The
bus ride up was a long one. We left at 3ish and arrived after 11pm,
so just over 8 hrs. It went surprisingly fast. I serenaded Dave P
with my angelic voice for most of it, haha. Tom who was sitting
opposite us thought it a brillant idea to put a jelly baby (large
bear shaped candy) into his thermos full of water to sweeten the
water. Then it dawned on him he wouldn't be able to get it out, "duh,
I don't think I should've done that." Well that amused me for an
hour. I can't remember much else that happened on the ride up...We
were standing in the cold eating fish and chips at our pit stop when
someone dropped their fish on the ground with a big sigh, intending
to leave it there, when Cathryn picked it up and handed it back
saying "3 min. rule" Now that rule is new to me! WHAAAAAAA!
The cabin was real nice. It wasn't quite as luxurious as Blue
Mountain (SMCSU retreat), but it was pillows and comforters and
really hot showers and a nice big kitchen table. Sorry, no pics
though. I grabed the top single bunkbed against the wall, where most
others had a three person bunk in which they shoved 4 people in. It
wasn't until Graham who was below me started snoring EXTREMELY loudly
that I began to regret my decision. It would go on really loud, then
stop. YAH! He stopped, but just as you think you can get back to
sleep, UGSJHHHHWLKSLA, again (yes, that's my translation of snoring).
Oh well, you can't have your cake and eat it too I suppose!
DAY 1
Today was a fun day! Andy and Sam lead our small group of novices: Me, Emma, James, JingJing, and Amy. They took all the novices up on the Cairngorm to practice our winter hiking/ice axing drills. I'm not going to lie, Andy intimadated me at first, maybe being president and all, I don't know. But I was scared he'd be a serious hiker with tough routes and few stops (I am slower therefore like to stop a lot). Boy was I wrong, we hiked like 20 min., stopped and he said "let's play! playtime".. HUH!?! So we did :) I don't think I've seen Andy laugh so much before. Sam was really easy-going as well. He showed us the drills because Andy's shoulder was still recovering. We threw ourselves down the hill and practiced stopping ourselves with the ice axes. At first I wasn't turning my head to the side and was getting piles of snow in my nose and mouth..not fun. We stayed there for a good hour, then put out crampons and hiked the rest of the hill..that was demanding because my boots were still not exactly broken in. OWWWWW! The pain, expecially in my calves for some reason was almost unbearable at points. The new B1 boots are extremely hard and sturdy, making them more difficult to walk in because they do NOT bend. It's like walking with two bricks tied to your feet, so you really have to lift you legs going up hill. Hated to drag down the group but it hurt!
At the top of the hill was a nice ski cafe, the highest place serving food in the UK! lol. We got the yummiest hot chocolate EVER! We also tried JingJing's snack, little packages of duck. They were covered in this gue, but didn't taste too bad! We took a picture of us chilling out and sent it to the other leaders. In reply, we got a nice picture of someone's bare bottom on top of a cold mountain outside. nice. haha. Making our way down the hill was a piece of cake. I had crampons which made it easy to stick into the snow/ice, the rest of them simplied skimmied down on their butts. We had a huge snowball fight half way down the mountain. I CANNOT throw snowballs for beans, and the first one that actually hit someone got Sam right in the face. OHHHHH, he was not happy and retaliated. owww, snowballs can hurts! Then James suffocated me with snow. I swear I got ice burn on my face from that. Not pleasant. And that was our day! Pretty nice! I was scared for the next day when we actually had to walk further and higher! :S
That night there was big hype about this singer named Alfie in the bigger town named Aviemore beside us, about a 25 min drive. He supposedly was this "legend" who sung other people's music, almost like karaokee because he played whatever you wanted. They saw him 2 years ago in Aviemore and had the best night. I was convinced, even though I could've fallen asleep I was so tired. But that would have been weak. Rachel, Sam, crazy Sam, James, Dave P, Domenic, Ed, Kate, and me bravely headed out into the long, dark drive ahead for this legend. They didn't lie, it was sooooo fun! He played fun music and we all just drank and were merry chatting away. The funniest line came from Dave P when we were talking about how pubs in Scotland still allow smoking compared to Ireland who doesn't. Then out of no where he says "yah, the pubs in Ireland don't smell like cigarettes anymore, they smell like people's farts!" HAHAHHAA. I swear I was laughing about that for the next hour. After dancing about to Alfie, and he thanks his "back up dancers", some random people gave us a blow up sheep (an insult to Wales, because it wasn't just any sheep..it was a "dirty" sheep for the yong ones reading..lol) We've now dubbed the sheep "Alfie" and Dave P made it the HikeSoc mascot. I spent the end of the night talking w/ Dom who turned out to have studied at the University of Waterloo last year. He seems to know more about my own country than me! haha. What a night!
Me
practicing my arrests with the ice axe (stopping techniques)
Shimmying
down the icey hill on our butts. I put my crampons on for better
grip, so I didn't get to slide as much. Who needs a tobaggan when you
have ice and waterproof pants!??!
DAY
2
Another glorius 6:30am wakeup...ugh! NOT! I drank quite a bit the night before, but we all seemed to manage fine. Rachel was the one who always came to our room to wake us up saying "mind your eyes," and then turned on the lights. What a nice way to wake up! My dad always just flickered on our lights bellowing "WAKEY WAKEY!" Cathryn and Andy (AKA Jandy, not the president) were our leaders for this long hike. It was a brutal steep hill for me to climb at the beginning. UGH. By the time we got it, the clouds were upon us and couldn't see much. We kept walking up, and up, and with no breaks. I was getting really hungry, but Jandy said we'll eat at the summit. I looked up and it was miles away, not cool. Slowly but surely we all got up there. I kept yelling to Dave P to throw me a rope...he then would pretend to throw one and I would "catch" it. hehe. The views on top were unbelievable. I mean, WOW! There was this layer of low clouds over the sky in the distance, so we could only see the peaks of many of mountains..even as far as Fort William's Nevis range!!! Most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Another glorius 6:30am wakeup...ugh! NOT! I drank quite a bit the night before, but we all seemed to manage fine. Rachel was the one who always came to our room to wake us up saying "mind your eyes," and then turned on the lights. What a nice way to wake up! My dad always just flickered on our lights bellowing "WAKEY WAKEY!" Cathryn and Andy (AKA Jandy, not the president) were our leaders for this long hike. It was a brutal steep hill for me to climb at the beginning. UGH. By the time we got it, the clouds were upon us and couldn't see much. We kept walking up, and up, and with no breaks. I was getting really hungry, but Jandy said we'll eat at the summit. I looked up and it was miles away, not cool. Slowly but surely we all got up there. I kept yelling to Dave P to throw me a rope...he then would pretend to throw one and I would "catch" it. hehe. The views on top were unbelievable. I mean, WOW! There was this layer of low clouds over the sky in the distance, so we could only see the peaks of many of mountains..even as far as Fort William's Nevis range!!! Most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
The
sun was shining bright, right into out eyes as we continued after
lunch. People were in t-shirts it was that warm with the sun and
walking!!! James said the funniest line, I think he was saying how he
wouldn't have been able to do this when he was a lot heavier, and he
said "I used to have crap boobs!" lol, his expression was
priceless, so non-chalent and blunt about it. Of course I laugh at
everything as most people find out. I kept laughing at Herdie's jokes
(which were funny to me!) all weekend, when no one else seemed to. He
said he should keep me around as a confdence booster! The walk down
was a bit aggrevating in the heather, b/c you'd step down into a deep
hole you didn't know was there...so I was a bit paranoid to charge
down the hill in case I'd twist my ankle. After a VERY long descent
we made it to the bus where the another group was waiting. Everyone
just falls asleep for the 20min ride back to the cabin b/c we were
that knackered. That night everyone went to the pub nearby. Nothing
special, just drinks and chatting. The atmosphere seemed more
neutral, less moving around and such, probably because everyone was
so tired.
Start of the walk...say 100m up.
A
few hours later....say 1000m up!
it's
like a waterfall of clouds!
These
are the view from the top of this peak...
I'd
like to take credit for this magnificient picture, but I stole it off
the HikeSoc website taken by Cathryn.
This
was the most amazing view! You can see the clouds/fog but still see
the mountains behind it. It is like having xray vision!
She'll
be coming down the mountain...
DAY 3
Today
was an easy walk, nothing too strenuous. We started walking through a
forest. As we were coming up to a bridge across a river, someone
yells out "pooh sticks!!!" Pooh sticks!?!?!??!?!!? haha, I
had no idea what they were talking about. Turns out it is from Winnie
the Pooh books and everyone gets a stick, drops it on the upperside
of the bridge, then runs across to see who's stick flows past the
other side of the bridge first. James (Gear guy) stick was too fat
and blocked the way for everyone elses, so no one won. haha, it was
really funny. Then 5 minutes, the other James (mr. beard) as we were
walking up the hill all of a sudden turned back saying "I used
to have an axe in my hand." Something like that, but it was
funny. I suppose when I read this again I'll laugh, but the rest of
you prob. won't. oh well! :) This blog is for me too! :P
We
came out of the forest and started climbing a hill full of heather.
We just stopped and "sun tanned" for about 1/2hr! It was
such an easy-going, fabulous! We started throwing snowballs at
eachother half way up the second hill, but to no avail could I
actually hit someone. I think I got James (gear guy) in the neck
once...but I could be making that up.
don't try this at home kiddies, grass sledging does not work!
My
group sat in the heather for a good 40 min. half way up the hill. We
tried to make snowballs with the little snow we found. Of course, I
can't through snowballs at my targets because I'm crap, so it was
effort gone to waste.
Decorating
Sam with heather. He looked like a true Emperor. It was so funny. He
kept finding pieces of heather in his hair the rest of the day, or
maybe I'm just imagining that.
Pretty
Loch with James (mr. beard) mortal crampons in the foreground.
HAHAHA. Dave P said Jame's crampons were mortal because they were
just swinging around almost hitting people on the outside of his bag.
What he really meant was that they were fatal. HAHAHAHA.
at the summit (you know its the top when there's a pile of stones in a pyramid form)
Kate,
Sam (crazy), Dom, James (gear), me, James, and Martin. Fiona is
taking the pic.
Climbing
down the steepest hill ever was not easy. This picture may not
capture the steepness, but let me tell you, it was steep. I
practically slide down on my butt. But look at the sky!!!!!! Have you
ever seen such blue? I have such respect for Fiona who injured her
foot days before and it had not fully healed. Going downhill was
extremely hard for her, but she didn't complain once. I probably
complained more than her! HA!
At
the bottom of the hill was this hut for stranded hikers. It had a
fireplace, pots, sleeping mats, matches, a guestbool type thing etc.
Not very warm and welcoming, but I'm sure if you were lost, it would
be cloud 9!
The
walk through the forest conservation area back to the van. It looked
like Algonquin park! Nothing new to see here! hehe. Pretty though!
Au revoir Aviemore! No worries, I'll be back in Scotland at the end of February. I'm sooooo lucky! EAK!
