Fireworks

A great display at Banchory on 5 November before a perfect blue sky day on Lochnagar.

Going Solar

A long time since I've written anything!
Just had solar PV fitted to my house; though it's not the best time of year I am at least generating something.

I'm off on a round the world trip in mid-November and will endeavour to keep my blog a bit more up to date.

Jura - Last Corbett

I've been ticking off my Corbetts for about 20 years, trying to keep them for nice sunny weather! My final one of the 220 Corbetts was Beinn an Oir, the middle of the three Paps of Jura. It was a great one to finish on, though logistics of getting a group over there was a bit complex but well worth it. It was a very sociable occasion.

14 plus a 10 month old made the summit on Saturday where we celebrated appropriately. Five of us the completed the third pap and then we all had dinner at the Jura Hotel. Sunday was a day of varied activities ranging from not doing much to going for a hill run or a cycle to the north end of the island. I did the latter but did not quite make it to George Orwell's cottage due to lack of time before the return ferry.

By the way DO NOT phone Jura bike hire on their 0709 number - it's a racket at 65p a minute just to phone them!!




To add to the interest of the weekend it coincided with the Scottish Islands 3 Peaks Race. The conditions were not so good for them as most of the time it was flat calm and much rowing was required as can be seen from this picture of the leading boat leaving Craighouse.


An evening ferry ride back to Tayvallich

rounded off a superb weekend.

Winter 2 - Georgia

That's Georgia the country - in the Caucasus. Not the most well known area for ski-mountaineering but an interesting place to visit with plenty of high mountains. A group of four of us travelled to the capital, Tbilisi, just after the major ash shutdown of flights - we were very lucky. From Tbilisi we went straight to Gudauri at 2000m and which is one of the two main ski resorts in Georgia. There are only about 3 functional ski-lifts out of around 8 or more, but then functional is perhaps the wrong word as there was a power cut on our first (warmup) day. So it was skins on from the start to ascend a 3000m peak near the top of the ski area. The weather was very warm and cloudy making the snow very heavy and sticky.

The next day we joined our guide, Gia, and another group of four, from Bavaria. The day was not dissimilar to the previous one but we did set out much earlier and went to a slightly higher and more harder (in terms of kick turns) peak. This was the last day of the lift served skiing and though we did not use lifts we did make use of the bar on the slopes and by this time the sun was shining.

A couple more days of warm up in the local area and then it was time to head north for a two hour drive to a small village and a rough track for our 4WD's up to the snow at 2100m. From here a baking hot skin up to a hut at 3700m. The hut is an old Russian meteorological station which provides basic accommodation but was not exactly tidy. Lots of old batteries and other bits of junk abounded, added to by recently left rubbish about which Gia was not pleased.

Due to time constraints and what looked like a short weather window it was a pre-dawn start the following day for an ascent of our main objective, Mt Kazbek - 5047m. It was a long gradual ascent for most of the way with the skis being left at 4850m part way up a steepening sastrugi slope. Then a steep snow plod took us to the summit. We had some great views on the way up including distant views of Mt Elbrus some 200 km away, though the top itself clouded in a little.

The descent was straightforward but very soggy snow by the time we reached the hut in the early afternoon. The next morning we skied nice spring snow back to our vehicles and returned to Gudauri. We'd been lucky with the weather because by the following morning it was back to cloud and rain so we made for Tbilisi for our final two days and did the touristy things, with plenty of ancient churches to visit.

Winter 1 - Norway

I've been rather slow updating but a quick report of my trip to Lyngen in Northern Norway for ski touring from a boat in March. A group of six of us stayed on a comfortable boat, the Goxsheim

which we joined in Tromsø. Our weather was mixed but the plus side was that we had lots of great powder. The views of the surrounding mountains were impressive and it makes me want to return and ski some of the bigger peaks. Because of the poor visibility and avalanche risk we stayed on the lower mountains, reaching about 1000m. The highest in the area is just over 1800m. My photos are as usual on Fotki

but here are a few to whet your appetite.

Patagonia (part 2)

We arrived in the Chilean town of Puerto Natales on a cold and showery day but had a great coffee and lunch at a veggie restaurant in the main square. Puerto Natales is an older town than the places we had been in Argentinian Patagonia with mant buildings dating back to the early 20th century (I think).

The following day was a blue sky day for our journey into the Torres del Paine National Park. This was a super trip as we started with a three hour catamaran journey along the Ultima Esperanza ("last hope") fjord which gave us views of sea lions and our first distant view of the actually Torres del Paine massif. After this we took a river trip in a couple of "zodiac" boats up the river Serrano for another three hours. The reason for using two boats was that it was necessary to walk for five minutes part way to bypass a small waterfall and transfer to the second boat. Then 20 minutes in a minibus to a further catamaran, this time across a lake, to our first "refugio",

This first refugio was large but a bit soul-less with its cafeteria style dining room. As well as the occupants of the refuge (I'd prefer to call it a lodge) it also served meals for the significant number of campers. We stayed there for two nights, making a walk to Glacier Grey from there on another perfect day.

Then a cloudy and drizzly day to the Refugio Cuernos, with the option of a side walk in the middle of this up the French Valley. This is apparently a very spectacular valley, but there was not a great deal to be seen on this day. I walked a bit further than the rest of the group, to a viewpoint, but did not achieve much by this! The refuge at the end of this day's walk (another two night stay) was a much cosier place and quite crowded as they could not quite fit everyone in for one sitting at dinner though the extras remained in the communal area as it was the only place with a nice warm stove to dry off damp clothing.

The day trip from here was to the Bader Valley where I experienced a small taste of Patagonian wind. Not quite getting blown over (unlike some - but I've had Scottish experience) but on hands and knees at times. Saw some dramatic peaks and rock walls but no distant views.

From here to the Refugio Chileano, another cosier hut and with very friendly staff and good food; a bit slow in coming but free drinks to compensate so can't be bad. I arrived in time to have an afternoon walk to the Torres del Paine lookout while it remained clear. The next morning we skipped the sunrise option as it was not clear enough, but went to the lookout after breakfast when we had a reasonable view but with some cloud hovering around the towers.





From here we descended past the Refugio Chileano to our final night in a large refuge, or more of a hostel, before returning the next day to El Calafate and on for a post-midnight arrival in Buenos Aires.

Two days later and I was on my way home after a fantastic trip.

Patagonia - Part 1

My visit to Patagonia was interesting but busy and hence it's been some time since I've updated the blog. I started this part of the trip by flying three hours south from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, where I met the remaining six members of the group I was doing this (organised) part of my tour with.

We started early the following day by driving the three hours to the small town of El Chalten, which is the base for access the Fitzroy range of mountains. Mt Fitzroy is also known by its local name of El Chalten. In the afternoon we took a short walk to a nearby viewpoint and managed to see both Fitzroy and Cerro Torre, though there was also a lot of cloud about.



The cloud tended to be a feature of the next few days when we did day walks, typically 8 hours, and we did not really get to see too much of Fitzroy; it was usually just playing with us, with the top always seemingly just about to clear. I did manage one fairly spectacular sunrise when it appeared briefly.

There was some wildlife to be seen including a colourful Magellanic Woodpecker, Flamingoes and plenty of Condors. We also managed to see an Armadillo which was great as they are not that common.

On return to El Calafate we had a day trip to the spectacular Perito Moreno Glacier. This goes right down to the large lake, Lago Argentino and at times cuts off one arm of the lake completely. Then every few years the force of water causes the blocking part of the glacier to rupture in dramatic fashion; this last happened about 2 years ago. Although I've seen glaciers in many parts of the world this was an impressive one, especially the incredibly deep blue colour, enhanced by it being a cloudy day.




From here it was on to Chile for the Torres del Paine National Park, which I'll describe in a separate post.