Macdui with a club
Route: Ben Macdui and Cairngorm
Munros: Ben Macdui
Date walked: 05/10/2010
Time taken: 8 hours
Distance: 17km
Ascent: 900m
Macdui ....with a club
A few walk reports have mentioned early signs of winter, indeed snow, so I thought I’d go back a few years for this walk.
I am not a member of a walking club. It’s not a prejudice against club membership, more a lack of social confidence allied to the Marxist tenet “I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members”.
Like many, I have a strong preference for solo walking…..or walking with Malcolm. Malcolm is comfortable to walk with. He walks and talks steadily. I can stop for a rest and admit it’s because I’m knackered rather than stopping to take my sack off to alter my layering.
It was Malcolm who invited me to join his former work colleagues on a certain national bank’s ‘club weekend’ in the Cairngorms…a club anniversary outing, though to my slight embarrassment I do not remember which anniversary. It was a spring weekend in 2007 and it was a kind invitation. I knew I would feel a little bit intimidated by the collective mountain abilities, the cumulative knowledge, the bagging totals, not to mention some of the beards
The club had booked out much of the Loch Morlich YH, by this time renamed the Cairngorm Hostel. Malcolm and I shared a bunkroom with two others, one of whom demonstrated particularly strange sleeping habits, emitting noises that evoked creatures long extinct. The night’s repose was interrupted every 40 minutes or so by a two minute stream of foul oaths and threats, which stopped as suddenly as it started. It would be unfair to identify him in any photograph …..I think the experience bonded the remaining three of us for the rest of this beautiful April day’s walking. Just like a current TV advert “you know who your friends are” as we headed from Coire Cas up the west ridge of Coire an Lochain, on to the 1083 top Crunchy snowfields and hazy spring sunshine views across to Braeriach, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul and thereafter on to Ben Macdui. Retracing steps to Lochan Buidhe we crossed the plateau, enjoying the snowfields above Corrie Dhomain, and a lengthy lunch stop with views across to Beinn Mheadhoin At this point the other bunkroom companion asked the midnight curser if he was aware that he had uttered loud profanities at regular intervals last night. He admitted with no hint of embarrassment that he understood it to be a regular nocturnal occurrence, and that these weekends offered his wife some respite. He said he hoped it had not been too much of an inconvenience. Malcolm quietly but firmly pulled me back and removed my walking pole from my tightening grasp. After lunch we strolled along the northern corrie edges overlooking the Fiacaill Ridge It was a busy day around the corrie edges and on Cairngorm itself so we escaped back into Coire Cas and onto Glenmore for a late afternoon pint. The evening was as club evenings must be thoroughly enjoyable for all….very welcoming people – I may well be tempted to join a club at some point…..maybe later….
A few walk reports have mentioned early signs of winter, indeed snow, so I thought I’d go back a few years for this walk.
I am not a member of a walking club. It’s not a prejudice against club membership, more a lack of social confidence allied to the Marxist tenet “I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members”.
Like many, I have a strong preference for solo walking…..or walking with Malcolm. Malcolm is comfortable to walk with. He walks and talks steadily. I can stop for a rest and admit it’s because I’m knackered rather than stopping to take my sack off to alter my layering.
It was Malcolm who invited me to join his former work colleagues on a certain national bank’s ‘club weekend’ in the Cairngorms…a club anniversary outing, though to my slight embarrassment I do not remember which anniversary. It was a spring weekend in 2007 and it was a kind invitation. I knew I would feel a little bit intimidated by the collective mountain abilities, the cumulative knowledge, the bagging totals, not to mention some of the beards
The club had booked out much of the Loch Morlich YH, by this time renamed the Cairngorm Hostel. Malcolm and I shared a bunkroom with two others, one of whom demonstrated particularly strange sleeping habits, emitting noises that evoked creatures long extinct. The night’s repose was interrupted every 40 minutes or so by a two minute stream of foul oaths and threats, which stopped as suddenly as it started. It would be unfair to identify him in any photograph …..I think the experience bonded the remaining three of us for the rest of this beautiful April day’s walking. Just like a current TV advert “you know who your friends are” as we headed from Coire Cas up the west ridge of Coire an Lochain, on to the 1083 top Crunchy snowfields and hazy spring sunshine views across to Braeriach, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Toul and thereafter on to Ben Macdui. Retracing steps to Lochan Buidhe we crossed the plateau, enjoying the snowfields above Corrie Dhomain, and a lengthy lunch stop with views across to Beinn Mheadhoin At this point the other bunkroom companion asked the midnight curser if he was aware that he had uttered loud profanities at regular intervals last night. He admitted with no hint of embarrassment that he understood it to be a regular nocturnal occurrence, and that these weekends offered his wife some respite. He said he hoped it had not been too much of an inconvenience. Malcolm quietly but firmly pulled me back and removed my walking pole from my tightening grasp. After lunch we strolled along the northern corrie edges overlooking the Fiacaill Ridge It was a busy day around the corrie edges and on Cairngorm itself so we escaped back into Coire Cas and onto Glenmore for a late afternoon pint. The evening was as club evenings must be thoroughly enjoyable for all….very welcoming people – I may well be tempted to join a club at some point…..maybe later….
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Comments: 10
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Scotjamie
- Location: north berwick
- Activity: Wanderer
- Pub: Crask Inn
- Mountain: Bidean Nam Bian
- Place: Assynt
- Gear: leki poles
- Member: MBA
- Ideal day out: Four or five nice tops, 30 miles, two days and overnight camp - maybe a wee inn on the second night.
- Ambition: not to fall off anything
- Munros: 148
- Long Distance routes: West Highland Way Dava Way Speyside Way Cape Wrath Trail Berwickshire Coastal Path Affric Kintail Way
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- Trips: 4
- Distance: 62 km
- Ascent: 4292m
- Munros: 9
- Trips: 1
- Distance: 9 km
- Ascent: 1100m
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- Joined: Jul 27, 2009
- Last visited: Feb 05, 2024
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