Some rain this week to dampen our recent spell of fine late autumn weather (aka ‘summer’) but, with today looking OK and my new La Sportiva Trangos (the blue ones, just bought for Mount Kenya) needing a test beyond some evenings as expensive carpet slippers, I took them for a wander up North Buttress on the Buachaille Etive Mor. And how good they are… being light, comfortable and precise, walking, scrambling and climbing well, and just generally inspiring confidence in everything they do. Also thanks to Dean Carpenter at Ellis Brigham, Fort William, for the time spent on Wednesday playing with fit and trying tweaks for my mutant right foot, none of which I needed today (was carrying that tweaked insole just in case!) but am glad to have in reserve for the longer periods of wear where they might yet prove significant. :-)
19 November 2011
13 November 2011
Stob Dubh birthday
48 today (surely some mistake!), an overdue spell of lovely autumn weather and Stob Dubh (‘the other one’) was calling as the only local summit of stature (Munros, Tops, Corbetts etc.) I’d never visited. So off I drove down Glen Etive (a favourite bit of single track because of its generally good lines of sight), just about found a parking space with the not-very-November hordes presumably all up Ben Starav (met just one pair of walkers on Stob Dubh) and was rewarded by the uncompromising b*st*rd of a West Coast hill run I’d pick for a birthday treat. And that’s really all I’ve got to say, except that a GPS track not quite touching point 757 (the kind of pointless ‘summit’ I just have to take in, but didn’t quite) and descending prematurely from a virtual twin of Beinn Ceitlein (fortunately not a ‘counting’ top) is undeniable evidence of 1. the consequences of ignoring/misreading your map in good visibility and 2. the changing middle-aged vision that means I’m starting to struggle with small print and spot heights with my contacts in! ;-)
[Edit: 16 August 2015… just realised while starting to plot Corbett Tops that I actually hit the top of Beinn Ceitlinn and it’s the spot height labelled on the map that’s the virtual twin!]
