Lejog Cycle June 09

This is my Lands end to John O Groats cycle ride June 09. Unsupported over 11 Days. 985miles with a headwind all the way :-)

Ben Nevis June 09

Whilst Cycling from Lands end to John O Groats last year June 09. I stopped off at Fort William to have a quick run up Ben Nevis to pass some time on. I was a little in front of myself on my cycling Lejog, so went up the Ben. Great day! after I came back down I cycled to Fort Augustus.. Brilliant times :-) Did the Lejog cycle in 11 Days unsupported.

On Saturday 20th March 2010 after finishing work for the day I had a choice, do I go straight home and call in for a curry on the way back, or do I go to the Gym on the way home ?

Thing is.. I decided to do neither of those.

Instead I headed from Chapel en le Frith to Llanberis it was 6pm and I was on my way towards North Wales. By the time I arrived at Llanberis the sun had set and the time was 7.30pm. I parked my car on one of the local streets and started to walk up the steep ascent of the Llanberis path, the night was clear and cold with a starry sky with odd bits of broken clouds whizzing by, but I could see the summit of Snowdon covered in cloud!

Onwards and upwards, by the time I had walked about 15mins I realised I had forgotten my bottle of water. The only liquid was 2 cans of Redbull (That will do). Off I went and could not help thinking "I wonder if there will be anyone else up here tonight" There wasn't by the way!

With that thought I carried on regardless after around 80mins of constant walking/jogging I had reached the cloud base (Around 3/4 of the way up just past the small tunnel) My sense of distance and direction was fading in the cloud, with large patches of snow still around made it a little challenging!

I opted to follow the train tracks.. after a couple of minutes that became a poor idea as the tracks were covered Deep in snow! Right... whats the plan now Mr F ?

I did have an idea... there is a path that was a little climb up from the train tracks, so I headed up the snow patch and eventually did reach what I thought was the path. From there I carried on in the direction I thought was correct, and it was correct (phew!)

By this time I was on the final push for the summit, around this area was very slippery in places, and a little more snow covering most of the path up and the wind was very brisk the nearer the top!

I've made it and its 9.30pm (Summit). Yeah.... now lets get behind the summit post out of that wind. Did I tell you I also forgot to bring my Gloves !! Yep fingers were getting chilly, I was trying to take a pic of myself at the top but my phone was having none of it. I took my head torch off and pointed the light on the summit post (See above pic) then when the dimming light shone on the top trig point I got my phone camera out once again and snap ... (got it, a pic Yeah)

Right I'm out of here... I have to track my route back out of the clouds and back to my path I came up on. Not an easy task in this cloud and snow on the ground. But I traced my steps and did descend down and out of the clouds to find the wind had dropped off and the starry night was back (Perfect night)

I got back to my car at 10.45pm. All in all a great night. Got back home at 2am, and was in work the next day (Ouch!)