2011 Arran Mountain Festival Coich na h'Oighe Walk

I'm sure I can speak for the group when I say that we were all chuffed to bits with what we achieved on this walk - some found it more challenging than others!!

Jacqui

2011 Arran Mountain Festival Witch's Step Walk

This walk offered a bit of everything - scrambling, ridges, bogs, but most of all the fabulous views. Outstanding!!
Jacqui

I thought I had tried all the ways up Goatfell until I heard Ali enthusing about his way. I had to try it myself. At last, at the end of July, the sun decided to shine. Ali is right about the route - it is splendid. From the tourist track, you cut across a broad corrie of grass and pools. There are views to the south over Holy Isle but otherwise the corrie is cradled by the ridges of Goatfell and has a hidden feel to it. The ponds were full of frog spawn, so they should be croaking nicely by now. Glenshant ridge is soon reached however, and the views open up at first over to Bens Tarsuinn and Nuis and then north and west to Cir Mohr and Caisteal Abhail and beyond to Jura and Mull. The ridge is followed by a short scramble up the gully towards the summit. Plenty of options here to make it as easy or diffcult as you want. Once again the route emerges into the open and the views which were good lower down become sensational. A final climb over a grassy slope and a few more knobly rocks of lovely warm,rough Arran granite and you are on the summit. After spending the whole climb alone, it came as a surprise to put my head over the last boulder and find the top crowded with walkers who had come up the tourist track. They shared my surprise for someone to appear over what, from the summit, looks like an impassible ascent. Great fun!

The Three Beinns and the Many

I took a walk around the Thee Beinns the other day. It turned out to be a magnificent short day out and much better than the ever-busy ramble up Goatfell. The wind was up and the cloud was doing strange things – all steam boiling out of corries and odd mists. At one point the grass – some sort of fescue or other – made me think there were a thousand little characters just on the threshold of my vision. Each top-heavy blade was moving busily and entirely independently of its neighbours, little heads nodding and chattering in the mist. It seemed that the mountain was home to countless Dr. Zeus creations and I was disappointed to take a few steps onwards and find I was alone.

RB

Goatfell "Ali's Route"
Being the leaders for this walk at the Festival Andy and I decided to head up Goatfell the other day to see to suss out this route for ourselves. We're really pleased we did because the walk was fabulous, Fabulous, FABULOUS! Why have I never used that route before now!

As described on the website, this is a twist on the usual route to Goatfell, with stunning views that rival any mainland mountains.

From the usual 'tourist path' we cut west across to the ridge heading up from Glenshant Hill and above Coire Chatan passing the site of a plane crash. Awesome views into Glen Rosa, across Brodick to Holy Isle, out to the Kintyre peninsula, and across the rest of the Arran hills.

We went through the Watershoot and Rosa Slabs, popping up onto Goatfell from the west rather than the more usual east. Depending on the weather we may choose to do a more direct ascent onto Goatfell rather than using the Watershoot and Rosa Slabs. Coming down, being on such an adrenalin high, we bounced back down the main path :-)

The photos just don't do it justice. For more photos have a look at Goatfell (Ali's Route) The best way to see it for yourself is to come along and join us during the Festival! GET BOOKING NOW!

Jo Totty

Kendal's Back on Arran...

The Best of Kendal film night was a big success - the hall was at capacity and the HF Holidays curry went down very well.

So... we've decided to do it all again during the Festival itself. On Friday 16 Sept in Corrie Hall, you can see the following films:

The Point of No Return

Kendal "Grand Prize" winner 2010 - about an American team's fateful expedition to China's Mount Edgar.

Argentine Project

Kendal "Best Short Film" winner 2010 - "did you see that?!" mountain biking.

The Pinnacle

Kendal "People's Choice" winner 2010 - Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner recreate one of the most famous weeks in Scottish climbing. (also featuring mountain guide/entertaining fellow Mike Tighe, who's giving a talk the following night).

This time, the food is being supplied by Arran's famous bakery: Wooleys will be providing home-made soups, filled rolls, mini pizzas and more.

Full details are on the mountain festival programme. Should be good!

RB

Feeders

Home Baking

I remember once seeing a trailer for a TV documentary about ‘feeders’. As far as I can gather from the 30 seconds of footage (I didn't watch the programme itself) there are people in America who demonstrate love for their massively obese partners by bringing them obscene amounts of food, to the point that they’re practically immobile and just lie in bed waiting for more burgers to arrive.

If I understood correctly, there are some deep-rooted psychological conditions involved, and I fear my colleagues may be suffering something related. The kitchen at work has a dedicated area for communal cakes, and fresh bakes are added daily – sometimes tasty bought ones and sometimes home-made. There’s such a cake culture that I feel guilty if I don’t partake, and this is especially the case as the walls are adorned with slogans like “in cake we trust” and “cakus uniticus”. I don’t want to be the skinny guy in the corner who doesn’t fit in.

But now I’m having to live with the side-effects. I was up in the hills the other day – feeling slow and full of fat but managing to waddle around a bit, and I found some terrific looking bits of rock that I’m pretty sure nobody’s climbed yet. Once I would have thrown some gear onto my back and headed out to the rocks to sample their delights at the earliest opportunity, guns and abs a-blazing. Alas, I fear that it’s no longer my six-pack that’s rippling, and that I’ll be lucky to lug a bouldering mat into the hills, let alone to climb anything when I get there. At this rate it’ll take a winter of hard training to reach my previous form (meagre as it was…) and by the time I’m ready John Watson or somebody else will have stolen in and picked all the ripest plums.

Maybe there are clinics for the rehabilitation of feeder victims...

RB