Reflections at the end of a shortened trip to Glencoe

Just got back from another break in Glencoe. Back 2 days earlier than planned, had good time, but obviously wouldn't be back early if it was a roaring success and I couldn't bear to tear myself away. But learnt some important things, such as:

• I've done as much as I want to in Glencoe, I should have gone somewhere else
• Don't plan on camping in Scotland, unless weather is perfect (and it never is), camping at the end of a day's walking isn't relaxing enough. And if you end up buying a meal in a restaurant, it's overall no cheaper than staying in a hostel
• I'm pretty comfortable staying in a dorm room
• Make sure you have a good set of plans re what walks you're going to do. Winging it means that it's easy to dive into a demotivated spin
• Unless weather is consistently good, 4 days walking in one stint is probably enough - either keep the break short, or plan a break day
• Walking with other people gives you confidence - need to try and find some more walking buddies

And most importantly

• Stop concentrating on "ticking off" Munros, and instead concentrate on doing good walks!

27/06/16 - Ben Vorlich (me)

I had another good night's sleep in one of the dorm rooms. People weren't massively chatty (no bad thing), but I'd met a nice chap (with a very strong Aberdeen accent), who was doing Lands End to John O'Groats.
I set off reasonably early, driving through heavy rain which cleared significantly as I drove east and south. As I arrived at Inveruglas car park the weather was gorgeous, but looked like it was closing in.
I set off along the road, past the Hyrdo Electric pipes and then into the hills - along yet another access track....
I knew I was going to do Ben Vorlich, but hoped to do Ben Vane too, but equally I'd adopted a different attitude now to just "ticking off" the Munro's and decided that the main thing was to have an enjoyable walk.
The ascent up Ben Vorlich was steep and pathless. But never difficult. There were some potentially more exciting routes I could have taken, but I chose the safer ones, usually successfully.
It was fascinating to see some of the caves under the rocks which were breaking away from the mountain - many of which looked like they were part of the mountain itself until you saw the caves and chasms underneath them.
The weather was the best of what Scotland has to offer, a cyclical mix of sun, cloud, rain and gale. It would remain so for the rest of the day.
The views down over the damn and over to the sea were spectacular.
I decided that I really didn't want to Ben Vane, which would have been a real slog and involved a fairly dull descent from Ben Vorlich also. I decided I wanted to see if I could descend over the opposite side of the mountain and so cut off some of the track which I'd entered on.
This looked to be possible as I looked across a valley with a small lochan and a bealach which I could ascend back from if there was no way forward when I got there. This felt a bit more like an adventure and less like a project task!
The sheep seemed pretty freaked out by my presence - my guess was that not many people went this way!
This was good though, this was fun, this felt like walking fo the sake of walking, rather than ticking something off  a list!
I came to the bealach and a valley opened up before me which was completely clear of paths, but there was an exit point which would come out near Loch Lomond. I checked on the map and it would be a mile or 2 north on the A82, but it looked like there was a path I could take to return to the car, or I could walk along the shore of the Loch. I continued with the descent.
The ground was uneven but not unpleasant. Some care was needed not to trip, which I did on several occasions. The most alarming being when I slipped down into a crevace while staring at a bog patch, I fell down a couple of feet, but head first toward the bog, and the outcrop of rock which hung over it. I wondered how long it would be before someone found me here.....
As I got closer to the point where the stream exited the valley I realised that there was going to be a waterfall of some description and there was still some elevation to lose. As I got very close to it, I realised just how much. I didn't check the map, but it must have been a couple of hundred metres. But the waterfall wasn't steep and I could see ways to descend - even though it did mean hopping over a barbed wire fence.
I crossed a small damn and proceed down the the side of the stream. The ground became increasingly uneven. There were the faintest signs of where people had walked previously, and these typically ran the route which I felt most inclined to take. But the going was very very slow and I slipped and stumbled repeatedly. The grass was wet, the wood was rotten, the rocks were slippy, the bushes were overgrown. Fun though!
I remebered other time when I descended along streams only to find this kind of terrain. If I couldget myself 50m to either side it would probably have been much easier, but I kept pressing on - sure that the end was near, but it repeatedly wasn't. Luckily there was no point where the stream turned to sharp waterfall and I eventually found a path, which led to a farmhouse which I could easily walk around.
There was a small tunnel under a railway track. And here I "rescued" a lamb which had got "stuck" in a very shallow patch of mud. Somehow....
I tried to find a path to the side of the A82, but couldn't. So I resolved to cross more barbed wire fence and walk alongside the A82. Not good.
I attempted on a couple of occasions to walk the other side of the barrier and even to walk along the Loch shore, but it wasn't possible to continue for long before I was blocked. And then return from the shore to the road turned out to be more treacherous than anything else encountered up to this point - trying to gain footing and height from piles of rotting wood, grabbing onto the road barrier with finger tips and lurching myself onto the road.
I was relieved when I passed signs for Inveruglas as I was worrying that I was actually to far down the road (though I knew that this couldn't have been possible). And even more relieved when I got back to the car.
And this time I hadn't lost my wallet or crampons, or anything else.....
Uneventful drive home. Beer. Bed.

Munro - Ben Vorlich

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26/06/16 - Sgor na h-ulaidh (me)

I set off under heavy skies and the certainty of rain fall along a longish access road. But it was a shorter and more pleasant walk in than Friday's route. When the track came to an end I traced a faint path through and along stream to a high bealach. Curiously there was a gate on this bealach though the fence eithher side of it had pretty much completely disappeared.
I could see the route I need to take up to the top of the mountain, although the top itself was under cloud. It looked steep, but unproblematic. I set off and before long came to a steeper outcrop of rock. I tried to weave my way through shallower sections, but it was tricky, largely due to the lack of holdable rock and the excess of very slipper grass. My nerves started to fray as I realised that there was now no choice but to plough on. I wasn't particularly high, but a fall would still have been quite nasty. I think I was more nervous doing this than any section of the previous day! I managed to get myself over the steepest section and proceed to the ridge.
On the final section of the ridge there was a Grouse and some chicks on the path. The Grouse, bobbed and weaved and tried to blend in with the rocks, and then when that failed it jumped and flapped it's wings at the side of me.
The rains weren't heavy on the ridge, but they were persistent, and the winds had picked up, but it wasn't without it's charms. The ridge itself was fairl undulating and was difficult to navigate at points. The summit came and went and before long I'd arrived at the point where I needed to descend from the ridge and return to the track. This was due to be another steep and scree filled descent. In practice though, I managed to find a route which was fairly forgiving and brought me out about half way along the track alongside a small forest.
I got back to the car after about 5 hours and spent the evening watching the rain fall, enduring a headache, drinking just under 2 beers (I couldn't finish the second one) and feeling quite sorry for myself. I'd been toying with the idea of spending Tuesday in Edinburgh and I found a great hostel to stay at, but in the end I decided to a walk the following day and then drive home afterward. The weather forecast indicated that my best bet was to head inland a bit  and so Ben Vorlich and maybe Ben Vane started looking like good options.

Munro - Sgor na h-ulaidh

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25/06/16 - Aonoch Eagach - (me, Steve Fallon group)

This was the event that had brought me back to Glencoe - Aonoch Eagach! I was doing it with a group so that a) I dared do it at all and b) so that I could give Steve Fallon ome confidence in me doing Skye in September. The weather looked OK (pretty important given the exposure of the route). We met at Clachaig and drove to the start.
It was a relatively small group. 3 attendees, 1 leader (Al), and 1 trainee leader (also Al). The other attendees seemed capable, but not intimidating - I wanted to hold me own, but not be held back too much!
We started up the steep ascent, Al distracting us all the way with some decent insights on local flora and fauna, history and geology. He was the archetypal guide in terms of his knowledge and interest in bestowing it. Good stuff.
Before long we were at the point where we needed to don helmet and harness.
I'm not sure i it was after the first Munro or not, but the trickiest part of the day is typically held to be a long and steep descent where prolonged down climbing is necessary. This  turned out to be quite good fun. Exhilarating rather than terrifying - not sure I'd want to do it without a rope though it wasn't quite as steep and exposed as I'd thought it might be. But it was high.
We carried on through a number of shorter sections, none of which presented too much difficulty. The weather was perfect (still, bright, warm), and presented excellent views down Glencoe.
We eventually came to the pinnacles. These again turned out to be fun and not as exposed as I feared they might be. There were 2 bits where you could either shuffle or walk along while massively exposed on either side. I managed to walk the first one (I think because I thought there was no choice), but not the second.
It always comes as a relief though when the leader tells you that the worst is over and you can take your harness and helmet off.
We walked to the last Munro - an excellent, but none technical ridge walk. And then just had the descent to take care of. We'd probably been warned about the descent more than any other part. I'd feared that we were doing the gully which leads to the Clachaig Inn (where several people have died over the past few years), so I was relieved when it was confirmed that it wasn't. But it was a steep scree slope.
With much slipping and sliding we managed to make a prolonged descent and all before the rain came in (an hour later than forecast). Which was good, because when it came, it really came.
I went to Morrisons in Fort William and then to the Youth Hostel. Cooked, drank a bit and then ended up going for a local walk in a glorious evening sunset.
Tonight I was sleeping in a dorm room, so I donned ear plugs and crossed my fingers for a good nights sleep.

Munros - Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh

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24/06/16 - Beinn Bhuidhe (me)

I'd driven up to Scotland on the previous night for a 6 day trip. I'd stayed in the Abbotsford Hotel, which was becoming the norm and was planning on camping at the Red Squirrel, or possible wild camping in Glen Shiel if the weather looked good - which it didn't...

Today was going to be a relatively easy walk up Beinn Bhuidhe. A more specifically a bike to the base of the mountain and then walk the last bit. 

The day got off to a very bad start when whilst I sat on the toilet I read that the great British public had voted to leave the EU. To be honest, this put me in a fowl mood which affected me the whole day. I wasn't really in the mood for walking. I felt more like rioting. So I binned off the idea of riding the first part of the trek and walked it instead.

It was pleasant weather, but the walk in wasn't particularly spectacular. It weaved along a farm track through a quarry and hydro-electric plant. I seemed to cause a herd of cows some consternation as I passed through, or maybe it was a car which was a bit behind me I'm not sure, but either way, they got pretty excited as I walked through. I just kept thinking how Luca would have coped with it.

Eventually after about 5 miles I came to Inverochoran, passed the house and found a suitable route up the side of the stream. The grass seemed to part slightly where previous feet had trodden and this gave me confidence that at least I wasn't alone in my stupidity.

It was steep and slippery. The weather was drawing in and I put on my jacket and shortly after my trousers. I wondered how much I'd have my waterproofs on this holiday.

On the far side of the stream, an access track was being built pretty high into the mountain. It was quite a nasty scar on it's side. 

Eventually the ground levelled off and I was able to choose the line which I'd got up to gain the short ridge to the top. The weather had cleared and as I walked to the top I had pretty decent views over the surrounding area. But I really wasn't in the mood for them.

I started my descent and opted to descend via the unfinsihed track in the hop that it would cut off some of the farm track which I'd entered on. It was long and dull, but reasonably effective.

By the time I'd got back to the car I'd resolved that I wasn't going to plan on doing all the Munro's any more. Instead, I was going to plan on doing good walks which usually included Munros. This would get rid of the misguided want/need to "tick off" the duller Munros such as this one.

I went to Inverary castle, which was small, but quite spectacular and then drove through the Glen of Orchy, also spectacular and to the Clachaig Inn. Where it started to hurl down.

I went and had steak and chips and then paid for the Red Squirrel and sat in the car waiting to see if it would stop raining so I could put th tent up. I realised that something else I needed to start doing was always make sure that I had hostel accommodation booked, scottish hiking all day and camping at night, doesn't work for me.

I decided I'd drive round the local hostels and see if I could find a space (I'd already tried booking.com and had no joy). The Glencoe ones were full for the night, but Inchree managed to put me up for the night, in the same room as I stayed last time - even the access codes were the same as previous. I booked into the Glencoe Youth Hostel for the following 2 night. Instantly my mood buoyed and I looked forward to the following day.

Munro - Beinn Bhuidhe

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18/06/16 - Buttermere (me, Luca)

Luca and I set off from Nantwich at about 8pm to go and do a night walk in the Lakes. I'd packed full camping kit so that we could camp in the hills. I figured that we could walk till about midnight, camp, and ideally wake at about 4 in order to see sunrise and then complete the walk. I'd also got some optional extensions and get-out-of-jail-quick routes depending on energy levels etc.
Luca hadn't been walking for quite some time and I wanted to prep myself for my walking weekend next weekend (and test my achilles tendon which had been playing up), so I put all the gear in one bag and decided that Luca could walk bag free.
The weather looked like it was going to be OK, though we were unlikely to get a dramatic sunset or sunrise or a star filled sky in between. In practice it was due to be overcast throughout. Despite thsi we arrived to a pleasant dusk, parked up at the side of the road and set off.
This was covering some of the same route as I'd done with Conners a year and a half ago, so I knew vaguely where we needed to be. However, as is always the case, finding the start of the path was tricky - we ended up ploughing across field and fences, bogs and streams before eventually finding it. During this time I realised that I'd overshot in trying to find the balance between fitness and load levels between me and Luca - my bag far outweighed (literally), any excess fitness levels that I might have over Luca! He was skipping his way along while I was plodding.
We followed the path up the gorge alongside the stream and as it got progressively darker we cam to the top. By this time we'd put our torches on. I was using my phone for navigation, but it was difficult to see how we'd transfer to the other side of the gorge in order to proceed with the walk, so we walked onto the plateau in expectation that we could find the ridge and then walk back along it.
Before long we came across the Bothy which Conners and I had been in previously. I forgotten about this, but thrilled that we'd spotted it because I knew Luca would get freaked out by it. And it was a bit freaky. I suggested to Luca that we sleep in it, knowing what the answer would be.
We carried on down the path, looking for the point where we could turn right, up and onto the ridge.
It was now as dark as it was going to get, not pitch black, but still pretty dark. The bird noises had gone, as had the stream, there was no noise at all. But then I heard a faint phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum . I ignored it at first, but then it came again. I knew that Luca would get completely distracted and freaked by it, so I didn't mention it. But he obviously heard it as well. phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum-phwum . It was weird because it was actually circling us. I figured that if we kept walking we'd leave it behind, but we didn't. I tried to down play it with Luca, but it did sound like it was both circling and following us. I reassured him (and myself), that there was no animal in Britain which was going to attack humans in the night..... It was definately airborn and sounded like it was about 20 feet away, travelling pretty fast in 3 second bursts every 30 seconds or so. Weird. We shone the torches into the dark, but couldn't see it. Luca recorded a video of the sound on the camera. I tried to keep us walking, Luca  wanted to stay put. Eventually we came to the point where we would turn right and join the ridge, I was optimistic that we'd lose this bizarre creature when we moved to this new ground, but no.... I concluded that it must be following our light so we turned our lights off for about 10 minutes. This seemed to be effective and the noise disappeared.
We decided to turn the lights back on, immediately though the hill was became speckled with tiny reflections of our lights. Luca grabbed me and exclaimed "there's eyes!!" I scrambled for a logical explanation and came up with "it's bits of marble". Which was more stupid than thinking it as wolves (which is what it actually looked like!). Luckily, before long I realised it was sheep. It was pretty freaky.
We carried on in the hope of finding the ridge that we would continue on, past Buttermere and then down to return to the car. Luca was saying that he fancied walking through the night. And I was fine with this too.
Navigation during the night was proving difficult though. We could see vague silhouetted shapes of mountains where we were heading, but distance was impossible to determine. We weren't lost, but we were significantly off track. The ground was very uneven, both at a macro and micro level which meant that it was slow going and it was difficult to find any kind of ridge line. As has happened previously though, when my mood was fading, Luca would show great optimism and leadership by suggesting something concrete as a means of progression. It was lovely walking with him again.
We took a pause to heat up a tin of soup (heating it and drinking it direct from the can).
It was only about 3am when the light started to return inbetween the clouds. And it was shortly after this that we actually found the route we were supposed to be on.
We came to the first hill we needed to ascend and realised just how much ascent it was. In practice I figured that we were only about half way along the route if we proceeded along the ridge line. We must have added 2 or 3 miles on with our wandering around on the plateau and struggling to fine the route. I wasn't up for it and neither was Luca. The dawn was upon us though and it would have been a real shame to get back to the car too soon. So we decided that we'd descend to the lake and then walk around it and back to the car. This would also give Luca the chance to take some photo's for his Art Graphics course work.
Luca carried the bag for about 5 mins and then gave it back to me....
It wasn't a particularly dramatic sky for the dawn, but was very pleasant anyway. The walk round the Lake was a lovely start to the day. But this bag was getting pretty heavy now.
I was relieved to get back to the car. But it had been a great walk. 7 hours in total. I was also relieved that my achilles tendon had held up ok.
I was very tired as I started to drive back, so had to pull over for 20 mins. Luckily that sorted me enough to do the rest of the drive home.
Night walking was definitely something I'd do again. Especially if the weather was predicted to be better. Next time though I think I'd ditch the camping gear!

04/06/16 - Hope Valley - [mtb] (me, Steve)

Today I was due to pick Dani and the boys up from Manchester airport and so I was able to get another early ride in with Steve. This time in Hope Valley.
We did a classic route in glorious weather. I did a bit more walking than Steve, but most of it was doable.
I did have quite a nice little fall and skid along a rocky section which I tried to descend too quickly. I was able to carry on with the rest of the ride without too much problem though.
Definitely an area to return to.