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Mamores Expedition

Andy and Abigail walking on Day 1 of the Exped.

These last 3 days I've been working for UHI at the WHC with first year students on the ATM course. The 6 students I had with me were Kathleen Torso, Britta Dixon, Maddy Landherr, Amanda Streeter, Abigail Goldfarb and Andy Macleod. Kathleen, Britta, Maddy and Amanda are here for the semester from the States - so I wanted to show them an excellent snapshot of the highlands, because it'll be the only expedition they get here. The weather was set so be a mini Indian Summer in most of the UK, but still with showers and strong winds in the Highlands, so we knew we'd be using our waterproofs and planned to camp fairly low and keep out of the wind. Although the college had issued the students with brand new unused Quasars..

Andy doing his navigation early in the day - day 1.

Here are Amanda and Britta - with Ben Nevis looking majestic behind...

Kathleen taking care across a stream.. This is clearly early in the exped, before we all got wet feet after crossing miles of bog and streams.

Britta had decided to pack her roll mat inside her rucsac the night before. She said she had to stand on it to get it in (!) and now needed asistance form Maddy to get it out!

Hilarious!

We eventually chose a campspot and enjoyed the lack of rain or midges. We then had a late after noon navigation session, then a quick break for food, before starting our late evening night micro-navigation session. We eventually got to bed after 10pm.

Andy (showing us his leg prosthetic) and Abigail.

Andy is on an inspiring and truly remarkable road to recovery after losing a lower leg 6 months ago in an accident in Fort William. He is already back to his previous standard on his mountain bike, and is walking with more balance than most people. Later this term he wants to climb Ben Nevis, and at College he's due to continue his paddling and climbing progression. (When we did the kit check and I asked people how many socks they had packed for 3 days, I got the usual answers from most - 2 pairs or 3 pairs, but he laughed as he told me he had 5 separate socks for only 1 foot!).

Watching the sun go down as we put our stoves away before the night navigation.

Day 2 in the rain. Andy leading, being followed by Amanda.

Yes, the sun did come out on day 2.

Sun rising on day 3. The day started dry and warm (the rain found us eventually!).

The sky started to get moody.

As it turned out Amanda loves waterfalls - so we had 20mins of being tourists at Steall Falls and took a million photos - awesome.

We covered the full syllabus required for preparation for their Hill Walking assessment in a couple of weeks time, so good luck to them all. Thank you for great company for 3 days in the Scottish hills.

Scottish Gold

Alison Culshaw ready to set out from Dalwhinnie towards our base in the Ben Alder Forest, in the Cairngorms National Park

We finally came across a group on a track

Alison picking up speed on her bike

My tent - a luxury home for 3 nights

View from the tent - a group is camped in the photo with Ben Alder on the left hand side, Sgor Lutharn to the right

Groups A and B having lunch

A group decamping on the 2nd morning

The top of the NE ridge leading up to Ben Alder. Can you see the white spot in the photo below the left loch (Loch Pattack) - which is Culra Lodge? On the RHS is Loch Ericht.

A view from the summit of Ben Alder. Ben Nevis on the RHS and Glencoe and the Buachaille on the left. Also visible were the Cuillins! and snow on the Cairngorm hills!

A view from below the Bealach Breabag - of the southern end of Loch Ericht

Finally a group arrive at the Bealach Breabag - I've been waiting for hours !!

Sunset from my tent - awesome.. (as the sun goes down, so does the temp - this was my coldest night)

Morning... This is my stream next to the tent, and Beinn Bheoil behind

Early on the 4th morning I was off, and passed the glass like Loch Pattack - with the post dawn sunlit clouds perfectly reflected in the still waters - awesome..

At the end of the 4th day, I'd got to the end expecting the groups to be an hour behind me - stupid me!! So I got Alison's bike and went to find them.. I managed to do so, finding them struggling with the forest trails that seem to change as often as the weather! So I had some spare time to enjoy the beach here at Kinloch Laggan looking SW into Loch Laggan.. There's always time for a beach (unless you're climbing!!).

This week I was working for Alison Culshaw in the Cairngorm National Park, on a D of E Gold Qualifying Expedition, with 20 girls form Aberdeen. We met the day before Exped day 1 - and I did the kit check for everybody, making sure they had enough kit, warm clothing etc, but not too much stuff weighing down their pack, like too much choc for example - is there such a thing as too much choc (not in my world!). Just after this, I started packing, throwing all the rules aside and instead of 1 luxury item, I packed a car load - intending to live in the lap of luxury for 4 days.... What would you take if weight wasn't an issue (top 5 items? I took my top 10 items!)..

Alison had her bike so was zipping about like a fire fly for 4 days, I had 2 feet, and a belly full of chocolate that I kept finding in the tent! So no fire flies for me!!

At the end most of them were successful, and I finally got reunited with my sick car - which then limped it's way to a garage where it still is now..

Incident Management

Stob Dubh and Buachaille Etive Beag, from Stob Coire Raineach

Working again at the WHC UHI alongside Scott Kirkhope, with ATM 3 students, we set off to practically look at Incident Management. The students are studying Adventure Tourism Management, and will possibly be future paddling, climbing and walking instructors/leaders - so we were working on a management model that could be applied to other sports/activities.

Stob Dearg and Buachaille Etive Mor

We went to Stob Coire Rainearch on Buachaille Etive Beag, to get amongst the rain and strong winds. These conditions made communication difficult at times and tested their judgement and ability to make clear decisions in slightly testing conditions.

Sally pretending to have a spinal injury so the group can start improvising an effective stretcher

Well done everybody for working hard in the poor weather - and not complaining even when we asked them to discuss the scenarios with hail stinging their faces - nice.

Grey Corries

UHI WHC ATM 1 Group D at the entrance to The Lairig in Lochaber. James, Rich, Mark, Ruairdh, Will, Kirsty and Alasdair

On Wednesday I set out with Group D on expedition, from UHI WHC on the ATM degree course. At the beginning of Wednesday the weather was dry, but we soon walked up into the cloud, where we started to get wet, and the rain shortly started to add to the moderate wind, so at last we had some interesting conditions to test their navigation. We walked up onto the Grey Corries and over Stob Choire Claurigh (1177m).

We quickly gained height and got into the cloud

The group had some interesting nav to do

Working out how to get to the lochan for a possible wild camp

Between the rocks we found a wild camp at 960m

We woke to better visibility and reduced winds. Stob Ban (977m) here in the distance

Wednesday was mostly wet, so we were grateful to wake up to dryer conditions and reduced wind. We continued on the ridge, over Stob Coire an Laoigh (1116m), then north and down back to the van. This was the first expedition for the Year 1 students on the ATM degree course - a great start to the year.

Good visibility on day 2 to appreciate the Grey Corries

College Exped With The First Years

 ( Hunter Mountaineering will be launched soon )

At the start of the 2 day mini exped

Today was day 2 of the mini exped with the UHI WHC ATM1 students. Craig and I took our groups out together to Steall meadows, then up to Coire Giubhsachan to make camp. The groups were looking at navigation, group leadership, decision making, route choice and personal movement for the 2 days. The rest of the day took us to the top of Aonach Beag, and route choice to find a way down. Today on day 2 we took a more in depth look at a little micro nav, before we headed up Meall Cumhann, and then back to the college in Fort William. A great 2 days, good weather and good company with the new first years at the University and Craig McDonald.

The group searching for a campsite - plenty to chose from

Kristen doing some map-work on the ridge

Natalie and Becky studying the map

A great view over towards Aonach Mor

Ben Nevis pops out of the clouds

Andy Nelson and his group from Ballachulish

Jess taking a drink

Our groups pack up ready for the rest of day 2

Meall Cumhann