Sometimes it's good to step back and rejuvenate your plans

It's been such a long time since my last update and you may think that I have forgotten or abandoned this place but it's actually been all go here. I've spent a lot of time calculating and saving and doing meticulous research for my future dreams and lots and lots of training to get myself in the right mindset to tackle the project without distractions. That was more difficult than I anticipated really.

The first thing I had to do was determine what; after the mountaineering course; came next in the plan. When looking back at my old plans, they were just a rough sketch and were not as realistic and as indepth as I needed them to be. Now if I have learned anything from my time studying various courses, both at work and university, it is that you have to set yourself SMART objectives. (i.e Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) to give yourself the biggest chance of success.. So I had to go back to the start and re-plan. That meant scrapping my rough plan and sitting down to write a whole new one.

As the long term dream is such a massive one, it had to be broken down into 2 year increments so that I could focus on taking steps rather than huge leaps which would inevitably be detrimental in the long run.
So for the next step in the plan I broke it down to 2 choices, an advanced mountaineering course at altitude or ice climbing. Both are beneficial as the altitude exposure and Ice climbing skills are a major part of the long term goal. In the end, it came down to what skills would take longer to perfect and after some research and finding a suitable course, I decided to go on an Ice Climbing course in Chamonix and Cogne in January with Jagged globe. That way I have exposure to altitude and am getting more ice climbing experience. 2 birds: 1 stone. Especially if I manage to squeeze in a few extra days around it but that's another story.

Over the past few months I have been doing so much climbing as part of my training programme to get myself strong and fit for the challenges ahead. Most of my training takes place at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena where I go climbing for around 6 hours a day, 3 times a week. On top of that, once a month, I practise my ice climbing at the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven for 2-4 hours. I have also added in gym sessions a 3 times a week in order to help build core and back strength. I am still nowhere near ready but I am definitely a lot closer than I was at the start of the year. Now, with more appropriate SMART objectives, I am in the right frame of mind for it and after another 7 months of hard work and training, I'll be ready.

It's definitely a great feeling to have a plan in place towards your dreams and now with my next adventure just around the corner, Fun is definitely in my immediate future.

The words of wisdom today are:

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use ~ Earl Nightingale

S xx

Day 4: Meall a' Bhuiridh

Midweek tiredness has arrived this morning but up and at it again no matter what is my motto today.
The daily weather and avalanche check revealed some interesting things on the immediate horizon. For the past 2 days, the weather has been glorious but today was to be a different kettle of fish. The warnings for the mountains were clear: High winds from midday and a high avalanche risk in Glencoe and Lochaber. With all of that in mind, we had 2 options; Ice factor or Meall a' Bhuiridh but getting the chair lift up to 600m to get a head start of the weather and hopefully get as much as possible done before having to turn back. So we chose to get out and onto the mountain and off we set.

The chair lift was definitely interesting. I somehow imagined that it would stop for you to get on and off but no, it just keeps on going. First challenge of the day, complete. The rest of today was going to be a low impact day on the mountain which I was a little thankful for because it meant having more technical stuff thrown at us and learning some stuff that would assist us in an emergency on a mountain journey.

Some walking and trudging uphill was followed by a hasty pit production line where we all checked the snow layers to see what we could find. We then walked a little more before having a more indepth look at navigation. I actually began to feel like I was getting it but not sure how long that will last without daily practise. We then did some more uphill walking before stopping again to get our harnesses on and get some rope work done.

Firstly we began by creating our very own bucket seat, no easy feat really but all the digging certainly keeps you warm and if it's done right, it's relatively comfortable, well as comfortable as a hole in the snow can be. Then we got taught how to do different knots and techniques and learned other things such as a buried axe belay. Overall a brilliant, fun, yet informative time in the snow. By the time we had finished the wind was beginning to pick up and our bucket seats were filling with snow so we decided to pack up and head off to a different part of the mountain where we dug ourselves another hasty pit to check the snow layers on a different part of the mountain to check if they were consistent with the first. We also got to do some light abseilling down a gentle angled slope before making our way back down the mountain without the aid of the chair lift this time, trying to avoid slipping on the ice as much as possible.

Overall today was a fun packed and information filled day which ended with dinner, a few glasses of wine and a game or two of bamboozle in the bar. Not a bad way to spend the day/night at all in my opinion

S xx