Happy New Year!

2018, a new year and some new resolutions. Like most people, last year I made the usual resolutions to ‘improve’ myself. This year is all about self-acceptance and remembering that I am enough.

My resolutions therefore have a different slant:

1. Be strong – looking to be physically strong through a daily yoga practise (at least for the next 30 days – Yoga with Adriene, True, free online 30 day course), and mentally by taking time for me and nourishing myself as well as others.

2. Reclaim my life – focus on the things that are important to me, ditch the stuff that isn’t (and stopping feeling guilty and beating myself up if I can’t do everything all of the time!)

In light of this, I took it as a sign when I received an e-mail from the organisers of the Lumphanan Detox 10k offering an exchange of places, offloading my place to a clubmate. I do love this race but haven’t trained as much as I’d like during December due to a combination of feeling a little under the weather / dark nights / icy pavements, and decided there was no point in racing and then beating myself up for doing ‘badly’.

Cue an ideal opportunity to head for the hills. A perfect forecast window for Lochnagar on 1st January made it a complete no brainer. So, husband and I headed out and had the most amazing day! The day was truly spectacular. Hard packed paths from the car park …

Had it not been for the awesome spectacular presented on the approach to Ballater you’d have had no idea what fun lay ahead!

Our Kahtoola Microspikes came in handy as we progressed up and out of the tree line and I thanked my lucky stars for having a husband with foresight who gifts me these things (along with the ice axe and crampons for Christmas which thankfully remain as ‘cool’ accessories on my rucksack)!

There were a surprising number of people out on the hill and, as always, it was lovely to pass the time of day with them as we walked.

Onwards and upwards, we thoroughly enjoyed the views and were delighted to see the view open up temporarily for us as we approached the summit. Temperatures dropped and I resorted to adding another pair of gloves (taking the total to three pairs) and my down jacket to keep truly cosy!

Coming off the summit we enjoyed our lunch – tomato soup never tastes quite as good as when it’s out of a flask on a cold winter’s day!

Then the long descent back down to the car park via the beautiful frozen waterfall.

Finally, on arrival back at the landrover track we hot footed it back towards the car park aware of the sun setting behind us and the moon rising ahead.

We chased the light for as long as we could before succumbing to the darkness and digging out the head torches, if for no other reason than to ensure we didn’t slip on one of the small icy patches on the path. We met a number of people at this point headed for the bothy, recently refurbished (but not quite with en-suite facilities sadly), two of whom were pulling a trolley!

A brilliant day out and hopefully the first of many great days in the hills.