Some history is ancienter than others. Bynack More

[Lipeshends]

It's time to insert an acknowledgement into my punctuated narrative of a life where hill walking was a passion. I did other things, other walks, some climbs and mountains even, but the round of Munros began at age 10 and was only really an adjacent concern to being in hills until I started writing stuff down. I did it not at all for years, then by hand, then on what we'd now call an App on an MSDoS PC loaded by 3.5" floppy, later a CD App, then Scottishhills from where some of my reports have been sucked over here to Walkhighlands. No mobile phones, no GPS we had paper maps and cameras used 35mm film which was developed if you were lucky to show some of your trip in focus and correctly exposed or not. This report is already nostalgic from 2001 when my pal Dave had not climbed a Munro since 20 years before that and I had a 13 year old son of my own along for the craic. So. Typed not swiped here's what my diary said:

Bynack More
Height 1090m
Time 6.0 hours
Wx: Sun - High Cloud - Windy on top.

Stuart McGuinness (lipeshends)
Companions
Fraser McGuinness
David Craig

Fraser's 1st Munro and David's first since 1981 (20 years!)

We drove up to Loch Insh in constant drizzling rain and were not hopeful of a good weather stay at Clive's. Mum said there was a good forecast for the next day, Saturday, so we decided to go on the first day of our short break.

Looking for a nearby top, Bynack Mor (sic) seemed like a good choice and the two routes described in the book had different advantages. With the luxury of two cars we left one at the Lodge (Glenmore) and Dad dropped us at the Coire na Ciste car park.

This route in was trackless for the most part and involved a long traverse and then a steep and long descent before being able to tackle the shoulder of Bynack Beag direct. The guide book said 2:40 from the car park to the top but we took 3.0 hours. The time was lost on the direct ascent which we took straight up and was very strenuous. (Dave dragging a bit which he later denied).

Fraser did well and did not complain. He did suffer a bit on Bynack Beag and was understandably dismayed by the 'false summit' when Bynack More swung into view. Dave was on a second wind and very chirpy as he coaxed us all up the last few steps, but really Fraser had done just fine on his own.

It's a long walk off and this reinforced the Coire na Ciste route as the better choice for 'up'. It ended with a pleasant wooded stroll through some of the ancient Caledonian Forest remnants and on a very good path.

Six hours was a respectable time and, although I knew where we were and was able to cajole Fraser along, we were all ready for it to end. I suggested another 900 steps would do it (about 900m) and I could tell that Fraser immediately started counting. About 400m from the car he announced he was at 900 but we could see a corner of the Lodge and finished in fine fettle.

Tried the Winkie and then the Old Bridge; both were dead. Fraser would not even touch 1" of lager even though we coaxed him.