This trip was planned and booked way back in August, long before we had any idea about the snow! Never the less we headed up with boats in the hope that some of the rivers might thaw out... they didn't!
The first day we all took a trip to the Etive (without boats) to see how frozen it was... very as it happens. Every fall on the rivers was frozen over with the water flowing beneath the ice. It was absolutely beautiful especially the 20foot right angle fall. After this we all stopped at the side of the main road for Sam and Mike to do some ice climbing. We all set up cameras around the 40foot wall they were aiming to assend. As Sam got towards the top he started to struggle as the ice was running out and any screws he managed to put in weren't very strong and a fall would almost certainly result in 40foot drop into the freezing water beneath him! Luckily he made it and Mike top-roped it with no drama.
The second day Mike and Sam went off for some more climbing and the rest of us headed to Glencoe Mountain for some skiing. Unfortunetely Jess sprained her ankle early on and couldn't carry on skiing. The weather was very misty and the skiing was hard with very little visibility.
On Wednesday Mike and Sam went off on a big Ice climb trip aiming to accend 260feet of a well known icey gully. The rest of us went into Fort William for a few hours before heading back to the cottage and going for a walk up the mountain behind the house. The views we stunning as we looked over to the Pap of Glencoe and out over Loch Leven. At about 16:00hrs though we got a phonecall from Sam. He suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and had become too tired to continue climbing and Michael wasn't experienced enough to lead the route out of the gully, We called mountain rescue who set out after the,. Luckily the had taken plenty of warm clothes and food but none the less they were both very tired and cold when they returned home at 20:30hrs!
On Thursday 4 of us went skiing again leaving Mike and Sam at home to rest for the morning before joining us on the slopes later in the afternoon. After a bit of messing around on the easiest slope we all took the t-bar lift up to the next section. However it proved difficult on the snowboard as it get very narrow at one point and Charlie just couldn't make it all the way up. Simon and I had a few runs of Mug's alley before heading up to the top of the mountain. We did a couple of runs right down before Simon's legs got too tired. I then met up with Sam and Mike and we did another run on Mugs alley (mainly to laugh at Mike who cannot even stand up on skis!). Sam and i then headed back to the very top of the mountain and skied right to the car park at the bottom whilst the others took the chairlift. The route was hard; narrow, rocky with a mixture of powder and ice it was very unpredictable and we both fell plenty of times!
On Friday Charlie, Simon and I decided to go skiing again. This time we went straight to Mug's Alley. I then went up to the top on my own and was led down a challenging route by a couple of 12 year olds who proved much better than me! After lunch we all headed up to the top and came down some of the best runs on the mountain! I then managed to break my finger trying a jump which Charlie and Simon then decided not to try! We did one more run before taking the same route Sam and I did the day before back to the carpark.
We left early on Saturday morning and got home at about 14:30hrs after a fantastic and eventful week- albeit with no actual boating!
Ross
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