or staff becoming unwell.

Email is going to be the most reliable way to contact us due to reduced staffing numbers and limited office access.

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As Coronavirus develops we will continue to take advice from official sites as they are updated. We will in turn update any changes for customers in delivering our services on this page.

As practical steps in reducing the spread of Coronavirus we would expect customers to read and heed official government advice and steps to take if you suspect illness.

NHS Advice – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

Welsh Legislation advice on Hospitality and Tourism Businesses

Track and Trace Information

 

 

Ditching in-course transport, let’s just walk places.

We are pretty lucky with our location here in Llanberis; we think it puts us in a position to be less reliant on vehicles to deliver our courses. Probably the right thing to do if we would like to think of ourselves as ambassadors for the outdoor environment.

We can walk to the lake to swim and canoe, we can walk to the crag to climb, we can walk to the quarries to abseil and the path up Snowdon starts in our village.

We want to prove this is a good idea thus a positive way to go about outdoor education and want to offer some special prices to encourage schools and youth groups to try it out.

We realise it still isn’t perfect but small steps literally in the right direction have to help.

We have two weeks this summer when you can stay at the Bryn Du Mountain Centre, Llanberis to try this out.

Monday 29^th June – Thursday 2^nd July 2020, Fully Catered at £180pp

And

Monday 3^rd August – Thursday 6^th August 2020, Self-Catered at £150pp.

Itinerary

Day 1 – Arrive for 1pm followed by afternoon lake swim

Day 2 – Canoeing and Abseiling Day

Day 3 – Mountain Day

Day 4 – Depart

 

If you know of a school group who struggle to fund an outdoor education trip this might be of interest. Alpkit Foundation Week.

If you need any more information you can talk with us at Boulder Adventures but applications need to be via the Alpkit Foundation. Boulder Adventures do not choose who visits.

We have just had a great week with a group of cadets. Amazing weather for some big mountain days. Other activities during the week included: gorge scrambling, rock climbing, raft building, abseiling and canoeing.