Cuillin Ridge: Attempt 2

Ok, I know I'm bit behind on the blog. Let's go back to August. The short story is that our second attempt of the Cuillin Ridge in Skye was not entirely successful, though we got much further than on the first attempt! The long story (along with a few pictures) can be found by clicking here.

Canada

I took a trip to Canada to visit Chris’ family and explore the Toronto area. Chris gave me a brief tour of Toronto, Oakville (the town in which he grew up), and Hamilton (his college town). We also spent a few days at his cottage, about two hours north of Toronto on Six Mile Lake. We toured the lake, swam, lounged on the dock, enjoyed a marvelous thunderstorm, and he even taught me to paddle a canoe (well, he tried to teach me at least). We took a long day trip via canoe between some of the lakes near his cottage and out into Georgian Bay, which was an absolutely wonderful day. Six Mile Lake reminded me a bit of Pactola Lake, making me miss home!We spent the weekend at the Toronto Indy car race watching his younger brother, James, race. The race was exciting, and James came in 14th, after racing very well yet getting caught up in a couple minor collisions. The event concluded with a wonderful afterparty on a rooftop patio.
It was nice to experience a slice of real summer (100F instead of 60F) and relax around Toronto! Now, time to buckle down and get back to my research for a few weeks.

Cuillin Ridge: Attempt 1

I suppose the title of this blog might hint at how successful this trip was. Andrew and I failed in our attempt to do the entire Cuillin Ridge in one day, but it was an immensely fun learning experience. Our biggest downfalls were weather and navigation. Attempt 1 went something like this:
Day 1: We flew into Inverness, hired a car, and drove along Loch Ness (no Nessie sighting) and over to the Isle of Skye. We arrived in Glenbrittle, our base for the climb, and went on a short hike in the rain to get out into the hills. The ridge becomes slippery and dangerous in the rain, so we were very anxious for it to let up.
Day 2: We awoke to more rain, which continued throughout the afternoon. We hung around the hostel analyzing weather reports and organizing and packing gear and food for an attempt on the ridge that we weren’t sure we were going to get- the forecast didn’t look good. It looked like our best chance was the next day, despite the fact that it had been raining all day and we knew the rock would be hopelessly wet if it didn’t let up soon. We finally decided that we had to make a go for it, so we took off around 6:30pm with the intention of hiking into the hills and to the top of the first munro (peak), where we would bivouac for the night and start early the next day.
The hike in was muddy and rainy, but at first pleasant. We needed to cross three rivers which normally were not a big deal, but after the amount of rain the region had received, the rivers were roaring! Nervously and carefully we crossed one person at a time, and although we ended up very wet, the crossings were successful.
After about 2.5 hours we reached the base of the first munro, Gahrs Bein. The climb began with a grassy uphill slog, which wore me out. I was a bit sick, and probably hadn’t eaten enough that day, having totally underestimated the difficulty of our approach hike. After the grass came an endless scree slope. The fog descended, leaving us with a visibility of about 30 feet. The scree was very hard going, and about one third of the way up I hit a wall, ready to collapse of exhaustion. I stopped to eat some fudge (it became obvious that my blood sugar was just too low, causing me to bonk) and drink some water. The next 2.5 hours were officially miserable, but we were in the middle of a very steep slope, in poor weather, and worried a bit about hypothermia, so there was little choice but to push ahead. We finally reached the summit at midnight, where we set up the tent and cooked dinner as quickly as possible. I felt much better after getting calories and hot liquid in me, but after crawling into my sleeping bag I found that my entire body was cramping up. After an hour of cramping and shivering, I finally managed to warm up and fall asleep. We decided to put off our morning start from 3am to 5am in order to get at least a few hours of sleep.

Day 3: We awoke in the clouds, but the night had been rain-free. We cooked up some oatmeal while checking the weather on our phones. As the forecast remained the same, we decided to go for it, despite the wet rock and poor visibility. We packed all the gear we didn’t need into a dry bag and secured it near the summit to return to later (we knew we needed to travel as light and quickly as possible). We then took off. The visibility was about 40 feet, so staying on our intended route was difficult. The first few hours were relatively easy, requiring only minor route adjustments, and there were times in which the clouds cleared for a few seconds allowing us to glimpse the entirety of the Cuillin Ridge.

All our munro summit pictures look similar to this... picturesque white background!

After 4.5 hours of hiking along the ridge and hitting 4 munros, we encountered a section of rock that was a bit daunting. We were convinced that we had lost our intended route, and we weren’t willing to climb the section given the wet and very exposed rock. We spent the next hour searching for alternative routes, finally finding our way into the next gully. Unfortunately, the climb out of the gulley was also more than we had bargained for. It would have been daunting if the rock had been dry; the wet conditions and poor visibility made it clear that we were climbing no further that day.
We spent the next few hours attempting to bypass this section of the ridge, in hope of finding better conditions further along. This was rather unsuccessful, and we finally decided to retreat via one of the escape routes. We had a very pleasant descent, and within five hours we were back at the hostel.

Day 4: After a dry night, we set out to return to the ridge via our escape route from the previous day. We hiked along happily, and when we reached the scree slope which we needed to climb, we began the tough slog upwards. After two hours of ascent, we stopped to confirm our location on the map. To our amazement, we finally decided we had not only been ascending the wrong scree slope, but we were in the wrong valley, about 2 miles from where we had meant to be! (In our defense, the visibility was terrible…). Unwilling to backtrack, we changed our plans and headed towards the ‘Inaccessible Pinnacle,’ one of the highlights of the Cuillin Ridge traverse.

Fun scrambling (above) and a tight squeeze (below).Three hours (and one munro summit) later we arrived at the Pinnacle, roped up, and took off vertically.

Andrew in front of the Inaccessible Pinnacle.

We climbed about 10 meters unroped, set up a belay station, and I led up the rock, placing a few pieces of gear as I went. Andrew soon yelled that I was nearing the end of the rope, so I found a secure spot and belayed him up to me. We decided that he would lead the second pitch, so once he reached me, we transferred gear and he continued upwards. About 30 seconds later I heard ‘Um, I’m at the top.’ The visibility was so poor that I had failed to realize that I had set up a belay station only 3 meters from the top of the pinnacle! Once on top, we rappelled down. By this time it was getting late and we descended via another escape route and returned to the hostel.

Rappelling off the Inaccessible Pinnacle

Day 5: We set off from the hostel at 3am (after approximately one hour of sleep) in order to return to the first summit where we had left all our bivouc gear. We hiked along in the rain, and we were happy to find that a few days of lighter rain had caused the rivers to go down quite a bit. The river crossings were much less hairy, and within only 2 hours we were at the bottom of Gahrs Bein. We began the long upward slog, attempting to follow a slightly different and easier route from the Day 3. Within 30 minutes we were surrounded by fog and we were once again on the scree slope in poor visibility. We pushed onward for 1.5 hours until we began to sense we were nearing the summit. However, we then became worried; this area didn’t look familiar. Andrew and I both silently wondered if the poor visibility had again pushed us onto an unintended munro. We pushed on for another few minutes and finally pulled ourselves over a lip and onto the summit. To our amazement and great relief, there sat our dry bag of gear, exactly as we had left it! We quickly transferred gear to our packs and began the rough descent back down the scree field and towards the car. We quickly showered at a campsite and began our six hour drive back to the airport, arriving just in time to catch our flight home.

Andrew with our recovered dry bag of gear holding the note with our contact info.

Overall, the attempt wasn’t as successful as we had hoped. We discovered that, just as everyone had told us, the Cuillin Ridge is pretty dicey when the rock is wet and that navigation is difficult in poor visibility. We learned some important lessons along the way, and we’ll definitely tackle the Cuillin a bit differently next time. Yes, next time. The challenge of the Cuillin Ridge is too enticing, and we’ll be returning in only a few weeks.

Only a few days until the Cuillin Ridge

For the last couple of months, Andrew(my climbing partner here in Oxford) and I have been planning a trip to the Isle of Skye to do the Full Cuilin Ridge Traverse. Known as one of the hardest and most famous routes in the UK and one of the finest alpine-style rock climbing routes in Europe, the Cuillin Ridge Traverse consists of 14 munros spread over 12km with over 3000m of height gain and descent.
In two days we will fly up to Skye, rent a car, and drive over to the Cuillin mountains. We'll have three days in which to hopefully give ourselves a 24 hour period of good weather to attempt the ridge. While it's technically not too difficult, route finding and poor weather make for a very low success rate among climbers. Luckily, there are many escape paths down to a road which leads to two towns in the area.

We will hike in to the base of the first mountain and set up camp. Providing we get good weather, we will take off around 3:30am the next morning in order to take advantage of all the daylight possible. We will leave most of our gear there and travel as light as possible. If the weather holds and if we manage to stay on track, we expect to finish the ridge in just under 18 hours. If we encounter difficulties with navigation (likely), we're looking at a bit longer. If weather moves in, we'll either abandon the attempt and make our way off the mountains at our first chance, or take shelter among the rocks and and emergency bivvy bag until it's safe to descend. Once the rocks are wet, all attempts are off, so our fingers are crossed for good weather.

Below, one of the highlights of the route, the 'Inaccessible Pinnacle'
In order to train for this trip, Andrew and I took a trip up to Snowdonia in Northern Wales two weeks ago to do some hiking and climbing. After leaving late and getting a bit lost, we arrived at the hut at 1am, only to find that we were actually locked out of the hut (poor planning on my part)! We spent a decent night in the car, and arose to rain the next morning. We set off, and the rain soon let up. We managed a good day of climbing before encountering a white-out and 60mph winds at around 7pm, at which point we relented. The next day brought pretty good weather, and we got in some more climbing, scrambling, and hiking. I absolutely love the area around Snowdonia!
Here we are, trying not to blow away from the gusts,
And soon after trying not to get too lost in the white-out,
And the next day on the summit of Tryfan (this was not what we set out to do... but we lost our intended route and decided to head for the summit anyway).
And a decent down the Nor-Nor Gulley, after climbing up most of the east face of Tryfan.

We leave for the Cuillin on Saturday and will return on Wednesday. Wish us luck with the weather and navigation! I can't wait!

Summer VIII's rowing

Summer Eights is a four day regatta of rowing races among all of the colleges at Oxford, taking place in May on the Isis River. It includes around 160 boats, over 1400 participants, and thousands of spectators lining the banks. As the Isis is generally too narrow for side-by-side racing, Summer Eights is a bumps race: for each division, thirteen boats line up at the downstream end of the river, with 1.5 lengths separating them, and at the gun everyone takes off; the goals is to bump the boat in front of you before you're bumped by the boat behind you. Bumping includes any contact between boats, blades, or persons from one boat to another.

A boat's starting position in the race is determined by last year's finish. Each day it is possible to move up one spot, move down one spot, or stay in the same spot, depending on whether they bump, are bumped, or neither (it's also possible to overbump, gaining two spots, but that's rare). Balliol's Women's First boat finished Head of the River (1st place) last year, a first for our women, and a huge honor. As this year's race approached, one of our eight rowers was injured. It was assumed that the place would be filled by a member of Balliol's second boat (not ideal, but what do you do?). However, five days before the start of the race, I received an email from the captain of the boat: 'So, I know your achilles is still healing, but would you be interested in rowing in Summer VIII's? Unfortunately, this is not a joke.' As this was one email of about 50 in my inbox at the time, I quickly typed a response that I would think about it and that we could chat later. At this time, I didn't realize the race was just five days away!

To cut the story short, I gave it a try, and my achilles felt fine. Although I hadn't rowed in over a year (and even then, my total experience was 8 weeks!), the crew thought I was the best option they had. Rowers work years and train incredibly hard in the hope of one day rowing as a Headship crew, and here I had just walked right into the boat at the last minute possible. I was amused, excited to be back competing again (even if it was just rowing), and very worried that I would screw things up for them! I just needed to not screw up for about a six minute race each day...

Day 1: We kept a comfortable distance between ourselves and Teddy Hall (2nd) long enough for Wadham (3rd) to catch them, allowing us to relax a bit through the finish line.
Day 2: A very close race! We just managed to hold our distance against Wadham (now 2nd). A little too close for comfort! In the meantime, Pembroke(4th) caught Teddy Hall(now 3rd), meaning that Pembroke would chase Wadham in day 3.
Day 3: We held off Wadham (2nd) long enough for Pembroke (now 3rd) to catch up and bump them. We had an easy coast to the finish. But that meant we would be racing against Pembroke in the final day for the headship. We knew they were faster than us. But not only do they have to be faster, but they also have to make up 1.5 boat lengths of separation over the course of the race.
Day 4: The race began well, but out of the corner of our eyes we saw Pembroke slowly gaining on us. Soon they were within feet of our boat, and I think all of us knew we were about to be caught. But instead of giving in, everyone was determined to hold them off for as many strokes as possible. Suddenly, I noticed the distance between us widen rather quickly, and I heard the crowds on the bank go wild. A member of the Pembroke crew had 'caught a crab,' meaning they hadn't gotten their blade out of the water in time and it had gotten caught. Pembroke was forced to stop dead in the water in order to fix it. Catching crabs is not uncommon at all, and happens especially often under pressure. A split second mistake by one of their rowers had given us a break. We rowed on past the largest crowd, watching our distance increase further and further. Pembroke managed to get going again, but at this point we knew that, as long as we could hold it together, the headship was ours. We crossed the finish line, retaining 'Head of the River' status for one more year, and doing so with a non-rower in the boat! Winning Summer Eights earns the Headship crew personalized blades, so I will now be returning to the states with a highly coveted Headship blade, for my three days of training and four days of racing!

Ok, now some pictures. Below we're setting off from the boathouse down towards the start line. Each race is separated by a warm-up period for the next division of boats to race.
A couple photos of us warming up,A picture of us racing on either day 2 or 3,
Racing through the area with most the boathouses,
And the final day- we're taking the boat off the water after winning the Headship. The crew was unbelievably excited, and I felt privileged to have helped them achieve their goal.
One of my favourite photos: This is probably 45 seconds after we saw that Pembroke had caught a crab. We were pulling away and just starting to realize that we still had a shot to win.
Below is a link to a video of the last half of the race on the final day, taken by a member of another college. The video starts right as Pembroke is about to bump us (though it's in the distance), and you watch us pull away. Pembroke was stopped for so long that they were almost caught by Wadham(3rd), and had to zigzag across the river in an evasive technique.
Day Four Balliol W1
Finally, a picture of our cox, the crew, and our coach at the celebratory dinner that evening.

Rhodes Ball: 'You only live twice'

'You only live twice, Mr. Bond.' This Bond themed night started out with wine in our Holywell Bar before the event. Just to make for confusing pictures, yes, I did switch dresses 20 minutes into the evening.
We were then off to Rhodes house where we had chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne in the Rhodes garden. The picture below is with three lovely fellow Americans, Cait, Lindsay, and Aisha.
Then back into the hall for a delicious four course meal,
with wonderful company.
Dinner was followed by a Jazz Orchestra, casino and arcade games, croquet on the lawn, post-dinner snacks, hours of dancing, and many martinis. Oddly, I don't remember Mr. Bond ever having a hangover...

Michael and Becky

Michael and Becky came to visit in mid-April and caught the prime of Oxford's spring. We had 10 days of uncharacteristically beautiful weather in which we explored Oxford, Bath, the Cotswolds, and London. I gave them a tour of my lab to show off my micrscope,
and we took a tour of the city, where they got to see the insides of a couple of colleges, followed by a picnic lunch in the quad of Balliol, where you can see the chapel and library behind us.
We walked around Christ Church meadow along the Isis (the Thames, as it flows through Oxford),

and we visited the Eagle and Child, where the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others) did much of there writing in this very corner. We stayed for a couple of pints and a Sunday Roast.
We also hit the History of Science Museum, where Michael posed with a chalkboard Einstein used in a lecture he gave at Oxford,
and the Natural History Museum (where Michael continued his photoshoot).
Just outside Oxford lies Blenheim Palace, built around 1705, residence of the dukes of Marlborough, and birthplace of Winston Churchill.
Exploring the gardens behind the palace we found a Blenheim pheasant,

and a Blenheim Becky.
On a side note, closely related to the Blenheim Becky is the Bath Becky, with a boar, seen below.
After Blenheim we ventured further into the Cotswolds to a small town called Chipping Norton, where we stopped for a cream tea before hiking a small hill overlooking the town.
In Bath we visited the Roman Baths, situated directly adjacent to the Abbey, seen below.

The Roman baths and the accompanying museum was incredibly interesting, and well worth the visit.
We also took a bus-top tour of the city, which was first established as a spa resort by the Romans, and is now a World Heritage Site.
Walking along the river,
and looking across at the Abbey, which was founded in the 7th century and was most recently rebuilt in the 16th century.

Next, we headed to London, where we became super-tourists. We hit numerous tourist destinations in and around London, a few of which:
Hampton Court,
and the surrounding gardens,
a riverboat tour of the Thames (the London Eye in the background),
Buckingham Palace (again, with the Eye in the background here),
Kew Royal Botanical gardens, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, Churchill War Rooms, Greenwich, and Hyde Park. I've posted just a random smattering of pictures here; for the full experience, I refer you to Becky's Picassa album, an impressive, and thoroughly annotated version of their trip, including 1092 pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/scoutsadie
Overall, it was such a fun trip, and absolutely wonderful to get a chance to explore the area with them. I'm already planning their next trip to come see me!