Carbisdale weekend

It was my final weekend before tapering in preparation to the OMM and I decided to spend the weekend up in Caithness, an area where I haven't run much before. Saturday saw me parked at the phone box at Braemore Lodge. After a quick check with the stalker regarding any shooting I did a superb loop starting up Maiden Pap and Morven. Two sandstone hills that stand rampant above the large tracts of moorland, which comprises much of the surrounding area. After a quick steep pull up the Pap a long traverse along runnable grass led up to a bealach below Morven. I have just started Yoga but I must have pulled something as the steep climb was agony on my achilles.

Coming down was fine and having done the steepest and longest climb I decided to run through the discomfort. On the way I went over Smean with a 15m high conglomerate crag making up the highest point. I tried some scrambling but the lichen covered pudding stones were disconcerting and I left the inviting routes to a more intrepid climber to conquer.

To add in some height and distance after Smean, I climbed up and over Sal-vaich. In all of the bealachs the pungent musk from the stags was almost over-powering. Despite being circled a few times I avoided any confrontation, which was as well as they can run a lot faster through heather than I can.

To complete the loop I ran along the three tops of Scaraben. There was a distressing amount of descent and reascent involved and in contrast to the previous hills was covered in quartzite scree. Although I stuck to ridges as much as I could still hear bellowing challenges echoing in the corries. After Scaraben East I followed a wet track dotted with old telegraph poles past a number of abandoned steadings back to the start point.

Time: 5.5hs Distance 25km Height 1800m.


On Sunday the weather wasn't so good but I still headed out to do a round of Glen Loth, a glen just north of Brora. I parked at the viewpoint at the head of the glen and headed anticlockwise first up over Beinn Dhorain. My route then took me deep into rolling hillsides and valleysto the East. Classic OMM territory. I then spent the next couple of hours running through heather of various deepness before reaching Glen Sletdale. The climb back up from the road to the west side of Glen Loth and Beinn Mhealaich was tough and slow. Not much running at all. Coming off the top of the Beinn the heavens, which had been threatening all day, finally opened and the rain drummed on my hood. Obviously there must be some kind of cumulus above the stratus that had accompanied me for so long. After 20minutes the shower passed and allowed me at least to get changed in comfort when I reached the car. Although the route lacked the interest of the previous day I did get some satisfaction of getting into a pretty wild and lonely place.
Time: 4.5hs Distance: 21km Height 1200m,

Another week closer

Only three weeks to go to the OMM and it was meant to be an easy week. The normal Tuesday run was over in Ord Hill just over in North Kessock. I had never been before but there is a myriad of superb single-track trails linking together forestry tracks and enough steep hills to get the lungs and legs going.

On Saturday I couldn't face driving too far and the weather wasn't great anyway so I decided to link up the three Marylins which surround Loch Ruthven near Inverness. I won't bore anyone with the details but I started from the RSPB car-park and headed clockwise past the climbing boulder. Even though it was only 14km it took about 3hs due to the terrain (rough heather, bracken and moor). With low cloud and drizzle navigation was challenging and I achieved almost total immersion in a deeper-than-expected drainage ditch. It is great to have such good training so close to home and I would actually recommend the loop.

Sunday was my first race in a month and only my 7th of the year over at Bennachie(about 13km) in deepest darkest Aberdeenshire. The race was fast and all on well constructed paths. I was running strongly uphill, although I struggled on the flatter and downhill sections. Following a team mate I went off course in the latter stages, but still finshed 15th in 1h 05min 31sec despite the extra kilometer I had run. Without the minor diversion I reckon a time just over the hour would have been on the cards. It all bodes well and I actually enjoyed racing for once. Might even do some more next year.

So I managed my 4hs running at the weekend and one of my best placing in a hill race. Very good for my confidence. My legs are trashed but some massage from my therapist has done them a world of good. Fingers crossed that I can recover in time for my last 2 hard runs before the OMM.

EPIC!!!

After Thursday's run I was absolutely shattered. My legs were absolutely minced which I can only account to the very rough ground we covered. With the forecast indicating light winds myself and Emily decided to go kayaking over on Moidart. After 2 days kayaking and an overnight camp at which we cooked everything over an open-fire, I felt the need to grab in a run to make sure I didn't miss my weekly milage (hourage really).

We got back to Inverness relatively late so it wasn't until 17.30 until I left the house aiming to cover about 20km. The initial 10km was on track and the first trig-point at 200m went to plan. As I headed over the first open moorland section the light was begining to fade. Suddenly on my right I spotted 2 large bulls and I used all available cover to stay out of their way. A huge band of gorse pushed me off my bearing too far North but at least that way I got to see a large chambered cairn. I hit a road and ran down for a couple of hundred meters. By the time I reached the second trig point it was well and truely dark and I got my head torch on.

I now had a 4km cross country stretch to reach the General Wade road which I could follow easily back to town. This leg started badly. I gave up on my orginal route after I disappeared, several times, over my knees in bog. A huge patch of gorse cancelled out my cross-country attempt to reach the row of pylons which was to mark the line of my alternative route. So back to the road, a quick jog, a jump over the fence and off along the side of the pylons. I have never been the keen on the dark and trapsing through the dark, stumbling in amongst tussocks and puddles with the electricty wires crackling ominously really spooked me. I then had a horrid thought that some demented farmer might think I was out poaching and would take a pot-shot at me. Either that or some axe murderer might be lucking on a dark, wet night to spring upon some unsuspecting hill runner. I quickly switched off my head torch and after my eyes got used to the dark it was easy enough to follow my route. The gorse had been cleared from beneath the pylons and I even managed to up the pace. Slowly the dark edge of the forest came into view,but I was rapidly discovering that distance are much harder to judge in the dark. I thought I was nearly there but suddenly all routes forward ended in a huge bog, fringed by 10ft gorse either side. I tried to skirt the worst but kept on getting pushed further and further away from my bearing. Attempts at forcing my way through were quickly aborted. Every path I followed ended in gorse dead ends and the only sounds I could hear was my splashing through puddles and startled quacks of ducks startled by some idiot waking them up in the middle of the night. I began to panic and tried to orientate myself. I really couldn't, morally at least, face the return journey to the road I had come from. And just at the point of dispair my head torch, now firmly switched on, illuminated a well worn animal track heading in rough the right direction. I followed this to a burn marked on the map and I took a bearing across more open-ground. My worry subsided and I jogged through fields past a barn, over a fence. My heart leapt as I caught a glimpse of two large eyes, obviously belonging to some huge beast. I quickly hurdled a fence which was about knee height and hoped the thing wasn't interested in me. The thunder of hooves on my right indicated that he, for it definetly was a him, was interested and had several mates with him. I know that to run is probably the worse things to do in that situation but run I did Like a the proverbial out of hell. A full-on 400m sprint until I reached General Wades. I jogged down relieved, wet through and mentally exhausted and Emily came in the car and saved me the last 3km through the town.

Distance: 26km Time: 3.5h

Glen Duror Horseshoe

The weekend before this run I had a fun couple of days in the Lakes where I managed to get a couple of longish runs (4hours a piece) with a pack and I felt pretty strong. I managed to avoid the crowds by choosing more obscure hills and it was only on Crinkle Crags that I found the motorway-like paths and hordes of grumpy ramblers that the Lakes are infamous for. I really struggle sometimes to figure out why people make all the effort to go walking (or climbing, or whatever) only to follow a 'prescribed' route set out in some book. I dont mean to sound dismissive but I have always thought that looking at a map and making up the route yourself is a much better way of doing things. Every now and then I have an epic but that is all part of it. Rant over.

The Thursday after that weekend I headed over to Glen Duror, which cuts through from Ballachulish to Loch Linnhe, as the forecast was good. Cold but clear and hopefully excelent visibility. The primary school is framed by the steep profiles of Sgorr Bhan (947m) on the right and Sgorr a'Choise (663m) on the left. Both hills topped with a scattering of quartzite scree. Our aim was the 'bag' the two Munros on one side of the glen, then head back along the ridge on the opposite side which is topped and tailed by a Corbett (Fraochaidh) and the previously mentioned Graham.

The lower reaches of the glen has a grassy track but soon a narrow path weaved up through bog and heather, before reaching the drier ridge of Sgoor Bhan. High up the ridge narrows and a couple of steep, blocky sections have to be negotiated before the ridge flattens and a broad scree ridge leads up to the first Munro (Sgorr Dhearg). A well worn path zigs-zags down to the bealach and then up to the second Munro of Sgorr Dhonuill. The cold clear air was chilly but the discomfort was more than compensated for by the views North and West over a water landscape dotted with islands rearing up in high summits. The Paps on Jura jutted up in sharp grey cones in contrast with the large and almost square mass of Ben More on Mull.

The drop back into Glen Duror was not nearly as bad or craggy as the map suggested. Terrraces broke up the slope and after a quick bash through an area of clear-felling spat us out by the bothy in the glen. Birth-place of James of the Glen (a famous victim of a historic gross miscarriage of justice) I was expecting a locked hut. Instead when we poked our head through the door a fine well maintained bothy was revealed. Down here the air was warm so it was easy to delay to next stiff climb up through another area of clear felling. Once clear of the trees the ground was energy-sapping tussocks. After the summit of Fraochaidh a redundant fence line kept to the ridge line and the passage of counts hooves had worn a nice narrow path to follow. Left and right of the ridge large rashes of coniferous forests swathed the lower slopes of the hills. A final steep descent from the Graham on 65 degree heather lead back to the main path in the glen and back to the car.

Distance: 24km Time: 6.5h

OMM training - Carn na h-Easgainn

After my run on Saturday (see previous post) I was oping for slightly better weather on Sunday. The weather in the morning was spectacularly uninspiring. Cloud and drizzle. So I plucked for a relatively low hill close to the house. By the time I left for the 10 minute drive the the start it was already 12 noon, but the weather had improved. From the Farr wind farm entrance which has plenty of parking I headed into the hills and was soon slogging up blanket bog towards Carn na h-Easgainn (616m). As with most bogs it was wet and as I got higher the re-entrants just got deeper. From the cairn the huge turbines of the wind farm turned soundlessly and looked dramatic as the clouds whipped round them. Although I am not a big fan of wind farms, I was actually surprised that I really didn't have any strong emotions on them being there. I presume had the weather been better, the visual impact would have been much greater. Perhaps one reason for building them up here! Now that I was on a ridge I was fully exposed to the wind and the lashing rain. A plus side was the constant winds have kept the vegetation short and it was pleasant running over to Carn Moraig. By now the sun had even decided to come out. The short heather was ideal grouse territory and as I ran past some well maintained butts I made a mental note to avoid here when the shooters are out. One reason for this run was to check out the bothy marked on the map, and as I saw a huge wave of black cloud rolling down Strathdearn I was hoping for a warm, dry break. Dropping over the steep bank to where the bothy was marked I wasn't happy to see that it had been converted into a pigeon cote. The poor creatures certainly weren't posh enough to be doves! Resigned, I put on all my wet weather gear and trugged off towards the A9 in torrential rain. The next mile north back home was through knee high bog myrtle. Lovely smelling but an absolute pain to move through. The traffic steadily roared on my right on the road and the rain was soaking me right through. Not the wildernis experience I was hoping for. Finally I reached Lynemore from where a track should have lead quickly back to the car. Instead, parts of the track were knee-deep in water and moss. Lovely.

Distance: 14km Time: 2.5h

It's an illness

First up a confession. I have always been a ticker. It started innocently enough with climbing routes 'just to remember what routes I'd done'. A move to Scotland was when it went pear-shaped. I went up my first Munro (Slioch) by mistake and it was several weeks before I bought the 'old testament' (SMC Munro guide). A couple of months later, the 'new testament' (SMC Corbetts guide). Recently my wife printed out the Marylins list (all hills with a 150m drop), for a few days it lay, unticked, quietly in the front room. Inevitably it s now festooned with ticks dates and my maps, now devoid of un-bagged Munros and Corbetts, covered in spiders web of new routes. It seems as though many of the over 1500 Marylins attract few people so they can be very wild runs. Being of relative rather than absolute height the smaller hills can be great subtitute in bad weather.





Strath Rory Marylins - Conc an t-Sabhail (380m)


I started off in the rain from the Gravel Pit car-park off the B9176 by the bridge over what I presume is the River Rory in the direction of Struie. About 800m up the road (past a new forestry commission car park, doh!) I turned down right and headed along a good track uphill for 4km until the track flatted off. I expected a thrash through the confiers, but instead a wide break in the trees was at the exact bearing I wanted and soon lead to the fence, which I used as a handrail before I headed back into the trees to the 'summit'.

Top bagged I dropped back due north along a ridge that became processively more runnable til I reached a track which lead back west to Luachar Mhor. The finish along Gleann an Oba back to the was all on very wet but hard tracks.



Distance: 14.5 Time: 1h 45 (with a pack)

Beinn Tharsuinn (692m)


From the same car-park another good run is to head west along a wind farm track to a broken concrete bridge after 3.5km. A long slog over heather and blaeberry leads after 2.5km to the summit trig point, which despite being on a flat top seems to hide until the very last minute. It is worth spending a few minutes mountain spotting. On the overcast day I last ran it the shafts of sunlight illuminating the corries of Ben Wyvis really were spectacular.
The drop down to Torr Leathann, which has wide views over the Cromarty Firth and the Black Isle, leads through some very deep re-entrants but the slope from the cairn to the quarry (unmarked on the 1:50000) is superb running on short grass an heather. Well worth the effort of the climb. Follow the track over the bridge and back to the start.


Distance: 13km Time: 2h (at an easy pace)

Ramsay Reccies Part 2

Stob Ban to Youth Hostel

Using the excuse to see some friends compete in the Ben race, I decided to try and run some more of Ramsay's Round. After a horrendious slow drive down from Inverness due in part to some tourist unable to translate km/h into miles/h, I got dropped off in Achriabhach and headed up via the stalkers path to Stob Ban. The mizzle turned to drizzle and finally to proper rain. Unsurprisingly the wind picked up on the bealach. Fortunately there is a well worn path from the bealach up the summit of Stob Ban with only a few sections of quatzite scrambling. The 3km of flatish ridge to Mullach nan Coirean was all on good path although a few bouldery section on was seemed like granite would be tricky in the dark. Once again I pleasantly surprised but the superb asthetics of the line taken by Ramsay's. The section was reminicient of the Helvellyn section of the Bob Graham. From Mullach I decided to try and pick out the line leading to the West Highland Way. I dropped down the baggers route towards Glen Nevis. At the cairn I turned off the path down a broad rock and grass ridge heading NW. After a mile of following a very indistinct sheep track I was still on route. 10 minutes later I was out of the cloud and lost. I seemed to be marooned in a rough coire and despite the purple splendour of the blooming heather I was beginning to stop enjoying the run. It took me several minutes to work out that it was Glen Nevis I could see at the bottom. Bugger. I was now very wet and decided to drop staright down and pick up the road. Inevitably the forest bashing was a chore and the forestry commission had decided to fell and replant to steep slopes. A wonderful combination of wet logs underfoot hidden by dense undergrowth. Older growth lower down the slope gave quicker running and I then had the pleasure of yet another run down the road to the hostel. All in a decent down the tourist route and then a blast along the road would be quicker than the cross country route, but would it be ethical??

Time: 3.30hs Distance: 16km

Northern Loch Treig Munros

The next day, after a good night at the hostel at Achluarach, I set up from Fersit up the old British Aluminium railway, with one great Indiana Jones style bridge over a gorge, to Coire Laire and then via a decent track to Stob Coire Easain. I was briefly tempted by Sgurr Innse, but not sure how long the rest of the run would take decided against it.

Great views and easy running in superb visibility was a nice change from my recent epics.

The top section of Stob Coire Easain from the north has a well eroded path leading steeply up a lose, gravelly section. From I scoped out the decent line from Stob Ban and the climb from Laraig Leacach, which both looked grassy and fairly clear of heather and rocks. The initial decent from Stob Coire is steep, but soon gives way to faster terrain. The following climb to Stob a Coire Mheadhoin was quick (14mins from top to top) but the summit area is rather indisticnt and time could easily be lost staggering around on the loose tiles of rock. From the top to the dam is a blast and aside from a very steep muddy and eroded section at Meall Cian Dearg is nice running. My choice of route down to the dam road lead through some steep craggy areas and would be better perhaps to stick to the burn marked on the map, just a little north of the crags. All in all another very enjoyable section.

Time: 3hs Distance: 16.5km