Mountain summits, blue sky beach day and survival island

We have had busy few days at the Adventure School. Tuesday was always looking like our best weather window to climb Ben Stack. The calmest day in an unusually windy week. We took breakfast early before driving from the Adventure School road end to Achfary, the estate village at the foot of the mountain.

The Red and Purple teams set off along the Strath Stack track which winds its way through a pine and larch forest. Once clear of the forest they picked their own lines up the steep southern side of the mountain. The Blue team took a different route, following a prominent rocky scar on the mountain’s eastern flank. The weather was perfect for climbing a mountain. High-level cloud and a steady breeze kept us cool during our efforts.

The different routes converge at a col high on the mountain before the final approach slopes to the summit. All three teams made the top in time for lunch and Conor made the usual radio call to Rebecca at Ardmore to let her know our progress.

All three teams descended along the same road back down to the road and home just in time for showers or a swim before supper.

Beach day comes early

In order the make the very most of the week and to operate around the weather we decided to head for beach day this morning. Strong onshore winds but blue skies and sunshine would mean good conditions and Oldshoremore and some fun to be had in the messy surf coming onto the shore. Too windy at the Adventure School to be able to sea kayak today but plenty of adventure to be had on the golden sands at Oldshoremore. Capture the flag, beach cricket and some great wave jumping were the order of the day and the Blues were all conquering in the tug of war.

We returned to the Adventure School to do the final survival island preparations and gobble down some of Andrew’s amazing lemon cake and some bread and jam. Then to the workboats and off to the island. Sunny skies and stiff winds should lead to good conditions on the island. There was great excitement as we pushed through the waves on Loch A Chadh-fi sending spray flying through the air. After a final briefing, the teams were dropped off on the shore and it was over to them.

As we look across the sea loch to the island we can see some good shelters up and small plumes of smoke from their camp fires on the shore.

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