Sheddy's first munro and midge-geddon

Sheddy has never been up a munro so we took the bikes round to Braemar and planned a little 2 day trip into the park from the Southern side to put this right.

If you have ever walked in to Derry Lodge/the Cairngorms from the Linn of Dee you will know its a pain and much more efficient on bikes to cut out a long slog along the land rover track.

Bags packed, setting off

getting boggy

epic scenery

We packed up and cycled in, making swift work of it as the clouds gathered, and ditched the bikes near to Luibeg Bridge and set off up Carn a' Mhaim. Its a nice hill, but we got drenched on the way up. Luckily when we topped out the rain stopped and clouds cleared to allow us views to Ben Macdui and across to The Devils Point where I'd been on an epic winter trip a couple of years back.

nearly the end of the biking, the munro comes into view

We headed down and found a camp spot near to the path as this was the only spot not boggy. We deliberately avoided the bothies as there were a lot of folk about.

Shed on top of his first munro as the rain stopped

heading down

We started cooking (midge free), and can you guess what happened.....? the midges flocked and engulfed us in a cloud of misery, so as we had the previously mentioned tent (not midge proof) we manically packed up and continued upon our way.

camp 1, before the midge plague

eaten alive

Bizarrely we found another bivy spot quite near to the river that was midge free and settled down (again) for the night. It was a great spot watching the moon rising.

camp 2, evening light

camp 2

In the morning I woke early (6 ish) thinking I could hear rain tap, tapping gently on the tarp, but as I slowly woke I realised and could see that it was 1000's of midges trying to get in and eat us. They slowly penetrated 'the tarp gap' as we manically packed our stuff and broke free of camp again.

hikers passing through

Moving on the bikes again was bliss. By this point Tom was bored and ready to get back to civilisation and his Essex beauty regime, but Shed and I cycled further North from Derry Lodge eventually ditching the bikes in the tree's and heading up Shed's second munro Beinn Bhreac.

the 2nd hill

down we go...

It was great being on top of it for 9am seeing the fine views North to the glen Avon basin area. We didn't see a sole up here. We got back to the bikes quickly and cycled out still early as lots of people were walking/cycling in.

nearly back at the bikes

We found Tom at a cafe in Braemar (of course!) and all celebrated a fun 2 days with a famous Elmore's breakfast, rather good I have to say, and Sheddy broke the toilet (no comment). So all in all a very successful trip, midges not-withstanding.

The Burma road (Cairngorms)

I've always avoided Scotland in summer because of the wee beasty midges, but Sheddy had been tasked with finding an adventure for us all this August and we had decided to go to Skye for the Cuillin Ridge. Unfortunately the weather forecast for Skye was rubbish so we decided that we needed a change of plan so headed East to the Cairngorms when I picked up the marauding Southerners from Glasgow airport.

The start of the Burma Road

Nice steady start

Sheddy and Tom are both quite soft being from the South (!) so I had to ease them in gently. They hired mt bikes for 3 days and I brought my own.

A quick photo stop....

Nearly at the top, clouds brewing up

Wow the midges were bad and we found ourselves sitting in my car at 4pm not daring to venture out as every time we did we got eaten alive. The sign in the campsite reception stated 'no refund due to midges or rain'. That should have been all of the warning we needed to move on...

I'll mention now that Tom had brought the mid with him, a great 3-4 person bivy/tent. I think I'd asked him if he was bringing a proper inner with bug netting, and I'm sure he said he was. Unfortunately it had a floor, but no netting, so basically it was a teepee with a gap all the way around the base allowing high midge flow levels to enter and exit as required (mainly enter and bite!). Therefore I tried to sleep in the car whilst they fought for their lives in the bug tent.

chilling in the bothy

Shed on the storm

beautiful heather and trails

We headed out on the famous Burma road for our first trip. Its a local iconic ride that I've wanted to do for years and starts by going up a very steep hill until you get to 700m. The climb was great, I'd thought it was a push, but it was all rideable, although I stopped a few times to take pictures.

the savanna

The cloud bubbled in and we got soaked dropping down into the beautiful glen on the other side of the pass. We took shelter in a nice red roofed bothy before the sun came out and we continued on.

mile marker

Tom and hare bells

It's a beautiful ride and the river dulnain valley was amazing with the heather in bloom and sun shining. We eventually joined General Wades old Military Road which took us back to civilisation at Carrbridge.

amazing bridge on General Wades Highway

From here we got a little lost but eventually found a series of off route cycleways to get us back to Aviemore. A brilliant ride that ended up being about 35 miles. I think the boys enjoyed it, just another midday night to endure now....

Nearly home

?!?!?!?!

Awaiting the midge attack to begin...

Ben Nevis by car...

I have to share this amazing film from 1911 that shows a publicity stunt by Henry Alexander to help sell more Fords. They drive down from the top of Ben Nevis, and it took more than 2 weeks to achieve, 10 days to get the car to the top and 6 days driving it down.

Enjoy......

Scotland, England, but sadly not Wales

With a few days off to climb with Ben I'd wanted to go and enjoy the sea air and climb at Pembroke, unfortunately the very wild weather forecast meant that we had to more flexible with our plans.

Day 1 - We started off with a day trip to Clifton in Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway). We spent a hot and sunny day climbing single pitch granite routes overlooking hills, moor and the Solway Firth - idyllic.

Clifton's fine granite

He also met an odd local here, a guy called Paul who declared it was his local crag, but didn't seem to know where any route started from. He'd pop up out of the bracken in his tight white muscle vest and ask if he could watch us, then disappear again when he got bored to go off elsewhere and start self belaying up another route - interesting. I'd highly recommend this crag and you can get the topo/information all from John Biggar's excellent website (a great resource).

Climbing from the jungle

Day 2 - The weather looked dodgy, with the Lakes being the best bet. We drove into Langdale in the dark swirling clouds and thought 'what have we done' as it had looked brighter in the East on the drive over. A short detour to the metropolis of Ambleside allowed the weather to brighten and rock to dry.

The magical Raven Crag

Back in Langdale at Raven Crag we climbed Pluto, which has been on our hit list for a number of years. Its a brilliant HVS with 3 contrasting pitches which are all challenging in there own ways. We'd been on it a number of years ago, but it had started to rain as we sat on the ledge before the crux last pitch so we'd had to bail up another route in the rain.  Today all went well, and he got up it with only a little wobble trying to cross a wet 5a section near the top!

A climber starting the 2nd traverse pitch of Pluto (rubbish picture from  a long way off!)

Photogenic climbers under instruction 

Ben on Evening Wall

Day 3 - The idea had now been for a day trip to Wales to climb in each country, but sadly the weather dictated that this would be a silly idea, with lots more rain coming North through the day hitting Wales at lunch time. Again the Lakes looked the best bet so I managed to persuade Ben to head to Gimmer Crag.

Nearly there.. looks warm at Gimmer

Cold....

Gimmer is my favourite mountain crag in the Lakes and feels quite big and remote nestled at the end of Langdale, one hours walk from the car. Our plan was to climb Kipling Groove, a classy HVS I've wanted to climb for years. When we arrived Ben shot up Asterisk to warm up, but basically it didn't 'warm' us up, as it was very cold and breezy. There were a few teams climbing but we were under prepared for the weather, it was probably around 12 degree's, windy and cold.

Ben at White Crag

Neither of us were enjoying it so we headed back to lower elevations and climbed 3 enjoyable routes at White Crag, which neither of us had been to before. This is 300m lower than Gimmer and was nice and warm! An added bonus was that the KMC were meeting here tonight and we bumped into Cliff and Judith from the KMC. I highly recommend Right and Left Trouser leg routes here - although be warned the right is a little sparse on gear.

Cliff breezing up an HVS/E1

So a great 3 days, but I still have a dragon to slay at Gimmer (as Cliff would say)..... will I ever get on/up Kipling Groove.....