Snowbeasts

For the astute amongst you it will no doubt be obvious that these pictures are not from a sunny, hot April and sadly are another indictment of a slightly out of date blog!

Ben Alder seems to be our spiritual home when it comes to Bike & Hike training and this year was no different. An interesting cycle in through the snow brought us to the bothy before we began trudging through the deep drifts with the vague notion of reaching some distant summit. When trudging became swimming a prudent halt was called for a swift photograph before a sensible decent.




Back at the bothy we went for the worst boy band ever look, note Murray and Colum both adopting the 'here are my testicles please kick them' pose!

He's Mr Whiteside

Some time in February Gavin gave me some material to post on the blog. Due to chronic and incurable laziness I didn't get around to it until now! Sorry Gav!

Saturday
I also missed the weekly jaunt on Thursday night; woops it was me that cancelled it after increased pressure from fellow softies!! I managed to get an hours run in the woods, it was a revelation to run again in daylight. So I was surprised when I managed to get lost in my local woods (I am too an idiot!) After numerous encounters with boggy paths, teenage drinking dens and fallen trees I managed to emerge from the woods only 2 miles from my house. However my younger daughter (age 5) was due to be dropped off at home after a party to be looked after by her doting Dad, Dad (that’s me) was still in the woods in a sweaty, muddy and bloody state! The final dash was done in record time and made it back with 30 seconds to spare.





Sunday
I awoke early and thought it would be a good idea to go up Beinn Bhuidhe Mhor on the bike, obviously yesterdays expedition hadn’t quite done it. Unfortunately due to the snow on the northern face I had to change my route and decided to go up Beinn Bhuide Bheag instead. After the exhaustive uphill section the downhill was relished. The downhill was fun but my snowboard would have been better on the hard packed snow. As I got lower down and the snow started to soften the chances of me going over the handlebars increased. Oh yes I was right and after two excursions over the handlebars I started dreaming of breakfast. I managed to make it home in time for breakfast and in one-piece, although a bit sweaty as Zara and Ava confirmed.