Sunshine, Clouds & Midges

Compared with the Western Highlands and islands like Skye the Cairngorms have a reputation for less fearsome midges. Now I’ve always felt this was exaggerated. Yesterday I found it to be completely untrue as I was engulfed in clouds of ravenous beasties within seconds of stopping to take water from a burn. I’d set out earlier for an ascent of Bynack More, the easternmost of the 1,000 metre summits of the Northern Cairngorms.


I left late as the forecast suggested the low damp mist of morning would clear to give a fine afternoon and evening. And so it proved. The long walk-in from Glenmore round the eastern edge of the hills was in some of the hottest weather of the summer so far with a blazing sun and a sharp blue sky. Yet to the north and east it was hazy and towering clouds suggestive of thunder heads drifted by.



Sweating heavily in the still air I climbed the final rocky north ridge to the jumble of boulders at the summit. A westerly breeze cooled me down as it dried the sweat on my t-shirt. South and west the mountains shone in the sun. Turning the other direction and the sky was grey and the hills indistinct. A giant cauliflower cloud was building just east of the top. This not being the place to be caught in a thunderstorm I didn’t linger but was soon cutting across the stony slopes to the lower top of Bynack Beg, whose north-east ridge I took down into Strath Nethy, a rough descent on sketchy gravel paths and through deep heather.



I was under cloud cover now and the air was hot, humid and heavy. It was during this descent that, having emptied my water bottles, I stopped for a refill and the midges found me. Using my sun hat as a whisk to repel the hordes I was very quickly on my way. Down in the glen I forded the shallow River Nethy and crossed the ridge above before descending into the lovely natural forest above the Ryvoan Pass path. This is an interesting and unfrequented route, with only traces of paths and much rough terrain that slows progress. On this occasion I rarely stopped to look around, let along take photographs, as the second I did the midges poured over me. Indeed, on the ascent out of Strath Nethy I could barely move fast enough to stay head of them. It was with relief that I reached my car and was just left with the problem of how to get in it without bringing in too many midges.

Pictures: from the top - the summit of Bynack More; clouds building up over the shoulder of Meall a'Bhuachaille above Ryvoan Pass; Bynack More and Bynack Beg; Strath Nethy with Bynack More top left.

Big Shakeout Weekend

For those down south in England there's an interesting sounding weekend in the Peak District on 14-16 October organised by Alpkit and Thornbridge Outdoors. There are activities and courses - including caving, climbing, conservation, bushcraft, photography and first aid - plus music, films and lectures. Last year's event had good reviews and it looks a great opportunity to try out different activities and meet others with similar interests. More info on the Alpkit website.

Figgat Fair

Having attended a country fair at Lampeter last weekend (see last post) this weekend I went to the similar Figgat Fair in Grantown-on-Spey, which is run by the excellent Grantown Museum and Heritage Trust. Again there were craft, food and second-hand goods stalls spread out over a grassy area and again the weather was perfect with sunshine, blue sky and fluffy white skies. At both events big brands and logos were thankfully absent. These were markets in the traditional sense where local trades people, artisans and craft workers could display their wares. Also in Grantown at the same time as the Figgat Fair was the Cairngorm Farmers Market, which is held in various parts of Strathspey some summer weekends. Oddly on this occasion there were more crafts than food stalls at the Farmers Market. Wandering round the stalls in the sunshine has a completely different feel to wandering round a shopping centre with a relaxed and slow ambience totally absent in the latter places. Of course it would be different in heavy rain!

The Figgat Fair is a traditional event. “Figgat” appears to come from the Norse for “cow road”, “gate” being the Norse for “road”, suggesting it too began as some form of farmers market.

Returning to the Past

Last weekend I made the long journey back to the university I attended in the far off past, having been invited by the Lampeter Society to give their annual after dinner talk. Now in the 40 years since I’d left St David’s University College (currently called Trinity St David) I’d had little to do with the place or the little town of Lampeter in mid-Wales in which it is situated. Indeed, I was surprised to discover that as a graduate of the college I was automatically a member of the Lampeter Society and had been all those years. Deciding it would be interesting to finally go back (and I must admit a little flattered to be asked) I accepted the invitation and then, months later, discovered that reaching Lampeter had not become any easier. Door to door it was a twelve hour journey – ten hours on three trains – Aviemore to Edinburgh to Wolverhampton to Aberystwyth - sandwiched by two one hour car journeys. On the final taxi journey to Lampeter I watched the soft, rolling green hills, dotted with little woods and thick hedges. I had forgotten how lush this landscape was in summer, how quietly beautiful.

My brief stay in Lampeter was both strange and familiar, a peculiar feeling. There were big changes of course – student numbers have grown from 340 to over 2000 so there were many more buildings. The central Old Building still looked the same though and I could just find my way about. The town was the same, bustling with shops I’d never seen before yet amongst them ones I remembered. I even had breakfast in Conti’s Café, just as I used to after sleeping in and missing breakfast, a regular occurrence in my student days. And on my first evening I joined others, most of whom I hadn’t seen since I left, in the Black Lion, where we used to drink regularly. Sitting with friends from the past over a pint again part of me felt as though it had only been a few weeks since I’d been there with them whilst another knew that it was decades.

There was a local Food Fair in the college grounds the day I was there, busy with stalls and people. The sun shone and the air had an almost dreamlike brightness and clarity, adding to my feeling of unreality. (A friend from the past punctured this a little by saying that all he remembered of the weather was that it was always raining). A highlight of the fair was when a local music group, mostly playing rock and pop standards, broke into the familiar opening chords of Muddy Water’s Hoochie Coochie Man and then sang it in Welsh. That was a first for me – Chicago Blues in Welsh.



While at Lampeter I used to wander the local fields, woods and hills, usually on short half-day walks. One particular joy was to wander beside the placid River Teifi, which meandered through the landscape. Strolling down to the river again I found it hadn’t changed much, if at all, though the town had encroached almost to its banks. The sense of serenity and quiet beauty was still there; the gentle waterway slipping through countryside that seemed unchanging.

At the dinner I showed images of my home hills, the Cairngorms, and of my hike along the Pacific Northwest Trail and of igloo trips in the Rocky Mountains with Igloo Ed. I don’t think they’d had a talk like that before!

Then it was the twelve hour journey home, feeling a little changed and contemplative after reconnecting with another time and place.

Latest TGO - Trail Shoes, Hike Your Own Hike, Packing a Pack, Litehouse Solo Tent

The latest issue of TGO (September) is in the shops now. My gear pieces are a review of sixteen trail shoes and a test report on the Litehouse Solo tent. In my backpacking column, entitled Hike Your Own Hike, I have a bit of rant at those claiming moral superiority for ultralight hiking. Elsewhere in the Hill Skills section I describe how to pack a large pack, illustrated with a series of photos that were taken on a calm day with many midges! I also contribute, along with others, to a feature on planning your own long distance route. And to show you the result of doing this there's a piece by John Williams on an alternative to Wainright's Coast-to-Coast route. Elsewhere in the magazine Roger Smith has a go at the ugly Trailblaze boxes that have been appearing on National Trails; Cameron McNeish considers our relationship with the landscape and goes for a walk in the Carneddau in Snowdonia; Carey Davies tries paragliding and walks up Ingleborough by a route I remember as one of the best in the Yorkshire Dales; Ed Byrne tries scrambling on Tryfan; Paddy Dillon explores Sardinia, an island I remember looking at from Corsica and wondering if it was worth a visit - Paddy has convinced me it is; Edoardo Albert looks at archaeological walks in Northumberland and Dave McFadzean laments the damage being done to the Galloway Hills by quad and trials bikes. In his outdoor books column Jim Perrin praises Peter Matthiessen's wonderful The Snow Leopard, which I last read on a trek in the region the book describes. Visually the outstanding feature is a photo essay called Nature of Scotland by leading wildlife photographer Laurie Campbell, which has superb pictures of squirrels, eagles, frogspawn, sundew and much more. In Hill Skills there is advice on avoiding navigational mistakes plus tips on bushcraft, choosing a tripod, heat exhaustion, dealing with blisters and much more. In gear as well as my pieces Judy Armstrong reviews 15 women's waterproof jackets. And right at the back of the magazine is arguably the most important feature of all - a piece by mountaineer Doug Scott on his work for Community Action Nepal, a charity dedicated to helping mountain people in Nepal to help themselves.

The pictures shows the view from the Litehouse Solo tent during testing in the Cairngorms.

Hendrik Morkel's Ultralight A-Z Video on Kickstarter

Kickstarter is an interesting concept whereby someone can raise funds for a project by pitching it to supporters for finance. Devin Montgomery did this for his innovative and original Boilerwerks chimney kettle. Now Devin is helping Hendrik Morkel of the excellent Hiking in Finland blog who is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifasking for support for his project for the Ultralight A-Z - A Video Guide To Lightweight Backpacking. He's already met his target of $6000 but more funds would mean a better product. Hendrik's contribution to the backpacking community is already great (check out his blog for some interesting interviews with gear designers)and this project deserves support. The video will appear online for free but there will be various items including HD downloads, DVDs and T-shirts for supporters depending on how much money they pledge.

Friedrichshafen OutDoor Show Aftermath

Back from the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen after four days of trains, planes, cars, ferries, airports, stations, exhibition halls, hot hotel rooms, bright lights and no actual outdoors it's time to take stock. Shows like this are much more tiring than a long walk in the hills, both because of the travelling (longest section - home to Edinburgh Airport!)and the non-stop round of stands and the barrage of new gear and marketing. Of course the show is also very interesting and I did see some good-looking stuff including stoves, packs, shoes and mats. Updates on all these are still appearing on the TGO website (scroll down to Gear News). I'll be writing an overview of the show and the new gear for the October issue of TGO too.





Home again my first desire was fresh air and the natural world, away from artificial lights and constant noise. The green world looked very appealing despite the swirling clouds and heavy showers. In fact as I wandered through my local woods and fields it was the sky that dominated the landscape with huge clouds piled one above the other rising to the heavens. Insubstantial and mobile the skyscape changed constantly, white clouds giving way to black, rain slanting fiercely down then shafts of sunshine lighting trees and patches of hillside. The warmth of July and the wetness of the weather meant rich greeness everywhere. The light freshness of spring is gone. Now the dominant colour is the deep green of summer. Close up there was much colour amongst the green though - a mass of flowers in the meadows and marshes - tormentil, eyebright, orchids, ragged robin, viper's bugloss, thistles - yellow, white, pink, purple. Sunshine may be missing but the summer is still full of vitality and interest.