Mamores

Early morning start on Mullach nan Coirean

This is the report of an old walk at the start of the fifth round. I had been to Aviemore for a meeting of Scotland's two National Parks and, as it was to finish late on Thursday, I had decided to take a day's leave and walk in the Cairngorms on the next day. As I was leaving the Coylumbridge Hotel, I checked the weather, the conditions were not promising for the Cairngorms so I changed my plans. It was to be better in the west so I drove down to Fort William, stopping at Spean Bridge for an excellent meal in the Station Cafe. I continued to Glen Nevis where I wild camped so that I could get an early start and, hopefully, walk the 10 munros in the Mamores the next day. The midges were out to get me as I pitched the tent and even more so as I packed the next morning for an early start, which I managed by 6:45am.

I had not been exercising with my usual regularity owing to work pressures that meant I seldom had had an evening free of meetings since a change of administration. I had also lost the impetus that completing a Munro round always brings. Although I had twice before climbed all the Mamores in a day, I knew it was going to be a long and tough day.

Friday 8 August 2008

Ascent:   3760 metres
Distance: 37 kilometres
Time:       14 hours 50 minutes

Mullach nan Coirean           939m      1hr 50mins
SouthEast Top                      917m      2hrs 36mins
Stob Ban                               999m      3hrs  4mins
Sgurr a' Mhaim                   1099m      4hrs  30mins
Sgurr an Iubhair                  1001m      5hrs 38mins
Am Bodach                         1032m      6hrs 13mins
Stob Coire a' Chairn              981m     7hrs 15mins
An Garbhanach                     975m     7hrs  44mins
An Gearanach                       982m      7hrs 56mins
Na Gruachean                     1062m      8hrs 49mins
Binnein Mor                        1128m      9hrs 46mins
Sgurr Eilde Mor                    999m     11hrs 35mins
Binnein Beag                        940m     12 hrs 52mins

I started at 6:45 on a perfect summer morning, only the midges and then the mobbing of insects detracted from the serenity of the day. I drove a couple of miles down the glen and parked at Achriabhach. The forest trails from here zig-zag up to Coire Dearg, probably adding a kilometre but still quicker than making a more direct ascent through the dense forest plantations. I followed the forest trails west of the burn until I reached some the open hillside where I began to climb steeply towards the north-east ridge of Mullach nan Coirean. It was already warm and humid so it was an uncomfortable climb until I reached the wafts of moving air, not quite a breeze, on the ridge. 

The anticipation of the day ahead lifted my spirits and I began to pick up a decent pace as I headed along the grassy ridge towards Mullach na Coirean. I stopped for some breakfast before the twisting ridge towards Stob Ban. Conditions were perfect for hillwalking and unlike on previous occasions of attempting the Mamores I felt no compulsion to run, this was the start of a leisurely round of munros that would take me into retirement. Stob Ban has always been one of my favourite peaks of the Mamores with its position allowing a fine panoramic view of the ridge to the east. The descent is ferociously steep with loose rock. I headed to Lochan Coire nam Miseach from where I climbed the 200 metres and then down to Bealach a' Chip before another 200-metre climb to Sgurr a' Mhaim. This is normally the last hill of the western Mamores and usually defined as a good day walk but it had only just turned 11am and I was only a third of the way through the full walk.

The clouds had begun to roll in as I turned and retreated back over the ridge to Sgurr an Iubhair, one of the peaks on the ridge that lost its status as a Munro in the 1994 review. The walk along the ridge to Am Bodach and Stob Coire a' Chairn were straightforward and I stopped for some food and drink on both of them. The route from here is more complex with steepish descents and climbs to An Garbhanach and then on to the outlying Munro of An Gearanach. I was beginning to pick up my pace and to enjoy the challenge ahead. On the return, I cut under Stob Coire a' Chuirn on a path that wound its way back to the ridge that dropped to  783m before the long 250-metre climb to Na Gruagaichean. This is a fine peak and as I began the descent as it approached 4pm I met the first other person of the day, a hill runner about my age from Fort William. He was moving well clad in just shorts and T-shirt for his afternoon hill run. It made me realise that my Mamores in a day effort was not that arduous.

The sun had emerged from the clouds and there was a promise of a benign evening as I headed towards Binnein Mor, the highest peak on the Mamore ridge. I arrived at 4:30pm and had a break for food and photos before returning along the ridge to the bealach and then dropping down to Coire an Lochan. It is a 300-metre climb to Sgurr Eilde Mor but there is a rocky path that twists its way to the red sandstone summit. I was still going reasonably well and began the return down the path after topping up with water. The route to Binnein Beag involves dropping down to 620 metres and then following a path that traverses beow Binnein Mor before reaching a small lochan from where it is a final climb of 250 metres to the shapely summit of Binnein Beag.

The Mamores were complete but it was 10 kilometres back down to the Water of Nevis, past Steall and through the gorge to the car park. I kept a good pace and had hoped to hitch a lift from here but no one else seemed to be about so I jogged much of the last 4 kilometres back to the car at Achriabhach. I was fairly pleased to have managed the walk, it had taken pretty much the same time as it had on the last round in 2005 when I climbed the Mamores from Kinlochleven. Even when running much of the Mamores during the Tranters round in 1994 it had taken 10 hours to reach Binnein Beag, admittedly this was the overnight section. It also meant that I had made a significant start to a possible fifth round of Munros, if I could keep sufficiently fit for what would be a post-retirement round. I was already pretty certain that I would retire in 2009 although that was something that I was keeping quiet about. I would have done almost fifteen years of 60 hour plus weeks without a single day off and I was beginning to feel tired and ready for some time off.

Mullach nan Coirean

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Glen Nevis and Lower slopes of Ben Nevis

Stob Ban

The day ahead looking east along the Mamores ridge

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Binnein Mor from Na Gruagachain

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An Gearanach from An Garbanach

Sgurr Eilde Mor from Binnein Mor

Ben Nevis and Binnein Beag from Sgurr Eilde Mor

Binnein Beag summit

Binnein Mor from Binnein Beag

Why I trust the EU more than the UK government

EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, scourge of Google, Amazon,  Gazprom and Trump

Trade Minister Liam Fox, no trade deals but get ready for chlorinated chicken

Like almost everyone else in this sceptre'd isle, I am thoroughly unhappy about the disastrous Brexit negotiations. I had voted remain but had some sympathy with those wanting to leave. I thought the EU had been too hard on countries like Greece and Portugal following the banking crisis and had done too little to develop a coherent policy on immigration and asylum seekers. But now I have no hesitation in wanting to remain part of the European community. I trust the EU with all its checks and balances much more than I trust the UK government with its obsessive determination to bat for little England. That becomes more evident every day as the PM and her ministers attempt to justify their haphazard negotiations with a sang froid that makes me doubt their sanity.

I have tried to rationalise why my views have become so hard and fast. Obviously, they have been partially shaped by the abysmal failure of Mrs May's government to establish a coherent plan in collaboration with all political parties, business and other parts of civil society. This should have been established before asking to leave through invoking article 50. It has not helped that she chose a ragtag and bobtail of her ministers to lead the negotiations. What Davies, Fox and Johnson lacked in objectivity, emotional intelligence and negotiation skills were replaced by their violative characteristics of narcissistic egos, preening self-indulgence and narrow-minded instincts. But there are several other reasons:

• Whatever its faults the EU has become a political entity with an assurance of peace in the world's most bellicose continent. 
• EU policymaking is more rigorous and is shaped by best practice amongst its 28 members.
• The EU understands and encourages subsidiarity to regions and cities.
• UK policies are far too centralised, there is a reluctance to embed powers in local or regional government. 
• The UK government does not take heed of what John Steinbeck recognised, that "small diagnostic truths which are the foundations of the larger truth". This hinders the scope for innovation and government imposes centrally derived policies that are often at variance with local needs.
• Almost all countries in the EU have more progressive tax regimes than the UK and its tax havens.
• The EU is far more likely to exercise control over global tech companies for tax purposes and for data protection.
• The EU has trade deals with 70 countries, Liam Fox, the Brexit braggart, who claimed he would have replicated 40 of these by March 2019, has so far managed just 7.
• Who do you trust? Margrethe Vestager, the Danish EU Competition Commissioner, who has successfully taxed and challenged the global tech giants or Liam Fox!
• The damaging effect of Brexit on ease of movement, whether by air, road or sea & mobile roaming charges threatens to restrict opportunities for trade, job opportunities, travel and friendship ties. 
• The likelihood of concerted action to slow down climate change is far more effective across 28 countries. The UK government actions on wind turbines, fracking, gas power stations and nuclear are hardly indicative of any serious commitment. 
• The EU has an impressive record on environmental standards for air quality, wastewater, bathing beaches, toxic chemicals and much more. 
• Similarly, the EU has introduced standards for manufactured goods, certification of products, health and safety standards and these are being regularly updated and applied after detailed consultation with member countries.
• The European Convention on Human Rights.
• The European Health Insurance Card.
• The UK constitution - outdated, outmoded and out of order.
• EU Research funding that has hugely benefited the UK and the 135,000 EU students who study in the UK.
• And just in case this isn't enough reason, Donald Trump has said the EU is "almost as bad as China, just smaller."

It is an endless list once you start and, although there is the charge that the EU is less democratic and run by bureaucrats, I beg to differ. Most EU civil servants that I have dealt with were experienced in managing public services in their own countries and well disposed towards subsidiarity. The same cannot be said for many UK civil servants who have been cocooned in central government departments with little practical experience of the real world.

And that brings me to the supposedly democratic UK government elected by just 29.1% of the electorate through a discredited first past the post vote that creates a two-party monopoly. Both Conservative and Labour MPs are disciplined by whipping systems based upon either a public school mentality or a rigid collective discipline. The resultant absence of transparency or collaborative discussion has been fatally exposed during the Brexit debacle. Not forgetting the unelected upper house that is brim full of place men and women. Despite this, on Brexit and many other matters in recent years, the House of Lords has been more focused and knowledgeable than the febrile House of Commons.

If we had any sense it is Westminster that we should be abandoning. Let the regions and nations of the UK work directly with the EU. We would be free from the claustrophobic elite cluster of politicians and civil servants from Eton and Oxbridge dominating the governance of the UK. Westminster ensures that London dominates investment, decision making, culture and the economy to the detriment of all regions outside the south-east of England. The May government has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that they are unfit to govern and a Corbyn led opposition has failed miserably to call time on this charade of charlatans. 

Ben Vorlich

Ben Vorlich from Ben Our

Start of walk at Loch Earn

Ben Vorlich trig point from adjacent top

Stuc a' Chroin from Ben Vorlich

Ben Vorlich summit

Stuc a' Chroin

Ben Vorlich from the ridge towards Ben Our

Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' Chroin from Ben Our

Loch Voil and Crianlarich Munros from Ben Our

Ben Our summit towards Loch Earn

Monday, 11 February 2019

Ascent:        995 metres
Distance:     11 kilometres
Time:          5 hours 28 minutes

Ben Vorlich      984m    2hrs 5mins

We awoke to perfect blue skies over the twin peaks of Ben Vorlich and Stuc a' Chroin. They are our nearest Munros and are visible from the kitchen window. John and I had decided to have our first outing of the year on them. The snows of recent weeks had been hardened to ice sheets by wind and frost so ice axes, crampons and a flask of coffee were packed. We made the leisurely 30-minute journey to the peaceful shores of Loch Earn. It would be my tenth walk up this hill and the fourth in winter conditions. We were walking shortly after 10am, our stiff winter boots and heavier than usual packs slowing us as we climbed the excellent path past Ardvorlich House and up the burn to the micro-hydro scheme that had been installed 8 or 9 years ago.

Above here the path is well made and takes a steady line towards the summit. Above 600 metres the path had begun to resemble a frozen cascade and we had to either take to the heather slopes or fit some crampons. I chose the latter and it took 10 minutes to fit and adjust them to my boots. John had decided to march on up the heather and he eventually reached a resting point on the snowfields above where three other walkers were perched and had been for some time. My crampons ratcheted me up to them, there were two men and a young woman. They had no crampons and were terrified of the black ice on the steepish slopes. An experienced climber had gone up to rescue the girl's boyfriend who had made a forlorn attempt to reach the summit and stranded on the icy slopes. They were gingerly making their way down the slope whilst the other three were lamenting their attempt on Ben Vorlich. The climber had then promised that he would take the four of them down to safer ground.

John meanwhile was trying to reassure them whilst fitting his crampons. I could not offer any further help so continued to climb the final 150 metres of ascent up the steep snow and ice slope. I was joined by a younger climber who had forgotten his crampons but otherwise had the equipment, nerve and experience to climb to the summit. We passed the experienced climber who was dressed in shorts and wearing crampons, he was guiding the young walker down by getting him to grip his shoulders as he made a slow descent as he dug his crampons into the ice. What had started as a fairly ordinary winter walk was becoming a bit of an adventure. When we reached the summit, the full effect of a -11°C wind chill became evident. It was no place to hang around and even my camera froze up when I tried to take some photos. I had to revert to my phone and the numb hands that followed. John arrived and after sauntering out to the nearby twin top we began to descend towards the Stuc a' Chroin bealach.

The young climber asked to join us as we negotiated our way down the steep slope. It was hard snow on black ice so John lent him his ice axe. We deliberated going over to Stuc a' Chroin but it would have taken an hour or so extra in the conditions and with the wind rising, it would be no fun on the summit. Normally this would not deter us but we were no longer striving to complete another Munro round so we could opt out and enjoy the day. We decided to walk out over the outlying hill, Ben Our. It was a route we had not taken before and gave excellent views up Loch Voil and along the length of Loch Earn. Once we escaped the snow and ice, it became a leisurely stroll and we were able to enjoy a conversation with someone who had only recently begun to climb regularly and he had 50 Munros under his belt. His enthusiasm and hill innocence made us nostalgic for the adventures that he had ahead. We were down by 3.40pm after a comparatively short day on the hills. Competing against the conditions had released our endorphins and we returned home mightily content to have been back on the hills.

Jeremy Hardy

One of the delights of living in the UK is the quirky comedy programmes provided by Radio 4 and its rotating cast of quick-witted comedians and writers. The News Quiz has been my favourite programme for many years, it even used to regulate the time of my journeys home from work.

There was always a sense of expectation when Jeremy Hardy was on duty. He seldom disappointed, his incisive polemic was laced with tantalising touches of humour. His untimely death from cancer at the age of 57 has been mourned by radio listeners, his collaborators and audiences around the UK. Despite his strongly held political views, he had the ability to entertain and educate people of all ages, backgrounds and political persuasions.

Listening to some Jeremy Harding clips this morning reminded me why the radio is the best of all media. His parodies on the News Quiz or Just a Minute captured the hypocrisy of government and its damnable agencies like ofgem with chilling accuracy. On so many occasions he narrates the way that public services like Utilities have been destroyed. He had strong principles that were injected into his passionate rants as when he coruscated the use of PFI and New Labour for its love affair with neoliberal policies and the financial sector.

He was also a genius at self-deprecation and could also hold a good note as in this rendering of Hallelujah in the style of George Formby

He bequeathed a lifetime of laughter to live audiences and on air