Thought my mileage was looking a bit weedy this week after missing Tuesday (brought my headache home from a late night at work!) as well as my usual Monday then turning down two climbing partners for Saturday to work on the boat with Twig (after which I managed just the 9.1 miles to the Dam and back by the Ciaran Path), so boldly set out to restore some 55-mile respectability (actually 54.7) by going for something reasonably meaty today. (more…)
6 March 2011
16 January 2011
First rule of river crossings
The first rule of river crossings (as any mountaineer should know) is don’t! (more…)
9 January 2011
Lurcher’s Crag and Kahtoola KTS Steel review
Sometimes when you want to go climbing and most of your traditional playgrounds are laden with unstable snow, it pays to think outside the box. Which is why (attracted by the prospect of carefree ice climbing on a sunny west face) Jamie B, Jay, Isi, Lorraine and I headed east on Friday to Lurcher’s Crag at the northern end of the Lairig Ghru. (more…)
1 January 2011
Ne’erday refreeze
Thought I was going to write an interesting post here combining a report of today’s testing run in much crisper conditions than Thursday’s soggy snow with some updates to my year-old running crampon review. (more…)
30 December 2010
Soggy steps on familiar hills
Keen to get out for some good hill days on ‘new’ ground with February’s WML Assessment looming, but lack of excitement about current thaw conditions saw me settling for a wee run over the very familiar peaks of Am Bodach and Stob Coire a’ Chairn this afternoon. (more…)
12 December 2010
Back for Meall Greigh
Despite waking up late enough today (on a stunning frosty morning) to consider just going for a local run, it didn’t take long to start thinking sod-that-and-get-going-because-there’s-long-enough-to-settle-that-unfinished-business-with-Meall-Greigh and head off Loch Tay way for a hit-and-run on said hill. So that’s what I did… (more…)
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28 November 2010
Hidden gem of the other Garbh Bheinn
Talk about Garbh Bheinn in this area and most climbers will think of the great Ardgour rock peak despite there being another fine Corbett of that name sitting right above the village and blocking out the light! And that’s where I ran this afternoon after (wisely, from the reports coming in of folk getting stuck left, right and centre) shelving plans to go hill running elsewhere. (more…)
14 November 2010
Carn Mairg group
Happy to get the whole, wintry Carn Mairg group after another late-morning start from Glen Lyon (didn’t even pack my stuff till after the start of the S2S Ultra from Kinloch to Tyndrum), but might still admit to having been lured back by a fine MWIS forecast with notions of maybe (just maybe) finishing off Meall Greigh as well. (more…)
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7 November 2010
Meall Greigh wasnae there!
Yes, it rhymes (almost), or at the very least qualifies as assonance as defined in Educating Rita…
So this could have been a cheery blog post about seven Munros (five of which were new to me) snatched from a cold and windy November day on my first proper hill run since September’s rib injury, but now it’ll have to be a cheery blog post about six Munros (four of which were new to me) and one ever-so-nearly-Munro (the culprit being Meall Greigh) snatched from a cold and windy November day and all the rest of it! (more…)
14 August 2010
Ramsay’s with Rhonda
When I wrote in my recent Ramsay’s Round report that I ‘could be persuaded to pace someone for part of the big one’ despite having ‘no intention of ever confronting Charlie Ramsay’s monster in its entirety again’, it was in the full knowledge that I might be assisting visiting US athlete Rhonda Claridge with her imminent attempt. (more…)