Am Faochagach and exploring Inverlael..

Claire and I had our last night at Forest Way and decided to take advantage of Iain's kind offer to give

View to the Fannich Hills on the ascent.

 us a lift to the start point for the ascent of Am Faochagach - and we could leave our car at Inverlael. The interesting thing here is that Inverlael is actually quite some way from the summit of Am Faochagach - committing us to a substantial re-ascent and traverse to reach one of the two cols which we could use to descend. The another annoying thing was that we would have to walk out on the final stalker's track as the bikes were safely at home...well I am getting a bit ahead of myself!

Claire nears the summit

It was another lovely day - with views very similar to the one in the picture. This was a good choice of hill to do, as all the guidebooks mention that this ascent can be VERY boggy with a very tricky river crossing. However, 3 weeks of no rain rendered the bogs much drier and the river crossing a total irrelevance. The pull up onto the ridge was hot and sweaty, however our pace judgement was quite good and it was not too long before the two of us were on top of Am Faochagach - one of the hills of the Inverlael group that I had not done in my previous visit last year.

After a bite to eat we left behind all the people and headed off in the direction of Loch Pirrie. The descent was quite trying, with uneven ground and no path making it hard to get much of a rhythm going as we descended to the headwaters of Glen Beag. From there - it was a steep and stiff pull onto the long ridge thrown out to the East by Ceann Garbh. This is the subsidiary top of Meall na Ceapraichan (and one I had climbed on my last visit) and was something we planned to ascend before descending to the col.

The going and heat were quite sapping and it was a slow plod up the ridge towards the final bump at 864m, after which the ridge drops before the final pull onto Ceann Garbh. Arriving at the col, it was decided to miss the top out and contour the hill to the col between it and Eididh nan Clach Geala. From there, we could pick up the stalkers path that I had ascended on my visit and follow it down until it met the last path. The contouring was rough, but the altimeter watch was a huge help, enabling me to keep track of the height - and lo and behold we ended up at the correct place.

An Tellach dominates the horizon. 

This being done the day was largely over, and the well made tracks to the stalkers path were a relief for the legs after the rough going of the previous few hours. The view - see the picture - was not bad either!

In due course; we reached the main forest ride - where I had left the bike last time. This last 2 miles or so was not to our liking; being jarring and long and devoid of much interest at all. Given it took about 40 mins longer than the last time I was here -  it was not my favourite part of the day. Eventually however, we reached the car and drove to the highly impressive campsite at Ullapool - more of which later. However, the 6 min shower for 20p was utilised - and then it was the adjacent Indian restaurant for supper...

Pix are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/AmFaoghachAndTheInverlaelHills

First married Munro...

Claire and I are in the North of Scotland on a belated honeymoon. We are based at Forest Way B and B until tomorrow morning - and then will probably camp in Ullapool.

Having driven to Edinburgh on Fri afternoon to spend the evening with Dad and Pat, we carried on the drive North on Saturday - on an A9 redolent with holiday traffic and idiots in caravans who refuse to go above 40 mph - until the get to the dual carriageway section and speed up. However, we arrived just south of Ullapool with a lovely forecast and so decided to get out walking the next day - Sunday.

After driving to the parking spot we set up following the stream we followed in ascent of Beinn Liath Mhor Fannich and the in descent on our final day of last year's holiday. This time it was much drier - the benefits of the recent heatwave; and we were able to make sustained progress. A party of FSP (fit Scottish people) whizzed past us and disappeared up Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich at high speed. Regrettably, the two of us have spent far too much time at work and not enough in the mountains so we opted for a more sedate pace as we ambled towards our chosen hill.

One thing that was new was the construction of half a bulldozed track some of the way to the bridge before one starts the trackless section to reach the foot of the corrie under Meall Gorm and An Coileachan. I say half a track as it came and went for no adequately explained reason - however it did make for easy going when it was there. Having used it for a bit we descended to the bridge and began the grunt across country (and up). Given the dry spell this was better than the last time we did it; however it was not the highlight of the day and required us to have some sustenance before the final ascent.

The weather was good - as can be seen from the Picasa site https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/AnCoileachan

and the final ascent to the summit of An Coileachan was ok. This was the last of the Fannich summits for me and the last one on the main ridge for Claire, and we found a nice spot out of the wind to have lunch. Although we both felt tired, we eschewed the 'simple' descent down the way we had come and elected to ascend Meall Gorm and go over it to try and descend the steep corrie beyond it and thus pick up the stalkers path where it terminated. It was at this point that the weather became - changeable. As in, we had sunshine, rain, gales and snow within about 5 mins flat! This pattern continued for most of the rest of the walk.

We had got to with 100 ft of the summit of Meall Gorm when we looked at our proposed descent route and it looked a trifle dodgy. We thus decided to descend the way we had come and amble back to the car. This would still leave a walk of a little over 10miles - which frankly is all we can manage at the moment.

The descent went ok - thanks to finding a path for the last third of the descent to the bridge! and we used the new stalkers path instead of our initial path by the stream to speed our way and allow our legs to stretch out a bit. The walk was lovely, however the levels of our unfitness our now painfully obvious and is something we need to think about when planning future walks.

Church Rock, Thirlmere..

Well, a scorching week of weather in Cumbria; and Claire and I got the chance to make the best of it today. Despite both of us having so much work to do it is stupid; we went to Church Rock in Thirlmere to get a bit of climbing in before we head north on belated honeymoon next Friday.

It's only a 10 min walk to the crag from the church in St. Johns in the Vale and it was a lovely morning - hot and sunny but with a nice, cooling breeze and we had the crag to ourselves. Neither of us had climbed in a month or so, so nice easy routes were the order of the day. First on the list was Confidence - a nice 1* Diff. The climb is a little bold at the start - however all the holds were there and once worked out it went very nicely indeed. One feature of this crag is the fact that an outdoor pursuits centre have installed belay bolts on top. This meant that I could clip in, relax and see Claire as she came up. No problems at all for Claire and she was soon at the belay.

After a quick instruction in abseiling; I showed Claire how to do it by abbing down and then walking back to the top (only a 2 min walk) to watch. Claire took to her first abseil like a duck to water and was soon down.

Next on our list was Carrick's climb; which took an improbable line at Diff through some overlaps. There were a couple of moves on this that were a little committing and I dithered a bit before committing - it's all their and Claire waltzed up and found it easy - GRRRR. Another abseil and we called it a day....lovely setting and a lovely morning - followed up by lunch at the Mill Inn!

Hopefully the weather will hold - will be updating the blog from Scotland next weekend onwards whenever I am able to.

Go well

Warming up...?

Claire and I spent the weekend in Edinburgh; Claire had a conference on Saturday and I was feeling full of cold.

I actually feel a lot better today - the decent weather from last night helped; however all I could manage was a wander along the beach with Claire. The amount of work I have to do is ridiculous, especially when combined with job-hunting. I seem to be running hard to stay upright.

The forecast for the week is quite encouraging - with temperatures around the 20 degree mark. Given that Claire and I head to Scotland on honeymoon in the NW Highlands. Some good weather would be VERY much appreciated...

Back on the hills....

With bank holiday weekend upon us; Claire and I took the opportunity to go for a walk...the previous weekends being scuppered by a combination of tiredness; too much work and Claire working last weekend. The original plan had been to go to Scotland - however the fact was that I simply couldn't face driving up north for 4 hours - given how exhausted I was it would have been too dangerous. So we opted for a weekend in Cumbria instead...

So, it was a small(ish) walk that we planned; and as such drove to the Skiddaw Car Park on a sunny morning although with quite a wind. Despite the wind it actually felt warm in the sun for the first time in quite a while; which was good.

The pace was slow as we are both unfit, however we plodded up the path towards the gate; where we had a choice. Claire, being a true daughter of Howard (a man who has tabasco sauce on his cereal he is so hard!); we elected to go over Lower Man. Although the extra ascent was steep we we're rewarded by the sight of 3 curlews sitting in the heathery grass (there was one party ahead of us but no-one else had gone this way).

Coming over the other side of the hill - the path up to Skiddaw was full of people and the cloud was hovering over the summit. So, we elected to go down to Skiddaw House (our intended destination anyway) and have lunch there in quiet rather than with loads of people in the cold.

The descent to Skiddaw House was nice and gentle with great views of the 'empty quarter', the hills at the back of Blencathra and Skiddaw, and of Skiddaw House. This has been a Youth Hostel off and on over the years; I have no idea if it's open now or not. It is certainly a lovely spot; and provided a nice log for us to have lunch on.

The walk back around the slopes of Lonscale fell was pleasant in the extreme, with the wind dropping and us both actually feeling some real heat from the sun at last...

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/SkiddawHouseViaSkiddawLowMan


these are the pictures...

Honeymoon in the Dales...

 So, Claire and I got married on Friday (the 13th of course!) and, after a lovely meal with the close families (including Claire's mum and dad who came over from Botswana) Claire and I set out for the Yorkshire Dales.

My father and Pat had booked us a B and B at West Witton in Wensleydale; which was a lovely place in a lovely spot. I had forgotten how lovely Wensleydale is, the winding river and the narrow valley.


After a meal in the pub we had breakfast and watched the snow falling outside; closely followed by the sun; closely followed by rain - clearly changeable was the order of the day!
That being the case - we elected to drive to Whernside, a hill I know very well and one which would give an ascent on well-made paths that should not be too boggy. After a 40 min drive we arrived at Ribblehead - to find a biting wind and not much warmth in the sun. I discovered this by being dispatched to get some tea from the tea van!

Suitably well wrapped up, Claire and I started up Whernside via the viaduct -as in the picture above. It was a slow ascent, but very well judged given our progress up the mountain. Ingleborough was snow capped as can be seen from the shot. What was amazing was the number of people around, I had imagined it would be busy but not as insane as it was. It seemed that hordes of people were on a 3 peaks challenge walk.                                                                                                                                                                    Quite a few were either dressed oddly and/or sporting headphones depriving themselves of the noise of the birds and sheep....

The summit ridge was very cold, with a cross-wind and Claire was able to wear her birthday present gloves ( a present from Mum expected for Scottish winter). Fully dressed up we wandered down - Claire being extremely nimble on her feet on the steep descent.

Turning left at Ellerbeck farm and suddenly the numbers dwindled to about 1/20 of what they were before...all that remained were hot-dogs and hamburgers - twice. Oh and a lovely (but rotund) doggy who offered to help!

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/HoneymoonOnWhernside

pictures

Walking around town in the snow...

weird weather with a capital W...went up to work today and then met Claire for lunch in Carlisle; the wind was biting and it was sleeting gently.

Went for a stroll around town this evening - snow was in the air and was falling; although not settling. Wonder what it will be doing in the mountains?