Weekend 29/30th January

Today I ticked my first Munro summit in winter, solo! I chose to head up Sgurr Eilde Mor (big peak of the hind) at 1010m, from Mamore Lodge. This mountain is part of the Mamores range and is the most easterly and remote peak of that group. From Loch Eilde Mor I took the old stalkers track up into Coire an Lochain. The Coire looked fantastic in all its winter whiteness, while the surrounding hills cowered under a dark foreboding sky. The weather forecast was less than ideal though, promising sleet/snow, low temperatures and winds gusting 40mph. However, all was calm in the coire and although the low cloud shrouded the summit from view, it presented valuable navigation practice for me! It would have been nice to have had the time and the weather to do Binnein Beag and Binnein Mor too but that will have to wait for a better day. Today's walk was only about 14km length in total and I was back at the Mamore Lodge at 2:30pm (just in time to miss the sleet showers scurrying in from Glencoe).  



Summit cairn (looking NE)



Coire an Lochain





Looking back west towards Glencoe (Pap of Glencoe on the right)



Before this, I had a LONG day on Saturday... My friend, Kat, and I left my house in Glencoe at 6:15am to go winter climbing on Ben Nevis. The walk-in to Coire na Ciste always feels long and tiring but especially so when carrying a heavy winter pack (rope, rack, crampons, ice screws etc!) On this day the cloud level was really low and were surprised when we suddenly arrived at the CIC hut because we couldn't see it at all! We headed up into the coire, hoping to find Number Two Gully Buttress but after 2.5h of looking for it in a thick eerie cloud (along with many other confused climbers), we decided to retrace our steps and head for a route we had done before (one we could find in the low visibility). We ended up getting a late start on Number Three Gully Butress. The route was enjoyable and exciting at times! Once on the top we headed for the summit plateau to take it the view (because typically the cloud had cleared while we were on the route and it was now a gorgeous day!) Later, we headed down via the Red Burn and made it back to the car just before darkness closed in. 



Kat (and my feet)!

Top belay















Walking, running and navigation...

Why walk when you can run?? That's what I keep asking myself about this challenge. I will be sorely tempted to run these rounds, however I have decided to try and stick to walking for two reasons: I am quite injury prone (to running/overuse injuries) and because I 'have my eye' on a few fell races in June, which I would LOVE to be fighting fit for! I am secretly hoping that lots of mountain walking will strengthen up weak joints and allow me to dabble in some fell running this summer.

Yesterday I bought a basic GPS unit which I am planning to take with me on the challenege this May. The idea is to use the GPS to log my track (actual route taken) and to mark/waypoint the summits I visit along the way. I'm hoping this will give me a way of showing where I have been and will maybe provide some sort of graphic I can upload to this blog. I am not planning on using the GPS unit for navigation purposes. I'll be relying on map and compass for that!

Helpful emails...

Today I received a very positive email from (the!) Charlie Ramsay, giving me lots of useful tips for fundraising and awareness-raising, as well as a kind offer of future advice. Charlie has also put a mention of my challenge in the History 1 section of his webpage: http://www.ramsaysround.com.  In due course I will also email my proposed schedule and dates for the records section!

I also received an encouraging message from the Bob Graham 24h Club; "Good luck to you on behalf of the members of the BG Club; your heart and soul are in the right place!"

After work yesterday I went on a wee hill run in the dark up my favourite local hill, Beinn Lora in Benderloch. Despite being a mere 308m, it is tons of boggy fun and makes for a great race each November (http://beinnlorahillrace.synthasite.com/). The weather forecast for this weekend looks quite good, so i'm thinking that i'll try and get my first 2011 training days in the bag! Now I just have to decide which hills to explore....

Back in the UK....

I'm now back from the Alps (Chamonix and Cogne) and am ready to start thinking about how to train for and carry out my UK Big 3 Challenge....watch this space!!!

While on holiday I did lots of skiing and climbing, which culminated in a ski-tour to the summit of Gran Paradiso (which at 4061m, is the highest mountain in Italy). This was undoubtedly a good lesson in how to keep on plodding uphill.....



The last 300m in crampons...



Me and a statue of the Madonna on the

summit of Gran Paradiso (4061m)



For the moment, I am trying to encourage as many early donations as possible to set the stage for future fundraising efforts this spring.