Training Weekend 26/27th Feb

DAY 1: This weekend I was hoping for some winter climbing action but unfortunately the weather was quite mild and the freezing level very high. For this reason, my partner, Ben and I decided to have a stab at a winter traverse of the Mamores ridge. There are 10 Munros on this ridge and several out-and-back doglegs are neccessary to tick outlying summits, making it a VERY big day...



The Mamores Looking East from the Devil's Ridge

 

The section we managed!

We started from Glen Nevis at 9:00am on Saturday morning with the NE Ridge of Mullach nan Coirean. (939m). Due to a thaw last week, the snowline was over 800m and anything still lying in gullies was old and soft. From this summit we tackled increasingly difficult terrain as we ascended the rocky/bouldery slopes of Stob Ban (999m). At this point I started to reaslise that the Mamores were not going to feel much like a typical ridge walk - there is a lot of height loss and gain between summits, making travelling from top-to-top pretty time-consuming.  

Summit of Stob Ban

By the time we had reached the summit of Stob Ban, the snow showers had started and visibility was patchy. From here we dropped to a lochan west of Sgurr an Lubhair (at 760m) before ascending a zig-zagging stalkers path up a broad rib to the col south of Stob Choire a Mhail. The next stage was the first dogleg; an out-and-back traverse of the Devils Ridge to the summit of Sgurr a Mhaim (1099m).

Ben on the Devil's Ridge

On the Devils Ridge the conditions were certainly wintry and we donned our crampons and swapped poles for an axe about halfway along. The ridge is exposed and interesting but we encountered no major dicfficulties. 

 

Devil's Ridge

Sgurr an Lubhair

On Sgurr a Mhaim we were awarded a glimpse of Ben Nevis to the North, and then a view of the ridge stretching out to our left and right as we looked south, back along the Devils Ridge. In the sun this view was magnificent! The next summit on the main ridge is Sgurr an Lubhair. Although this peak stands at 1001m it is not a Munro (it is included in the Ramsay Round however). By now there was now about an inch of fresh snow on the ground, slowing our walking pace a little (slippy slippy!)



Descending Am Bodach

The tops started to feel closer together as we began our ascent up the nicely angled west ridge of Am Bodach (1032m). Sadly the same cannot be said of the NNE ridge of Am Bodach. Descending this way in winter is not an easy line. On this occasion the slope was comprised of soft snow, covering a base of ice and rocks. We used our axes to descend backwards and cut steps wherever it became icy.

All too soon we were ascending again, this time from the col at 825m back up to the summit of Stob Coire a Chairn (981m). Frustratingly, this top is not a Munro but An Gearanach to the north of it is (at 982m!!!) For this extra 1m it is neccessary to undertake another kilometre long out-and-back scramble. We decided to continue on to Na Gruagaichean (1055m) and leave this stretch for another day! Although only 74m different in height, to gain the cairn at the top of this mountain you have to lose about 200m and then gain another 274m! Phew!! The wind had increased dramatically by this time of day and the spindrift was whipping off the ridge into our faces, so that at times we had to walk sideways like a crab just so that we could keep our eyes open!



Ben on Na Gruagaichean

Both of us had run out of food and were now starting to flag. The final pull up onto the summit of Na Gruagaichean was a tricky scramble up icy slabs (with very tired legs!)


By now it was approaching 5:30pm and it seemed a good time to call it a day and give up!! From this last top we scuttled off down the south (then SW ridge) to the Mamore Lodge where we had left a car. We had visited 6 of the 10 Munros on the ridge (7 of the 11 summits on this leg of the Ramsay Round). Worryingly, the Eastern Mamores involve even more significant ascent and descent, as Binnein Beag and Sgurr Eilde Mor are complete outliers from the ridge proper.....

Overall our route was 20.5km (12.8 miles) in length, with 2357m ascent (and 2204m descent!)



Biking past Lochan Earba

 DAY 2: A leisurely mountain bike ride along Lochan Earba (18km and 245m ascent only). On Sunday Ben and I drove to northern tip of Loch Laggan and enjoyed a very sunny and relaxing ride along the shore of Lochan Earba! The tops has a slight dusting of snow and the views were gorgeous.

Heading homeward with a view of Creag Meagaidh 

New Hill Walking Website (UKH) Features UK Big 3 Challenge

UKHillwalking (UKH) is an offshoot of the popular climbing website (and goldmine for handy beta) UKClimbing (UKC): http://www.ukhillwalking.com/

Hopefully this new site, launched today, will prove an equally useful resource and will keep us all updated with mountain-related goings on around the world! It seems to have lots of interesting features including Map my Route, Log my Summits, an Activity Diary and a Logbooks function similar to that found on UKC.

UKHillwalking already has a news article on the UK Big 3 Challenge:
http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=60561

Joe Browns stores donate kit for testing

Thank you very much to Sue and team at Joe Browns who have kindly donated the following equipment for testing:

A Source Widepac 1.5L Hydration System for drinking on the move. Voted 'best in test' by Trail magazie in 2010, it claims to be easy to use, easy to clean & dry, and easy to refill on the hill: a great choice. I normally use a bottle (or just a cup!) and have never tried out a hydration system before; so this will be a first for me...

This generous sponsor has also donated a very swish Arcteryx Phase AR Zip Neck baselayer in Bondi Blue. This is a lightly insulated, zip-neck base layer, ideal for use during aerobic activities in cooler conditions. It might just be too gorgeous to sweat into though!!

See the 'KIT' tab above for product details and performance reviews.

For the full range of clothing and equipment visit: http://www.joe-brown.com/

Nevisport donate New Mountain Equipment Jacket for Testing

As sponsors, Nevisport have kindly donated the new Mountain Equipment Firefox II Jacket (in Flame Scarlet). The jacket is a sample for testing and won't be in production until this autumn. Obviously Nevisport will be stocking this jacket and are looking forward to hearing how it performs....

The jacket is Mountain Equipment's lightest mountain jacket and is made of the new Goretex Active Shell material, the most breatheable Goretex manufactured to date. If in May it rains anything like it is right now, this jacket should certainly get put through its paces!

Please click the 'KIT' tab above for more details about kit/equipment donated by sponsors and to read reviews about its performance.

 

Thank you very much to Nevisport Director Rab Ferrell for giving me the opportunity to try out this brilliant little jacket (it hardly weighs anything and looks sliiiick!) Thank you also to Nancy for all her help and encouragement!

For the full range of clothing and equipment visit: http://www.nevisport.com/

Walk Highlands coverage

Walk Highlands website has put up a news article on the UK Big 3 Challenge:

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/lochaber-woman-to-tackle-3-uk-mountain-rounds/003431/

I'm hoping that with about 7000 unique visitors a day to the Walk Highlands site, this article will help drum up some interest and maybe even some more donations! If you haven't used Walk Highlands before you should!!! Especially their excellent 'Find-a-Walk" feature, which allows you to search Scotland for your ideal day out, using loads of parameters from distance, ascent and scrambling grade to bog factor!!!

Visit this link: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/

UK Big 3 Challenge on Grough

Check out the following link for a Grough article on my challenge:

http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2011/02/18/charity-woman-will-tackle-mountain-runs-at-walking-pace

Training Weekend 19/20th February

DAY 1: On Saturday, my friend Arlene and I took a ferry over to Mull to walk the horseshoe around the corbett Dun da Ghaoithe, from Craignure. Our day totalled 17.7km (11 miles) and 942m ascent. We set off from the ferry port at Craignure at about 11:15am (the ferry was running late). We walked briefly along the road before taking the turning opposite Torosay Castle towards the mast at Maol nan Uan. Blessed with horrendous visibility (as always), Arlene and I stumbled across the first mast without seeing it advance. In the snow we nearly missed the fork in the track to the higher mast at 545m. From here we experienced total white-out conditions and had to walk on a bearing along the ridge towards Mainnir nam Fiadh. Suddenly we remembered that compasses are not always reliable on Mull due to the magnetic volcanic rock! This made us rather uneasy (given that we could hardly tell up from down), so we hugged the northern edge of the broad ridge which funnelled us up to the trig point on Mainnir nam Fiadh (754m). At 640m we donned our crampons. The cairn on the summit is HUGE and in the low visibility we didn't know what it was until we were practically standing on it! Handrailing the ridge edge on our right (at a bit of a distance due to cornices), we made our way to the summit of our objective for the day, Dun da Ghaoithe (766m). At times we could see literally nothing but our feet! This summit had another massive cairn and after a quick photo we headed off on a bearing northward, for the Ben Chreagach ridge (which runs NE). 


Summit of Dun da Ghaoithe, Mull

At about 660m we experienced a momentary clearing and the striking ridge toward Ben Thunicaraidh appeared out of the gloom. Our planned descent route still in mist, we struck out for this new objective and stomped along the ridge to the the summit at 648m.

Heading for the ridge towards Ben Thunicaraidh
in a brief thinning of the cloud

From here we skirted the western slopes of Beinn Mheadhon and headed down through scree and knolls towards the river (Allt Achadh na Moine).  Due to the conditions, the day had been quite slow going. By now we were aware that we were likely to miss our 5pm ferry home (the last one!!). We scurried down the river bank, crossing the water hurriedly and filling out boots. Finally we located the track down to the road at Scallastle Bay. At 4:45pm, the only way we were going to make our ferry was if we could hitch a lift. With out thumbs out we stormed off in the direction of Craigniure. At 5:20pm we still didn't have a lift and were convinvced the game was over. Spotting a cave we joked about this being our probable resting place for the night! At that moment we were lucky enough to score a lift from two very helpful ladies (thank you!) Arriving at Craignure at about 5:30pm we were delighted to find that the final and now heavily delayed ferry still had not left (or even arrived!!) Happily we caught the ferry home at 6:15pm for pizza and beer (or in my case, a cider as usual!) Despite the lack of a view, saturday was excellent navigation-skills practice and well worth the effort.

DAY 2: On Sunday we had ambitious hope to do a winter traverse of the Ballachulish Horseshoe. Leaving the car at 8:15am we followed the track from Ballaschullish school towards the East-North-East ridge of Sgorr Bhan.


The East-North-East ridge of Sgorr Bhan is
the one on the left of the facing corie

However, after several rocky steps (and at about 700m) we felt it was too windy to continue enjoyably. The ridge is a 1* grade scramble in summer but it was obviously in winter condition and taking the full brunt of the wind on this occasion, which was much stronger than forecast. With the summit ridge in cloud and strong gusts, we descended with our tails between our legs, thinking it to be less that ideal conditions for such a classic ridge walk (we would save it for a better day!) Ironically, by the time we reached the village, the weather was clearing and the cloud level lifting!

We popped home for tea and lightened our bags, before nipping up the Pap of Glencoe (Sgorr na Ciche) at 742m. We were surprised by how busy it was up there (we saw about 16 people)! With dark clouds rushing through a clearing sky we had fleeting glimpes of the view from the summit before heading down. We were back at the car for 3:15pm.

Overall on Sunday we walked a total of only 10.7km (6.7 miles) but had climbed 1492m!

View of Loch Linnhe from the lower slopes of Sgorr na Ciche



Harvey Maps

Thank you to Harvey Maps who have given me a 25% discount in aid of the UK Big 3 Challenge. Consequently, I have purchased the Bob Graham Round map and their new Paddy Buckley Round map! These maps are waterproof and include the suggested route as a yellow line. The mapping is at a 1:40,000 scale but the best thing about them is they only show what you need for the round (and not the rest of the Lake District/Snowdonia). Consequently they are light and fold up really small, making it much easier to whip your map out on the move! For more details or to purchase these maps see: http://www.harveymaps.co.uk/

The Epicentre as English Sponsor

A HUGE thank you to Woody at The Epicentre for agreeing to help raise money for the John Muir Trust and WaterAid by supporting the UK Big 3 Challenge (details TBA).

The Epicentre is a new outdoor shop in Ambleside selling clothing and equipment for climbing, mountaineering, hill-walking, travel and adventure. The staff at The Epicentre all have a passion for the outdoors and can regularly be found wandering the fells, hanging from rocks, swinging axes into ice, floating on lakes, tearing down singletrack, running 'up and over and round and about' and generally making the most of what they have on offer in their back garden; the Lake District.  Together they have a wealth of experience to help you enjoy your adventures where ever they may be....

Visit them online at http://www.theepicentre.co.uk/ or call 01539 528528

Training weekend 12/13th Feb - The Lakes

This weekend I headed down to the Lake District with my better-half to have a look at some of the Bob Graham Round.

DAY 1: On Saturday we decided to recce the leg between Threkeld and Dunmail Raise (14 miles and 1830m ascent). This leg includes the following 12 tops:
 

Top	Mountain	Height (ft)
4	Clough Head	2382
5	Great Dodd	2807
6	Watson's Dodd	2584
7	Stybarrow Dodd	2756
8	Raise	2889
9	White Side	2832
10	Helvellyn Lower Man	3033
11	Helvellyn	3116
12	Nethermost Pike	2910
13	Dollywaggon Pike	2810
14	Fairfield	2864
15	Seat Sandal	2863

The weather started out pretty claggy, which meant some good navigation practice for me!! Once we got to the top of Clough Head I couldn't believe the terrain! The Dodds are super 'runnable' with easy gradients and grass/bog underfoot. The tops passed quickly, with some steeper pulls up from Sticks Pass at 735m (up to Raise at 884) and then again on to Helvellyn Lower Man at 925m.


Clough Head

The Dodds!



  



  

The ridge path across the Helvellyn plateau gives spectacular views (through the swirling mist) onto the classic scrambles Swirral Edge and Striding Edge. I couldn't believe how busy these famous tops are compared to most of the mountains in Scotland (even on a driech day in February!)

All the way along to way Dollywaggon Pike, the ground feels fairly flat but there is always a steep drop to your left. From Dollywaggon Pike there is a significant loss of height down to Grisedale Tarn (our lunch spot!) at 705m. Here you have a route choice around the tarn, which means you either summit Fairfield as part of a loop or as an out and back from the col at Grisedale Hause. We chose the loop and climbed the bank of a river steeply to Cofa Pike (col).



Dollywaggon Pike

Grisedale Tarn

Fairfield was a mysterious flat landscape, littered with what seemed to be multiple possible summits hidden in the mist. Dropping down the steep scree/path to Grisedale Hause revealed a final steep slope up to the last summit of the day; Seat Sandal. By now the cloud was lifing and fine views were being revealed all around.

Descending Fairfield with our route over
Helvellyn in the backdrop

Seat Sandal proved a great view point and the descent to the valley floor at Dunmail Raise was initially quite runnable but soon became rather steep as we picked our way down. A short walk along the foot path brought us to the van at the carpark. 


Seat Sandal



Back to the van...

This first day had me convinced that the Lakeland Fells were litterally MADE for running. I felt guilty just walking in some places and it was hard not to scamper just a tiny bit!!!

DAY 2: On the Sunday the weather was evil - very heavy rain (snowing on the tops) and increasingly gusty winds. Nevertheless, we were determined to make the most of our visit and set out to recce the tops in what is traditionally the leg from Honister Pass to Keswick. This leg includes the following tops only:

Top	Mountain	Height (ft)
40	Dalehead	2473
41	Hindscarth	2385
42	Robinson	2417

Because we had to be getting back to Scotland, we started from Little Town (west of Keswick) and walked up the river valley north of Dale Head, crossing the river and then rising steeply through crags across the back of the coire until we reached the ridge rising to Dale Head (from the col near Dalehead Tarn). With the howling wind in our faces we met the track from Honister at the summit of Dale Head.

From here it is easy in poor visibility to continue on to Robinson without remembering the dogleg to Hindscarth. Nevertheless, we arrived at the summit, stopping briefly before following a bearing slightly down Little Dale and across to pick up the track/fence at Littledale Edge to Robinson. By now the rain had stopped and the winds were dropping. The sun tried to push through but sadly we were awareded little view from the top of Robinson. However, as soon as we dropped down from the summit of Robinson the valley opened out before us and we could see a stunning waterfall to our right and Keswick in the distance. It must be said that the descent over the ridge at High Snab Bank, is a lovely (would-be) runnable section (albeit with a very steep grass slope plummiting to the lovely Newlands Church at the bottom) - testing for those knees!  



View descending from Robinson towards Keswick

Nevisport as Sponsor

Thank you VERY much to Nevisport (Fort William) who have agreed to sponsor the UK Big 3 Challenge by donating kit/clothing for me to test on the hill.

Nevisport was founded in 1970 in Fort William, by two rock climbers, lifelong friends and mountaineering partners (Ian Sykes MBE and Ian Sutherland). Only yesterday, Ian Sykes became the fourth recipient of the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture!  This prestigious annual award recognizes and celebrates the achievements and accomplishments of one inspiring individual and their outstanding contributions to Scotland's mountains. Both Sykes and Sutherland were then, and still are, active members of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. In addition to selling climbing gear, they added a selection of camping equipment to the first store in hopes of making a living from the hobby that had turned into a viable business. Nevisport now sells a wide range of outdoor sports gear from winter snowsports to summer walking. Visit them online at http://www.nevisport.com/ or call 01397 704921 

Accommodation and support

DATES DECIDED: 16-28th May 2011

For the Paddy Buckley round I have booked accommodation with the Pen y Gwryd hotel. This is a long established and traditional British mountaineer's hotel in Snowdonia. Located at the foot of Snowdon,  it was once the training headquarters for Hillary and Tenzing in preparation for their successful Mount Everest expedition in 1953. Thank you to the owners, who have pledged to make a donation towards the UK Big 3 Challenge charities, following my stay there in May. For information visit: http://www.pyg.co.uk/ For bookings: 01286 870211



For the Bob Graham round I have booked accommodation with the Wasdale Head Inn. This world-famous inn is surrounded by England's tallest mountains and claims to be the birthplace of british climbing! Thank you to the new owners, who have offered a complimentary room in support of the UK Big 3 Challenge.  For information visit: http://www.wasdale.com/ For bookings:  019467 26229 

Wasdale Head is remotely situated, so for some legs of the Bob Graham Round, I plan to stay in self-catering accommodation in the Keswick area.

Style!

As I dig deeper into what this challenge is going to require, I have begun to realise that it is truly of epic proportion! This has affected my ideas on logistics and 'style' (i.e. what is possible!) After many kind offers of company from friends and family, I have decided to stick with my original plan and attempt the UK Big 3 solo. By this I mean that I will be doing all the legs by myself.

I have decided however, that in the name of being 'fast-and-light', I am going to spend my nights in local accommodation (with a bath and comfy bed!) rather than camping enroute. This will allow me to do the rounds without carrying camping equipment everywhere with me. This will certainly be the case in Wales and the Lake District, although in Scotland I will be camping in bothies along the way.

For the Paddy Buckley round and Bob Graham round I have decided to accept an offer of help from a family 'support team' who will follow me round the country, driving me here there and everywhere! This will maximise time for rest and has enabled me to starting book accommodation early.

WaterAid's Corbett Challenge

11th June 2011...

This year, WaterAid are returning to the Corbett Challenge so why not conquer a mountain for WaterAid and experience some of the most stunning scenery and amazing views the UK has to offer.  

The event will be bigger and better than ever before and WaterAid are aiming to have a team of walkers not just on every one of Scotland’s Corbetts, but on every peak measuring 2,500 – 3,000 feet across the UK between 11am and 3pm on the 11^th June!   Whilst not the highest mountains in the UK , they are arguably some of the best mountains around and include many of the UK’s favourite walks from Ben Loyal in Northern Scotland to the Brecon Beacons in Wales. 

For those who want a gentle stroll to those who are after a more extreme challenge there is a Corbett to suit you!  We have even linked mountains in Scotland and Wales so if you are looking to push yourself even further why not take on 2, 3 or even 4 mountains in a day!  

To take part, you need a team of between 4 and 7 people, who should all be over 18 and willing to commit to raising £100 each for WaterAid. The registration process will only take a few minutes, but make sure that you have all the details you need for you and your team before you start.  WaterAid are limiting the numbers up the mountains so sign up today!

For more information and to register please visit the website at http://www.corbettchallenge.org/ or alternatively please contact WaterAid on corbettchallenge@wateraid.org if you have any questions....

Training Weekend 5/6th February

For training this weekend, my friend Arlene and I decided to put away some miles (40 of em)!



Loch a Chealaich Leamhain

DAY 1: Given the gale force winds that we had seen on Friday (and were forecast to continute over the weekend), we chose a low-level but long walk from Moy (432830) to Corrour station (23 miles) [1104m]. The route we took went via Lochan na Earba, Loch a Chealaich Leamhain (800m), Culra bothy then Bealach Dubh (727m), followed by descending the river Uisge Labhair and finishing up along Loch Ossian to Corrour Station House (SYHA). The day started well (at 7:15am) with a good pace along the track into the Ardverikie Estate. During the pull up to Loch a Chealaich Leamhain we experienced very poor visibility and heavy snow showers. We were surpirsed at the amount of snow already underfoot, which slowed progress. We followed the track to about 800m where we had hoped to find a fork in the path, leading along the northern edge of the loch. However, in the poor visibility and snow, the fork was nowhere to be seen. Following a bearing to the loch would have taken us through craggy ground (which was icy and treacherous in places), so we decided to retrace our steps and try the track along the southern side. However, before we had gone far the cloud lifted, revealing a splendid view of the loch and its snowy shores.


Col at Loch a Chealaich Leamhain

 The loch was frozen in places and in the weak sunshine we picked our way through deep drifted snow to emerge (rather more tired!) at the river Allt Cam. Here we needed to ford the river but with all the recent snow, levels were quite high. After some searching we found a croassable spot and ploughed straight through the cold water (boots filling up!) and were happy to be on the track to Loch Pattack.



Culra bothy and Ben Alder

At Culra bothy we stopped for a sandwhich and a time-check. Culra is a great bothy (both tidy and well-equipped with a wood-burning stove and sleeping platforms!) We couldn't see the col at Bealach Dubh from the bothy and were a little concerned about possible snow slopes up there (becasue it is Easterly facing, and with snow and strong winds from the West, the SAIS avalanche forecast suggested slopes might be unstable). Nevertheless, we carried on past the magnificent Ben Alder and up to the col. It was slow going due to soft drifts and buried ditches! Enroute we saw avalanche debris on our right, evidence that several easterly facing snow slopes had undergone recent slips.

View of Loch Ossian from Bealach Dubh

Finally we reached the col and were pleased to find rakes of heather and scree which could be used to easily reach the top. At the col we looked SW and could make out Loch Ossian in the far (very far!) distance. We were inspired at this point and merrily plodded down to meet the river Uisge Labhair. We followed this through snowy bog which seemingly meandered on and on forever. The terrain slowed our progress considerably and we didn't reach the track at Loch Ossian until 5:40pm. Nevertheless, there was nothing else to do but march briskly along the north side of the loch in the dark, towards our accommodation. We reached the hostel at 7:15pm (with blisters and tired legs). Fortunately we were rewarded with a filling meal (venison pie and a pint of cider - mmmm). The GPS had measured our route as 41.75km (26 miles)!

DAY 2: Corrour Station to Kinlochleven via Loch Trieg, past Loch Chiarain Bothy to Blackwater Dam and down the River Leven 26.2km (16 miles) [549m]. After breakfast we started out at 9:15am. We were probably a bit slower today but the walk to Loch Chiarain Bothy was enjoyable and uneventful. The weather was cloudier but mostly dry, except for some light rain as we reached Blackwater Dam. This continued until we arrived in Kinlochleven. The River Leven was impressive with huge waterfalls along its length. As always, the last leg dragged on and on and we didn't make it back to the car until about 4:30pm.

Sore feet and an insatiable hunger but big smiles all round!


Arlene as the cloud cleared at
Loch a Chealaich Leamhain (Day 1)