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Greetings fellow walkers!
This is a walk I did based loosely on the quoman's 'Dawn Till Dusk' post from 2012.
Felt there's wasn't quite long enough at 27.25km (
) so I added a few extra km. It was based on conditions and inability to see any tracks, so had to take a few longer, more cautious routes (like ascending Man nan Carn twice, which was fun
)
This is what transpired...
- 0730: Left free car park. Checked with hotel reception re stalking. Sunrise.
- Amazing pinkness creeping onto hills to the north.
- Was trying to sing all the different vocal sections of 'Let the Sunshine' from Hair, by way of praise to the weather gods at this point… Really difficult, hurts your throat.
- Bridge of death. Approaching this felt like the first 5 mins of an episode of Casualty, or Michael Buerk's '999'. So played it safe, a hands and knees job.
- Glenlochsie Lodge. A bit droopier in the roof from when quoman snapped it in 2012. Keep your distance.
- Long ridge to Glas Tulaichean. Ball-breaking walk. Ankle-deep wading most of the way with a not very strong but bitter wind in the face. Despite that, stripped down to base layer due to the exertion of it.
- Glas Tulaichean shrouded, but what a blueness! :)
- 1015: Glas Tulaichean trig point. Massively misjudged timings due to snow treacle, arriving late. Considering binning Beinn Iutharn Mhor at this point, not enough daylight.
- Thought this was a Brocken Spectre at first. Now I gather it was merely a fogbow. Still tres cool though, my first.
- Was a bit annoyed at first that this thing was following me as I wanted to walk on a bit and get a pic of it from a different angle. Tried three times before I realised that it must work like a rainbow. Don't laugh!
- Cornice(ish) in Glas Choire Mhor. Didn't dare get any closer to the edge for this. See the quoman's post for something more dramatic.
- Mam nan Carn shrouded. Crampons on for this descent.
- View back to Glas Tulaichean.
- Gleann Mor. Should've been called Gleann Mordor. Just pure hell, energy sapping hell, 2km of it. Knee deep in places and no hint of a track, roughing it all the way. No wind/cloud cover and starting to cook in the reflected rays.
- Shoulder of Carn an Righ. Beautiful. So peaceful. No wind.
- 1310: Carn an Righ summit :( Done for the day - not enough daylight, not enough energy.
- 1335: Descent. Footsteps on Carn an Righ. Reckon they're mine.
About now I start half-floating the idea of reinstating Beinn Iutharn Mhor. It would make for a very long winter's day. Would I be able to get down to a low enough level, on a recognisable track for dusk?
- 1423: Mam nan Carn summit. Will be seeing this again in about an hour. I chose to fully ascend it from Carn an Righ rather than contour around. The SW route up from the bealach looked safe and bouldery. I would then descend on the gentler slope from Man nan Carn summit to the NW bealach, up Beinn Iutharn Mhor, retrace my route to Man nan Carn, then descend the gentle ENE slope to that bealach to take me down to Loch nan Eun.
- View NW from approach to Beinn Iutharn Mhor. Just loving the novelty of a non-totally-white scene at this point.
- Carn an Righ to SW unshrouded but still sulking/skulking in shadow.
- 1456: Beinn Iutharn Mhor summit. Had a bit of a delirious sing and dance to celebrate the view after the disappointment of Carn an Righ.
- Loch nan Eun. Bigger than I expected. Thinking that's gonna take a while to go round. Light fading fast. Confirmed now that this will be my first headtorch-lit return.
- Gleann Taitneach. Thinking that as long as I can get into that valley for dusk, the job's a good one. If only nature would stop being so damn beautiful then maybe I could quit taking pictures and get on!
- 1615: Loch nan Eun from waterfall. Crossing the outlet from the loch was mildly terrifying. Could see a quite opaque rushing of water through the ice and had no idea how deep this was having never been here in summer. Could this carry me away if I went through? After much psyching, went across higher up, on the level with the loch. Feet went deeper than I would have liked but gaiters did the job.
After this point it was time to quickly get down the tricky, partially obscured track beside the Allt Ghlinn Thaitneich while enough light remained, so no more photos.
Once on the land rover track it was head down, dig deep, plod on - and don't look at the map to remind yourself of how far it is to go. I think Napoleon (Bonaparte?, or maybe it was Dynamite
) who said: man goes farthest when he knows not how far he has to go.
Stuck to the east of the river, followed the track to Spittal of Glenshee to cross bridge then doubled back for 5mins to the free car park. At the car for 1845. Pooped but happy
.