Tuesday 27 March 2012

avoiding eye contact

Yesterday, I went running around the local hills.

For company I had the lapwings, the curlews, the oyster catchers and the friendly farmer.

This afternoon, I went running around (not) the local hills.

For company I had the traffic from the M80.  Nobody made any eye contact or said 'hello' once ...

I can suddenly see the attraction to iPod's.

Oh, I say running, but it is more like waddling in same desperate attempt to raise the heart rate :)

Off to the Alps now for probably lots of this ...


Sunday 25 March 2012

alpine training

Jenny and Katie are perhaps 2 of keenest clients I had the pleasure to work with this winter.


Already very capable hill walkers, mountaineers and climbers they are planning their first Alpine trip this summer.

So, yesterday we spent the day on Ben Nevis looking and speaking about all the things that the guide books don't tell you.

Completely unintentionally, my last day of Scottish winter work coincided with the last day of Scottish winter.

Friday 23 March 2012

great glen way

I put a thing on Facebook asking if anyone fancied cycling the Great Glen Way the following day.  Not really thinking anyone would take me up on it, I was tickled pink when Nick phoned up, to say game on.


Lets be perfectly honest now, neither of us had done our homework properly.  I knew it was long - 79 miles according to the official website.


I knew it was going to be a stellar day.



I knew that if it all went wrong, I had a credit card with me :)


It was a bit of an error omitting to look at the overall height gain during the journey.


It was a bit of an error testing out a new saddle.


In short, this blog will do yesterday's journey absolutely no justice so video blog in progress:)

Actual distance travelled: 104km
Actual height climbed: 2219m
Calories consumed: not enough but done our best
Calories burnt: 5760
Total time: 10 hours 36 mins

Tuesday 20 March 2012

behind the scenes

I love Spring because it means the start of my alpine season.


For me to spend 5 weeks in the Alps, doing the best I can whether it be skiing or climbing, I am always unbelievably grateful for all the people behind the scenes who help me do this. Yesterday, Richard Bentley and I drove south to spend a really informative day with the boys and girls at Mountain Boot Company looking at loads of really new and unbelievably groovy products.  Needless to say, that I will be mainly wearing pink this Alpine season :)


This morning, I took my new Gea's (unfortunately not pink but green) down to Cairngorm Mountain Sports for Peter to wave his magic dust and mould the liners to my feet.  And I thought that my Diva's were comfy...


I'm going to be skiing on Trabs for the first time this season, the only thing that I can't decide on which modification to the tail will work best?  Not really being in a position to experiment properly, I've adopted the suck-it-and-see approach.

I spoke to Edelrid about getting the most powerful head torch available to man - with a 2100 departure time for the PDG, this will be pretty essential.  Ideally I was looking for a land rover lamp (preferably with attached land rover but that's not going to happen) but think I've got a pretty good second.  More importantly, is that it matches my Grivel go fast helmet.


And then there is Jas Hepburn, my guru coach, who opened my eyes to the smith machine, bb roll outs (which I am still utterly cr*p at) and russian twists.  When I told Jas this morning that I had just knocked 3 mins off my PB for the local 10km forest run, he looked as if christmas had come early.

So, to the fabulous people who I share my little life with, this blog is for you to say very publicly thank you for all the support that you provide me with.


Sunday 18 March 2012

bart simpson


I call them Bart Simpson clouds.  


For no other reason than they look like the clouds you see when you watch the Simpsons.

Silly I know, but true.

Friday 16 March 2012

the missing ingredient

is snow ...


... so transition practice is happening on the nepalese rug in front of the telly ...

[oh lordy, what have I let myself in for]

Thursday 15 March 2012

the general theme ...

... for today was cloud.


Low cloud, grey cloud, mizzly cloud and view stopping cloud.  Yup, we had it all today.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

sniffing out the snow


I think we are slowly running out of new snow patches to trample and destroy.


Another amazing day in the Cairngorms, don't think its going to last for much longer ...

Oh, don't think I'm going to get away with walking in wearing my high performance trainers tomorrow :(

Tuesday 13 March 2012

the office


Its not all hard work you know....

Monday 12 March 2012

team international


If anyone tells you its winter, they are lying.


Today we found possibly one of the largest snow patches in the cairngorms to destroy (within a little approach walk that is).

We will look for the second biggest tomorrow.

Sunday 11 March 2012

the whisky roads

I think of all the estates in Scotland, Glenlivet has to be one of the most user friendly that I know about.


The other very cool thing about the estate, is that you are always learn new things.


I'm pretty sure that we also went into Glenfiddich estate on our little journey today which had to take in the coolest of place names i.e. Elf House, Thiefsbush Hill, Dead Wife's Hillock and Thunderslap Hill.


Landrover tracks that haven't seen a land rover for a few years just added to the excitement.


Dusting the cobweb off the ice axe and crampons (*cough*) for tomorrow.

Friday 9 March 2012

The Hammer and the Bunny

After Wednesdays near death experience I went slightly over dressed today.


This will hopefully be my last day's biking with Martin before we can start calling him 'dad' and my first day's biking with Chris who I skied with in Valmorel on our Alpine Ski Leader.


We opted for the Ben Aigan Trails (part of the Moray Monster Trails), near Craigellachie.  Fantastic biking that is very much underused.

Only one more day of biking before I blow the cobwebs off the ice axe and crampons for next week fun and games.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

biking in blizzards

Within about 10 minutes, it went from this:


to this:


Completely unprepared and both Martin and I thought we done pretty well getting off the moor without having to call mountain rescue - oh, martin is the mountain rescue ... now that would have been really embarrassing :)

Monday 5 March 2012

men in tights


Once again, I am in fear of rebranding to become Di Gilbert Mountain biking.


Having cancelled my ski mountaineering courses, due to lack of the white stuff, I found myself with a free weekend.


I could have caught up with paperwork and admin but that would have been too far sensible.


Instead, we headed north, watched the meteorite whilst sitting on the beach of Loch Maree and went biking. 


No casualties except that my shoulders are killing me having been shoogled (technical term) for some time.

Needless to say, one is firmly planted in front of the computer today *hurrumph*.