First Winter Route of the Season!

Winter has arrived with some furry on the high mountains up here! After a wet and windy mountain bike ride round Glen Feshie (again) on Saturday it was an early start on Sunday. We left Corrie Cas at 8.00am and walked in to Corrie nan Lochan. The snow started properly at about 700m and got progressively deeper. An annoying mix of super hard neve and knee deep powder. I was trail breaking too, but all good training I suppose.

As the clag was down and it was bloody freezing we decided to do an easy gully so headed up to Y Gully Right Branch. There was plenty of snow and the first pitch was a mix of superb snow ice, soft powder and crusty ice. Nowhere too hard but protection not easy to come by. Finding a belay took some work but I got an excellent hook in after extensive excavation. Juan led the second pitch while I stood on a small perch freezing, at least I thought at the time, to death. Everything was coated with a thin layer of ice and my toes and fingers took it in turns to go numb.

After a while I got the tugs on the rope and I set off up the snowy groove, front pointing and loving every minute of it. About 20m up I looked up and saw that the next 10-15m of the groove was filled with what looked like pack ice. My climbing partner, in the process of trying to maintain upward momentum, had transformed the goove into a raft of snow-ice tiles. The tiles were stacked at crazy angles to each other on a bed of soft snow. I made my thoughts light and levitated my way up avoiding any downward pressure. A couple of meters further my partner looked down at me and very quietly said that the belay was bad and I shouldn't fall. I believed him. As I climbed on past him I inadvertently destroyed the belay. At least I was leading and I could do something about the situation rather than watch nervously as I cautiously climbed further. A few more moves on the same bad ice saw me on to steeper ground and I carefully climbed up to the cornice. Making sure my feet were well placed.

The snow here was deeper but the angle pushed me back. Knocking off the cornice, the wind blew the snow back into my face smoothering me. At last I could reach up over and get my axes planted into the firm neve of the plateau. I rolled on the flat ground and crawled away from the edge. As I did so I heard a shout of alarm from below as a large 6 foot slab above my belayer sheared and hurtled down the gully. After my hotaches subsided I brought my partner up and at last we were on flat ground, albeit in a white-out. The walk back to the car was pretty uneventful apart and as always dragged along the built path that winds through the rather drab and deary landscape. Hot chocolate in the flesh-pots of Corrie Cas and then back to Inverness for tea and medals!

Off-season!

Its been a while since I have done any proper running. That really is the great thing about having an off season. I know 'season' sounds very grand and much more scientific than what is really boils down to is the fact that I can't face anymore hard training or races this year. Not having to go out for a run and then feeling guilty about it.

So with this in mind the past couple of weekends have been superb. Mountain biking in Glen Feshie (trailmaps available from Bothy Bikes in Aviemore) along superb narrow swooping single track in the sun, Munro bagging in a snowstorm in Glen Doll with an overnight camp,

watching waves,

and more midweek Munro bagging in Glen Lyon (Inveran). Cheshunt Estate (on the web too) must surely figure amongst the most obstructive estates in Scotland. Of course that nutter up in Alladale Estate (more info on their website) takes the biscuit with his 30 miles of electrified fencing. But what really bothers me about the Cheshunt lot is the fact they try and make walkers (I assume they tar runners with the same brush) guilty for taking legitimate access due to the damge we cause. Strange, I thought over-grazing was one for major issues which is caused by the huge number of deer, not baggers, in the hills. Of course Argocats ferrying fat, gun-totting 'huntsmen' up to bag that stag has nothing to do with erosion. I went up the hills anyway on the assumtion that most of these idiots need a standing target for them to shoot and that I should be able to out-run them. I had a great day in the hills on superb running terrain and met one walker and no deer or 'stalkers'.

Today I was up over in Tomintoul to try out some biking there (trailmaps can be down loaded from the Glenlivet Estate website). Not as good as Glen Feshie but still worth while whilst the bigger hills are storm bound.

Just a couple more weeks off then back to training proper. I even have a traingin plan which I will post soon, along with a target race plan, when I feel brave enough.

OMM kit thoughts

Well it is now two weeks after the race and I have been chilling out and taking a complete rest from running. My feet were so swollen and I felt so tired that I decided a break was in order. So instead of running I have been planning next season and spent ags writing and rewriting training plans. Intervals are definetly back in and hopefully I will be able to up the intensity of my runs, especially the long ones. I was very surprised at the pace and needto be strong enough to at least jog through tussocks. Need more strength on the hills but at least I was quick enough on the downs

So I don't forget I will just put up a kit list from this year's OMM and hopefully I will be able to minimise it for the next one!

Lowe Alpine Rush 25l rucsack - too big and heavy
Rab Quantum 250 short sleeping bag - superb and very warm sleeping bag
Therma-rest Prolite short - heavy but floats and helps with warmth
Laser Comp tent- superb, warm and 'friendly'
NF Apex jacket - heavy but windproof so will probably take a light weight fleece instead as when it rained I put my jacket on anyway
NF s/s light thermal - warm enough and drys fast
lyrca tights - warmish but had very bad thigh rubbing on day 2 so shorts or vaseline next year
Helly Hansen wind pants - dry fast and warm
Gloves / hat - both got very wet and didn't dry perhaps try lighter ones that dry faster
Marmot jacket - heavy but seems to work well enough
Bargain bin waterproof trousers - shite and need some decent light ones
Pocket rocket stove / gas - foil wind shield made an enormous difference
Titanium pan - get a titanium kettle and use foil packet trail food??
Wool socks - warm but can I get away with lighter?
Food - together we ate 1 soup, 1 hot choclate, 2 curries only on the overnight and 4 oat so simple in morning - seemed fine
Running food - not enough sugar - need more instant energy as nuts and dried fruit not good enough so drinks powders and mars bars to satve off the bonk

The total weight was just under 5kg so should be able to knock off a few hunderd grams.