Velvet Antlers Blog

Calling all filmmakers

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:45:00 +0000

So, you've got this idea for an amazing film and you think to yourself, "But what do I do with it? It's a film about crazy heli-skiers that chase people through the skies and down slopes zapping people with equally crazy special effects." Well, answer is you send it into the 2009 International Adventure Film Festival, held as part of the Fort William Mountain Festival next March. The deadline is 12th December 2008 so get your skates on and start story-boarding.

And incase you were thinking about it, you can't steal the above plot line as it's already been done. I've seen it and it was crayzee.

Glen Nevis River Race

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Pre-race nerves

Yesterday saw the return of the legendary Glen Nevis River Race, where hoardes of mad folk race down the river with only a helmet, a pair of sensible shoes and any form of floatation device you care to mention for company. After all the rain we've been having lately, the river was running really high which some felt was a bonus, others not so. The water was so high, that the race organisers No Fuss had to chop the start of the course off. Apparently, one of them jumped off the spot known ominously as 'The Leg Breaker' in the morning to test it and he popped up fine. His airbed, however, didn't pop up for 10 minutes. Hmm, not my cup of tea but everyone else looked like they were enjoying it; some in it for a laugh, others taking it VERY seriously.

The lower falls of Glen Nevis - not for the feint hearted. One or two got to the edge and thought, "Actually.......I think I'll walk round!" I don't blame them, it's higher than it looks!

Before...

After!

Looking remarkably cavalier whilst holding onto an inflatable lobster for dear life.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Hmm, there's something missing....

Last week, Dave and I took a rare day off together and headed for Lewis in the Western Isles for the day. Just jumping on the ferry as foot passengers meant a distinct lack of transport on the other side but it didn’t bother us as we had a good wander round Stornoway and the Lews Castle grounds in between showers and having a baked tattie in An Lanntair. I'm going to stick my neck out here and admit that Stornoway...well, it's just not that pretty is it? One of the best snaps of the day is of me standing outside an empty butchers shop. Just as well the rest of the island is absolutely stunning.

I bought metres and metres of Harris Tweed when I was out there, so now have enough Harris Tweed to sink a ship but it shall soon be transformed into gorgeous cushions coming soon to a luxury Scottish hamper near you! If anyone would like one sooner, drop me a line and you can get first dibs on your favourite tweed. Mine’s that slatey-grey one at the second-top of this picture. If you think slatey-grey sounds boring, wait till you see it in the daylight and you see the blues and browns running through it – gorgeous.

More freezing filming on Ben Nevis

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Yes it was that cold!

Yesterday we managed to get back onto Ben Nevis to work on Echo Wall for the first time in a month. I wasn’t looking forward to the long slog into the north face again after losing some of my hard earned fitness from the spring. I thought it might have got a bit warmer up there but it was still too cold to expose anything except nose and eyes from underneath the layers of duvet jacket!

Climbing the ropes to get to Echo wall

Dave had a good day and managed to link all the sections of the climb together (with lots of grunting). So he might just be able to lead the route finally at some point. But for now Dave is away to the USA to lecture and I have to edit some footage for the shows before he leaves tomorrow – oops – better go and get on with it. I hope you like the pictures.

Dave on the last hard move on Echo Wall

Dave resting in the middle of Echo Wall, hanging upside down by a jammed knee!

The spooky mist rolls in again, certainly adding to the intimidation factor of filming up here on the north face.

Fresh bread on demand

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +0000

This thing of beauty arrived this morning. A white tin loaf sprinkled with poppy seeds and hand- delivered by Mandy from Tigh Fuine on her bicycle. As you can see, I'm looking rather pleased with it. Who wouldn't be? It's home-made, hand-made, fresh, organic, cheaper than buying a slightly fousty loaf from the local shop and delivered for free. What's not to love? All those that live outside Mandy's delivery area may now turn green with jealousy. The rest of you shoud start banging down her door!

Drop me a line and I'll pass on your email (the website is being worked on as we speak) and you can be added to her weekly email she sends out on a Monday telling you what breads she is baking that week. You just let her know what loaf you would like and on what day. Genius.

All that was left for me to do this morning was swither over having some of my new delivery for breakfast, or some of those fresh baked blueberry scones that are cooling in the background. It was a tough call...

A quiet picnic?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave MacLeod) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:34:00 +0000

Quietude is never far away in the highlands – so don’t miss out on it!!

Travel anywhere in the highlands in summer and you will come across lots of weird and wonderful sights by the road. The whole spectrum of ‘outdoor thrill seekers’ can be found, from tour buses taking a short walk at the main beauty spots to folk changing in and out of flashy look gear for climbing up or diving off our mountains. All good – but what I can never get my head round is the ‘trunk road picnic’.

Get some lovely food, some fold out chairs, some good company and head for a 2 metre wide concrete layby with HGVs, caravans and motorbikes roaring by. Something not quite right there is there?! And I’m not talking about a quick stop on the road to break up a drive and have a bite to eat – I mean set in for an afternoon of traffic watch. Why???

The highlands are filled with countless spots of serene tranquillity, spitting distance from the road. Why spend your time taking in the sights and sounds of the kerbside for the sake of a little imagination or a couple of minutes research on the map?

Today's lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:04:00 +0000

I went out to buy lunch today. This is what I came home with. Nice eh? And yes, I did eat all of it! The flower garnish are Nasturtiums – completely edible, according to Becky from Shielfoot Organics. How did they taste? ‘Woody’, just like Becky told me they ‘would’ be.

Today’s lunch shopping was rather more interesting than normal; at Lochaber Larder’s monthly food producers gathering and market in Fort William. Among the delights on offer was Tigh Fuine’s (Gaelic – ‘bakehouse’) gorgeous breads. Mandy bakes daily and delivers her loaves to the door (so long as you leave her the dosh in a jam jar first!) every morning. Velvet Antlers headquarters will be partaking daily from now on. If you’d like Tigh Fuine’s number, drop us a line. I arrived back home with warm bread, edible flowers, chutney, rainbow eggs and more than a few new friends.

So there you have it. If the story behind this not-so-humble sandwich doesn’t convince you that seeking out local food is good for you, nothing will.

Stuck for a Fathers Day Gift?

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:55:00 +0000

Hands up who's panicking about what to get their dad for Fathers Day?

I'm willing to bet that if your dad is as hard to buy a present for as mine, there will be a fair few hands in the air at the moment. Guess what? All your pressie-buying woes are over if you get your order for a One for the Lads hamper (or indeed any other type of hamper) in before 11am Friday.

Ben Nevis Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Dave has been writing on his blog recently about all his days up on the Ben training for a new route. I’ve been following him up there quite a bit and I can safely say that I am absolutely knackered by the time I get down. My plans for getting fit (see post below) are coming along slowly but surely but I don’t think I’ll ever be as fit as I need to be, more effort will always be required to keep up with the MacLeod.

Speaking of effort, I got a call a couple of days ago to see if I could film a guy called David Burdus take part in a wheelchair race up Ben Nevis for ITV. David the wheelchair leader was helped by a team of 5 (Andrew Yule, Lisa Renwick, Rachel Gibson, John Pope and James Forbes) who pushed, pulled, hauled and heaved to the top in an outstanding display of grit, determination and stamina from everyone involved.

Where normally I’d have stopped for some lunch or a wee drink or a breather, they just kept on going. David was in a specially adapted wheelchair with handlebars on the front for steering that he said was like doing a hundred thousand press-ups on, on the way down. I don’t fancy my chances at doing one push-up, much less a hundred thousand. We got up in 6 hours 24 mins in 3rd position, spending 13 hours on the hill with the winning team summiting in 5 hours 45 mins. Eight teams started out but two had to turn back before they reached the summit which goes to show how hard going it was. All in all, over £100000 (no, not a typo! Maybe a pound for every push-up David did...or a penny for every midge bite the teams endured!) was raised for charity and I know that at least one guy realised a dream and was on top of the world for the day. Inspiring stuff.

Summer sale now on!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:46:00 +0000

We all know someone who has a birthday coming soon, or someone that is due to move house or someone that is about to have a baby. Well now you can stop worrying about what to buy them as Velvet Antlers now has 20% off all hampers! We can deliver to their home or you can surprise them at work with a hamper full of tasty treats and the beauty of it is, that not only are they currently on sale, they can’t fail to enjoy their lovely present – who doesn’t like good food?! And do you know things just get better and better as we are accepting delivery dates on sale prices right up until 30th August 2008 so you can buy them now at their sale price and not have to worry about forgetting that all important birthday. Genius.

Yummy Coconut Macaroons

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:25:00 +0000

Last night a couple of people told me that they had made gingerbread and lemon icing after I had out the recipe up on here. Inspired that people were going into the kitchen and knocking out some fantastic home-baked goods after reading about it on a blog, here is the recipe for the tasty coconut macaroons that I made for last nights party that seemed to go down well (again, courtesy of my second favourite domestic goddess, Nigella.)

2 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
100g caster sugar
30g ground almonds
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.

Beat the egg whites until just frothy and add the cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks are formed then add the caster sugar a teaspoon at a time until it’s finished. This is extremely good endurance training for your forearms – it takes ages.

Fold in the almonds, salt, vanilla and coconut. Shape into 8-10 wee domes, pop them on a lined baking sheet; stick them in the oven for about 20 minutes until they are turning golden brown, cool on a wire rack and hey presto! Yummy coconut macaroons.

And in case you were wondering, Mr MacLeod is my most favourite domestic goddess.

Fort William wall opening night

noreply@blogger.com (Dave MacLeod) — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:09:00 +0000

Last night saw the official opening of Alan Kimber’s new bouldering wall at Calluna, Fort William. For the past couple of months, Dave has been setting all the problems on the wall, built by Scott Muir. I even had a shot myself of setting some problems but we don’t have a telly at Chez MacLeod and the lure of the flat screen in the kitchen of the wall was too great most nights and ended up watching Taggart/Eastenders/Bear Grylls para-motoring about the place instead of unpacking holds.

Insert your own comedy caption in the comments!

Tom utilising his visualisation techniques.

The motley crew that made it happen - Scott, Alan and Dave.
Visualising a full brass band?

The entire Extreme Dream team came over from Aviemore for the opening and I’m amazed to say we staggered home at half twelve and most of them were still bouldering strong. That’s keen.

It’s great that there is finally a decent wall in Fort William itself and I’m pretty sure that there is going to be a brilliant scene there.

Spring sunshine

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:38:00 +0000

The sunshine has been amazing here for days and days and days. We’ve been out making the most of it and getting up to a variety of things in the glen and on the Ben.

Everyone always laughs at me when I wear this jacket. I have no idea why….

Dave and I went up the Ben a few days ago to film him on some winter climbing for a film that we are making about his training and attempts on a route he wants to do there in the summer. It’s so weird that down in the town it’s so Spring like and up on the North Face conditions are amazing for winter climbing; and it looks like they are going to be amazing for some time to come.

There I was, taking photos in my HUGE down jacket and this crazy guy scoots past in shorts. On a bike. Brrrrrr.

You know you are in the Outdoor Capital of the UK when in one day out we met walkers, climbers, skiers, snowboarders and one crazy mountain-biker on the same hill.

Bear Trap Prow, V12

On Friday, we headed up the glen to the Skeleton Boulder for some more filming and a photo-shoot. I managed to get footage of the first ascent of the hardest boulder problem in Glen Nevis, a new V12. The past few days have really brought it home to me that I seriously need to do something about my lack of fitness. The film that we are making is going to involve a stupid amount of walking in and out of the Ben with what I think are stupidly heavy rucksacks. Not only that, but I’m going to need to keep up (so far as I can) with Dave who can fairly belt up hills, let me tell you.

The half way Lochain – I suppose getting fit with views like this ain’t all bad.

So this morning, I headed up to the half way Lochain via the tourist path to get the pulse rate up and enjoy some sunshine in the Spring. I’ll never be as fit as Dave but I’ll need to try and do something about my fitness or this summer is going to be a nightmare.

Wish me luck.

Kiting on Camusdarach beach

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:25:00 +0000

Such are the joys of living in the Highlands, taking Dave on a driving lesson doesn't mean doing circuits of industrial estates and supermarket carparks like I did when I learned to drive. Instead, we circumnavigated 1/4 of the total number of roundabouts in Fort William (i.e. one) and headed down the Road To the Isles. Happily, this takes you to the beautiful beach of Camusdarach. It was snowing when we arrived but I whipped the kite out nonetheless and Dave captured the front blowing over to reveal clear blue skies and some jaw-dropping scenery.

One of the drawbacks of having high winds blow away the storm clouds is that it can be quite hard on your kite, with one string snapping, quickly mended, followed shortly after by the other one going as well. Never mind, it was worth it.

What a difference a couple of minutes can make...

With the beach more or less to ourselves, Dave took some snaps and got increasingly cold in the wind. For a hardy climber he can be a bit soft sometimes! To be fair, he is still suffering a bit from frost nip, so I let him off and we headed to Glenfinnan for some soup to heat him up.

The snowy peaks of Rum

Skiing for the first time at Nevis Range

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Waaah - how do you stop these things?

It was all systems go this morning for meeting Lisa Wharton, local writer and editor, for lunch at the Farm Shop when a sneaky wee email sent at the last minute asked if I fancied a spot of light skiing at Nevis Range afterwards. Not the kind of email one normally receives but I thought what the heck, I'll take my thermals along and see what happens.

Crikey, it's a lot harder than it looks. Lisa, a seasoned skiier, started me off with trying some turns. Then we back tracked a little and tried snow ploughs. I knew I wasn't doing so well when she then said "Right, I think we'll practice just standing still." Oh dear. We got there in the end though and I managed 4 whole turns in a row without falling over just before we got back to the gondola as it got dark.

Lisa looking somewhat more at home

What I find amazing though, is that this was all just a 10 minute drive from my house. Fort William keeps surprising me.

A long day in the hills

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:29:00 +0000

On Sunday after only a couple of hours sleep, Dave and I got up at 5am, collected Joe French, a local climber and filmmaker and drove up to Ben Nevis to begin the long walk in. The objective of the day was for Dave to free a route on the Ben called ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’. Dave had fallen off the crux pitch five times previously and hopes were high for today. I’ve never actually watched a winter climb before, or even been in the hills in winter conditions so it was rather a full on day for me and I’ve been suffering for it a bit over the past couple of days. My job was to film long shots from the corrie floor whilst Joe’s partner in Heather Hat, John Sutherland, was filming from the top of the Garadh to the side.

Dave and Joe about to set off - Joe blissfully unaware of what was ahead.

Photo: John Sutherland

Dave took about 2 ½ hours to lead the crux pitch and so far as I cold tell from the distance I was at, everything looked like it had seemed to go ok. When Joe began seconding though, that was a different matter. He came off on a traverse with an awesome scream followed by some choice language. I was too far away to see exactly what was going on (my eyesight isn’t the hottest at long distances since having laser) – turns out his axe stayed in place whilst he popped off and all his weight was hanging from his wrist, caught in the loop and the rest off him was dangling in space. He managed to free himself (that was the choice language part) and he sat slumped on the rope not answering any of Dave’s’ repeated shouts down. I didn’t know this at the time though and was in two minds out about what to do at his point. Joe had either knocked himself out and was hanging injured (the right way up, thankfully) or he was in shock. Either way, there was nothing I could do so I must admit I considered bailing rather than watching. I’ve always said that I find winter the most worrying time of the year because of fear of the unknown but after watching that I think I would probably prefer waiting until they were down to find out they were alright – ignorance is bliss, after all.

John came over and spoke to Joe and calmed him down and talked him through what to do to get himself out of the situation. Ordinarily, Joe would know fine well but I think he was in a bit of shock and luckily uninjured, it is pretty exposed up there and I certainly don’t envy him.

Dave and Joe on the impressive face of the Comb

Even though it was quite a nice day, I thought it was super cold, especially sitting in roughly the same place for 7 hours. Not as cold as Dave though, who phoned me when Joe got to the belay after the crux pitch. He told me he was a little bit cold but I didn’t believe a word of it. I was able to move around and was wrapped up in probably the biggest down jacket you can get as well as down trousers. Dave had slimmed down his rack considerably as he felt the weight of it was a factor in his previous failures on the route and I knew he wasn’t wearing much either as he didn’t want his movement restricted. He had been at the belay for 2 ½ hours by now, holding and hauling Joe and he was slurring his words when he called me. Joe told me later that Dave was curled in the foetal position when he got to him, shivering uncontrollably (thankfully) and his lips were actually blue. You’ve got to give it to Dave for telling me he was a little bit cold so he wouldn’t worry me. He was probably sub-hypothermic.

I sat watching and filming until 5pm when I had to go down before it got dark. Dave and Joe weren’t so fortunate about when they could decide to up-sticks and leave – they topped out in the bright moonlight about 9pm and they got back to me at the car at 10.30pm after bringing the hardest winter route in Britain back to Ben Nevis with Don’t Die of Ignorance XI, 11.

To Spain and Back

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:24:00 +0000

Hanging about, waiting for something to point a camera at

All has been quiet on the blogging front from me and Dave for a while as I handed the reins of Velvet Antlers over and I followed Dave out to Spain to film him on a climbing trip. Not so long ago, we bought an all-singing-all-dancing camera to make our own climbing film with. Things got off to a stonking start as the very first thing I filmed him doing was soloing an 8c. As far as we are aware, this is the first time an 8c has been soloed.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

About 10 years ago, Dave had a fall when he was soloing an E8 on gritstone when a pebble snapped; the result of which was a broken ankle and a promise to me that he would never solo another route again. Until one day he asked if he could solo an 8b. Surprisingly for him and probably more surprising to me, I agreed. He must have caught me in a really good mood - he soloed Hurly Burly at Dunkeld before I could change my mind. He never specifically asked me if he could solo this 8c, Darwin Dixit at Laboratori, it has just been rumbling away in the background for some time now as good training for a trad route on Ben Nevis that he has his eye on, where he would need to know that he could do 8c climbing on an exposed, unprotected trad route.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

Watching him solo this, I was surprisingly unemotional about it. Maybe it was because I was detached from what was going on as I was watching it on a screen. Probably, there was a bit of that and a bit of my (usually) unwavering confidence in him – if he tells me that he thinks he can do this, then I have to believe him. He’s been right so far, after all.

Soloing Darwin Dixit 8c

Ready to jug

Getting the camera angles for film and still shots was an experience in itself. I’ve seen the Hot Aches guys and crew from To Hell and Back jugging up ropes but studiously avoided partaking myself until now, resulting in a strained ab. One definitely needs to do more stomach crunches before bedtime. Whilst we were out in Spain, they were experiencing unseasonably cold weather and really high winds, so even once I had jugged up the ropes, a strong wind was constantly waving me back and forth despite plenty of anchor ropes making filming that little bit more difficult. I’ve done photo shoots before on the rope but usually abbed in and this time I had to spend a lot longer than usual up there and for someone that is not terribly at home dangling at great height, I’d better get used to it quickly as there is plenty more of that ahead of me.

Dave climbing Los Ultimo Vampiros Hippies 8c, Margalef

Slacklining DJs

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:59:00 +0000

The music that was playing at the comp seems to have gone down a storm with tons of folk commenting on how good it was. I must admit, I kept that part in the family as the DJs were Dave's sister and her partner Ronin. Katy's myspace is here. If anyone wants a free mix CD, PM her and she'll send you one.

UK Slacklining Masters results

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Michael Aschaber (Austria)

Best International: Andy Lewis (USA) - £500 and a quaich (he looked a bit confused when I handed it to him and had to explain to him later that is a 'cup of friendship' and not, in fact, an ashtray...)
2nd International: Michael Aschaber (Austria) - £300
3rd International: Damian Cooksey (USA) - £200
Best effort International: Nils Daimer (Germany) - Tensioning system

Best UK: Jon Ritson (Lakes) - £500 and a quaich (also equally confused by the quaich/ashtray...)
2nd UK: Frank Kroner (Glasgow) - £300
3rd UK: Andrew Marshall (Belfast) - £200
Best effort UK: Rupert Ollinger (Edinburgh) - Slackline kit

Andy Lewis (USA) winning Best International

Check out Andy doing the splits on the line in the clip above - one of the highest scoring tricks you can do on a line.

Well, there were a few twists and turns in the run up to the event but I think I can safely say that the day was a real success. A big 'Thank you!' to everyone that made the day possible.

Bad weather forces change of venue - eek!

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

We are now paying the price for the fantastic run of amazing weather we've been having here lately and that price is lots and lots of rain and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. As a result, we had to take the difficult decision this evening of changing the venue of the UK Slacklining Masters to a nice warm, dry indoorsy one at The Nevis Centre in Fort William.

In actual fact, it wasn't that difficult a decision if you'd seen how soggy the playing fields were today!

The date and time are still the same - 12pm this Saturday.

Frying eggs the hard way.

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Whilst I’m on the subject of frying eggs, it reminded me to tell y’all about Oleifera Rapeseed Oil. Back in the days of PO (pre-Oleifera) I was an advocate of organic sunflower oil for all things frying, baking and cooking as I found olive oil too heavy and with an overpowering taste. Lately, I’ve been trying out Oleifera which as well as looking quite classy on the old kitchen work-top, has converted me to the benefits of rapeseed oil. You know when you fry eggs you get that crispy hard bottom and edges? Well, I did anyway, but crispy bottoms are now a thing of the past and you don’t even need to use that much of it, so it isn’t swimming in grease.

Award winning design, a great product and guess what?

It’s Scottish! Yahoo!

Scottish cafés we like part two: Lochaber Farm Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:38:00 +0000

A welcome addition to the café scene in Fort William is the arrival of the Lochaber Farm Shop’s new café. In their new purpose built lodge, they offer the best of both worlds. You can sit down and enjoy the view of Aonach Mor whilst eating one of the best bacon and egg rolls known to man and then do what I do and pop across the hall to buy the same locally produced bacon and eggs to take home and munch your way through each morning until you run out and have to go back and buy some more. Not the healthiest, I know, but they taste so damn fine. I may end up the same size as their purpose built lodge if I’m not careful.

The shop itself has the best fruit and veg available in the area, far superior to the standard offered by Fort Williams’ big, local supermarket. If you know Fort William, you’ll know which one I’m talking about. Not long after we moved to this area, I made a lovely venison casserole with meat and veg bought from the Farm Shop and whilst eating it we couldn’t figure out why the carrots tasted so funny until it dawned on us what they actually tasted of – carrot! That may sound odd but they were the carrotiest carrots either of us had ever tasted. And they were organic and local. Far better than the bland, wobbly affairs on offer in town…

Just because I can, here’s an aerial view of the café, now that won’t be happening with every café I write about!

It’s a bit out of the way up at the Lochaber Rural Complex on the road to the Nevis Range gondolas and trying to remember on which days of the week it’s closed can be a bind (I’ve turned up many a time at the shop pre-lodge days to find it shut) but well worth the trek and perfect for fuelling up pre-skiing/boarding session.

Ben Nevis from the air

noreply@blogger.com (Dave MacLeod) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:36:00 +0000

I cannot begin to describe just how awesome today was. Seriously. It all started last night when Dave Brown happened to mention that Diff, his partner in Hot Aches Productions, was coming up to Fort William in the morning to do some shooting for a new film Triple Echo are making about Ben Nevis. They needed aerial shots of the Ben; the weather was perfect and the helicopter was booked. I got to thinking…

So at half 8 this morning, I phoned Triple Echo and asked if there was any chance of a lift. It was a long shot but it worked! If I could be at the Nevis Range car park in half an hour, they’d see if they could squeeze me in – woohoo! Sheepishly blagging some wood (see post below) was nothing compared to blagging your way into a free ride round Ben Nevis in a helicopter on one of the best days of the year for it.

Click on the pictures below for a larger image.

All of the pictures I took in the air were shot through the helicopter window, so there are some reflections. But they still give you an impression of how awesome Ben Nevis is!

The shapely ridge of Carn Mor Dearg

A stop for lunch

An unusual view of the summit plateau of Ben Nevis. It looks so innocuous in sunshine, but can be a very scary place to be in a winter storm. You can see the summit observatory ruins clearly.

A-frames for slackers

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:25:00 +0000

With the morning spent sheepishly blagging my way round Fort Williams' building merchants, BSW Sawmills and Travis Perkins came up trumps and supplied us with the timber and materials for building the a-frames for the slacklining comp for nowt - cheers guys! Donald, a cabinet-maker in a previous life, produced 4 frames that could withstand a slacklining hippo landing a back flip. I was his trusty apprentice for the day doing helpful things like standing on wood to weigh it down whilst he sawed it, that kind of thing, though I did wield the drill on occasion.

Donald's excuse was that it was getting cold.

Winter walking in the sun

noreply@blogger.com (Claire MacLeod) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Dave succeeded in dragging me out of bed this morning at the ungodly hour of 5am to get a lift from him and Michael up the Ben to go a spot of winter walking. They disappeared into the darkness as soon as we left the car and I followed on at my own plodding pace. We headed up from the North Face car park and this is the amazing view I got as I approached the CIC hut at about 8 this morning; not long after, the clouds cleared, leaving behind a clear blue sky all day. I headed back down from here to Achintee down the tourist path. The difference between the two different paths is amazing. In the morning I was being overtaken by fierce, bearded mountain types powering up the path to arrive at their routes in time for daybreak and on the way down the tourist path, being met with people posing such questions as, "Is there any snow at the top?" It's quite scary really...

Anyway, Dave and Michael got a new route done today whilst I pottered about in the snow, a VII, 7 on Trident Buttress.