Chamonix to the West Highlands

Our last day in Cham (Fri 1st June) took us to the mediocre sport crag known as Les Gaillands. It was only a 1.5km walk from the apartment with lovely views of Mont Blanc, so why not. Super super hot day, so climbing wasn't very pleasant, sore feet as we both only took downturned shoes and ended up just sticking to bumbly routes! Lots of lazing about was had. We climbed a 3 pitch route (TD-) with a single 60 metre rope, so ended up having to abseil off in 3 stages which was a bit of a pain, so headed for some single pitch stuff after that. Routes were 'Directe aux guides' F6b, and I (Janey) attempted 'Les Lezards' F7a, but failed due to the heat and my lack of training recently. It did however feel pretty hard for the grade.

Keith on Direct aux guides (6b)

I was home for one day before heading off again, this time to Bridge of Orchy to help out with the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award for George Heriots School. This was a good week, despite feeling rather home sick and missing my wee pup. Oh and lets not forget the horrific old army style bunkbeds that were the cause of a serious lack of sleep.

Day one involved taking John and Michael up curved ridge. Roped up for a few sections but was fairly straight forward for them as conditions were good. Bone dry rock and lovely weather. Four of us then went on to complete the rest of the Buachaille Etive Mor ridge line (Stob Dearg to Stob na Broige). Carried rack and rope the entire way which was certainly good training for me until the rope was kindly taken off me for the descent.

Loch Etive

 Descended down between Stob Coire Altruim and Stob na Doire, which is a much much nicer route than the usual descent from the summit of the buachaille. 10 hour day in total, then headed along to Gorton Bothy to check on the kids, and back to the Lodge for yummy food (which I didnt have to cook) and wine :)

Wednesday I headed off up the hills behind Forest Lodge, Stob a Choire Odhair for a fairly pleasant walk with the ipod. Cloud base was down at about 700metres, meaning visibilty at the summit was fairly rubbish - down to 10metres, so I opted to just head back down from the first munro instead of heading along to Stob Ghabhar and save myself for Thursday.

At the summit with absolutely no view

Keith headed up late Wednesday night after work so we could log a hill day together on Thursday. He chose a route leading directly up Stob Coire nam Beith, starting from the visitors centre in Glen Coe. It was quite a steep ascent, and a struggle for me being my third hill day in a row. The boulder field and scree wasn't the most fun i've ever had to say the least. ew. We continued on along the ridge line (basically a path of scree) to the summit of Bidean nam Bian, to be greeted with heavy rain and cloud. We ended up running short on time, had to be back to check on the D of E groups, so descended down lost valley instead of summiting the second munro we had planned.

sundew

I am now finally back home in my comfy bed, about to get up and cook a roast chicken dinner for Keith coming in from work. nom nom.

Next week brings another two days of fun, either climbing or hill walking depending on the weather, then i'm off up the Bridge of Orchy again for the qualifying D of E week. Fun times!