Weather looked good when we set off and we (me and the Wife) spent the best part of 3 hours hauling ourselves bodily up this jumbled rock face. At around 1000ft we came to the snowline which was a pleasant surprise, and were also met by the clouds, which was not so pleasant. Visibility dropped to about 10 metres and the wind speed picked up too. By the time we had got to the top of North Gully at about 2500ft the conditions had become dangerous so we turned around.
Descending, the cloud closed in and we actually got lost. At some point we went left instead of right, and very quickly we found ourselves dropping onto increasingly sheer cliff faces. Vertigo finally kicked in while hanging over a drop from a bit of heather so we desperately climbed back up to firmer footing. We back tracked upward for a while, and after deploying the storm shelter (for the first time. I have carried this thing around for years and on Sunday we finally got to use it.) for a chance to get warm, get something to eat and check the map and compass, we found the route again.
6 hours on the mountain with some serious climbing has left me with aching thighs and back muscles, a scratch on the side of my nose, whopping bruises on my left knee and a large bruise on my right thigh, and I split my hiking trousers. Bloody brilliant.
And then other news. I received an email this morning confirming that I did in the end get on the free ballot for the Great North run. I am really pleased. I had decided to skip this event if I couldn’t get in on the free ballot as I didn’t want the added strain of having to raise X amount of sponsorship when this is not going to be the main event. It does however mean that I am now very much committed to training for two very different races, requiring both leg endurance and upper body endurance as well as cardio vascular capacity.
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