#FootpathFriday
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It's under there, I promise. CMD Arete, with Ben Nevis summit on the right.
My son and brother-in-law descending part of the ridge - we'd done an overnight camp just before this point, and were just getting going again after a fairly muzzy awakening. There are times it's a bit of a struggle getting out of a warm sleeping bag, but we still had the summit to ourselves before anyone else turned up.
We tobogganed down the other side to about 500m off Glen Nevis valley floor - possibly the easiest descent I've ever had off The Ben.
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@Badgardener Wow, that’s an amazing view and must be quite something to experience.
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@Badgardener "Tobogganed" as in slid on an actual wooden toboggan? If so, that was a genius move! (A friend of mine enjoys backcountry sledding.) Even if it was just a glissade, it's a wonderful way to end a climb.
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M mxk@hachyderm.io shared this topic
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D devnull shared this topic
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@Badgardener that approach looks awesome. Would love to get there one day.
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It's one of the classic easy outings in a Scottish winter, and one of the best ways to get up our mighty tallest peak (nearly 4,500ft). The camp in the middle makes it a little more continental.
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My brother-in-law and I have been mountaineering together for a good while. Every so often we used to drag my son along on something slightly uncomfortable; now he's older, he views it all in pretty-much equal parts horror and nostalgia.
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Old fashioned plastic bivvy bags, taken for just that purpose. There's a whole section of zigzags up the scree which are soul destroying in either direction, so shooting a line down through the middle is fairly cathartic.
I was carrying everything else (son was only about 10 at the time), so a sled would have been pushing it.
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@Badgardener nice to actually see it in some sunshine!
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The previous day had been an absolute stunner, and as we were going up onto CMD, we met a bunch of people coming down. It had suckered a bunch, though - there were two parties still on Observatory Ridge when we set up camp, and one of them didn’t top out till late into the night. We got the tail end of the good weather, and the wind was really picking up on the plateau. Clag down into the Glen the next day.
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@Badgardener We can be willing to tackle these challenges and do them well. How we remember doing them is another matter.
I have never had a head for heights so mountains to me will always be something I prefer to be looking up to, not down on.
I do love being in and around them though.
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J jds@sfba.social shared this topic
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Mountains and waterfalls! Clean air and negative ions - genuine therapy for the mind.
On that note, I was talking to a doctor friend the other day, about Mycobacterium Vaccae, the microbe in soil which *may* increase serotonin levels, and they’d never heard about it. They’re also a hugely accomplished gardener (as in, will be in a guest spot on the next series of GW), but it doesn’t appear to have reached the medical profession yet.
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@Badgardener Mountains are a mental health boost for sure
Medical science is starting to realise how important microbes are to health. Pity they are still slow to embrace the importance of healthy, nutritious food as medicine.
And for too many gardeners soil is just a growing medium they put seeds or plants into before they add in their fossil fuel derived chemicals of choice.
My mental health is much improved from getting soil on my hands. I’m happy to give credit to the microbes for that.
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I think I won't be rolling around in it till Tuesday, though - when it's supposed to stop raining.
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@Badgardener I think my weather app must be broken. It’s telling me after tonight’s rain we won’t have any rain for a whole week.
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It might be right, for you. Our forecast has been improving over the last week, so Monday might also be ok.
