The four teams head to Arkle and Foinaven on their mountain expeditions

Our first morning together has been spent on expedition preparation and packing our rucksacks at the adventure school, but we started the day with the usual run or swim before breakfast. Yesterday’s early arrivals (mainly from the morning KLM flight) swam upon arrival here, so they went for a run this morning. Everyone else went for a swim out to the wooden raft in the middle of the sea loch.

After breakfast, we prepared personal equipment and clothing for the expedition, pitched the tents, and set up the cooking stoves. We also divided the group kit and food rations among the team members. Although it can take some time to prepare for this first expedition, the details are crucial. The work we put in this morning sets a good framework for the subsequent expeditions.

We had a hot lunch with all teams together at the adventure school before setting off for the mountains. The youngest team will undertake a traverse of Arkle, wild camping for two consecutive nights, and then make their way back to the adventure school on foot.

The older three teams are on Foinaven, and the weather looks reasonable for a complete traverse of the ridge tomorrow.

Rebecca and Mark will both be joining teams on the mountain tomorrow. We’ll update the journal with more photos when the teams return to the adventure school on Thursday. In the meantime, everyone is well, building new friendships with young people from other countries and about to experience some of the most incredible mountain landscapes in the Highlands.