A Spring Day In The Mountains
Apr. 22nd, 2007 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningLast weekend, I went hillwalking: a weekend with the hillwalking club in the Cairngorm Lodge youth hostel (I am sure “youth” is now meant to be ironic – at least when the hillwalking club is in a hostel) overlooking Loch Morlich.
I drove up on Friday afternoon; beautiful weather, and it stayed like that all weekend. The hostel does OK food; I ate with a couple of other guys – sharing some wine that I had with a French woman who was there with two kids (definitely “youth”!): she looked bereft when she was told that the hostel didn’t sell beer.
We walked up to Glenmore Lodge, where they do have a license. Indeed, they had Glenfarclas on offer at £2 a shot, and after th best part of a bottle of wine that seemed like a rather good idea.
Walking back in the dark, the sky was clear and the stars amazing. Just beautiful.
The dorm wasn’t so good. I was first to bed, in a vain attempt to get some sleep. There is something about hostels that means that everyone always snores. (Not me, obviously. Just everyone else.) This dorm had its share of snorers. Worse, though – far worse – was the guy on the bunk below mine; he was a talker. In fact, he shouted in his sleep, bellowing out gibberish – punctuated by swearing (“bastard!” “cunt!”), at one point spelling out – shouting out – “B-I-T-C-H!” He seemed really disturbed – what can have been going on in his mind as he slept, shouting out his words? Either way, I was extremely disturbed. When he wasn’t shouting, he was snoring.
So: an awful night’s sleep – par for the course in a hostel. (Why do I keep going to hostels when I know I dislike them so much?)
But the morning was glorious: from the hostel you could see Cairngorm and its northern corries, the sun shining over the summit. It was beautiful.
A group of us – including the shouter – climbed Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in Scotland (and maybe the UK as well?), starting off from the Coire Cas car park, by the Cairngorm ski centre. We passed under Coire an t Sneachda and Coire an Lochain, and climbed onto the plateau up the west ridge of Cairn Lochan, keeping below the summit as we headed south.
The route took us high above the Lairig Ghru, the deep pass that cuts through the Cairngorm mountains from Feshie Bridge right to Braemar. The views across Lairig Ghru to Braerich and Carn Toul were wonderful.
Macdui itself isn’t a great hill – kind of round and flat, a bump in the Cairngorm plateau – but it is a great spot. Especially with the highly clement weather we had: it was shorts and tee shirts all the way, which is rare during a Scottish summer, let alone in mid April.
We were quite early, so it was peaceful too – there were few other walkers around.
We had a lot of time, and we were thinking about descending to Loch Etrachan and climbing Ben Mheadhoin (that’s pronounced Vane. Really); but we looked at the height we’d lose, and have to climb (and then back down and back up again) and felt we fancied lazier afternoon. So we walked back across the plateau towards Cairngorm, which we decided not to climb because we could see how busy it was, and then we walked along the cliffs above Coire an t Sneachda. This is dangerous country: every year, people die in this corrie.
We slowly returned to the car park down the ridge of Fichaill a’ Choire Chas; and back to the hostel for a beer in the afternoon sunshine, with views of the mountains as we chatted.
That night was the twentieth anniversary dinner of the hillwalking club; we took over the hostel, more or less, and drank a lot, ate some, and then drank some more.
Everyone slept much better that night; even me.
I drove up on Friday afternoon; beautiful weather, and it stayed like that all weekend. The hostel does OK food; I ate with a couple of other guys – sharing some wine that I had with a French woman who was there with two kids (definitely “youth”!): she looked bereft when she was told that the hostel didn’t sell beer.
Friday evening: the view from the hostel.
We walked up to Glenmore Lodge, where they do have a license. Indeed, they had Glenfarclas on offer at £2 a shot, and after th best part of a bottle of wine that seemed like a rather good idea.
Walking back in the dark, the sky was clear and the stars amazing. Just beautiful.
The dorm wasn’t so good. I was first to bed, in a vain attempt to get some sleep. There is something about hostels that means that everyone always snores. (Not me, obviously. Just everyone else.) This dorm had its share of snorers. Worse, though – far worse – was the guy on the bunk below mine; he was a talker. In fact, he shouted in his sleep, bellowing out gibberish – punctuated by swearing (“bastard!” “cunt!”), at one point spelling out – shouting out – “B-I-T-C-H!” He seemed really disturbed – what can have been going on in his mind as he slept, shouting out his words? Either way, I was extremely disturbed. When he wasn’t shouting, he was snoring.
So: an awful night’s sleep – par for the course in a hostel. (Why do I keep going to hostels when I know I dislike them so much?)
But the morning was glorious: from the hostel you could see Cairngorm and its northern corries, the sun shining over the summit. It was beautiful.
The view from the hostel: Saturday morning
A group of us – including the shouter – climbed Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in Scotland (and maybe the UK as well?), starting off from the Coire Cas car park, by the Cairngorm ski centre. We passed under Coire an t Sneachda and Coire an Lochain, and climbed onto the plateau up the west ridge of Cairn Lochan, keeping below the summit as we headed south.
The route took us high above the Lairig Ghru, the deep pass that cuts through the Cairngorm mountains from Feshie Bridge right to Braemar. The views across Lairig Ghru to Braerich and Carn Toul were wonderful.
Looking south, down the Lairig Ghru
The west corrie of Ben Macdui
Carn Toul, from Ben Macdui
Macdui itself isn’t a great hill – kind of round and flat, a bump in the Cairngorm plateau – but it is a great spot. Especially with the highly clement weather we had: it was shorts and tee shirts all the way, which is rare during a Scottish summer, let alone in mid April.
Wall to wall mountains: the view from (just below) the summit of Ben Macdui, looking west.
We were quite early, so it was peaceful too – there were few other walkers around.
On the south slop of Carn an Lochan
We had a lot of time, and we were thinking about descending to Loch Etrachan and climbing Ben Mheadhoin (that’s pronounced Vane. Really); but we looked at the height we’d lose, and have to climb (and then back down and back up again) and felt we fancied lazier afternoon. So we walked back across the plateau towards Cairngorm, which we decided not to climb because we could see how busy it was, and then we walked along the cliffs above Coire an t Sneachda. This is dangerous country: every year, people die in this corrie.
Coire an t Sneachda
Braerich, across Coire an t Sneachda and Coire an Lochain.
We slowly returned to the car park down the ridge of Fichaill a’ Choire Chas; and back to the hostel for a beer in the afternoon sunshine, with views of the mountains as we chatted.
That night was the twentieth anniversary dinner of the hillwalking club; we took over the hostel, more or less, and drank a lot, ate some, and then drank some more.
Everyone slept much better that night; even me.