The hardest hurdle looks to be overcome as yesterday I did a trial packing of the bags to see if the bags could cope with all of the kit I’ve bought & would they be within the weight limit. Initially it was good & bad news with the bags coping but coming in at 34 Kg, that was 4Kg over the limit.

Hard decisions followed, out went half my mini mars bars, a bag of Jelly Babies, a base layer, large towel swapped with a small one (well I won’t be washing much), deodorant (now have to rely on Merino Base Layers to keep the smells away) & various other ‘luxeries’ as I chopped & changed things. An hour later all was in order & fractionally below the 30 Kg limit.

On the training front my latest run re-aggrevated the sore left foot that I picked up in London so will probably stick to walking between now & Sunday & plan a quick blast up Snowdon later today despite a forecast of high winds & heavy showers (normal weather for Capel it would seem). Also tomorrow Fraser & I have a morning with Steve Peake booked in for Juma & Abseil training on a local crag, just what we need & my gratitude to Steve for slotting us in.

Fraser has persuaded/helped me set-up a Just Giving page to join him in supporting the CLICK Sargent charity & for anyone interested Gaby is assisting me by putting a link on our Facebook page, all donations will be very gratefully appreciated.

Finishing touches to my preparation have included cleaning & waterproofing my Scarpa Boots (that doesn’t happen every day), ordering some additional batteries for my camera & praying that the replacement straps for my crampons arrive at Cotswold Outdoor today (I cut down the length of my existing ones because they flapped around on my normal Scarpa Boots & now they are too short for my new La Sportiva Spantik High Altitude Boots, hindsight & all that).

Great to see an old walking mate Phil & his wife Sue yesterday as they made an un-expected visit to the cafe en-route to a few days holiday at Porthmadog. Phil has applied to enter the GTO walk next year that crosses Scotland from East to West (I think), this will involve 12 days & at least 4 wild camps, fingers crossed that he gets in. Thanks Phil/Sue for your best wishes & hope to back up my promise of an Himalayan evening at the cafe in December.