Coniston Days

Coniston views

Tova at Torver

Ride the White Swans

I am a swan

Clan gathering

Games over, time for ice creams

We are being treated kindly this year in the Lakes with four days of warm sunny weather so far. The collection of beers at the start of the week was impressive with 30 bottles of local beers from the north of England including favourites such as Timothy Taylors and Thwaites Wainwright Ale. We decided on a picnic at Coniston to see how Tova would cope with stony beaches. The beach near Torver was where we chartered a yacht for an unforgettable day in 1986 when our children were all under seven by acting out Swallows and Amazons and reprising Bluebird's last run. We were buzzed by RAF jets flying at low levels on practice missions and also popping our ea drums. We anchored near one of the islands for a lunchtime swim before hoisting the spinnaker for the return to the mooring. The risk-taking in those days seemed mandatory.

Today was more sedate with a one-year-old grandchild and eight adults from two generations. We were all easily encouraged by the setting, the balls, frisbees and lunchtime prosecco to act like children. Apart from the children on the adjacent lakeside learning to canoe, we had Coniston to ourselves. The Lakes in early July have all the advantages of summer without the crowds.

Geal-charn by Lancet Edge

Ben Alder and Lancet Edge from near Loch Pattack

Route from Ben Alder Lodge on Loch Ericht

Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Ascent:        1240 metres     plus 300m by bike
Distance:     20 kilometres   plus 25km by bike
Time:           5 hours 57 minutes  plus 2 hrs 10 mins by bike

t    Sgor Iutharn (Lancet Edge)      1034m      1hr    42mins
m  Aonach Beag                            1116m      2hrs  44mins
m  Beinn Eibhinn                           1102m      3hrs  11mins
m   Geal-charn                               1132m      4hrs   8mins
t     Diollaid a' Chairn                       925m     4hrs   39mins
m   Carn Dearg                               1034m     5hrs    8mins       

The June high pressure had arrived and brought sun and heat to the central belt but all the hills I have still to climb, both Munros and Corbetts, are further north where cloud cover was predicted for the morning. The four Munros north of Ben Alder require a long walk-in from either Corrour, Laggan, Dalwhinnie, or Rannoch so I decided to take my bike and ride to the Culra bothy from Dalwhinnie. It was warm work riding along the forested shore of Loch Ericht. The sumptuously restored Ben Alder Lodge and its gatehouses are symbols of foreign investment and are passed before the open moorland to Loch Pattack. There were some boggy sections by Loch Pattack, a dodgy suspension bridge, and then a boulder-strewn section to the bothy. I dumped the bike in the long grass by the new bridge and began the long but scenic walk up to Bealach Dubh. It was a good path gaining ascent gradually and the burn was gurgling with snowmelt.

I had never ascended Sgor Iutharn (Lancet Edge) on my previous rounds of these hills although I had always intended to do so. I usually combined these four Munros with various combinations of the Ben Alder/Ossian/Laggan Munros on two-day walks. Lancet Edge looked well-named and inviting as I turned off the path to ascend the burn tumbling down from Loch an Sgoir. It was a steep climb over mainly grass and scree until about 850m when it became a narrow rocky ridge but an enjoyable easy scramble with amazing views across to Ben Alder and down to Loch an Sgoir. My left foot was badly blistered and I was in agony on the climb so I took ten minutes at the summit to plaster my toes and replace my socks. It made a real difference as I had been considering abandoning the walk, something I had never done before. I decided to traverse below the summit of Geal-carn by crossing some snowfields and then contour around to the bealach before Aonach Beag.

It was a good decision and I was now walking with comparative ease. I wasted no time pushing on to Beinn Eibhinn, where I met an 80-year-old man and his companion at the cairn. He was trying to compleat the Munros and was on 220, the same as me. They had walked in from Corrour station climbing Aonach Beag and Beinn Eibhinn. I finished my lunch, took some photos for them, and began the walk back. I had scheduled 2 hours to get to Carn Dearg and by undercutting Aonach Beag on the return and then not stopping at Geal-charn, I made it. The plateau of Geal-charn is immense and I enjoyed watching four deer prancing about in a remaining snow patch as if they were reindeer. The steep descent from the eastern edge was amplified by the noise of the raging torrents from the snowmelt and there had been a massive snow avalanche. The walk over the top of Diollaid a' Chairn was a bit of an anti-climax before the stiff pull-up to Carn Dearg. The sun had been fighting to get through all day but by now it was burning my neck.

From Carn Dearg, I descended to the east aiming for Culra Lodge with its spindly wind turbine. The long heathery sections were interspersed by boulder fields and it took longer than I had hoped. There were some campers alongside the beautiful river reveling in the late afternoon sunshine and the breeze that was keeping the midges at bay for them. I collected the bike and decided to cross the new bridge and return by the path alongside the river rather than taking the track around Loch Pattack. There were occasional boggy sections but all was going well until I hit some rocks on the path at speed. The rear wheel was buckled and several spokes had snapped. I removed the spokes, released the cables from the rear brake, and gently wobbled back to the track and then down to Loch Ericht. It turned out to be less of a problem than I had anticipated and the cycle out was quicker than the journey in, although I was assisted by gravity and not having to negotiate the bridge and the bogs by Loch Pattack.

After crossing the railway track at Dalwhinnie and as I reached the car I asked a woman walking a dog if there was a shop/garage where I could get a drink. Everything had closed at 6pm so she took my water bottle and told me to call in at her house when I had changed shoes and loaded the bike onto the car.  She was at the garden gate as I drove through the villge with a litre of cool water and wishing me a safe journey. Dalwhinnie is the highest settlement in the UK and on summer evenings like this with friendly local folk, it seems idyllic. 

The A9 was quiet and after an initial scare when the bike toppled over on the roof but stayed on thanks to the wheel straps, I was able to travel south with only two traffic disruptions. The new pylons were shining in the evening sun and marched over the Drumochter pass with a jauntiness that made me think they could have been designed by Andrew Gormley. 

Loch Ericht

Ben Alder Lodge

Trick cycling

Culra Bothy, Ben Alder and Lancet Edge

Ben Alder

Lancet Edge

Loch Ossian from Beinn Eibhinn

Beinn Eibhinn and Aonach Beag from Geal-charn

Geal-charn

Eastern face of Geal-charn and Lancet Edge

Allt a' Chaoil reidhe by Culra bothy

Father's Day

So True

I'm not all that bothered about birthdays and special event days. But I must admit that this card received for Father's day did make me think. It neatly summed up all the times that I had stretched the trust of my three children to breaking point.

I suspect that not many parents corralled three under fives to climb 2,000 foot mountains with the promise of an ice cream when, or if, they got down. And those short cycle rides when they were told it was only another half hour when we still had ten miles including three hills to cycle. The family joke is about the time that I took a short cut over the highest pass in the Sierra Nevada in California when travelling to the west coast. The road climbed to 11,500 feet, and was unmetalled road over much of the distance. We started the drive at 4pm just south of Lone Pine on Highway 395 after already having travelled through Death Valley in a heat of 43°C. We arrived in Fresno at midnight after a drive of over 250 miles on hairpin dirt roads on the Forest Drive and Shermann pass. It is so remote that there are no signs and it does not appear on the maps. It was increasingly hard to convince them that we only had another hour to go when I repeated the assertion for the fourth or fifth time. Never has a Motel 6 appeared such a haven of slumber as when we arrived and scooped the last two rooms.

Still it taught them how to take risks and never to be afraid of time or distance.

New Zoom Lens

Green green grass of home

I treated myself to a new 18 -135mm Pentax camera lens this week and it arrived an hour ago. It was a revelation to see the results in the overcast lunchtime light. I suspect this will remain on the camera most of the time, although as with any digital SLR, it is a bit heavy to be taking up mountains.

Clematis

Iris on Iris

Pair of Alliums

Peony popping

Salad days

Chno Dearg

Start of the walk

Stob Coire Sgriodain as the cloud clears

South Top of Stob Coire Sgriodain

Chno Dearg from Stob Coire Sgriodain

Loch Treig from Stop Coire Sgriodain

Mamores from Garbh-bheinn

Eassains and Loch Treig

The track up Leum Uilleim

Glencoe from Leum Uilleim

The Eassains and Loch Treig from Leum Uilleim

Loch Ossian from Leum Uilleim

Friday, 6 June 2014

Ascent:      1555 metres
Distance:   33 kilometres
Time:         8 hours 52 minutes

t   Meall Garbh                  976m         2hrs  34mins
m  Chno Dearg                1047m        3hrs   2mins
t    South Top                    956m        3hrs   41mins
m  Stob Coire Sgriodain    977m        3hrs  53mins
Corrour                             400m         6hrs 24mins

c   Leum Uilleim               909m          1hr 26mins          2hrs 18mins

It was a fine Friday sandwiched between the wet days of early June. I decided to collect the two munros east of Loch Treig. The normal ascent is from Fersit but it is a long drive of 120 miles to get there and better done as part of a multi-day trip. I have fond memories of my first ascent of these hills on a dull November day in 1990. We had stayed at the bunk house at Roy Bridge and climbed Beinn Teallach and Beinn a' Chaorrainn from Roughburn in the morning. It was 1pm as we reached Fersit and heard on the news that Michael Heseltine had declared that he would stand against Mrs Thatcher for PM. It was the beginning of the end, and although it was dark when we got down that evening, there was a lightness to our steps.

I started looking at the maps and realised it would be possible to catch the West Highland line train to Tulloch, walk over the two munros, and down the long ridge of Garbh-bheinn back to Corrour. But it involves a couple of miles walking along the railway line from Tulloch back to Fersit and I know from previous experience that the distance between sleepers does not fit easily with my stride pattern. Why not just make it a round trip from Corrour and, if time permits, I could take in the nearby Corbett of Leum Uilleim? I would have 9 hours between trains if I caught the early morning sleeper train.

I made the train with 5 minutes to spare. The friendly station master at Bridge of Orchy told me about the new franchise for the sleeper services that had been won by Serco. I found it typically British that a company that ran prisons and prisoner escort services would be running a sleeper service for people to escape from our overcrowded cities. The train pulled in and I found myself in the only non-sleeper carriage, it was full of German hikers, all immaculately equipped in their hiking uniforms and looking a lot like Serco escorts. I suppose it was better than having the cast of Trainspotting as companions, they had been filmed at Corrour in one of Danny Boyle's bizarre sequences in the film.

On arrival at Corrour station, I took the path that runs alongside to the west of the rail line and crosses the boggy upland by the high point of the West Highland line just north of Corrour. I was being escorted by the pack of Germans, which seemed odd since most people head east towards Loch Ossian and the Ben Alder range of hills. I made my escape and after a couple of miles, I crossed the tracks and started the long ascent of the ridge leading to Chno Dearg. I found a track vehicle route that twisted its way to the knolly ridge and then began the steady climb along the ridge. The weather was exactly as predicted on the quite excellent Met Office Mountain Forecast which is now available for individual hills; there was low cloud down to 600 metres but it was dry and there was no wind.

There was a large cairn at 700 metres and after a slight dip a more gentle climb to the summit of Garbh-bheinn. I was in the cloud now with visibility down to 100 metres. The silence was at full volume in the totally still air. It was interrupted by the plaintive cry of plovers and occasionally a transatlantic jet aircraft passing overhead. Ghost-like deer were silhouetted against the skyline. It was a remarkably peaceful passage of the walk. It seemed to be taking a long time but another look at the map confirmed that this was one long walk. My initial hope had been to complete the two munros by 1pm., which would give me a couple of hours to get back to the railway line and then 3 hours to climb Leum Uilleim. To make matters worse my feet were blistering because of socks that were too thin and I had only one plaster.

It had become a challenge and I upped my pace, the two steeper climbs to the top, Meall Garbh, and then Chno Dearg were completed without any breaks. The views were non-existent until I had descended from Chno Dearg to the broad bealach that separates it from the much more interesting ridge towards Stob Coire Sgriodain. The summits were slowly revealing themselves with the quartzite white cairn of its South Top providing a good view of the summit that was just capped by the clouds. Ten minutes later I was at the summit and miraculously it coincided with its emergence from cloud at the time predicted by the Met Office. I sat on the wonderful perch overlooking the deep trench of Loch Treig and towards the impressive Easains to the west. It was 1:10pm and I allowed myself ten minutes for lunch.

I began the walk back with an ambitious hope that I could reach the railway line by 3:30pm. This would give me a fighting chance of completing the Corbett but this would require me to shave an hour off the ascent time to Chno Dearg. The race was on and apart from a few photos on the move there were no stops until I crossed the railway line. The views were superb with the whole of the Mamores and Grey Corries coming into view and Glencoe visible beyond the Blackwater reservoir. The plovers were still in full cry but apart from a distant walker seen on the skyline descending Chno Dearg there were no other walkers. I observed the massive drop towards Beinn na Lap that had been my route up to Garbh-bheinn the last time I did these hills in 2007 during a Friday night/Saturday round taking in the ten munros between Laggan and Loch Ossian.

I made the railway line on schedule and then returned along the path almost all the way to Corrour. It was 4pm as I set off up the extremely boggy track route up Leum Uilleim. If this was treacle then it was like walking through a Scottish mountain bog. I was pushing myself and decided that if I didn't make the summit by 5pm I would turn round. At about 700 metres the gradient lessened and it became a pleasant trail on the Tom an Eoin ridge over drier ground. The afternoon sun had grown stronger and the views of Ben Nevis were superb. Unfortunately, the trail goes to the head of Corrie a' Bhric Bheag and this added an extra kilometre or so. I was reluctant to lose height by making a more direct beeline for the summit. I started the last 100 metres of climbing at 5pm, I was not letting this one get away. I had decided on looking at the profile of Leum Uilleim that a direct descent from the summit was the quickest descent and I figured that I could do it in an hour. The summit was rounded with a large cairn with wonderful views at all points of the compass.

I had long since finished my water so there was no reason to stop and apart from a few photos I passed the cairn and began the charge to Corrour. There was a faint path that I lost a few times coming down the rock-strewn ridge and by the time I reached 650 metres, there was only the long slog through the boggy ground which was hoaching with pale yellow moths. I began to fantasise about a pint at the bar adjacent to the station and made it with 15 minutes to spare. The bar was closed.  The station was empty apart from one other walker and three full litter bins. The train was fairly full of tourists, bottles of wine were being drunk and there was a mood of mutual contentment in the carriage as the iron rails guided us through the amazingly wild scenery resplendent in the perfect evening sunshine. I was lulled into a state of utter satisfaction but remembered to alight at Bridge of Orchy and made it home by 8pm.

Mamores, Ben Nevis and Grey Corries from  Leum Uilleim