NickTheTrick

Well it's been a while since we've had a big adventure due to an unfortunate incident snowboarding last year, but things finally mended, and after a more relaxing holiday to the Maldives (which i have to say was amazing - great snorkelling), i managed to coax Tarryn (and her mum) into the idea of a trek that had long been on my mind (since the start of this entire blog in fact!). The plan was to return to Peru and, after acclimatising for a few days in Huaraz (perhaps my favourite location in Peru from previous trip) hit the infamous Cordillera Huayhuash (infamous for the 'Touching the Void' story) and do the famous circuit. The only slight catch being that we'd do it unsupported and carry all our food (or at least food till we got ... read more

After the success of our previous year's exploits up Kilimanjaro, another high altitude mountain trip was called for. Initially at least I had to quell Tarryn's desires to summit an 8000m peak, pointing out what I considered the fairly obvious 'danger of death' that no doubt would have had various mothers having kittens. Climbing Kilimanjaro with a set of porters practically carrying us up, would not really equate to strolling up a Himalayan peak on our own across glaciers, crevasses and like. And of course the considerable expense (I do have Scottish genes in me). Fortunately for me at some point Tarryn must have watched a real Himalayan climbing documentary (the one on death on K2), rather than Vertical Limit, and realised that yes it would be a bit extreme. So we settled for an exploratory ... read more

Happy New Year! Ok, but this entry is from 5 months ago, so need to rewind my memory a bit. August saw me off to the California for another interminable week of meetings with work. This time evenings if not the meetings themselves was perked up somewhat by the inclusion of our favourite Geordie, Barry (see pic), into the fold. Our hotel seemed even more stale than the last. My room view, fine, except for the never-ending car park that stretched forward below me and spanned most of my vision. That is Milpitas! Well one evening I went to visit one of my US workmates who kindly cooked for me and we chatted mainly about our other work mates - it was certainly nice to get away from the hotel for a bit! Anyway, fast forward ... read more

I thought I'd chronicle a few days of snowboarding here in Bonnie Scotland for posterity in years to come. It's not every year we get snow like we just had in the last few weeks, and who knows what the following years will bring,,, the demise of skiing in scotland, or a shift in gulf stream and a new beginning? So we had about a foot of snow just at the back of Edinburgh, in the Pentland hills, usually the home of ramblers and mountain bikers, but for 2 weeks boarders and ski mountaineers were to be seen in the mix. I made it up on 4 separate occasions, one of which was after work, i.e. at night time. The snow conditions at from half way down to the bottom were perfect, a good foot of ... read more

Route map:http://www.bikemap.net/route/586134 Day 3 started with an amazing dawn looking over towards the low hills on the south of the Crinan Canal, steeped in some eery low clouds. 3rd day fatigue was setting in, especially as clean clothes were wearing thin, but onwards we rode. Our first destination was out north along the flat flood plain to Kilmartin. There we breakfasted proper (did we have bacon rolls?) at the church cafe, and had a nice wander around the churchyard, admiring some very old Celtic tombstones. From Kilmartin the route wended its way uphill to the start of Loch Awe. Loch Awe is a long loch and on the day we passed extremely calm. The reflection off the surface of the water was almost magical, especially looking through the trees that separated the bank from the road. ... read more