Hiking this weekend... well, partly free climbing, erk!
Hey all! I ended up having quite a nice birthday, despite having to work. I've got a twin and our birthday is also the same day as our parents anniversary, so we tend to do family dinners and things like that. This year my bro invited us to his flat for curry, followed my pavlova my mum made and a chocolate cake that I put together. Mm, curry and a diabetics nightmare! :D
My friend has her birthday just two days after mine, so to celebrate a few of us went out 'hiking' this weekend. At least, I was told (and so was she) that we'd be hiking in Glencoe. We hadn't realised we'd actually be doing the Aonach Eagach Ridge! (Ugly link - http://scotclimb.org.uk/aonacheagach.shtml) Nothing like breaking back into hiking with a bang! I got to cover five summits, two of which (Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh are Monros) and to get in my first experience of free climbing. Not quite the gentle five hour hike I'd been expecting, but eight hours of scrambling over the rocks was good too, lol. There was only one wee section where I actually felt in any danger (although it was terrifying at the time, I'm glad we did it), and thankfully one of the girls with us was a proper climber, so she went down first and directed footholds and handholds from the bottom for the rest of us at that point.
I should be getting the pictures off everyone later this week, so I'll put a few up then. It really was absolutely beautiful, and we were so lucky with the weather, it didn't rain at all for the whole trip (not even the overnight camping at the bottom of the range before we headed up on the Saturday). I've somehow managed not to be eaten alive by insects, and my suntan lotion was definitely a good plan (although I must have missed a wee bit on my left arm, it's killing me on the back near my shoulder. Better than being totally burnt though!)
And now to recover. My legs have never hurt so much, my thighs are killing me after coming down on a scree slope for over an hour at the end (they were oddly fine for the rest of it, if a bit shaky after that terrifying part where we got directed down the climb).
My friend has her birthday just two days after mine, so to celebrate a few of us went out 'hiking' this weekend. At least, I was told (and so was she) that we'd be hiking in Glencoe. We hadn't realised we'd actually be doing the Aonach Eagach Ridge! (Ugly link - http://scotclimb.org.uk/aonacheagach.shtml) Nothing like breaking back into hiking with a bang! I got to cover five summits, two of which (Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh are Monros) and to get in my first experience of free climbing. Not quite the gentle five hour hike I'd been expecting, but eight hours of scrambling over the rocks was good too, lol. There was only one wee section where I actually felt in any danger (although it was terrifying at the time, I'm glad we did it), and thankfully one of the girls with us was a proper climber, so she went down first and directed footholds and handholds from the bottom for the rest of us at that point.
I should be getting the pictures off everyone later this week, so I'll put a few up then. It really was absolutely beautiful, and we were so lucky with the weather, it didn't rain at all for the whole trip (not even the overnight camping at the bottom of the range before we headed up on the Saturday). I've somehow managed not to be eaten alive by insects, and my suntan lotion was definitely a good plan (although I must have missed a wee bit on my left arm, it's killing me on the back near my shoulder. Better than being totally burnt though!)
And now to recover. My legs have never hurt so much, my thighs are killing me after coming down on a scree slope for over an hour at the end (they were oddly fine for the rest of it, if a bit shaky after that terrifying part where we got directed down the climb).