Ben Alder

The weather can today (Sunday) be best described as frustrating. An early morning start to get into Ben Alder to have a look and do one of the ridges was pretty much a waste of time. Our attempt fizzled out about 5km into the inital 15km bike approach to the bothy due to a mixture of heavy showers and wind. Judging by the number of cars at Dalwhinnie station the bothy would have been busy. I was surprised to see how much snow was left as Carngorm was pretty much stripped. To save something from the day we went up a Graham on the east side of the A9. The blizzard showers continued all day and the wind remained high. In between the horizontal waves of snow brief glimpses of Ben Alder down the glen teased us and by the time we had dropped off the hill it looked considerably whiter than in the morning. Hopefully we have enough of a winter left to go back up for a second go.

Good Friday

Some times following the masses is the right thing to do. After a week of good reports from the Ben (Nevis) and high pressure I headed out with Kenny to see what was there. There was more snow than I had expected, however most of the routes weren't in great nick and the likes of Tower Ridge and Observatory looked more like rock climbs. Up high there was a decent amount of ice and we resigned ourselves to queuing on Good Friday (III). Tower Scoop was busy and we took a direct line over a couple of ice bulges up to the start of Indicator Wall. A bit of a calf burner on superb neve and more entertaining than traversing all the way in from Gardyloo. We then traversed into the gully of Good Friday and found only one other party on it. The gully lead to the base of stepped ice fall on the right. It felt longer than it looked and was superbly protected by ice-screws and I set up a screw belay after about 40m with the last of them. Two futher icy pitches at a fairly easy angle lead to the sun and a top out on to the plateau. The views were fantastic. After lingering on the summit we down-climbed No. 4 Gully whilst a Royal Navy helicopter was busy rescuing a walker who had ventured up Gardyloo Gully without axes. We definetly need some more snow to bring moer of the routes back into condition.

Time: 7Hs

Glen Tromie

High pressure over the Highlands has resulted in wide clear skies and heaps of sunshine. Unfortunately, there has also been a pretty major loss of snow cover, however low temperatures during the night has resulted in the snow left being rock-hard neve. To get out and enjoy some of the sunshine I headed out with Johnathan to get a run in before work. This made for a very early start and the first hour from Tromie Bridge up Gleann Chromharie was in the dark, requiring compass work due to the myriad of tracks. The run up the glen to Meallach Mhor at the head was pretty hard work following a faint track, but the frozen ground made it more pleasant than it could have been! Looking at the surrounding hills most of the snow seemed to be restricted to gullies on the north faces although Ben Alder and Creag Meagidh looked very snowy. We returned to the car down Glen Tromie which is tarmaced all the way so was hard on my knees.

Time: 3h 25 Distance: 17M Av HR 138 Max HR 162

Carn na Loine

Sometimes the motivation is so hard to find. I spend hours agonising over whether I really want to go out. Every time I finally drag myself out of the house, sometimes with a helpful push from Emily, and I love it. In whatever weather I feel so much better doing something, anything. The joy of being outside and physically active seems to dispell even the darkest of moods. Today was a great example of the carthartic properties of hill running. I headed again down to Dava 14 miles in land of Nairn, but this time headed south on the disused railway track under overcast skies in the direction of the Cromdale hills. Even these relatively modest hills were skimmed with layers of cloud. Even further south and east the tiger-stripped lower slopes of the Eastern Cairngorms indicated the extent of the past couple of days thaw. After about 5km a track lead off to Upper Derraid and I then followed quiet country roads to Knock of Auchnahannet. Without the dark, oppresive patches of dense conifers it would easily be mistaken for the Dales or Mid-Wales. The pleasant nature of the route carried on up a track to the bealach near Carn na Loine where I turned due north. Despite the next 4km being over tussocks, bog and heather I was now fully warmed up physically and mentally. Earlier negative thoughts about life in general had been successful met head on and dealt with. The summits had views which allowed the beauty of the area to be appreciated. Maybe it is just me, well it could be as I very rarely see anyone else on my runs, but these areas of rolling hills and deserted glens hold as much interest and beauty as any other area of the Highlands. At Black Loch, which really was black, tracks were rejoined and in an hour I was back at the car next to the AA 'phone box, strangely devoid of a telephone.

Time: 3Hs Distance: 16.5M Av HR: 145 Max HR: 165

I stopped on the way back home in at Tescos to grab in some food. It was packed full of people, most of them too wrapped up in their lives to take a moment or two to take stock and actually look around about them. All of a sudden I felt very lonely and I noticed as I used the Self-service till that I hadn't spoken to anyone at all during the whole day. It may have been better that way as they would understand me as little as I understand them. Perhaps this is where I should come to get motivation for that next run.

Red Gully - Cairngorms

Today was an absolute cracker. The wind was, as forecast, high and there was a bit of spin-drift but the skies clear. All buttresses were plastered and the Goat Track was a sheet of ice covered in a layer of wind blown snow. The orginal plan for Western Rib was soon shelved and we decided to have a go at Red Gully (II/III) as it was out of the wind.

I had the first pitch, the only pitch with any real climbing in it, which was in alright condition just bordering on III rather than II. There was some ice on the steeper sections, but not enough to keep me completely happy. The gear was good in the side walls and near to where you needed it. Unconsolidated snow covered much of the cracks (plus easier angled ground) and gear did need some excavation. The rest of the gully is typical I/II territory, but good fun all the same. I finished with frozen eyebrows and serious hotaches, but once on the plateau it all seemed worthwhile as the visibility was superb and less wind.

There were plenty of people out today ski-ing and climbing before the predicted thaw which is threatening to strip the place for the weekend.

Time; 5hs

Cairngorm conditions

High winds were forecast all weekend and with the avalanche hazard high due to the large dumps of snow I decided to give climbing a miss and instead had a brillant day cross country ski-ing around Badguish (10.5km in a very leisurely 3hs). The cover was a bit thin under the trees, but it was a fantastic day under blue skies, pleasant temperatures and decent snow. Higher up in the corries the winds were high,but some friends reported less snow than expected (and managed to get a good route done).



Today, despite the forecast, I headed up with Rob to see about getting a route done in the corries. At the car park it was wet and very windy so we couldn't even be motivated to leave the car so we headed back to Inverness via the cafe in Aviemore. Much of the snow has melted and with fairly warm temperatures forecast the burns will be up in no time.