Colmcille Climbers

CCC Scotland 2010 Aviemore was as ever eventful, on route up the A9, the snow poured down on us as Feeney (the bard of the Bogside) raced past me to get the best parking space at the hostel.  Having made a slight navigational error the previous CCC winter trip I was happy for someone else to take the lead but quickly agreed to take a full part in the weekend navigational matters when feenster and co drove straight past the 3 huge 15ft high road signs indicating a right turn for Aviemore!

Again a much reported incident when someone left their driving licence in a search tray in Belfast airport last summer, sprung to mind when the hire car man refused to give Maeve her hire car just because her licence had only expired by 12 months.  Brave man!! George came to the rescue and the matter was never mentioned again.

Day one as reported saw us on a “Walk with Marty” on a “Ronnie” in deep snow. Marty was very encouraging, inviting us youngsters to take the lead at every occasion which is understandable due to his lower ground clearance. Ivan’s mate took the lead on a number of occasions even breaking into a jog but couldn’t get the hang of walking on a bearing as compasses (or gloves) are not required if you drink enough whisky!!  However he had a permanent smile and worked on the navigational rule of “the top of the hill was up!!”  which is much easier that using a GPS.

A few beers in the Cairngorm hotel followed by a snowball fight in the Main St. I was noted that some of derrys finest could still take the hat off a peeler at 400meters. The skeleton team and snow angle squad soon woke everyone in the hostel. Next day saw the youngsters try cross country skiing which was hilarious and nothing like proper skiing.  Day 3 and we attacked the Nevis range where the novices excelled with Niall exclaiming “This is easy, it only requires steering and Balls”. He appeared to have little of the steering but loads of “Its only snow, it can really hurt” as he quickly moved from learner slopes to off piste.  “Lethal”

Anthony “Franz Slapper” spent more time on top off, or half way through the snow fences but was always able to recover before a camera was ready, but I was amazed at the CCC kinder garden downhill team’s improvement before we finished.

Cairngorm eventually opened on Sunday, and we had another half days skiing on some of the best ski conditions I have ever seen in Europe.  Dave was racing about on a snow board at scary speeds and George took a walk into the corries.

Back home with crampons unused and not 1 Munro in the bag,   Strange times in Scotland!!!!   

Global warming rocks!