TGO Challenge 3: Sunshine & Shimmering Hills

Day 10: Camp in Glen Feshie

Three days of sunshine and superbly clear air. The rivers glow with golden peat-stained snow melt and rain runoff. The hills are bright with snow, the sky and lakes astonishingly blue. The world is wonderful.

The northern Cairngorms looked too snowy so I came south to browner hills, though still with many white patches. From Glen Feshie to Glen Shee and next to Glen Doll, Glen Clova, West Water and finally Montrose.

The picture is of my camp in Glen Feshie.

TGO Challenge 2: Mist & Drizzle to Newtonmore.

Day 7: In Melgarve Bothy

Two days over the Corrieyairick Pass to Newtonmore in drizzle, low cloud and a bitter east wind. Hills mostly hidden but many birds and deer plus spring flowers low down. Read most of the way- a Kindle in a waterproof cover is amazing! Overnight in Melgarve Bothy where I slept on sofa cushions so no need for thin foam mat. Yesterday three knee deep fords in Glen Banchor as rain and snowmelt poured off the hills.

Last night in excellent Newtonmore Hostel where I heard tales of tents flooded, walkers swept down burns and waist deep snow in the Lairig Ghru. There will be stories told of this Challenge for many years!

Equipped with an old Therm-A-Rest, dropped off by friends in Newtonmore, I'm now heading for the Cairngorms to see what the snow is like.

TGO Challenge 1: Wild, Wet, Windy & Wintry.

Day 3: Camp after the big storm.

Fort Augustus. May 16. Rain. The 7th day of the Challenge. There has not been one wholly dry day or night but there have been gloriously sunny moments with the freshly snow clad hills sparkling. My camps have been good too, three in woods, squeezed in between spring birches and sombre pines. Of the two on open exposed sites on only one was it very windy and my shelter coped well. That was the night before the day of ferocious winds and continuous rain when I was nearly blown off my feet on a low level route. Then came the cold front backlash and a day of hail and snow and kicking steps over Toll Creagach in head high spindrift. Next comes a two day crossing of the Monadh Liath. The forecast is for rain.

My equipment has held up, all except my high-tech airbed, which burst internally, leading to a rather disturbing and unusable bulbous end. After two uncomfortable nights I have replaced it with a cheap thin foam mat. At least this can't burst.

TGO Challenge 2012

Camp in Glen Quoich on the TGO Challenge 2009

In just over eight hours I'll be heading to Torridon in the Northwest Highlands for the start of the 33rd TGO Challenge backpacking hike across the Scottish Highlands. It'll be my 14th Challenge and my first since 2009. This year my route wanders over the Achnashellach, Strathfarrar, Mullardoch and Glen Affric hills to my first resupply point at Fort Augustus. I'll need six days supplies for this section but after that I'll not need more than three days worth at a time as I cross the Monadh Liath to Newtonmore and Kingussie and then the Cairngorms to Braemar and Ballater with a finish over Mount Keen and Mount Battock to Stonehaven.

There are 33 Munros on the route plus a handful of lower hills. How many of these I actually climb will depend largely on the weather. And the forecast is not good. Tomorrow the current stormy weather is meant to slowly clear, giving a fine afternoon and evening, which is when I'll be walking. Saturday looks good too. Then it all changes. On Sunday heavy rain and winds gusting to 80mph at 900 metres are forecast and the storms are predicted to continue through the next few days. On the summits the rain could be snow. And after that? The long range forecast is for more storms. Long range forecasts are notoriously unreliable. I am really hoping this one lives up to that.

The forecast is for it to be unseasonably cold too. With that plus the rain, snow and wind in mind I've modified my inital gear list, adding a warmer insulated jacket, a heavier waterproof jacket, long johns, overmitts, a second pair of spare socks. That's added a kilo or so to my load. With the initial six days supplies it's quite heavy at 18kg, including my cameras and tripod. I had hoped to carry less but I also don't want to be cold or wet. Balancing comfort with weight is part of the skill of backpacking.

I'll be reporting in TGO on the gear I use. Interesting items include the Mountain Laurel Designs silnylon Trailstar tarp with OookWorks OookTub groundsheet, Berghaus Mount Asgard Hybrid water-resistant down/Primaloft jacket and Westcomb Apoc Neoshell jacket. My pack is the old-style GoLite Quest and my stove the Trail Designs Caldera Ti-Tri, both veterans of my Pacific Northwest Trail hike. I don't think I'll be using wood as fuel that often on this trip though.

Now there's just time for some sleep before I leave. If I can get a connection and have time I may post during the walk. Otherwise I'll let you know how it went when I return.

Book Review: The Natural Explorer by Tristan Gooley

Tristan Gooley’s follow-up to the successful The Natural Navigator is subtitled Understanding Your Landscape and that’s what the book is about, if you take “landscape” in its widest context to include culture and philosophy as well as actual land. The author’s intention is to encourage travellers to be inquisitive about where they are in all its aspects, an intention which I happily endorse. Curiosity is an invaluable trait.

Whilst there are references to many explorers three nineteenth century ones run through the book, linked by their interest in everything they saw – Alexander Humbolt who explored South America from 1799 to 1804, Ludwig Leichhardt who explored north-east Australia from 1844-45 and Charles Darwin, who went round the world from 1831-36 (I recently read Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, an interesting and thought-provoking book).

Aspects of the natural world – plants, mountains, coasts, ice, animals, sky, weather and more – make up almost half the book, after which the author ranges widely, covering subjects from cities and worldly goods to beauty, inner time and mood, and imagination and wonder. In all twenty-nine topics are covered, with facts and ideas crammed in, which does give a rather breathless feel to the text in places. Mountains are covered in just twelve pages, rivers in thirteen and time in fifteen. As the information rushes past, the facts piling on top of each other, it’s easy to lose track of much of it. For that reason I think this is a book to read slowly or to dip into now and then, leaving time to ponder and digest.

Inevitably in a book that covers so much so briefly there are some misleading simplifications (the description of the difference between the theories of Lamarck and Darwin is one) and some partial or dubious statements (pre-dawn starts for mountain ascents are not usually to reach the summit for the best views before clouds sweep in – avoiding avalanches and thunderstorms is usually more important!). I don’t think these matter though – in a book so stuffed full there are bound to be some errors. The whole point of the book is to encourage enquiry anyway. Go out and check!

Although designed to cover all types of journeys I think this book is particularly relevant to walkers. Walking is the right speed to see, contemplate and learn about landscapes. This book will help you do so.

May Day Ski Tour

On the summit of Ben Macdui

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter has come late, very late, to the Cairngorms. After months of mild, even hot, weather with much rain, light winds and only occasional snow that never lasted long the end of April brought heavy snow to the tops and frosty nights to ensure it has lasted. At last there was a chance to undertake my favourite ski tour, across the Cairngorm Plateau to Ben Macdui. I usually do this tour at least once every season. This year had looked like being the exception. However on May Day I set off up the mountain, only needing to carry my skis for the first twenty minutes or so. Then it was onto the snow.*

Stob Coire an t-Sneachda

And what snow! A complete deep cover stretching unbroken right across to Ben Macdui. High in the sky the hot sun shown down making the snow brighter and sharper than it appears earlier in the year. The sky was a deep alpine blue.**  Rarely do the hills look like this as such extensive snow cover is highly unusual this late in the spring. 

View across the Plateau to Cairn Gorm

The skiing to Ben Macdui was delightful, the spring snow being slick and fast so the skis slid easily across it. Several other skiers were out enjoying the magical conditions plus one pair of walkers. Looking at the deep holes their boots made in the snow I was glad of the freedom of my skis. Swooping and gliding rather than trudging and stumbling.

Across the Lairig Ghru pass the great peaks of Braeriach, Cairn Toul and Sgor an Lochain Uaine were all shining in the sun, white with snow. Looking west from Ben Macdui the farther hills appeared more snow free. Only south and east did they look as white. I sat on the summit in the sunshine watching a snow bunting pecking round for food scraps. Usually any stop here in the snow requires bundling up in insulated clothing. This time a light jacket to fend off the occasional cool gust of wind was all I needed. Sunscreen and dark glasses were more important equipment than warm clothing.

Cairn Toul and Sgor an Lochain Uaine

Back across the Plateau I crossed the shoulder of Cairn Lochan and had the best downhill skiing of the day, down lovely smooth slopes into the head of Lurcher’s Gully before linking the last patches of snow until finally I had to remove my skis for the last quarter of an hour. Above the mountains glistened. A perfect mountain day. A perfect May Day.

*Note for skiers. I used climbing skins for the ascent to the Plateau and then Swix Red Special grip wax, which worked perfectly, for the rest of the tour.

** Note for photographers. The sky really was that blue. No polarising filter was used nor have I boosted the saturation in editing software.

Bothy Talk on BBC Landward

Not the bothy in the programme!

A few weeks ago I spent a night in a bothy for the Landward programme on BBC2. I chatted to Dougie Vipond about various bothy experiences and was filmed sitting by the fire and being asleep in my sleeping bag! The programe itself goes out this Friday at 7.00p.m. on BBC2 Scotland, after which it will be available on BBC iPlayer for the next week. I'll be interested to see which of my stories are broadcast!