Munro bagging - Summer '12

So I've set my sights on bagging all 284 "Munro's". I would like to say I'll get there by the time I'm 30, but I would have to climb over 30 of them a year for the next eight years, which is no easy feat given that most of the time I live in Cambridge. Still there is only one way to achieve it, and that's to start chipping away. So this summer while I've been at home (200+ miles nearer to the mountains than Cambridge) I've enjoyed the opportunity to go up a few more with my dad. Back at the end of July, we picked off Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' chroin; then a fortnight later a weekend saw us summit Ben More, Stob Binnien and Ben Chonzie. The latter is supposedly the easiest Munro (or so a chap on the summit told me), and certainly it was a very gentle day out and would probably be a quite unremarkable and untrodden summit were it not for its entry on Munro's Tables. I've been suffering a bit with knee pain while hillwalking this year, particularly on descents, so I've taken to carrying a knee support and poles should it come on. Thankfully these two trips were pretty much pain free, and I can only hope they have done somewhat to strengthen the muscles around my knees, reducing the instability that I'm sure causes the pain. Enough about me, photos:

Looking back down towards Aardvorlich and Loch Earn from the slopes of Ben Vorlich

Ben Vorlich's summit

Looking across the bealach towards the scramble and Stuc a chroin

The surprisingly steep scramble up onto Stuc a Chroin

The scramble buttress

The track towards Ben More

Ben More is almost literally straight unrelenting up to the summit

The very handy gully behind the summit provided a perfect spot for lunch out of the ferocious wind

The cloud covered ridge of Ben Chonzie

A member of the sinister heard of cattle which were patrolling the lower reaches of Ben Chonzie

Summer days!

As I mentioned earlier I'm spending the summer at home, and thankfully the nice weather has finally arrived. So I've been enjoying getting the my iPhone's camera out at any opportunity.

The cute cute piglets at Broom House Farm where I used to work!

Olympics! Woot!

No Instagram or Hipstamatic was used in the making of this photograph.

Moo!

Fantastic Italian brass band in Durham!

King's On Tour! 2012 - An Aviemore Adventure

Midges, Mature cheddar and the Mountains.

This year's King's On Tour took us North again. We spent a week or so in the Cairngorms just outside Aviemore, enjoying all that fantastic area has to offer of mountains, crags and rivers. Everyone bagged at least two Munros (a list of 284 mountains higher than 3000ft in Scotland if you didn't know), paddled some whitewater (sadly not quite as epic as the Durance in the Alps last year), and got some climbing in. Plenty of cheese and pickle sandwiches were consumed (Mention in Dispatches for the team of the Sandwich Machine). The weather wasn't too bad either! Anyhow pictures say it better than words, so enjoy...

A Very Special Walk

A bit late this one but a few photos from the Fifty Mile walk I undertook with my fellow MBPhDers, Petros, Charlie, and Joe, during last term. We walked from Seven Sisters Tube Station in North London, back to King's College, Cambridge. In all honesty, when Charlie suggested it I thought it would be easy; I'm moderately fit and I've walked long distances, up to around 20-25miles, in the hills before. How wrong I was. It was genuinely the hardest thing I have ever done, even now months later I can remember the pain. The only way we got through was the thought of all the money we were raising for a fantastic cause, Wakefield hospice. We topped out at over £1,250, which works out at £25 a mile (but if you never got round to donating at the time, you still can at http://www.justgiving.com/MBPhD50). People who saw us in the few days after will attest that we were broken men, and certainly my feet still bare the scars (though I will spare you any photos of that).
Anyhow have a few pics that I took along the way as a reward.

Joe was enjoying his breakfast too much to pose... 

Pirate P.T.

Topless mile one third of the way through, enthusiasm for these waned later on.

Sometime in the wee small hours.

Charlie holding the icon which he brought to guide us on our journey (who needs maps?!)