Tuesday 27 December 2011

the little hills


As the ski's and tools gather dust on rack, the mountain bike is in its element once again.


Think I can have a guilt free dinner tonight.

Saturday 24 December 2011

biking christmas


Merry Christmas blogee's

Wednesday 21 December 2011

make hay when the sun shines

Last tour for the year?

Sunday 18 December 2011

misinterpreting books


I very nearly lost Donald on the walk into the corrie of the people.  Hard to believe I know....


Happily reunited (another chapter for the book) we tinkled in, up and around the corrie looking at 'stuff'.



Donald is learning that mountaineering in not really about soloing grade hard, tunnelling through massive cornices and practising ice axe arrests down mega death slopes.

Really, books are over rated...

Saturday 17 December 2011

the view today




Ok, Fiona was actually wearing blue but I could only find green, but apart from that, its pretty close.

I really would quite like to see where I am going tomorrow.


Friday 16 December 2011

plums and tangerines

I was dressed as a plum today.

I was on purple ski's.


I had on purple ski pants.

I had on a purple jacket.

I had on a purple hat.

After 1000m of skinning, my cheeks were most definitely purple, and that was before the mulled wine - which was also purple.

Derek was dressed as a tangerine.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

found it!

The snow had to be somewhere, since its obviously been blown off the high hills.


So, turning down the opportunity to climb - mad isn't it - I went on search for the missing snow.


Found it!  


So this morning with only the mountain hares, the grouse and shadows for company, I stayed low sniffing out the best line for optimum "whee's".


Only stuck my head into the wind once to discover that trying to put away skins in more than a breeze is slightly problematic - bet our continental friends don't have that issue.


Oh, lets have a little bit of a reality check - there was a bit of heather on the lower slopes, but isn't that just part of the game?

Saturday 10 December 2011

avoiding the crowds


Another minging day on the hill today.


Didn't want to be anywhere near the crowds today but it was nice to see the ski tourers out in force.


Donald is discovering that crampons are much more effective on his boots than in his rucksack.


Hadn't realised that it was acceptable for skidoo's to leave the ski area.  Might try and drive my Peugeot 207 up the land rover track tomorrow....

Thursday 8 December 2011

the white stuff

Its always good at the start of the season to go out with professional professionals.  Yesterday, this came in the form of Mark from the Scottish Avalanche Information Service.


The service has loads of interesting things happening this season which can be found on their website.


The Northern Cairngorms and Lochaber areas will be publishing their first reports for the season this weekend with the full service starting on Wednesday.

The latest reading (1048) from the Cairngorm Weather station show that the mean windspeed is 74mph with a gust windspeed of 102mph.

Slightly grateful to be indoors....

Monday 5 December 2011

the first route of the season

... is never pretty and today was no exception.


You would think that after a few years practice that I would learn.


I wrapped myself up in my leashes, I dropped my flask lid down the hill, I had forgotten how to use my crampons and we probably chose the wrong route as a warm up.  

I was going to say that I had forgotten how to swing my tools, but this wasn't really appropriate today.  

Instead of wearing my posh OR kit, I should have wrapped myself in a hessian sack so that I could stick to the ice in the chimney.


To sum up Di & Richards adventure: The Stirling Bomber 55m V,7 ** - bloomin' desperate.

Sunday 4 December 2011

a video blog

Promise, this was today ...



I have told Rich, to pack ski's and tools for tomorrow :)

Thursday 1 December 2011

the north west


The little people of the world worked hard to gain our access rights, and its important that the little people of the world exercise their right before this becomes a sign of things to come.


No sorry, I won't be replacing a very good land rover track for a death defying river crossing and a non existent hill path over some outrageous bog terrain.


A little bit surprised how much snow their actually was and wasn't really expecting to do any trail breaking.


The £1million question:  was it in nick?  ha, now that would be telling.....