Glen Etive 11

I have had an idea of running the Ben Starav Nine for a while, but I kept in at the back of my mind. I was put off by having to drop a bike off at the top of Glen Etive to get back to the start. In a quiet moment at work I was perusing the map when I came up with a new and cunning plan. If I added in the two Corbetts of Beinn Mhic Chasgaig and Stob Dubh the route would become a nice, neat circle with only a few hundred meters of common ground. The stats didn't seem too bad - just over 50km and 4500m of ascent or thereabouts and an estimate of 10 hours.

With the weather not looking favourably on a long run in the Cairngorms, along with a distinct lack of motivation for a long solo run in the dark, I decided last Thursday to have a go on Friday. Thursday night saw me in Glen Etive camped in the car ready for an early start. Even crammed into a Focus I managed to over sleep and it wasn't until six thirty that I was under way.

The day was perfect with only light cloud cover and a slight breeze keeping the temperatures almost perfect for running. Ben Starav, Beinn nan Aighenan and Glas Bheinn Mhor passed by in a blur. Fantastic running mostly all on well trodden paths following ridge lines and I enjoyed the inspiring views trying to put a name on the summits I could see. The summit cloud had by now all lifted. The next munros, Stob Coir' an Albannaich and Meall nan Eun seemed a bit out of place - more like hills in Cairngorms than the west coast. At least water wasn't much of an as each of the deep bealachs had their own burns. For the first time I was trying Complan - a meal substitute drink, but unfortunately I couldn't find any Nuuns tablets so I was relying on Tesco mini Scotch eggs for salt intake (!!!).

Having banged out the first five Munros in less than five hours I was pretty chuffed, but I knew now my estimate of 10 hours was going to be way out. It felt a long way to Stob Ghabar, but I was still enjoying myself and I savoured the views back to Ben Starav. A mini Aonach Eagach lead down to the climb up to Stob a Choire Odhair. Munro seven and seven hours in. I decided to take a beeline for Meall a' Bhuiridh for several reasons. There looked to be a big shower of rain coming through, the wind had picked up and when else was I going to be here to run through the bogs surrounding the Black Mount.

It was almost 2 hours later that I reached the ski-ing detritus on the slopes of Meall a Bhuiridh having survived a pretty intense rain shower and the man-eating peat hags of the River Ba bogs. After so much beautiful scenery it was all a bit depressing. It was now pretty cold with a bitter wind, my feet hurt and I was keen just to get on with it. A short steep scramble up to Creise. 11 hours and now I was on my way home. Could I do it or would the 'easy option' of the road become too tempting?

At least the first Corbett Beinn Mhic Chasgaig was easy. With new enthusiasm I decided to go for Stob Dubh and finish of the route 'properly'. Allt Coire Ghuibhasan was alive with midgies and despite the dramatic surroundings I was glad to press on. The SMC guide book speaks of short grass when it mentions Stob Dubh. Obviously the landowner has forgotten to mow this particular hill for a while. Knee and thigh deep tussocks were the order of the day until the ridge was reached, strangely I still felt pretty positive - well more positive than I had 2 hours ago. The summit craig loomed ahead - a more than fitting end to this hard run.

Finally it happened. I hit the wall. The last fifty meters of ascent were overcome with a supreme effort of mind over matter. I felt sick. I couldn't eat or drink and I was out of gas. I sat on the top for a moment on the cairn and contemplated the way off. Once I had picked a way through the crags it would all be okay. The mist had by now come in, however I got through the steep rocky section and to my horror discovered that the promised short grass didn't exist on this side of the hill either. Imaginary sheep mocked me as I hobbled down, the track never getting any closer. After an hour of agony I reached the track.

My stomach by now so sore that even a gentle jog was too much. Fast walking interspersed with bouts of retching finally got me back to the car 13 hours and 45 minutes after leaving it. Not the quickest, but my longest unsupported run. The less said about the drive back to Inverness the better. Suffice to say I managed by the grace of God to keep all my bodily fluids out of the car interior at least.

500th Marilyn

I just thought I would post a rather shocking photo of a very beardy (and topless) me with Owen on my 500th Marilyn - High Willhays on Dartmoor. This was the culmination of hectic week bagging hills down south. Although not high some of the hills were great to run and dodgy the rain showers on Bodmin Moor was particularly memorable.

Trail of the 7 lochs (T7L)

After postponing an attempt in April (too much cold weather) and another go in June (due to the whole family going down with tonsillitis) I have finally got round to running the Trail of the seven lochs or the T7L if you are local ; ).

This is a 50 mile trail set up around the hills south and west of Inverness primarily aimed at horse riders. You can get more info here and maps here. I fancied running it primarily as it on my doorstep and it would be good training. Having have a look at the maps I realised the route was quite complex and spent a couple of very enjoyable days with Owen checking some sections out. In hindsight I wish I had spent more time checking out the route as the waymarking (either posts or white stones) is a bit scant in parts - not helped with the overgrown nature of some of the trails. Probably take more heed of the trail notes than I did!

The weather forecast for Monday was good - overcast, not too much wind and only showers forecast, so at 7am I started out from near Cullaird. All went well until I got lost just after Loch Ashie, but I don't think it mattered too much time-wise. The trail uses all sorts of surfaces - road, forestry track, grassy rides, single track and some seriously off-road knee-deep heather sections. The views down the Great Glen were superb and the area in general has some great scenery. Soon after the momentous heather-bashing section to Tom na Croich (I couldn't resist going up this rocky knoll) it all went wrong again in the woods surrounding Creag Innis an Daimh Dhuibh. I got badly lost (I had to get the compass out) and added a few miles on the the days mileage. At least no-one was about the hear my rantings and ravings.

The section around Loch Mhor dragged and after about 5 hours I hit the wall. With little motivation I staggered on, only regaining my sense of humour on the superb trails that drop you down to Inverfarigaig.

Emily and Owen had kindly driven to the FC carpark and a 30min sit down with IrnBru and a cheese sandwich made the prospect of finishing the route all the more likely. The big climb out to the Pass of the Fairheaded Lad went well, despite the forecast heavy showers arriving a wee bit early. From here on in it is about 12 miles of forestry track. Not overly interesting, but it was great to see the distance to Dores and Inverness steadily decreasing and it didn't feel too bad. Finally the finish was in sight after 10 hours with a run time of 9 hours 30 minutes. This was pretty much spot on as I predicted. The running and views were much better than expected and having a bad spell is always to be expected so all in all I am pretty chuffed with the days efforts.

I am pretty sure know the Paddy Buckley is off - mainly due the cost of travelling down for an attempt and anyway I have to leave something to train for next year : )

Old County Tops

Looking back over my photographs there seems to be a lot more cloud than I remember as my overwhelming impression of the Old County Tops is of heat and sun. The day seemed to be a constant battle to keep fed, watered and cool enough to keep going.

Starting in Langdale the 37 mile route traces a path over Helvellyn before a thigh bursting descent down Thirlmere. A long section then heads over to Scafell Pike, followed by another drop to Cockley Beck. Lastly a final climb up to the Old Man and then downhill all the way back to the start in Langdale.

Myself and Jonathan had a pretty simple plan - take it steady and try and hit the cut-offs. That was all. The route was initially over tracks and road to Grasmere, and by the first burn crossing about 5km into the run the heat was already making itself felt. Climbing up to Helvellyn via Tongue Gill and Grisedale Tarm was just a matter of keeping it steady and once the angle of the slopes increased we began to pick up places, receiving a healthy number of compliments on the Highland race strip along the way. The Whelp Side descent from the summit cairn was steep, grassy and a real thigh burner. A short crash through the forest to the car park where there was a food and drink stop about 50 minutes up on the schedule.

The following long jog through Wythburn, over Greenup Edge along to Angle Tarn was scenic and hot following indistinct trods along the south slopes of Langstrath. Angle Tarn was reached about 50 minutes before the cut-off, but we didn't linger. I knew most of the next section up to Scafell Pike from my Bob Graham a few years back. It didn't feel nearly as bad this time and there was a welcome breeze.

After Jonathan tagged the true summit, adding his second Lakes marilyn to his tally, we dropped back down to Little Narrowcove - a steep scree footpath leading to Great Moss. It was definitely a case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'. Not even the hint of a breeze and it wasn't until Moasdale that we were able to get a proper rhythm going.

After a quick pit stop at Cockley Beck we set off up to the col between Grey Friar and Great Carrs. I wasn't feeling too bad, but Jonathan was struggling in the heat and with a lack of energy. After a while I took his bag and as soon as topped the slope the welcoming breeze encouraged a faster walk/jog, and I thankfully gave Jonathan his bag back. Soon after I misread the map and swapped the Old Man with Dow Crag and if it hadn't been for Jonathan we would have ended up with a extremely embarrassing and demoralising detour. Thankfully the summit of the Old Man was reached without further mishap and now it really was downhill all the way. Jogging back along Swirl How we met lots of runners coming up the hill. Somehow, despite feeling that we were running slowly, we had managed to overtake and pull out time a whole heap of other teams.

The rest of the run was steady and we ran pretty much all of it finishing in 10 hours 16 minutes, which I think equates to 30th place. I think we were both happy with that. It was a hard run in a fantastic location and the place or time didn't matter. The challenging conditions made achieving the cut-off time and the tee shirt even more worthwhile.

Highlander Mountain Marathon

The highlander mountain marathon took place earlier in the month over towards Gairloch. This is a fantastic event which is much more chilled out than either the LAMM or the OMM. Unfortunately the only year I have competed in it coincided with the worst weather they had experienced. It took months for my feet to thaw out so I have never been back to race. Rather than taking part I had the task of marshalling at one of the checkpoints on the first day at Poca Buidhe bothy.

I biked in using the track from the Gairloch road, with only a couple of irritatingly locked gates, and in about an hour I reached the the start of the loch, where I ditched the bike to bag the easternmost Corbett on the way to the bothy checkpoint. The bothy has one open end and despite the amount of mice droppings looked in pretty good nick. I was glad to be sunning myself and enjoyed fantastic views to the back of Liatach and Beinn Alligin. The checkpoint was busier than expected and everyone was having a great time, including those who seemed to be massively late.

As the last team went through I headed west to grab in the other Corbett, involving a rather scary traverse line as I tried to avoid some height gain, before biking back to the car. The track back was tough on my fully rigid rather retro Cannondale, but I cleaned it all despite having a touch of double vision and knackered arms by the end of it.

The same day we headed down to Wales for a week long marilyn bagging trip and a couple of days in North Wales checking out some more sections of Paddy Buckley. I had one long day running the leg from Capel Curig to Aberglaslyn in unseasonably hot weather. Despite the heat I was running it well within schedule and enjoyed it for the most part. I was shattered at the end of the run though, but still had energy to check out the start of the next leg - sorting out a route finding issue I had had last time I was there.

After a chilly night in the car I did part of the Snowdon leg, through Llanberis and then up through the quarries to Eildir Fawr. I ballsed up the slate mines badly and spent a good bit of time wandering around the inclines. The end result was I missed the schedule time by a good 10 minutes and lost motivation to go on to the Glyders. Probably a good thing in hindsight as my legs were burnt enough as it was. All in all another successful reccy and I just need to get a few more long runs under my belt and get down to Wales again to check out the Glyders and Carneddau sections. Paddy Buckley's Round seems to be a hybrid of Ramsay's and Bob Graham's Round - a superb mixture of rough ground like Ramsay's but also with long sections of really fun undulating ridges like the Bob. I am really looking forward to giving it a go.

Tower Ridge

Tower Ridge is meant to be one of the the classic mountaineering days out in the British Isles, and the photographs say it all really. Even on Monday it was busy and despite a fairly early start at 8.00am from the car park we were pretty much last on the ridge. Everything would have been fine apart from a rather inexperienced party in front who struggled on anything remotely technical and seemed to want to pitch it in 20m rope lengths. As to the grade, under the conditions we climbed it in it was a straight forward grade III with the technical crux being the avoidable chimney at Douglas Gap

I had never done the ridge before so it was fantastic to do it on such a good day. After the first chimney it was quite a distance of grade I/II ground to the base of the little tower.

After about an hour and half wait in the sun we climbed the Little Tower in two long pitches with a 60m rope - all on ice. Another short flat section followed before another long wait for the Eastern Traverse to clear of other climbers.

The drop was awesome - very similar to No 3 Gully Buttress and the rest of the climbing to the Great Tower was pretty much banked out and everything was coated in a nice thick layer of ice. Mark dropped into Tower Gap and skirted round it on the left from where it we moved together for the last hundred-odd meters.

Just as we were finishing the route the clouds started to gather and we walked down in a light snow shower past halfway lochan and back to Allt A'Mhuillin. The sunset was spectacular as behind us the Ben gathered the clouds into the corries.

Carn Sleamhuin

My foot is still a bit tender after the Hobble so myself and Becky went for a walk with Owen over Carn Sleamhuin and Carn na Guaille from Dalnahaltnach. There were pretty deep remants of snow in the tracks and it was very blowy, with some vicious showers, once we got on to the more exposed sections. A lovely place for a walk/run when the higher tops would just be grim. Carrbridge has a good cafe too with a good selection of cakes.