Day fourty-six - Thursday, preparing

Up with alarm at 0800, didn't sleep much due to thoughts of the ridge churning in my head! Food and finished packing all my stuff. Main decision I hadn't decided yet was approach shoes or Sportiva Trango S Evo's - light weight but risky or slightly heavier but safer. Took both in the car! Drove up to the hospital to quickly print off a few copies of the ridge mini-guide to use on the ridge - one for myself, one for Mike and a spare incase either got wet - the forecast wasn't guaranteed... Nipped to Boots to pick up some hyoscine hydrobromide for the ferry (aka Kwells) before powering down the superb road to the ferry port of Tarbert on Harris for my 1140 ferry. Sat in the ferry terminal the guy working there told us we couldn't use the main door of embarking but had to go out round the side - lucky as once outside I realised I'd left my B2's in the car. Still hadn't decided whether to wear approach shoes or boots, but quickly went and grabbed them out of the car before getting on ferry. Fate...

Hebrides ferry to take me to Uig and the Cuillin, on a wet drizzly day

Landed in Uig at 1330 after an uneventful crossing. Headed to one of the port cafe's, unfortunately the kitchen was closed so had to settle for cold sandwidge and pretty rubbish machine coffee. All in all probably should have picked a different one! But at least it was dry inside, unlike outside where the rain was falling with alarming heaviness. I kept telling myself it'll be alright, there's meant to be a weather window tomorrow and Saturday...

Mike arrived just after 1400, great to see him again! Also he rocked up in a 2L diesel turbo 2013 TDI VW Golf - what a hire car! Funny story of how he'd wanted to upgrade, but it was gonna cost too much so he just accepted the keys, walked round to the garage to see a little Fiat Panda waiting for him. Sigh, walked up to it and pressed the button, to which the hazard lights of the TDI Golf parked next to it lit up = score!!

Set off south down Skye to the main town of Portree and to Co-Op for food shopping. I was taking it all very seriously, calculating calories in my head, looking for the balanced electrolyte powder to add to my water - Mike on the other hand was chilled out! I kept reminding him that this is no ordinary route, it's the Cuillin, became a bit of a running joke :) Found a nice little cafe for a late lunch of mac cheese and bacon, overlooking a very wet harbour - the rain hadn't stopped yet. Drove down to Sligachan (pronounced sli-ga-han with a quick middle 'ga') and discussed tactics before sorting through all the gear and kitting up. Gear wise we took wires 10/8/7/6/5, 3x 120cm slings, 2x 240cm slings, my 60m half rope and belay plates/prussics. The mini-guide recommends 45m rope but I wasn't gonna chop mine so just carried the excess weight round. Could defo use a shorter rope - I've since looked at a 7.9mm 50m rope for ~£100 on rockrun, would have been better. Clothing was long sleeved merino base layer, fleece and hardshell, leggings and hardshell trousers - could have left the waterproof trousers had weather looked better. In end was glad I took them! Footwear I opted for my Sportiva Trango S Evo boots in the end - was still raining when we were setting off and approach shoes would have been soaked before even getting to ridge.

Plan was to leave car parked at Sligachan hotel and take all camping stuff up to Loch Coir a'Ghrunnda, a lochan at 700m near the start of the ridge. Hitched a lift down to Glen Brittle - really nice guy picked us up in a Volvo estate. He was going to Carbost but we got chatting and he then very kindly drove us all the way to Glen Brittle instead - legend! Arrived at the campsite there around 1800 and set off on the walk in, looking decidedly D of E-esque - we had small packs for the ridge and our camping stuff wouldn't fit in. I'd brought a big dry sack to stash it all in at the Lochan, and so we'd put our sleeping bags/mats/tent in that and just carried it in our arms on way up, swapping over every so often - not very pro!

Raining on walk in, and the first river we met required a bit of walking upstream before we were able to cross it. Mike went over, I threw the bag to him and jumped across. Back on the path for 30mins we then met another river that we were not going to be able to get across with dry feet. Boots came off, tied round neck and waded across - felt pretty adventurous with river in spate, like we were on a proper expedition! So much water pouring off the hills, tops all enveloped in cloud. Boots back on there were no more rivers to cross on the last bit of the approach. Bit of scrambling at the end then we popped out at the lochan just as dark was setting in, around 2000. Tent up rapidly, it was cold! Couscous first course, followed by chicken/veg/noodle soup for seconds. Finished off with hot chocolate before quickly reviewing route. Lights off by 2200, alarms set for 0430. We were ready for the epic to come!

Day fourty-five - Wednesday

A&E first thing, had a patient that essentially needed a chronic pain review. Complex history, luckily one of the docs in the dept was a GP who knew the patient and so took over. Slow morning after that, with only a finger wound review that came in and took a couple of minutes - essentially a wound had become infected and developed cellulitis but now was clearing up nicely.

Lunch then a dramatic looking knee injury came in, large laceration across the patellar around 15cm long. Couldn't really do much with it except steristrip and dress, as sutures would not take in the thin skin and would probably pull out with all the bending movements. Required good irrigation first before one of the ENPs sorted out the dressing. Another patient then required an im injection into the gluteus, was good to go over the safe injection site knowledge from first year anatomy sessions! Intramuscular injection is really straightforward but I haven't had the chance to do many so far, maybe in GP I'll be giving out more immunisation injections. So was good to go over it.

A good samaritan then dropped off a head injury patient at the department, having picked them up after seeing them fall over. Did the full assessment, history, examination, cranial nerves, neuro exams. No worrying symptoms (vomiting/loss of consciousness/severe headache/amnesia) so after review they were given some head injury advice including things to look out for over the next 24 hrs and discharged. Then two majors patients came in, both chest pains. The first had a complex cardiac history but was fairly well, the second had no history and was pretty sick. Took bloods and helped clerk them in before leaving them in the hands of the docs and heading home for some dinner. Another satisfying day, saw quite a lot and reviewed stuff I wasn't too strong on.

Rang Mike in the evening - the forecast for Sunday was apocalyptic so I decided to head over to Skye tomorrow morning, try the ridge Friday and come back Saturday evening. The ferry would probably be cancelled on Sunday due to the weather and I didn't want to get stranded on Skye! Downloaded the Skye ridge mini-guide from Rockfax website, had a quick read and pulled some of my kit together. Left most of the packing for the morning as it was pretty late by then. Psyched!

Day fourty-four - Tuesday

Spent the morning sorting out admin stuff, cancelling bills on the flat and trying to get my deposit back - landlord being a bit slow but should defo get it all back after buying a new oven and repainting the entire flat for him!

Into A&E shortly after midday, first patient had unfortunately been hit in the eye by an object, so took history, had a go at an eye examination before dropping some proxymetacaine/fluoroscein in - a mixture of anaesthetic to numb the eye and a dye to show up any abrasions/defects on the cornea. Then the ENP got the slit lamp out and we studied the cornea - fairly obvious abrasion just above the pupil, shown up really clearly by the dye. Quick xray to confirm no foreign body and then they were discharged with some eye drops. Next we prepared for a 999 ambulance call of a chest pain/collapse, doctors came down, nurses prepped the resus room, everyone on edge - that was until the patient was wheeled in smilling and talking to everyone. Stand down!

After sorting that all out it was a bit slow until the end of the afternoon when the orthopod came down and sorted out two patients, the first an ongoing knee problem which was diagnosed as soft tissue injury. The second was much more interesting, a fracture-dislocation of a finger - fairly easy spot diagnosis as the finger was pointing a different way to all the other ones. Xray, then saw the orthopod do a ring block on the finger before manipulating it back into place, on the second go there was an audible snap sound as the joint relocated. Quick xray to confirm and then discharge with buddy strapping/splint and review in a week at fracture clinic. Great to see the ring block and manipulation, must be really satisfying to perform. The neurovascular status of the finger was ok before hand, had capillary refill and sensation, but immediately after relocation the finger did turn a darker shade of red as blood rushed back in so obviously some of the vessels had been occluded.

Left back to the flat for a quick bite to eat before heading down to the pool again for a few lengths of front crawl - doing 2 lengths consistently and starting to get a rolling feeling going in the stroke. Good fun but tiring! 10mins in the sauna (this leisure centre is awesome) and back via Co-Op to pick up some food. Dinner of bangers/mash with double cream in the mash = calorie replacement! Lovely.

Day fourty-three - Monday

beep... beep... BEEP BEEP BEEP - groggily surfaced from deep sleep to the blaring of an alarm in our corridor. Pulled my phone over, checked the time. 0430. What the... Out into the corridor saw it was the fire alarm going off. All the doors opened as people leaned out, collectively wondering what was going on. Guess we had to evacuate the building, sigh. I grabbed my belay jacket on the way out, glad of it once outside - it was freezing! Stars were out though. Everyone from the accomodation on the south side of Laxdale had evacuated, and around 5mins later two fire engines rocked up. Reminded me of halls in first year! Obviously it was a false alarm. After the firemen had sullenly checked every block they drove off, guess we could go back in then. 5hrs later my alarm went off again and the day began...

Fire engine drama at 0430

Into A&E by 1100, greeted by a fairly empty waiting room, maybe it was going to be a slow day? Saw a patient straight away, surgical problem, took history/examined/cannulated/bloods. Drew up provisional action plan, but with a complex history the surgeons were going to decide what to do with them eventually. Met up with the Aberdeen students and had some lunch in the doctors room.

Back in A&E by 1400 and patients had started streaming through the doors. Saw a good variety of stuff all afternoon, every room (all four of them/five if you count the corridor bed which was in use at one point) was full from 1500 to 1900. Loads of patients, everyone went into proper work mode and I think I was actually able to help out by clerking some of them, presenting to juniors and getting them shifted either home or into the hospital. Saw a bit of trauma/spine stuff, chest pain, stuff that should have gone to GP, surgical stuff. Then just as A&E was quietening down the crash bleep went off - I was running down the corridor with the doc when the door to our right flew open and another group of 3 nurses/docs joined us from upstairs, all very dramatic. Thankfully nothing major once we arrived, but took a little time to sort everything out before leaving.

Headed back to flat by 2000 for spag bol and a brew - successful day. Chatted to Mike about Skye this weekend, gonna give the Cuillin ridge traverse a go, weather permitting. The ferry over is only £11 return for foot passenger from Tarbert to Uig! Internet in the flat wasn't working so made my way up to the library at the hospital for an hour to send some emails. Met Andrea/Mark up there before going back. Hope tomorrow is as busy as this afternoon was!

Day fourty-two - Sunday

After yesterday's horrendous effort with getting up I was determined to make proper use of the day, so when my alarm went off at 0800 I had no excuses, even if it was a Sunday. Porridge/coffee and packed everything up before setting off in the car for the long drive to south-west Harris, aiming for a small place called Abhainn Suidhe, at the southern end of Gleann Uladail. Weather was absolutely glorious driving south through Lewis, and had Feeder blasting out the radio. Some of the roads just make me imagine a helicopter tailing me, filming a top gear shot in washed out colours and mic'd up engine sounds, so much fun to drive. Roads were empty too, with it being a Sunday morning. Passed a few elderly men walking alongside the single track road off the main road, guess they'd just come back from church. Took just over an hour to drive to the start point.

Boots on, it was looking decidedly overcast down on this end of the island. Set off around 1030, first a bit of a road bash. Had the choice of this at the start or the end, so opted for the former to be kind to my knees at the end of the day! Steep ascent up Cleiseabhal (512m), no paths to speak of on the entire round. Was combining two routes I'd seen on walkhighlands, the main attraction being Sron Uladail and it's spectacular cliff. Shortly into the walk I came across some fresh peat cuttings - the main fuel source for the islanders...

Top of Cleiseabhal, with Tiorga Mor (679m) centre and Oireabhal (662m) to the right

Once up there was a fairly consistent ridge without too much variation in height, so pleasant walking all the way north to the summit of Sron Uladail (442m), where I could sense the brooding cliff below me but hadn't yet seen it! Passed a group of american hillwalkers, one of whom stated "I can't believe how big this island is!" Didn't quite know what to say! Spotted a mountain hare, just had time to get out the budget binoculars to get a close up. Pretty sure I saw a big eagle too, not sure what type.

Air was really clear giving great views, if a little cloudy higher up

So much rock everywhere, but no sizeable crags. Until...

Contoured down to gain the stalking path that runs up the base of the gleann, had a spot of lunch at the head of Loch Aiseabhat. Then contoured up the opposite slope to Creagan Leathan, and before long was rewarded with a spectacular first view of the cliff of the Sron, guarding the valley! Onward to the top of the ridge and stopped for a while at two small bodies of water to finish my lunch and study the cliff through my binoculars, trying to work out the climbing lines. Spent a good 10mins eyeing it up. The actual climbing part of it must only be around 100-150m tall, but it's so overhanging it's unreal. Also the setting is immense, with the backdrop of flat ground stretching to the sea, peppered with lochs. Incredible. One day I'll be back, - my climbing stuff will be in my rucksack, I'll have a partner to share the adventure and I'll be climbing E6! (Ok, maybe not the last one...) The original aid route put up by Doug Scott et al has been freed to give an E6, but there are alternate lines down to HVS. Super psyched. If you walk in the stalkers path along the valley floor it would be a really quick walk in too.

Boom, the massive cliff of Sron Uladail!

Wow. Just wow.

Hanging out with the Sron

Made tracks south, heading up towards Tioga Mor. Spotted 3 deer on the ridge, so went into stalking mode, trying the walk slowly up the hill with binoculars in hand. They were backlit and above me so didn't get a very good view and then they disappeared. Disappointed I carried on upwards, glancing backwards occassionally until I caught sight of one again, now above them. Crouched down with my binoculars and was rewarded with an entire herd then bounding onto the top of the ridge!! Must have been about 60 initially, the first half continuing over and out of sight, the second sticking around on top for a bit. I counted 29, a whole range of baby ones, young stags with antlers. Watched them for a while before they too rounded the side of the hill and retreated into the privacy of the far slopes.

The last top of Tiorga Mor (679m) was reached before long, and there was another orienteering stamp on top, similar to An Cliseam but without the laminated card. Weather was turning, again it was really cold in the wind, hands going numb again so had to keep them in my pockets! Had a fairly decent view of St Kilda as well from this summit, crouched down in the summit shelter with binoculars out. The air was very clear.

Looking back at the ridgeline I'd walked earlier in the day

If you look closely in the centre you can make out St Kilda and the surrounding islands

Descended the southeast ridge of Tiorga Mor, nice rocky scrambling sections leading right down to the hydroeletric power station and track back to the car. 20min hike down this and I was back at the car, 5h30m after setting off. Reckon it was about 20km in total, and I stopped quite a lot for wildlife/cliff viewing! Taking off my boots I noticed a tick crawling along my leg, don't think it had started munching on my blood as wasn't swollen or embedded so quickly brushed it off, no Lymes disease for me. Started getting midged so sped off fairly quickly in the car. Passed a tiny little primary school on the road, must be only a handful of students!

Back at the flat by 5ish, quick shower before delivering the roast supplies to the Aberdeen flat then skyping Alice. Had a bit of a disaster with their oven - turns out the grill on oven mode is much better than the actual oven! So we left Mark (the new Aberdeen student) tending to the rotation system to ensure everything got cooked properly whilst the rest of us watched Crash in Tim's room. Not sure what to make of the film really! Some bits were clever, some bits we all worked out before and then it got really tiring when they kept making oh-so-subtle references to it, some bits were just plain nauseating. Enjoyed it though!

By 9ish the roast was cooked and Mark had put on a great effort, laying the table and everything! Cracked open the vino and demolished the dinner in about 10mins - quite amusing to think it was gone so quickly after 3 hours to cook. Clearing up afterwards one of the Aberdeen lot had a minor incident with a smashed wine glass - cue too-many-med-students! Soon determined his airway was still patent, after the obligatory forgetting to check for danger ;) Bandaged up, we then played a bit of mini-pool before turning in. Great day, certainly more productive than yesterday!

Day fourty-one - Saturday

Wow, incredibly lazy morning. Alarm went off at 1000, read a bit of BBC News, replied to a few whatsapp, fell asleep, woke up again at 1400... ahem. Mid afternoon breakfast before wasting most of the remaining afternoon browsing internet/wikipedia/facebook. What am I doing with my Saturday?! On the plus side did discover the TV room here...

At about 5ish I got a grip of myself and headed down to the pool. Mens only swimming for an hour, although they didn't have direction signs for lengths so everyone was just going forwards and backwards on one line independently = not enough room for all of us! Bad times. Felt like the front crawl was getting easier, consistently doing 50m without stopping - obviously not very good but baby steps. Guy in a tri suit in the pool, started giving me tips about technique...

Stopped off at Co-Op on way home to pick up a chicken and some veggies for roast tomorrow with the Aberdeen students. Made a big batch of spag bol once back, should see me through next week. Chilled all evening, skyped various people. And so finished an unbelievably unremarkable Saturday. (Sunday was more interesting if you want to read on!)

Day fourty - Friday

Day started slowly, with a bit of a late rise! Was thinking of going in but was knackered after yesterday's effort on the hill and the training in the evening so ended up staying in the flat. Did lots of useful stuff, admin type things - sorting out term dates for next year, going through some situational judgement test (SJT) stuff from uni and then starting to look at the dreaded FPAS... This is the 'foundation programme application system', a new name for MTAS 'medical training application system' which a few years ago was so full of flaws that they decided to radically overhaul it - by renaming it.

Every final year medical student in the country will apply through FPAS in October for their foundation posts - their jobs for the next two years. It works in two stages, first you get assigned an area of the country - which has been divided into complex foundation school or deanery arrangements, which are constantly changing and counter intuitive. For example North West included Barrow and Lancaster in Cumbria, but not Whitehaven which is included in Northern. Lots of weird things like that. So after being assigned an area you then rank every single junior doctor job within that area and the computers whirr again before spitting you out your jobs. It's all decided on your EPM 'educational performance measure', 50% of which is made up of your time at medical school (6 years of higher education for me) and the other 50% coming from 70 multiple choice questions sat in a 2hr exam, aka the SJT... So bizarre, how your entire medical school career counts for the same amount as the SJT!! And in fact it's slightly less as there's some extra points for additional degrees. After a few hours browsing numerous websites claiming to 'demystify' FPAS I wasn't really any the wiser, and so headed out to meet Jonny from HebSAR at 1800 for a spot of mountain biking instead!

Nice bike that Jonny leant me, a Cube Aim Disc!

Met Jonny in the golf club carpark in Lews Castle grounds. He runs a bike hire business and kindly leant me one of his bikes to ride for the evening, a really nice Cube hardtail. One his mates came along for the trails, normally they have a good group of them on a Friday evening but as it's the end of summer a lot of people are away apparently. Go going on the trails before long - really cool specially designed mountain bike trails. They're really new, and in fact some of them haven't been finished yet. The other two knew them like the back of their hands, so I was just following, trying to keep up... When they both rocked up in shin pads/gloves I felt a bit of a numpty in my hoody!

Great views over Stornoway harbour and town

Beautiful evening for a ride, sun low on the horizon and blue sky. Midges were out though, so couldn't stop for long without getting annihilated! The trails were quite short, only taking a couple of minutes downhill to ride, but there were loads of them that we linked up to make great circuits. Amazing to have this facility literally across the harbour from the town, and all for free! After warming up on some of the easier tracks we tackled the more technical ones, with rocky drop off's and split logs to ride along.

Jonny and his mate, part of the Friday night biking crew!

Beautiful evening to be out riding

After an hour of riding Jonny's mate had to head off but we carried on for another 30mins, heading right up to the top of the grounds for some more superb views before one last long descent through the trails. Along the way I was chatting to Jonny about his summer ML - he's going for his training in October. Back at the car, 1h30m after starting my legs were wasted, still feeling the run from yesterday on top of some hard biking! Got a lift back to the flat in his pimped out Golf, covered in mud.

Quick bite to eat before heading out to town with the Aberdeen med students for 9ish. Went to MacNeil's, the irish bar in the middle. Not that busy, was expecting it to be rammed on a Friday night. Jonny joined us later on and after a couple of drinks we got turfed out as it was closing, moving on to The Lewis bar. Possibly a bit of an error, was dead, with the only people in being either alcoholics or underagers! Another few drinks before again being turfed out, second time in one night! Did a spot of lapping - the local past time here. The idea is to walk around the town, doing 'laps'. I'd highly recommend it. You can either do it on foot or in a car, indeed after a couple of minutes walking I'd already spotted the same cars coming round 3 or 4 times! Bit of late night sustenance from the chippy before heading back to the flat.

Guinness in MacNeil's - when in Rome...