Monthly Archives: March 2010

Rock On!

With a good weather forecast and a renew of thought and feeling for climbing since over the last two weeks we have started to get into the Batcave again, it was time to try and get out onto real rock for the first time this year.  A quick scan through the guide book to find a suitable venue that wouldn’t make us crap ourselves and sell all our climbing gear and ‘Greymare Slabs’ was found.  This is a sea cliff crag about 15 miles north of Aberdeen.

The weather was lovely, pretty balmy 12c which is an act of true kindness from the big man upstairs for this time of year up here in North Scotland.  We got there and did the normal faff around trying to work out why the harness is twisted and which way it goes on (only joking) and abseiled down to the bottom of the cliff

Before we abseiled we did the customary yank test of the anchor to check it will hold , with this satisfied off we went down.  The rock was really dry surprisingly after all the snow melt we recently had.  Lara took the first lead

With the attentative husband holding the other end of the ropes.  She seemed at ease and confident on the rock seeing that it has been a long time since either of us has climbed on rock (see previous months of skiing posts!)  When I asked her if she was alright she turned around

and gave a whopper smile, she was loving it.  With the first route in the bag we abseiled back down again (with the customary yank to the anchor) and moved around the cliff on a ledge, form here we anchored ourselves in again and Matt led the next one

He as well as us has been off rock for the winter and was loving it, the sun was still out and very warm.  With Matt at the top safe with no hassles, we both seconded him up

We did another route after and at the end it was getting close to five so we called it a day.  A good first day back on rock, no one had a hissy fit, no “watch me as i am going to f*cking fall” shouts, everyone was good.

I even managed to climb well even though my ankle is a bit messed up again from crashing my BMX in the skate park on Tuesday, it have me a few issues of randomly collapsing, but it is fast on the mend again.  I even had the excuses of being a wimp lined up, a pretty good one as well.  I have not eaten any meat for a week now, any man will tell you that is a huge challenge and will completely effect bravery and testosterone levels to enable tasks like this to be completed.

Well I am like a kid on xmas eve tonight, I will find it hard to get to sleep, I will wake up at 4am, jump on my bike to work and will be waiting at the door of the canteen to open – it is going to be a bacon sandwich eating fest!

Meat again, oh blessed meat!  I have missed you so – and tomorrow we shall be together again, it is going to be glorious!

Peace be with you man….. love the world, and mother nature…. man.

Update on the detox: 

My life as a vegan is not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Thankfully the meat withdrawal symptoms were I was willing to kill anything that cast its own shadow are gone.  Now, I am at ease with myself and have made peace with my new vegetable friends.  The idea of a bunch of vegetables and seeds for lunch does not anger me.  The only difficulty I have found this week is actually getting food that I am allowed to eat quick and easily.  I went into tescos yesterday lunch time as the work restaurant only was serving steak and salmon (oh the irony) and I had to walk around for about 15 minutes before I found enough food that I though would suffice my hunger and cravings.  I look like a real teenage girl reading all the food labels and scanning for ingredients. 

The above is what I ended up with – Carrots, Red Pepper, humus (my saviour of the week), mini plum tomatoes, dried mango, pumpkins seeds and a litre of strawberry smoothie.  Obviously I didn’t eat all of it as that would be greedy, but I needed a mix of tastes to satisfy my cravings. 

One bit of advice I would give to anyone doing this sort of madness in the future is that smoothies are the mutz nutz at helping you cure that post main meal sugar craving.  When normally I would be reaching for a Kitkat or cake, some smoothie seems to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Thankfully Lara is a great cook, the evening meals are great – we have had chilli, Thai green curry stir fries and ratatouille.  All tasty and would be great in a ‘normal’ eating week. 

Another observation I have made this week is how little I have been eating and how I am surviving no worries.  My energy levels are the same, I think I am sleeping a bit longer but nothing horrendous.  It really shows how much of a pig I am.  The concept of eating until not hungry is one I should adopt rather than the ‘eat until I physically can not fit anything else in’ approach which is usually quickly followed with the bloated feeling. 

Not sure by the end of the week I will be ‘cleansed’ or have a ‘centralised Zen euphoric energy state’ but I have learnt a few things about my eating habits and food in general. 

  1. I eat too much.
  2. Never take steak for granted, enjoy every one of them as you never know when your wife might take them away from you!!!! 

Peace and love to the world 

Dave the veggie eating tie dye wearing anti washing hippy

What is my wife doing to me?!?!?!?

For some unknown reason to me, Lara has decided it is a great idea to do a detox week.  I though no real hassle, I don’t drink that much any way and a week off the beer will be no hassle.  So I agree to doing the detox. 

After agree’ing to this week, I then receive an email from her stating the “forbidden” foods for the week.

Meat & Fish – all kinds

Dairy – Milk, Cheese, yoghurt etc

Eggs

Bread –wheat based

Cakes pastries pies etc

Sugary Cereals – plain cornflakes are allowed but you can’t put milk on!

Battered and Bread crumbed Foods

Salted nuts

Chocolate

Jam

Sugar

Processed foods

Sauces

Alcohol

Coffee and tea  

Gerkins  Salad Dressings – other than home made

 Mayonnaise & salad cream

 Salt

 Fizzy pop

 And anything else that is tasty”

Well what the hell is left to eat!!!!!!  So basically for the next week I am going to be living like some flower loving smelly hippy on a vegan Diet.  Oh how I love my Porridge in the morning made with water and nothing else in it!!!  lunch – mmmmmm  dry salad.

Thankfully Lara is a bit of a saviour in the evening and makes tasty meals, I had some variety of chili last night, with beans and pulses and lentils, was rather tasty.

I found fruit smoothies a good way to tame the urge for sweet puddings after your main meals.  If nothign this week will teach me to make food tasty with out the need to throw sugar at it or some equally un healthy processed substance.  Tomorrow’s porridge with have dried cherries and cashew nuts in it.

It is going to be an interesting week, I do however feel a need to apologise to my work mates, as last night Chili has made me absolutely howling!!!!!!!  best way to get a private room in the office I think!  Will keep you updated on the week!

Changing Seasons

Well the seasons are certainly changing up here, the snow is fast receding up the hills and it is getting warmer.  With the fast approaching Fred Whitton race I have stupidly entered in May it is time I started getting out on the bike and getting the miles into my legs.  Lara, Emma, Matt and I went out for a ride around Donside on Saturday.

It was Matt’s and Emma’s first real ride of the year so we decided on a easy-ish ride and it ended up being a glorious day, there was even sunshine!!!  Riding through the hills with snow still on them was really picturesque and great to give the legs a shake out. 

Think this is the third time I have taken a picture with this signpost!  Never get tired of it.

 Lara and I did not suffer as much as expected, I think all the ski touring has kept our legs going over the winter and hopefully have a reasonable base for the summer biking.

Lara on the final fast decent down to where we parked the van in Ballater,  I am excited for the fast approaching longer days we get up here in the north of Scotland to be able to get out on my bike loads.

Skiing Black Spout Gully at last!

For over three years I have been trying to ski this line, had a couple of failed attempts due to conditions and was super keen to get it done.  This weekend the weather forecast looked good and it was time for another attempt.  Partners in crime where Lara, Scott and Alan.

Once we got near the col, we decided that a ski down Red Spout gully was a good idea, a warm up and a line that Scott had never skied as well (Scott has skied most things!) so we walked up the ridge.  The wind was pretty strong blowing us off our skis now and again, some times having to resort to walking with them.  When we got to the top of the gully we had a look in to it, every time we stuck our heads over the edge we got a face full of icy snow being blown painfully in it.  Once a thorough exfoliating had finished, we all chose our entry points and off we went.  This is by far the steepest thing Lara has skied and she made it look easy once she plucked the courage up and went for it.

Above is Alan with his chosen entry.  The gully was pretty icy in places but not too much so to make it unskiable.  From the bottom we skied across the Corrie to the bottom and up to the bottom of the climb up Black Spout gully.  Poor Scott climbed a certain section a couple of times due to him getting near the top and his skins failing him and sliding back down.  Very funny to watch, but lots of internal swearing on Scott’s behalf.

From just below the gully, we took our skis off and put them on our rucksacks and got ready to go climb up black spout.  It is always a good idea to climb these things first so that you know what to expect on the way down.

The climb was fine on good solid snow (Lara above nearing the top of the gully).  The gully itself was a beautiful place to be, it sheltered us from the exfoliating winds, and was just magnificent due to all the rock walls being covered in hoar.  The very top section of the gully was unskiable due to exposed rocks so we stopped 10m short of the top and dug little platforms to put our skis on.

Time to realise a goal that had been in my head for three years.  The ski down was concentrating, the snow was of the kind that if you fell you would be lucky to stop until you hit less steap ground at the bottom of the gully, which would be very annoying and probably rather painful.  One by one we skied down.

Was brilliant, the snow was a little hard, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I came out through the bottom of the gully whooping and had a huge smile on my face to finally having managed to ski it.  Lara (above) skied it like a hero, a little tentative at first, but once she got going and got a few turns in she was fine and skied it with no worries at all.  Her first graded gully!  Go wife!  Alan unfortunately had a nasty head plant just as he exited the gully and slid quite a long way down the slope before he managed to stop himself by using his pole to arrest himself.

He had a glasses nose interface and cut his nose and broke his glasses, all I could hear him muttering was ” think I might go buy a helmet”.  He was fine, dusted himself off and carried on skiing.

A small skin up the col was helped by an incredibly strong tail wind, at points it actually pushed us up the hill, then a long ski down through some great spring snow back to the cars.

I got there happy as a pig in excrement and very pleased to have got this line skied.  The big question is….. what line can I start obsessing over next?

The rest of the pics can been seen by clicking here

The India Crew

Spent a great weekend with Hugh, Tom and Ali who came up from London; we had met them a couple of weeks before, in Gulmarg.  We had two great days skiing in the Cairngorms and a very odd and weird night in Braemar ( a very strange and Royston Vasey-esque town).

all the pictures can be seen if you click here 

In the words of James May – Oh COCK

Scott and I got up early with the our sights on going to Glen Clova and finding some ice to climb.  We got there with no issues, as we were checking out the new forestry commission ‘facilities’, I hear Scott shout a very rude work.  First off, I thought Scott had had an accident and soiled himself.  But no, the plum had forgotten his harness.  I would like to reiterate Mr May – Oh COCK.

After a large amount of abuse we searched around in the car for anything that might be able to be used as a harness, no such chance.  So we had no choice but to decide to go for a ski.

So we skied up to Loch Brandy and up the Snub where Scott learnt the art of jump turning so that I can drag him down some steeper stuff with me.  As we got to the top of it the weather changed

It can’t be seen in the picture above but it was raining heavy with a strong wind knocking us about.  Today was obviously one of those days it was just not meant to be.  Scott and I decided that it was time to call it quits and retreat. 

We found a great gully with good spring snow and had a great ski down although a little short.

The day ended with a visit to Baby Kyle and his mum.  He was loving sitting on my lap, and soon as Scott took him he cried.  He blatantly prefers me.

Neil and Niki’s Wedding = messy

Off to Edinburgh we went to go to the much anticipated wedding, and it did not disappoint.

A lovely ceremony was followed by a night of great fun, drinking, dancing, party bus, laughing and the one and only last time I will ever wear high heals ( photographic evidence is onf acebook if you dare look).

It can not be said that these two are not pure class the whole way.  Lara and I both wish you a life time of happiness and snogging in men’s toilets.

the rest of the photos can be seen here