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Parked at Linn of Dee and set off with gizmogirl, the dogs and my new camera along the track to Derry Lodge. That was back in 2008 and I've never done a report because my photos were rubbish as I mistakenly had camera permanently switched on video and the result is a strange combination of dreary documentary and bad horror movie. But gizmogirl said I could use her photos and today two things prodded me to finally write it up.
First nudge was scheming a return trip to climb Devil's Point and the second was reading Beaner's report about climbing Carn a' Mhaim with his two springer spaniels and remembering the effect the hill had on one of my dogs.
Caledonian pines on the way to Derry Lodge
Derry Cairngorm
Lui Water
Carn a' Mhaim
Carn a' Mhaim (top out of sight) from Glen Luibeg
As we neared the Luibeg Burn we took the right fork as with all the snow melt we expected it to be in spate. We crossed the footbridge and continued on the path towards Corrour until picking up the path which climbs easily up the south ridge of Carn a' Mhaim. I don't remember anything much about this apart from reaching a summit before the true summit from where the views of the Lairig Ghru made it all worth it. But the atmosphere was tense and heavy, with dark cloud gathering, and folk more perceptive than us might have seen what was brewing.
Beinn Bhrotain, Monadh Mor and Devil's Point from Carn a' Mhaim
Cairn Toul and Braeriach
Ben MacDui
Lairig Ghru and whaleback of Carn a' Mhaim from Braeriach (on a different day later in the year)
Back to Jack and Tess posing at summit
There was an eerie stillness and we didn't immediately notice ominous dark cloud closing in
Dogs always sense things before we do. In this short video clip (from many I took by mistake that day
) there's a twitchiness about Tess (the black one) and that's because she could hear something Moira and I weren't yet aware of. You'll hear me calling them 'boys' when one of them is a girl - but she's used to that and that's not what's making her nervous! Even Jack the unflappable one is looking round like something's bothering him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPxa2_VnviwThen we heard the thunder too and it wasn't all that far off so we knew we had to get down out of there as the top of an exposed whaleback of a mountain is not a place to be in a thunder storm. We were sitting ducks!
We went as fast as we could, and when the heavens opened we didn't stop to pull on waterproof trousers and were soaked in minutes. Tess (a failed gun dog because she's terrified of loud bangs) was so freaked out by the thunder she walked almost under my feet. After about 20 minutes of deluge the rain stopped as suddenly as it started and by the time we got to Derry Lodge we had completely dried out. But there were still rumbles of distant thunder making Tess shake, poor thing.
I don't know if thunder was forecast that day and if we'd known I doubt we'd have gone - but we didn't check the weather as thoroughly back then as we do now. We knew we had to get to lower ground but we didn't know the correct safety procedure if caught in a thunder storm is to find a low spot and make yourself as small as possible in it. Not that I remember any low spots at the top of Carn a' Mhaim.
It makes me wonder if anyone else has been caught in a storm in a similar situation and what they did about it?
Credits to gizmogirl for all but one of the photos in this report.
