Meall Na Teanga

Simon and Neil joined us for today's walk, having driven up from Glasgow that morning. The road along from the Spean Bridge Commando Memorial was everything you need for a remote Scottish road and I am comfortable that it goes on for miles westward. We even saw a deer in the relative 'suburbia' of the odd house.

So, we had quite a party by now. The initial walk through the forest was interesting with some deer fences to negotiate. Then a trek up the hillside, partially following a Landrover track to the first ridge along Meall Odhar to two sub-summits, spot height 875m and then further along to 906m on the Meall Coire Lochain ridge. Then a short down-and-up to the main summit of Meall ne Teanga, a fairly straightforward summit. Conditions at the top were misty and quite calm but quite cold, around freezing or so, maybe below. There was patchy snow but the ground was fairly icy but no need for crampons though.

After a short stop and much distribution of mince pies (and the regretted incident with the went-wrong "below" joke) we descended down to the shores of Loch Lochy (which has its own monster!) and along, in the rain, back to the start. This is where I took the picture of a piece of moss that looks like a llama!

Trip photos

Ben Starav

Another dreary day, a lovely long drive down the beautiful Glen Etive where the red deer were in abundance, great big adult males, resplendant in their manes and antlers. We ummed-and-aahed about whether to start the day, I finally deciding to do so after Nick said he was going out. Once you're out of course, it's not such a great deal, it was very wet, both raining and soggy underfoot. On the way up, this became more evident as the tributary pouring into River Etive was in massive spate (video, 1.3Mb); falling in that would have been a dangerous option.

We started ascending the main ridge of Ben Starav and I can describe this as a hard slog with muddy /wet / slippery conditions under foot slowly gradating into a jumble of large rocks and boulders. This really was hard going, with not many words exchanged until the summit where Nick and Guy had thankfully got out the bothy bag and we rested for a while in comparitive shelter with something to eat and a hot drink.

Had it been a clear day, I am sure the descent would have been most rewarding. There is a great ridge after the summit of Ben Starav, Stob Coire Dheirg, that would have presented some fine exposure and views. As it was the rain abated but we were still treated to ongoing misty conditions until we descended into the steep quagmire that was Allt nam Meirleach, northwards back to the track and our start point.

Given that I have decided that climbing all of the Munro peaks might be a suitable lifetime achievement, I became award of the days like these that I must endure to complete this ambitious objective.

Trip photos

West Highland Way

With worsening weather conditions predicted, high winds at the summits gusting to 80 mph Adam and I decided to walk to 18 km stretch of the West Highland Way from Kinlochleven to Fort William. It was very bleak with driving rain in our faces for about half of the route and I certainly became drenched right through after about an hour. Anyway, on the positive side, it was a nice walk and we had the pleasure of spotting a Mountain Hare in its white winter coat being chased by Adam's dog, Lui. You've never seen anything run so fast, the hare was like a Ferrari compared to a Mondeo. In fact, when under threat mountain hares can reach speeds of up to 60km per hour!

Trip photos

Carn Beag Dearg

Nick, Guy and myself made an attempt on the Carn Mor Dearg arete but were repulsed at the summit of Carn Beag Dearg with very high winds and blizzard conditions combined with a very high wind chill factor. With hindsight we probably could have carried on but we could not have known this at the stage we turned back. After we came down we made a visit to the CIC hut near to Ben Nevis; I'd never been up there before or even seen this cliffs at the back of Ben Nevis with all those very famous routes.

Trip photos

Christmas Day

Spent Christmas Day round at Deb's also with Nigel, Jess and the dogs. A nice relaxing day and all the usual present type stuff with a lovely dinner and some drinks afterwards. We sat down in the evening and watched a movie; I really needed to just blob out for once.

More photos

Day in Oslo

In Oslo for a day, learning the second part of the new Personnel administration system. Always nice for a visit. There's not much snow at the moment, considering this is winter in Norway!

Christmas Lunch

It's the work Christmas lunch today at the Marquis of Granby in Esher. Food and wine was favourable as was the company. It was really nice to catch up with some people I haven't had a chance to talk to for ages. Ended up as a rather less-than-sober affair but at least it was a Friday evening with not much to do the next day!