Saturday 23 January 2010

Dog sleds are GO!

What with Jenny and I being dog sledding experts (we went for a few hours in Norway last year) we thought we'd head over to Aviemore with our friends Rick and Anna for the annual dog sled rally to see if we could offer any assistance.

Unfortunately we got waylaid in the award winning Mountain Cafe (all day breakfast highly recommended) but we eventually made it to the track near Loch Morlich sometime after lunch.


We were all pretty impressed with the dogs hurtling round the track until we saw some of the dogs that weren't running and they made Dylan look well behaved, we never thought we'd see a dog that made Dylan look good!

Now, I think I still have my skateboard somewhere, all we need is a little seat for Alby......

--Matt

PS. Speaking of days out, check out some of our recommended day trips from Invergarry Lodge.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Official Affiliation (SYHA)

We are now an official affiliate of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association (SYHA).

You can book us online through the SYHA here or through Hostelworld.com here (did you notice the 90% rating?) or just visit the official Invergarry Lodge site which is often updated - most recently with our favourite local walks and day trip recommendations.

Monday 11 January 2010

Culachy Falls, Fort Augustus

The big freeze continues up in the Highlands, Rich (Invergarry Lodge's official ice climber extraordinaire) and I headed to Glen Tarff, just east of Fort Augustus to have a play on Culachy Falls.

As far as we know the falls have only had one previous ascent and was in exceptional condition. Great stuff for only 35 minutes walk from the car - even Young Alby joined us for the trip but he didn't seem to keen when it came to his turn to lead the route, like father like son.

--Matt

Monday 4 January 2010

New Invergarry Ice Route

The prolonged cold spell round here has led to lots of local frozen waterfalls. Rich and I decided to tackle the big one in Glengarry forest that I don't know that name for, easy enough to find, park at Glengarry forest and follow the yellow way marked trail, about 20 mins or so.



The climbing wasn't that steep or difficult but has a nice short steep section and the route divides nicely in to a couple of pitches. We don't have much (any) experience in grading these things but we reckon about grade II. The name of this new route? We decided on Viagra Falls, it could have been harder.


--Matt


Edit - Dave the Bowls president informs me the waterfall does have a name - Allt Na Calliche (or something similar) thanks Dave.