Petestack Blog

18 October 2021

Above Glensanda

Filed under: Walking — admin @ 11:20 am

I’ve been out on better days but, if you must go when the forecast says ‘thick cloud’…

Having recently spent two nights on Fly in anchorages from where you can hear the Glensanda super-quarry and discussed it on another (non-solo) sail down that way since, I was keen to get a look into this humungous hole in the hills. So I impatiently chose the worst day possible, but at least got most of what I went for, which was a Graham, a Graham Top and (not quite as successful here) that view into the quarry. Oh yes, and wet feet… very wet feet!

This was an anticlockwise round. The SMC Grahams and Donalds book talks about a stalkers’ path off Meall an Doire Dhuibh I failed to locate, but noticed back at sea level there’s now a whacking great track down Coire Reidh! My descent from the nose of the ridge to the final wee lochan, while not particularly steep, was frustratingly awkward lumpy ground full of hidden foot-trapping holes:

Trudging round hills I still don’t feel like I’ve seen in conditions where I couldn’t see much further than my nose, the noise from the quarry struck me as I hit the top of Beinn Mheadhoin and continued for some two-and-a-quarter miles before fading surprisingly quickly as I turned north for Meall an Doire Dhuibh. There’s a falling-down old fence with ‘danger’ signs along the ridge above the quarry, but this viewpoint about halfway along seems to positively invite you through the fence to take the track. Well, they didn’t put it there for the workers, did they?

And I doubt this board just below is for the benefit of the workers either!

The top terrace back face (wall?) with track above. The track is quite safe, but the terrace faces are steep:

Some detail of quarry floor just about visible top right here through the temporarily clearing cloud:

These signs are not surprisingly at 560 and 540 metres:

For some strange reason this great machine lost in a desert wasteland reminded me of Star Wars (yes, the original, seen years before it was episode anything!):

And here’s the top north-east corner of the quarry (which has spread beyond the mapped area), marked by the blue dot on my map as I turned for Meall an Doire Dhuibh:

This upper extension of the quarry is well shown by the satellite photo at https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featuremap18859.html and, for a clearer (if more dated) view than any of mine, there’s an impressively zoomable photo at https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1262055. While I’d like to go back for a better look and will probably repeat the whole round sometime, I’d also noted that unmarked track up Coire Reidh as a possible way to get up there quickly (or final descent route) before I’d even reached the car. While you might feel a bit like a spy in a film up there with your camera, shooting from the quarry boundary or top track with viewpoint seems fair game when they haven’t left much of a ridge behind it!

30 August 2021

Above Corran

Filed under: Walking — admin @ 7:45 pm

I could say lots but I’m not going to. Just (quoting this afternoon’s Facebook post):

Sgùrr na h-Eanchainne and Druim na Sgrìodain (or should that be the more evocatively named Meall Dearg Choire nam Muc?)… my first proper hills since October, and what joy that brings! :-)

27 August 2019

Flying to Fraochaidh

Filed under: Sailing,Walking — admin @ 8:43 pm

So who’d have guessed I’d be back on Fraochaidh within six weeks of my ‘integrale’ traverse from Sgorr a’ Choise? Not me, but here’s how it came about…

Ex-colleague and (very much current!) friend Isabelle was over from France and keen for some long-promised sailing. Current colleague and friend Eilidh was keen to take Isabelle hill walking, so we took the two days of a fine weekend (no holiday Monday here!) to do both, sailing Fly out into Loch Linnhe and round Eilean Balnagowan on Saturday and climbing Fraochaidh from Glen Duror on Sunday.

Saturday’s sail pretty well started with a chance meeting in Ballachulish Bay with my cousin Alistair on his recently-acquired Silver Leaf motor yacht Silver Bird and exchange of hurriedly-composed photographs as he headed for Cuil-cheanna Spit Buoy and we for Ardsheal and beyond. Which course produced an interesting beat with the expected gentle breeze building to 28 knots apparent before subsiding to not very much at all as we rounded the island and pretty well flat calm from Kentallen home. But that allowed us to motor right into Kentallen Bay for Eilidh to admire her own wee house before another happy coincidence as we came across John Strachan and Jean Aitken on Hawk 20 Didima IV picking up a mooring at the Holly Tree for (I’m subsequently told) Jean’s birthday supper. A thoroughly enjoyable sail despite the odd spit of rain and that increasing and dying breeze not being quite what we’d ordered!

Now, try researching ‘Fraochaidh from Glen Duror’ and you’ll get plenty hits warning of dense forestry impeding this shorter approach, but keep reading and you’ll see that clearing has opened up some good ways through. So we started from the Forestry car park north of the river after deciding that parking for the track to the south of it suggested by Steven Fallon’s site (which would cut out the last remotely awkward ground) really wasn’t satisfactory. The former footbridge is still absent where we crossed, but the river was low enough to cross dry by stones, and our more westerly return track charts another wee track back down before cutting back to the river where we knew it would go. It was hot and sunny with great near-to-mid-distance views and a pretty-well aerial prospect of Saturday’s sail, but things further to the seaward side more hazy (e.g. the Mull Ben More and Scarba discernible, but not really Jura and definitely not Colonsay). Isabelle hadn’t done much walking since recovering from a serious leg problem and was concerned about her ability to make the summit, but got there and back in fine style in the end. It was a pleasant surprise to meet former school captain Jo Shepton and boyfriend at the summit after they’d followed us unrecognised for much of the afternoon, and a pleasant non-surprise to return to Eilidh’s Kentallen abode for the fine dinner she’d pre-prepared. Put the Saturday and Sunday together and the weekend felt like we’d been away for a great wee holiday together even if we’d all headed home separately for the intervening Saturday night! :-)

15 July 2019

More van-at-the-garage hills

Filed under: Sailing,Walking — admin @ 9:52 pm

While I’d been up Sgorr a’ Choise and Fraochaidh before, I hadn’t combined them into the single ridge traverse so obvious from the map, so took advantage of this year’s van-service-and-MOT day to get away from the boat refit and do exactly that. And it started, after a detour to the Ballachulish Co-op to augment my meagre scrabbled-together rations, with a full-on bash up the north side of Sgorr a’ Choise to leave a ‘pure’ traverse avoiding too much ‘out and back’ from the central bealach:

From Sgorr a’ Choise’s summit, and increasingly on the descent to the bealach and beyond, it was impossible to miss the proliferation of freshly-bulldozed forestry (?) tracks since I’d been up here before even if my photo selection’s spared you the worst of the scars up Glen Creran:

It feels like a long way to Fraochaidh, but the views from both undulating ridge and summit are excellent with familiar peaks and islands to admire in every direction:

And the return by the Duror–Ballachulish through-route maintains interest with attractive late prospects of Sgorr a’ Choise and the Pap of Glencoe amongst others:

It was a hot, dry day so I took two bottles of water and drank seven (!), but still suffered from the lack of ready supply on the long, central section of ridge.

Now perhaps you’re wondering why I’ve also filed this under ‘sailing’, so let me explain… it’s been nearly two months since I’ve posted a ‘boat’ blog, but work has continued unreported through a frenetic end to school term and the first week of my summer holiday. That long-anticipated, so-belated launch should be just a couple of weeks away, but I’m still working hard at it and just haven’t felt like blogging the minutiae as well (some ‘broader brush’ updates to come, I promise!). But what I did find on this very welcome boat-free day was quality time to mull over how and when to deal with some of the stuff I still want to get done, and was seeing how to get some consequential jobs (e.g. finishing templating and cutting Fly’s new cabin sole from the most expensive sheet of plywood I’ve ever bought) done right even as I walked. And you just can’t over-stress the importance of the right time away to work through this in your head!

17 July 2018

While the van’s at the garage…

Filed under: Climbing,Walking — admin @ 9:54 pm

I took a walk up Beinn a’ Bheithir yesterday, linking the three main peaks by the scrambling routes of Sgorr Bhan’s ENE Ridge (aka the Schoolhouse Ridge) and Sgorr a’ Chaolais. It’s the first time I’ve descended by Sgorr a’ Chaolais (the so-called Dragon’s Tooth) although I’d done it in ascent twice before. The steep face of the big rounded pinnacle (taken this time in ascent, but normally a down-climb with abseil slings at the top) was quite intimidating on dank rock though I could have bailed down the slopes just above it, and I came down a narrow scree gully followed by much ground just awkward enough to be annoying to reach the track, but probably missed the best way there.

While I was technically on my way down in still-brightening conditions when I received a text from Lochside Garage to say the van (in for service and MOT) was ready, I still had the big pinnacle to climb and some way to go to get back for it.

8 July 2016

East Lochaber and Laggan Community Trust

Filed under: Climbing,Cycling,Kinlochleven,Running,Walking — admin @ 10:55 am

Something potentially huge for this area, so please try to get to one of the meetings, folks!

http://www.eastlochaberlaggan.scot/
https://www.facebook.com/Ellctrust/

From Andrew Baxter on Facebook:

Some really important meetings coming up next week to discuss how local residents can get involved in a bid for the community to own the Rio Tinto estates, so that the land is owned by the people who live here, not by a multinational company with remote shareholders.

The new East Lochaber and Laggan Community Trust has been set up in response to Rio Tinto Aluminium’s announcement that they would review the Lochaber smelter. The Trust is very keen to see the smelter continuing, if at all possible, and sees an opportunity to work with parties that might run the power stations in Kinlochleven and Fort William, and others that could operate the smelter and/or develop other employment options in the area.

The role of the community trust would be to own the estate, stretching from Kinlochleven across to Laggan. The Trust will be community led, appointing unpaid voluntary directors. We need to demonstrate widespread community support, so please come along to one of our meetings to find out more:

Monday 11th July 7 p.m. Inverlochy Village Hall
Tuesday 12th July 7 p.m. The Leven Centre, Kinlochleven
Wednesday 13th July 7 p.m Caol Community Centre
Wednesday 13th July 8 p.m Kilmallie Hall
Thursday 14th July 7 p.m. Spean Bridge Community Hall

Please share.

8 May 2016

Short Trail Routes from Kinlochleven

Filed under: Running,Walking — admin @ 11:21 pm

See maps and text at https://www.petestack.com/running/kinlochleven.html.

Something I got absorbed in making for outdoor education and thought might sit well on my website!

7 March 2016

Wrong side of Resipol

Filed under: Walking — admin @ 9:29 pm

Seduced by a fine forecast on Sunday, I headed for Beinn Resipol above Loch Sunart anticipating (to quote the SMC Corbetts guide) ‘one of the finest views along the West Highland Coastline’. And the hills certainly looked great as I left the house, but things were already changing as I hit the Corran Ferry with my peak subsequently disappearing almost as I left the van to leave a day of clag and intermittent drizzle/snow showers. So I never even saw the mountain properly, let alone the famous views…

Now, you might wonder why I’ve chopped part of my GPS track and I suppose I’d better fess up. Having ascended via the Graham Top of Beinn an Albannaich and stopped to talk to a guy called Ben (who lives in Fife and works as a ranger in West Lothian) atop Resipol, I thought to vary my descent (to ‘make a nicer shape on the map’) by descending the attractive-looking eastern ridge a short way and swinging back round west past the northerly lochan somewhere. But afraid I neither really gave the map more than a cursory glance nor really thought that through, so followed my nose way too far east creating a horrible shape as I contoured and climbed my way back from where I’d never have gone with better visibility! So I’ve, um, ‘censored’ my track round the ‘wrong’ side where it stays between me and the mountain, but am happy to tell you the silver lining of this particular cloud was meeting Ben (who’d lingered some considerable time on the summit hoping things might clear) again just where my ascent and descent tracks converge for a sociable descent with much interesting discussion on the way.

2016-03-06map

29 February 2016

Circling with Lucy

Filed under: Walking — admin @ 9:16 pm

Stob Coire a’ Chearcaill is a curiously-named peak because the corrie from which it takes its name is not especially circular. But then we never saw a yew on the subsidiary top of Sgurr an Iubhair either…

2016-02-28map

I’ve known Lucy and Wally Wallace since we did Winter Mountain Leader Training together six years ago, and we’ve remained good friends. They’ve been escaping Arran for a few weeks to walk, climb, work etc. from Achaphubuil, so we had to do something together while they were up. Except that Wally further escaped to go climbing on the Ben the day Lucy and I set out to climb their new pet mountain (and my second-last Ardgour Corbett) Stob Coire a’ Chearcaill! So we just had to do it for him… starting and finishing by Gleann Sron a’ Chreagain with a 2.5-mile detour to pick up the Graham Top of Sgurr an Iubhair (Lucy made me… and my nose is growing!) and gaze unimpeded at the Heart of Ardgour (fantastic views in all directions, but possibly most distant to the south-west with the Paps of Jura clear and the Mull Ben More having remarkable presence) before short-cutting a full return circuit by 558 and Meall Ruadh to dive back into the Glen. Where we found some rough/tussocky ground and the odd avoidable craglet on our descent through the woods before encountering the stags-that-don’t-run (some of which you see below) further down. Oh, and we saw the eagles the birdwatchers missed, so I guess you could say we had a good day!

2016-02-28lucy-1 2016-02-28coire-a-chearcaill-1

2016-02-28coire-a-chearcaill-2 2016-02-28lucy-2

2016-02-28lucy-3 2016-02-28lucy-4

2016-02-28coire-a-chearcaill-3 2016-02-28lucy-5

2016-02-28coire-a-chearcaill-4 2016-02-28gleann-sron-a-chreagain

2016-02-28stags

So Lucy leaves raving about the area and I get to colour in one more star in my increasingly sunny-looking constellation of Ardgour/Morvern/Moidart Corbetts. But why have I left one ‘Corbett Top’ (diamond) in here? Because Druim Garbh (west of Sgurr Dhomhnuill) is one of the eight with drops of between 450 and 500ft suggested by Robin Campbell’s research to have been removed from the tables on the erroneous assumption that Corbett’s criterion for inclusion was a drop of 500ft, and therefore not just a Top in my book (and, mark my words, we’ll see the Corbetts officially defined by 450ft drop one day!)…

2016-02-29ardgour-morvern-moidart-corbetts

2 November 2015

Staggering on

Filed under: Running,Walking — admin @ 10:13 pm

It was Ian Beattie’s stag do at Tyndrum this weekend, so I was among friends runners and we had to run to the pub for lunch on Saturday. About seven miles to the pub in Bridge of Orchy. Where we watched New Zealand beat Australia at World Cup Rugby and I fell asleep because that’s what I do when I’m not doing anything else. And then we ran back to the pub for dinner. About seven miles to the pub in Tyndrum, in the dark with too few headtorches between too many (disclaimer: at least mine was a shining light!). Where I fell asleep because that’s what I do when I’m not doing anything else, but most of the others seemed to get mixed up in some kind of karaoke with the zombies of Tyndrum (apparently normal on 31 October!). After which Keith (perhaps scunnered by his team’s loss) and Dod made renewed attempts to wake the (un)dead with some colourful noise at 2:00am and I had to play whistles in the hostel because Ian made me start and Scott wouldn’t let me stop…

So that was that and then it was Sunday (or, to be technically correct, still Sunday) and time for everyone to go their separate ways again. Which, for me, meant two Corbetts and a Graham Top on the way home, with a splendid, staggeringly appropriate display of carefree non-nav (note the ‘Oops!’ on the map) on a stunning November day when you could see for miles around…

2015-11-01map

Now the rules for non-nav are very simple. It’s not like bad nav (where you actually look at maps and stuff but still get it wrong), but quite simply following your nose without checking the map because you thought you’d registered it all from one quick look before you set out but hadn’t (all-time classic: Not Fyne but Shira!). Which is the only rational explanation I can offer for maintaining that rising traverse for so long with no sign of the expected bealach despite being fully aware of lower ground to the right I just hadn’t associated with what I thought I was looking for. At which point I did consider just skipping Beinn Bheag (which turns out to be a splendid viewpoint!) and pretending the agenda was just the more ‘hilly’ hills of Beinn Bhreac-liath and Beinn Udlaidh, but why let such a sensible solution spoil a good story? ;-)

The question mark on the map, by the way, marks a possible alternative route to Beinn Bheag up a big forestry track where I took a small (ATV?) track up and came down a big, open cleft with a burn.

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