THE DOLOMITES

Just back from a week in the beautiful Dolomites, Northern Italy. We based ourselves in the delightful village of San Candido/Inchinnen  which is at the eastern end of the Val Pustertal. The mountains we explored are in the Sesto/Sexten range and the area is probably most famous for the striking Tre Cima/Drei Zinnen, in English 'The three peaks' I guess. This region of The Dolomites has two languages, Italian and Germanic. We were blessed with superb weather, clear skies for much of the time and once the sun got up it was warm and summer like. The views were superb in the very clear air, a great time to go to The Alps. We saw hardly anyone out on the mountains and indeed we seemed like the only tourists in the village! It's unfortunate that virtually all the huts are closed by the end of September but that doesn't mean the mountains aren't accessible. With a good bus service up most of the major valleys you can get into some great mountain walking and via ferrata areas. This was my second visit to The Dolomites this year and I'll be sure to be back again, wonderful place.

 Meanwhile back at home it's been a bit wet and windy, a shock to the system! Brian was out working for me today on Ben Nevis with the Simmonds family. Unfortunately they had a bit of a soaking and strong winds on the top. 

ANOTHER DRY DAY

With another dry day in prospect I headed out this afternoon  up Ledge Route. Despite it being a bit chilly there was not a breath of wind so feeling very pleasant indeed. All I could hear were the stags roaring and the water flowing in the Allt a' Mhuillin. Wonderful atmospheric cloud coming and going along the ridge. Will need to get out of the habit of a 'liesurley' start, ie after mid day. Winter is coming!

Off to The Dolomites in Italy on Friday for a week so no postings for a wee while. 

BETWEEN TRAINS

With the hint of a much better weather day than of late I headed a bit further east today to escape the showers over on the west coast. The wonderful West Highland train line has many stations where you can hop off and have a great adventure. Today I had just a mini run up the hill of  Beinn na Lap from Corrour station. Corrour stands in lovely isolation high on Rannoch Moor at over 400m above sea level, almost half way up the hill, a treat for west coasters. It had to be a quick dash up and down the hill having less than 3 hours between the trains. Beinn na Lap is one of the easiest and shortest Munros, time wise that is, not height wise. As expected saw no one on the hill so it's a lovely place for some solitude and peace & quiet. The views on the summit are fantastic for such an mundane grassy hill. On a good day you can see the hills of Ben Nevis, Grey Corries, Glencoe and Ben Alder as well as the finest view of Rannoch Moor. 

VERY WET

The rain has been steadily falling for over 24 hours in Lochaber  but with an optimistic weather forecast of a drier afternoon today we set off for Ledge Route and The CMD arete on The Ben. I was joined by Mike & Joanas  who had been waiting for the best day this weekend to have some excitement on The Ben. The cloud was down to 600m most of the day and the Allt a' Mhuillin was looking amazing  on our walk in, with a vast volume of white water.  The usual crossing point to the CIC Hut was well in spate  and for the first time I had to go upstream for a safe crossing. We saw only two folk outside the hut and no one else until the summit of The Ben. The guys were still game for the arete despite the steady light  rain and no views. Ledge Route was well sheltered from the Westerly winds but the arete was getting buffeted in the 40mph winds, all good fun to spice up the day. Only when we were well down off Carn Mor Dearg did the rain finally ease off and the lads finished off their wee flask of Caol Isla single malt, well deserved. A distinct lack of photos today, must have been poor weather then?

A TASTE OF WINTER

Yesterday's colder weather had dumped a covering of snow down to around 1000m  on the hills of Lochaber. Keen to see exactly how much of the white stuff is around I headed up into No.4 Gully on The Ben this morning. It was lovely and quiet all day, the only living beings I saw were an high altitude mountain hare at 1000m below me in the gully and a wonderful stag and his harem roaring away, just down from the CIC Hut. It would have been much nicer if there were a few more cm of snow in the gully, the last 30m was grotty, but then it is only the first week in October! I could hear a few folk out on Tower Ridge enjoying the dry, yes DRY day and not a whisper of a wind, well  I was probably well sheltered. Unfortunately it is all short lived, much warmer tomorrow and more rain, so I guess it'll all be washed away. 

SNOW ON THE HILLS

It's been another very poor week with many days  of rain and  strong winds. Been pedalling about on the bike most days. But there's hope, looking outside my window this morning and for a few minutes Sgurr a' Mhaim peeped out of the clouds with snow down to 900m. The strong NW winds today are bringing much colder air. Tomorrow looks like the driest day of this week and even a bit of sun is forecast. The first winter day this season? Watch this space!

SNOW HUNTING

I was out today with snow patch experts Iain & Mark who have many years of studying  snow patches that remain through out the year on the Scottish  mountains. So today we headed over to the Cairngorms in search of the remaining patch in Garbh Corrie Mor on Breariach. I've been up Braeriach many times but the route today via Glen Einich and then up the long featureless ground to East of Loch Loch Einich was a first for me. We cycled up the glen to make it more fun and faster. Unfortunately the forecast of a mostly dry day didn't happen, we had light rain for much of the time, coupled with very low cloud in the morning. To get to the snow patch requires a steep descent into the corrie from the plateau. The remaining snow patch this year is down to around 5m x 6m square. It's survival this year is all weather dependant and so with the cold spell forecast at the end of the week then it still as a chance! We descended the plateau and back to the bikes just as the rain stopped and then we had the return bike ride down in lovely sunny weather and DRY! well apart from the fun river crossings across the track. Fun and interesting day out.

MUGGY AND CLOUD

It was another frustrating day,weather wise, here in The Highlands. Today Terrance & Lorraine and I were stuck in the muggy weather on The Ben. With no breeze and very low cloud down to 300m it wasn't a day for glorious views! At least we had very little in the way of precipitation which was forecast. Thankfully the 'boat' which was dumped on the summit of The Ben last week was being taken down the hill today. On our way down we came upon an unfortunate woman who had injured her foot. There was a group of army guys training on the hill who had already contacted the mountain rescue and the chopper arrived minutes later.

A QUICKIE UP THE BEN

While everywhere but the west coast of The Highlands are enjoying the heatwave with blue skies, we're having to cope with  Atlantic weather fronts flirting over us. So  with today's forecast predicting rain by mid day I set off for a quick morning out and trying to get down before getting wet. I set off from the Aluminium smelter in The Fort and went up Ledge Route, getting to the summit of Carn Dearg in 1 hour 56mins. There was a stiff southerly breeze across the ridge to spice things up a bit and keep me moving. Only the running shoes today and a light rucksack so a quick run back down and getting home before the rain and less than 3 and a half hours in total. the rain started 30mins later so feeling smug! I suppose I may have been quicker but for taking photos and helping someone who seemed to be navigationaly misplaced on the Allt a' Mhuillin path. 

SUNSHINE AND DRY FEET

At last an reasonably dry and bright day! Today I was on Ben Nevis with  mother and daughter team, Sarah and Terri up on holiday from London. The Ben was much quieter than of late and we enjoyed some good sunny spells in the morning, unfortunately we got rain and cloud near the summit and it was actually snowing at the top. The strong winds had died down to a mere breeze today. Unfortunately the day was completely spoiled by some disgusting litter louts leaving their challenge artifact on the summit. The last pic shows the offending article; a small boat with a pair of wheels on it! Presumably it had been pulled  up for some sort of stunt/charity and  they decided to litter the mountain by leaving it at the top, thanks. 

THE WET BOUNDS OF NEARLY KNOYDART

The usual daily cycle of rain/showers/bit of sun continued today as karen and I headed out wet  west on the train to Inverailort. We headed over from there to the head of Loch Boraid which lies in a wonderful, remote setting between the road to the isles and the Knoydart area. The path that's marked on the os map is in reality quite an indistinct route, and I guess that's why we saw no one all day. The rain did actually ease off and we had an dry afternoon with a few glimpses of sun. The paths are saturated and the burns (even the smallest ones) are still in spate. There was an interesting crossing on one of these and Karen went for the adventurous and more exciting way across it, purely for photographic reasons I thought. The next crossing at the east end of the loch was impassable so we had a hike further up stream and uphill before we could negotiate that one. We mad it to Glenfinnan just before dusk and saw some beautiful, remote land that I guess few folk have ever been. 

TRENCH FOOT

It was another showery day and very wet underfoot. Today I was coaching the 1st year students from Lochaber College on their Adventure tourism and managmemt degree course. The main aspects of today was basic navigation on the hills to the east of Glen Roy. We also covered personal movement on the hills on a variety of terrain, but it seemed that most of this was quite wet!