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Sunday 27 May 2012

MYC Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Expedition Training

Craig and Bill were out with the young people from Milngavie Youth Cafe in Ardgarten for the DoE Bronze Expedition training.




Good weather and great effort saw us at Mark bothy for camping overnight.  The midges were out giving it early season feasting but hoods on and we all survived on the rations brought by the bucket load...as always with first training exped'.



Once we settled down, the slack line was out for its first try and its fair to say none of us appear to be naturals or likely to threaten Dean Potter's supremacy!! But we had fun.



The next day saw lovely weather again and the walk out to Lochgoilhead was more than pleasant and the girls did well, although incessant moaning was the order of the day, despite enjoying themselves immensely.


All in, a successful training expedition and the girls now need to consolidate the hard work and make plans for the Award exped' later this year.

Well done to them all.

Saturday 12 May 2012

Glen Coe - Tour Ronde

Mark and Craig went for an Alps training day to knock off some big effort in the Glen Coe mountains.

We decided to head up the Zig Zags, take the east ridge of Stob Corrie nan Lochan, head up Bidean nam Bian, drop and climb to Screamach (Munro of unprouncability & spellability!!) then traverse along Beinn Fada ridge and drop down into the Lost Valley.

Which we did...and had a great time doing it.  There is plenty of snow above about 750-800m but the sun through the day was lifting the snow line up the mountain but it was a wonderful day.

We did 3193m of climbing throughout the day (per Suunto) and had rain, sun, snow and mist keeping us company.   We travelled fast to start and had our first food stop at Beallach Dubh over looking the Lost Valley.


After a quick honey bar, we headed up to Screamach and enjoyed the sun...a truly beautiful Alpine day


After a quick lounge on the summit, we headed over Beinn Fada and dropped too quickly down a horrible slimy gully which we knew was not the normal route but thought we'd check it out...turned out to be a bad idea...steep, slimy, broken rock and not to be repeated; if you see the cairn on the ridge, don't drop from there - keep going until you are in line with Rev. Ted's Gully and the big bouldering stone on the valley floor.

Regardless, it added to the journey and we had a great time; all in a 6 hr journey and we got home in jig time.

Should add Mark lost his shiny Simply Epic badge (see pic below) nr summit of Screamach from Beallach Dubh; if you find it, plse give us a call??   Thanks




Simply Epic day on the hills - an Alpine day in May in Scotland...what's with the weather???


Monday 7 May 2012

Robin Hood and Hawaiian capers

Craig and Bill were covering for Bob of Taylor Made Adventures delivering some activities for Callander Holiday Village near...well Callander actually.

We had a fun session doing archery in the morning with some folks down for the weekend from Dunfermline - they were well up for it and and the kids just loved trying to burst the balloon for a bag of Haribos.

After a quick bite of lunch, we were into canoeing mode and lugging the boats into Loch Lubnaig for a tour of the loch and a wee trip out to a Crannog - amazing features out on lochs from hundreds of years ago.  These were built by taking out large stones and boulders out into the loch and dumping until eventually an island is built and then a house structure on stilts is built on top - amazing what man can do when he puts his mind to it!

The weather was having fun with us with rain, snow, sleet and snow, followed by wonderful sunshine - a true Scottish summer's day.   A trip up to the head of the loch and the 6 of us headed back down the east side of the loch passing the campers and fishermen...we really are the dirtiest of folks - the litter on the beach and in the water was so appalling...how can folks come to wonderful places and dump their rubbish...confusedandtragicirony.com


Anyway, we had a great time and all thoroughly enjoyed a paddle up the loch with beautiful calm conditions


Duke of Edinburgh - nav practice coming on

Craig and Bill had the girls from the Milngavie Youth Cafe out for a night of nav practice on Wednesday around Dumgoyne.

It was a lovely night and the girls are really picking up on their nav, despite their reluctance in front of the camera...



We also found some interesting features out and about...I thought this was something out of an Indiana Jones movie...expected a huge rolling ball to come out!!


All in, a rewarding night out and the map reading has come on leaps and bounds since they girls started - well done, keep it up :)

On another note, Bill picked up his new truck - awesome fun and so versatile...can't wait to get mine :)))