UKC

Is the road up to the car park free of snow? Thanks 

ps I can read weather forecasts

Hi Ben,

I guess C-19 means you don't need to know any more this year.

****

I just wanted to share a memory of that self same road.

The 23 yr old me and his buddy went camping/ice climbing to Lochnagar. That road impassable, thigh deep snow, so parked in the woods where the plough had stopped, figuring there'd be no more ploughing that winter.

With difficulty hoisted the sacks - almost 70kgs each: food for three weeks, tent, sleeping bags, gear and ropes. Off they go, following the small burn on the right. Hard slog, deep snow, taking turns to lead. No walking poles in those days.

After what seemed like hours, they reach the stand of trees and the phone box. Drop the sacks and brew up. A couple of chocolate digestives later, a snow plough joins them !! Argh !!

If ukclimbing had existed then, we'd have saved ourselves a hell of a work out!

Stay safe in troubled times, and enjoy Lochnagar when you finally get up there!

I'm sure Ben is pleased to finally get something resembling an answer to his 54 day old query. 

That's phenomenal! I've lugged 80lbs (36kg) before, but 11 stone? Chapeau!!

Haha - yup, we were young and dumb. I've still got the rucsac - a lovely pink Karrimor Alpiniste - but helas, not the muscles or the endurance. We each had to help the other get the sacks on; alone we barely got them off the ground, let alone settled with both arms in..

This lockdown lends itself to reminiscences 😀, and thread hijacks.

j

70kgs in a Karrimor Alpiniste? What were you carrying? Plutonium? I still use my Alpiniste, but doubt I could have got 70kgs in it even if I'd wanted to... ...which I wouldn't! I think I'd struggle to find a way of getting 70lbs in to it tbh.

😀. It was the food that did it mainly. We'd planned about 6k calories/day for three weeks. Only freeze dried stuff was potatoes and soup. Then there was the bacon, eggs, chocolate biscuits, tea, litres of milk, meusli and sausages etc, etc. Tent, sleeping bag, karrimat (not lightweight versions) and ropes hung on the outside alongside the axes. The rucsac expands to 80l.

Happy times!