Wednesday 24 October 2012

No place like home...

It's been a busy few weeks. Headed out to Japan for my bro's wedding in Tokyo and managed to sneak away for a days climbing with David of Kanto Adventures. After a 0145 bedtime after the wedding and a 0345 getting up time, the train journey out of Tokyo was seen through bleary eyes! After picking up our other climbing companion Kami, we headed out to the mountains! Already I could feel the weight of the city lifting as we traded the skyscrapers and concrete for mountains, trees and rock. We arrived at Futako Yama and started a lovely 7 pitch climb on limestone. Whilst only graded US 5.7 the crux pitch certainly felt quite strenuous and we all agreed it felt pretty stiff for 5.7 ( or about VS in real money!). We finished the day with a dip in some hot springs on the way home and some hearty grub!





I headed down to the Yamanachi region with the family and went for a fantastic little hike for great views of Mt. Fuji. Definitely feel a climbing trip to Japan coming up in the next few years! 


Back  home again and I had a great day taking David and Thuy up Ben Nevis. This was their first time doing anything like this and both did really well. We were met with some fairly cold and wintery weather on the summit but managed a quick 5 minutes in the shelter to warm up before the descent.






I managed to head out a few times to get some practice for my upcoming SPA assessment too. One with Craig in Glen Nevis and on Sunday with Glenda at Kinguissie. Fingers crossed for it at the weekend!
                              

Today Kev and I headed back out Glenfinnan to look at some ongoing projects of ours. Some early morning mist threatened to stay but soon lifted once we got going. An absolutely stunning day reminding me again why it's great to be home!



Kev taking a call in ' the office'