Superb Ski & Camp on the Moine Mhor

A frosty camp looking towards Sgor Gaoith

Sunshine. Cold. Snow. Just how winter should be. And for a few days it was. High level camping in winter is a joy in conditions like this. Deciding to combine such a camp with ski touring I headed for a favourite area for both activities, the Moine Mhor plateau above Glen Feshie. 

The Arctic landscape of the Moine Mhor

Once I reached the Moine Mhor a white Arctic-like world opened up. This world was white and vast with endless snowfields stretching out to distant peaks. As I ventured out onto the great whiteness the snow-free glens and the dark woods far below disappeared and all that was left was snow, broken only by occasional dark rocks poking through the white blanket.

Easy skiing led out into the heart of the whiteness. The skis skimmed over the snow. Long straight effortless runs let me admire the wild scene as I sped along. At times I made wide sweeping turns, the skis slicing through the soft snow. There cannot be an easier way to traverse a snowy landscape. 

Last of the sun on Braeriach

As the sun touched the horizon and long shadows started to spread across the snow I decided it was time to stop. In these conditions a camp can be made almost anywhere. I selected a shallow curve of deep snow. The high tops were turning pink in the last of the sun as I pitched the tent in rapidly dropping temperatures.

A starry sky

Later in the evening the sky was a mass of brilliant stars curving over the dark land. I fell asleep looking up at the constellation of the Plough directly above, my head in the open door of the tent. Brightness woke me at 1.30. The moon had risen and the hills were visible again. A heavy frost had coated the tent white inside and out. The temperature was -12.6°C. Crouched in the doorway I took photographs of moonlit Sgor Gaoith (you can see the shadow of my tent and tripod in the pictures) before dozing off again.

Sgor Gaoith by moonlight

 

When I next awoke the sun was just appearing over the horizon. The shadowed snow turned white again, the black sky lightened to a bright blue. The stars and moon had vanished. The temperature was still -6°C. It would take the sun a while to heat the air. A mug of hot chocolate and muesli porridge gave me the energy to leave my sleeping bag and wander round the camp watching the world come back to life.

A cold start to the day

Finally leaving my camp, one of the finest for many months, I headed to the shallow gully of the snow-hidden Allt Sgairnich, where I have built igloos in the past. Today the wind had carved steep banks above the stream and there were several well-built snowholes high up on these. Climbing out of the gully onto Carn Ban Mor I saw many people heading for Sgor Gaoith. Out on the Moine Mhor I’d seen one other skier, now I could see dozens of walkers and there was a well-tramped path leading to the summit. 

Allt Sgairnich snowholes

 

Everyone was rewarded for their efforts – and walking in the soft snow looked much harder than skiing – as the views were as superb as they always are in clear weather from the tiny summit of Sgor Gaoith. Far below dark Loch Einich was part-frozen. The peak of the winds lived up to its name and a bitter wind swept the summit. 

Loch Einich & Braeriach from Sgor Gaoith

A long traversing descent took me below the walkers’ route and across lovely snow where turns were easy to the col with Carn Ban Beag. From here it was just a walk back down into Glen Feshie, my mind full of the arctic landscape high above.

Interview in The Scottish Mountaineer

There's an interview with me about my next book in the latest issue of The Scottish Mountaineer, the magazine of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

The magazine has had a redesign and looks excellent.

Sparrowhawk Views

The sparrowhawk that has been raiding our bird feeders in recent weeks (see this post) usually flies in and out quickly. Sometimes all we see is a blur of wings and a scattering of small birds. Yesterday though he perched for a while on one of the feeders, alert and observant, a magnificent sight.

After a while, he flew a short distance to a nearby tree where again he perched for a while, though this time he preened his feathers frequently and looked far less concerned with his surroundings. Maybe he'd abandoned hunting for now.

Moonlight & Snow

Halo round the moon as the clouds thicken

A gloriously bright moon with a bright Jupiter close by lured me outside on this calm frosty night. Twenty minutes before midnight and the temperatures was -3C and the sky mostly unclouded, though thick bands covered the hilltops. The moon, one day after full, was sharp and clear and Jupiter was equally brilliant. There were few stars visible anywhere in the sky such was the brightness of the moon. A light covering of fresh snow reflected the moonlight and there was no need of a torch. This was just intended to be a quick venture to see the moon and Jupiter in conjunction so I was soon back indoors. The beauty of the night distracted me though and I quickly realised I needed to see it again, more suitably clad this time.

The moon and Jupiter in conjunction, February 24.

By the time I was back outside thin clouds were starting to drift across the sky, softening the moonlight and at times obscuring Jupiter. A colourful halo appeared around the moon. Away from its light more stars appeared with Orion just starting to sink below the horizon. I stood and gazed and gazed.

Away from the moon, a few stars

Guest Post: Hut Trails: The Ramblers Reply

A bothy can be a welcome sight on a stormy day in the Scottish hills

Back in December I wrote a piece about the Ramblers Scotland proposal for hut trails in the Scottish hills. Helen Todd, Ramblers Scotland Campaigns and Policy Manager, has responded with the following, which I'm happy to post as a guest blog. Comments welcome! You can read my original post here. 

Our idea of setting up Scottish hut trails has obviously sparked a few comments in the mountaineering fraternity, but since our original proposal was rather light on detail I thought it would be good to set out what we had in mind – and what we didn’t!  

The manifesto you mention in your blog was our draft for consultation with members and the political parties, and the final manifesto is due to be published at the end of February.  The idea of huts trails was one of the main topics which people picked up on, and it actually received a lot of support as well as some less welcoming comments from some mountaineers.  It remains in our manifesto going forward.

We don’t disagree with much of what you say in your blog. However, the proposal we are putting forward is very much for something that would work here in Scotland, within the Scottish context, learning from other countries but not replicating them.  We would be keen to explore this idea with others and would welcome a chance to sit round the table with a mix of community, third sector, public sector and recreation bodies to discuss further how it could work.  

Scotland’s ‘official’ long distance routes have been specifically designed to go through settlements and bring some economic benefits to those communities, so the stages tend to be walkable in one-day sections.  However, at some point along the route there could be the potential for a 2-day loop away from the main track with one overnight stop in a hut, in an initiative developed by that local community and with appropriate management of that hut.  It may only make sense to open the hut from May to September, with the option for larger groups to rent it out at other times.  Lots of our long distance routes are community initiatives – the Kintyre Way, Dava Way, East Highland Way – developed because local people saw the benefits of attracting walkers to their areas, so why shouldn’t there also be an option for a circular hut trail of 2-3 days if the community is able to develop it?  The planning system is there to make sure any development would be subject to public scrutiny.  The Cape Wrath Trail is not on this model and we certainly wouldn’t be calling for huts to be set up along that route.

Iungdalshytta in Norway

 

As for camping or bothies – yes these are options and will remain so, but frankly bothies don’t suit everyone.  Likewise, having spent a lot of effort campaigning to retain the right to camp wild in Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, we are very supportive of camping, but (a) it’s quite an investment to buy gear if you are starting from scratch and aren’t sure if you’ll like it, (b) some people may not be able to carry a heavy pack for long distances – and lightweight gear is even more expensive, (c) tourists may not come to Scotland with all their camping equipment but be keen to get into remote areas overnight, and (d) let’s not forget those evenings when you feel you could cut the swarms of midges with a knife, and you’re stuck inside your tent from early evening.  In the 1980s I walked round the coast of New Zealand’s South Island on the Abel Tasman national park trail and also did the Routeburn trail, staying in basic huts and just carrying a sleeping bag and food.  I could never have had these experiences if I hadn’t been able to stay in huts, so why not have an option for people to do this in Scotland?

Hut on the GR20 in Corsica

As for the idea of somehow damaging our wild land by developing huts - we campaigned alongside other organisations to protect wild land, so we’re hardly likely to call for new developments to be constructed at high altitude in these areas.  However, there are dozens of derelict buildings in our glens, so why shouldn’t a few of these come back into use?  Let’s not forget these areas used to be full of people and it’s our current land ownership patterns which have led to empty landscapes we now experience.  It’s unlikely many traditional sporting estates will be keen to sell buildings to local communities for development into huts, but if communities buy land why shouldn’t they be able to develop a hut trail if they can find a strong business case to do so?  Each hut could be unique and very special in its own way, from the very basic through to the more comfortable, depending on community interest and the funding available in each case.  It would be great to see use of small scale renewables and energy efficiency measures to provide a cosy building with low running costs over time.  

Hope that helps to dispel a few misconceptions over what we are calling for.  Huts would not replace the Scottish mountaineering experience or make all the countryside less wild, and we are certainly not in a position to develop these hut trails ourselves.  However, as a charity which promotes walking for all, we do see them as giving another option to some people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to experience staying in remote places away from roads.

Book Review: Between the Sunset and the Sea by Simon Ingram

Everyone’s favourite mountains are different. Many factors come into the choices, some of them very personal. Trail magazine editor Simon Ingram’s selection in this book, subtitled A View of 16 British Mountains, is quite unusual but there are reasons behind his choices. In part it’s to illustrate different aspects of mountain culture in its widest sense – geology, history, science, art, adventure – and in part it’s to tell the stories of his own experiences on these hills. The book ranges from the Northwest Highlands to the Brecon Beacons by way of the Pennines, Lake District and Snowdonia. It’s divided into seasons but, more significantly, into single word topics such as space, weather, science, art, sport, with a hill for each one. Some are obvious – Schiehallion for science, Cross Fell for weather. Others are more esoteric – Ben Loyal for light, Ben Macdui for terror. Whatever the topic and mountain the author ties together his ascents and stories about the mountain well. There’s a great deal of information packed into the book in way that makes absorbing it easy. Subjects include the history of the Ordnance Survey, slate mining in Snowdonia, the beginning of rock climbing as a sport, the weight of the earth, art in the Lake District, mountain legends and many more. 

The author’s own experiences, whilst at times seemingly more fraught than necessary, help the disparate topics hang together to give an enticing picture of the wealth of Britain’s mountain culture. By describing his adventures Simon Ingram gives life to the factual information, entwining it with the mountains themselves so it enhances them. The mix is well done and the book is very readable. I enjoyed it greatly and will undoubtedly read it again.

The title comes from a poem by Geoffrey Winthrop Young by the way and there are many other literary references from a wide variety of writers – George Borrow, Ursula K Le Guin, Samuel Johnson, Margaret Mead, Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edmund Burke amongst them. This is a very erudite book.