After two weeks of strenuous gallivanting around Canada, Colum returned to Glasgow and, while still not quite adjusted to GMT, travelled up to Inverness for a spot of training.

After getting the blisters warmed up on the Saturday with an eight mile, pre-rugby stroll we headed out for the hills of Glen Affric on the Sunday. Spring may have been prodding the crocuses (or crocii I suppose) into action down in the glen but it was all winter in the mountains. We refreshed the all important ice-axe braking on a likely patch of snow as we headed up An Tudair. Evidently I need a spot more practice because when I did slip on a small slope later in the day my combination of shrieking, performing an ice-resiliency test with my gonads and hurling my axe away into a drift of snow did nothing to convince Colum that I actually know what I'm doing in the winter hills!

Nevertheless we safely made our way off Mam Sodhail and began a weary decent through snow and bog to the car park that seemed to have slyly moved a couple of miles further East than where we left it that morning.