SMBLA Expedition Course - Aviemore with Cycle Wild Scotland

Bill and I went on a great course with Jules Fincham over the Speyside hills.  The trip started badly with Bill's mobile home breaking down o/s Aviemore and having to be towed to Inverness for Bill to pay even more money to keep his fleet of Mercedes on the road.

Anyway, after a intro and brief from Jules, we were off and running to the hills, through Boat of Garten then Carrbridge on Route 7...a great trail to get us started with our fancy trailers on the back of the bikes.   Some nice climbing and eventually we pitch up on a nice flat field nr River Dulnain and time for food - nice curry out a packet with Mars Bar for desert!

Weather looked dubious for the next day and we were not disappointed with a cold front bringing snow on the higher ground, a coldish sleep and rain first thing.  Nice breakfast of tomato soup, sarnies and crisps set us up for the ride home, with the sun coming out the moment we got on the bikes :)))

A great trip through the hills and a monster climb to test the legs took us to the top of the burma Road, then a great descent brought us nearly home.  Jules used local knowledge to keep us of the A9 and we got home in plenty of time for the wonderful Lisa to make us sausage, bacon and egg to replenish lost calories.

All in a great trip, lots of learning - new routes, camping stuff, Jules loves his plant pots, pulling a trailer up the hill can be tough and Lisa's a great cook.

Finally, a big thanks to Jules for the lift down the road - fingers crossed for you know what!!!

Highly recommended by Simply Epic.

Simply Epic Expedition to Speyside from C Coid on Vimeo.

Mountain Bike Day in Glen Orchy

The Simply Epic crew were out on a charity day with an 'over-privileged adult from Newton Mearns' - Peter!

Peter owns a detached villa, a holiday chalet, runs his own business and owns more cars than he can fit in his drive way...a great candidate for us to help 'over-privileged' folks...he even let us pay for is petrol on the short journey to Tyndrum; a true aristocrat :)   Indeed, it is worth adding that Peter also owns a speed boat and was in the front row of the recent bash at Westminster Abbey for his pals Wills and Kate...who'd have thought that for a scheme boy from Mearns???

One of Pedro's many cars.

Headed up to Tyndrum - buying our charity case a coffee and cake on the way - and headed off in the rain with the prospect of fun and games ahead on the bikes. After reaching Bridge of Orchy, we headed up Glen Orchy on sweet single track and one of many food stops - plenty of Mars Bars to keep us going.

On the way we found what we thought was a new piece of single track but Mark assured us we were looking at a wide - super wide - logging trail for heavy goods harvesting vehicles...we thought they must be heavy duty motorcycles for harvesting...and proceeded to rib Mark for Clear and Present daftiness!!  Anyway, Peter demonstrated the size of log which a motorcycle might bring up on a good day...much to our amusement!

Moving on, we found a good river to cross, which has been much worse before, but we had fun crossing in our shoes...apart from Peter who got his hobbit feet out for a laugh.

Anyway, after a detour near the end through trees and plenty of mud and moss, we had a a good cycle up the road to Bridge of Orchy, then the A82 to Tyndrum, into the wind big time :(, followed by a quick change in the car, using a poly bag as a towel...then a quality coffee and snack at the Green Welly.

Overall, a stellar day in the rain on the bike; reminds me of why I ride!

Great fun, and more to come of course.

Mountain Biking in Glen Orchy and the WHW from C Coid on Vimeo.

The Long Route - Orion Face - Ben Nevis

Fantastic day on the Ben; up at 4am, home at 3am next day - everything in between.  Walk in then rough crossing of snow patch from Observatory Ridge to Orion Face and start climb.  Mark took the super hard variation to the first pitch which was VERY difficult slab climb - doubt I'd have lead it!



Followed by lovely parallel crack climb, which is pitch 4 in book.  This lead up to Basin on Orion Face and a couple of pitches later we were at Second Slab - a tough pitch up very steep exposed ground - over to Mark for another great lead and on to what the book referred to as easier ground...a couple of pitches later and we wondered exactly where we were; nothing seemed obvious as a route and the 'notch' referred to in book was not obvious.  We then headed right looking for a referred to slab - thinking we found it, we moved up right but ended on hard ground.

So, undeterred, we headed further right over a horrible snowy pitch - aaaargh - and just kept on a rising traverse of sorts, always looking for an escape to the North Buttress.   Darkness fast approaching, we sought out Zero Gully direction and after a couple of very dubious moves on obvious winter (fractured rock) ground, Mark took the honour of topping out of Slav Route/Zero Gully area, with me arriving at 917pm precisely.  I think we had 12 pitches in total on 50m twin ropes, so a long route indeed.

Red line is ours; yellow line is probably where we should have gone...it wasn't that obvious tho :(

After a quick hug at the top (because we survived - no other reason) and a sarnie and pic, we headed down the Tourist Route asap - first time I've done it and it's horrible!!

Youth hostel for a coke, a mint Magnum ice cream and taxi back to the North Face carpark for about 1am and we we completely knacked.  Chippy at only food outlet open for a thousand miles to reaalced lost calories and a mad dash down the road to be home at 3am.

Wow, what a day - great fun but rather a harder, longer day than the lunch stop on the summit we had planned.  One litre of water between the two of us all day didn't help!

Awesome fun though :)