Day eight - Monday

After my run the day before I decided to start the day with a continuation of sleep aka a lie in! Slept in till 0830, a lie in compared to the usual wake up time of 0700. Porridge (not bored of it yet) and coffee then headed into town to try and sort my tax disc. Went to the post office armed with my MOT certificate and insurance details, only to be asked "Where is your V5C?" - Kendal was the answer. "Ah well, you'll have to fill in this extra form and pay £25 extra as you don't have it". Right. I started filling it in, then remembered I'd scanned the V5C and it was on my dropbox. I went back up and asked would they accept it on my phone. 5 minutes later, after an unconnected phone call followed by a successful call to head office and the answer was no, it had to be the paper version. So I was facing either paying £25 extra or getting parents to send it up, recorded delivery, hassle etc. So I rang my folks, decided to just pay the extra. So went back in (third time) and got ready to pay it all. Then the lady behind the desk discovered that they hadn't actually received the tax discs that I needed (Sep 2014) yet, as apparently they were in the post (bum bum chhh) and were due to arrive that afternoon. "Would you be able to pop back in later?"... So frustrating.

So headed to the hospital in a bit of a foul mood. Arrived at 10am to be met with a blank admissions board. It's worth noting at this point that the weather was getting better all the time, with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. Motivation was waning. After moaning about the post office I wandered off to A&E to see some patients. No one waiting in A&E. What is going on? Back to the doctors office on the ward, still not much going on so I headed up to the computers in the Training Centre and looked up tax stuff online. Turns out that I was able to do it all through the DVLA website, with no extra charge and without needing any forms. And the post office is going out of business? Wonder why? It's outrageous that a) they didn't accept my copy of the form b) they were trying to charge me £25 for something that is clearly not needed as shown by DVLA website and c) that even when I decided to pay that they still couldn't provide the service. Rant over.

Back to the doctors office, thinking that if nothing was happening I'd head off. Nothing was happening. But then just to confirm matters one of our lead clinicians came in and told us that as everything had been cancelled we might as well all head off. As if I needed encouragment! On the way out the door at 1300 I caught Tom's eye and asked him if he fancied Aonach Eagach, the famous ridge line scramble on the north side of Glen Coe...

Scramble up A' Chailleach

An hour later, at around 1400, Tom and I set off from the Study carpark in Glen Coe, bound for the approach scramble up A' Chailleach. Weather was overcast but dry. The scramble was good at first, rocky outcrops providing brief bits of technical terrain, but we quickly lost the main line and ended up walking up steep grassy ground before popping out just to the east of the summit. I think we unintentionally avoided the main bits of interest on the scramble, but we weren't too fussed as the best was to come, Aonach Eagach!

Steep scrambling on the ridge!

We quickly reached Am Bodach, at 943m. This was the start of the ridge proper, with a quite technical initial descent before continuing more easily over the ridge towards Meall Dearg. It wasn't too bad, not too exposed and the weather was perfect, overcast so not too hot and not a breath of wind. The three sisters on the south of glencoe were in cloud, but the entire ridge on our side was out. After a steep climb we gained the summit of Meall Dearg and the main part of the ridge was revealed, connecting us to Stob Coire Leith. Superb. Once we started on this section there was no escape route - you either have to continue to the other end or reverse and come back. We committed, and were immediately greeted with much more exposed scrambling that what we had passed previously. The holds were all massive, but the positions were wild! Taking the crest of the ridge as much as possible we were rewarded with fantastic vistas of the surrounding mountains, and also birds eye views of the seldom, if ever, frequented gullies running down the south side of the ridge. It was truly breathtaking!

Looking back over the ground we'd covered - very improbable!

All too soon we had reached the high point of the ridge, Sgorr nam Fiannaidh at 967m. This signalled the end, and after a few photos looking back at our route we traversed to the top of Clachaig gully before plunging steeply down it's west bank. This was incredibly steep, and in places very loose. As a result it felt like slow going as we were trying to preserve some function in our knees, but even so we lost height incredibly quickly. Handily too the end of the descent spat us out directly opposite the acclaimed Clachaig Inn, the logical venue for our subsequent victory drink! What an awesome route, 5hrs from leaving the car.

Cheesy summit photo!

Refreshed, although slightly sore, we meandered back to the main road running through Glen Coe, and hitched a life back up to our car with a kind Italian couple who were en route back to Leeds after spending the last few days on Skye. Driving back through the valley I spent most of the time staring out of the window up at Ossian's Cave and the surrounding crags, dreaming of rock routes up their flanks. One day!

Tom dropped me back at the house and after a shower I demolished two baked potatoes with tuna/mayo/sweetcorn. Washed down with sponge pudding and an orange. Amazing last few days; when the weather is good there is nowhere better to be. Here's to the bright spell continuing!