Storytelling along the Southern Upland Way

One of the pleasures of leading a group is meeting interesting people and I was delighted and surprised when I discovered that Daniel Allison, one of the people who came up Sgor Gaoith with me at the start of the month, was a storyteller and musician. I was also very interested when he told me that later in the month he was walking the Southern Upland Way and telling stories in communities along the way, a fascinating idea. Daniel has now started his walk, which can be followed on Facebook - Among the Wild Deer - and on Twitter @amongthewild. The Southern Upland Way, which I've hiked twice (see here for a brief account of my 2010 walk), is long and quite tough in places. Stopping off to tell stories along the way would require even more energy and determination. Most evenings on my walks I was happy just to lie back in the tent with a hot drink and a book.

Daniel also has an interesting website, again entitled Among the Wild Deer, which gives information on his storytelling, workshops and more.

 

Rewilding, Wildlife, Photography: Peter Cairns' New Frontiers.

Last month I wrote about George Monbiot, his book ‘Feral’and his rewilding ideas. The same topic emerged in much gentler form though with no less passion and commitment in a talk by wildlife photographer and conservationist Peter Cairns at Eden Court in Inverness, entitled ‘New Frontiers’. Cairns mixed his superb photos with bits of video and some music (I wasn’t sure about the last) and told the story of how he developed from a ‘trophy shots’ photographer into a campaigning one. As part of the latter Cairns is one of the photographers behind the ambitious 2020 Vision British nature photography project and has his own website – Northshots – that is well worth a look. Compared with Monbiot, who dismisses some conservation work as useless and even damaging, Cairns is much more accommodating of a wide range of conservation work and sees a web of different projects as leading to rewilding. I think both positions have validity and that there are positives in both.

I’d certainly recommend going to see Peter Cairns if he’s speaking in your area. There’s also his excellent book Caledonia: Scotland’s Heart of Pine, which I reviewed last year, and which is full of beautiful images plus inspiring words from Niall Benvie. 

Rewilding seems to be a theme for me this year and soon I'll be reviewing two more books about the subject - Jim Crumley's The Last Wolf and The Great Wood.

Outdoor Trade Show Gear Awards

Yesterday the winners of the Outdoor Trade Show Awards were announced. I was one of the judges and took part in the decision-making earlier in the day. Some categories were easy to judge, others required a bit of discussion. All the products look good. Personally I'm particularly interested in the Hydrogen Reactor and the Paramo jacket.

Here's an edited official press release:

The winners of the prestigious OTS 2013 Novel Awards have been announced at the Outdoor Trade Show (OTS), following close scrutiny by a panel of industry experts.

This year, for the first time, there was an exclusive online voting system for retailers to select their favourite from the 90 products entered into each of the seven categories. The three products with the most votes in each category were awarded finalist status, and the panel of judges chose the following winners:

Accessories: Brunton Hydrogen Reactor

Camping Equipment: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Venture

Clothing: Paramo Men’s Enduro Jacket

Footwear: Lowa Mountain Expert GTX

Rucksacks/Travel Luggage: Vango Khumbu Rucksack

Sleeping bags: Therm-a-Rest Mira

Tents/Awnings: Force Ten MTN Tent

The overall Product of The Year Award was won by Brunton Hydrogen Reactor.

OTS Organiser, Marta Williams comments: “Almost 90 products were entered into the Awards this year and the standard of all entries was incredibly high. We are delighted that these seven winning products have been recognised by retailers and the judges for their innovation, and can now be officially promoted as OTS Novel Award Winners.”
 

More from the Outdoor Trade Show: Stoves and Socks and Poles and Books and Chargers

Day 2 at the Outdoor Show produced a nice surprise in the form of Darn Tough socks. I've been looking forward to trying these as reports from the USA suggest they are very hardwearing. Now they're available in Britain and I have a pair to test.

I'm also looking forward to trying new stoves from Jetboil and Primus, especially the Eta Light from the latter, which replaces the Eta Solo, which wasn't that good. The Eta Light looks far better. Jetboil meanwhile has made the first stove with an inverted canister that sits under the burner. With a big 2.5 litre pot it's designed for group cooking.

Brunton's Hydrogen Reactor won the Product of the Year Award (I was one of the judges). This new way to charge electronic devices really does look exciting.

There's a couple of good books from Cicerone out soon. One is Alan Hinkes' 8000 Metres, which I'm really looking forward to reading. The other is Trekking in the Himalaya, edited by Kev Reynolds, to which I contributed a chapter.

Finally Komperdell had some excellent looking carbon fibre trekking poles on display. These are lightweight and very stiff. Komperdell say the carbon fibre is very strong too. They have external locking adjustments that are easy to use. If they had Pacerpole handles they'd be just about perfect.

The tent picture below is one of Terry Abraham's and was decorating the Vango stand. All the show pictures are direct from my HTC Desire S phone.

Thoughts from the Outdoor Trade Show

Just spent the first of two days looking at gear at The Outdoor Trade Show, which is held at Stoneleigh Park down in deepest Warwickshire in the English Midlands. Took me a whole day to reach this distant place (as measured from the centre of my world - the Cairngorms).

At the show I've seen a mass of stuff including nice socks from Point 6 and Teko, Gooper magnet closed electronics cases, good looking new Paramo clothing, a modular Kelty pack, new Force Ten tents, a water resistant cotton/polyester fleece from Climescape, some interesting fuel gel from Trangia/Vango and lots of footwear. Much of this gear will be tested for test reports in The Great Outdoors over the next year.

The indoor show is quite small compared with the big trade shows in Friedrichshafen and Salt Lake City. However the tent show outside is vast, the biggest in Europe if not the world. Ranks of tents and banners faded into the distance. Vango alone had more space and tents than other shows have in total. This promoted me to wonder which of the various impossible to imagine comparison cliches were appropriate - x football pitches, Wales, Belgium?

Caleb's List & Arthur's Seat

As usual when visiting Edinburgh for the Festivals last month I took a few hours off from the shows and exhibitions and street theatre to wander over ‘the mountain in the city’, Arthur’s Seat. In previous years I’d just found a way up to the summit, studied the view and the people, then ambled back down admiring the rocks and the plants and the birds and feeling happy to be away from busy streets for a while. Maps and guidebooks weren’t needed or carried. This year was different though. 

One of the books I’d read during my Scottish Watershed walk back in June and July was Caleb’s List by Kellan MacInnes, a book that is part personal story, part history and part a guidebook. It tells the story of mountaineer and geographer Caleb George Cash who, back in the 1890s, published a list of hills visible from Arthur’s Seat, and also has route descriptions for ascending those hills. Interwoven with Caleb’s tale and the guidebook details is the author’s own story and how discovering and climbing the ‘Arthur’s’ as he names Caleb’s hills, has helped him to cope with having AIDS.  The author is unflinching about the latter and there are some graphic and disturbing descriptions of living with this illness.

As well as route information for the hills on Caleb’s List the book has a description of a walk over Arthur’s Seat and I decided to use this on my last ascent, following the description on my tablet. This took me below Salisbury Crags, where some would-be rock climbers were almost getting stuck, and past Hutton’s Section, an important geological site, then up to the crowded summit where it was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the sunshine and the experience of being on a rocky hill. With Caleb’s List to accompany me I learnt much about Arthur’s Seat and its environs – previously all I knew was that it was the remnant of a volcano and was in Edinburgh – and saw parts of the hill I’d not visited before.

Caleb’s List is an excellent book, well worth reading even if you have no intention of climbing the hills described. Caleb Cash himself is an important if neglected figure in the history of the Scottish outdoors and the author’s personal story gives the book an emotional power unusual in a guidebook.

Next month, on the 4^th, I’ll be taking part in an event at the Portobello Book Festival in Edinburgh with Kellan MacInnes called ‘Wilderness Writing’. I have no idea how this will go but I am looking forward to meeting the author of Caleb’s List.

Rain, Wind & Rainbows: On Braeriach & Sgor Gaoith

View from the summit of Braeriach

A forecast of strong winds and showers, some of them wintry, didn’t bode well for two days leading groups in the Cairngorms for the Tomintoul & Glenlivet Walking/Cycling Festival. I hoped the weather wouldn’t lead to a failure to reach a summit, as it did last year when I attempted to lead a group up Ben Avon.

On the ascent of Braeriach

As ten of us gathered in the Sugar Bowl car park on the Cairngorm ski road clouds were racing overhead and gusts of wind shook the trees. We were aiming for Braeriach, which involves a long approach walk via the boulders of the Chalamain Gap followed by a descent into the Lairig Ghru. Buffeted by the wind I wondered just how far we would get as we began the climb up Braeriach itself. There were short, sharp and cold showers and as we neared the summit we were in and out of mist but the wind wasn’t strong enough to impede walking. The views came and went in the cloud; dramatic, atmospheric, magical. The air was cold and a shower near the summit had hints of sleet. Hats and gloves and hoods were essential. A suggestion and reminder of winter at the end of August.

Creag an Leth-choin & the Lairig Ghru from the slopes of Braeriach

Descending the same way the wind strengthened and grew more gusty. An hour or two later and we might not have reached the summit. At the same time though there were touches of sunshine and a brighter sky. Showers still blasted past, mostly only minutes long. As we clambered back through the Chalamain Gap a rainbow appeared ahead, welcoming us back to Glenmore.

Rainbow over Glenmore

A day later and I was in Glen Feshie with seven others, ready for an ascent of Sgor Gaoith. The skies were greyer and the wind stronger than the day before and we were in wet mist much of the time. Thin rain swept over us. There were no clearances and the group sadly missed the tremendous views from the summit. Arriving in thick mist I was initially confused at the top. The little cairn that decorated it was gone. Maybe this wasn’t the summit? A few yards walk and a look back showed that it was. The cairn had been there earlier in the year and, as far as I remembered, on all the other occasions I’d climbed the hill. There were no stones remaining and I guessed they’d been chucked over the cliffs down towards Loch Einich. It was only a little cairn and I guess another will appear but it seems a shame the old one has been destroyed. I’m not in favour of lines of cairns marking paths but cairns marking summits are useful and valid and often of great age.

Approaching the summit of Sgor Gaoith

We’d ascended via a high broad curving spur over two lower summits. To escape the wind we took a direct descent, straight down mossy slopes into Coire Ruadh and out of the mist. We followed a burn down and saw dippers beside it. There were red grouse in the heather too and one of the group saw a golden eagle flying up Glen Feshie. On the ascent we’d seen a solitary reindeer far from their usual haunts. This one was more wary than usual too and trotted away before we came near. Other than that the hills were empty, of people and wildlife.