Just had a great weekend with my brother Angus when we climbed the classic Twisting Gully (III,4) on Stob Coire nan Lochan yesterday and went mountain biking all round the Torlundy/Leanachan area today.
Had headed to SCNL with Original/Raeburn’s Route in mind, but changed our objective when it became apparent that we’d have to wait some time to get started on that. So lined up behind one other party (not apparent as we left the foot of Raeburn’s) on Twisting, which proved to be a lovely route with the main difficulties concentrated low down and over quite quickly, but quite bold for the grade at the crux on the day with most of the obvious gear well buried. Have to say the Coire was busy with Glen Coe looking the place to be from MWIS and SAIS forecasts, but still good to see most of the more amenable classics getting climbed with Original/Raeburn’s, SC Gully, Moonshadow, Twisting Gully, Twisting Grooves, Dorsal Arete (mobbed as usual, although we could have been first on if we’d wanted it!), Boomerang Gully (+ Arete?) and maybe more seeing ascents. Helicopter also spied buzzing up and down Coire Gabhail as we returned over Stob Coire nan Lochan, but believed to be on exercise?
So that was Twisting, but how about the turning? Well, I’m afraid that’s just some silly alliteration (maybe something to do with pedalling?) that popped into my head while trying to tie today’s mountain bike ride into the same blog post. Which means I can now tell you that I took my nice new bike, we borrowed a bike for Angus (his is in Seattle!) from Noel, and went riding for a good three hours. During which we met some friends at the finish of the Lochaber AC Leanachan Race (on today), I learned a lot (like I’m pretty fit but a novice rider, both of which I already knew) and probably looked like a complete noob except that nobody except Angus was there to see most of the time!
Sorry the MTB photo isn’t even slightly sharp, but the only sharp ‘action’ shot of the batch was also the least dynamic…
