Glen Affric return.

Posted on 2nd Aug 2016 by essiep

Aonach Meadhoin, (m), 1001m;
Ciste Dubhe, (m), 929m;

Woke at 6am to an inversion in bright sunshine. Look:

Chilly but what a gorgeous way to wake up. This will be one unforgettable day. The landscape was like a one large white duvet with pointed summits poking out. In places the cloud peeled over ridges and spilled down into hanging valleys. Occasionally, wisps of cloud seemed to pass by at knee level.
Breaking camp and collecting water took nearly 3 hours. I watched the clouds fall over the ridges, as the deer watched me. One solitary antlered head stood on the horizon 200m away. Then it vanished only to reappear leading a herd over the spur to the north.
Not 15 minutes later, another herd split south and downhill. I think I was near their morning watering hole.

Anyway, I set off eastwards to resume my route. A few summits passed easily. Then a big descent into the bealach where I’d planned to spend the night. It was darker down there, under the cloud. Bogs broke out of the grass and looked less appealing that the bealach I left a few hours earlier. This is the place I visited last year on that short walk up Am Bathach from Cluanie. Time for sandwiches before a big climb up the last munro.

I say ‘last’ because I have scrapped the idea of climbing up Beinn Fhada. One guy, yesterday, said that was a 9 hour walk in itself. So a change of plan, head for the SYHA in Glen Affric and then back to Morvic.

I can’t see how the original route could have worked, there was no sign of a river crossing north of Ciste Dubhe. You have ot divert a few km east to reach a little suspension bridge near the Youth Hostel. There, I found a sign offering tea & coffee. People in there was very calm and friendly, nice to chat to as I drank from a large pot of tea. However, they did tell me that the walk to Morvic is five hours. Blimey, five hours! that’s five hours to add onto 18.30pm. That means arriving at the car after 11.30pm, better press on then. Of I went only to stop in a dip to cook some cous-cous.

I did briefly consider stopping the night at the bothy at Camban, 2km west but it was filled with a noisy group. The walk down the glen was wonderful despite the building rain. I wrapped up and eventually passed a steep down-section by a very fine waterfall at the top of Allt Grannda. The cascade itself was only part of it, the falls were framed by majestic and sublime black sharp cliffs. I must go back there, this is no time to stop and take photos.

Eventually, the path wound round to the south and crossed a wooden bridge by a hut- Glanlichd House. A rumbling landrover drove up to the house so I moved on. Then the rumbling came back, was he suspicious of me walking by the house? I stuck out a thumb.

That hitch back saved me hours and hours. We belted along in that landrover, it rattled and ground along a quite a speed, even the cattle had to run out of the way. He was kind enough to drive me right up to my car.

Five sisters, d1

Posted on 1st Aug 2016 by essiep

Sgurr nan Saighead , 929m;
Sgurr Fhuaran, (m), 1067m;
Sgurr na Carnach, (b), 1002m;
Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe (m), 1027m;
Sailag, (m), 956m;
Sgurr a’ Bhealaich Dheirg (m) 1036m;

Full kit, the Banshee tent, sleeping bag and food for 3 days. With water, it weighs in at about 16kg. It’s a comfortable bag so walking with it is not really so bad. Going uphill makes it noticeable. The initial climb was hard work. Fortunately, once on the ridge, the day will be easier.
The first summit was in cloud and a light breeze. Some breaks appeared quite soon.
Weight: the bag weighs roughly 16kg, but with water and the camera, considerably more. I felt this weight on the climbs. On the level, that is such comfortable bag that the weight didn’t matter.

Water, became a real problem on Sailag. This is a more grassy mountain with no visible, or audible springs.Thirst was a serious problem for over 2 hours. Over the spur, a small Lochan and springs in the Glen to the north, not far.
It’s late, 8.30 and I can’t see there being time to make the next summit as planned. So make camp.

An early picture, the day cleared up brightly by lunch.

Gold, day 4.

Posted on 21st Jul 2016 by essiep

I hiked with MapMyRide+! Distance: 10.84km, time: 04:18:00, pace: 23:49min/km, speed: 2.52km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1624883612

This guy came out from under my flysheet when breaking camp.

Finally, a successful day.. Carl and I hiked up onto the plateau ready to intercept the group. For us, that was lots of micro-navigation across the moorland spur.the northern edge above a scarp would give a good view in binoculars.
The radio reception was clear there too. But, unfortunately, we’d missed them. So quickly, we plotted a cross country route that should take us back to the finish point. From featureless moorland to a path is a harder target to hit. Eventually, a path that was hidden by bracken appeared. Again, our nav. was spot on.
Passed a small reservoir and onto a bridal track then in front, there they were, all finished and relieved.
The girls were patching themselves up, some cleaning legs; others, treating blisters.

They have come a long way, 60km and metaphorically too. I plan to suggest that we add extra training for those participants who skip Silver and go straight to Gold Award.

Gold, day 2. Ferry water.

Posted on 19th Jul 2016 by essiep

Very hot day, 31°C, 0 cloud breeze higher up.

I biked with MapMyRide+! Distance:19.75km, time: 03:20:00, pace: 10:08min/km, speed: 5.92km/h. It was hire bike with a kiddie trailer filled with 20kg of water.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1624972874

Today’s route is up the side of both reservoirs and then across the moors to Midhope. For water supplies 2 staff came down from the north onto the moors and I hired a bike and rode up the reservoirs to the Slippery Stones.
It was an ordinary mountain bike with a kiddie trailer which we filled with 5litre water bottles and my rucksack.

The group can fill up from my supplies and make the climb to the next checkpoint with water in 5Km. That was the plan anyway.

Bike route up the reservoirs’ west banks.

That bike was tremendous fun to ride. I had 4x 5litre bottles in the trailer. When the water started to rock back and forth, the water in all of them synchronised pushing and pulling the whole bike. From the front, the trailer lunged at a constant rate, it was like riding a rocking horse.
I wondered, as I rode, what’s the etiquette for this? If a normal mountain bike overtakes, and I chase him down; is that ethical when he believes I have kids in the back? The ride was hot and sunny and lasted about an hour, nice though.
I set up my checkpoint in the trees, lay down and watched the dragonflies. The sandwiches were good.

The group arrived about half an hour late. That’s okay.
I led them down into the trees and settled them down to cool them off.
They weren’t in the mood to continue, it was too hot and they couldn’t face the climb. They also feared another evening arriving in camp after 10pm. All group cohesion had gone. Some were game to continue, some were persuadable but that’s no use if the remainder refuse. I tried my best, I really did, but got nowhere.
The clock moved on, the hire bike has to be back at 5pm. I had to move.

In all, I spent about an hour trying to get them to complete the hike. I tried everything I could think of. “Come and wash your feet in the river”, (that didn’t work) but washing hands and forearms in the cold water went down well. They cheered up; well, not all of them.

But had to go soon.

Riding back down, I crossed Chris in the minibus and explained what had gone on. He took the water and drove north.
With the bike returned on time, I relaxed with a nice cup of tea. Another hour passed, and the silver minibus pulled in with the whole group inside.
They had all chickened out.

Gold expedition, d1

Posted on 18th Jul 2016 by essiep

I hiked with MapMyRide+! Distance: 14.96km, time: 04:18:00, pace: 17:15min/km, speed: 3.48km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1624874915

Crash site on the edge of Kinder.

Hot day, our big priority is to take water to the more remote parts of the hill. Today, it’s Kinder Scout. I wanted to meet the groups on the western edge. Here they will have completed the longest dry stretch.
We waited for an hour. Kinder is largely flat on top, so we decided to go up for a better view. The groups’ route was along the southern edge which is well paved. Up some false summits and false headlands we searched. Even better, let’s go to the trig point only half a Km away. Surely a vantage point with binoculars.
This worked, they were on the other trig, about 3Km away. In binoculars, the group were just visible. It was odd though. They were standing about. Why? Then knew we could see them, but not were we were.
A few sharp words over the radio to get them moving. ‘The water isn’t coming to you, and standing there won’t cure your thirst’.
This is a gold expedition, and they expected up to come trotting over to their position.
Both groups arrived after a very long time. Average speed well below 2 Km/hour. This was only checkpoint 2, a long descent was to follow.
We can’t follow the group and had two choices of route, one on the opposite side of the valley they would use. The other was the Pennine Way.
The latter is slabbed so we took that.
What a lovely route it is, slabs all the way across the boggy Moor for at least 5Km. Our speed was fine too, just over 6Km/hour. The sun was striking below angle with a golden light. Utterly beautiful!
Even on reaching the road, Snake Pass was not spoilt by traffic and we sped along in single file, me in front.
A good finish for me. Not so good for the other staff and I’ve groups. They didn’t get down before dark.
These Golds were not prepared for this either, they only had two lights between them, one handheld.
It really shows, that they didn’t do Silver. I really wish they’d come on the silver training days two weeks ago.

Silver Training; day 3.

Posted on 8th Jul 2016 by essiep

Day 3:

shorter routes with most kit except tents. Each day we took a different group, today’s were a super-quick team that I worked with on bronze. They were so fast on the descent. Navigation was superb amongst these, my confidence was very high.

Coming out of Castleton, our path off the lane was flooded, the water flowed towards us, muddy and deep. They said, come on, we can do this. They picked a way through the slimy mud and nettles without complaint. That illustrates their whole attitude, they are physically approaching their prime and full of confidence. This group contained all the stars of the recent Sports’ Day.

Incomplete route to Mam Tor.

However, on the climb up to Mam Tor, ZK with a recurrent knee injury had it flare up considerably. I could tell she was beyond comfortable. I’ve had knee injuries in the past and know how painful that can be. I carried ZK’s pack up the main climb, despite her reluctance. She clearly wanted to avoid letting the others down when I suggested we get a lift back after the summit. “Z, You don’t have to prove anything, your capability is already clear, we could even start the drive home early if we stop now”. She is a participant who went straight to Silver. Perhaps ZK feels there is more to prove.
Wind at the summit was strong, as it was all along the ridge. They were tired now, at took a break on the ridge.
Immediately, most of them got their phones out. Delighted to have a signal. They buried themselves in pointless online updates. Some had posted videos of talking in silly voices. I can’t understand it myself.

Overall, it’s a big deal for teenagers to walk 7 – 10 miles with a full pack. they find it really hard. They have to maintain the concentration right to the end to avoid navigation mistakes. Mistakes can cost them many hours correcting a wrong direction.

I’m filled with admiration for their determination, their can-do attitude.
Fantastic

Silver Training; day 2.

Posted on 7th Jul 2016 by essiep

Low cloud and breezy, rain overnight, 12- 14°C

Making coffee from my little hiking tent. About 05.30am.

Day 2: relocate to another camp carrying full packs for about 7 miles over moorland. Staff carried full kit too as we are using the same campsites as the kids. The liked this camp better because of phone signal and no midges.The walk was long though, and galling for the kids I had; it began with a steep climb up Jacob’s Ladder. My 5 were very anxious about it and took several breaks going up.
Once on the Moor, we were in hill fog for most of the way.

Excellent, we can ‘walk on the compass’, pace and get therefore of finding markers on the route. In this case, the markers were lengths of slabbed path between boggy moorland. These girls hit the paths every time, it was working! That cheered me up after the misery expressed on the climb.

Eventually, we started a slow descent and came out of the cloud. Landmarks started to appear and the girls perked up.

On the turn, we encountered that group from a school in Hull. They seemed happy enough despite an error in Nav.causing considerable delay for them.
From this point, the day slowly brightened up and we started to dry out.
The campsite is nice, only marred by the farmer shooting to clear a wood of crows.
Rain blew in on the stiffening wind mid evening. Staff sheltered in the minibus.

Silver Training: Dark Peak.

Posted on 6th Jul 2016 by essiep

Grey cloud at 800m, light wind but dry.

25 Year 10s on Silver training for 3 days in the Dark Peak area of the Pennines. This is much better training than we have done before, 3 days simulates their qualifying expedition more closely than other training ‘exercises’ we’ve run in the past.

Venture onto Kinder Scout.

Day 1: onto kinderscout and return late. I took a nice group with a middle range of fitness. We let them put tents up and travelled with medium weight packs. The navigation was fine even on the Kinder plateau. It’s nearly featureless up there, so am excellent opportunity to teach some Nav. techniques. The tracks across the Moor and bog are not clear in the least.
We’ve dedicated 3 days of training for this group and it’s worthwhile that they have to acquire entirely new techniques compared to the mainly rural farmland they are used to.
On the last leg we crossed a group of girls from Hull doing their Silver Qualifying. They were almost at camp and some visibly exhausted. In contrast, others were quite upbeat. They chatted, they even said they disliked their accents. Sounded fine to me!
Delays meant we missed the gate so we took the road. It’s nice and easy to follow in the gloaming. Torches on at 10pm.
As soon as we arrived my group were horrified to hear that midges were there. This group were traumatised by midges a few weeks ago on bronze practice. None had midge nets. Some elected to cook near the barn and dive into bed later.
Some were hard to pervade to cook anything. So what if you have no appetite, that’s not why we’re eating tonight.

Bronze d2.

Posted on 5th Jul 2016 by essiep

Grey and breezy. 14C.
Started near the day’s end checkpoint. My job is to patrol the drover’s paths and pick up any strays. It’s an easier day for me, good because I’m now getting tired. 17km walking yesterday and 77 miles on the bike Sunday. It adds up you know.

Fallen tree in Biggin Dale.

If I can keep it under 8 miles today, I can recover.
In contrast to yesterday, the bronze groups got through their routes much faster. We were left with time to kill at the visitor centre. So cups of tea were drank and tents laid out in the sunshine to dry. If they’re dry, the kids don’t have to take them home to dry. Win-win.

Bronze Assessment d.1

Posted on 4th Jul 2016 by essiep

16°C bright and breezy.

White peak area: 92 girls on Assessment for Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award.
We dropped them off at Ilam Hall just before noon. Their plan was to walk to Alstonefields for the night’s camp. They were given checkpoints that their routes had to pass through, but it was for the girls to plan and plot routes. The DofE mapping software can create an OS map printout and routecard with timings and leg distance calculated automatically. There were quite a few who handed in staff copies last minute. Others, I made them fix up impossible routes. Some had plotted paths that were parish boundaries not footpaths. One group mixed up their checkpoints and plotted a zig-zag route that totalled 19km. Our kids are very slow walkers anyway so wouldn’t make camp before dark on that route.

Master routecard that was used to start participants’ mapping. They had one of these 3 routes and plotted their own waypoints between the above checkpoints.

By noon, most groups had started fanning out on their chosen routes and us staff split up into small teams for remote supervision and assessing. I’m the only one who is qualified to go it alone which is what I did. After reading the kids’ routecards on the coach, I picked a route that crossed as many kids’ as possible. I kept on the move for the whole day on foot for flexibility.
The first group I met needed some help and then later some intervention. From 100m behind, I soon felt unhappy about their approach to a herd of cattle, cows and calves. The rule is ‘never between cow and calf’. Their approach wasn’t good, they may have crossed between cow & calf.
Anyway, after sorting then out, I set off on a parallel route and soon gained a kilometer. Good time for a lunch of sandwiches. They were baps with chilly-cheese and salad (in case you wanted to know).
Then the group mentioned above were spotted in a field attempting to cross the wall on the wrong side. Another intervention was necessary. I asked them about where they intended to go and which way the route should take them. They pointed about 180° from the correct way. After some some discussion and a few stern words, they set off east and I took the opportunity to repeat the 100m pacing exercise. They had all forgotten their stride counts, guessing from 10 to 100 for 100m. Oh dear, not encouraging.

Found this north of Thorpe Cloud beyond the shooting range. Though it looks like a railway tunnel, it’s smaller and contains nothing but rock. Above is an opening. I remain puzzled.
The next group I found were cheerful but considerably off track. At least they were heading the right way. Off they went north and I turned West to get to the gorge of Dovedale. A group down there were asking for staff to meet at a checkpoint at Ilam Rock. They wanted water. I had some, but concerned that they only got 2km at 5pm.I sent them off in the direction of their next checkpoint and went north to get more water; the idea was the catch them before the checkpoint.
Assessors agreed that they didn’t need to hit the checkpoint so I set off to catch them. They were rather relieved to hear this second change of plan.
Carl was there with a minibus which meant the end of my walk.

A mixed day for them. I clocked up 17km walking and got to groups that nobody in a minibus could have reached. Excellent for me and better for them too.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

Category Archives: Hiking