Winter Skills!

I guess this may be quite a long one (just got to the end of writing it, it is), as it often is after a weekend away with Ben Lairig, and this was certainly the best weekend away yet. As you may be able to tell from the title of this, it was the weekend of the winter skills trip. This is were we go up to Fort William and pay for a course of guides to teach us the vital skills needed for safe walking in winter conditions.

We set off at about 2.30 pm on the Friday afternoon, luckily I have no lectures at all on a Friday so I didn’t have to skip anything and also had the morning to pack. There were 27 people going in all, 12 on the course and a few others taking advantage of the trip who were already experienced. I rode in Adam’s car as I have many times before with a car load of people I really know quite well, being a regular member of Ben Lairig is beginning to pay off as I know the committee well and thus was spared the torment of riding in the mini bus, which is limited to 62 miles an hour and this is limited on the time it takes to get anywhere.

We arrived in Fort William just after 10, having stopped twice on the way up including a stop at the BBC number one takeaway in Britain. Once again being ‘in’ with the committee allowed me to sleep in the main cottage with them as apposed to the bunkhouse, which was nice. Other cars and eventually the mini bus arrived eventually and we all settled down to sleep.

With a 6.30 start the next morning we met the guides and got our boots and crampons fitted. It was then off to the mountains to learn. We would be climbing Aonach Mòr as it has a gondola that takes you straight to the snow line, allowing us to learn the skills without having to climb there first. It was snowy there, very snowy. I have never seen so much snow and there was an avalanche warning in the area (more on that later). We split into groups of 4 and were taught how to spot safe routes, how to fall on snow, how to stop ourselves with an ice axe in numerous positions, without an ice axe and also how to spot avalanche risks. We then were led up one of the steeper sides of Aonach Mòr and told to use our skills to climb it safely (with supervision of course). Unfortunately the girls in my group were not finding it very easy at all, meaning two things, one the guide was rather pre-occupied with them so I had to pick the route (he always double checked it) but more importantly I had to spend the whole day breaking trail through snow that at times was up to my waist and had to do it well so the girls could climb up safely and confidently, which is tiring. In the end we met up with the other groups and split into two groups, one who summited and one who went down and did more skills.

I was in the summit group, we did so (I got my beard frozen in -13 wind chill on top of minus 4 ambient temperature) and then began our descent. On the way down we heard that there had been a large avalanche (the one on the news) which was quite chilling as it really wasn’t that far from us and a large part of the course had been lectures and tips on avoiding avalanches.

We returned back to base, watched total wipe out, and then made a huge meal of chili, bolognaise and risotto for the vegetarians all washed down with lots of cans of Tennants Lager.

Another 6.30 start beckoned; today we were going to use the skills we learnt the day before on a normal walk in icy conditions. As is traditional with winter skills Stob Bàn was chosen as the mountain of choice and we set off to meet it in the dark and in the pouring rain. 3 people on the course opted out before the day had begun, having not been used to the kind of demands that a days walking and climbing can take on your body. On the subject of that half way up the side of the mountain I began to cramp something terrible, all up my left leg and was falling further and further behind. Being in pain and with bad weather setting in two things became apparent I wasn’t enjoying the climb and I was beginning to slow my group down. A quick consultation followed and it was decided that it was best that I descended before we reached the snow line and joined the people waiting in the bus. With a heavy heart (and heavier legs) I did. I got to the car park, took off my pack, checked a map and decided to head out on the walk that Bance and Adam had told me about the night before, I knew there was a waterfall very near by and that it was on a National Trust for Scotland footpath so I wouldn’t get lost. As it was only 10am by this point I knew I had at least 5 hours before the main groups got back to the bus so I told the ‘didn’t tryers’ my plan, none of them wanted anything to do with it and off I set.

And I had a lovely day, walked for and hour and a half up the path and the waterfall, came to a lovely valley surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains, only accessible by the waterfall path and had my lunch, I then returned back in just over an hour to find that one of the two non-wine skills groups had returned due to bad weather so I finished the day drinking Tennants in the mini-bus with Matt while listening to how boring it had been being sat in the mini bus all day. The winter skillers turned up 40 mins later also due to terrible weather and the final non skills group 10 after that. None of them had summited and all had got soaked so although my day started a bit crap it seems I had had the best day of them all, being too low for the rain and cold to be an issue and also accomplishing my objective for the day.

With us all done early we went back to the base to drop off gear and set off at 4.15 stopping at the legedary Freddie’s Food Club in Glasgow on the way back. Seriously a kebab that at the end it feels like your heart is digesting it and a deep fried pizza are on the menu. We rolled into York at 11.30 at night were I had a beer with my housemates and then passed out from exhaustion on my bed till 9 the next morning.

Sorry for the length but it was quite a weekend!

Ummmmm

Archaeological Theory is Bat-Shit crazy

That is all

Holy Crap! (But Still a good walk)

I went to the Peak District yesterday and had a really good time. It was only a day trip, not our usual full weekend malarkey as this is the last bit of time we have to practice before winter skills roles around this coming Friday. It was a really, really good day out as the weather was fantastic, if a little cold and it didn’t rain all day, only spitting at us as we got into the car. Unfortunately for no reason right at the start of the walk I fell ill for a little bit. After scaling a waterfall, which is always fun I began to see spots and then was sick and then fell over. Luckily Trish has just finished the unis first aid course and realised I had just over exerted myself and would be fine, she asked all the right questions and knew exactly how I was feeling, giving me water, making me eat a sandwich and even giving me pain killers for “the pain that will soon appear behind your ears” which duly did!. Once it was obvious I was going to be fine we continued and did a good 10 mile walk and I really did feel fine. It was just a bit scary and there was no real reason for it happening.

Everyone on the walk was great though, checking I was fine every so often without being condescending or patronising. I found out at the meal after that I had gone green and my eyes had unfocused and that everyone was quite worried, but after the first 2 minutes of this thing it left as quickly as it had come on.

The meal after was good as well, I had a giant burger and a pint and then went to bed for 12 hours. I am now refreshed for the first in my new series of lectures. Expect updates on them later!

I Feel Old :(

Well, not entirely, but I have just been out and about on a 90’s theme night, when did the decade of my birth and formative years become long enough ago to become a source of irony and a theme. Still I knew all the songs and it made for a pretty cool night. Was just scary when someone said to me that “technically next year the 90’s started 20 years ago”!

Oh I also got a 2.2/2.1 on my end of term exam depending on what the overall calculated boundries for the term are! Not a Bad Start!

Hey, let’s just have a quiet day.

Well its now midweek here at York (and everywhere else I suppose but that is beyond the point) and I’m having a quiet day, watching some T.V and generally just chilling out. I haven’t been up to much this week, hence the quiet here but I will be off to the peak district on Sunday for a day trip with the chaps from Ben Lairig.

Its very quiet here as all my housemates went out on a rather epic bender last night and are all now asleep or looking like they should be. I for once did not join them and instead got an early night, which unfortunately changed into an early morning as well when I was woken up by the bin men and then kept awake by the ducks to the point were I just decided to get up at 5 this morning.

So now I’m a bit sleepy but staying awake ;P

Back at the Homestead!

Well I’m back at the place that I like to call my home, most of the people trickled back by the end of today and we are slowly getting back into the swing of communal living again. I don’t have any actual lessons until next Monday so I’m just chilling out at the moment, corridor football has started up again in earnest and a couple of pubs have already been visited. Its nice to be back, expect semi regular updates once more as there was last term!