Vancouver

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Andrew

One of the advantages of my job is the ocassional opportunity to visit Vancouver. This is the first time I’d visited the city ( or Canada, in fact, though I have been to the US a few times ) and I wanted to make the most of the free time I had.

Having decided do go for a hike in the surrounding mountains, I only really had one full day free, limiting my options to what was easily accessible and returnable from in a day. Some of my colleagues had previously been to Grouse Mountain and mentioned it as a possible destination, but having never been higher than Ben Nevis ( at 1344m, 4409 ft, the highest mountain in the UK ) I wanted to use this opportunity to improve on that. Further to the west than Grouse, Cypress Provincial Park offers a number of peaks starting at around 1350m and steadily increasing in height as you go further north. These peaks form part of the popular Howe Sound Crest Trail, the full length of which is around 30km but I would only be doing the portion as far as The Lions – two 1600m peaks visible from Vancouver that are not entirely dissimilar from Garbh Chioch Mhòr and Sgùrr Na Cìche in Knoydart. From what I can ascertain, ascending The Lions themselves requires scrambling ( class 4 according to Wikipedia, though I have no idea what that is in UK terms ), however strange peaks in strange countries merit appropriate safety gear, so this time at least I would content myself to the summit of Unnecessary Mountain, which at 1530m fulfilled my "higher than Nevis" criterion well enough.
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Adventures in Knoydart

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Andrew

Despite having been born and brought up for the first half of my life in Scotland, and having recently returned there, I have seen and explored little of it. Until recently I believed Fort William to be in the reasonably far north, despite the fact that the most cursory glance of a map reveals it to be only about halfway between Carlisle and Thurso. As part of what I hope will be a series of adventures to explore the rest of the land of my birth, I decided to venture into Knoydart, the region between Lochs Nevis and Hourn, at least partly inspired by the initial stages of the Cape Wrath Trail. The aim would be to reach Inverie, and its pub The Old Forge, the most remote pub in mainland Britain. Also, being of modest mountaineering ambitions, I would try to prefer high level routes where possible.

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London Triathlon 2008

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Andrew

Somewhat late, since I have had pictures on my facebook profile for months, but I thought I should add a post about my experiences at the London Triathlon in August 2008. This was the second of three major endurance events I completed in 2008, the others being the Blenheim Triathlon and the New York Marathon, in aid of Epilepsy Research UK. I would like to thank everyone who generously sponsored me for those events, your donations have since been passed on to the charity and will be put towards improving the quality of life for eplieptics who suffer from more severe symptoms than my own.
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Oxford to Cambridge Bike Ride

Posted on March 14, 2009 by Andrew

On 27th September 2008 I and three friends took part in the Hearts First Bike Ride from Oxford to Cambridge in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

My friends stayed in Oxford overnight and probably started the day with a hearty breakfast. Unfortunately I had to make the start in Cambridge resulting in a 6.00am coach ride from Cambridge, a coach ride I almost missed due to a faulty alarm clock. One coffee cup and a muffin is no way to start a 90 mile bike ride ( or 86.78 according to my GPS ). I completed the ride in just shy of 5 hours, which admittedly is not that great but I use the excuse that it wasn’t a race and I had no one to draft.
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New York City Marathon 2008

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Andrew

On November 2nd I ran my first marathon. It remains to be seen if I will run another, but at least I’ll have done New York. It really is the most awesome experience, the weather was just about perfect and the crowds from start to finish were incredible.

I took a package with Sports Tours International so everything was bought and paid for. Not only was this my first marathon but it was also my first trip to NYC ( If I’m going to see the city, I may as well see 26 miles of it… ) so I didn’t want to have to worry about transfers and getting from A to B, but in the end I doubt this would have been much of a problem.

Unfortunately the route information is missing from the map below, but this link should show it accurately. Alternatively, you can download the kml file directly for Google Earth.

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Blenheim Triathlon 2008

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Andrew

The previous incarnation of this site was described by former colleague Rob Morse as being too “geeky”, as most of the content consisted of material for my Open University maths courses. So, to mitigate the inevitable geekification of PlanetMarshall, the first post of the new site will be detailing my efforts at the 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. Just to prove that you do not need to be an obese agoraphobe with a penchant for burgers and comics featuring half naked girls riding dragons to be a computer programmer.

On the 8th of June 2008 I took part in my first Triathlon, consisting of a 750m open water swim, a 20km cycle and a 5k run – a distance that is amusingly known as a “Sprint”.

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