Avalanche risk: High (cat 4)
Ok, so not rain, but certainly bad weather. Snow overnight, 40-50mph winds with gusts of up to 80mph forecast and that was at sea level! A brief bimble around a little loch down the road was great tonic for achy joints and muscles from yesterday’s skiing adventures.
Tonight we all went down the the local hotel and had a lovely meal and good laugh. Sitting the lounge afterwards drinking a beer and thinking of work on monday caused me to start thinking about the differences between life this week and everyday life for me. Life is fill of abstracts and problems that in the grand scheme of things aren’t really that important. Next week I’ll be back at work worrying about emails, servers, websites and deadlines – none of which will hurt anyone if they’re not sorted. This weeks’ important thoughts have included such things as: do I have enough clothes with today to keep me alive up there; is this footpath I’m walking on the right one, or am I about to walk over the edge of a cliff; is this belay secure so that if I slip, I don’t end up a crumpled bloody mush at the bottom of the gully; is my ice axe ready to put into the arrest position in case I do slip; is this knot tied correctly; etc. It’s certainly put a lot of things into perspective – certainly this is the most hostile environment I’ve ever been in and while it’s not Everest, people die up here with a frightening regularity. Last week, the SARDA guys watched as someone fell hundreds of metres to their death over by Glencoe.
Erm. Too much beer?