Bridge Swinging in the snow

After a spot of filming for the Fort William Mountain Festival programme launch, I partook of a spot of light bridge swinging myself today. I thought I looked quite casual in the photo above but Dave reckons they are the eyes of psyche. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Thanks for the photos, Bill.

Glen Nevis River Race

Pre-race nerves

Yesterday saw the return of the legendary Glen Nevis River Race, where hoardes of mad folk race down the river with only a helmet, a pair of sensible shoes and any form of floatation device you care to mention for company. After all the rain we've been having lately, the river was running really high which some felt was a bonus, others not so. The water was so high, that the race organisers No Fuss had to chop the start of the course off. Apparently, one of them jumped off the spot known ominously as 'The Leg Breaker' in the morning to test it and he popped up fine. His airbed, however, didn't pop up for 10 minutes. Hmm, not my cup of tea but everyone else looked like they were enjoying it; some in it for a laugh, others taking it VERY seriously.

The lower falls of Glen Nevis - not for the feint hearted. One or two got to the edge and thought, "Actually.......I think I'll walk round!" I don't blame them, it's higher than it looks!

Before...

After!

Looking remarkably cavalier whilst holding onto an inflatable lobster for dear life.

A quiet picnic?

Quietude is never far away in the highlands – so don’t miss out on it!!

Travel anywhere in the highlands in summer and you will come across lots of weird and wonderful sights by the road. The whole spectrum of ‘outdoor thrill seekers’ can be found, from tour buses taking a short walk at the main beauty spots to folk changing in and out of flashy look gear for climbing up or diving off our mountains. All good – but what I can never get my head round is the ‘trunk road picnic’.

Get some lovely food, some fold out chairs, some good company and head for a 2 metre wide concrete layby with HGVs, caravans and motorbikes roaring by. Something not quite right there is there?! And I’m not talking about a quick stop on the road to break up a drive and have a bite to eat – I mean set in for an afternoon of traffic watch. Why???

The highlands are filled with countless spots of serene tranquillity, spitting distance from the road. Why spend your time taking in the sights and sounds of the kerbside for the sake of a little imagination or a couple of minutes research on the map?

Spring sunshine

The sunshine has been amazing here for days and days and days. We’ve been out making the most of it and getting up to a variety of things in the glen and on the Ben.

Everyone always laughs at me when I wear this jacket. I have no idea why….

Dave and I went up the Ben a few days ago to film him on some winter climbing for a film that we are making about his training and attempts on a route he wants to do there in the summer. It’s so weird that down in the town it’s so Spring like and up on the North Face conditions are amazing for winter climbing; and it looks like they are going to be amazing for some time to come.

There I was, taking photos in my HUGE down jacket and this crazy guy scoots past in shorts. On a bike. Brrrrrr.

You know you are in the Outdoor Capital of the UK when in one day out we met walkers, climbers, skiers, snowboarders and one crazy mountain-biker on the same hill.

Bear Trap Prow, V12

On Friday, we headed up the glen to the Skeleton Boulder for some more filming and a photo-shoot. I managed to get footage of the first ascent of the hardest boulder problem in Glen Nevis, a new V12. The past few days have really brought it home to me that I seriously need to do something about my lack of fitness. The film that we are making is going to involve a stupid amount of walking in and out of the Ben with what I think are stupidly heavy rucksacks. Not only that, but I’m going to need to keep up (so far as I can) with Dave who can fairly belt up hills, let me tell you.

The half way Lochain – I suppose getting fit with views like this ain’t all bad.

So this morning, I headed up to the half way Lochain via the tourist path to get the pulse rate up and enjoy some sunshine in the Spring. I’ll never be as fit as Dave but I’ll need to try and do something about my fitness or this summer is going to be a nightmare.

Wish me luck.

Kiting on Camusdarach beach

Such are the joys of living in the Highlands, taking Dave on a driving lesson doesn't mean doing circuits of industrial estates and supermarket carparks like I did when I learned to drive. Instead, we circumnavigated 1/4 of the total number of roundabouts in Fort William (i.e. one) and headed down the Road To the Isles. Happily, this takes you to the beautiful beach of Camusdarach. It was snowing when we arrived but I whipped the kite out nonetheless and Dave captured the front blowing over to reveal clear blue skies and some jaw-dropping scenery.

One of the drawbacks of having high winds blow away the storm clouds is that it can be quite hard on your kite, with one string snapping, quickly mended, followed shortly after by the other one going as well. Never mind, it was worth it.

What a difference a couple of minutes can make...

With the beach more or less to ourselves, Dave took some snaps and got increasingly cold in the wind. For a hardy climber he can be a bit soft sometimes! To be fair, he is still suffering a bit from frost nip, so I let him off and we headed to Glenfinnan for some soup to heat him up.

The snowy peaks of Rum

Skiing for the first time at Nevis Range

Waaah - how do you stop these things?

It was all systems go this morning for meeting Lisa Wharton, local writer and editor, for lunch at the Farm Shop when a sneaky wee email sent at the last minute asked if I fancied a spot of light skiing at Nevis Range afterwards. Not the kind of email one normally receives but I thought what the heck, I'll take my thermals along and see what happens.

Crikey, it's a lot harder than it looks. Lisa, a seasoned skiier, started me off with trying some turns. Then we back tracked a little and tried snow ploughs. I knew I wasn't doing so well when she then said "Right, I think we'll practice just standing still." Oh dear. We got there in the end though and I managed 4 whole turns in a row without falling over just before we got back to the gondola as it got dark.

Lisa looking somewhat more at home

What I find amazing though, is that this was all just a 10 minute drive from my house. Fort William keeps surprising me.

Ben Nevis from the air

I cannot begin to describe just how awesome today was. Seriously. It all started last night when Dave Brown happened to mention that Diff, his partner in Hot Aches Productions, was coming up to Fort William in the morning to do some shooting for a new film Triple Echo are making about Ben Nevis. They needed aerial shots of the Ben; the weather was perfect and the helicopter was booked. I got to thinking…

So at half 8 this morning, I phoned Triple Echo and asked if there was any chance of a lift. It was a long shot but it worked! If I could be at the Nevis Range car park in half an hour, they’d see if they could squeeze me in – woohoo! Sheepishly blagging some wood (see post below) was nothing compared to blagging your way into a free ride round Ben Nevis in a helicopter on one of the best days of the year for it.

Click on the pictures below for a larger image.

All of the pictures I took in the air were shot through the helicopter window, so there are some reflections. But they still give you an impression of how awesome Ben Nevis is!

The shapely ridge of Carn Mor Dearg

A stop for lunch

An unusual view of the summit plateau of Ben Nevis. It looks so innocuous in sunshine, but can be a very scary place to be in a winter storm. You can see the summit observatory ruins clearly.

Winter walking in the sun

Dave succeeded in dragging me out of bed this morning at the ungodly hour of 5am to get a lift from him and Michael up the Ben to go a spot of winter walking. They disappeared into the darkness as soon as we left the car and I followed on at my own plodding pace. We headed up from the North Face car park and this is the amazing view I got as I approached the CIC hut at about 8 this morning; not long after, the clouds cleared, leaving behind a clear blue sky all day. I headed back down from here to Achintee down the tourist path. The difference between the two different paths is amazing. In the morning I was being overtaken by fierce, bearded mountain types powering up the path to arrive at their routes in time for daybreak and on the way down the tourist path, being met with people posing such questions as, "Is there any snow at the top?" It's quite scary really...

Anyway, Dave and Michael got a new route done today whilst I pottered about in the snow, a VII, 7 on Trident Buttress.

1st time ice climber

Forgive the rather unflattering 'bum-shot' but I'm sure every ice-climber has some lurking in a folder somewhere.

Dave and I have some filming planned soon on Ben Nevis and never having touched ice with an axe before, we thought it would be a good idea to hit the Ice Factor and try swinging some tools for the first time before I hit the real stuff, as the weather outside is minging. That was two nights ago now and my forearms are still stiff from the savage pump.

Amazing fun though!

I'm sure all you proper ice climbers are getting psyched for the next couple of days as it looks like there are some pretty good conditions on the horizon.

Stuff we chose for our hampers part 5 – Island Bakery

The Hebrides have some of the wildest most barren landscapes in the UK. But this empty and hard edged landscape seems to have brought out quite the opposite characteristic in the islands locals. The Scottish islanders have their own special rules for everything. They are a generous, open, but most of all; colourful bunch. Our experience of Mull’s locals has been just that. The main one we have found is that all visitors must go away with a stomach full of great homemade food. Happy days. One rule not to fall foul of in the Hebrides though is that nothing happens on Sundays, as my father-in-law found out; temporarily barred from the local shop in Dervaig for playing his bagpipes on a Sunday. He should have known better.

Tobermory’s Island Bakery from Mull was in fact the first supplier we chose for our hampers. While Velvet Antlers was still just an idea growing in my head we looked around for inspiration and products out there that matched my notion of the style statement I was looking for. While perusing a farm shop soaking up inspiration, Island Bakery’s Oat Crumbles kinda jumped out from the rest. I wonder if they were influenced in their brightly coloured biscuit boxes by Tobermory’s famous harbour buildings?

That technicolour waterfront that greets the returning firshermen every day is perhaps Mull’s most photographed icon. Mull is also famed for its music scene; Sadly Mull’s pubs no longer vibrate to the beats and jigs of Mull’s most famous musician, the late Martyn Bennett. His albums are regularly employed to supply the psyche for a training session or two in our house!

You’ll find some Island Bakery’s oat Crumbles, Lemon Melts or Chocolate Limes in most of our hamper range – we liked them that much…

Avoiding the Antlers

I write this post for the Velvet Antlers blog in the car beside Claire on the way north through the highlands – heading home from work down south. As we leave the southern highlands and climb up onto the stunning barren expanse of Rannoch Moor, I can feel a familiar feeling of worry triggering in my head. What is it?

Antlers!

That is, the sight of them appearing through the windscreen. Gruesome thought I know. So let me explain why I feel the need to blog about it. Since our early visits to the highlands as teenage climbers, we noticed that despite a long hard day’s mountaineering on the north face of Ben Nevis, the most dangerous moments of the day came on the drive home late in the evening. One minute you are driving on a dark and deserted highland road. Next minute everyone in the car would be screaming as we slalom-swerved between some antlered obstacles. Scary stuff.

Now we love the highland red deer enough to name our company after them. The sight of them bounding across the mountains either alone or in their hundreds in huge clans is quite awesome. But the sight of one bounding in front of your car as you hurtle along is not funny.

Where red deer go to learn the green cross code.

Since we became highland locals, we’ve really learned that avoiding them is a really big part of moving about in the highlands if you want to stay safe and hang onto your vehicle! But we also realised that so many folks, like we used to be as outside visitors, are not aware of the danger.

It might seem weird for two adventurous types into rock climbing and mountaineering to lecture about road safety. But let the following facts do the talking. Since living here for less than a year, we have had one serious collision with major car and stag damage (twenty of them ran out in front of Claire’s car at once – we had no chance!). I’ve been in the car during at six separate collisions with Red Deer, one writing off a friend’s car. Most of the people we know who have lived in or visited the highlands have written off at least one car. And we know about one accident that resulted in life changing injuries for the passengers. So forgive us for the warning.

Here are our Antler avoiding top tips when driving in the highlands:

- Winter is worst (we’re not sure if it’s true, but we have been told they come down not only to escape the mountain blizzards but to lick the salt off the roads – anyone know?)
- Rannoch Moor is the worst spot in Scotland and we see accidents virtually non-stop through winter.
- The A83 between Spean Bridge and Laggan, and the Cluanie pass are also virtually guaranteed to see at least one stag crossing per journey. We totally recommend going pretty slow here.
- If you have a passenger, recruit them for ‘deer radar’ duty and keep a look out for antlers bobbing around in the dark next to the road or the shiny eyes in the headlights. This saves so many accidents. Oh, and make sure you clarify that if they shout “DEER!” they mean “BRAKE!” and you don’t answer “Yes dear?”.
- Be super careful when your headlights are dipped. You’ll have no warning to hit the anchors in time if a stag appears in your line of fire.

So next time you are belting along a straight highland road with no other traffic in sight and you get stuck behind someone inexplicably doing 40 – yes, they do know something you don’t.

Update on the UK Slacklining Masters

I am pleased to announce that Slackline Brothers Inc. will be proud sponsors of the competition.

They will be providing the lines, Ric will be judging, and there will also be spot prizes of slacklining gear up for grabs. This is a huge commitment from these guys, for which I am most grateful.

Stuff we chose for our hampers, part 2 – Arran Aromatics

The Scots are a damn lucky bunch when it comes to holidays. Glaswegians like us especially so. As well as the usual choices of getting on a plane anywhere, we have an almost inexhaustible resource of lovely places to discover in our own islands. Often, it’s financial constraints that lead Scot’s to holiday within Scotland, but it’s probably the time most outdoor lovers discovered the highlands and islands.

The isle of Arran is a popular haunt of Glaswegians off work for the summer ‘Glasgow Fair’ weekend, summer holidays, weekend warrior trips and these days, stag and hen dos!

For us, it was Arran’s famous granite mountains that brought us across on the Friday night crossing to Brodick and the long trek up the road to Glen Rosa campsite. Later, we discovered the quietude of camping in Glen Sannox beside some old ruins. This became our base for exploring the cliffs of Cir Mhor, The Bastion and Cuithe Mheadonach. The mood of these mountains really leaves an impression on you. Such a small mountain range, but I remember feeling so remote hanging off a huge granite flake listening to the silence of the summer mountain air and feeling the warm up-draught as the 300 foot plated granite wall soaked up the afternoon sun. Only the sight of the tiny wee Calmac ferry scurrying back and forth across the firth of Clyde to Ardrossan reminds you that civilisation is not too far away.

On that summer updraught I also remember the smells. They always seem so much stronger in the hebridean mountains than anywhere else we have spent time. Blossoming heather, peat drying in the summer heat, and the raw untouched granite, as the crystals under my feet scrittle slightly, disturbed for the first time since the glaciers left.

Arran Aromatics have made it their life’s work to bottle this most exquisite of sensory experiences. So we thought it was perfect for Velvet Antlers hampers.

Icy Delights

Last week in Lochaber was simply beautiful. Here are some pics of the river Nevis across the road from us as it gave in to the deep freeze. This week, of course is drab and driech again, but you wouldn’t enjoy the good times so much it was always perfect, would you?