Archive for Mountains
Back to the Homelands
June 8th, 2011 • 3 comments Cycling, Mountainbiking, Mountains
Tags: go pro, heed in the clood, homelands, inverness shire, kilmorack, Mountainbiking, n8, scotland, spad
Filmed in the hills above where i grew up in Kilmorack, Inverness Shire – a place where I’ve spent lots of time learning how to ride Mountain Bikes. When visiting family now, I still like to head out for a bike ride up in the backwoods of my old stomping ground. I thought it was about time a bit of it was captured behind a lens since it’s had such a big influence on my life. The trails are not particularly technical but very fast and flowing so great if you want to get some speed up… plus its a fantastic place to get a lung full of fresh air and a panoramic from the Moray firth to Glen Strathfarrar.
SPAD
over the hills and far away
March 18th, 2011 • 3 comments Mountains, Ski-ing / Boarding
Tags: Glencoe Ski Hill, hasselblad, Jamie Blair, Jennifer wilcox, meall a bhuiridh, medium format, photography, scotland, skiing, snow, snowboarding
On wednesday 16 March 2011 I dropped into the back corries at Glencoe Ski Hill with Jamie from Clan (clanskates.co.uk). Conditions were perfect & this line was a first for me – last time Jamie dropped in was 10 years ago (thereabouts). I only had three shots left on the camera, so i’m pretty pleased I got something! There was a half hour hike out at the bottom which allowed us to take in the scenery. Everyone on the hill had a smile on their face that day.
http://www.jenniferwilcox.co.uk/
Some drawings
March 16th, 2011 • 4 comments Mountains
So after many months of taking photos of everything and drawing nothing I finally transformed some of my photographs into some illustrations. It had been my intention to use the camera as a tool for creating new drawings but the bug has bit big time and taken a massive chunk of creative energy away from the scribbling. So enjoy, and looking forward to some fine adventures in the spring.
Weekend in the cloud for 20 minutes out of it.
February 15th, 2011 • 1 comment Mountains, Winter climbing
Finally manged to peel myself away from the desk and with Ewan’s help made it out to the wild lands round the back of Ben Nevis. A nasty accident on the A82 on Friday night almost killed progress altogether, as did a seized brake caliper, with further progress only resuming after hitting it with an ice axe. But coming down off Aonach Beag, the clouds opened and it all became obvious.
8.5mm on the Ben
January 24th, 2011 • Mountains, Winter climbing
rescued beautifully from falling down the Ben by Ewan and his rope. cheers for that one. Same rope came in useful for rescuing two other stranded cats with their claws stuck in the ice. Even the thunderbirds used it when we got on the blower for backup. The bellychopper was useful but the rope in the right hands (Ewan’s) came out tops, all 8.5mm of it.
1st of the Season
December 11th, 2010 • 2 comments Mountains, Ski-ing / Boarding
Tags: 1st of season, cairngorm, december 2010, HD, high-8, mountain, scotland, skiing, snow, spad, winds
I didn’t think I was gonna get out on Cairngorm Mountain that day as the winds we’re high and the tows we’re initially closed… I had to walk up from the bottom car park as the access road was almost impassable – unless you had a 4×4… Whilst I was waiting for them to reopen, I sat in the cafe with this wee tune going round in my head. I’ve always loved coming to this part of Scotland, no matter what the conditions are. The variations in weather make any place you’ve been before seem totally different… By the time I’d finished coffee, the train was in operation again so I thought Id take the new camera out for a slow motion trial. My ‘wee tune’ features in the video’s accompanying music, which i’ve aptly named ‘Minus’.
SPAD
Brig O’turk to Strathyre
November 16th, 2010 • 2 comments Cycling, Mountainbiking, Mountains
So with the girlfriend and the kids going visiting in Strathyre I took the chance to ride over from Brig O’Turk. The first section up Gleann nam Meann was well known after it had been done in the other direction a matter of weeks ago by a crew of us – see glenfinglas post.
The climb was long but not unpleasant with plenty of loose steep bits to keep you on your toes. Once near the top and still bearing north you join the faint , but perceptible path – which has a nice carved signpost to Balquhidder to mark it’s head. At 408m you’re in the foot of the big hills and there’s a real sense of wilderness going down the brilliantly named Glen Shoinnie. The trail is natural, wet and has the slipperiest rocks I’ve come across in a long time. The riding is hard going with lots of burn crossings and super technical bits. The rocks caused so many offs, there was just no way to avoid them and hitting them anything other than square on resulted in washing out. This was however great fun and a real challenge and by far the highlight of the trip. Swinging right at a big nose of rock, joining the Fathan Glinne which had views up to the west of snow filled corries and peaks. The path down here was equally challenging with little paps undulating along it length high above the river, it was probably wetter and boggier than the path before and presented some pretty stiff challenges in slow speed bike handling skills, verging on trials at points, I fell of repeatedly.
Joining the road at Glen Buckie and passing through a couple of cattle farms a another handy sign pointed the way to the very faint path that skirts the summit of Beinn a t-Sidhein to Strathyre. This was a bike a hike affair and keeping the path was difficult, once levelling out near the shoulder it was ridable but more or less just hacking across open hillside. The view down Loch Lubnaig showed a swathe of peaks that look bigger than the map would suggest. The descent down to Strathyre looked amazing on the map and started out with an excellent pitted singletrack through open woods, just as I reached the tree line proper and the descent was due to get steeper I was assaulted by the apocalyptic scene of forestry operations. The track was descimated, hidden under a blanket of murdered Spruce, I was a bit miffed (but we all need wood and paper). Skittering down the tracks made by heavy plant catepillar tracks was pretty entertaining however and although it wasn’t the steep wooded singletrack i’d hoped for it was good craic, if a tad muddy.
I’ll definetly be back to Glen Shoinnie in the dry if i can, it’s a great wee ribbon of mtb joy.
Here’s the route.
Devil’s Staircase / Ciaran Path
November 11th, 2010 • Cycling, Mountainbiking, Mountains
Tags: blackwater dam, ciaran, devils staircase, kinlochleven, Mountainbiking, outdoor, scotland, sorley, spad, video
The Devil’s Staircase was apparently named by General Wades soldiers because of the difficulties of carrying building materials along it – its a steep, rough, rocky path which is dangerous and unrelenting… and thats why its great for mountain biking! Well going down it anyway.
We left Glasgow early and congregated with the rest of the 9 strong group at the bottom of the Staircase. The climbing is tough from the offset, but great for getting the circulation going on a cold November morning. We made it to the cairn in pretty good time and so we continued to fire down the first of the fantastic descents on the route. Very fast singletrack, with lots of different lines to choose from and wee jumps if you wish to get in the air for a moment… So far there had only been one puncture, which is pretty good out of 9 on a rough path like this. We turned right and cycled along the huge concrete piping that leads you up to impressive Blackwater Dam.
The next section is the Ciaran path which is 8kms of rough and very technical downhill. There we’re a number of bogs to jump over, as well as 1 or 2 ‘over the handlebar’ maneuvers… but no big injuries! A few broken spokes, a bent derailleur hanger and another puncture though… Eventually we made it to Kinlochleven for a coffee stop. Only 3 wanted to do the return journey. The others had decided to to take the long route by road and meet at the Clachaig Inn. Bowie, Sorley and myself headed back up towards the devils staircase. It was getting dark but as long as nothing went wrong then we would be back at the car soon… of course something went wrong! The path claimed another inner tube and so we spent ages trying to mend it with crap repair patches… after much faffage and eventual success, we set off down the staircase with bike lights on full beam. My hands we’re now completely numb, but it didn’t matter as the descent back to the car in the pitch black took no time at all and was amazing.
SPAD
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