The Glories of Assynt

Just before we departed for our holiday I read this about our destination. It’s considerably more erudite than I could ever be. I am not sure people realise quite how far away Assynt is, but it’s a good 13 hour drive if done continuously from my home and it definitely has an “other worldly” feel to it. We chose to break ours up with an overnight in Glasgow. It was still a relief to arrive at the cottage late on the Saturday afternoon and see my brother and his family who were across from Aberdeen for a few days camping.

I have to be honest and say that the two weeks in splendid isolation was exactly what I needed to recharge the batteries. As if to underline how isolated the area is when we attended Mass, celebrated by the irrepressible octogenarian Monsignor Basil, we doubled the congregation and halved the average age!

Lily and I attempted to go wild camping on Ben More Assynt, but were thwarted as Lily ran out of steam just before the bealach. It speaks volumes of her fatigue that I pitched the tent mid-afternoon and she crawled in, ate her lunch and promptly fell very soundly asleep. Over an hour later she awoke and it was clear that the best option was to head back down, despite her protestations that we could finish the job the next day. It would have been easy to figuratively crack the whip and get us up to the summit, but I wanted Lily to enjoy the experience and want to grow to love the outdoors – we will have many other opportunities to wild camp. Thankfully she appeared to survive the experience with no loss of enthusiasm for future adventure.

I managed to do a bit of climbing on the sea rocks, of which there are many, however, not as much as I had hoped. Guy also visited us and it was during this time we decided to experience a bothy for the first time. Lily was desperate to join us and to be honest I was a bit nervous of taking her given the Spartan nature of their reputation has, so when the opportunity to do a reconnaissance mission presented itself I took it. What a superb place it was, it even had a dart board! 

The walk into the bothy at the base of Suilven was without incident albeit it was very, very windy. We had even managed to pick up a set of darts from one of these wee shops you find in villages that seem to have all sorts of games in them – I could tell they had been in stock for a while with the pictures of Jocky Wilson and John Lowe adorning them! To say Lily was thrilled with the place would be an understatement. I was able to carry in some logs so once it got a bit chilly we got a fire going and after a few rounds of darts (which I won remarkably!) we ate our simple, but delicious pasta dinner. Initially Lily wanted to have one of the rooms on her own, but the solitude and wind led to her bravado deserting her and she asked if I could share her room (sweet!) Guy and I shared a dram of Laphroig watching a beautiful moon pass over Suilven and realising that exactly a year from that point we ought to be summiting The Matterhorn. As Guy pointed out we would be reflecting the night in the bothy when we did that.

I got little sleep as the wind howled but it was a great experience for us all, even to the extent that Lily thought it was the highlight of the holiday and was so effusive that her younger sister wants to go next time as does, even more remarkably, Debbie too!!!! Lily decided not to tackle Suilven the next day as the winds continued to be very strong, so again my ambition for getting height was thwarted, but I couldn’t blame her. Guy gave it ago but had to turn back before the summit and the cloud had dropped so we missed nothing.

Next day was Stac Pollaidh and it’s fair to say I have never experienced so many midges in my life, they were awful. They were so bad that in swallowing some Debs had cause to vomit. Once in the breeze and out of the trees it was much more pleasant and we enjoyed a pleasant stroll around the base, whilst Guy summited the Eastern Buttress before scrambling across the traverse to the higher Western Buttress. In his words, “I could have played up there all day the scrambling was so good!”, no wonder it’s often referred to as Scotland’s best small mountain.

As Guy departed the end of a fabulous break loomed, but not before I visited surely the smallest castle in the world, made of concrete and fits one at a squeeze on the nearby Achmelvich Beach.

Apparently it was built by an eccentric who stayed there one night before abandoning it - all very bizarre.

On the final day I got up Quinag, what a great wee mountain that is too. It proved to me beyond doubt that height isn’t everything. All in all it was a great way to bring the holiday to a close.

Now back in the metropolis that is the South East it’s less than a year until The Matterhorn. Guy and I have a winter expedition planned for February, a summer jaunt (to get out of here when the Queen’s Birthday celebrations are on) next June and a family trip to Skye later this month all part of the training towards the ultimate goal.

As a bit of a footnote, I really wanted to see the recently released Everest in the cinema. Unsurprisingly Lily wanted to go with me, but I was concerned when Natalie also expressed a desire to go. Thankfully that prompted Debs to join us as Nat lasted barely 10 minutes before her upset led first to tears then the exit with her mum and Lily took the opportunity to join her. They grabbed some dinner and Natalie in particular had to be convinced by Wikipedia and other such resources that Everest was considerably bigger than The Matterhorn! Most expensive film I have ever watched, but thoroughly enjoyable as a climber.

Finally, it shouldn’t be too long before the opportunity to sponsor me becomes available, watch this space!

A stark learning experience

As an enthusiastic squash coach I try and encourage any players to learn from the losses. You learn more from a defeat than you do from a victory and this weekend in the Mamores was a classic example.

I have already stated the aim in an earlier blog post, a traverse of The Mamore ridge which takes in 10 Munros. At very late notice Guy and I had a passenger in the shape of an old rugby friend of mine Jim. From the off he had no expectations of being able to tackle the ridge, and was acutely aware that we couldn’t hang around waiting for him once we got going.

The journey through to Fort William went pretty much to plan, however, my first inkling that things may not quite go as planned happened as early as the shopping trip in Morrisions for getting provisions on the hill including our night out. I had to make a longer than expected pit stop and when I returned found that as I queued to pay for mine, the others had already finished and I raised an eyebrow that Guy had not bought anything that needed the stove (I had gone for pasta and a sauce we could have shared – high carb). Being an adult that was his decision but I knew I would want a hot meal when it was late at night and the forecast wind and rain arrived.

So on down into Glen Nevis and conditions were excellent, setting off at 11:20 on schedule and we picked up the initial path very easily until we joined the forestry track, where everything disappeared under an explosion of bark and general forestry waste. We ploughed on slowly until we spotted a style at the other side of the burn, however, that could only be accessed by climbing a fence.  I went first, then Guy, when the post gave way and snapped, challenging Jim to get over. Once over I spotted someone on the ridge and we realised we would have to take on a very steep ascent to get there albeit on decent enough ground. Jim took the sensible decision to part the ways.

Guy and I plodded to the ridge where we met a fellow walker who felt the path up which we had been given was fictitious!!!! So on we went to the first summit, Mullach nan Coirean, passing some snow on the way.

 Back on the gps line I was beginning to feel a bit more confident we could at least knock a hole in the route that evening, albeit I was already very pessimistic that we could make the bealach after Binnein Mor where we had planned to camp.

The way to Stob Ban was uneventful and my theory shared with Jim that he could have made that in leisurely time and then escaped onto the West Highland Way into Kinlochleven was vindicated. It was then that Jim called from A&E telling us that he had slipped and broken his ankle in 3 places!!!!

Next on the list was Sgurr an lubhair, which is described as an ex-Munro having been relegated from that elite status. Here there was a fabulous lochan which allowed us to top up our water supplies. At this point it was clear Guy was struggling and as Sgurr a’Mhaim was a peak captured and then returned by the same route I suggested that I walk for about an hour and a half, bagging Am Bodach and pitching the tent on the other side and getting the pan on so that tea would be ready when he arrived, if not hot food!

The view from the summit of Sgurr a’Mhaim was the highlight of the day. For virtually the whole day Ben Nevis was shrouded in cloud, however, by 8pm it showed its grandeur – absolutely stunning. 

The ridge along to Sgurr a’Mhairm is airy in places and a few years ago I would have been tiptoeing across full of fear, but thanks to NLP that has long ceased to be an issue.

So on to Am Bodach and the prospect of dinner. For the third time that day I met a team doing a Ramsay Round – now that’s a serious challenge. By now the forecast cloud was beginning to come in and the rain started. The route down into the bealach where I spotted a suitable spot to camp for the evening was a bit steep and a bit unstable underfoot and I was glad to reach the bottom. It was the last time I would be pleased for some time.

I went to my rucksack to pull out the tent and I wouldn’t be surprised if some readers heard my profane and industrial language from there. It was not the tent that Guy and I had invested in for just such trips. It later transpired that Guy had chosen it because it was lighter…..I had no idea how to put the thing together (I am crap at that kind of thing at the best of times and had practised with the other tent several times to perfect an expedient pitch) so I had to wait for Guy. The sweat had taken its toll on my new t-shirt so I quickly changed and got the stove going and enjoyed my pasta with relish, all the while keeping an eye out for Guy. An hour later and I was starting to get seriously worried as the clag closed in. (I found out later that Guy couldn’t find the way off the summit so sat things out for 20 minutes whilst he waited for a break in the cloud) Eventually he heard my calls and joined me and after a fashion got the tent up.

Normally that would be a cause for celebration; however, this tent would barely have fitted two pygmies far less two adult men with rucksacks. In conditions where we could barely move sleep was a foreign entity. Around 2.30 am Guy stated, “We’ll laugh about this one day…just not now” as the wind and rain howled and managed to penetrate the tent. He is of course correct, but we could have died from exposure up there as there was no way we could get down in the dark in the circumstances.

Guy was “done”, and I couldn’t leave him to make his own way down so the decision was taken at 5.30 to break camp and follow what looked to be a reasonable escape route to get us back to the car and abandon the expedition.

I would love to say the escape was uneventful, but it wasn’t as we slid down shiny slippery rocks braking to ensure we didn’t fall into the gorge below, then having to pick a route down a precipitous face using trees to arrest us as we went, then having to ford a river before completing the job by crossing the Steal Bridge.

We managed to get hold of Jim and he met us in the car park with the help of a taxi driver and agreed lunch at The Clachaig Inn was in order. A rather fantastic curry was had in Glasgow that evening as we bumped into lots of AC/DC fans on their way to their gig at Hampden before dumping the hire car and binning the wholly inadequate tent.

Lessons learned

Make sure you take the right equipment – double check it if you are relying on someone else taking it.

Make sure navigation skills are up to being able to cope with zero visibility.

I am already well down the road of planning another go at tackling the full Mamore ridge, but I doubt Guy will.

Next up is a couple of weeks in Assynt at the lovely Clachtoll Beach where I aim to get some climbing as well as hiking done - just hoping for better weather than last years family holiday in that neck of the woods!

Finally, I post this on the 150th anniversary of the first successful ascent of The Matterhorn and leave with this rather lovely picture of the route up.

Plans coming together

It's been nearly a month since my last post (for the most part that is the sort of time period I aim to post until nearer the time) and already much progress has been made in all sorts of regards, despite a rather annoying recurrence of my Uveitis. 

Training

As far as Training goes Gary has issued me with phase 4 of my programme. Despite having worked with Gary for around a year now I am still surprised at how quickly I make gains. In a month I have gone to 60kg on the deadlift and on a good day can do 6 and 3 5's on the pull-ups and my Squat and Press has seen a similar improvement to my deadlift, up to 30kg! 

I haven't made such good progress on the Turkish Get-ups, I find 6kg relatively easy with my right arm, but a real challenge for the final sets on my left - I often wonder, given my lopsidedness, how I manage to walk around not looking like Quasimodo!

The 6am starts on my weekday visits to the gym are a challenge it has to be said and it has surprised me how sometimes I have the gym to myself, then for no apparent reason it's rammed on my next visit.

A further bit of training I am doing is perhaps unusual. I have given up lifts for Lent (elevators for those so inclined) which may not sound much, but my office is on the 13th floor and on the days I play squash it involves me carrying all my kit up - twice!

Further expeditions

Guy and I have planned our next visit to the Highlands and we aim to be in and out with military precision. Departing on the sleeper on Friday 26th June to Glasgow, hop in a hire car to Fort William to arrive mid morning with all our provisions. Tackle the Mamore ten with a wild camp along the way and back to Glasgow, hopefully via the Clachaig Inn for dinner and get the sleeper back to London and return to work on the 29th.

Hopefully from the map you can see that the route involves climbing ten Munros over the course of around 18 hours. The idea being it will be good preparation for the long slog on The Matterhorn. The key differences are that this won't involve any technical climbing, but it will include carrying significantly more gear including sleeping bag and tent.

In addition, with the revisions to the sleeper service and the ability to book 12 months in advance we have already booked our winter weekend in Feb 2016 which may well be our final bit of hardcore training before The Matterhorn. If nothing else it will be good to return to The Clachaig Inn where hopefully the weather will be just as good as this year's trip and not as it currently is, stormbound!

The grand ascent plans

The Grand ascent plans are progressing well and at the time of writing are closing in on a deal with James Thackery with really just the date to be decided then it will be all systems go to actually begin the process of booking flights and accommodation etc.

Fundraising vehicles

Most importantly things are progressing well for creating the most efficient fundraising vehicles for funding a defibrillator for Lewsey Sports Park, thanks to Active Luton, with the surplus going to C-R-Y in memory of Harry Faulkner. Once the details are announced it will be time for me to urge you to dig deep for an excellent cause.

Expect a further update in about a month.

Please do leave comment

Not quite what we had planned!

Well it was more erudite compatriot than I that composed the following:

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!"

And so it was that Guy and my winter weekend didn't go quite to plan on the first weekend in February.

The plan was simple, a I stated in the first post. It started off superbly with the train running on time, a hearty breakfast before picking up the car and arriving at Inveruglas by 10.30 ready to go.

Ben Vorlich was resplendent in winter sunshine and the snow was a lovely texture - perfect for hiking in fact. As soon as I got up to the snow line I had to put on my goggles as the glare was so profound. As I approached the final pull to the summit ice axe had to be pulled out, but I had no need of crampons yet. Once on the summit it was clear as you could ever wish for. In fact I commented to the only other two people I saw that many people wait a lifetime and never get conditions like those.

One thing I was pleased to discover was that the strength work I have been doing with Gary Nisbet has had a profound impact on my performance. In a little over 12 months I have gone from pretty much being the identical pace as Guy, to being able to put half an hour between us in what was a 5 hour trip - we were both astonished and I am profoundly grateful to Gary for his efforts to date and having just received phase 4 of my programme look forward to continued improvement both in this field and on the squash court.

The way back down was fun as I managed a couple of good glissades (a posh way of saying sliding down on your butt!) for good measure. Once back on the floor of the Glen we were treated to some spectacular light and cloud formations.

And so it was we travelled onwards to our billet at the rather fabulous Clachaig Inn with plenty of time to spare to watch the rugby and have a hearty meal of haggis, neeps and tatties and sample a few of the beers available in their beer festival. Guy was pleased with the result, albeit the picture quality left something to be desired. The other downside was the lateness of breakfast (8.15) far too late for most climbers who make up the majority of clientele in winter so we had to make do with a continental affair before meeting our guide for the day, Max.

Meeting in the car park to do a gear check was where our grand plans came slightly apart. You don't need to be a rocket scientist or an expert mountaineer to know that THE most critical piece of equipment is the rope. Imagine my horror discovering that the rope I had purchase a year or so ago was not fit for purpose!!! I won't bore you with the details but I had been badly advised and ended up with what is called a half rope as opposed to a whole rope. It had no impact on the day as Max had all we needed, however, it did mean that our plan to repeat Saturday on the Sunday was now a non-starter as the rope was still effectively in it's packaging and I should get a good price for it (and then purchase a whole rope!) I ought to point out that a half rope is not what it seems to imply.....

So off we headed with our aim being to tackle Twisting Gully

As we approached we could hear loads of cries and Max explained that the cliffs were ahead of us but the cloud was so low we couldn't see them and it was climbers communicating to each other. We were less than 50 metres away when suddenly the cloud lifted and we could see our target.  I say our target, but it was questionable whether we would get on it as there were so many people there. In all my time in the hills only on the tourist path up Ben Nevis have I seen so many people on a hillside. It was an eye-opener to see the jockeying, between guides especially, to "claim a route".


Soon we were roped up and underway and in no time making good progress. Max was a superb teacher having understood what our current skill levels were and giving us the tools we needed to be safe for future expeditions.

I think it was on the third pitch that we approached the crux (which is the Grade IV part of a generally Grade III climb) and it was tough. Whilst I may be a bit quicker and a bit stronger than Guy, he is unquestionably a better climber having devoted more practice time at the new Vauxhall Climbing Wall I followed Max up EVENTUALLY and Guy was summoned to follow. I had every confidence in Guy making it both due to his better technique and being taller so when I heard him call, "I'm stuck!" and Max queried what had been said I lied saying I didn't think that was what he had said!!! Sure enough my faith was not misplaced as he popped over the rocks.

The remainder was comparatively uneventful until we reached the very top where dangerous cornices existed - thankfully someone had cleared a route through and we topped out to amazing views of surrounding mountains including Ben Nevis in the distance.

Me topping out

Max and I

Me and Guy (note the hat at a jaunty angle)

The magnificent Ben Nevis in the distance

A lovely trek back to the car and even got back to The Clachaig in time for most of the rugby! Sadly the result wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but there was consolation in the shape of another hearty meal and some more interesting brews.

In light of the rope disaster we reviewed our plans and decided to tackle Ban Vane instead as it looked a step up from Ben Vorlich, but with no need of a rope. Given the resultant extra time we indulged in a Clachaig Full Hog breakfast and so we set off with very full stomachs.

Our initial thoughts were borne out and it wasn't long before the ice axes and crampons were needed.

Guy in the distance

The cloud was a lot lower so there were no views from the top and a surprising number of other walkers were also on the hill. Aside from the many false tops the walk itself was generally uneventful except when I caught up with a fellow walker. When confronted with a steep gully to shorten the route I was confident enough to tackle it after the day with Max whereas my "companion" took a more circuitous route to the summit. He got his own back on the way down as he confidently glissaded large parts of the return leg.

The final wrinkle came when I got back to the car to discover I had left my glasses at The Clachaig, an hour's drive away. When I told Guy my faux pas and our need to return his reply was, "You know what, I am struggling to think of anything I care less about!" Of all the things that could have gone wrong over the weekend it was indeed trivial. And it did give us an excuse to squeeze and extra pint!

Then it was back to London and the culture shock of getting off the sleeper straight onto the Victoria Line during rush hour - welcome home!

When all is said and done the aims of this trip were met, nae exceeded and when Max told Guy, "There is nothing on The Matterhorn that is as tricky as that (crux) move", it gave us a huge boost. We are both confident that we can do the challenge, we now have to get some practice at a long mountain expedition and one more winter expedition, unguided, and engage a guide for our Matterhorn trip.....

In the beginning

For those of you who know me you will know that, quite literally, the Matterhorn has loomed large on my horizon for some time.



The background is detailed here 


Now that it does loom so large it's time to think about training, fundraising and other such things.


Following our Skye exploits of 2012, Alan Kimber told us that technically we were good enough to tackle the monster but recommended that we undertake some winter expeditions in Scotland, initially guided, then some on our own.

We did our first guided winter session in 2013 again under the enthusiastic tutelage of Spike who had seen us safely round the Cuillin. To say that was an eye-opener would be to understate it. The climbing itself wasn't too bad and the descent was a lot of fun and took me back to my school days wading through snow. The problem was navigation.....

In whiteout conditions on Ben Nevis frankly Guy and I were out of our depth and we were grateful for Spike's presence (Afterwards we undertook a navigation course in the South Downs. The feeling of elation when we found a pond which was represented on the map as a pin prick in absolute darkness was something neither of us expected.)

Day 2 was from a climbing perspective more challenging, but also more rewarding.

Now it's time for the next level which begins next week with a trip to Glen Coe, The plan is to warm up ourselves on day 1 by tackling Ben Vorlich near Loch Lomond, then have a day with Max then whatever we do that day repeat on our final day on our own.

So that's the history and a preview.

In due course I will set up a just giving account as I intend to do this to raise funds for C-R-Y  and in particular fund a defibrillator to be located at my squash club in memory of Harry Faulkner one of our members tragically taken from us aged merely 18! I will also post periodically about my progress.