Scotland Trip
Sorry about the delay in posting this blog. I was a bit angry on Wednesday and have had to allow myself a few days to settle down.
The reason I was angry is that we failed in our attempt to climb Ben Nevis. Failed as in we turned back out of fear (or sensibility, depending on how you want to look at it) rather than having to be rescued before you start panicking.
Ben Nevis is a not only a very big mountain but the ascent starts from close to sea level (50 metres in our case, as we started from the North face car park). There are a few routes up, but our chosen route was via the Carn Mor Dearg arête, which involves climbing a Munro called Carn Mor Dearg (1,220m) and then crossing a rocky ridge about a kilometre long with a massive drop each side across to Ben Nevis. Like Striding Edge and Sharp Edge in the Lake District, but longer and probably with a bigger drop. Then you walk down the mountain track (tourist/flip flop route) on the other side which is the easy way up and down.
However, to cut a long story (and a bit of a domestic) short, there was still some snow on parts of the arête, especially the steep part at the end which was completely covered in snow on the side we could see, and on viewing it from Carn Mor Dearg summit, we decided not to attempt it. Unfortunately, this meant we had to descend the 1,170m we had just climbed, which was not the easy route down at all. It was made harder not only by the weight of failure on our shoulders, but also by the fact that we were wearing stiff winter boots and carrying all our heavy winter kit. We took the precaution of eating the pork pies before descending, but that didn't have much effect on the weight of our rucksacks.
I experimented with my winter boot lacing technique during the walk, and can report with certainty that it is the fit of the boots that is the problem rather than the way I am doing them up. I am pleased that after 37 years my boot lacing technique is not being called into question, but unfortunately a new pair of boots is going to cost me a small fortune come next winter.
We spent the evening at the campsite sulking and eating huge amounts of pasta parcel things and chocolate. We were so tired we didn't even drink much.
The following day (Thursday), we had a completely different plan for the day, which we were pretty sure would not result in failure. We have recently joined (and some would say become obsessed with) a CrossFit gym. Google it if you're interested. If not, then skip to the next paragraph. The tradition amongst CrossFitters is to visit the local CrossFit gym whilst travelling, take part in their WOD (Workout of the Day), and come away with a T shirt. The local gym was called CrossFit Ben Nevis (yes, in light of the previous day's experience, a slightly taunting name), and is run by two ladies called Norma and Karen, who relocated to Fort William due to their love of mountains and dislike of cities. Either their gym is very popular with women, or we somehow managed to turn up to a ladies session, but there were no boys in sight. We were treated to 6 rounds of 6 front squats (35kg), 12 burpees and 6 toes to bar (or knees to bar in our case), and then purchased our T shirts for the bargain price of £5 each, with a warning that the arms tend to rip when you flex your biceps! We were welcomed by the trainers and the rest of the ladies in the WOD and will be sure to return when we make our next (hopefully successful) attempt on Ben Nevis.
Ok, that's the gym talk over. After our workout we went to Morrisons and bought some cinnabuns and some contributions to the family meal we had gate crashed at my cousin Alison's (Phil's little sister) house that evening. On the drive to Alison's (via Glenfinnan), I commented as we passed a sign warning us of stags galloping across the road that it would be amazing if a stag actually did cross the road in front of us one day. About 30 seconds later, we had to stop George to allow not one but two stags to amble gently across the road in front of us.
We spent a lovely evening with Alison and family and were made very welcome as usual. After dinner we went for a walk, spotted some more stags, and watched the sun set behind the Rhum Cuillin (some nice hills on an island which we will need to visit one day in our quest to complete The List).
We took up Alison's offer of the spare bed, and were up fairly early to say goodbye to her girls before they went to school. We were on the road for 9am, with the vague intention of ticking another hill off the list on the way south. However, were were both feeling rather lethargic and achey (not sure if we have Ben Nevis the mountain or the gym to thank for this), and didn't really feel like we had a mountain in us. We thought we'd go for a paddle in the canoe on the way back, but the weather wasn't great, and we had our comfy bed at home in our sights and ended up just doing the whole drive back home in one day.
We have had an amazing holiday, and have been so lucky with the weather. Buying those rucksack covers really did the trick. We may put them on eBay and buy some at the start of each holiday in future. It was great to get up to Inverpolly and make the most of it in the sunshine, and we have Phil and Anne and their Scotch to thank for that little diversion.
I am really hoping that our next trip to Scotland will involve Pack Rafts, and I this is something I will be working on with Claire over the coming months.
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