At last...the final posting...only five weeks after getting home, but then again I've been going round visiting family and its surprising how many things build up over 4 months, not least writing everything down so I don't foget where I've been! And not helped by putting an entry together and then losing it all when the computer crashed. Apologies to anyone who thought I vanished into the mountains and not been seen since!

So, the last week was relatively gentle, with the requirement to not finish before the weekend in order to meet up with Gill. Although 14 peaks remained east of the Glenshee road, most of these are relatively small undulations on a high plateau (lacking in deep heather), so five gentle days of no more than 10-12 miles rounded off the trip nicely, even with the additional weight of a bottle of champagne in the bag (no half bottles available in Ballater - i think it weighed more than the tent!). Main downside was the midges which I had hoped to escape by now, but even on the east coast were out in sufficient force to cause rapid, breakfast-less retreats in the morning. The worst of these preceded Tom Buidhe, which incidentally was the last munro that I hadn't been up before. Most people select a distinguished summit to finish with, but the logic of this trip meant that it was the least distinguished (hence - near Aberdeen and I'd never been up it), with a further joke being that I carried a bottle of champagne (which is traditional) but carried it down the other side (which definitely isn't). The weather was not exactly good on this section, but short days enabled late starts and / or early finshes (the latter at short notice) enabling me to avoid the worst of the rain. The bothy by Loch Muick on the penultimate night also gave welcome relief from the heaviest rain as well as the midges.

The final day, and Gill turned up to my camp at the head of Glen Tanar by bike. (George and Alison had also come along and were following behind on foot, to meet us back at the foot of the mountain with a bottle of whisky for the long seven mile walk out). Clouds threatened...but we were treated to a view - just about - to celebrate the end of the trip. It did feel like the end too: for a while previously it had felt quite surreal that I had actually done all this, but maybe the champagne reinforced it! As a further celebration, we got engaged at this point - although even with a double celebration we fed some of the champagne to assorted folk on the summit; would have been ironic to break a leg on the way down!

Big thanks to Matt for providing a reading for the summit, from the "Penniless Pilgimage", John Taylor describing an ascent of Mt Keen in 1619:

"...when I came to the top of it...a most familiar mist embraced me around, that I could not see thrice my length any way: withal, it yeilded so friendly a dew that did moisten through all my clothes...the way is so uneven, stony, and full of bogs and quagmires, and long heath, that a dog with three legs might well outrun a horse with four". It's a bit easier thse days, but still a long walk from the road.

So, 134 days total and overall the trip was finished as originally planned, although with big variations in the day to day details. So any conclusions? I've yet to count up the number of misty vs non-misty summit photos to give a real picture of the average Scottish weather, but I think it was better than half with views? Overall, the whole thing went remarkably smoothly. With having taken the planning seriously, and given as much time as reuqired, so that I could push it on my terms, the whole was mostly just like a long holiday. There were days I pressed on when I would probably not have ventured out otherwise (especially once you have made arrangements to meet up with someone) but the physical suffering was limited to two blisters and a slight soreness in the left knee which gradually developed during July but seemed to be controlled simply by easing off the overall pace. It was extremely satisfying how the overall fitness builds up - doing huge ascent and descent and being fine the next day. The right length of trip? Maybe three months would be optimum, defintely started to look forward to the end as July progressed, but this may have been the increasing midge count rather than developing physical or mental exhaustion! (I lost at least 3/4 stone on the trip despite 5,000 kcal per day in the parcels, but rarely felt short of food.). So, overall conclusion is a definite yes go for silly trips - but mak sure there's enough time to build up on the way - I don't think I'll be trying to break the 48 day record for this! (Interestingly though I am apparently the 23rd or so person to do this...).

Not quite back to usual routine - me and Gill are off travelling in a week's time. Maybe we should create another blog. Would make more sense, as we're far more likely to be in places with computers! We shall see...

Graham
xx

Probably my penultimate post before the end of the walk - am back home briefly en route for another wedding and then will return to Glenshee on Monday for the final stretch. Having arranged to meet Gill on Mt Keen on the Saturday this should be a fiarly leisurely week, taking in the hills east of Glenshee, Mayar and Dreish then onto Lochnagar and finally Mt Keen. So with 270 summits climbed and 14 to go its looking pretty good for finishing, earthquakes or broken legs aside.

Lots of distinctive bits since my last posting. Extremely hot weather all the way round Glen Lyon, and some stunning days with early morning cloud in the valleys that lifted and burnt off during the mornings. Very hot and still in the afternoons though - highest fluid intake I think was about 7-8 litres in 1 day, which all went as sweat. Even resoted to a naked rambler ascent at one point (the hills are very quiet mideweek...).

A rest day in Pitlocchry - and we saw fish in the fish ladder, not just one but five including one huge one - is this a first?!

Unfortunately the theory of escaping the midges further east didn't quite work out, although conditions were almost perfect for them first thing in the morning.

Lots of cycling round Drumochter and some relatively uninteresting peaks - fortunately continued extremely fine weather made them pleasant strolls over high moorland rather than frustrating blundering around in the mist. Then onto the Cairngorms where the weather finally broke...Cairn Toul saw everything I was carryingbeing worn and even then not overly warm, drenched and staggering around in howling gale. However a rest day in Aviemore followed to dry out.

Friday and Paul Morris arrived from the London sleeper. It was harder than I had hoped to meet up with people on this trip, due to the through route nature, but a master plan had been worked out. After abandoning the bike for the duration at the Cairngorm ski centre, two days backpacking through the eastern Cairngorms took us to Derry Lodge and a rendezvouz with Gill for a barbeque. After a loop round Ben Macdui the following day Paul then got a lift out to Aberdeen station while I picked up my food parcel and headed back westwards.

Last week was then spent in the hills between Braemar and Blair Atholl. Straightforward hills, but tough walking to link together due to lack of paths (one 14 mile section without anything more than vague animal tracks) and abundance of deep heather. Also first (and probably only - another benefit of early start) encounter with stalking, but easy enough to avoid with only minimal route changes. A final two days of deterioating weather and I emerged at the Glenshee road yesterday with plenty of time to get out for this weekend. Which was good as the bus that was supposed to stop there didn't, leaving a final few miles of tarmac before obtaining a lift.

Graham has now done all of the Munro's west of the A9. After a rest day in Aviemore yesterday he was meeting Paul M this morning to make a start on the Cairngorms. I'm meeting them for a Saturday evening BBQ at Derry Lodge.

I've added a few more pics to some of the earier postings too

Graham is doing well and now begining the count down till the entire circuit is complete, less than 90 Munro's till they are all done. A new pair of boots seem to be working well and his leg has not fallen off yet. I'm looking forward to meeting up with him on Saturday night near Loch Lyon, although thinking that I will be struggling to keep up with both his fitness and because of the lovely weather we are having. Today Graham was up Ben Lawyers and it was very plesant, sunny and a slight breeze.

Another quick post, this time from Crianlarich youth hostel. All pretty much on schedule, with six weeks and less than 100 summits. Last few weeks have been less enjoyable than the earlier months however - might be that the trip is a bit too long, or more likely the persistent rain and midges which have crept in - have probably seen about 1 in 3 of the last sixty summits, and some of those you couldn't stop on because of the midges. However, am cunningly heading all eastwards from here, having had good days in places that will now be midgy hellholes. Roll on the Cairngorms! Also had a poor start from fort william - ended up wheeling the bike back along the main road after a non-fixable puncture and discovering the wrong inner tube. Enlivened though by a lif on the last few miles with the local sherrif who was going to fort william to try a case of conspiracy to blow up the court house there?!

Also for the first time having problems with feet / legs, rather than just feeling fitter and fitter. Assuming that this is down the the boots (they look ok, but the soles are almost smooth in places) and am two days into a replacement pair, we shall see how this works. The ascents for the remaining weeks should not be quite so silly as the last few months as well. Still a lot of summits per day, but unless I've miscalculated they don't wobble up and down so much in between.

Lots of plans over next few weeks as well - John in glencoe next weekend; Gill in Glen Lyon after that; Paul M (I think - I'll try to ring tonight!) then Gill and Clariant walking people at Derry Lodge, and then its the last weekend on Mt Keen.

More to follow from Pitlochry, maybe.

Fort William, late June. Back to the more usual grim wetness unfortunately, but good timing for a rest day or two after a loop covering the Mamores, Ben Alder, Ben Nevis and some of the peaks along the Laggan road. Total peaks done is now 147 i think....more than halfway then!

Started in the Mamores, cycling into Glen Nevis on my shiny new non-bent bike wheel. Hoping for an easy start after the extended break of Paul's wedding, but wind got up rapidly on the ridge...decided to drop down a bit to camp and wrestled the tent up in pouring rain. Not the best night so far,,,,water and chocolate biscuits for dinner and breakfast and a bent tent pole by the morning due to excessive flattening in the night. Weather picked up again though!

On to Loch Ossian YH to meet up with Paul Swire for a few days. The hostel is about a mile from Corrour Station in the middle of Rannoch Moor (totally remote and with no public road access, but interestingly the sleeper service means there is in fact a direct train from London). Lovely spot despite a few midges. paul turned up on the morning train and after sorting through a vast heap of food we set off for a two day loop eastwards over Ben Alder and the ridge to its north (spending a night at Culra bothy) before returning to the hostel. Fine weather much appreciated on the high plateau of Ben Alder. Then northwards and out to Tulloch over Ben na Lap and the ridges to its north.

We hoped to stay at the hostel at Tulloch Station (rain closing in again) but unfortunately it was full. The kind people did however let us camp in their garden before moving into the hostel the following night. Following morning and Paul decided to head back a day early - combination of non-functioning legs, the most horrendous midges imaginable plus a head net with too large mesh to keep them out, and tempting proximity of tent to platform (50m sprint). So back to solo wandering about, unfortunately now in the rain with a consistently wet forecast ahead. The longer term forecast looked even worse however so, after a day walk to the north of the Laggan road, time to press on over the Grey Corries and the Ben to get back to Fort William.

Fortunately by now the fitness has built up enough to give a fair bit of flexibility - by dint of a short day followed by an extremely long day was able to avaoid the unappealing prospect of extremely wet high camps. The original intention was to camp high in the Grey Corries but by the time I reached the Lairig Leachach bothy at 2pm this was looking distinctintly unappealing, so instead sat and chatted with a variety of other soaked walkers who dropped by and just went for a 6am start from the bothy. This allowed me to cover the whole of the Grey Corries, the Aonachs, down to the ski area restaurant (partly because unsure of the best way directly down steep ground off Aonach Mor in the mist, but also in need of a break from soaking wet, misty invisible summit after summit, with - strangely enough - no other people. Did wonder on the way down if the restaurant would in fact be open, as who would be foolish enough to pay to go up a cable car to look at a non-existent view, but there were sufficient folk keeping up the great british holiday tradition....steak pie and potatoes plus a chance to dry out went down nicely), then back up over Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. Total 10,000' up, 11,500' down. Legs a bit stiff the following day (yesterday) but remarkably ok considering. Definitely time for a rest day though!

Activity today likely to be limited to a semi rest day, cycling down to Glencoe to pick up the food parcel posted to me by Gill. However, I've thought that before on days cycling against strong winds...

To be continued in Oban. Maybe.

G

x

Fort William, early June. Generally seemed a bit grim in the past but its actually quite pleasant sitting out in the sunshine in the park...amazing the effect of a bit of sunshine.

Anyway, all munros northwest of the Great Glen (114 of them I make it...) climbed, so trip is pretty much going according to plan. Although did head here a couple of days prematurely and miss out a cycle loop to the peaks around the Laggan road. The back of wheel of the bike (which had been slightly bent since Torridon / Kinlochewe, about 200 bike miles ago!) gave way on the way to Spean Bridge from Loch Arkaig, so changed course and headed very slowly (the wheel was just about straight enough to force past the frame) for the nearest bike shop instead. Wheel pronounced dead on arrival and being replaced. This weekend is the first significant time out of the trip - headed down on the sleeper tonight for Paul Morris's wedding at the weekend. So limited in what could be done in the meantime - after much studying of maps decided that any mountains I could do in 1.5 days would increase the overall effort as would still need to go back to finish off those areas later, so instead am having an unprecedented five consecutive rest days - anyone would think this is a holiday! Won't be bad for the knees though - although the thighs now seem to be able to recover very fast after big days with 7,000-8,000' of ascent, knees giving the occasional twinge. A rest cure could therefore be useful!

Obviously have missed out a lot of stuff again - will try to add more in at the weekend if I can. Lots of backpacking and mixed success with food parcels - the one in Strathfarrar was utterly untouched, the one in Affric had been vaporised. Only a slightly rusty gas cannister and a couple of tins confirmed that I was looking in the right place. Food generally good though - if anything the problem has been eating enough to avoid ending up with lots at the end of a section (i.e. extra weight carried for no reason!). More wild weather as well - the snow returned briefly, and at the end of May was again wading through knee fresh snow on Ben Fada.

Had a call from Graham late afternoon. He has had a slight detour, his original plan was to walk into Glen Affric picking up a food parcel which was left late March. However when he arrived at the spot all that remained of the parcel was the gas cylinder, a can of tuna and a tin of corned beef. Whatever creature ate the food parcel was very hungry, even the boot wax was gone! After evaluating the lack of food Graham walked into Cannich to stock up on more supplies from the shop. I suspect he will be tucking into some tasty food at the local pub tonight before setting back of on his travels in the morning.

A couple of pictures added courtesy of Chris, if you look closely at the top one you can just make out Graham in on his bike.

Added after emerging at Glen Shiel. Will try again if my waterlogged brain can remember....

So...to Skye. The most technical mountains and also the most fiddly to fit in, due to a) the limited value of a rope if you haven't managed to find someone to be on the other end of it, and b) the need to cycle to it from somewhere else. In the end it took rather longer than planned and was distinctly inelegant at times, but ultimately successful, thanks to Bob, Chris and Gill for help in chronological order. I had arranged to meet up with Bob for a couple of days - as it turned out Chris was also planning to be on Skye, which gave some flexibility - very fortunately as it turned out!

For those that don't know Skye there are tweleve munros. Blaven in isolated to the east, and was climbed with Chris on the Saturday on a spendid day - mists hovering about the summit to just about form a cloud inversion, albeit with only the top few feet of the peaks visible. Then cycled on to Sligachan. This lies (with pub and campsite) at the northern end of the main Cuillin ridge (which contains all the other eleven). The road continues round the western side of the Cuillin chain, to finish at Glen Brittle (youth hostel, campsite) at the southern end. On the eastern side there are lots of bogs and no roads.

The plan was to walk in down the eastern side with Bob to camp at the south end before elegantly traversing the whole ridge over two days. Chris (who had gone to the outer hebrides to look around for a couple of days) would then be around to help do any we had to miss out. However, things did not quite go to plan. We set off Sunday evening and got to Loch Coruisk, after a boggy (and increasingly dark) approach. The following morning dawned very wet and lowish cloud revealed fresh snow on the ridge, but after a late (1pm!) start we got up to the ridge and managed to climb the two southernmost peaks, Sgurr nan Each and Sgurr Dubh Mor (I haven't got the map here - spelling will be arbitrary!). Unfortunately this part had to be cut short - Bob had to dash back due to problems at home. We therefore set off down to Glen Brittle, having left a message on Chris's mobile to ask for a lift. To round things off I managed to fall over on the way down, benind a walking pole, which then snapped while trying to get it back in shape. It did ok for the next few days in its reduced state however.

9pm ish - Glen Brittle, and no sign of Chris...had he got our message...the prospect of walking round to Sligachan to Bob's car did not look appealing at this point. We set off walking towards the youth hostel, our most likely destination for the night, and met Chris round the first corner! So a lift back to Sligachan and Bob's car, in which he departed.

This was now therefore a time out, being in a car - having dragged Chris from the bar it was probably unrealistic to drag him straight back to Glen Brittle! This did however raise an interesting point on how time outs called. If I had walked out to acompany Bob to Sligachan then I could have ended up deciding I was on a time out at either location. The better point to time out would be Glen Brittle as I would be planning to get a lift back with Chris and carry on from there. However, say Chris's car had broken down in Sligachan then I could have walked up some of the peaks from there. Except that if I had already decided at Glen Brittle that I was on a time out (or not clearly defined where it started) then this would be cheating - although the walk would still be continuous I would be taking advantage of knowledge of subsequent events to retrospectively make decisions, thus gaining an unfair advantage (not usually being capable of quantum behaviour). In the event this didn't arise, but highlighed that walking and off duty travel must be absolutely defined by a fixed point...can't be too careful with space time discontinuities!

Anyway, in practice no walking was done the following day, it being absolutely and utterly foul. We went to the Talisker distillery, before checking in at Glen Brittle YH, after which Chris gave me a lift 1 mile further on to the point at which he picked me and Bob up the previous evening, and from where I ensured continuity by walking back to the youth hostel.

The following day the weather was a bit better, with heavy rain showers and 80 mph wind gusts. It was blatantly obvious that we wouldn't get up anything, so we set off to see if we could climb Mhadaidh and Gredaidh (peak of the waling and gnashing of teeth apparently) by the easier routes. (I must put in a huge thank you to chris for his mindless optimistic faith here!). Going up the corrie we were almost blown off our feet but we carried on a bit further to see. Going up to An Dorus (the col between the peaks) there was lots of steep snow and heavy rain and it was all looking very grim...BUT on the ridge was totally still! Absolutely no wind whatsoever. Furthermore, the snow was deep enough to cover the hardest part of both scrambles (i.e. getting out of the steep and deeply cut gap) - we walked up and down the crux of one before realising it was (or rather wasn't) there. The rock was slippery and we got the rope out a couple of times, but all went smoothly to both summits and back. A very satisfying day in characterising the requirement for the whole trip - summits obtained with comparatively little effort, against the odds, by the power of mindless optimism.

Having done the central section of the ridge this left four peaks in the south adjacent to Glen Brittle, after which a walk back to Sligachan would be required to do the final three peaks at the northern end of the ridge. Thursday the weather forecast was better (only 70mph gusts forecast...) so we decided on a round of all four remaining peaks in the southern section - Alastair, Mhic Choinnich, The Inaccessable Pinnacle and Bannachdich.

The first two went fine, with snow again helping on the scree gully up Alastair. however, as we went round to the Inaccessible Pinnacle the weather rapidly worsened. Again for those not familiar with Skye (and until I can upload some pictures) the In Pin is an impressive peak, generally taken to be the hardest in the UK, requiring technical climbing to get up it by the easiest route. It is in effect a long fin of rock which sits on a huge inclined slab that forms the main mountain side. The downhill, longer, ridge is the easiest way up and about 150' long. This takes you to the top of the pinnacle, which is about 8m higher than what would otherwise be the summit of the mountain. A 60' abseil then takes you down the short side. The climbing is easy (graded moderate) but exposed - originally described as having an overhanging and infinite drop onone side...and an even longer and steeper drop on the other.

There was a queue of five when we got there, but 5 minutes later they had all disappeared. This unfortunately was due to the increasingly heavy rain and high winds, making the climb look distinctly unenticing. Chris had obviously been reading Tom Patey ("I wouldn't want to deprive you of the lead on your big trip..." or words to that effect) and I felt decidedly reluctant to do it. We sat under the group shelter for 2 hours, wailing and gnashing teeth, but unfortunately today the weather just got worse. However, we did carry on over Bannachdich to finish a full day out.

Friday - the forecast was good, so it was back up to the In Pin - again thanks to Chris for his patience in going back to climb the top 8m of the mountain in effect! The cloud rose as we did and in the end we were treated to broken spectres from the summit, with sun shining down onto the cloud below us in corrie laggan. I led the ridge and decided it was the right decision the previous day - the climbing is easy but at the crux the ridge steepens, forcing you round above the longer and steeper drop, and it was still breezy even on a nice day - definitely much happier after I'd found a good wire placement just below this.

Chris was going home the next day, but fortunately this was a weekend that Gill was coming across, so had arranged to meet her at Sligachan. So 4pm I set off to walk across the track to get back to the bar. Quite satisfying by now legs starting to get fitter, so took in a detour to Bruach na Frith on the way, the least technical of the three remaining peaks and directly above the pass between Glen Brittle and Sligachan.

Two munros left - Sgurr nan Gillean and am Bhasteir. Would they be done before I ran out of climbing partners to dispose of or intermittently ok weather?? Saturday and the answer was yes - a long day but traversed both. Both are easier than the In Pin, but climbing and rope still required. Am Bhastier used to be a straightforward scramble up the ridge, but a lump fell off a few years ago leaving a bad step to get down into a small gap. Although only 8' high it was exposed, so we abseiled in leaving the rope to ensure we could get back. The gendarme ridge (the rock pinnacle it is named after has fallen off- the guidebook diagram marks 'missing gendarme' just to confuse you...?) is agian moderate rock climbing, mostly done in fine alpine style moving together on the rope. This felt appropriate, as although the ridge was snow free the whole of corrie a Bhastier was snow filled, with the combination of snow fileds rock pinncales and sunshine feeling distinctly alpine. Descent form the sunnit is easier but still exposed, and then a steep jarring descent to collapse back at the tent.

Which just left a rest day for for a rainy Sunday, give or take a quick cycle back to Broadford as the starting point for non-existant ferries.

Long time no post, and then a quick posting....this may be more typical, at least unless the more inhabited regions further south. a quick update to fast forward to Kyleakin on Skye. As per Gill's posting lots of hard goibng with icy snow, soft melting snow and some high winds, but on balance very lucky with the weather so far. Have now done all the summits north of the Inverness to Gairloch road, and not had any wet grim days (apart from overnight a few times, which is doubly satisfying when it stopped. first night in the Fannichs after Gill last departed was very grim with heavy snow falling...however mindless optimisim was rewarded the following day!). Spent five days camping, first in the fannichs and then taking a loop north and east to do the peaks previously missed out due to heavy going. After that a stay at the Dundonnel hotel (again very stormy night - extra distance outweighed by staying dry!) and then down through the great wilderness of letterewe and fisherfield to emerge at Kinlochewe and pick up the bike left there a week and a half ago. A few days delat was probably useful too. An Teallach could have been (too) scary a few days previously as well but was ok as the snow was melting and so good and soft to kick into.

Just finished a long day cycling to Skye to meet Chris tomorrow for Blaven, then Bob Sunday to Tuesday for the main ridge traverse, then if any bits missed out due to bad weather might be able to rope in Chris again to catch up. Hopefully have good conditions for this as a) its most technical part and b) there were a lot more hills on the way over than I thought there would be (more pushing the bike). Anyway, after that back to Torridon for some hopefully less snowy epic days with Gill again...

Well I met Graham on Friday evening as planned at the end of Loch Glascarnock. He had been up Ben Wyvis on Friday and even managed to get a view at one point.
The plan for the weekend was to do the 6 Munros round Beinn Dearg, 4 on the Saturday camp high up the 2 on the Sunday. Friday evening was a lovely evening, hardly a breath of wind and Saturday dawned to a bright and sunny day.
We set of up the valley to approach Beinn Dearg from the south west, and avoiding what locals and other walkers had been describing as the inpassable river. After we started gaining height we came to the snow line which made walking a bit harder as you weren't sure if the snow would hold your weight or if your foot was about to plunge in the knee high snow as it was begining to melt slightly. We met a little frog on our travels which has jumped out a little melt hole. We got up really close to it and it didn't move at all, but you could see it was still breathing. After quite a slog up through snow we came to the cairn at the top of Beinn Dearg, but only stopped for a we while as it was fairly windy. We decended down to the corrie and back into sinking snow again. By this point time was getting on so we quickly climbed up Cona' Mheall - I enjoyed this one much better as it wasn't nearly as high and a bit easier going as there were footprints to follow. At the top it was blowing a gail and some hail stones thrown in for good measure. We decended then started to look for some where flat enough and snow free to pitch the tent. I struggled to stay awake long enought to eat my dinner.
On Sunday morning we awoke to find a slight covering of snow on the ground. Graham then set off to do either 1 or 3 munro's while I stayed in my sleeping bag and slept some more. A couple of hours later Graham returned after climbing one of the hills to find me still sleeping. The walking was still fairly hard going so our new plan was to do Am Faochagach and go back to the car - definatly OK with me. We had a lot of good views on Sunday and some snow/hail showers mixed in.
The return route unfortunatly did take us back out to a river, the one described earlier and indeed that was the case. In places fairly fast flowing and not nearly enough stones above the water to cross easily. There was no option but to get wet feet. We found the widest part of the river that was also quite slow moving. Graham decided to take his trousers and socks off to wade across, I just went as I was as I'd already discovered my new waterproof trousers didn't work so couldn't really get much wetter anyway. Graham went first and like a sheep I followed. I took a few steps before the water came into my boots and it wasn't nearly as cold as I imagined it to be. At the other side I took my boots off to tip out the excess water and wring out my socks. From there it was only a short walk back through some bogs to get back to the car. I was definatly looking forward to dry shoes, a hot shower and a pint or 2.
On Sunday night we stayed at the Kinlochewe bunkhouse, where I slept very well. On Monday we had a rest day driving a bit round the west coast and dropping of a couple of extra food parcels for Graham to collect in a week or so.
On Monday teatime I left Graham at the exact same spot as he got in the car and headed home. He has since climbed the 9 munros on the south side of the Ullapool raod.

Ullapool Thursday morning. Weather warmer but still quite grim - very strong winds and some heavy rain. Yesterday took 4 hours to cycle 23 miles to Ullapool and was very hard going against the wind. Walked up quite a lot of the hills, and even then was occasionally putting the brakes on to avoid being blown backwards. What's more the teashop at Elphin was closed - wah!! So sheltered behind a phone box for some chocolate biscuits instead.

Much pondering on best plan from here - original plan to do 2 days backpacking round the Beinn Dearg group, but conditions forecast to continue wet and windy for today and tomorrow. Alternative would be to cycle on and do Ben Wyvis tomorrow, keeping the others for the slightly better wather forecast over the weekend. On the other hand that would increase the total cycling distance against the wind, which doesn't appeal! As a compromise will spend the morning recuperating, then cycle south. If it looks feasible will walk in to camp as high as can find a sheltered spot - if tomorrow is ok then would be able to do all six summits, if totally grim can retreat again and re-plan from there.

On the plus side should be well acclimatised to challenging weather after this week!

Writing this at the Inchnadamph Lodge Hostel, Tuesday 11th. So far everything is in fact on schedule, but some fairly epic days out...

Sunday climbed Ben Klibreck with Gill. Didn't get off to a good start, as we managed to make the map disappear. Not sure how - we didn't see it blow away, but equally it was't in the car when we got back. Anyway, continued to the top, relying on being able to follow a south or south east bearing back to avoid steep ground to the west. Slow going through snow to start with, but rewarded with an almost alpine view along the snow plastered ridge, complete with sunshine, cutting wind and spindrift blowing across. The upper section was extremely icy, much more so than Hope, and to make it worse we got about 1 second of view before the storms closed in and made it almost complete white out. First time that Gill had used crampons - 10/10 for getting up and down! The group shelter was again invaluable, allowing a really comfortable stop in what would otherwise have been fairly grim conditions. We then carried on along the ridge in alternating poor and total lack of visibility, following a bearing S then SW. This was very effective in avoiding the steep ground...unfortunately too effective as we overshot and came down the wrong side of the mountain! This wouldn't have been too much more effort, except for the intermittently waist deep snow on this side! Eventually emerged at the Crask Inn, 4 miles south of the car, after 10 hours on the hill. Michael from the Crask Inn gave us a lift to pick up the car, and we stayed in the cottage with more great food. Gill had been planning to leave that evening, but due to the late return set off early next day instead. She claimed to be still planning to come back next weekend, maybe?!

So, Monday, after continuing the unbroken run of cooked breakfasts, headed over to the west coast on the bike. About 45 miles, didn't stop too long due to the biting wind, but impressive views of the snow covered isolated peaks out to the north west. Arrived for two nights at Inchnadamph lodge, below the next objective - Conival and Ben More Assynt.

Tuesday dawned not exactly clear but not too bad, so set out up Conival. Athough warmer than it had been there was low cloud and still a fair bit of snow, so somewhat apprehnsive of what conditions would be like. Made steady progress over Conival though and onto the mile long ridge to traverse to Ben More Assynt and back. This again was fairly straightorward to start - although visibility was poor there were enough rocks visible to gve some contast, and the lack of snowfall had left ocasional footprints to follow. Further along however the snow built up and made it very hard to see anything much (spent a long time traversing along the side of what probably was a cornice free ridge, but as I couldn't see it...). Also, the wind got up on this bit, so when I got the summit block I had to kind of lie onto it using my ice axe to avoid being blown sideways. I think it was the summit. There was no visible cairn but a kind of tor / block thing. I went a bit further down the other side and established that the ridge a) went down, and b) changed direction, and also counted paces back to a lower summit to establish that, to within the scle of a 1:50000 map, I had been in the right place, but there could have been a higher feature 10 yds away and I might not have foud it. Anyway, shall count it as climbed unless anyone lets me know that there is a 60' cross on the summit or something.

So back down and not too stiff, but definitely hoping for a spring thaw. Have had some memorable hill days, but this could get tricky if it carries on like this! Anyway, an easy cycle to Ullapool tomorrow, for another hostel, fih and chips etc.

A good start - 1 done, 283 to go! Woke up to find several inches of snow but the sun was shining. Good views of Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope. Unfortunately by the time we were approaching the summit the cloud had descended - not total white out but definitely Scottish winter conditions, hoping that it starts to melt over the next few weeks or this is going to be rather hard going! Me and Gill sheltered under the group shelter on the summit, very effective even with spindrift blowing in under one edge. Gill then produced a bottle of champagne! (small, so as not to interfere too much with locating the edge of the steep cliffs in the distinctly poor visibility). Weather broke down even more on the way down and finished in heavy snow and rain. Gill then drove back to the Altnahara B&B...while I cycled back in the pouring rain. A bottle of wine on the house from Mandy and Lindsay to set off the trip was a good end to the day however - cheers!

Starting 8th of April, I'm planning a short walk in the Scottish Highlands. This will start at Ben Hope near the north coast. I have a detailed spreadsheet outlining a route south and then east via all the munro summits* to finish on Mount Keen and possibly even the last few miles back home to Aberdeen. I've no idea how feasible this is, but perhaps that's the value in it. With as much time as I like to enjoy it, it doesn't look impossible on paper, but if the timing extends beyond Septmeber then the route will probably be shortened. The final route may lie in the hands of the weather gods...and last weekend Ben Wyvis looked to be in remarkably good ski touring condition!

The trip will be entirely self propelled, with the exception of not swimming the offshore sections (decadent times...!). There will be occasional 'off duty' weekends for important events from june onwards, but these will be carefully managed to ensure I end up back in the same place and so don't infringe this arbitrary rule. Haven't quite worked it out yet, but perhaps some strange ritual would be appropriate, to enter an alternative spirit world where one can project onself through space in mechanical metal boxes, but can only re-enter the real world at the point one left it...

Some areas will be covered by cycling and day walks, others by backpacking, the division determined by distance and the opportunities to get someone to take my bike and leave it somewhere else. Accommodation will be camping, but using hostels wherever possible to dry out.

It will basically be a solo trip, although hoping to meet up with as many people as possible along the way, within the limits of predicting how fast I'll be going (apologies if I should have rung you by now, there's been a lot more final tasks than I thought!). Gill has been roped in for most of the required support work, with detailed instructions on which of the bags of food currently filling our spare room should be brought on which weekend. Some food parcels have already been hidden in remote locations to allow extending backpacking sections, so please don't eat them if you find them.

Not sure how often this blog will be updated, at least initially from the more remote parts, but here goes...

Graham

(* ref http://walking.visitscotland.com/munros/)