First Time Walking on the White Stuff

Sunday
With such fine weather on my arrival day on Saturday, I was crying inside when the forecast for Sunday was telling a similar story. All I had to do was get to the Ballachulish Hotel for 6pm for my course briefing. Shame I couldn't just go up one of the hills in bright sunshine and pristine conditions.

So I sat there in the breakfast room Sunday morning enjoying a full Scottish fry-up thinking about a very relaxed day, when the host asked one of the other guests what he was planning for the day. He was obviously a fairly seasoned winter mountaineer and wanted to do a gully on Ben Nevis. Long story short, our host arranged for him to take me along. NICE!!!

So I had a private instructor for the day and what a blast we had. Ed lent me his spare ice axe and crampons and after a quick equipment check he drove to the North Face car park and we walked the long way in to CIC hut. He was a really relaxed guy and we were chatting about this and that enjoying the fabulous weather.

Looking back down to Fort William

Ed leads the way to CIC hut

Getting wintry

He was fully aware that I was a total newbie here. Never used ice axe and crampons before. After all, that was what I was here for with the course.
Being a Mountain Leader and working towards his Winter Mountain Leader award, he got at least a nice practice day out of it. I was ever so grateful he took me along.
He taught me how to walk in crampons on the last bit up to CIC hut. From there we headed up No. 3 Gully which the book said was a Grade 1 route. Cool.
The first bit was fairly easy and I learned a lot as we slowly made our way up. Halfway it got fairly steep so we could only ram our heavy cramponed boots into the snow to create footsteps and then move one step further up.

The obvious notch in the middle of the ridge is our No.3 Gully

Of course my foot chose this moment to cramp, but Ed had shown me how to create a safe stand before. That's what I did so I could relax my foot until the cramp was over.
Up and up we went, steeper and steeper it got. Until about 5 metres below the top of the gully it became not only very very steep (prob about 60 degrees) but also the snow wasn't as solid up here. I trusted Ed as he made a judgement call and decided we back out.
Climbing down is something you only do when absolutely necessary. It is awkward and very uncomfortable. But I was way out of my comfort zone already, hanging there having to trust the snowy steps I had just created and the ice axe rammed into the snow. No rope, no anchor, no safety.

Step by cautious step we made our backwards way down and eventually reached CIC hut again. We were quite late and hurried down the hill. Ed used his head torch the last bit as it was getting dark.

Same Fort William, but at dusk

I phoned the course chief about my very late arrival and Ed dropped me off at the hotel. Baptised by fire I was totally knackered after my first and probably a wee bit too hard winter mountain day.
Met my Kilimanjaro guide from a year ago as I lugged my stuff into the lobby. We were both a bit surprised to see each other here.
Met the group and our instructor briefly and off to dinner we went. Ah. Stress. Nice people all around and I only had a very quick shower before I slumped into my bed and fell asleep immediately.

Monday
My first day of the Introductory Course started with breakfast at 7am. I woke up still knackered as hell, but none of my muscles were aching yet. Well done on my fitness prep, ha.
Our instructor gave us lots of useful advise about what and how we should pack and off we went to the Glencoe Ski Resort. Of course the weather was back to a more typical Scottish one with low clouds, high winds and a nice drizzle of rain/snow.

Went up on the chair lift and spend all day learning getting used to how and when to access stuff from our packs, how and when I can eat something (there's no such thing as a lunch break), how to stop when sliding down the slope and how to walk in crampons. Our instructor is awesome, very much enjoying teaching us newies and demonstrating the different techniques.

How to best pack all of this

Pretty good at stopping a slide

Bad weather? Naaaaah.

I was very surprised how little the strong winds and icy snow particles bothered me. I was warm and snug with the hood up and goggles on. Bring it on Scottish weather. No problemo!!! None of the others had any issues with that, too.

Normal Scottish weather

Went down after a fairly easy going day, but I started to feel my thighs and calves now. After the debrief a very needed shower and finally some time to post a few pictures.

I apologise for the lack thereof... there was simply no time and opportunity to take more. Not when I'm hanging on for dear life (Sunday) or being blown left and right by the wind (Monday)

Back Home

Just chilling on my bed in a very nice B&B in Ballachulish right now, watching telly, drinking red wine. Ah, holidays at last. Feels like ages I've been properly away.

For five years now I've come to Scotland at least once a year, most years twice. My heart rejoices whenever I'm here. It's not just about being fond of the scenery. I just feel like I belong here. Every time it's like coming home again.

Only this time is different. It's the first time I'm here in winter. And what a day I chose to arrive. Weather in Bristol had been ok-ish when I got onto the plane, only to arrive in a slightly sunny Glasgow. Cool.

Watched the first half of the Scotland Six Nations game at the airport's Weatherspoons, before I jumped onto my bus heading further North. 

The weather improved with every mile:

Loch Lomond late afternoon, blue sky, white Ben Lomond top. Nice. 

Crianlarich with white munros. Nice. 

Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy with white and orange mountains. Wow! 

Rannoch Moor in the early evening with the dark yellow of the sun and the blue of the sky reflecting in its numerous pools with more white munro tops as a backdrop. Woahhhh!

Glencoe's towering mountains in black and white. Woahhhh!!!!!!

Express check-in at my B&B just opposite the bus stop in Ballachulish and off I went for a quick walk to make the most of the waning light. Longingly I looked up to the high white peaks around, but I was drawn to the shores of Loch Leven. 

With a pounding heart (probably because I ran the last bit) I stood there totally captivated by the sheer beauty of the peaceful scene.

Loch Leven

Nothing planned for tomorrow but to move over to the Ballachulish Hotel where I'm staying the next two weeks for my two winter mountaineering courses. Can't wait!

Scotland Training Program Done!!!

Oof

Just back from my last workout of a four-month program to build up some basic fitness. The 80 burpees certainly killed me today. Not that I did an equal amount of squat jumps, 12kg kettle bell swings, battle rope swings, heel touches, 20kg step ups and 10 mins on the rowing machine as well.

That's all I could do to prepare for two weeks of winter mountaineering in Scotland. Seeing the local gym (brilliant place, Risk Gym on Gloucester Rd.) 3-4 times per week and do mostly highly intense circuit training. No lifting really and some cardio on top, although circuits are a killer already.

My endurance training software tells me, I have now reachrd a high fitness level. I still feel more like lower medium. I can be a lot better!!! Still, good achievement.

The Blue Line - Building up fitness

Despite really focussing on endurance I actually think I built up some bulk as well. My scale is showing me a higher percentage of muscle mass every week and looking in the mirror seems to support this. Up by 3% to 36% now. Nothing I was after but hey, we're far from complaining here, haha.

Muscle?

Was all this hard work enough? I don't know. I'm very keen on finding out. After all, I couldn't do much hillwalking or cycling over the dark months, which is certainly not good.

What Didn't Work

Concentrating on fitness and endurance alone I've neglected my diet a bit and had way too many cheat meals. This will be the main thing I'll be working on when I'm back home in order to finally reduce my body fat. I'm still carrying around too much useless weight.

What's Next

Now, I'm winding down this week to start my Scotland trip fresh and in good form, taking a 1.5 week break after to recover, before I'm starting the next training cycle in April (to prepare for the 3-week munro bagging trip in July). By then it will be warm enough to cycle some of the distance to work once or twice per week resulting in 30-50mi return per day, depending on where I swap the car for my bike.


See you on the flip side!!!