Last weekend we headed down to Fort William for our much anticipated Ben Nevis climb. Our first stop was An Aird where we were to meet some of the Fort William players for a training session. We were delighted when we were shown into the changing rooms to get our kits on and then it was off out to play on An Aird! Our first task was to try to get a ball past the no.1 goalie Scott MacNeil! He gave us some great tips and pretty soon we were getting the odd one past! As well as Scott there was Duncan Rodger, Graham Bamber, Ian Fraser amd Victor Smith to put us through our paces! We were split into two teams and had a great game with the Fort players split among our teams and shouting encouragment as we played. After two hours of training we reluctantly headed back to the hostel but not before we got our pictures taken with the Camanachd Cup. Thanks to everyone at Fort William shinty Club who came out to train with us and Niall McPhee and Jimmy Clark for making it happen. Saturday saw us waken to the news that the summit of Ben Nevis was a whiteout and we wouldn't be able to get up there. John and Margaret had already had an alternative in mind so we headed off the the North face car park and started the Ben from there. A couple of hours later we were at the CIC hut under the north face cliffs where we stopped for our lunch. We then headed up over the shoulder of the Ben to the halfway lochan. We stopped at our highest point to do our throw-up which captain Taylor and our first ever captain Kyle took with Amber throwing for them. We think this is the first shinty throw-up on the Ben. We then met the main path and headed down via Glen Nevis. We have already raised just over £1000 with more still to come in. A very worthwhile venture. We finished our weekend by taking in a motorbike show at "Party in the Fort" on the High Street and headed for home on Sunday. A fantastic weekend was had by all. Many thanks to John, Alison and Margaret for leading us safely up and down the mountain!

The first ever shinty throw-up on Ben Nevis?