Petestack Blog

Thought I was going to write an interesting post here combining a report of today’s testing run in much crisper conditions than Thursday’s soggy snow with some updates to my year-old running crampon review. But now (still sitting here after multiple false starts) I’ve decided just to settle for a brief note that I ran Binnein Mor and Na Gruagaichean, leaving the zigzag path up Sgor Eilde Beag to cut (literally!) straight up its south ridge snowfield (where I might not have been comfortable in trail shoes and MICROspikes without that nice series of slash steps) and taking a strangely snaking route along the south ridge of Binnein Mor as the cornice swapped sides from east to west and back again. And that’s basically that, with the detailed discussion of lightweight, flexible crampon design and my thoughts on the pros and cons of the potentially more capable Kahtoola and Hillsound models I’d like to test (subject to UK distribution or private import for the Hillsounds?) held over for another time.

Keen to get out for some good hill days on ‘new’ ground with February’s WML Assessment looming, but lack of excitement about current thaw conditions saw me settling for a wee run over the very familiar peaks of Am Bodach and Stob Coire a’ Chairn this afternoon. Not much snow left below about 800m and even what’s still ‘covering’ the ridge mostly soft and soggy, but found some steeper/firmer patches to cut some slash steps and pigeon-holes (quite reassuring in places with ‘running’ footwear) and thought the steep NE descent of Am Bodach testing enough for trail shoes and MICROspikes in its current shape. No idea why there’s an arrow planted in the cairn of Stob Coire a’ Chairn (seems about as logical as the Sgurr Alasdair squirrel!), but left it as I found it and ran on down, finding the snow lining the Coire na Ba path just the right depth to keep trapping and tripping a runner’s lower legs. So pretty crap conditions really for hill running or practising axe work, but still good exercise and hoping the forecast refreeze means some better snow up there for some big boot work soon.

Despite waking up late enough today (on a stunning frosty morning) to consider just going for a local run, it didn’t take long to start thinking sod-that-and-get-going-because-there’s-long-enough-to-settle-that-unfinished-business-with-Meall-Greigh and head off Loch Tay way for a hit-and-run on said hill. So that’s what I did…

Nice to be able to drive straight over Ba Bridge for the first time in ages, then loads of roadside snow from Crianlarich (they must have been buried!) onwards, with cars parked at the foot of the wee hill road from Loch Tay to Bridge of Balgie and even the few metres I could see of that in passing looking like an icy non-starter. A largely snow-free ascent of Meall Greigh’s south ridge, quick confirmation (as if I needed it!) in perfect visibility that I’d all but topped out before, nice run off towards the Lawers Burn on crisp snow down to about 700m and I was back at the van a couple of hours after setting out. Oh yes, and Sealskinz waterproof socks don’t seem to be waterproof although they do still wick away moisture pretty well when wet.

Not perhaps the most complete or memorable of hill days, but still satisfying for healing a festering sore! :-)

Happy to get the whole, wintry Carn Mairg group after another late-morning start from Glen Lyon (didn’t even pack my stuff till after the start of the S2S Ultra from Kinloch to Tyndrum), but might still admit to having been lured back by a fine MWIS forecast with notions of maybe (just maybe) finishing off Meall Greigh as well. However, that was never really on the agenda with cloudier/windier than expected conditions conspiring with the continuous snow cover (from about 700m) to convince me fairly quickly that this clockwise Carn Mairg circuit would be ample if I didn’t freeze before completing it!

Nothing much more to say here when I want to get the blog post done tonight, but might just explain the slight diversions before and (especially) after Meall Liath, where my self-printed (and should-have-been-laminated) A4 map finally disintegrated and I just had to get off the top for some shelter from the biting wind before digging out the full OS sheet (in map case) that I’d fortuitously packed (in my new OMM Adventure Light 20L sack) as backup before continuing on a better course.

Yes, it rhymes (almost), or at the very least qualifies as assonance as defined in Educating Rita…

So this could have been a cheery blog post about seven Munros (five of which were new to me) snatched from a cold and windy November day on my first proper hill run since September’s rib injury, but now it’ll have to be a cheery blog post about six Munros (four of which were new to me) and one ever-so-nearly-Munro (the culprit being Meall Greigh) snatched from a cold and windy November day and all the rest of it!

Now, you might suppose that Irvine Butterfield knew what he was talking about when he described Meall Ghaordaidh as ‘quite the dullest hill in the Southern Highlands’, but Meall Greigh (being a very dull hill requiring a four-mile detour from a logical circuit of the Ben Lawers range) is possibly even duller. Especially when you miss the top and now have to go back for this hill-of-the-kind-you-swear-you’ll-only-do-once another time!

So what happened? Well, nothing that struck me as wrong at the time… it was very cold and windy and I couldn’t see more than a few metres, but the ground was dropping beyond the ‘summit’ and the altimeter said 1003 where the map said 1001 so I turned and legged it back to Glen Lyon. Then I got home, thought I’d remind myself what Butterfield and the SMC Munros guide had to say about these hills and discovered that Meall Greigh has two summit pimples separated by 200m of flat ground, with the single ring contour denoting the NW imposter neatly hidden by the ‘a’ of the hill name on the 1:50,000 map (silly, that). Knew instantly because of the way they described it that I’d goofed, so wasn’t at all surprised when importing my Forerunner track to Memory-Map confirmed the bad news and just ever so slightly took the shine off a satisfying round!