Ben Donich, 25th June 2009

The highest hill within walking distance of Lochgoilhead is Ben Donich at 847m and was the destination for my next biking holiday walk.

No easy starts on this peak, a relentless climb with little rest bite from start to summit. To break the walk I went looking for adventure and managed to find some crags that allowed me to have a little rest and fun at the same time. Nothing too serious with the hardest climb being a slab of about 4m.
As I reached about 600m the wind from the east became quite strong and I dropped off the ridge to find some shelter. When I reached the summit I had some great views of the Cobbler (Ben Arthur) across the valley but I couldn’t stay too long as the wind was making it difficult to stand at times.

I descended through the crags on the west side with fantastic views of Loch Goil, a great place that will be revisited I think!

Arrochar, 21st June 2009

A biking holiday to Scotland was the perfect excuse to bag a couple of Quality Mountains Days this week. Our accommodation was the holiday park at Lochgoilhead just down the road from the Arrochar Alps, a place surrounded by some amazing roads and mountains… Perfect!
The weather was excellent, hot and sunny, perfect for taking the motorbike on the smooth roads on the west coast. By Sunday I was hoping for some bad weather so I could justify a walk but it wasn’t going to happen. So I took advantage of the longest day and, after a day of bikes, I took to the hills at 4:00pm. The cloud had started to roll in by now and from 450m visibility was down to 25 – 50m.

Good opportunity to get in lots of navigation practice. The first summit achieved was Stob na Boine Druim-fhinn, at 658m and surrounded by crags it was a difficult trip in the fog. Next along the route was Beinn Tharsuinn, a small drop of 150m before climbing back up to 619m. The climb up to the next peak Beinn Lochain 703m was quite steep through crags but nowhere near as difficult as the descent. There were no paths on the hills and the ground was covered in long grass which was sodden in the low cloud. In fact, it was so wet; the only wildlife I came across was frogs!!

By the time I got back to the accommodation, the cloud was at sea level and I was covered head to foot in midges. They are the most evil creatures on the planet!

Birchen Edge, 13th June 2009

Today saw Rich, Tim and Alex out on the crags at Birchen Edge in the Peak District for some gritstone climbing.

We arrived at 8:30am in an attempt to beat the crowds and failed miserably! It seems the sun brings everyone out and most of the routes had crag rats already firmly attached!

‘The Promenade’ was available, a 14m Mod, so that was my first lead of the day. Tim followed me up to pull out the gear then went back to the bottom to tie Alex on. Alex managed to put us all to shame and ran up the route in double quick time!

The next route to become free was ‘Porthole Direct’, a 12m VS 4b. Going from Mod to VS was an interesting transition with the initial moves being so easy I thought the grade must be wrong. A bulge towards the top of the route changed the feel from ‘easy’ to ‘I can smell poo’!

The rock at Birchen has good grip in the sun, the routes are interesting but the weekend shows the popularity of the crag. Mid week for the next visit, me thinks!