Invergarry Lodge

Archive for 2010

Kitchen Refurbishment

I’ve finally finished putting together the video we made while we redecorated the kitchen, I’ve made it nice and short for you (I missed out the two days of painting) so you don’t get too bored watching it…if only it was this quick to do in real life!

And heres a couple of panoramic photos to show you properly (click for bigger)…

Hope you like it as much as we do!
–Matt

Garadh Gully, Ben Nevis

Had a perfect weather for a easy route up the Ben yesterday, blue skies, mild temperature and no wind. Nathan is preparing for his MIC and was looking to hone his skills on myself and his friend Rob before his assessment in February.

The day got off to an interesting start with Nathan demonstrating some of his “Rally of Sweden” ice driving skills on our way up to the top car park, I think he may have missed his calling! We geared up and headed up to a route called Garadh Gully near Tower Ridge, mainly a nice grade 2 snow slope but with 2 nice slightly harder ice pitches and another interesting move above a wee gap higher up.

Our hero Nathan setting off up the first ice section

Nathan led the two trickier sections then Rob and I both took a lead on the final easier pitches before we descended back down to the CIC hut and home. I had a great day out, both Nathan and Rob are great guys and Nathan has restored my faith in MIC trainees, he seemed to know his stuff and I am sure he will breeze his assessment in February.

Robs parting shot was handing me a big square of chocolate brownie, it was like in the movies – a subtle handshake where a crisp folded note changes hands except this was better…the hand had cake in it.

–Matt

Strathfarrar Ski Tour

It’s probably obvious from the two blogs in two days that Jen is still away…today I made the most of the snow and headed up to the head of Glen Strathfarrar for a short Ski Tour with Rick and the Labrador extraordinaire.

The aim of the day was Beinn a Bha’ach Ard (easy for you to say), a Corbett at the eastern end of Glen Strathfarrar: One of my books says it is used by locals as a beallweather (whatever that is!).  It looks like a great hill and will definitely be coming back to complete the tour as on this occasion we called it a day before we got to the top – the snow just wasn’t quite enough.

Dylan has been on his best behaviour the last few hill trips…I think he was lulling us into a false sense of security and chose this trip to change back to his old ways. On different occasions he managed to get Ricks glove, one of my tops, then one of my gloves…we won them all back with cheese sandwich bribery. Anyway, he topped it all after setting off back down -  Rick caught a ski and went over, Dylan saw his chance and pounced….licking and climbing all over Rick, without a doubt the funniest thing I have seen all week, unfortunately it ended badly…..there was human/canine open mouth contact. Not good.

–Matt

Winter hill bagging

While Jenny is away with Alby I’m supposed to be catching up on hostel jobs (room 4 decorated: check, wet wall one of the showers: check, play hunt the leak under the house: check (kind of), get the kitchen ready for the big redecoration, er, no, I was going to but… then it snowed and it looked all sunny and the hills where calling and Dylan needed a walk anyway so I figured the afternoon would be best spent up a mountain (or two).

Dyls and I headed off down to the Loch Quoich Munros, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach. If you haven’t done these hills, you should, you really are missing out. At the very least, go for a drive past them, a 25 mile dead end road to no-where through great scenery, marvellous.

We set off late so we got the late winter sun lighting up the hills which made these great hills even better, the standard route makes use of a couple of superb stalkers paths so I knew we’d be ok if it got dark. We only saw one other party who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves and enjoyed petting an ever excitable Dylan, oh, and we found a few stragglers on the road who we gave a lift to the hotel.

Snow and cold weather is forecast is set to continue for a few weeks so hopefully I’ll get chance to be out again soon. Theres a few more photos over here which may get added to shortly.

–Matt

Fell Running: It has its ups and downs

6…7….8? I’m not really sure how many times I’ve been up the Loch Lochy Munros but Dylan (hostel labrador extraordinare) and I can happily add another one on to the total today. The mountain forecast was good but the head out the door forecast was less so – the weather eventually started to brighten up about 2 o’clockish so we seized the opportunity for a quick run.

Now, I don’t claim to be a good runner (barely even a runner most of the time) and am not particularly fast uphill but it is such great fun running down a mountain, just letting your legs go and your feet find their own way…it’s easier to keep going than it is to try and stop…it makes the going up worth the effort. Not much beats running down hill….except maybe when the hill is covered in lovely soft but slightly squeaky snow – think perfect snowman making snow. That’s what it was like today – every step is cushioned and it doesn’t hurt when you fall over, fantastic stuff,  and we where almost rewarded with a view.

Dyls and I had a great time this afternoon, he was as good as gold…that’s two hill outings in a row he hasn’t embarrassed me…anyway, I’m glad the snow is properly back on the hills, hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze another day out soon.

–Matt

(P.S. If anyone is interested..the snow is down to about 550m and in many places is a good foot deep.)

A wet and grey “Brothers of Kintail”

I’ve got another hill to add to the “Hills that I can’t find a decent path up” list…Rich and I (and the dog) headed up to the Brothers of Kintail on what was supposed to be a decent weather day. I’ve done these hills before but we had two cars so devised a linear route along the ridge but unfortunately we completely failed to find the correct path up to the ridge and ended up slogging our way up a very steep and very arduous hillside to get to the ridge line, probably serves us right for setting off in the dark (photo hunting).  For future reference…you want this path not this one which goes to the Sisters of Kintail to the west.

Anyway, the promised weather never materialized and we spent the day in cloud, the cameras never came out the bags apart from once so I had something to post on here and even then it was only with my phone..

Anyway, despite the less than desirable weather we still had a nice day out in the hills, Dylan was as good as gold and hasn’t moved since we got back (bliss!) and Rich and I decided we’d enter our first mountain marathon next year…better get training!

–Matt

A last Munro (Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich) blog **Guest Blog**

We had the Stocket Hillwalking Club in recently to celebrate one of their members’ last Munro. They had great weather as they headed down Loch Quoich to bag Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich, in fact, the weather was so good some of the club headed back down to the same area the next day to bag the hills next door, Gleouraich and Spidean Mialach.

Looks like they all had a great time, Check out that second picture – hill bagging champagne celebrations in fine style!

Check out these excellent photos taken by Stocket member and Invergarry Lodge twitter friend Nick Bramhall…

Hope you all had a good time and big thanks to Nick for the photos, Nick can be found on twitter here and his website here.

–Matt

Early Morning Munro Bagging

After looking after the hostel (and Alby, the dog, the cats and the chickens) all weekend whilst Jen was away (how good does that teapot look?) it was finally my turn to do something. We (I had to take Dylan) headed out to a couple of Munros north of Glen Shiel early one morning to try and get some photos.

It was a perfectly clear moonlit night/morning as we left the van near the Cluanie Inn and headed up to A’Chralaig and along to Mullach Fraoch-Choire. It wasn’t until we hit the ridge proper that the full effect of the bitter wind hit us, it was a case of head down and plough on to the massive cairn atop A’Chralaig for shelter. I could see the sky beginning to glow over towards Ben Nevis but knew we had plenty of time before we’d be taking any photos.

After half an hour of sitting at the cairn with all my extra layers on sheltering from the bitter wind, one foot absolutely freezing having got soaked earlier on, I was wondering why on earth I was sitting on top of a freezing cold snowy mountain at 7.30 in the morning when I could be at home cosily tucked up in bed. Just as the urge to head down was almost unbearable the sun hit the mountain across the glen, the cold was soon forgotten as I grabbed the camera and ambled along the ridge taking photos of the mountains as they came alive in the sun.

An hour or so later as we headed back to the van down a fantastically warm autumnal glen listening to the deer rut, the cold and the doubts from the top long forgotten…could there be a better way to spend a morning?

–Matt

PS. I feel obliged to remind you we are now on facebook

Jen goes potty

This weekend I had a very rare treat indeed – a weekend off, with two full days of pottery with Penny at Pen’s Pots in Aviemore. I have been enjoying messing about on my own kick-wheel but was definitely in need of some instruction so having a trip up to Penny’s to get some expert tips was just what I needed. There were 6 of us on the weekend course, all looking forward to making some unique creations. Day one was spent getting used to wedging and throwing our clay, and by the end of the afternoon I had made two bowls, one of which I was very pleased with, a rather dodgy vase and the beginnings of a teapot, which although tricky was looking very promising. The morning of day two was spent tidying up and finishing our work from day one, it all having dried out nicely. I must admit to holding my breath a few times whilst adding the handle, spout and lid to my perfectly formed teapot body, but managed to finish it all off without making too many mistakes. I will have to wait a few weeks for Penny to fire and glaze the pots but meanwhile check out the pictures below for a flavour of the weekend:

Penny looked after us all fantastically and between us we came up with a huge range of creations, from cheese domes and christmas decorations to vases, mugs, jugs and teapots, all thanks to the expert guidance from Penny. Thanks must also go to Ann for helping provide a fantastic lunch spread on both days, helping to sustain us through our afternoon pot-making sessions. I now have no excuse to get practicing by myself and turning out some half-decent creations for Christmas!

Jen x

European Advertising Campaign

We’ve not been up to much blogworthy recently, we’ve been busy with either DIY or family and friends visiting (they don’t like to come up in summer as they end up making beds!) but we have found time to branch out with our advertising, well, kind of…

My big brother and official Team Invergarry Lodge runner Mark was heading across to Italy for the Lake Garda Marathon and he donned an Team Invergarry running vest for the occasion.

He did us proud with a sub 4 hour time and apparently there were even “Invergarry Lodge” chants from the crowds – I don’t get chants when I run round the forest – maybe I should run faster? Anyway, thanks Mark and well done.

–Matt

Ps. Don’t forget we are on facebook now