You’re joking !! That can’t be the alarm already !
But it was. 5am so I could hopefully be on the hill before 6. Lucky for me Dad was happy (ish) to drive me out to the visitor centre before retiring to bed again. It was a good start to the day and I was walking by 5:45am.
The weather forecast suggested the lightest winds and best visibility would be early with both deteriorating and rain arriving late morning. The prediction seemed good as I got some wonderful views as I slowly climbed up The Ben. I thought I was first on the mountain and by the time I neared the summit this was confirmed. How? By my boot prints being the first in the snow that had been blown over the path overnight.
Once above the snowline, the temperature dropped a bit but in particular was the chill factor of the wind. Even early it was strong enough to lean into as you walked and on top this only worsened. The top of Ben Nevis was also in cloud so visibility was about 20m. It made for a very surreal atmosphere at the summit being alone in this white landscape that was so different to what I had been walking in only minutes before.
After two and a half hours I reached the summit, took some photos and then sheltered behind a cairn to have a hot drink and virtually frozen Mars bar. As you can see, the view from this summit is very similar to that from the previous two except for the snow in the foreground.
In this short life I have now climbed each of the three peaks that form part of this challenge twice. On each and every occasion I have not seen anything from the top, of any of them. I think it’s just a conspiracy of some sort and actually there are no views !
Having started early meant that I was still in time to get back to the hotel, shower and have some food before heading off on the bike. We thought the first stint should be short just to see how my legs would cope so only 10 miles. What I hadn’t thought through properly was that meant when I started again it was straight into a 10 miles climb into the Highlands – how pleasant !?!
The road this afternoon was great. It’s a major trunk road but was just about empty. The scenery too was magnificent. Most of the photos unfortunately are on a camera that I can’t download from on the road – I’ll put them on the web site when I get home. Here’s just a couple:
It was really quite uneventful through the afternoon, just a matter of shovelling food in to try and keep the calorie count up and crank out the miles. One huge bonus was that I finally got a tail wind; the last 10 miles flew by. So good to get that kind of help just as you really start flagging. It meant that by 5:15pm we had reached the guest house – what a day, 11 and a half hours of exercise ! Great training for the triathlon in September.
In the build up to the challenge, this day had always been the one I was most worried about. Could I really manage The Ben and then cycle to Aviemore afterwards? I can now tell you that yes, I can but PLEASE don’t ask me to do it again in a hurry. This evening my legs are shot; talk about an old man trying to get out of a chair !
I should probably mention that Dad is also shattered tonight. In addition to all his excellent support in making sure I had everything I needed, he has been fighting his own battle all afternoon. He's been attacked and has been trying to seek revenge for said attack against a midge ! Even I've heard his battle cries as I've puled up for food: "Take that you little blighter..........damn......now where have you gone." So please spare a thought for him as he faces round two tomorrow.
P.S. Leave you with a photo of my favourite subject at the mo’ – food ! Just a small portion of extra carbs in addition to my meal tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment