Tolmount & Tom Buidhe
December 21st, 2009 • Hill walking • 2 comments
Set off from Slockavullin about 8am to Glendoll via Troon and Kirkcaldy for some family stuff. Arriving in the glen at 11pm at minus 4 and, ignoring the ‘no overnight parking signs’, slept in the car. There used to be a great wee basic campsite up here, progress has given us some big visitors centres and signs! The plan was to bag the Tolmount and Tom Buidhe and as many of six tops and one relegated top I’d failed to summit on previous trips stretching back to 1979, as was possible. Given that I expected a long trek I took my bike for the trail in and out and (hopefully) to cycle about the plateau.
Slept well but the cold made me stay wrapped up until 8.30am and I set off at 9. The missed 90 minutes of daylight would prove costly later on. I must work on motivation in the mornings!! Cycled up Jock’s Road until the end of the forestry then pushed up the mountain track, eventually to Crow Craigies, first top of the day. The descent before re ascending to the Tolmount was uncycleable due to soft snow. Great. Pushed the bloody bike up a mountain and can’t use it! Left the bike next to a prominent rock and climbed the Tolmount, over to Tom Buidhe and back again. Prominent rock wasn’t quite so prominent as I thought but found the bike after not too much hassle.
Skies were blue, sun was shining, views up to the Cairngorms spectacular and 2 munros and one top bagged. So far so good. Pushed up to the relegated top of Creag Leachdach where I met possibly the rudest person I’ve ever met in the mountains who barked at me “What are you doing here”. Possible he doesn’t like bikes; possibly he’s just a rude twat. Anyway I did my best to annoy him. Briefly thought of doing a Trotsky on him but I’d left the axe in the car. Next time! Plateau snow was good and hard most of the time. A few patches meant the front wheel sunk in and I went over the handle bars a few times, but it was good fun. From Leachdach to Fafernie in no time then over the Munro of Cairn Bannoch which I’d done before with Brian but it was too easy to miss. Cycled to just below the summit cairn then down to two tops of Cairn of Gowal and Craig of Gowal. By now it was 2 pm and if I wanted to do more I had to get over to the Lochnagar side of the range.
I was 3 tops short of completion and would no doubt finish in darkness. Cycled off in the direction of Creag and Dubh for no good reason other then it was the best snow to cycle. I’d been before but went back anyway, which probably wasn’t a good idea because getting back to Cairn Bannoch from there was hard work before a really fast (for me!) cycle to the foot of Carn a Choire Bhoidheach and a push to the summit. Another repeat Munro just because it was en-route to two tops I’d missed, Eagles Rock and Creag a Ghlas-uillt. Now with the sun sinking fast I had one top left, Meal Coire na Saobhaidhe, but that meant getting up and over Lochnagar.
As darkness fell I stopped and ate for the first time and pondered what to do. Thought about leaving the bike and walking by torchlight, but probably would never have found the bike again, so set off back to the car. Found the Glas Allt path easily and biked down bits until it got too steep. Round the head of Lock Muick and pushed up the Coirre Chash path to the path down to Glen Doll – when it all started to go wrong. I couldn’t find the Glen Doll path. I’m pretty sure in daylight this would be easy but I was restricted to the beam of the torch and looking both sides of the wee barn I couldn’t find the way down. Eventually set off over rough ground, eventually reaching the river and the track back. At least that’s the summary, seriously considered sleeping out at one point! Back at 9pm.
A 12 hour day. 4 Munros, 2 of which were repeats, 7 tops, (2 repeats and 1 just to be sure) 1 relegated top. About 27 miles. If I’d got up earlier I’d have bagged the last top.
Whitey in the Cairngorms
December 20th, 2009 • Hill walking, Winter climbing • No comments
Where did it all go wrong Mini?
Up top in Arran
December 20th, 2009 • Hill walking, Winter climbing • 1 comment
With the weather looking good it was go go go for Arran. We made the Sannox ridge on Saturday with Tim and myself carrying on for a sublime but not uneventful crossing of (most) of the A’ Chir with full pack. We were quite literally above the clouds; bubbling away beneath us and stretching out as far as our eyes could go.
Photos by Tim (apart from the ones he’s in!):
Into Thin Hair
November 12th, 2009 • Hill walking, Rock Climbing • 1 comment
Video of Cuillin Ridge Traverse.
Outer Hebrides
November 12th, 2009 • Cycling • 2 comments
Cycle Tour of Outer Hebrides & round The North West Coast of Scotland to Thurso.
Oban – Ferry to Barra – Ferry to Eriskay – South Uist – Benbecula – North Uist – Berneray – Ferry to Harris – Lewis – Ferry to Ullapool – Scourie – Tongue – Thurso
Ben Nevis CMD Arete
November 3rd, 2009 • Hill walking • 1 comment
Several weeks ago, just as the first snow was falling over Scotland’s high tops, we took off to climb Ben Nevis by the CMD Arete. Just as as we got back to the car, about 8-ish hours after we left and just as it was getting dark, someone set off up the mountain in a T-shirt and running shorts! nutter.
Milngavie, Mugdock – Trails of defamatory material.
November 3rd, 2009 • Mountainbiking • 2 comments
Here’s the one half descent photo I got of Spad whilst sliding around the quagmire at our local trails. Was a foul day, but riding in the mud certainly sharpens your skills. We found some great new sections hidden deep in the trees, so hopefully I’ll get some time to find some more. To help in this quest I’ve found this nifty web page which combines OS maps and google maps in one app. Very usefull ; it’s possible to spot single track with the sattelite images. Check it out here.
Bog, Bothy n Swim
October 12th, 2009 • Bothying • No comments
With the forecast saying rain and low cloud, we skipped Glencoe’s curved ridge on the way up to the Ardnish Peninsula. Somehow we all managed to leave the path on the way out to the bothy. With my mind on my recently departed pal, one of the best on them, the path was doing no justice to my mind state; and so it was straight up the hill for me, until my legs burned with acid and lungs were bursting out my ribcage; it was up, over the top and down to the loch to drop a hook. Not like earlier in the year, there were no fish, but the others walked through after their own adventure off the beaten track. In the woods I found Nik holding a bright red mushroom alongside his picture book – we agreed it looked dangerous.
The bothy at Peanmeanach must be one of Scotland’s most popular, and it’s easy to see why – pottering about here somehow reminds you of the greater things in life. The two other bothy dwellers – Jonathon and Brett – were there for the same reason as us, and joined us for a dram after the duck and vegetable stews both courtesy of Lorraine.
Jen led a morning swim and Andy took it one stage further, while Nicky, never to miss an opportunity, jumped in both salt and freshwater. Thomas and Etta went airport-ward, too soon really, but hopefully not before wetting the appetite.
Two rainbows appeared at once on the way out, we all agreed the widest we had ever seen, and from there on in the West coast hit us with it’s majestic best. Without the extra hour in bed we might have made curved ridge on the grandest of Sunday evenings, but as we cruised down the road to Martyn Bennett’s ‘Grit’, it was far from our minds.
Life does exist in the bog lands of Scotland (although the fish are keeping a low profile at this time of year).
Misha for Andy/Jen/Thomas/Nicky/Etta/Lorraine + Jonathon/Brett
Kielder and Newcastleton – trail centres.
October 5th, 2009 • Mountainbiking • 4 comments
It was the last bikebus trip for a while as Hutch is expecting his first born in a fort night or so. I hadn’t been on the bikebus for over a year so it was a good to get out and send Hutch off into Fatherhood with style. We had all heard good things about the trails at Kielder. Their web site looked good and there had been some good reviews / forum chat about them. So it seemed worth the long journey (about 2hr 30m from centre of Glasgow).
We started out in glorious sun shine and spun up a small stretch of fire road into the first bit of singletrack, it was good with some nice wee features, a rock garden and some switchbacks. Just as we got our a flow on we were spat out on to another fire road. This climb was shallow long and boring. The next section of single track was one of the highlights. Technical and full of great features this trail was well built and a good challenge with small boulder drop offs the odd rock ladder and some great steep switchbacks. A small black section at the bottom was also excellent with slow speed, steep roots sections interspersed with loose shale. However it appeared to be a bum steer as it directed us back to the start. Confused, we pushed back up to rejoin the red. The “3 dog” climb was great, full of challenging obstacles but with a good flow and rhythm. We then set out on what was to be a rather arduous and monotonous fire road climb, which was pretty steep the whole way on a draggy loose surface. It seemed to go on forever and marked the low point of the ride. I don’t mind these sections when out in the wilds but at a trail centre it seemed a bit over kill. At the summit of Deadwater fell the views are cool, apart from the ugly radar / mobile phone installations (although they provided shelter from the wind). To the south you can see the mountains flatten into England, to the north you see them rise into Scotland. At more than half a kilometre up we were convinced the reward of all this climbing would be good. However the altitude was eaten away quickly by a direct, loose shale ex access road which was only slightly knurled up by obvious water errosion. The next section “into the valley” was the highlight, with some cool jumps, well constructed berms, rock drops and rough switchbacks. It was excellent but also far to short. A shallow climb followed with some interesting rock ladders and boulder fields, this led into the final descent which was pretty mundane, a few jumps and stuff but small draggy ups sapped any flow. The jump park at the bottom was a joke, one large table(ish) top and a few rollers before two poorly built berms. Tiny boring and extremely disappointing.
We sat at the bus eating cake and moaning about the stupidly long climb and wasted altitude from the “Skelly riggins” descent. So in an effort to salvage the day we shifted over to one of the 7 stanes – Newcastleton which was not far away.
Newcastleton, is good. Full of nice well built single track which flows over sometimes loose but otherwise well drained, solid ground. Making the most of the it’s gradients, the trail gives Kielder a lesson in how to use land effectively for mountain biking. With more single track than fire road it is easy going with no major technical challenges to speak of. However the injection of well thought out trail building maintains your momentum and makes the centre as a whole far more enjoyable than Kielder. It has a cool north shore section at the bottom which is pretty challenging although choice of mixing up lines is very limited. There is not much to say about Newcastleton, it’s good but not amazing, it saved our day and I would suggest that putting the two centres together makes the journey worhwhile.
It is safe to say we will not be making the 5hour round trip to these centres again. Kielder has great potential and with a renowned trail builder on task could be amazing. As it stands it seems unfinished, a work in progress. It has certainly received plenty of hype but why remains a mystery.
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