A couple of weeks ago there was a massive amount of snow on the hills but with lots of minor highland roads shut due to the amount of the white stuff drifting around, I couldn’t get across to the Cairngorms to meet up with the Orion MC and bag a few climbs in the Northern Corries. Then a week in Devon ensued, which was great and very relaxing and I come back to find all the snow gone! Every last drop! Apparently there’s snow above 1000m in the ‘gorms, no ice and the easier gully lines are being described as “waterfalls”. There’s an international climbing meet at Glenmore Lodge and it’s definitely a case of “you should have been here last week!”. There’s a cold front moving in tonight with the freezing level expected to come down to 750m and the avalanche category for all areas is set to jump from 1 to 3, as the old slush refreezes and new windslab forms on top of it. Not nice. But it’s speculation at the moment. No-one’s sure whether it will be snow or heavy rain on the summits as the timing is uncertain. If it’s heavy rain it could wipe out what’s left of the snow cover. And it’s still February! (more…)

In depth slide scanning article, really good.

Tip of the tent pole to PTC for these two delicacies:

Venison jerky

Porridge bars

We’ve just had a couple of inches of very wet snow but now it’s a clear sky and very bright moon. It’s as bright as day and not much wind. So peaceful. The white stretches in all directions like a silent desert. Looks like it’s starting to freeze up, which should make getting to the Cuillin tomorrow a bit of an adventure. Might be a day on Beinn nan Càrn.

Not for here though, just a smidgette that was enough to snow us in and stop me making it over to Kincraig to meet up with friends at the Orion MC. I was planning on getting up Jacob’s Ladder (I) and Fiacaill Ridge (II) but that would have been unlikely as Aviemore had a foot of snow today and the top lift was closed due to winds. That would have meant whiteout conditions and with an Avcat of 4 the “norries” would have been out of bounds. It’s cleared up a bit now, although there’s more cloud coming in:

I thought I’d cover this quite difficult topic while I sit out the blizzards that sweep majestically across the landscape. Why is it difficult? Well, there are three ways of handing this but first let’s see what I mean by “verbal noun” and “infinitive”.

The basics

Type 1 : participle

I am climbing – “climbing” is a verbal noun. It’s a verb used as a noun. In Gaelic, this is known as the “participle” construction, as it uses a particple, funnily enough. You use it when you can insert “in the act of” before the main verb and it still makes sense:

Tha mi a’streap (I am IN THE ACT OF climbing) – where a’ is short for aig (at). Literally it means “I am at climbing”.

Type 2 : infinitive

I am going to climb – “to climb” is the infinitive of the verb “climb”. This uses the infinitive construction as the verb preceding the main verb is a verb of motion (go, came etc). You can also see that testing for the particple makes no sense: I am going to IN THE ACT OF climb!

“Tha mi a’dol a streap”. Note that the first verb is using the participle construction (a’dol, I am IN THE ACT OF going) but the main verb doesn’t. It’s in the infinitive, “a streap”. The way you tell the particple from the infinitive is the presence of a’ in the particple, whereas it’s “a” in the infinitive.

Type 3 : nominal

The third way is called the nominal and it’s used where the other two aren’t. In this case, there’s no “a” or “a’” before the main verb:

“Tha mi ag iarraidh streap” – I want to climb. Again, “I am wanting IN THE ACT OF to climb” makes no sense, so it’s not participle and there’s no verb of motion to make it infinitive, so it’s nominal. Here, “to climb” is translated as “streap”. As it’s not precedeed by a verb of motion, there’s no “a” in front of it. (more…)

I was 16 and it was some winter that year. My dad, who was chief inspector, took me on the West Highland Railway snow plough on an adventure from Glasgow to Fort William. I was in the leading engine, one of those big monsters that could push through almost anything. There were two of them, with a snow plough equally massive up front. They called it double headed, having two engines working together and I remember the blizzard that hit us coming out of Helensburgh as we made our way towards the highlands and some of the best snow I’ve ever seen.

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A paltry amount of snow fell last night, compared to the rest of the UK! We did get personal service from the gritter, which arrived before 9am! However, we’ve got a family reunion coming up, in Devon, where I’m hoping to nip up High Willhays and some other hills but this news of motorists being rescued down there doesn’t bode well for travel plans.

I do like wild seas!

I got a letter the other day letting me know that, having scrutinised last year’s feedback, I’ve been promoted to the full panel of leaders at HF. So that’s my probationary period over and I can lead special interest weeks too, which means working with guests to plan their ideal hill days over the week at an HF house, rather than following set routes. I’ve got a week at Alltshellach in Glencoe in the summer and I’ll maybe do another one if there are vacancies. Alltshellach is superb – great food, superb scenery and a swimming pool. I did my Winter ML training there last year as PYB take it over in the winter and a 6:30am swim every morning before a gruelling day on the Glencoe peaks was sheer bliss! I’ve also registered interest in taking the HF ridges and scrambles assessment, which if I pass, means I can lead the spiky routes, Aonach Eagach, Carn Mor Dearg arete and all those fantastic rocky routes I love to romp along.