Desert Island Peaks

On one of the peaks

"If you were marooned alone, with only a few hills for company, which would you choose?" I was asked this question by UKHillwalking as part of a lockdown Desert Island Peaks series. I found the exercise quite interesting. My choices and the reasons for them can be read here. 

John D.Burns and  Keri Wallace have also given their selections. I'm sure there will be more to come.

Memorable Mountains 6: Braeriach

Braeriach from the Cairngorm Plateau

Back to the Cairngorms for the sixth memorable mountain I'm thinking about during lockdown. This is one I'll be returning to as soon as it's okay to venture a bit further. Braeriach competes with Ben Macdui for my favourite Cairngorm mountain. On balance, today, Braeriach comes out on top. But I might change my mind - probably the next time I climb Ben Macdui. They are both splendid.

Braeriach across An Garbh-choire

Like Ben Macdui I've been up Braeriach many, many times. Or rather I've been over Braeriach many times. Again like Ben Macdui it's not a pointed peak with a little summit that you go up and then down. Braeriach is a great sprawling mass of a mountain. The actual highest point isn't really significant, being only a touch higher than the surrounding area. Braeriach is about space and distance, about the vastness of this high plateau. It's also about the myriad dramatic corries biting into the mountain on three sides. Only to the south are there open slopes as the mountains falls away to the huge expanse of the Moine Mhor.

Camp near the infant river Dee

I love spending time up on Braeriach. Out in the heart of the mountain I feel in a separate world. The lowlands are far away, invisible. Camping here is magical. I especially like climbing the mountain in the evening and pitching camp in the dark with the stars above and black space spreading all around, then waking to the first sun and the beauty of the landscape coming to life.

One of the Wells of Dee

Also magical are the Pools of Dee. Surrounded by bright green moss these little bubbling springs are the source of the river Dee, one of the major rivers at Scotland. At 1220 metres the Wells are the highest source of a big river in the UK. From the Pools the infant Dee runs across Braeriach as a gentle little burn before crashing over the edge at the Falls of Dee into massive An Garbh-choire.

The Falls of Dee

Braeriach is a long walk from any direction, a full mountain day. I like the approach from Gleann Einich, via one of the ridges between the three corries on the north side of the mountain. There's a bit of an old path in places but mostly this is untracked, unfrequented ground. Once on the mountain the finest walk - one of the finest in the Highlands in my opinion - runs from the summit round the rim of An Garbh-choire, with a diversion to the Wells of Dee, to Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul. The grandeur of the mountain scenery on this walk is unsurpassed.

Braeriach from Sgor Gaoith

Memorable Mountains 5: Ben Nevis

Fifth in this occasional series of memorable mountains I've been thinking about while the hills are out of bounds is one I've climbed more than a dozen times, summer and winter. Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland.

I first climbed the Ben, as it's known, over forty years ago by way of the standard walkers route, a long but rewarding slog up a stony path. I didn't then appreciate the true grandeur of the mountain, I was just aware of its bulk and height.

A few years later I began to grasp just how spectacular and glorious Ben Nevis is when I took a winter climbing course. Walking up to the great north face and then climbing through the crags and gullies to the summit plateau was a revelation. The complexity of the giant cliffs sucked me in. Here was world of its own, self-contained, aloof from any other reality.

I climbed two routes with an instructor. My notes are rather sparse - I was probably too tired to write much. Of the first, Garadh Gully, graded II, which means quite easy, I merely noted "2 small ice pitches proved interesting". The second was a little different. "Did what we thought was Jubilee Gully", I wrote. That was another Grade II climb. But the terrain we found ourselves on was much harder than that. "Second pitch a vertical ice wall, bulging at the top - desperate! While on it weather changed and suddenly we were enveloped in a warm wet cloud. Above the ice pitch we moved rapidly together as stones and bits of ice came whistling down". We reached the summit plateau over a large cornice. There was a wide, deep crack some thirty feet from the edge. An exciting day!

Many ascents and years later I had my best day and night on Ben Nevis one May during the TGO Challenge. I went up in the evening after the heat of the day had dimmed and camped on deep snow on the summit. The last of many day walkers passed me descending just above the Halfway Lochan. I was alone with the mountain and would be for the next fifteen hours.

A brilliant sunset lit up Loch Eil and the far western hills. The cliffs of the north face glowed in the last light of the day. I wandered round the summit, lost in the marvellousness of it all.

Dawn came with damp mist and I thought the splendour was gone. But as the sun strengthened the clouds rose and began to dissipate.

Memorable Mountains 4: Mount Assiniboine

The fourth in a series of memorable mountains I'm thinking about is one I've never climbed but have sat and stared at for hours. Mount Assiniboine is a dramatic 3618 metre mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The photo above was taken on a ski tour in 1987. I found the rather battered negative of this picture a few days ago while sorting through some old photos. I coudn't find the print so I photographed the negative on my old lightbox and processed it in Lightroom.

Mount Assiniboine appears in two of my long-out of print books. I described the ski tour mentioned above in Wilderness Skiing and Winter Camping and described Assiniboine as a "magnificent soaring spire ... a classic mountain, a mountain of dreams, the perfect mountain of childhood memories".










A year after the ski tour I walked the length of the Canadian Rockies, a trip that took me past Mount Assiniboine. I wrote about this trip in High Summer: Backpacking the Canadian Rockies. The picture above is from the book. I camped with a superb view of the mountain and spent the evening watching the light change on its slopes. Unforgettable.

Memorable Mountains 3: An Teallach

Third in this occasional series of mountains I'm thinking about during the lockdown is one I've traversed three times but not yet had a view from. An Teallach is a wonderful, tremendous mountain - complex, rugged, spectacular, really a mini mountain range with many summits including two Munros and a superb line of pinnacles, the Corrag Buidhe.

For me An Teallach also a frustrating mountain as whenever I go near it the heavens open. As well as my three ascents, all in dense mist and rain, I've camped on its flanks several times and gone no further due to the weather. I once spent a whole day sitting in Shenavall bothy whilst the rain and wind hammered down hoping the weather would clear the next day. It didn't. Any views I've had of An Teallach have been from a distance - the one above was taken from the Beinn Dearg range.

My first post-lockdown promise to myself is to climb An Teallach on a clear day!

Memorable Mountains 1: Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney & Timberline Lake, October 2016

During the lockdown many people are sharing favourite views, trips, campsites, mountains and more. I've joined in with reminiscences of my Arizona Trail hike. Today I'm starting a new occasional series about memorable mountains I've climbed. I find thinking about these trips and looking at my photographs a reassuring thing to do at this time.

The first mountain is far away in the High Sierra in California. It's one I've climbed twice, far apart in time and conditions. The first was in 1982 during my Pacific Crest Trail hike. The second was in 2016 during a walk from Yosemite Valley to Death Valley. Both trips are highlights of my outdoors life and Mount Whitney was the high point on both of them.

Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the 48 contiguous States and the terminus of the John Muir and High Sierra Trails. As with all highest summits from Snowdon to Everest it is very popular and permits are required to climb it in order to control the numbers.

On the ascent, May 1982

Hiking the PCT in 1982 my permit for the trail included Whitney, not that there were any rangers on the mountain to check it. The High Sierra was still snowbound, the trail buried. I went through with three other hikers, feeling it was safer in a group. We took a day off to climb Whitney. Ice axe and crampins were needed throughout and in places the ascent was quite scary as we edged along narrow strips of snow with big drops to the side.

On the summit, May 1982

My second ascent was completely different. It was in October after a long dry summer. The mountain was barely recognisable from thirty-four years earlier. Instead of snow there was rock in vast quantities. My route was the same but this time there was a trail and other people, many other people.

The trail up Mount Whitney, October 2016

What didn't change were the vast views, the sense of wildness, the beauty of the landscape. Mount Whitney is a wonderful mountain in a wonderful place and remembering my two ascents always lifts my spirits.

On the summit, October 2016

First selection of pictures from my Colorado Rockies walk

Returning from a long walk is always somewhat disorientating. The world has changed and there's so much to do. I've been back from my month on the Continental Divide Trail in Colorado for a few days and have barely begun to sort everything out, and tomorrow I'm off to Fort William for a John Muir Trust meeting. I have though downloaded most of the 1000 or so photos I took and begun to look through them. These are ones I took with my 'big' cameras. All the ones I posted during the walk were from my phone. Here are the first ones that caught my eye.

Pictures from Yosemite and the Ansel Adams Wilderness

The view from Red Peak Pass, Yosemite National Park

As I work through the photos from my recent trip I'll post selections here, starting with a few from the first few days of the walk, when the weather was very hot and sunny. I expected to have to deal with the heat and with lack of water in the desert. In fact the hottest weather was at the start of the walk and there was also a lack of water here with many creeks dry.

The first few hours of the walk took me past Liberty Dome and Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park

Sadler Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness - welcome water!

The North Fork of the San Joaquin River at Hemlock Crossing, Ansel Adams Wilderness - more welcome water.

John Muir Trust Suilven Path Appeal

Back in October I posted about the John Muir Trust's success in winning £18,000 for footpath repairs on Suilven in Assynt in the North-West Highlands and reposted a report on a backpacking trip over this magnificent mountain.

Now the Trust is seeking to raise another £50,000 towards the total cost of around £200,000 via a public appeal. If this money is raised the rest of the funding will be provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage. The path repairs will be carried out by the John Muir Trust and the Assynt Foundation (which manages the land for the local community) under the umbrella of the Coigach-Assynt Living Landscape (CALL) Partnership, one of Europe's largest landscape restoration projects.

Why is this work needed? The John Muir Trust says 'due to increasing popularity, fragile soils and a harsh climate, the most popular approach to Suilven, beginning at Glencanisp, is rapidly deteriorating. The Suilven path restoration project will set out to repair an eroded 2.5km section of the route to prevent further damage and maintain public access, helping support tourism in the local community. It also aims to protect this rare habitat of peat bog and wet heath, and the plant species and wildlife it supports.'

Donations can be made here.

Viewing the Snow in Coire an Lochain

Coire an Lochain

May has continued wet and windy and cold with hints of snow in the rain at low levels and scatterings of the real stuff on the tops. Much snow is left from the winter too. From Aviemore great snowfields can be seen on the walls of the Northern Corries of Cairn Gorm and the scalloped north face of Braeriach. For a close-up view of the snow I wandered into Coire an Lochain on a day of racing clouds, patches of blue sky and a damp chill in the air. 

Below the dark cliffs high on the corrie’s back wall a wide band of snow swept across the slopes to merge with a much more extensive snowfield on the steep eastern flank, a snowfield that ran right down into the cold grey waters of the lochan that lies in the heart of the corrie. The snow isn’t as deep as it was in early June last year (see this post) but it actually covers a larger area. A speckling of fresh snow lay on the western sun-exposed side of the corrie. Although only a few miles from the car park it felt, as always, remote and wild here, the snow giving it a touch of the arctic.

Floating ice

Wandering round the lochan I stared across its dark surface to plates of dirty snow floating in the water. Spattered with mud and earth these looked like the debris from avalanches. Many little slides were visible on the slopes above the lochan and there were bare patches where the snow had slid off.

Unstable slopes

 

Turning away from the snow and the lochan I pondered on whether to climb to the summit of Cairn Lochan. The weather decided for me. I had barely reached the corrie rim when I felt the first spots of rain on my head. I looked back. The clouds were descending over the crags. The rain became heavier. I headed for the car.

The clouds come down

Today! 9pm. BBC 4. Terry Abraham's Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike

Tonight the BBC is showing an abridged version of Terry Abraham's wonderful film about Scafell Pike (I admit to a slight bias - I'm in it, though only a short bit). TV reviewers who've seen it in advance have been raving over it, with praise from The Guardian, The Observer, The Times, The Radio Times, The Daily Telegraph and more. Here's a couple of sample quotes:

"With its sweeping cinematography and sonorous score, there's a touch of the art-house Koyaanisqatsi about this enchanting documentary"

Pick Of The Day  The Guardian

"A moving, poetic film ... a vivid portrait ..... gorgeous photography ... a celebration which exudes gladness"

Picks of the Day: Choice The Observer

The BBC are only showing half the film though. To see it in its full glory you need the DVD. And don't forget Terry's other films - Backpacking In The Lake District and The Cairngorms In Winter, both with me, and Helvellyn, with Mark Richards - which are all available from Striding Edge.

A Winter's Day on Sgor Gaoith

Spindrift blowing off Sgor Gaoith

The shining snow, sharp frosts and bright winter light ended today, December 30^th, with a big thaw. The glens are mostly green and brown again, the hills only streaked with white, the sky grey. For now winter had left the land.

 

Looking across Strathspey to the Monadh Liath

Yesterday, whilst the big freeze continued I headed to Glen Feshie and up onto Sgor Gaoith. Although sunny the air was freezing, as it had been for many days, and the paths leading through the woods and into the hills icy and hard. The snow down here was shallow and sparse. But once I left the last trees it soon became deeper, hiding the tussocks and heather and rock. With no freeze-thaw pattern or strong winds to harden it the snow was unconsolidated and powdery so I broke through at every step, mostly ankle deep, sometimes into the knee. Climbing was arduous and the convex slope frustrating with the plateau and easier ground seemingly always just fifty metres ahead. The views though were splendid, back over a frosty Strathspey to the cloud-streaked Monadh Liath.

 

Walkers heading for the summit of Sgor Gaoith

Eventually the great west face of Braeriach began to rise above the slope ahead and I knew the main ascent was over. And as I came out onto the north-western end of the vast high plateau of the Moine Mhor I also came into the full force of the wind, with gusts strong enough to make walking difficult. Swirls of spindrift were twisting and hissing over the snow and the icy cold blasts of wind scoured any exposed skin. Along the steep eastern edge of Sgor Gaoith I could see great blasts of spindrift pouring over the corniced edge in hazy clouds. Across the gulf of Gleann Einich Braeriach looked calm and peaceful. 

Braeriach

The exposed summit was not a place to linger in these conditions so I was soon heading down again towards the lower summit of Meal Buidhe. In the col between the two I was able to find a reasonably sheltered spot for a much needed snack and warming drink of hot ginger cordial. Then it was into the wind again as the sun sank towards the horizon and the snow began to turn pink in its last rays. A half-moon rose into the darkening sky. 

Swirling spindrift at sunset

 

Back down in the trees and out of the wind it felt warmer though the temperature was dropping rapidly now the sun was gone. Winter seemed to have a firm grip on the land. How quickly it would change. For a last walk of the year this had been a grand venture though and I returned home with aching limbs and wind-blasted face but deeply satisfied inside.

  

Dusk

 

Last traces of sunset