ML Course - Cairngorms, 31st March

This week sees Davie heading northwards (again) to undertake his ML training in the Cairngorms.

Having looked at service providers in the Lakes I decided to go for a course run in Scotland. Course is run by Peter Hill MIC and will run for 6 days. Pete has climbed the Eiger North Face and has written a few books on mountaineering so I should be in good hands.

Pete's site is found at : www.petehill.mic.com

If I get the chance to get some pics I will get them up when I return.

Watch this space!

Conival and Ben More Assynt

The weather really deteriorated over night with snow fall above 700m and winds coming in from the north as a cold front came in from the Atlantic.

Our heroes were unperturbed at this and decided after a hearty breakfast to give it a shot.

The wind was gusting at around 80mph with average windspeed at 60mph. Moving was very difficult on exposed ridges and combined with the snow, ascent was precarious to say the least.




We had decided early on that an attempt on Ben More from Conival was probably stupid, especially on an exposed ridge in the teeth of a 70mph gale. There were only 2 parties of two on the hill and we met the other guys on the way down; they confirmed that conditions on top were too hairy to even contemplate a ridge walk to Ben More.



Conditions were really appalling , with the streams turning into rivers and the paths disappearing under water. However, 3 1/2 hours later we were on the top and back at the hotel in 7 hours, soaking and exhausted. (Well I was ...Davie)



We would like to thank Richard and Jaimie at the Inchnadamph Hotel for their Highland hospitality and making us so welcome; great company, great food and a really comfortable stay.

If you're ever in the highlands this is a must stay place: http://www.inchnadamphhotel.co.uk/

Ben Klibreck 19th March

Today saw Rich and Dave attempting to summit both Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope.

The weather was threatening to rain/snow and a frost overnight made the inital going quite good.

Getting up to the saddle was hard going and visibility was down to about 50m at times, but as height was gained the weather started to clear and eventually gave way to sunshine over the valley.





We followed the ridge route round to the final push to the summit and slogged our way through fresh snow to the summit cairn.




Time to the top was 3hrs 20 and over all journey was 6hrs 30 mins (with apparently 30mins delay down to Davie faffing about).





Once back at the car we established that we had been given some duff gen by the hotel owner and his suggested route had added about 6km to our journey (about 2 hrs). This and a very knackered Davie meant that a secondary attempt on Ben Hope was beyond reach. (DAMN!)

Arrived at Inchnadamph to get ready for the next leg - Conival and Ben More Assynt tomorrow. Post to follow.

Trip to the frozen North

Thanks to a business cancellation this week, Rich and Davie are heading off to Sutherland in the North of Scotland.

As part of 'Davie's Quest' to bag all the Munros before his 50th birthday, tackling the outlying hills in the far north was going to be a project for later in the year.

Further 'projects' in this quest will be posted in the Verdes Calender and the link to this will be sent out to all members when we get back.

Hopefully, if the weather holds, we're going to do Ben Hope (most Northerly Munro at 927m) and Ben Klibreck (962m) on Wednesday 19th May and Conival (987m) and Ben More Assynt (998m) on Thursday 20th .

It's a long drive (800 miles round trip) but it will be a good test for the Range Rover...

We'll get some pix up on the site when we get back.

David

Winter Skills - Ice Factor, Kinlochleven. February 2008

Rich and Dave attended a Winter Skills course in Scotland a few weeks ago.

First couple of days saw the dynamic duo throwing themselves down a couple of Munros in order to practice self arrest using ice axes.

Use of boots alone, boots with axe, boots and crampons and then all 3 in 'perfect harmony' were practised and practised until we got the message.

In the midst of all this fun, we also climbed 3 Munros:

Stob Dubh and Stob Coire Raineach (Buachille Etive Beag) and

Aonach Mor.

Day 3 was an opportunity to brush up on mountain navigation and day 4 was indoors, giving it loads on the largest indoor ice walls in Europe, practising our front pointing technique.

All in all a great week and thanks to the lads at Ice Factor.