The old man of lochnagar (and Chris and Tom and me)

"Night lingered on the hills; a single star

 Sent tremulously down on Lochnagar"

John Logie Robertson's Poem Morning on Morven gives an ample description of the beauty of the Royal Deeside at sunrise. 

Say what you want about them being a waste of space, a drain on the tax payer, or the public sectors biggest useless expense (on a long list of useless expenses) but boy do they know how to pick a place for a holiday home. 


Last Friday night in a rather rushed plan of last minute adventure fuelled significantly more on overexcitement than sensible mountaineering attitude would dictate, I headed up Lochnagar on a speedy overnight jaunt with three pals from my work (Chris from whom I steal pictures to make the blog prettier, aswell as Tom and Mark [afore mentioned old man of lochnagar])

 

Mark                                        Tom                                                       and Chris

So fresh faced and eager after work, and not at all crabby or tired, we set off from Aberdeen, with only 3 

of the four of us realiseing what we had forgotten to pick up and needing to  head home first. But we arrived at The Loch Muick Carpark at about 9pm all told with a good few hours of daylight ahead of us, and so rather than stop for the night in the bothy at the back of Prince Charles royal hunting lodge - Glas allt Shiel (pictured below) we decided to fire on  up the mountain and camp for the night at a convenient spot to give us more time to get down in the morning. 

It seems poignant to note at this point in the proceedings that the main aim of the trip was to be at the top for sunrise so that chris could do his thang and takes some wonderful pictures, we also had they unenviable task of having this adventure in an unfortunate time frame, limited by the fact that Mark and I were working at 10:15 Saturday morning.

So storming up the mountain in great form looking forward to a picturesque  night ahead, we quickly chewed through the miles with a few stops for Chris to put us all to shame with his camera. Just as we hit the switchback across a shallow valley before heading up towards Meikle pap we were greeted by a stunning view of golden skies as the sun bedded down over  Balmoral and the dee, and somehow, i managed to employ a dose of luck to the skill that had obviously been rubbed off on to me by my time with Chris I managed to land a couple of nice shots,even just with my point and shoot camera, the nicest of which includes a rather fetching grouse in silhouette which I can assure you is only in that picture by sheer chance and chance alone. 

Here is said Grouse picture, which if may say I am a little proud of.

On we went with many a wonderful view and plenty of stops to take them all in. eventually we reached the eponymous loch nan Gaire after which the mountain was renamed from its original Gaelic Cac Carn Beag (Small cairn of faeces [Charming]) . After these the path steepened to a scramble over large boulders around the left hand shoulder of the Corrie for which Lochnagar has become famous. After slightly haphazard scramble in the Dying light we headed around the corrie to just below the summit in the last of the days light to set up our little camp in the lull between Cac carn Beag and one of the lower summits. 

We set up camp and ate a quick meal before heading off to squeeze in a few hours before our photoshoot in the morning followed by our flight down the mountain.

I awoke in the wavering light just after dawn to see the summit just above me inviting me to crawl out of my comfy new sleeping bag to witness the stunning sunrise just beyond.

And gratefully its temptation was not without reward, and the sunrise over the hills was beautiful;

A quick hop skip and a jump in the car later and we were back at work and ready for a day of raving about our adventures to any customers who would stand still long enough. Needless to say we were a little pooped out , and Mr Mark needed a sleep in the car ;

But I can hardly comment as by the time lunch came around I too was more than a little sleepy

That's all from me for now but more adventures soon so watch this space, and thanks again to Monsieur Hoskins for the pictures.

cloudy skies and a foggy head

Ernest Hemingway the famous author and highly eloquent drunk once said ;


'Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk.  That will teach you to keep your mouth shut'

I however clearly mis-heard this saying when I first heard it, and so on a chilly crisp morning after a brief pause in Aboyne to buy sandwiches and feel a little queasy, I set out from the car park at Glen Tanar to do something drunk which I had a greed to do sober.


The decision to pop out for 'a quiet drink' on my 21st wound up with me retiring to bed at 3:30am thoroughly  merry and not necessarily in the best state for a 5:30am start. but on two hours sleep (plus a nap in the car) and a little the worse for ware we set off.


It was a clear pale morning and the weak winter sun struggled to rear its head and we tramped on into the forest under a wavering morning sun.


our first stop at a bend in the river where Chris Hoskins wanted to take some pictures gave me a chance to sit and rest my increasingly uneasy head. We passed by a dilapidated shack which fairly well personified (or is that buldingified) how I felt by this stage of my hungover proceedings .... that is putting in a large amount of effort in order to just hang in there let alone manage anything else 

The 'Hungover' sheiling 

A few more stops through the forest for Chris to take beautiful pictures of the gently tinkling Water of Tanar which accompanied us the entire length of the glen to the foot of the hill. And we reached the half way hut.

Water of Tanar flowing through the forest of Glen Tanar

Although not half way for us (we actually weren't halfway through our day until we reached the top of the hill) it marked a half way point to the bottom of the hill so we stopped for a brief rest. 

When we emerged from the hut and soon after, the forest, it was into into a cloud logged glen with heavy skies which gave a sense of pathetic fallacy worthy a hollywood blockbuster. This was the pinnacle of my hangover and as we walked the 3 or 4 miles to the foot of the hill I had to seriously consider my chances of actually making it to the top. However sheer bloody mindedness and the lack of a better option short of sitting on my own in the glen for 6 hours waiting for chris to come back passed made me push on through the worst of my hangover. Finally after a brief nap in a ruined building at the foot of the hill (chris assures me there is photographic evidence but I believe he is holding on to it for future blackmail purposes) I was right as rain and ready to take on the steep path to the top.

The Mounth Road

The walk to the top was very blustery and a little precarious at some points thanks to a late resurgence of hangover  kicking my sense of balance into touch. but finally we pushed on and I got to stand atop my very fist Munro.

Summit Silhouette 

The walk down was relatively uneventful but far made far more enjoyable by the emergence of the sun which burned off the cloud and sent rainbows dancing across the hills and valleys as we happily descended to the sun soaked and far less windy joys of the glen below. Another good few miles of romping back along the glen with a few stops to make the most of the golden evening sun and it was back into the car and ready for a long soak in a bath and an early night.

My conclusions from the day out...

Munro bagging is a hoot, im not about to start running up mountains and breaking records but any excused to enjoy Scotland's wild places must be worth it.

Munro bagging is also a relatively effective tool for curing the common hangover (albeit it somewhat less tasty than a pile of bacon sandwiches)

Hangovers however are not an effect tool for baggin munros and I cannot honestly advise anyone get drunk the night before they have to walk 20 miles up and down a mountain.

Until next time I will leave you with a few more of Chris Hoskins' fantastic pictures;

 The view south from Mount Keen

Rainbows in the glen

Pretty much just me bellowing at a windblown map

A loaf and some tea

To borrow a quote from the Scottish born naturalist John Muir (http://www.jmt.org/) Via travel writer Bill Bryson's epic tale of adventure 'a walk in the woods;

'Who has not felt the urge to throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence'

I live in a second story flat and we dont have a garden let alone a fence to jump over, I just bought myself a new rucksack and I intend to take a little more than bread and tea (not that those two items shall not constitue an important section of my bag's packed contents. But it is with such a victorian sense of boyish enthusiasm and a fetching pair of shorts (albeit not flannel ones) that I hope to jump into my firend Chris hoskins* car next thursday to make my first official summit of one of scotlands Munros namely Mount Keen the most easterly of these fabled hills.

Munromap.co.uk (the online ascent logging software I will use to record my adventures officially) defines a Munro thus;
A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 ft (914.4 m). They are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. As of the 2009 revision of the tables, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club, there are 283 Munros.

Ironically Sir Hugh Munro never actually managed to ascend all of the hills on his infamous list missing out on his last two peaks when he died.

I however hope to be more sucessful if a little long winded in my efforts to 'bag' all of these hills. I certainly shant be worrying the current record for a contiuous round trip of all the peaks which stands at under 40 days.

But that is my plan for the coming years, and posts on here may be infrequent depending on when I get the chance to ascend these hills. but I will post as often as I can and I hope you enjoy the tales that shall follow......



*check out his various blogs at http://community.cotswoldoutdoor.com/users/chris_hoskins/blogs/ and http://choskins.co.uk/)