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For months we have been planning for Dads big adventure to celebrate his 70th Birthday this year.
The adventure has changed over the months as we learned together what Dads abilities are on a hill and how well equipped we are to help him achieve his challenge.
Finally we decided that in July we are going to tackle Ben Nevis to raise funds for charity.
Ben Nevis is a serious undertaking for most reasonably fit people, let alone someone who has entered his seventh decade, suffered a severe break in his hip 18 months ago and has had dual sensory impairment since an early age. Dad is both blind and deaf and wants to undertake this challenge in order to raise awareness of this condition as well as raise funds for DeafBlind Scotland.
Thanks to extraordinary support from the walking community on Twitter, we hooked up with Lucy (@snoweider), a mountain leader and wildlife guide on Arran who runs her own company Arran Wild Walks offering a fantastic array of courses and guided walks.
Lucy wanted to get involved with Dads challenge and has very kindly agreed to be our guide up Ben Nevis in July.
So, 9am on an overcast Saturday morning we met up with Lucy at the Rowardennan car park to walk Ben Lomond together. The notion being it would give Lucy and Dad the opportunity to get to know one another, assess what support Dad needs and for Lucy to understand what it takes to guide someone with Dads impairments up and down a hill.
Whilst Dad can hear with hearing aids, the elements play a huge factor and if it's windy or raining hard it really scuppers his hearing and as guides we can't rely on it. We therefor use a combination of walking pole for support and dad holding on to one of our arms so he can feel whether he's being guided up or down. On uneven paths one of us also holds on to his back pack to stem a possible fall. That said he's perfected the art of gracefully 'sitting down' on descents without doing too much damage!
Lucy took to guiding Dad within minutes after we gave her a taste of what it's like being guided blind across a rocky path herself.
It was a fantastic day out on this magnificent mountain for all of us and we learnt a lot.
I will stick to boots that I know are comfortable as my toes felt pretty crippled for the last 3 hours, Fiona will always carry an insulation layer and Dad will slow down a little when it comes to the steep scrambly bits!
The only pity was that the mountain was swathed in cloud from about the 500m line so there were no views to be had. That however, did not detract from a fantastic sense of achievement and there were tears of joy when Dad touched the trig point of his first Munro!
We know we are in for a very long day on the mountain but having had this experience together, the GO button for Ben Nevis has well and truly been pushed.
Please message me if there is any way you can support us whether that be joining the team, helping to raise funds, donating kit or gear, PR or just for moral support!
If you would like to support Dad in raising funds for DeafBlind Scotland, please visit our
http://www.justgiving.com/teams/deafblindclimb/ page and be generous!
- Lucy, Michael & Fiona setting off through the midges!
- Slapping on the midge repellant - they were out in force!
- Lucy having a go at guiding Michael
- Pretty much the only view we had for most of the day!
- More layers on as we headed into the cloud
- Tired but very happy to reach the summit
- The two stars of the day, Michael and Lucy
- Michael's first Munro in the bag! He was incredibly impressive!
- Sweeping view down to Loch Lomond... Not!
- Things had cleared a little at lower level by late afternoon, giving a glimpse of what might have been.
- The Ptarmigan ridge.. maybe another day!
- The team descending back into the woods to become Midge Supper!