Not a cloud in the Skye

Well the sun decided to stay shining and I had a good couple days rest so on Tuesday night I called my friend Josh whom I know from Chamonix to see if he fancied going for a climb. Josh is now back home in the Lakes and we have been trying to get out a climb together in Scotland but the weather has never allowed. So given the amazing forecast in Scotland we decided that we would meet in Glasgow on Tuesday night and ditch one of our cars then travel up together to the Isle of Skye and have a crack at the Cuillin Ridge Traverse on Wednesday.
I had already done the full traverse a couple of years back with my friend Gary and it was an awesome awesome route albeit extremely tough going but not really any hard climbing involved at all , just lots and lots of tricky and very exposed scrambling and down climbing with the odd abseil thrown in. Anyway I had always been super keen to go back and do it all over again and with the great forecast then now was the time to do it.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Cuillin Ridge it is one of the most classic ridge traverses in the world and without doubt the most famous and best in the UK. From beginning to end it stretches for 26km(11km of which involving moderate/difficult climbing and tricky route finding) and covers 11 Munro.The overall ascent is 3000m. Most tackle it over 2 days with a bivi on the route , some even spend time doing sections of the route over many weeks/months before just to know what they are letting themselves in for(a bit over the top if you ask me) Anyway its a long trip and prior knowledge is definitely helpful but not a must. Just make sure you have a good forecast , I could imagine it being very problematic with bad visibility , just wait for good weather , I know that can take some time but trust me its worth the wait.

We arrived in Glen Brittle campsite at 12am on Wednesday morning , sorted out what kit we were taking(2.5 litres water, harness , helmet and a wind shirt each plus 1 x 50 metre rope) we have both learnt the meaning of Alpine Lightweight. It was then bed at 1am. After a very short sleep next to the car we woke at 4am , got on a brew then set off at 4.30am.

Just about to set off 4.30am and its light

It all starts off with a long walk in to gain the ridge in about two and a half hours , we chose to skip the first Munro as that means gaining the ridge then walking to bag the summit then walking back the way you have come(waste of time) , 2 hours walking to get to the top of a peak , to both of us this seems pointless but I'm sure the purists out there will strongly disagree , we were there to traverse the fun way and were not fussed at all about ticking off outlying peaks. We were going to have a laugh and enjoy it. We gained the ridge just after the first peak and got stuck in. A little Diff scramble up to Sgurr Alasdair then some tricky down climbing and an abseil led us over to Collies Ledge then more awesome scrambling brought us to the Inaccessible Pinnacle(the Inn Pin) , now this little peak has a big reputation being the only Munro where you need to do a little climb to summit and then abseil off the back , most Munroists see this as a scary peak to bag and many hire guides for this alone. To be totally honest its super easy climbing on massive holds and its not that steep however it is very very exposed and narrow the closer to the top you get and anyone without a head for heights or any climbing experience would definitely require the use of a rope just for a bit of confidence. So we shot up the Inn Pin and abseiled off the back then continued along the ridge with very easy scrambling and loads of descent then more ascent. Its very hard to break down the route and describe it but it involves lots of quite tricky down climbing and some moderate to difficult climbing. Some sections you may get to an overhang that looks that it will require an abseil but if you just slow down and look around then most of the time there is a way to climb down , it may be tricky and a bit bold at times but there is usually a way down without using the rope. We done 4 abseils in total and 3 of them we had to , 1 of them was my mistake as I didn't look well enough below and we could have down climbed it. Not a big deal its just all about speed and if you don't want to waste time then keeping the rope away is the way to do it. We passed a fair few teams who were moving quite slow and all of them had spent the previous night on the ridge.

The Ridge - Most of it

Collies Ledge

Abseilling off the Inn Pin

The day was turning out to be a scorcher and once we had got to Am Basteir(2nd last peak) we were both pretty knackered. After Basteir its a climb up onto Sgurr nan Gillean then a brutal long descent all the way back down to the Sligachan pub. I wasn't fussed about bagging the last peak as I had already done it and to be quite honest the normal route off it is horrible so since Josh wasn't fussed about doing it either we bailed from Bastier to take the shorter and slightly quicker route down to the pub , it was still a  2 hour plod out in the sweltering heat with no water left. We got back down to the bottom and were at the pub by 4pm and were very excited about a nice cold pint. We ordered at the bar and I must say we were both horribly disappointed , it was awful , the beer was rotten and was not the end we expected.

The Inn Pin is the peak furthest away straight behind me , we started the day from the peaks on left 

Just heading to some of the trickier route finding up the peak ahead

It was now time to find a way back to collect my car from the start! Its 16 miles from the pub on a crap country road and takes ages , I was not really in the mood to run it although I did have my running shoes with me(a stroke of genius after remembering how brutal walking out was last time) so it was time to start hitching. Long story short , we eventually got to my car 3 hours and 3 hitches later at 7pm. For some reason we then decided it would be a good idea to drive to Glencoe.

Awkward slabs to descend

Brilliant easy climbing

More awesome fun climbing , no idea what part though

Apologies if anyone was hoping for a more detailed description on the ridge but to be honest it can be so complex in places it would just bore to fill you with all the details and to be totally honest lots of sections of it become a blurr , even though I had already done the ridge not that long ago this time at some sections of it I couldnt remember being there before. Some bits were clear in my memory some not so. To sum it all up , its an incredible route and definitely the best ridge route in the UK , climbing experience is a must (there a a couple of sections of V Diff/ Severe rock climbing , these can be passed but are worth doing if you have the energy) even though as I said before the climbing is not super difficult , you must be able to move fast and be very very comfortable soloing awkward moves and be very good with exposure and tricky down climbing. Josh summed it all up well by saying "you should be able to down climb anything your climbing up , if you cant do that then you have taken a wrong turn somewhere". If anyone would like any further info on the ridge then please get in touch and I would be happy to help out or even come do it again!

Happy feet - soooo glad I packed those shoes

Cooling off on the walk out

So we arrived in Glencoe around 10pm on Wednesday night after being on the go since 4am and with 3 hours sleep. It was time for a kip.
Waking up at 7am to glorious sunny weather in Glencoe is very rare so we couldn't just drive back home without doing something. I decided that since Josh drove all the way from the Lakes then I might as well take him up one of my favourite little climbs in Glencoe so after breakfast(tea and tesco triple choc cookies , amazing) we set off up North Buttress on the Buachaille at 10am and we were back at the car for 1pm. its a great little climb up the North Face of Stob Dearg otherwise known as the Buachaille , its not hard but its quite steep and a very direct route to the top and its never got anyone else on it!
We had a stop off for some food on way home at the stupidly expensive Green Welly Stop then I dropped Josh back with his car in Dumbarton and we both headed our separate ways after an awesome 2 days.

The brilliant North Buttress

Awesome view out to Rannoch moor

My new passport was awaiting me on arrival in Largs so I am now all booked up and ready to head back to Cham on Tuesday. So until then I am going to rest tomorrow as I am completely knackered and see whats in store for the weekend and at the moment the forecast is yet again looking great. Hmmmmm whats next.

Training begins in Scotland

So after an epic winter in Cham filled with a ridiculous amount of powder, not nearly enough climbing and way to many shots I arrived back in Scotland on 6th May for a little break in the seasons. I had entered a few races to begin my training for the CCC(100km , 6000m+) in Chamonix in August and since I hadn't really done a huge amount of running over winter I had no idea what to expect.Before heading out running though I had one thing to do. Scotland got a late season dump of snow so arriving back on the Sunday morning to my parents place in Largs , I had a quick nap then packed my kit and went for a couple of days easy climbing and ski touring in the Cairngorms

Summit of Cairngorm

Walking into Sneachta on Sunday Night about to climb up goat track

It was ace to get back out in Scotland and I climbed up the goat track which was actually fairly steep for a grade 1 , not by any means hard but definitely not just a plod up , 2 axes came in pretty handy just for being able to get head down and motor on up. I then skinned up Cairngorm and skied back down just as it was getting dark. The next morning I met my friend Scott and we again headed into Sneachta and Soloed up Central Gully and had a ski and skin up towards Macdui until the weather got pretty poor so I went and skied the goat track and soloed Central Gully yet again , meeting Scott at the top of the route and we skinned up Cairngorm to round off an awesome wee day.

Scott Running up Central

Freshies!

So after a great 2 days up in Aviemore to finish off the winter season I headed back down to Largs to start running again.

On Saturday 12th I had my first Training race of the season. I had entered the Scottish Ultra , a 2 day running event where you run 44 miles on day 1 and then 41 miles on day 2. It was down near the borders near the small village of Moffat. I hadn't really done any training for this race at all , Id done some running in Chamonix a couple weeks before heading back but nothing more than 2 hours at a time. I knew it was going to be a tough one as it was all on off road tracks , trails and open hillsides.
Anyway Saturday morning at 7am and I'm standing in a field outside Moffat with around 20 other people signing into the race and getting our numbers etc.... It was cracking morning , blue skies , no wind and not too warm. Most of the others in the group all knew each other from other ultras and I guess they all went around together doing all the big events. This was different though as it was a small number of runners and they all seemed to be very experienced in these distances. I wasn't too bothered by that at all , I know I'm never going to win these races or come close but I know I will get around albeit with some amount of pain.
So we set off at 8.30am and all was going well , for the first 2 hours I was doing fine. The 2 leaders Donnie and Andy were in sight although I knew they would disappear at anytime as they are both well beyond my level of Ultra running , Andy having run last year from John O Groats to the Sahara desert! 35 miles a day for 72 days in a row! and Donnie after having completed the West Highland Way race last year(98 miles) then continued and ran all the way to the north of Skye , a total of 184 miles in 44 hours. These 2 were not going to to be beaten and especially not by me. So just after 2 hours we broke from the forest onto the open hillside and started a gradual descent , I hadn't looked at my map but could see the route open out in front of me down to the reservoir so I started charging on downhill but something wasn't right , Andy and Donnie had vanished , Now I knew they were fast but they just completely disappeared , I kept running then came to a halt knowing something was wrong , I got out my map and realised I should have turned right and run up a hill! Idiot , I had to turn around and retrace my steps until I seen what was a faint path that I was meant to take , very annoying but somehow I hadn't lost a place but as I guessed Andy and Donnie were gone , out of sight and not to be seen again until the end.

I should have turned right here but instead headed straight down only to have to turn around and run back

So after my minor hiccup I had a great run along the hill tops and down to the reservoir and over the damn then continued just following the reservoir until it ended then it was climbing time and it got tough. A steep slog up more hills and a lovely long traverse before a thigh bursting descent from 650m down to 100m which was VERY direct , It was then onto more farm tracks before hitting a minor road at 43kms , 27 still to go. The minor road zapped my energy , it was only a 4 km stretch but I hate road running and was glad to get off and back onto the grass. Another short but steep climb followed then some tricky route finding through a marsh led me back onto a forestry commission road , I again wasted 5 Min's route finding, coming to a cross road and not trusting my map or my decisions , my head was a bit of a mess but I took a gamble and 20 Min's up the road I saw a marker flag meaning I was on the correct route.

Feeling it on the climb

This section went on forever and was a brutal long twisting road with loads of little ups and downs , at about the 50km mark I was bad , really bad. The worst id ever felt on a race , so bad I was ready to pack it all in, I got passed at 54km just unable to keep my pace up meaning I was now in 4th , still a very good placing but 3rd would have been nice. I don't know how I did it but I got to the 60km checkpoint and from there it was only 10kms mostly downhill so I couldn't quit. I managed and by god I don't know how but I managed to keep running for the last 10kms and arrived at the finish in a time of 8hrs 57mins. Winning pair were 7hrs! 3rd place beat me by 7 Min's. It was the toughest race I have done so far , I ran the River Ayr Way Ultra last Sept , again 44 miles but in a time on 7hrs 6mins this race was same distance but took 2 hours longer albeit it had much more ascent involved , that's how tough this was. I had decided before the race that morning that I was not going to run the second day for a number of reasons but mainly because I was sure id get injured on day 2 as Id not done enough distance training over winter and also because the next days weather was to be horrendous! I wasn't the only one who took this decision and I'm glad I did because the next day I was in agony and would have done serious damage trying to run another 40 miles in that condition.

So I rested up for a few days and then decided to go to the Isle of Arran and run Goatfell as training for my next race , funnily enough it was the annual Goatfell Hill Race. So 4 days after the pain of the Ultra had almost worn off I then got the ferry to Brodick on Wednesday 16th and ran Goatfell , I made it to summit in 57 Min's and then descended back down to Sannox Bay  , I underestimated the distance on road back to Brodick and I was in agony most of the way around as something had happened to my thigh so 3 miles from the ferry slip I had to walk meaning I missed the boat so had 3 hours to kill until the next one so I went to the pub.

Cir Mhor on the left from Goatfell Summit

Arran is a stunning place overlooked by many , only just missing out on my favorite place in Scotland to the awesome Isle of Skye

I rested my leg for the next few days , my thigh wasn't total recovered on Saturday morning but thought id be okay to run so I went and got the boat over again to Brodick with my friend Martin coming as my motivational coach!
The race kicked off at 12pm and it was turning out to be a nice day. I started off from the back of the pack and slowly picked my way up as we headed along the road until we got to the proper Goatfell path , once we hit the path lots of people started to slow with all the little climbs but I managed to just keep plugging away on up and up , I have now idea how fast I summited but I was doing okay and was happy with my pace.

Slogging it out on the up , the start/finish line is the field above my head(in the background)

Rather enjoying the down

Glad to be finished

The top runners had started to pass me on their way down as I was about 100m from summit but there was no chance of catching guys that good on the way down , the main thing when going down is to try not loose any places and concentrate like mad on your footwork. Now I'm not that great at the downhills but for some reason when I hit the trig point this time and turned around to head down, I took off , I am very comfortable on my feet on narrow rocky areas so I was just jumping around rock to rock all the way down the first steep 100 metres passing around 6 or 7 folk who were a bit cautious of the terrain , once the path got less steep it was just a matter of finding a fast pace and sticking to it , I got passed by 2 guys on the way down but wasn't too bothered as I had passed so many at the top. My thigh started to bother me when I hit the road but I knew it wasn't far , I just sucked it all up and kept plodding along the horrible tarmac until I seen the final stretch back to the finish line and crossed over with a time of 1hr 38mins coming 21st out of 82. I was happy with that considering the runs I had already done within a week and how good these guys were at hill running.
The sun was out so Martin and myself decided there was nothing better to do that go to the pub and sit outside sipping pints for a few hours until we would catch the boat home for more.

Enjoying the beers post race. Goatfell just left of the tree.

Its back to Chamonix as soon as my new passport arrives through the door so until that happens I'm going to give this thigh a couple days rest then see what the weathers like and at the moment its blue skies , just hope it stays that way.