I injured myself.
Last week it snowed so much that it had to be impossible to climb Snowdon.
Bremex have ceased operating.
The Wales trip had to be off, it just had to be. Finally there was a legitimate reason not to go, apart from “I don’t want to look like a plank.” But then…
My knee stopped swelling up and stopped hurting.
The snow melted.
Somehow Trail are still doing the trip with the same instructors, just no Bremex.
Normally I pride myself on being intelligent enough to have enough vocabulary not to need to swear in my writing, but… damn! There really is no way of getting out of this trip with my head still held high, and to top it all Sian thinks it’ll be a five hour drive from Basingstoke to Capel Curig, when I’ve already worked a full week in four days to get Friday off! There have to be some hills in the south somewhere, really there do. And what’s the fascination with hills anyway? Once you’re up there all you have to do is come down again!
I am more scared about this than I was about the Lakes trip. At least then I’d been lulled into a false sense of security by “It’s not a difficult hill and you wont be made to do anything you don’t want to…”. There must still be a crazy part of me that wants to do it though, as I still spent £100+ (again!) in Cotswold at the weekend getting the last few bits on the list. Tell me, what are my chances of actually needing a head torch and survival bag when I’m in the company of people who are supposed to know what they’re doing?!
I think part of the problem is that I’m still, essentially, the same person I was when we started, whereas people like Emma and Sian have made real changes to their lives like running and going out and about. I’ve increased my water intake and been on some walks, but realistically, that’s about it.
Anyway, seeing as it would appear I’ve got to go through with this, I’ve got to write a list of things I want to achieve with my one-to-one Mountain Leader Steve Holding (do you think he gets post addressed to him like that?) I really hope he’s nice – I can’t take being humiliated and hating the instructor! The fact that it was one-to-one was the only reason I agreed to come as I know the others are so far ahead of me. If I get there and we’re all in one group, the five hour drive wont matter – I’ll be going straight home.
So…
1. Not climb Snowdon. In fact, not climb anything if I can help it. I wont be able to do it, it will be the same as Loughrigh Hell and I’ll just go home demoralised and feeling rubbish.
2. I would actually like to learn how to map read properly, and what it means when it says things like ‘walk on a bearing of…’. I can spot things on the map, do grid references and spot a steep bit of ground, but that’s about it and I’d like to do more.
3. Some easy scrambling would be cool, providing there aren’t any Loughrigg style hills to get to it.
My brain is too tired to think now… I’ll be back!
