Fionn Bheinn - munro 'lite'

With a small good weather window of about 4 hours before the next storm was due to roll in we headed out to try and get up and down Fionn Bheinn before the rain, snow, hail, thunderstorms arrived....

Heading into the clag

It's not far over to Achnasheen and we started walking at 10am.  A 'newish' hydro track makes the start fast going and we soon hit the snow line at 650m. The cloud was in/out and it added a nice atmosphere to the day.

Here comes the runner

We didn't hang around on top and after a quick chat with a fell runner found ourselves back at the van for 1pm just as the predicted rain and change in the weather materialised. A satisfying brief mountain trip... now time for the rugby..

Another couple out on the hill

Learnie red rocks

With only one play day this weekend due to work (boo), we decided to head to Learnie Red Rocks our local mountain bike trail centre on the Black Isle.

Issy in the deep forest

After googling it ages ago I wasn't initially that enthused as it is composed of 4-5 loops, all very short and it just looked 'bitty' online.

Sea views

cleared section of the forest

So... it was great to be proved wrong! Lots of fun blue loops, an easy orange with optional table tops and technical slippy black (no red). It is quite limited, but nice that you can tag together lots of short loops as desired. Very handy being 30 minutes from home, and nice sea views. So a very pleasant surprise and I'll be back.

Spot the bikers...?

Winter wonderland

I'd not winter climbed for a few years, latterly favouring skiing over the suffer fest that winter climbing can be. However maybe its not so bad, I mean sure there's the early start (had to get up at 5.30am on the Sat and Sun!), and the mad walk in trying to ensure you are first on the route. Then there are the heavy rucksacks and wearing rigid heavy boots..... whats not to love....!?

The scenic early drive out west

So with Shaw and Judith heading up to the Highlands it seemed the right time to reacquaint myself with this fine activity! We arranged to meet and climb on the West Face of Aonach Mor. After catching the early climbers gondola we headed into Allt Daim for a look around on Saturday but didn't end up climbing - murky windy weather....

Exploring on Saturday

Where's wally (ptarmigan)? can you spot it?

Going back on Sunday the weather was fantastic, blue skies and the forecast strong winds weren't apparent. Shaw pushed the pace on the walk in, and we were first on Golden Oldy, even though initially we weren't entirely sure that we were on the correct route (guide books a bit vague).

I think Shaw is enjoying himself

Great views

Being caught as we 'lunched'

We soloed the start, then did a couple of pitches, but because it was very easy terrain we moved together on the rest of the 500m route. As the weather was so nice we stopped for lunch just before the top to take in the views and watch the other teams slowly catching us.

Amazing day, maybe winter climbing isn't so bad after all ;-)

The road to redemption

I'm desperate to ski.... but to be honest skiing is currently looking pants in Scotland. In the last day or so the ski centres have opened limited terrain/runs but with not much snow and no real base it all looks a bit pointless at the moment.

However every cloud has a silver lining... and the lining is pretty big up here at the moment with a dusting of snow on the hills and clear sunny weather in the NW of Scotland.

So my plan was to visit another couple of the local Fannaich hills, An Coileachan and Meall Gorm. To access these from the South it involves a cycle of approx 10 miles (it may well be less, I didn't really check this!) to Fannich Lodge, then you ditch the bike and start a hiking.

Having a rest (don't tell Martin)

?fox tracks

The ride in was beautiful, and I saw 100's of deer, getting very close to quite large groups of stags, I guess helped by the fact that I was down wind of them. I seemed to get to the lodge quite quickly and ditched the bike behind a shed and started out up hill.

Looking East

And on to the next peak

It was a great walk, and I was the only person on these hills today, in fact there weren't any boot/foot prints in the snow at all. The only tracks I saw were from a fox and I followed these for a while ('he' was following ptarmigan tracks!) until he went North and I had to go west.

down I go

It was staggeringly clear and sunny today, but quite chilly with a strong wind. MWIS predicted a wind chill of -18, and it felt it so I didn't linger too much (Martin), but kept moving.

All to soon I was back at the bike, and I thought I have a nice easy ride out.... but with the head wind and hills (seemed hillier on the way out) I was knackered when I got back to the van - och well.

when will this cycle end!!

What a great day and my soul feels recharged ready for work tomorrow...! At least its only 1 day until the weekend, and hopefully more adventures. I love Scotland - such a magical place.

A day out with Kilian Jornet...

Well the title clearly isn't true because I was out with Martin, but in this crazy post truth world maybe it was, and maybe, just maybe its the alternative truth....

Martin sporting his 38 year old ME Fitzroy jacket 

Whatever the truth is, it certainly felt a little like this for the first 40 mins as I kept my head down and followed Martin up a snowy hill from near Loch a' Bhraoin over towards Ullapool. But we were on a clock as Martin had to pick his wife up from the airport that evening and had said 'pack light'.

A dipper near the start

Zoom shot of An Teallach (spot the rescue helicopter hovering above one near top)

It was a grey, flat light day, but we were heading up two munro's in the West Fannaichs. It was still great to be out in the 'white room', with clear views until around 900m (guess!), before we were in intermittent cloud.

Pose shot

Time to move!

Sgurr Breac passed quickly before retracing our route back to the central Toman Coinich. The pace had slowed and we had a leisurely snack stop at the col before heading up A' Chailleach.

Towards Sgurr Breac

On its top

Now this top was slightly off my map (on the next OS sheet). I'd realised this the night before and figured Martin (being sensible) would have the other sheet, and even if not we could go West to this top and if clear weather head North down a different return ridge, or easily retrace our steps the few hundred meters back to our outward route and the map. Who wants to carry a second OS map for 400m of terrain.......Sensible.....!? Besides the massive Loch in the valley a few miles away would be a massive emergency stop barrier/handrail if things got really bad!!

this way (well North for us)!

Well the top of A' Chailleach was clagged in, Martin didn't have a map (fair enough), thinking we would indeed like the alternative finish Martin did download bing maps onto his phone at the summit in the storm (exaggerating slightly here for effect). Alas google maps didn't seem to give much detail (funny that!). But with our extraordinary mountain leader skill set (!!) we headed due North from the summit knowing (vaguely) that this would deposit us on the ridge we wanted when we dropped through the cloud...

Nice wind scoured big ridge!

Wait for me...!

And indeed it did. The walk down this broad ridge was nice, well worth finding, including the snowy descent off it, and the bushwhack back to the Loch. And Martin had hours spare before going to the airport - win win!!