18th -20th April 2014
Not just one day of clear skies and sun, or even two, but three … hard to believe given the run of DMC weekends over the winter. Nine members, friends and friends of friends, made their way to the rather cute and comfy house on the Friday night and 2 more got there Saturday.
On Saturday Niall and Alex took on a wild epic in the Gaick pass. While Alex had a run in with an Adder, Niall decided to have a closer look at the ground with an OTB moment.
Meanwhile Suzy, Jack, Dave, Daniela, Al and Finn were enjoying a day at the Laggan Wolftrax trail centre. They all looked very professional, down to the colours they wore. Suzy with green helmet and green pedals, Dave with black/green bike and outfit, Al with black/red helmet and red shirt, Jack all in brown, Daniela with blue t-shirt matching her beach sun glasses and Finn with an orange t-shirt that matched Suzy’s spare pair of gloves. The bottom line of their adventure is that they all completed the red run and great fun was had by all. Before that bottom line however the reader should note that Suzy was the only one of them who went down some crazy steep rock (wow!), David managed to cycle while at the same time filming everyone and coaching beginners, Al I think was the only human in the group who managed not to fall, Daniela got sea sick from the suspension until she finally got it that one is not supposed to sit passively on the saddle when MTBing, and Finn, who is not an outdoor person at all, is now considering he might become one.
It was all go that evening, with various events, known and not known taking place … Alec’s birthday (known though he had thought it was unknown), Easter (known), and the engagement of Berenice and Andrew, who had had a moment on one of the day’s munros and pledged themselves. This was unknown and unrevealed but I suppose we should have guessed from their friskiness and number of selfies that something was going on… ! Anyway, great evening. Berenice got everyone painting eggs and partaking of a birthday cake and somewhat spooky spectral Easter lamb cake.
On Sunday, Suzy and Alex shot off to Aonach Mor to try and get some late season snowboarding, Niall recc’ed the new descents at Nevis Range, some walked to Blackwood, near Laggan, and Berenice, Andrew and Alec cycled and walked up the Monadliath’s highest munro, Carn Dearg, on a sparkling day. Typically, having trudged up and feeling pleased, we were (well, I was) trumped to find two runners cruising the tops as if they hadn’t even broken sweat. There was a lot of trying to find the perfect slope to roll the easter eggs, and then a swift descent down a beautifully constructed estate road. Back to Laggan and all back home, except for Alec who had a peaceful extra night in the bunkhouse before heading west.
