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We had decided it was time for the "Ridge" something we had been talking about for a long time, Andy had already done it some years back and had been explaining just how much of a challenge it was but more so how much of a buzz it would be..... nothing else we had done or probably would do would compare to the feeling of completing the ridge. Ok it was planned however the only problem with life is that work sometimes get's in the way and on this outing it would be myself and Andy only. I had read up on it, watched clips on youtube and to a degree felt I had studied enough to consider myself pretty much prepared for what lay ahead
the laughing says it all.
We arrived early and for a short period the weather was looking quite promising, feeling good we stopped for a quick photo shoot before digging into our first climb
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- Bright Start
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- Poser
Ok modelling session over it was time to get down to the hard work, the climb began at a good pace as the sun was shining and spirits were high, was excited & eager to see what lay ahead although I would be "Spoffing" to use an old term if I said I was not just a bit nervous. The usual banter set in and that made the initial climb pass pretty quick, we had made good time to the first summit "Meall Dearg" we decided we would crack on as the weather was starting to close in already, no rain just plenty of cloud.
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- Whisky Time
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- A Toast To The Mountain (Glen Morangie)
And so it began, by the time we had hit the start of the ridge we knew it would be a day that we would be robbed of views, the cloud had settled pretty thick and the chance of it lifting was slim however we had agreed that the climb would be all we needed, would we return again on a better day and get the views???? I'll decide once I had got to the other side lol
Before I knew it we were on the ridge, straight away the safety head went on although the banter continued to flow, this was no "walk in the park" or whatever other term you might want to use. As the ridge continued I realised that concentration was key on this one, the cloud and made the rock damp and the cracks at some points to get your boots and fingers into were not the wide gaping holes I had been hoping for
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- Hands On
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- Expidition Leader :)
This was the bit I had heard all about, I remember Muriel Gray saying something about the "Hill Of The Brown Underwear" or something like that
we continued knowing that we were probably being done out of some of the most spectacular views ever and kind of knowing somewhere in the back of your head that no matter what, one day you would be back.
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- Eh up or down
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- 3 second gap in the cloud
Would be easy to say we sailed across the ridge, no bother was up and down in a jiffy and home in time for tea & medals, that would be a lie
there is no rushing this, no easy route and deffo not for the faint hearted, I had heard loads of stories about people going over this in trainers, coach outings stopping and doing the ridge just to pass the time, even heard a story of how a married couple took there 8 & 10 year old over the ridge..... if thats the case then fair play but a quarter of the way through I was starting to doubt the "Jackanory" tales lol
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- To Kool 4 Skool
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- My attempt at the "Bolt"
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- Some flat ground, for a minute
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- Hold On Now Say Cheeeeeeeeeeeeez
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- Forget The Cheeeeeeez lol
By this point I was starting to wonder if we would ever come across a picnic bench, the body was calling for food and the head was saying KEEP GOING lol, yes the head won and the climb/crawl continued. of course you can not do the Ridge and come away with no memories/pictures so at every safe opportunity it was cameras out, this was a climb I wanted to remember. The weather had not let up all day however I guess we were lucky that the rain had left us alone, Andy has done the ridge previously so was pretty on point with the route although to be honest there's not really anywhere else to go apart from FORWARD...........
" Below in BOLD is a quote I extracted from another Blog, kind of sums it up as to the emotions felt by all who take this challenge on"
Crossing the Aonach Eagach ridge has been a great lesson of humility. It’s been morally as much as physically challenging. It taught me not to ever underestimate the power of nature, and never overestimate yours. If you want to give something difficult a try, you’d better get prepared as much as you can. What scared me was probably more the fact that I wasn’t prepared and wasn’t expecting such an exposed route, rather than the route itself. Since that day then, I’ve been following some basic rules, I now study the route as if I had done it before, I consider that everything’s probably gonna be harder than what I expect and that the weather is going to be awful, or I could possibly not get out of it alive. Challenge is exciting, danger gives you adrenaline, but when real fear/panic takes over, it's time to switch on , for on this Ridge one small mistake could very possibly be your last.So in Summary, There are many who have done this route over the years, we went from East to West and some will have done it from the other end however I have a feeling that no matter what for those that have completed it there will have been many different thoughts/emotions ranging from "That was awesome back next week" to "Eh never again" My initial thoughts were "Survived it never again"
however as time has passed I can feel the pulling sensation, the adrenaline rush at some points of it was sensational if I'm honest almost beyond words, the odd piece of flat ground which allows you the time to compose yourself again is God given. Glen Coe is one of the most stunning places on earth, we call it God's country for a reason, there are many mountains I will climb before my time is up and as each day passes I can feel the Ridge pulling me/us back, we laughed walking back up the the road towards the car park, we even waved and said goodbye, the intention at that point was not to return, however look at my last picture, how could you possibly live your life out and never return to her. For those that have done this my hat comes off to you, nobody get's us or our passion for this, we are a breed that nobody understands, we take on challenges like this Ridge in some of the most beautiful & captivating places on earth knowing that every step could be our last, however do we stop?? far from it we walk away knowing that deep down when the next opportunity arises our shadows will fall on those Mountains again, for those who have climbed and lost there lives...... we salute you, we walked with God's
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- Waiting For Your Return
