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4th July 2008 - Lagangarbh, Glen Coe The Bikes o’Fife A mixed weekend of weather, but a well attended meet, with lots getting done. Most folks arrived on Friday night, and most of them had brought bikes. There can surely never have been so many bikes in the sitting room. Liz arrived on Saturday morning, and after catching up with everyone’s news, headed off up the Wee Buachaille. Paul & Susan went biking at the Witches Trails, at Aonach Mor. They reported that the 10 Under the Ben route is a bit of a trudge on fire trails. But the World Cup route is brilliant, although the initial climb is steeeeep. Dave & Lucy pushed their bikes up the Devil’s Staircase, opposite the hut, and enjoyed the brilliant decent to Kinlochleven. They stopped for a cup of coffee at the Ice Factor – no point in rushing things. Then carried on to Glencoe village. Obviously time for another cup of coffee. Somehow they managed to make it back to the hut without a further coffee stop, proving that they do have a little bit of staying power. Colin went to the downhill bike track at the skiing, to practice for the following week’s race. And returned unscathed. Some people went climbing. Ken & Brendan were very impressed to find that there’s a Diff (The Walk) going up the front of Gearr Aonach. A brilliant place indeed for such an easy route. So off they went. A couple of points of “interesting” navigation later they arrived at the approach to the route. To find that the guidebook’s comment about the approach being harder than the route is correct. Not helped by the rock being wet, slimy & covered in moss, they never even got to the route. Instead opting for a beer in the Clachaig. More impressively, but with less incident, Gav & Ally did Big Top, on Aonach Dubh. After much drinking, some guitar playing, a huge amount of snoring, and some sleeping, it was Sunday morning. Liz was up & away early, walking up hills in Glen Etive. Paul & Susan headed home, rather indirectly, via more biking at the Wolftrax at Laggan. Brendan went up Hangover Hill (does anyone know what it’s actually called ?) Dave & Lucy returned to the Devil’s Staircase, this time running over to the reservoirs & back. Colin & Ken took heed of yesterday’s report & went to the World Cup route at The Witches’ Trails. Gav, Ally & Robert headed up to Bludger’s Revelation on Slime Wall, on the Buachaille. By the time Colin & Ken got back to the hut, it had been cleaned by some nice members. So Ken left Colin to await their return & headed off home. The heavy rain that began falling atop pitch 4 of the route meant that Slime Wall was not a real good place to be. An epic abseil retreat (off equalised nuts in the first instance) ensued. The experience providing Gav and Ali with good preparation for their 24 hour epic on the Aiguille de Argentiere in the coming weeks... During which time a helicopter suddenly arrived, and started hovering over the area they were climbing. As one might imagine, this gave Colin (never mind the climbers) considerable cause for worry. He even phoned up the MRT to find out if the helicopter was for them. It wasn’t, another party had fallen and was rescued. They got back to the hut quite late, but thankfully safe. Very exciting stuff.
Brendan on the approach to "The Walk" ! Yes that is a rope
Colin at the top of the Witches Trail
Bludgers Revelation - Gav leading the crux Pitch 2
Bludgers Revelation - Ali on the 'link' pitch
Bludgers Revelation - Ali reaching the belay at the top of Pitch 4
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