Queues on Tower Ridge

We finally had our day out with the legend that is Alan Kimber on Ben Nevis, what he doesn't know about Ben Nevis isn't worth knowing. It looked like a great day for heading up Tower Ridge - blue skies, no wind and great snow, unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea too!

We managed to skip in front of a couple of parties at the beginning but there where still plenty of other teams on the ridge - queues seen forming here on the little tower, we took a line a little to the right of the main line to try and keep things moving.


The climbing didn't really present any problems for either of us (or Alan!) although I can't say I particularly enjoyed belaying in a crowded tower gap - gulp! - something to hold on to would have been nice. Rich finishing up the little tower (I think)....

Rich taking 5 waiting for the queues to die down for the Eastern traverse. Working on his tan, well, his face tan...


Anyway - great route, great conditions, a legend to take us up it - a great day. Could only have been better if we'd got home 1/2 hour earlier for Alby's bath time!

--Matt

Edit: Picture of the dream team from Alan's blog

Meall Fuar-Mohnaidh - Run for the hills

There was an excellent article in Scotland Outdoors magazine about fell running this month written by fell running aficionado Steven Fallon recommending Meall Fuar-Mhonaidh (over looks Loch Ness near Drumnadrochit) as a decent hill to get started on, well, it's only up the road - so why not.

Rich and I have talked about this hill a few times but just never actually got round to doing it - if it's written in a magazine saying what a good run it would be then it must be true - we had no excuse.

After a couple of what could loosely be called training runs in the last few weeks - twice round the garden trying to catch a chicken and once along the river trying to get the dog back on his lead - I felt I was ready.

As it turned out it is a great little hill, a little boggy but not too bad (only fell over once), nice and soft on your feet on the way down. Saying that, I'm not sure why they call it fell running, we must have (fast) walked 7/8's of the way up, down was good fun though.

Now, the magazine says allow 1 hour 30 minutes, we did it in 1 hour 27, 1 hour 22 if you don't count the five minutes rest at the top - we must be naturals!

--Matt

A Short Cairngorm Ski Tour

The plan was to head up to Cairngorm from the ski centre and then head over to Ben Macdui, or, if the weather was poor, traverse round the Northern Corries and down Lurchers Gully, a classic ski mountaineering introduction for Rick's brand new top-of-the-range touring skis.


Unfortunately the weather was appalling so after a bit of white-out navigation to get us to the first summit we bailed and headed down to the warm comforting embrace of an all-day breakfast. That's the last two mountain days with Rich that have finished early with an all day breakfast, there is definitely a pattern emerging, he tells me we'll soon stop pretending to do stuff and start meeting at cafes. Fine by me.

--Matt

River Garry Salmon Fishing

We had a hostel full of exceptionally skilled fishermen at the weekend - all vying for the glory of the first spring salmon of the year on the Garry....unfortunately not much was biting!

Young Phil and his glamorous assistant can be seen here winning the "can you cast to the other bank and get it stuck in the rocks and lose your lure" competition.

Still, they all had good fun despite the lack of salmon. There were a number of excuses knocking about - mainly the exceptionally cold weather we've had this year and the slow currents/lack of water coming down from the frozen hills. Better luck next time chaps!

You get to a certain age though and the excitement just proves too much...



--Matt

Great Snow at Nevis Range (Helen's First Jump)

Headed up to the Nevis Range for some snowboarding but they had ran out of hire equipment so ended up on my skis again - at least I didn't end up spending most of the afternoon on my bum like I would have with a snowboard. We had a great afternoon on the slopes - as you can see from the photo crafty Helen is getting to grips with her board and was having a go at some jumps - after I'd showed her how not to do it of course.



Ben also took a few minutes to show us some advanced crash management techniques. Anyway, they still have great conditions up there so can thoroughly recommend a trip up there.

--Matt

Edit 08/03/10

Helen wanted me to show the real unphotoshopped picture of her first jump....

Curved Ridge Conundrum

Headed up towards Curved Ridge today but decided to cut our losses and turn back after ploughing through waist deep snow. We were hoping that someone would have been up before us and broke trail but no such luck so left it for another day.

Still, a nice day to be out for some photos.....




Matt

Great Scottish Skiing

As you all probably know the snow is back, and plenty of it. We've seen lots of people out touring in the hills, and the Nevis range is reporting its best snow for years. We had friends skiing over at Cairngorm for the day so we headed over to join them. With a bribe of cake we managed to get Alby's granny to come across and keep him company so we both managed to get on the slopes.

We even bumped into (not literally) Crafty Helen who was looking like a true snowboarding aficionado.


The snow was as good as we've ever seen it in Scotland and the weather looks great for the next few days so hope you get chance to make the most of it - we have a few vacancies if you fancy it!

--Matt