For the past few months since the busy period of August both Josh and I have been busy up in the mountains and this blog post runs through what we have been up to and how we maintain Yr Helfa. The weather has started to take a turn, the wind is blowing, the rain is rather heavy at times but thats what makes running a remote accommodation business exciting and it hasn’t stopped us from servicing the off-grid equipment, carrying out upgrades and taking new pictures for our social sites and this very website.

To effectively look after Yr Helfa with the aim to upgrade every year we split the work into three main areas. The first being power. As Yr Helfa is powered by off-grid technology our first and foremost priority is to ensure that the equipment is working effectively, efficiently and any servicing is booked in by our specialist engineers before winter takes hold. The backup generator has now been serviced, the Biomass boiler and underfloor heating has had a pump repaired and is working perfectly and the fire service has visited and

Summer 2019 at Crashpad Lodges based from Yr Helfa Fawr has been the best yet with guests enjoying all that Crashpad and Snowdonia has to offer.  The weather has been glorious with our little stream being used by many people to cool down and the BBQ fired up every night.  We’ve made almost all of our energy through Crashpads solar and wind power making us, if I did my calculations correct 91% self sufficient. We were also awarded a 4star rating by Visit Wales topping off the best season ever!

September has arrived with the summer guests along with the amazing weather of 2019 long gone.  Autumn is well underway and we are currently gearing up Crashpad for the season ahead, swapping out summer bedding for winter bedding, deep cleaning the BBQ and getting the lodge ready for fresher days and chillier nights.

With Crashpad Lodges Josh and I have tried to go against the norm of what is expected. 

Remote lodges, “off - the - grid” accommodation providers, in-fact quite a few of the outdoor centres in the UK are usually thought of as basic, a place to lay your head, paid for per bed and generally cold and unwelcoming places.

When we first acquired the lodge, it was operating as a pay-per-bed bunkhouse generating a good income.  We could’ve kept with the existing business model but we knew we had to do things differently.  We began by carrying on the business as it was – all of our money had gone towards raising mortgages