solo in the wetness

I had planned to go for a hill day today. Packed my bag the night before and got up early. Despite the fact that I had to work late last night until about 11:30, I still managed to drag myself out of bed into a badly heated room. Also despite the fact the weather was fairly minging. Once I was up I felt obliged to go for my walk. I don't think I would ever choose to go walking in weather like this if I wasn't working towards my winter ML... I did however have a stragely satisfying day. I headed for the top car park and wandered up to the Ptarmigan then headed south east towards the saddle, down to Loch Avon and then along the loch and up Coire Raibert, up to spot height 1141 and down.

I had planned to head up Beinn Mheadhoin but did not get enough of an early start due to a meeting at work. I was out on my own today and had lots of opportunity for some confidence boosting nav practice. The vis up near the Ptarmigan was about 75m. This was the first time I had navved in poor weather in winter on my own. I am a capable navigator and I know my compass works (!!) but it still felt quite isolating (and exciting) walking off into a sea of vast whiteness on my own. I walked so accurately on my bearing I almost walked over the edge of the steep slope/cornice above the stream at Marquis Well... it's quite hard to see the change in angle of the slope when everything is white.

The snow lower down was quite patchy - as you can see from the pictures of the Loch Avon basin and Coire Raibert - and although there was a lot of ice, it was starting to melt. The temperature was about 3 degrees apparently - it was raining all day even on the plateau.

On the way back up Coire Raibert I could feel the wind picking up and took a bearing for the col below spot height 1141 before I reached the top. As predicted there was a strong northely wind and I had to put my goggles on. I walked on my bearing for what seemed like an eternityand eventally reached a point near the col (which after 1.2km is not too bad). Finished in the dark. Very wet.

I stopped for a quick bite to eat and attempted to take some photos of myself eating, probably a moment of temporary insanity due to walking around in the cloud for too long... ha ha ha

Sron na Lairig

Today I went up Sron na Lairig in the Caingorms. I was aiming for Braeriach but set off at a bit of a leasurely pace for that and realised that due to lack of daylight I would end up walking in the dark for 5 hours if I went for it... didn't fancy negotiating an icy Chalamian Gap in the dark. Still an excellent day with panoramic views of the Gorms, the Monadliath, Dubhs ridge and lots of hills further north on the far horizon.

Last week Hannah and I passed our BCU UKCC L2 certificate in coaching paddlesport. Pete Gwatkin has been observing some of my sessions and giving lots of feedback. Here's some pics of me coaching James in Open Boat on the pond at Glenmore Lodge! On another day we also practiced throwing lines for each other on the pond and had to break the ice which had formed on the surface, which was entertaining.

some hills

I've been trying to get fit for winter recently and get some hill days in. Some pics of Glen Markie on a beautiful windless autumn day a couple of weeks ago, and Rachel and myself about to get blown about on Meall Cuich near Dalwhinnie at the weekend - it continues to be very windy and wet up here...

Middle Findhorn

Paddled the middle Findhorn yesterday with Malcolm Ian Chris O and Laura. Lots of water really good fun. No pic of the Middle Findhorn but some of the grade 3 rapid on the Dulnain at the Old Packhorse Bridge, Carbridge. Definitely in spate! Malcolm and Chris were tempted but we had run out of daylight...

Winter

so what's next? Snow :) there is a sprinkling on the hills but nothing significant yet. I'll be posting pictures. Anyone up for winter hill days or climbing give me a shout. You can sleep on my floor!

adventures recently

more pictures soon I promise!

Since I last blogged I've been biking quite a lot. Recently biked up Burma road and then down (falling off a lot) the black descent back to Aviemore. Chris and I did the Laggan route a while back - good route, really picturesque and a good descent. We had to battle against the wind quite a bit and had to ford a river - not sure if the brisge was ever there in the first place! I joined an intermediate biking course George Mac was running which was really helpful - lots to practice! unsuprisingly I find shin guards really help. The Lodge has some good man made mtb trails and skills sections on site and Wolf Trax also has some good bits in the play park. At home in the Peak I did the Cut Gate route with Pete. I would say this is the best route I've done in the Peak - great technical uphill as well as down hill.

In September I took part in the Scottish Open Canoe Symposium. I did an awesome tandem tandem wokshop with Tom Sibbald and Anna (Graham?) which despite being on a section of the Spey I have paddled a lot, was really helpful

I have been doing quite a lot of coaching in Kayak and Open Boat whilst working towards my L2. Giles TRussel has been helping me with lesson plans and I've also had a lot of help from Pete Gwatkin who kindly came in on his day off to observe my sessions, what a legend!

WEMSI First Responder

I have been a bit lax with the old blog of late. but I thought this was worth mentioning. Last week I took (and passed) the WEMSI First Repsonder course which takes place at Glenmore Lodge every year. The First Responder course is currently run in the states and Ireland as well as at the Lodge. It's an advanced 'first aid' certificate for leaders working in remote environments around the world. The course is designed to prepare you for protracted care of casulaties where help is far away or totally unavailable. We covered a really broad range of topics from puncture wounds and anaphylaxia to tropical diseases and altitude sickness. In all I think we had about 26 casualty scenarios outside and then a mass casualty scenario for all 20 of us to deal with set in a 'gorge' on the hill to the east of the Ciste car park. It was great to have actually done all this stuff - for example one scenario involved us carrying a drowned paddler out of a river and resuscitating him on the bank. Our mass scenario also involved a stretcher carry which was great to practice. I feel so much more repared for any mis haps that might occur on expedition. I can't recommend the course highly enough.

bike maintainance

If it wasn't for Carl and Eric at the Lodge I wouldn't have been riding as much as I have recently. Over the last few weeks I have learned how to change my bottom bracket and gear cable, have re-greased the bearings on my back wheel, changed both sets of brake pads and ajusted the break blocks, put a new chain on and re-greased the head set. My bike has survived quite a long time with very little TLC but now I'm learning how to do all this stuff, and my bike is still rideable which is great!

Coaching

All this open boating has got me quite excited about being a more highly qualified open boat coach. I'm working towards my L2 at the moment which is generic - I have to coach both open boat and kayak- but then I can specialise for level 3. I have been coaching James who is a domestic at the Lodge wanting to do his 2* and L1, and friends Wendy and Kes in Kayak and open boat . I am really enjoying coaching and have learned loads from working with these guys. Im hoping to volunteer on some sessions with Abernethy Nethybridge and local club Speyside Paddlers to get some more varied coaching hours in. Instructors at the Lodge have been really supportive too, helping me with lesson plans and reviews etc which I'm really grateful for.

Biking

my shoulder seems to be coping well with biking so I'm doing lots. A guy called Andreas came into the lodge a while back and we ended up doin a ride round Torridon together last week. It turned out to e a long day.. I drive to Garve from Aviemore then we drive to Torridon. The ride was 46km mainly off road in the mountains. Spectacular scenery, despite the cloud covering the mountain tops. we cycled past Liathach, Ben Eigh (I think), alomg Glen Torridon, then towards achnashellach then an absolute epic of a climb back over the mountains. I have to admit I did walk/push/carry quite a lot of this section as it was fairly technically sustained and VERY VERY WET. I can't describe to you how wet it was - given that the forecast said it was going to be the dryest place in the country - There were loads of drainage channels directing water down off the hill to the main river, some of which I would never have cleared (and some which I tried but didn't clear :/). The streams were very full. Initially I tried to stay dry then gave up and ended up wading calf deep though some big bits of water... it reminded me of ML training, I kind of felt like I should be turning round in circles or something , ha ha ha. What an adventure! The final down hill was awesome - about 7km of continuous red grade down hill, my wrists were aching for days afterwards. We both took some comedy falls along the way - Andreas managed to land with his head in a bog and came up looking like a monster with mud all over his face. Then a drive back to Garve, tea at Andreas's house then drive back to Aviemore.

Unfortunately we encountered midgies in egyptian plague quantities which meant we didn't stop for long, except half way round at a really cool bothy, which was amazing, and allowed Andreas to fix his bike without being eaten alive. It didn't spoil our ride though.

Over the last couple weeks I have also done the ride up Glen Einich which was suprisingly easy on the uphill and very quick on the down hill, a great ride in the mountains. Andreas and I also did a ride a bit closer to home - up the Burma road - up a MASSIVE hill then down the brilliant black descent back to aviemore. Managed to ride quite a lot of it and both of us took some more comedy falls off - big bruises on my legs.

I also went over to Badaguish, where there was a guy from Bothy bikes doing repairs on some of the track - in preparation for the competition (this weekend?), don't think I'm quite fast enough yet...it's good to have some quality stuff to play on locally, and going back to do the same technical climbs helps me see how much I've improved, or not!

Boating

I'm not going to apologise for this but you wont find many climbing posts on here at the moment as I've injured my shoulder and off climbing till next season. HOWEVER... remember all that rain we had??

I have been doing lots of paddling. Friends from Edale Andy Waring, Andy Mac, Dan, Neil Pope, Tom and new boy Robin came up to go open boating and we Paddled the Dochart and the Dee (the one in Deeside in the east) together. The Dochart was worth while and had a meaty grade 3 about half way down which Robin managed to swim on. When we had rescued him he had badly hurt his thumb and we also realised he had a big hole in his boat, which we managed to patch up with various things! (50% gaffer tape). The Dee was also well worth it. We just did the lower section, about 11 km from Potarch to Banchory. The get in has a good grade 2 rapid just below it then a fairly flat section. the last few kms are continuous grade 2, which was fantastic, not that scary, but fun, and I didn't have to worry about putting a hole in a Glenmore Lodge Boat :/ The water levels were good - in fact it continued to rain solidly for another 24 hours or so I think. the roads were flooded on the way back. The metro coped admirably though... it has put in some serious miles with the open boat on now!

Biking in Wales

This seems like a long time ago now... but I havn't blogged for a while
I trekked all the way to Mid Wales to spend time with freinds. It was a long way but good to see people. I wen to Coed y Brenin and did a couple of the red runs - Ceflym Coch and another 20km ish route which were great. In between I did a mountain ride - Pont Scethin from our camp site near Harlech. It was really technical in places with some challenging climbs and a very wet descent. My legs were definitely aching the week after on my TCL! This memorial stone is in memory of a lady, who used to walk up the hill I was cycling up well into her eighties. The caption read something like 'courage traveller' ...

TCL

I took and passed my TCL (Tail Cycle Leader) on Wednesday, first ticket of the year, hurrah!

sorry no pics, was too busy concentrating :)

4* open boat

The last big thing I did was 4* Open Boat Training with Stuart Bell - what a legend. We used the Spey - Ballindalloch to Knockando (dejavu? no?), the Tay down to Grandtully and went up to paddle on the sea at Fort George for our open water day. The last two days were white water safety and rescue with Chadders and Shaun. We used Feshie bridge area to practice swimming for eddies, doing superman dives (a form of live-baiting) to rescue each other, cutting a body free from an entrapment on the river and other skills. The last day was spent on the Findhorn looking at some more safety and rescue scenarios, and using our journey as an opportunity to look at leadership issues. I definitely want to go back and do the Middle Findhorn again, it was consistently interesting. All in all a great week, I learned loads.

Work

Last Saturday I was working on a nav and montain skills course for Glenmore Lodge. I always enjoy teaching nav and find it really absorbing, finding ways of communicating these skills and ideas to each individual. It always helps when you have a nice group too.

Spey Descent

This week we enjoyed blisteringly hot weather on our descent of the Spey swimming in the river most days . The river winds through some beautiful scenery and we we saw osprey diving for fish, sand martens dipping in and out of their burrows (in the pic), oyster catchers, dippers, tares, buzzards, leaping salmon, red squirrels (I had never even seen a red squirrel in England as they're so rare down there). We also found fresh water mussels. Most of the rapids and weirs were a scrape but I'd like to go back and do the section from Knockando to Spey Bay in higher water.

busy busy

Work wise I have been doing some voluntary work through the Lodge. An afternoon going up Meall a Buchaille with a group from Who Cares Scotland. A group of young people and their carers were having a training weekend for their trip to Nepal later this year.

This weekend just gone, I was supervising a bronze D of E assessment expedition in the Glen Feshie area for a group from Kingussie High School.

Ardverikie Wall

Yesterday, Ardverikie Wall (Binnein Shuas). Little did Hannah and I know that we were planning to climb this classic on the exact day it was first climbed 42 years ago to the day and one of the guys who put the route up was climbing in front of us! Fantastic sustained climbing - which made a nice change from loose chossy stuff and heather - and outstanding scenery. The weather was also perfect, what more could you ask for. Unfortunately our timing was a bit out (I was 4 hours late for work, oops) and we ended up having to ab out after four and a half pitches. Even though we didn't finish the route we enjoyed some fantastic climbing and learned many lessons from our day. I also did my first multi-pitch abseil which was cool, although we were fairly tired by that point so really had to concentrate to manage it all safely. The walk in was quite long (hour and a half) so we'll probably take bikes next time.

No Blue Skies and Pot of Gold

Hannah Ian and I climbing in the northern corries on Tuesday

Biking near Insh

On Wednesday the girlies and myself went back to the Inshriach area. I was aiming to explore some of the singletrack, much of which isn't on the map. We headed off into the forest and I took a GPS so I could work out where I had been! From the summit of Creag Dubh (pictured) and there abouts, there are many single track descents. The most straight forward way to the summit is via the forest track, beware bushwacking on the summit!!

biking

On Monday Kes Wendy and I did a ride from Lynwilg towards Geal-charn, to Caggan and along the valley to Sluggsn bridge. The descent to Caggan is great and the ride along to Sluggan is also pleasant. This is one of the best rides I've done since I moved to scotland.

On Friday we got the rib over from Elgol to Scavaig to do a climb called Maday (!). At Severe it wasn't technically hard but gave some excellent climbing on a great gabbro crag. The second slab pitch was particularly high quality. The scenery and the hot weather made us forget we were in Scotland.

Cuillins day2/3

We started off the day by heading into Coire Lagan, up the Cioch slabs and the Cioch itself then scrambled across to East gulley with a bit of a caving manouvre (see picture!) . The day was fantastic, I love Skye more every time I go there, rock, rock and more rock. Richard gave me some help with short roping/ taking coils etc. and I led a couple of grade 3 scrambles including An Stac and then up the Inn Pinn. We also did Kings chimney. Fortunately for us we had another bone dry day but I can imagine Kings Chimney being a bit hairy in the wet. We dropped down about 100m to a small stream to bivvy for the night. On the second day we did everything else up to Bruch na Frithe. Just brilliant. One of my aims for the trip was to get to know the ridge better. I feel like I have scratched the surface. It's such a complex place.