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Thursday 3 September 2015

Tour de Force...

21-29 August 2015

Mark teamed up with Gerry for this years Alps trip.

The plan - to climb Alpin-durst (14 pitches 4c) on the Jagihorn. Castor and Pollux, the Eiger, the Matterhorn, Lyskamm, the Frendo ! So, within 10 hours of leaving Edinburgh they were swinging leads on the grippy gneiss high above Sass Grund sucking in thin air on a bright sunny day and adjusting the plan for the coming week.

The Swiss meteo was showing a 1.5 day blip with heavy weather up high so they relocated to the valley for some sport climbing and Ferrata at Belvedere then onto the Grand Hotel Kurhaus in the Arolla valley to pack for a couple nights at Klein Matterhorn. Arriving in Zermatt in good time and up to the Hut for stunning 360 views.

First up each day they had the plateau and journey to both mountains in complete solitude. Castor and Pollux being in great conditions with firm and squeaky snow and on both occasions they had the summits to themselves.

High altitude sleeps over they headed to the valley to mainline on some oxygen and then some multi pitch climbing in the sun at Pierr du Moelle.
 

Some pics below from a great and busy week...

Alpin-Durst               © Gerry McGarry

                                                                                           © Gerry McGarry
Jagihorn summit 
Gerry on Ferrata Belvedere       © Mark McGinnes
Breithorn with Pollux and Castor behind                © Mark McGinnes
 Mark tying alpine butterflies at 5am                          © Gerry McGarry
Mark climbing the fixed ropes on Pollux              © Gerry McGarry
Gerry on the Pollux summit ridge                           © Mark McGinnes
Summit ridge Castor                     © Gerry McGarry
 Castor summit ridge                                             © Mark McGinnes
Summit selfie
 Looking across to Lyskamm                                  © Mark McGinnes
Limestone multi-pitch climbing                             © Mark McGinnes
                                                                                © Mark McGinnes

Wednesday 2 September 2015

In By October....Aye, Right!

Craig, Bill and Peter took advantage of a weather window but more importantly a day off, to seek some biking fun in Glentress.

The ubiquitous Andy McKenna had shown Craig some trails earlier this year and efforts to link everything together again were proving beyond his mental capacity.

However, Tuesday was the day; there are so many trails in and around Glentress that I suspect only a very select few would dare claim to know them all; I am certainly not one of the select few!

However, I know some and by the end of the day we all had a big smile on our faces and a grand day out was had.

I'm still testing out the GoPro and my sedentary pace on the bike is exacerbated to a walk - Bill and Peter are experts at this art mind you!  So rather than have a one hour long video, it is running at bit faster at places, though you might not know where...

If you fancy a Simply Epic day's biking, feel free to get in touch

A Simply Epic Day's Biking at Glentress off piste routes from C Coid on Vimeo.