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Beinn na Lap, Corrour Station, & Aurora Borealis

Beinn na Lap, Corrour Station, & Aurora Borealis


Postby Callicious » Tue Jul 05, 2022 3:31 am

Munros included on this walk: Beinn na Lap

Date walked: 02/03/2022

Time taken: 14 hours

Distance: 25 km

Ascent: 800m

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A weeks break ("Flexible Learning Week") presented itself to me mid-semester, and I'd seized on the opportunity and used this week for two trips. The first was a casual three days in Glen Affric- my summer tent proved less than ideal for this (yes- I froze. My sleeping mat even exploded on me- thank god I had a repair kit!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: .) The second was what I'm reporting on here- a short 2-day to Corrour, where I stayed at the youth hostel (which by the way, is a magical place.)

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Just to show you what I mean about a summer tent meeting inclement weather- it was -6 that night. The SMD Lunar Solo has huge air vents underneath it, with a washbasin floor- not ideal for this kind of weather. I made wee snow battlements to keep the wind off, and made it through a-ok. You might call it irresponsible, but I know my limits- I had a cracking sleeping bag and plenty of warm clothes, and five pairs of spare socks! (two of which I was wearing :lol: )

Anyway, back to Corrour. Taking the second train out from Edinburgh, I arrived at some point near 3-4 PM, and made short work of getting to photographing some sights. The next day was for the hike- today was for some casual hostel-side photos, and perhaps if the winds permitted (the forecast was IDEAL) some cracking reflections of the train station.

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The station, seconds after arriving. I was enthusiastic!

After traipsing my way to the hostel (I must have gotten at least 20-30 photographs by this point- I'm a loon I know... took me an hour and a half to get to the hostel from the station! :lol:) I made myself known and got my bed set up, and then head out to hunt for some sunset photographs. At this time of year, the hostel is in an unfortunate position- you get great gold on it but all the reds hit the other end of the Loch instead as the hostel gets nothing, as sadly the hostel is occluded by Leum Uilleim and the hills further afield. No matter- I got a decent few of it before the cloud set in and I lost my chance...

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See what I mean? There's a smidgen of gold on it, but soon that will vanish and you'll be left with nothing. Blast it! (The clouds didnae help either.)

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Before sunset however, maybe 10-30 minutes, you'll get plenty of fantastic yellow-gold over the hostel and its surrounding foliage... frankly the contrast it provided against the rather dull sky proved too much and I had to reduce it!

By this point, the already-dull winds had lulled even more- I was hopeful, my heart was beating fast, and I paced aggressively from my spot by the hostel to the lochy before the train station, waiting for that quintessential photograph everyone craves from Corrour- and boy did I get it!

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Magic, in my opinion. By no means a professionally-edited fantastic bit of magic, but I found it stunning! I return here later- just you wait.

Slowly, I ended up back at the hostel- took me a while though! I'd set up for at least half a dozen long exposures along the way, as the clouds occasionally gave me some lee-way to do so. This camera (my D780) has a horrific issue with long exposures however- the IR sensor inside is busted, and shines IR on the CMOS virtually 24/7... which causes red colour cast when not shooting something bright. Most went to waste- I was shattered- I'd never even known of the issue before then, since I used my dedicated night photography setup for stars and astrolandscapes/etc... but what are you gonna do. I did salvage a few- here's one...

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I'd lined up where I wanted to shoot this earlier in the day, you'll see a shot of it later in such a case.

After satisfying myself with the days efforts, and getting some passive criticism about spending the entire time outside spooking folk with my red headlamp, I headed to my bunk and hit the sack, setting my vibrating alarm for an early 4 AM start (I wanted a sunrise!...)

The 4 AM start was no fun, by the way. When I went to use that composting outhouse, my arse damn near froze to it! A sweaty bum on an ice-cold toilet seat above a (literal steaming) pot of human leavings is no joke! I must have used most of the deodorizing spray in there, because when I got back in the evening, a new bottle was there. I suppose it was my fault- I left one hell of a rosebud in there the day I arrived :clap:

Anyhow, I started off briskly at around 5 AM, after some morning tea provided by another early-starter who'd gone up some hills to the south the day earlier. I managed to barely scrape the sunrise at the top, having reached it from the hostel in slightly less than two hours (I was damned exhausted by this point!)

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Some shots I got while ascending and once at the top, including the obligatory awkward tripod selfie.

I shimmied up to a small rock (the winds at this point weren't having any of it, approaching from the direction of Loch Treig and that area.) Tossing off my shell and jostling off the frozen condensation from within, I sat down for some breakfast with my down puffy rustling gently against whatever breeze managed to dodge the rock shielding my back. The menu? An entire Aldi walnut cake, and the fattest Chorizo I could find in Lidl. A sad lunch, but typical- I tend to pack to minimize weight, and my body will take what it gets (and if those 4,000 calories a day happen to be sausages and cake, then it'll take the damn sausages and cake!)

Before leaving the top, I made sure to get a panorama- the view over the moor was absolutely breathtaking. Naturally I sniped a few photos too (I use a 28-300mm as my hiking lens- plenty of versatility) but this was my favourite panorama of the day...

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What a view to eat a horrible breakfast by!

Having scarfed that cake down with a liberal amount of water, and damned near broken one of my canines on the chorizo, I made haste for the gentle ridge down to the back of Beinn na Lap- the forecast for later in the day was cloud, and I wasn't there to deal with overcast, I was there to get some photographs to brag to my girlfriend about- off I went!

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Fantastic views to the North East! Laugh at me all you want, but I don't get many opportunities to hike in the ice/snow, so I whipped out my crampons and ice axe and had some fun walking on the (flat, safe, not-on-the-deathly-slope-of-death) side of the ridge, whilst also taking the chance to practice a few ice axe arrests on the way down. It was frozen solid, and proved a great experience!

I'd started to reach the end descent stage of the munro, and at this point the light started to turn magical once more- knowing that I wouldn't get many more chances on the day for it, I started to pace quite fast by this point- not without having some fun jumping on the icy puddles/boggy bits that I passed though!

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As immature as it may be...

Just for viewing pleasure, I'll also provide some of the shots I got on my way down- arguably the best ones on this whole post! I bloody loved this hike!

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You'll notice I horizontally reflected it- I find that this way is more pleasing to the eye... though some would consider such a change to be wrong, I'm ultimately trying to get reasonable photographs, and if you're right-handed right-sided photographs tend to look better!
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I had quite a bit of fun on the side of Meall na Slingearaich before hitting the road- I must have climbed up and down a portion of it 10+ times, just jumping and sliding down the frozen slopes and using my axe to aim myself down... like a luge! It was majestic. Anyway, the road back to Loch Ossian was a long one- I felt quite tired, given the early start, and took the chance to just sit and admire the views ahead of me.

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Turned on some nice music, and just admired the view, waiting for the clouds to pass to let the entirety of it be illuminated in that golden glow. Sadly it never happened, but I did feel very much at peace.
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The road, which provided some respite from bouncing up and down through heather-snow-sponge.

By the time I passed the hunting lodge, I took the chance to beeline straight for the loch- AND WHAT A VIEW! Honestly, and you might think this an exaggeration (it's not-...) I was jumping for joy on the sides of the loch, and took my boots off and walked in. It was bloody cold, but it just felt great- what a sight!

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LOOK AT THAT!!! :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

I spent about an hour here, snacking and taking long exposures and HDRs of the loch, before continuing on. I stopped off a few more times on the little spits of dirt and tree that edged into it, and got a few more nice ones before finding a spot to settle down for sunset.

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I had to salvage this one a bit, but it really reminds me of Finland!

The sunset started off rather dull- I resigned myself to eating fuet and what little scraps of biscuit bars I had left (hint: no breakfast tomorrow!) and didn't even bother setting up the tripod. Then, the light hit- I jumped into action, grabbing my tripod and aggressively plonking it down by the loch- sadly few compositions presented themselves to me, and I lost my chance, resigning myself to enjoying the view. It was beautiful. There's something pretty, and something that makes a photograph- I could have just sprayed my camera and hoped for the best, but I'm not that kind of guy usually... I'd rather just enjoy the view and remember it for next time (and there will be a next time.)

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Nary a chance- it lasted less than a minute, and then clouds took it away from me.

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After the failed attempt earlier, I turned myself around and admired the view to the other side of the loch- it was quite nice too, though I do still wish I caught the light earlier.

I shambled my way along the path back to the hostel, but (once again) got distracted and headed off-path to hunt for photographs. Eventually, I ended up back on it, and headed for the train station (again!) Yes, I'm an opportunistic bastard aren't I! After this, I meandered back to the hostel, and grabbed some shots of the loch from the back of it. Initially I thought that pesky IR light glitch was causing me trouble- I deleted most of them- only the focusing/test shots remained, and lo-and-behold... it wasn't the IR glitch. I had seen the aurora for the first time in my life! (even if I didn't realize it)

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I got better conditions than the night before!

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Aurora borealis over Beinn na Lap. I didn't realize it at the time, so failed to get any great photographs of it- nonetheless I did salvage a few, with a lot of effort given the fact I was shooting at 25,600 ISO to focus.

The next morning, I awoke about an hour before sunrise (ouch.) The hostel looked great in the morning light, and I got plenty of photographs while I shambled around the southern bank of the loch.

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If you were there on the 2nd/3rd of March and saw someone on their belly a hundred or so metres down the loch on a rock, resting their camera on the ice while doing a balancing act, then that was me. Did I get any good photographs doing it? Not so much! Did I look ridiculous? Absolutely! Did someone comment to me about how stupid I looked? Yes! :lol: :lol:
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As promised, that star-shot of the hostel, but in daylight. I opted for B&W (there's colour- I just like B&W more.) It just worked better.
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Leaving the hostel was fairly bittersweet- I really enjoyed it there. My next visit attempt was thwarted by the strikes- but nonetheless, I had a great wee time there.
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Approaching the train station in the distance

After I got to the station I had about an hour before my train. I thus found a nice bench, and settled in for a quick nap. A family came and awoke me from my slumber, and thus I began my prowl- not on the family, but to get more photographs (I never stop!.) The goal was the station, and I circled it!

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My train started to approach at this point, and I hurriedly scampered back to the station, grabbing my things and heading for the platform. I managed to make the train, finding a seat and tucking into... nothing! I'D EATEN IT ALL! I got the worst case of motion sickness I've ever had (due to an empty stomach, no doubt) and waited patiently for the food service. We hit Arrochar & Tarbet by the time it came, and I spent £15- Tunnocks Caramel Wafers and those "sandwiches" ScotRail have on offer never looked so good, and I gorged myself on both a cuppa of tea and coffee. The man serving me wasn't too pleased with getting an English fiver though- I wonder where I picked that dirty thing up from? :roll:

Here's my favourite photos from this walk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGATvbakdFk

I didn't do a WH report for the walk in Glen Affric since it isn't really a mountain-ey one (and that's all that seems to get reported, at least mostly, so I'd feel a bit out of place doing it!) but here're the shots from that too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-L4SDyPeN4&t=6s

Sorry about any typos! It's 3:30 AM! Hope you enjoyed reading and enjoyed the photos! (I'll be off on more trips too, hiking from Cannich to Morvich, with a return to Torridon after that, and then likely a trip somewhere else around Strathcarron, so I'll post those up when they come, too! :) )
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Callicious
Wanderer
 
Posts: 15
Munros:16   
Joined: Aug 17, 2020
Location: Manchester

Re: Beinn na Lap, Corrour Station, & Aurora Borealis

Postby tolkienabouthills » Tue Jul 05, 2022 4:45 am

Gosh, some stunning photos in here!

For what its worth if we get photos like these every time then I'm definitely keen for you to share some of the less mountain-y walks.
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tolkienabouthills
Rambler
 
Posts: 70
Munros:17   Corbetts:2
Hewitts:8
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Joined: Nov 9, 2014

Re: Beinn na Lap, Corrour Station, & Aurora Borealis

Postby rockhopper » Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:35 pm

Would fully agree, some cracking conditions and your photos do them justice - cheers :)
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rockhopper
 
Posts: 7445
Munros:282   Corbetts:222
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Joined: May 31, 2009
Location: Glasgow

Re: Beinn na Lap, Corrour Station, & Aurora Borealis

Postby peter1 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 4:32 pm

Fantastic photos - well done!
As a fellow SMD Lunar Solo owner, I'm glad to see the limits in which it can be used, again well done!
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peter1
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 11
Munros:220   Corbetts:1
Fionas:3   
Hewitts:24
Wainwrights:2   
Joined: Sep 10, 2018
Location: Ireland

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