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!