Adventure Blog Scotland | Land » 2007

A Day at Dunkeld

July 27, 2007 on 1:25 pm | In Outdoor Climbing | No Comments

I managed to squeeze in a day’s climbing at Craig a Barns by Dunkeld last weekend. The sun was shining and the rock was warm to touch - perfect for climbing. It’s been a wee while since I last climbed though so I wasn’t on the best form. My problem is simple - I spend too much time watching climbing films which have been submitted to the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival (I have the final say on which films are selected) when I should be out there climbing. It’s doubly bad as I regularly watch Dave MacLeod or Niall McNair on film, easing their way up E7s and harder - then I get onto the rock, look at much easier climbs and think - you mean I need to climb that??!!

Anyway, we had a good day out, caught a bit of sun and didn’t have any falls, so we went home happy. And again I find myself promising to get down to Alien Rock every week, and to grab every opportunity to get out on the rock while the summer lasts. I’ll keep you posted.

Stevie Christie
http://www.wildernessscotland.com
Director of Wilderness Scotland & also of the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival. Into most mountain sports, esp mountain biking, walking, climbing and sea-kayaking.

Mountain Biking in the Highlands

July 26, 2007 on 2:30 pm | In Mountain Biking | No Comments

My bike has been taking some punishment recently - and so have I! A friend of mine convinced me to take part in the Corrieyairick Challenge - a 43-mile mountain bike race from Fort Augustus to Kincraig, crossing the Corrieyairick Pass at an altitude of 800m along the way. I was keen to take part as riding the Corrieyarrick Pass forms part of Wilderness Scotland’s Coast to Coast mountain bike trip. It was a great day out, despite the constant headwind, with some superb riding and, between all the competitors, the Challenge raised thousands of pounds for a local charity.

No sooner had my legs recovered than I was up at the Laggan Wolftrax centre last weekend. And here is a big tip! Never watch mountain bike movies the night before going mountain biking - they have a habit of increasing your confidence to dangerous levels! We had a great ride round the red route until we came to the 240m of North Shore (basically boardwalk raised a couple of feet above the forest floor). Having watched some crazy North Shore action the night before (from a film which will be shown at this year’s Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival in October), I speeded up and raced onto the boardwalk. The morning’s rain had made the surface really greasy and on the 2nd corner - thump! - I was off and into a tree!

The tree was not damaged and, after 30 seconds or so, I realised that I wasn’t either (not seriously anyway). The rest of the North Shore was taken with a bit more caution before we let loose again on the final section of table top jumps. All good. If you haven’t been to Laggan, it’s well worth a visit.

Next up, a return to Drumlanrig Castle this weekend!