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I have hesitated about adding this report as other reports that I have done have been very practical whereas this one is much more about me and my emotions. However if like me you are a committed "bagger" then you might recognise a bit of what was going through my mind.
Ever since I climbed my first Munro (Ben Chonzie) in my 40s I have become an obsessed serial bagger. 20 years on I've completed the Donalds, 2 rounds of Munros, all the 2000 footers in Wales with only a few left to do in the Lake District and currently I have climbed over 200 Fionas and over 200 Corbetts.
I realised that the time had come to tackle this very tough route if I was going to achieve my compleation goals. My walking partner of many years has suddenly hung up his boots, my wife Michele has a knee problem so it was just me.
I took all the usual precautions for such a walk, extra food, emergency shelter etc, detailed instructions with Michele and one of my sons along with approximate timings. As an extra measure I gave the campsite owner Michele's details and an idea of my timings. I spoke to her husband who told me it was fine, he knew exactly where I was going as a few years ago when he was a stalker he helped in the rescue of someone who had fallen and impaled himself on a stag's antler!
To state the obvious this walk is a huge undertaking, the remoteness of An Stac, the rugged terrain and the reascent at the end of the day. I set myself 3 time goals from the car, 1 hour down to the bridge, 2 1/2 hours to the summit of Meith Bheinn and 5 1/2 hours to the summit of An Stac.
So to the actual walk, from the A830 at Arieniskill under the railway and straight into head high bracken, I am only 5'7" so it might not have been head high for taller people! At 6am the bracken was soaking wet so at 6.10 so was I. The path was really overgrown, 20 minutes and I was clear of the bracken onto the path. The path is very narrow and rocky/stony, I didn't expect it to be like a pavement but it was so rough that it wasn't conducive to fast walking. As I reached the col the path became vague, the col was muddy and boggy and seems to last for a very long time until all of a sudden it's all laid out in front of you.
I had read plenty of reports and looked at lots of photos but it still hadn't prepared me for the first sight of the distant bridge so far away and so much descent down a very rough looking hillside. At that point I seriously considered the wisdom of continuing, I couldn't even identify An Stac behind Meith Bheinn.
It's now or never, give up now no compleation ever. I've walked further before, I've done more ascent before why was I hesitating. I said most of that out loud to myself a worrying trait that I've developed whilst walking on my own!!
Down I went, I came to the top of 2 gullies, 1 unappealing the other impassable with fallen trees and rocks, my heart sank, not only would I have to get down there's also the small matter of getting back up at the end of the day. Then my common sense brain kicked in, this is a Scottish Rights of Way route, walkers should be able to do this, not just peak bagging scramblers.
It's behind you! A cairn, why would there be a cairn here, a trace of a path going up over the crags on my left, 5 minutes later it all became clear, the gullies led down to Loch Beoraid, by crossing this crag I had a clear route down to Lochan Lon a Ghairt albeit once more through head high bracken.I reached the bridge and a quick check showed that it had taken me 1 1/4 hours, I was 15 minutes behind my planned schedule and it's surprising that it wasn't more. attachment=0]IMG_1613.JPG[/attachment]
- The bridge from the ascent Meith Bheinn
It's a bit disconcerting to find that after that length of walking and after being at 300m above sea level you are back to 50m above sea level and all of a sudden Meith Bheinn that looked large from 300m looks massive from 50m. Onwards and upwards, pick a line, head down, start climbing, pathless apart from some deer tracks that never seem to go where you want to go, deep heather, steep bits, not so steep bits, crags that are easily avoided just keep climbing until I'm there! Of course I made it otherwise this report would have had a different heading!
- Loch Beoraid
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- Lochan near summit Meith Bhenn
Good news, I had phone signal, a quick call to Michele to tell her where I was, the bad news was that I was now 30 minutes behind my schedule so a revised finishing time. I also said that instead of continuing along the ridge I was going to descend roughly NE as there appeared to be an easy grassy route down which I felt was a safer option on my own. I had a cereal bar and a drink, however I had no appetite for anything more, I think it was a mixture of adrenalin and fear, for the first time since reaching the summit of MB I had a proper look at An Stac a very long way away and already I could see a lot of descent and I couldn't yet see all the way down.
Easy enough descent on my chosen route but all of a sudden my head was full of Status Quo, Down down, deeper and down the reality of 500m of descent to the pass at the head of the 2 glens really started to sink in along with the knowledge that wether or not I included the Sub2000 I had another big climb to get back to the col under MB to allow me to get back to Meoble. I've come this far I'm not giving up now!
- Ridge up An Stac
Despite all of the descent the ascent of An Stac didn't actually look too bad, a straight route up the ridge was the obvious choice mainly on grass (I didn't seek out any optional scrambling). It's no surprise that the actual summit is at the far end of the summit area hidden behind what I had hoped was the summit 50 metres or so beforehand. It was all good news at the summit, emails from Glasses Direct to offer me cheap specs and Ticketmaster wanting to know if I wanted tickets for Cyndi Lauper meant that I had 4G and phone signal so I could contact Michele, all of a sudden I felt less isolated even though I was in such a remote location. After a phone call I even managed to eat my lunch further buoyed by the fact that I was at the summit in 5 1/2 hours so I was on target with my timings. Needless to say the views from the summit were fantastic though many hills round about had their heads in the clouds despite a forecast to the contrary.
- Summit view An Stac
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- Summit view from An Stac
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- Oops, maybe it doesn't say 5km
I started my descent following the ridge that I had come up before dropping off to my left lower down to contour around the SE side of M B, this might have added on 1/2 km but it probably saved me 50m of ascent which my legs appreciated. As I climbed up towards the col my mind was made up, an extra kilometre and an extra 200m ascent would let me bag a hard to reach Sub2000 I had to do it. I climbed up on to the summit ridge of Druim a Chuirn at about 83795 88875 which gave me a lovely ridge walk with the summit in view the whole way. Yet again the "little hill" came up trumps, fantastic views and being able to look at both M B and A S knowing that I had climbed them and was now getting a very different view of them. I had a 10 minute break soaking in the views.
- Summit ridge of Druim A Chuirn
- Summit view from Druim a Chuirn
- Oops, maybe it doesn't say 5km
- View to An Stac from Druim a Chuirn
I could have stayed longer but the clock was ticking, I had 2 descents, a tough ascent and a long walk to do before I was done for the day.
The first descent was easy enough, typical pathless Sub 2000 with some tussocky stuff, some deep stuff and of course some boggy stuff. I reached the path that leads down to Meoble, no sign of anyone but plenty of signs of life. Time to march back along the track I was happy that I had looked at the sign at the start that said 5km to Meoble, more on that shortly.
It's a lovely walk back, easy walking on a wide track knowing that my bagging was done for the day though the track did seem to go on for an awful long time and I still had a bit of climbing to do. I got back to the bridge, ploughed through the bracken and headed upwards, I never saw that cairn again and in fact I was beside a burn that appeared to go all the way to Prince Charlie's Cave according to my GPS (it might be an easier route of descent?). The col of course seemed even longer and boggier, the path never ending however the bracken section appeared to be short lived, I passed under the bridge and glared at the sign, oops 5 miles, that explains a lot!! [attachment=0]IMG_1691.JPG[/attach]mentI
I looked at the time, it had taken me 11 hours and 5 minutes, I couldn't believe it, 12 was what I hoped for, 13 I thought might be more realistic and 14 was a possibility.
It's a huge day on the hills both psychologically and physically, when you're on your own having phone signal is a huge bonus, what did we do before mobiles!!
My apologies if some photos are out of sync!
The outcome of the day's walking, my compleation goals are still on course and that's another 2 bagged.
