Week 2

I am constantly amazed at the speed of which the Christmas holidays evaporate. It’s such a busy time with visiting people and doing stuff that the days whip past, and before you know it you are back to work and it feels like you’ve never left.

Blair was unflinching in his desire to climb 2 munros in our short holidays, one on Thursday and one on Sunday. Dad was out of the 2nd one due to complete exhaustion. He had a pretty bad bug before climbing Ben Chonzie and the completion of the day tripled his suffering, a bad move perhaps on everyone’s part, but we enjoyed Schiehallion 2 years ago so much that it seemed a fitting way to welcome in the new year.

So it was just Blair and I for the Sunday climb, which I was a bit sceptical about, if not worried slight.y. It’s always good to have Dad there, he’s done hundreds of munros so when he guides or advises on something either before or during the climb, you follow it without question. We wouldn’t have that experience to fall back on and I was a bit concerned. However come Sunday I was well up for it. I had bought new boots (Asolo Flame GTX’s for those interested) so was excited to try them out along with my Christmas gifts from Mum and Dad, which I had used already on the Ben Chonzie climb but found my Tresspass £30 shoes weren’t up to the task.

I got my new boots the day before, Saturday. Blair had already bought a pair of Scarpa Infinity GTX boots from Go Outdoors. However they had called him the next day to say that they were out of stock, so would send him a similar pair that were more expensive, but would absorb that additional cost as a goodwill gesture. So he ended up with the Scarpa ZG65 XCR boots. Me and Em went down to see the wee one and I tried them on and thought they were nice. So that then lead to us looking at boots for me as I had fancied upgrading my Tresspass‘.

We found the Asolo ones on the Go Outdoor’s website and I liked them, but they were £135 and my budget was at most £90, and even then I would have a struggle justifying the cost. However to my delight we had found the Flame GTX’s on a competitors website, and lo-and-behold Go Outdoors have a price guarantee policy (so long as you have purchased their £5 a year Discount Card) whereby they take that competitors price, and discount it a further 10%.

The competitor’s website showed £84 for the Flame GTX boots, so a rough calculation would mean that I would get these for £75.60, almost half price! Blair got upset as he had just got these Scarpa boots for more than £75.60 and they weren’t as good. So he decided that he would send them back and get a pair of these Asolo ones at this ridiculously good price. It was getting on time wise so he grabbed the phone and called the number on the “price guarantee” section of the website and got through to a bloke called Mark. He advised Blair that he could match the price and that unfortunately he only showed one pair of boots in the 9.5 size that we both require. He suggested Blair call the Edinburgh store and reserve a pair there for us to pick up.

So he did that and the Edinburgh folk threw the spanner in the works almost immediately. Although it doesn’t state this on their website or indeed any of the information that accompanies the “Price Guarantee”, the competitor’s product must be EXACTLY the same in make, model and colour. Blair obviously saw that the ones on the Go Outdoors’ website were blue, and the ones on the competitors were black, so conceded this and called back Mark.

Mark then said that the ones on their website were a stock image and that the actual boots they stocked were indeed black as well! Triumph! Mark then did the good turn and offered to send the ones he had in the warehouse, and call ahead to Edinburgh on our behalf to reserve the boots and make sure that everything would run smoothly. The Edinburgh shop closed in 2 hours, it’s an hours drive to the shop from Blair’s house (we had factored in the traffic at the Forth Road Bridge considering it was New Year‘s Eve!) so this would allow us to get there and quickly pick up the boots in good time.

Our last-minute trip to Edinburgh was met with annoyance from the ladies, but we were going walking tomorrow and my Tresspass shoes were still soaking wet from Chonzie and wouldn’t cope with another winter walk, so I basically needed these boots for tomorrow’s walk. Off we went then, hoping the traffic at the bridge wouldn’t be too bad.

There wasn’t a queue at all, we breezed through to the Edinburgh shop in a record 35 minutes. It was bizarre. Anyway, we got there and the massive warehouse shop was still really busy, a good sign. We headed inside and walked around to the check-out, after standing at one that looked like customer service at first, but then turned out to be just another till.

Blair explained firstly his desire to return his Scarpa boots, going through the back story of how he ordered the Infinity’s but had someone call him etc etc. The girl who served us said ok and tried to scan the barcode but there was an issue with that. She got her wee walky talky out and bleeped some bloke. In crackled radio squawk he said he would be there in a couple of minutes. Blair took this opportunity to then explain about the Asolo situation and produced the piece of paper with Mark’s name on it, the order number Mark had placed for the Edinburgh store and the make, model and website of the competitor with the boots at the £84 price.

This girl then headed off to pick these boots up from the reserved area of the store, leaving us standing there thinking this is easy.

Then a different girl came around the till and stood. She then was quickly joined by the radio boy who tried to scan the Scarpa boots. “I think this is the box that we couldn’t scan last week. I’m going to have to print out a barcode.” Off he went. This new girl then enquired as to what the situation was and Blair started his story again. This girl didn’t really look interested but after the story took the bit of paper with the competitors website on it and headed off to check that all was present and correct for the “Price Guarantee”

She returned a minute later with the barcode boy and got that return out of the way. We were now fully concentrated on the Asolo price match. Barcode boy left and the new girl left again to check the competitor’s’ price. Whilst she was away the first girl returned with the boots and she left again. I had a look at the boots in the meantime and they looked good!

The 2nd girl returned and said that there was a problem with the price match, in that it was not going to be possible. Of course it wasn’t. These things never are easy, so Blair then re-explained the story about the phone call to Mark online and how he had supposedly called ahead to make sure this would all go smoothly. The 2nd girl had a wee moment of panic but got on the radio to someone else, and quickly we were joined by another woman, the superior. They had one of those conversations, you know the conversations that two store employees have in full earshot of the customer on purpose. They do it on purpose so that the confirmation between each other of the terms of the price match and the fact that our price match wasn’t acceptable would be heard by us, thus removing the need to have to explain it to us face to face and thus removing the need for confrontation.

It made me agitated.

Anyway, it turned out that the reason our “Price Guarantee” wasn’t deemed acceptable was that the competitors boot was indeed an Asolo Flame GTX in Graphite, but they were selling a size 9, not a 9.5. Blair then yet again explained the story to this 3rd woman, the superior and she then looked a bit panicked. Are these people not trained to deal with these things? Anyway, she got on the radio to someone else and asked them to join us.

All the while I am standing there staring at a 20ft long sign on the wall with the 5 “Incredible Benefits” of the Discount Card. It’s arranged neatly in to bullet points, the 2nd point (I mean the 2nd most incredible benefit no less) was that they would beat their competitors prices and then take a further 10% off that. The most infuriating thing was that this “incredible benefit” was touted all over the place, but at no point were you shown the stipulations and conditions that you need to be able to get this “incredible benefit.”

Anyway, we were then joined by the big boy. We knew he was the manager because he was wearing a tie. Almost immediately he was on the offensive. “What’s the issue here?” And thus the ladies explained about the 0.5 of size issue preventing a successful price guarantee. The manager joined in the awkward conversation between employees right in front of customer to prevent confrontation act, and Blair then brought up his 2nd last wild card. The conversation and subsequent order placement online through Mark on the phone.

Before Blair had even finished his sentence the manager had his phone out and was furiously bashing through his phone book, all the while nodding and “mmhm” ing whilst Blair was talking. In a baffling “we’ll sort this out once and for all” look shot to both of us, he then had the loudest phone conversation in the history of shopping experiences. “HELLO MARIE, IT’S **** (I can’t remember this blokes name funnily enough) FROM THE EDINBURGH STORE. DO YOU HAVE A “MARK” WORKING THERE TODAY?” He said Mark’s name with an emphasis, as if he just couldn’t believe that someone named Mark would ever work at Go Outdoors online.

“RIGHT, I HAVE A MR FRASIER (our surname is Fraser, not Frasier as in Dr. Frasier Crane off tv. F R A S E R. Rhymes with razor or lazer or fazer. And this guy was Scottish too, which is frankly inexcusable.) HERE AND HE  SEEMS TO BE UNDER THE IMPRESSION MARK HAS PRICE MATCHED BOOTS.”

His confident bellow gave way as Marie, wherever she was, started explaining the situation to him. His voice got quieter and less cocky after every “right” or “mhhm” to Marie. Eventually he said his final whisper quiet “ok, that’s what we’ll do” and then hung up the phone. He said nothing more, or nothing less than the following, as if it was his final sentence to the world before it ended in a blazing apocalyptic fireball: “Honour it. Honour the guarantee.”

And that was it, he walked away and the young girl began prodding the keypad on her till. Blair handed his Discount Card over to this girl for what must have been the 6th time tonight for her to scan, and I finally and triumphantly slid my credit card in to the chip n pin thing. It felt like we had just had an actual scrap, as if we had scuffled around in this shop with the complete hierarchy of staff before finally emerging victorious with our prize.

The most embarrassing thing for us was, we were going to get these boots after paying for them and saying thank you and accepting their millionth apology for the fuss and time taken, and then head in to the store to have a look at jackets and other stuff!! I tried to make light of this by saying “thanks for this, we’re going for a wee shop so I’ll possibly be annoying you again in bit” but the girl just stood there blinking, not even looking at me.

So we headed in store and across to the jackets and there was a collection of staff, around 8-10 of them, in the center of which was the manager, obviously relaying his experience to his minions. It was made all the more obvious when they all went quiet and turned around to look at us. We carried on towards the jackets and they dispersed around the jacket area and the manager did his best to delegate jobs to them all i.e. “straighten up that jacket, zip up that fleece” etc.

Anyway, I found a nice Gilet (pronounced jee-lay but for some reason I can’t help but say gillit, as in spill it.) and decided to buy it as with the Discount Card it was £20 (£30 without).

This Discount Card really is worthwhile having!

We looked at a few more things and made a conscious decision to go to a completely different till, to someone unrelated to the earlier fracas. We got our wares and headed outside where by now the carpark was empty.

We deconstructed the events on the way home, confused by the way they dealt with it or just the sheer idiocy of the manager, but anyway, the boots were amazing and the fact that we had got them for nearly half price, or 2 pairs for the price of one if you like, was a great feeling. It’s not often you get deals like that.

We were up early the next day, as in 5am early as we wanted to get up to the munro as early as possible. We were both excited about the climb as it had the potential for 2 munro’s in one day as the climb to Beinn Ghlas gets you to a saddle upon which you can then walk along and climb Ben Lawers, in a away you’ve already done the hard bit, you just need to do that wee extra bit and you’ll be at the summit of Lawers. However Dad had vocalised his discomfort with the conditions up there and asked us to carefully consider the conditions and not just blindly head up the munros and get in to a situation we couldn’t get out of.

When we arrived at the turn off up to the base of Ghlas (a car park that used to be a visitor center but was now demolished) there was a car sitting at the top of a wee hill 45° across the road. There was 3 people standing around the car and we concluded they were stuck and came to a stop and watched. 5 minutes passed and the 3 people hadn’t moved, neither had the car. So we turned the car off and walked up towards them. Asking if they needed a hand, one of the 3, a girl, said “no thanks, we’re ok.”

We said ok and headed back to the car, by which point another car had arrived behind us and had stopped. A guy got out and we told him they didn’t want help. The 3 of us then stood watching as the 3 people up the hill stood around talking. Meanwhile the driver in the car would periodically open his door and shout something, then close the door and the cycle would start over again. about 10 minutes passed and Blair had asked if we should just park at the side and walk from here, leaving these tubes to faff about on their own. I maneuvered the Mini over to the grass verge and we started to get ready. The bloke behind us did the same but didn’t get ready. By this point another car had arrived and 2 blokes got out. They asked what was going on and after telling them of the situation, they revealed they had been here yesterday and after the top of this hill beyond the tree-line, the ice on the road that was crippling the car at the top of the hill disappeared. They then ran up the road to the 3 idiots standing outside, who were at this point handing a shovel to the driver, who had opened his driver side door and was chipping away at the ice under his front right wheel….whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat still belted in! It was incredible. And while he was chipping away, the 3 others just continued their standing about duties!

We watched as the two blokes who ran up started pushing the car, defying the idiots’ pleas that they were ok and were handling the situation. We ran up too and managed to get the car in line with the road again and then all ran back down to our cars. We had thought the idiots, who we had now termed students as they were quite young and obviously dim… would just roll back and hit the gas in order to get over the ice, now that we knew it was clear at the other side….but they decided to just roll back down the hill. But instead of getting in the car, the 3 of the passengers directed the driver down this shallow hill as if he was a blind man. Blair stood astonished at the complete lack of fundamental driving ability exhibited by this lunatic, as well as the brainless actions of the passengers. It was bizarre really.

Anyway we, the guy behind us and the guys who had done this road yesterday made way for this slowly reversing cavalcade of stupid, and then the last to arrive gassed it up the road, letting a wee tire squeal out as his then hit the ice and slalomed over it. We sat there waiting to see how the guy behind us did and he as well did ok, so I started the Mini and off we went. I got some speed going but Blair said to slow down. I kept quite a speed up as the last thing I wanted to do was to get stuck. I mean it would be pretty devastating to have stood and slagged these dimwits off, only for us to attempt it and get stuck as well..anyway, we made it quite easy which made the actions of the students even more infuriating. I mean, if these guys can’t even navigate a slightly stuck car to safety, how were they expected to walk up a snow and ice-covered mountain!? They said they were going to park at the bottom and walk up, but the road to the car park was fecking miles away! They would have to walk 3 miles up hill before even getting to the base of the munro.

Anyway, we arrived at the car park and joined the others, who were by now getting ready, in a bit of a giggle at the situation that had just presented itself in front of us. We were the 2nd to get ready and set off up the hill, after the usual photograph of us before the slog starts. We made good time and made it to the foot of the hill quickly, passing the folk who had been up here yesterday. We continued along what we thought was the trail but quickly found that we had taken the branch that leaded to the saddle of the two munros, the return path we were going to take due to its gradual decline instead of vertical. We then met up with the correct trail by heading straight up the side of the hill. It was challenging and really tiring but it felt good to be on the path less travelled.

The good thing about Beinn Ghlas is that it’s not just a constant ascent. There’s several plateaus between the short faces making a 3-4 tiered path that allowed you to have a burst of energy, then have the flat bit to compose yourself before bursting up the next face. It meant we made really good progress up Beinn Ghlass. With Chonzie it was a regular hill path up to the base of the munro and then pretty much constant slope to the top, making progress slow especially with the deep snow. On Ghlas it was more icy and grassy which meant that grip was better to achieve.

However we then arrived that the final face before the summit of Ghlas and this was an entirely different thing. We were standing looking at a face of blue ice, the solid core of ice with a fine dusting of snow on top concealing its treacherous condition. Add to this the lack of footprints in the surface, it was a bit of a worry. Anyway there was a slight path made by someone else’s toes which we decided was the easiest way to get up. When I say toes, I mean toes. Most of the dents in the blue ice, 90% of them were only 3-4 inches deep. You could only just get your toe of the boot on it meaning that you were constantly on the move, you couldn’t stop as there wasn’t enough stability to do so. There was the odd full foot print in the ice which allowed a much-needed rest, but for the most part it was bum clenchingly risky. I would glance over my shoulder and note the ice chute that went from my feet to the base of the munro in one unbroken length. If I slipped here and didn’t get a good anchor with the walking pole, I would be down the bottom in a heap before I knew it. Whats more, the 1 ice axe we did bring was strapped to my rucksack and now really wasn’t the time or place for an equipment change. Blair made me take a photo on the face half way up which I did, but I was definitely glad to be at the top of that section.

We got to the feature lacking summit and had a quick whizz around the view, a couple if photographs and then headed down the ridge to find a place for lunch. On the way down we kept looking at the sheer drop to the left and the fantastic views all round. I then did a massive banana skin and landed on my right forearm. Luckily I had managed to not impale myself with the ice axe that I was now holding in my right hand. Blair asked if I was ok but saw I was laughing so took that as a yes.

We eventually found a wee rock to sit behind to get out the now bitterly cold wind and we got stuck in to lunch. The people who had done this yesterday had now arrived at the saddle with us, after going the path that we had originally started before going vertical. They were obviously wanting to go up Lawers. However we had decided on the way down from Ghlas’ summit that the conditions on that final ascent were pretty touch and go, and looking at the route up Lawers, it looked white from start to finish. We decided that it was just too risky without crampons and an ice axe each.

We finished lunch, took a few photographs and then headed for the route down. We couldn’t find it initially…in fact, we couldn’t find it, so had to make our own way down the north face. It was really difficult as it was mostly hard packed snow and ice, so a lot of slipping was going on. At one point I had slipped enough that my head was nearly between my knees. My red metal water bottle that I got for christmas then slipped out the pocket it was in and I wasn’t able to catch it in time. Both Blair and I watched as my water slid down and down and down and down the mountain and then lost sight of it when it hit a grassy patch. It was either lodged in that, or had then went further down the hill. It was funny but it meant we had to retrieve it now which was going to be more difficult that it already was. But eventually we made it down to the water bottle which was slightly dented but now chilled to such a temperature that drinking it was the most refreshing experience to be had. Amazing.

Anyway we continued down the face eventually getting to the bottom in time to start our incline up to the main path. We bumped in to 3 blokes who asked what the summit of Beinn Ghlas was like as they wanted to snowboard down it. I said it was pretty much just ice so they concluded amongst themselves that it was probably best not to try it and decided to just go up a wee snowy face at the bottom of the munro.

Our descent was quite slow over the ice and rocky terrain and eventually made it back to the car. It was around 4 hours start to finish and we were pretty happy with it. It was good to get the fresh socks on and get moving again down the road.

Em had run a bath for me getting back. This was a new thing to me but Blair had mentioned it on the way down Ben Chonzie. He said getting straight in to a bath after getting home was the best way to recover, so tried it after Chonzie and it was amazing how little my muscles ached. After Ghlas they were still a bit tight but not as tight or sore as they would have been had I not had this bath. So that was great!

Then a couple of days later it was back to work. Which was crap. But it was only a 3 day week which was less crap. I was meant to wash the Mini this weekend but come Friday night the ground was covered in 5 inches of snow again. It’s amazing just how quickly the snow can cover stuff and make it yet again impossible to get anywhere without a lot of fuss. Anyway, we’ve spent the entire weekend in the house except for a walk down to Sainsbury’s for me to get milk….and coffee. And tomorrow it’s back to work. But my journeys to and from work are now accompanied with my new Amazon Kindle! Dad bought one for Mum’s Christmas but after the first one went to his work’s address, he ordered a replacement but never changed the address, so the second one went to his work too…so he then had two, one of which he was going to send back to Amazon but I decided to buy it off him, and it’s amazing. I’ll write about that next week but so far, since Friday, I have read 1 book and am halfway through another. It’s just an amazing little thing.

So there you go.  A bit of a mammoth week but I am pretty happy so far with the way the year has started. Work is going to get busy and stressful so I guess I have to enjoy the calm whilst it lasts.

Till next week! All the best

 
Gordon