August

Hazy memories of August... Not sure if I've actually done anything, as what I remember is blurred with alcohol and hangovers. I've sorted out a Ph.D. for the next few years so keeping the student dream going, right?

Ah I went to Reiff. Can't really remember what I was doing there, why I was in Inverness in the first place. I remember having a curry and a night out with my dad. Hmmm... Not going into the details too much there. But the next day, I was at Reiff which was really hot. I had a sore head and smelt badly of B.O.. Impressively, I managed to climb an E3 - not bad.

Reiff - Picture from Murdoch Jamieson

A bad part of my visit to Reiff was hurting my foot trying to jump between two wave cut platforms. I'm just about fixed, 2 weeks later.

I cycled to Duntelchaig. I figured I can cycle, I can climb, but I can't really walk so it would be worth a try. There was this man fishing in the loch; he was like: "sore foot?", "yep", "looks sore", "not too bad"... hobble, hobble, hobble. I did some top rope roping and took some photos for this guide so not a complete waste of time. I loved cycling down hill really fast as well.

Video: Mark McGowan

Back in Glasgow, I've joined the routes crazy at Dumby. Tolerance is my route of choice, and I've been working on it with Nic. It's going ok, expect from holds breaking. I'm inexperienced at knowing exactly when to have an attempt. The trade off between recovering between last go, and getting cold is pretty tricky to master and I seem to end up with cold hands quite easily.

Stamina is improving nonetheless, with a trip to Dunkeld where I got Silk Teddies 2nd go.

Just received a new desk - Nice! It has drawers and a slidey bit for my keyboard. The bad part is that it takes up more of my room and what with Dumbuck II, I need to keep things tidy or it'll get out of hand really quickly.