Bikepacking 2: Kettlewell Trip

This is a slightly belated blog from the other weekend's bikepacking adventures. Chris put a shout out on Facebook for anyone wanting to join in on a trip up to Kettlewell, a camp over and a ride back the next morning. Jonny was keen, fabricating a bracket to fit a rear rack to his old Raleigh and Adam packed his panniers with samosas. Having a free evening, I jumped at the chance as I wanted to try out my new bikepacking bags from Alpkit. We met at Steeton train station on the Friday afternoon, ready for off.

Jenny loaded up with camping things. Bloody Alpkit fanboy...

It was a very pleasant spin up through Cononley into the back of Skipton and then out on the Grassington road, light sunshine and cloud. Traffic wasn't too heavy and was mostly respectful and well driven. It was good fun riding in convoy and with everyone loaded differently we looked like a proper travelling circus.

We took the road through Linton to Grassington and then the back road all the way up through Conistone to Kettlewell, this last bit proving especially quiet which allowed us to ride side by side and chat.

Tim (Full Of Win) had pointed us to the campsite in Kettlewell just behind the church on the back road, saying it had the poshest toilets he'd ever seen on a campsite. He wasn't wrong; nice sinks, underfloor heating and in very good condition! For the princely sum of £7 each we had a pitch for the night at the top of the field.

The Travelling Circus: Chris, Jonny, me, Adam

We knew it was forecast rain later so Chris and I took some time setting up our tarp properly. We were quite happy with the results too.

Tarp for two.

What did it look like inside? Have a look!

We meandered off to the Blue Bell (on another hot tip from Tim) in the search of pies of legendary status. We found them.

The meat and potato pie, which we all ordered, was marvellous. As were the pints of local ale, even the one we liked the least was pretty good. No room for pudding afterwards

It was drizzling outside so, tired and full, we quickly settled down and fell asleep, our tents and tarps resounding to the various sound effects that accompany a big tea and a few pints...

The rain kept me awake a far bit through the night, and I occasionally had to push the tarp to remove the accumulated puddle to stop it pressing on me. I got a the odd splat in the face which wakes you up very suddenly!

Adam left early to meet his family for his daughters first birthday, I unashamedly pulled my buff over my eyes and got a another hour's kip ;) It wasn't long before Chris and I roused ourselves, packed up, then stood around whilst Jonny faffed around a bit (plus ca change...) before we headed into Grassington to find a cafe for breakfast.

The roads were still damp but it was warming up and drying off quickly.

Grassington furnished us with a small bakery with some fab looking cakes but a bacon butty and tea was high on the agenda. We sat in the square, squeaky styrofoam cups of life giving tea, rustling paper bags with baked goodness inside, swallows singing on wires.

The ride back to Keighley was punctuated (ha!) by a shard of glass from a broken mirror by the roadside making it's way through my rather underinflated Conti Gatorskin tires. New tube, a higher pressure and we were off rolling again, back through Skippy town and down to Keighley.

We stopped in the cafe by the bus station for toasties where I bade Jonny and Chris farewell for their return leg to Huddersfield. I headed home, unpacked and promptly fell fast asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours, the lack of sleep the night before taking it's toll. Louise tried to rouse me to no avail, the cup of tea and apple went untouched!

A most enjoyable adventure.




Bikepacking Lessons Learned

• The tarp needs to be tensioned enough on the edges to ensure it sheds water and doesn't accumulate a massive puddle. By the time it was wet the tarp weighed about twice as much
• Try the bivvy bag outside of sleeping mat so I can sleep on my side, I cant sleep properly on my back!
• Tire pressures, make sure you've got enough in there youth!
• The Alpkit Koala setapack does woble around a bit unless you pack it super tightly and cinch the straps up really well. Once packed properly and strapped down firmly it's brilliant.
• Packing the sleeping bag inside the bivvy bag, whilst very easy to get everything out and set up, makes for a larger pack size. Sort it.
• Smaller tarp for solo adventures would be a good purchase.
• As would a comfier saddle for longer adventures, the stock Genesis one is a little hard on one's posterior

Eating and excercise

Hitting the Wall

"I do like James," said Ron, my father-out-law-soon-to-be-in-law, "but I've never met anyone who eats as much as he does!".

I'm not sure if I have a fast metabolism. Maybe I burn off more calories than I estimate. Perhaps pretending to be clever at work takes more energy than I think. Whatever. Nevertheless, there have been several occasions where I've wanted to go for a run after coming home from work but I've just been too tired. Then I've proceeded to eat half of the house. Thinking about it, on these tired days I've generally not eaten enough. Yesterday was a good example that got me thinking about this.

• Breakfast: muesli, no banana (fell out of my bag on way to work!)
• Lunch: small sandwich, sausage roll. Forgot other fruit :(
• Emergency wobbly legs late afternoon snack: Mars bar from Max's tuck shop
• Made it home with no energy. Not going for a run. Can just about say "whrrrrrrttttt"
• Tea: inhaled a large bowl of mushroom + pesto pasta
• Followed by Hula Hoops, two chocolate brioche rolls I'd been saving for running snacks, a bit of dark chocolate and two crumpets with Marmite.

Felt much better!


Energy Out vs Energy In

Every day I ride to work and back which, according to various estimates, burns around 200-350 calories each way. This means 400-700 calories on commuting a day. Not bad. However the body isn't an infinite store of energy (who knew?!) so I've got to put it in too!

So today was an experiment to consciously eat plenty.

• Breakfast 1: Crumpet and butter
• Cycle to work (247 Strava calories estimate)
• Breakfast 2: Muesli and banana large portion
• Lunch: Egg sandwich on brown seeded bread, tiny bit of mayo, cup of Heinz mushroom soup and a steak pasty from the butty shop
• PM snack: Another egg sandwich as above, orange, apple
• Cycle home (215 Strava calories estimate)
• Tea 1: Chicken sandwich, marmalade sandwich, crumpet with Marmite
• Running club 4.5 miles, 846 calories
• Tea 2: Pint of ale, toad in the hole (4 sausages)

And I feel great! Turned in a good day at work, good concentration levels, plenty of energy for running and such.


So?

I think I need to look at my diet a bit to make sure I'm eating enough but also make sure it's good stuff. I do tend to eat lots of carbs (bread!) and perhaps not enough lean protein. However I generally get my five a day. I'm not fat by any stretch of the imagination, so I know I can eat this much and exercise it off.

Now, where's my pie?

Rabbit rabbit rabbit pie

Coz you won't stop talkin, 

Why don't you give it a rest? 

You got more rabbit than Sainsbury's, 

It's time you got it off your chest.

Chaz N' Dave

Picture the scene. Louise buys rabbit from butchers. Louise wants rabbit for tea. Louise says she wants carrots with it. No other specifications are given. I appear to be cooking. Hmm thinks I, casserole? Oooh, a casserole with a crust! A whatsit... er... pie! But we can't have a whole large pie to ourselves. Cue impromptu dinner party  :-D

I've made this a couple of times now and it is FIT. Seriously tasty. The rabbit has a lovely deep red colour and a nice gamey flavour with an extra savoury punch up the bracket from the mushroom stock and ketchup. Pastry courtesy of Good Housekeeping, filling courtesy of me. Ingredient quantities are approximate but work for an 8 inch / 20cm deep loose bottom cake tin. Better to make too much to fit in the crust than have a small pie!

Filling
Rabbit! I used 8 rabbit legs.
Smoked bacon, chop into lardons i.e. 1.5cm cubes
Chicken if you need to bulk it out
A big leek
A couple of big carrots
A couple of handfuls of mushrooms
Mushroom stock cube (the Kallo ones are nice)
Mushroom ketchup 1 tbsp ish (Geo Watkins), I guess a small amount of Worcester sauce would do
Garlic
Bay leaves, salt pepper
Red wine, large glass or two
Butter

Get a casserole pot on the hob, and melt some butter in it. Cut the rabbit off the bone and into chunks, you choose how big. Save the bones. Coat then in flour and brown in the pan in batches, pop them in a bowl on one side when cooked.

More butter, fry leek, carrots and bacon for a couple of minutes. Add red wine (don't be shy) and cook off for a few minutes. Chuck everything else in, bring to boil, lid on, put in oven 150C for 1 hour.


Pastry
Hot water crust pastry is the bees for this kind of pie. It gives a nice big pie that will stand up on it's own on the chopping board and gets stronger as it cools. Decorations are mandatory.

Make this only when the casserole is ready to come out of the oven as you can't work it as easily when it cools. Thankfully it tends to be very forgiving and lets you handle it lots or re-roll it when you mess up. Again quantity is good for the 8 inch tin.

450g plain flour
90g vegetable fat e.g. Trex
225ml water
Large pinch of salt
Polenta (powdered form)
1 egg, beaten

Grease the cake tin with the vegetable fat. Heat water and fat in a pan until fat melts and water boils. Pour into flour and salt mixture in bowl. Stir in quickly and then knead for a few minutes. Save 1/3rd of it for the lid, roll out the other 2/3rds into a rough circle and then drape and shape it into the deep cake tin. Pad out the corners and patch the inevitable holes.

That's it. Dead easy.

Sprinkle a few tbsp of polenta in the bottom to absorb the liquid (no soggy bottoms) and spoon the casserole in with a slotted spoon, leaving behind the gravy for later. Add the lid, crimp it around the edge, poke a few holes in the top and do your best to make a pastry rabbit as decoration. Apply a beaten egg wash on the top to give it a nice colour, milk just don't cut it.

No need to bake blind, it comes out fine. 1h 15m @ 160C fan. Remove the sides 10 minutes from the end, egg wash the sides, and back in the oven.

This one's had an egg wash, compare to the one earlier in the post that just had a milk wash...

The pie might benefit from being stood for maybe 15 minutes before serving as the pastry seems to tighten up a bit. Thicken up the gravy with a bit of cornflour and serve hot wi' t' pie.

Serve with some nice greens, like sprouts! Good enough for discerning audiences, both of the kids hoovered it up and went for seconds.

HUMS North Wales Trip 2015

Friday

One of the traditional HUMS club trips is North Wales sometime in November. We've been lucky with the weather for the last few years and managed to get out and have some top days even if they have been marred by hangovers and the odd epic.

This year we booked into the BRMC hut near Tremadog which is a cracking little hut - comfy dorms, cosy living room, good kitchen area and right underneath the cliffs of Tremadog (for those of a climbing bent) and opposite the legendary Eric's Café (for those of a Full English breakfast bent).

The forecast wasn't great, evidenced by the fact the MWIS printout in my jacket pocket got soaked on the short walk across the uni campus to collect the van. After eating lots of fish and chips, we headed off, encountering short sharp hailstorms most of the way down the A55, eventually the weather clearing the nearer we got to Porthmadog. Top tunes on the way down provided by DJ Ezioo

The usual Friday night party kicked off until the wee hours with much cheese, alcohol, chatter and logs on the fire. I drifted off to sleep with the sound of French Paul shouting "yeah!" repeatedly.


Saturday

I was first up, seemingly the only person to set an alarm, shortly joined by Adam and Ben. The traditional wake up call of banging the largest pan you can find with the largest ladle you can find over the head of the sleepiest, most hungover student you can find was duly enacted and people emerged from their cocoons, not as beautiful butterflies but bleary eyed students in search of coffee.

Our group headed out for a walk up Cnicht in the wind and rain that started as soon as we got out of the bus. It's a steady plod up the ridgeline from Croesor but with great views out over the bay and down into Cwm Croesor. It wasn't long before we were in the cloud, pretty wet and being blown around.

We descended the summit and contoured around towards Moelwyn Mawr but waterfalls were blowing uphill and people (self included) were getting a bit cold and damp so we elected to head back down to the car. 7 miles and one mountain in all.

We got back to the hut to find that Margaret and Katie had bought many logs and had the fire on. We dried off and then Paul and I drove to the beach for a blow through.

We stuck around in the van listening to Pink Floyd and hoping for a cool sunset but it was not to be. Back to hut, cook curry and enjoy the rest of the cheeseboard, mince pies and Adam's birthday cake.

Sunday

Tired heads got a lie in this morning before the wake up gongs were sounded and we decided to have a later start.

The weather forecast had improved in terms of rain but got worse in terms of wind so we elected to do a walk from the hut, heading up towards Moel-ddu ("Black Hill"). The paths in this area are not well trodden and some were non-existent despite their marking on the 1:25k OS map. We did some bushwhacking through brambles and bracken for half an hour to get to a point on the road we could have reached in 10 minutes had we stuck to the tarmac!

Progress was better after that, just battling the headwind and omnipresent bog to the just below the summit where we stopped in the lee of a boulder for a snack and a break from the wind. The summit was so windy we had to crawl to it, see the below video!

We headed on back down, picking up better paths than we did on the way up and arraived back to the hut just as the light was fading. We tidied up the hut, unstuck the minibus that Adam had parked in a ditch, and then drove over to Llanberis to collect Eizoo so he could have a front seat on the way home after he was travel sick all over the inside of Nick's car - oops. Classic tunes in the bus on the way back including an American Pie sing-a-long, Bruce Springsteen, Deep Purple.

Eventually made it back home at around 10:30pm via the kebab shop for tea. Collapsed into bed after another cracking club trip.

Autumn is here! :D

My favourite time of the year is here.

Nights drawing in meaning it is time to break out the headtorch and the big light for the mountain bike.

Foggy mornings burning off into warm clear days.

Fruit on the trees begging to be made into nice things.

Yellow, gold and red starting to appear on the trees too.

Magic.

Adventure Bars

*sings*My flapjacks bring all the boys to the yardAnd they're like "I say these are jolly tasty!"

I'm pretty happy with my flapjack recipe. I'm not sure where I got the original recipe from but it's a cracker. I can make it without having to refer to the written recipe as the quantities are easy enough to remember. It's got a bit of flexibility as you can put in pretty much whatever you want.

Ingredients

2 x pints of oats (you could use a pint glass to measure this...)

1 x 340g jar of good honey

1 x 250g block of lightly salted butter

1 x handful of sultanas

1 x handful of other fruit. I like chopped apricots or cranberries

1 x handful of pumpkin seeds (chopped a bit) or perhaps use walnuts or pistachios

1 x handful of cashew nuts (chopped a bit)

2 x heaped tbsp dessicated coconut (optional)

1 x tbsp freeze dried raspberry powder (optional)

1 x handful of cornflakes for added crunch (optional)

Method

• Melt butter (cut into chunks for faster melting) and honey together in a pan
• Add everything and mix well
• Bake in a well greased or lined tin for about 180°C for 20~25 mins (until just going light brown on top)
• You can bake in deep muffin tins to skip the cutting up stage
• Take out and compress gently with the back of a spoon whilst hot to make sure they stick together well
• Leave to cool entirely before handling
• Eat whilst on adventures

Why?

• Fruit sugar for a more instant energy boost
• Honey has lower GI than refined sugar so steadier energy delivery
• High in starchy carbs for medium term energy
• Fats in cashews and pumpkin seeds for longer term energy
• Salt in butter replaces some of what you sweat out
• Not too sweet so you can eat them even when you feel a bit sick during endurance events
• Should be a good post workout recovery food too

Flapjack breakfast at the trig point

Cycling seems to dominate my transport to and from work, mostly because it is a quick and easy, no brainer option, especially along the canal. However, following a resolution to get more running in and try not to lose too much post-Fellsman fitness I elected to have a morning run to work up over Rombalds Moor.

View from West Buckstones

I stopped at the Addingham High Moor trig point to enjoy the sun and eat my breakfast "adventure bar" (what flapjacks are called in our house). Not a soul around, just a grouse eyeing me suspiciously from behind some marsh grass. Plenty of wildlife in evidence today: pheasant, grouse, lapwing, curlew and oyster catcher were all spotted along with a couple of rabbits and a hare.

A nice spot for breakfast

Following the ridge line west I dropped down past a war memorial to a crashed deHavilland Mosquito crew with some faded poppies at its base to the top of Nab End to be rewarded with a cracking view over Silsden and the top of the Aire valley.

View from Nab End over Silsden

Down the road through Brunthwaite and onto the canal for the last blast into Silsden, pausing to chat to a very sprightly older lady taking her friendly dog for a walk. These friendly fellas were waiting for me in the field next to Brunthwaite beck, obviously used to humans as they wandered up to me allowing me to scratch them behind the ears.

Lads!

A lovely cool morning for a trot and well worth the 0630 alarm call. 9 miles in all. If I can do this once a week then I'll feel like I'm keeping on top of the running a bit more. Plus all those extra calories will need replacing :)*dusting pasty crumbs off the keyboard*

HUMS Trip Report: Winter Climbing, Fort William, Feb 2015

Saturday

Picking up enough fruit, veg, meat and cheese for 10 people for a week left Bernard the Skoda rather full on the long drive up to Fort William. Three boxes of fruit and veg and a cool box full of meat with a couple of chickens thrown in for free by Ian the butcher (went into sandwiches and curry - yum). It's amazing how much food we got through on this trip.

The stop at The Courtyard Dairy cheese shop near Settle was a revelation; this is my new favourite shop! Served by Andy, fromager and affineur extrodinaire whose opening sales gambit of "Try this unpasturised Brie, it's really good" worked very well.

Louise purchasing for a small cheeseboard

Without wanting to sound like a famous sketch, we bought Caerphilly, Cheddar, Red Leicester, Brie, Lanark Blue, cider washed goats cheese, Wensleydale - most of them made with unpasturised cheese and all of them excellent. I could still taste the cheddar sample by the time we pulled in to Tebay for the obligatory pie.

On the M6 a rapidly approaching green Skoda with badly adjusted headlights heralded the approach of Ben and Puppy and the start of an informal convoy that lasted all the way up through Scotland, dicing with death and BMWs on the M8, to the cottage.

We quickly got settled in, rattled off a very satisfactory Shepherds Pie and veg for tea and made plans for an early start and a go at Ledge Route (II) on Ben Nevis the next day.

Sunday

Didn't sleep well, so the 5am alarm wasn't particularly welcome. Walking up by the Allt A' Mhuilinn to the CIC hut I felt snotty and tired like I was fighting off a virus, not a great start to the trip. Alex and Puppy bossed it to the hut with the rest of us arriving shortly after.

Views from the CIC Hut

We geared up and headed up past the Curtain (looking fat) to Number 5 gully with the large trail of footprints pointing the way to a large snow ledge and the start of Ledge Route (II) ****. Climbing as three teams of two, Jake and I moved together efficiently throughout, taking in a short ice step for added interest. The snow conditions (firm, well stepped out) made for more like Grade I than II going, but the upper ridge was a bit narrower with nice views. Under the conditions, I'd have given it I/II and ** but that's winter climbing for you, highly conditions dependent.

Draw me like one of your French Puppies...

L: Jake pre hot aches just before the exit ridge (NEB and TR in the background)

R: Puppy making hard work of descending Number 4 Gully - not enough Swiss Roll consumed

Ben on Ledge Route

The narrow exit ridge and slopes to the summit of Carn Dearg were very windy with large gusts necessitating a drop to the floor to avoid getting blown over. Jake and I sheltered to let the others catch up before we made our way up to the summit, the cold giving Jake epic hot aches. After a short discussion we decided to forgo the summit given the high winds and just drop back down number 4 gully instead. A quick ab from a snow bollard over the steeper exit slope led to a spot of front pointing down the gully before the angle slackened enough to walk down.

Bollard and down we go!

Puppy was having a bit of a bonk so I waited behind for him whilst everyone else went to the CIC for a bite and to de-gear.

Above: Looking back up the north face of Ben Nevis with (L-R) Alex, Puppy, Jake, Ben, Vix.

Below: Bonk!

A steady walk off followed, chat to an older chap who had stayed at the CIC hut for a few nights and we were back at the car before we knew it and in the daylight too (novel for me!). Back to the cottage for tea and medals and the alluring smell of stew that Lorna had made.

Meanwhile, Chelle and Louise were slogging up to the summit of Ben Nevis in high winds, making good progress whilst other less prepared teams were turning back. Impressively under the conditions, they made it to the summit before dropping back down the zig zags in what was a good day out for them.

Michelle and Louise at the summit shelter of Ben Nevis throwing in the shapes

A large batch of dumplings were made for the stew, Scrabble was played, cheese was eaten and whisky was drunk. The avalanche forecast was a bit meh for the day after so we made a plan to go for Aonach Mor west face for the next day.

Monday

A late start today, catching the 0930 gondola up the Nevis range and walking around the shoulder of the mountiain to slog up by the Allt Daim to the foot of the west face of Aonach Mor. Our targets were Golden Oldy (me/Ben) and Western Rib (Alex/Puppy).

It was 1230 by the time we were fully geared up and starting up the foot of the route. However, locating the correct route in the cloud proved tricky: we ended up on Temperance Rib instead of Golden Oldy after mistaking Downhill Gully for the smaller gully next to Golden Oldy. Alex and Puppy ended up on Daim Buttress after going wrong as well.

Our route had some fun icy steps, some so-so fun mixed steps at solid grade II, but eventually petered out into snow slope rather too quickly - certainly not four star mountaineering terrain. The opinion of two other people we met on route was that this definitely wasn't Golden Oldy and we accepted defeat when the chaps we met at the top claimed to have climbed our intended route. Checking the definitive it looks like we climbed Temperance Rib (II) instead. Still, we got out and moved together well and efficiently so we weren't too sad about that. We bagged a gondola back down and whistled up a lift from the cottage and got on with the task of worrying about the other two guys!

Alex and Puppy had a much longer fight on their hands, topping out late and walking back down to the car. Alex had this to say

"Intended to climb Western Ridge but think we did this instead. Pitched the bottom section before the ridge eased off. Plenty of okay-ish ice at the bottom, tuft was good enough too, went off right at the steep grove and climbed up tuft blobs up a slab, before getting onto the ridge and much easier terrain. Walk of shame back to the car..."

Vicky and Lorna walked up a Munro.

A vast amount of delicious curry - vegetable and coconut from Vix plus some dhal and some chicken and lentil from Chelle - went down very well and a universal rest day / line in was declared for tomorrow.


Tuesday

Easy walk with Louise up Glen Nevis to Steall Falls.

We crossed the wibbly wobbly wire bridge to get to the hut and to stand underneath the falls.

Ben and Jake made an attempt to reach the summits of Am Bodach and Sgurr an Iubhair but were beaten back from the heavily corniced ridge by high winds and poor visibility. Alex, Puppy and Michelle went to investigate the finest tea rooms and shops that Fort William had to offer as well as taking in Neptune's Staircase on the Caledonian Canal and a playground...

Lorna managed to get groin strain after a walk with Vicky.

Sausages and roasted vegetables for tea.

Forecast was mixed for the day after, as was the pizza of death so another rest day for some.


Wednesday

Vicky ad I went for a long run from Kinlochleven to Fort William on the West Highland Way. Light drizzle all the way but great running conditions.

Jake took a long walk up Glen Nevis, Ben started drinking whisky by 9:23am. We were also joined by Nick after his Glencoe adventures.

Some spectacular slow cooker spag bog and garlic bread for tea.


Thursday

Slightly shaky weather forecast again so we'd booked into the Ice Factor for some indoor ice climbing. Slight booking mess up was compensated for by free gear hire. Everyone but Alex was keen to have a go and enjoyed themselves.

 

 

Nice to try out a pair of DMM Apex axes as well as the usual ice tool swapping that goes on. Jake and Ben's Singing Rock Bandits were also very nice to climb with.

Off to the Clachaig for a couple of pints, some chips and few rounds of shithead.

Pasta bake for tea. Plans for the next day. Lochaber and Glencoe pizzas were bad. Opted for the long drive to the Cairngorms and Sneachda.

Early to bed means...


Friday

...early to rise, makes a man tired and not particularly keen for a big breakfast. That's how it goes right?

We set off on the long drive to Aviemore through some initial snow flurries where I was grateful for Bernard's winter tires. We were at the ski park before too long and it was nice to get out and stretch our legs on the steady walk in to Stob Coire an t-Sneachda.

Sneachda walk in

Nick and I paired up and headed straight onto the Runnel (II ***). We moved together pretty much throughout on the pleasant grade I/II snow slope with a nice rightward finish through the II icy chimney followed by a a soft scarp slope. Relief when my axes thunked into the solid neve on the top.

Above: Nick on the bottom part of the Runnel

Below: Nick's top out dance after his first proper winter route

As time was early, we decided to nip back down the Goat Track to have a look at Red Gully but a team were just starting on it so we decided on Goat Track Gully (II) instead. A mix of snow, ice and mixed steps, short but interesting and a second route of the day.

We mooched back along the top, collecting Vix and Puppy who had just finished their II route with big smiles all round.

Puppy leading an icy step

Down to the cafe for cake and tea and to meet up with Louise, Michelle and Lorna who had been doing some winter skills in the coire basin like bucket seats, snow bollards, self arrest and the like.

Alex, Ben and Jake headed out to Invernookie (III,4 ***) and it sounded like everyone had fun, even Jake after getting his foot stuck. Alex's report on the UKC logbook reads:

"Hard turf, slightly lean on snow, but mixed moves were fine. Almost forgot about the traverse section (exciting moves), top pitch felt easy in comparison."

All in all a successful day and well worth the drive over to Aviemore to get some more routes done. The flexibility of being in Fort William was most useful.

We were back at the hut for teatime and the lovely smells of slow cooker chilli were most welcome. We polished off the last of the cheese, drank more whisky and then collapsed into bed.

Mission accomplished.


Saturday

A quick pack, tidy up of the cottage and we were off on the long drive back south.


Awards

• Spirit of Jonny award goes to team Jennings/Marsh for general faffing and screwgate carrying. Second place Ben for drinking lots of drink.
• Biggest Fail goes to Ben for breaking his slow cooker whilst making dhal
• Nom of the week goes to Vix and Michelle's curry efforts.
• Scrabble champion - Michelle
• Biggest Shithead - Puppy (3)

Quotes

"I can't cook tea" - Puppy, referring to the drink

"Sometimes you just wind people up!" - Alex to Ben

"Vicky gave me groin strain" - Lorna