Petestack Blog

(3 + 366 + 3) ÷ 2 = 186 = Friday 1 July, and still my extended ‘January’ plods on! I’ve been faster, fitter, lighter and done more miles at other times, but running every day is a different challenge…

Some people might get it and some might not (the clue’s in the title above) but, copied straight from tonight’s Facebook post:

(3 + 366 + 3) / 3 = 124 = Saturday 30 April… so, yeah, this has maybe got beyond just ‘finishing January’ (2016) now?

Strangely I need one more day (Sunday 1 May tomorrow) to complete one third of the calendar leap year despite already being over that third of the way counting the last three days of December 2016. But might consider a complete non-running (sometimes called ‘rest’) day on or soon after 4 January 2017 if I get that far! ;-)

Today’s ascent of Beinn a’ Chrulaiste was my third of this splendidly-situated Corbett opposite the Buachaille Etive Mor, but I’d never done its eastern Graham Tops before and it all seemed like a good idea when I set out on a rainy afternoon with real wind forecast for tomorrow…

Now it was already wet enough by the time I got to Kingshouse to think starting in waterproofs a good idea, but my hastily-grabbed jacket and overtrousers turned out to be two jackets and nae troosers so I just donned the better jacket and took off in my shorts! Hadn’t checked Scrambles in Lochaber for the Pink Rib (obvious way to start a clockwise circuit from the Kingshouse) since I’d just assumed I could find it having both been up and down it once before and seen it hundreds of times, but still nearly ran right past it in the clag! (Note that the obvious, sure-fire way to locate it if you can’t see it is to leave the West Highland Way/Old Military Road near its high point where the Coupall takes an obvious turn south away from the A82 and head straight uphill from there.) A good choice, however, for a less-than-stellar day as probably the easiest graded scramble I can think of (straightforward enough to have descended without hands in July 2007!), and I probably got the best of the afternoon on it as the rain briefly abated to give tantalising glimpses of the big Buachaille across the glen.

So I got to the top of Beinn a’ Chrulaiste without further ado, but it was (metaphorically) all downhill after that as I bashed round those spread-out Graham Tops (rough ground with boggy bealachs and hags, but never particularly awkward) in increasingly wet, windy and chilly conditions to arrive back at the van, and finally home, with all nine fingers tingling, turning white and providing about as much tactile sensation as lumps of wood. But that’s unfortunately pretty normal for me mixing even slight cold (and I was wearing gloves!) with Raynaud’s or Raynaud’s-like symptoms, and they do eventually thaw out again!

So you’re back on your most-trodden ground of the Mamores for a Corbett Top (Meall a’ Chaorainn) you’ve surely done but can’t quite remember doing? This is what it’s like to be me!

Clockwise today, and my two-month streak of meeting no-one on the hills finally came to an end on Stob Ban.

Two weekend days, two local, only-just Grahams and still no-one else on the hill, bringing my current run of completely solitary outings to eight. But perhaps not too surprising when I’ve lived here for twenty-six years, been visiting the hills for considerably longer and never done either of these before!

While you can do this pair as a loop incorporating the intervening Marilyn of Doire Ban, I chose to run two separate, short out-and-backs. And they both (like so many otherwise undistinguished lower hills) offer interesting new perspectives on their higher neighbours, with the view of Beinn a’ Bheithir from Tom Meadhoin in particular being as fine as you’ll get from anywhere and Mam na Gualainn also looking almost as steeply interesting from there as its sibling Beinn na Caillich from Kinlochleven. Also worth pointing out that the better path for the first few hundred metres from the Loch Leven roadside for that trip is the one starting directly from the parking place rather than the signposted right of way just to the west.

Nearly four years ago I somewhat presumptuously described the Glen Etive Corbett Stob Dubh as ‘the only local summit of stature (Munros, Tops, Corbetts etc.) I’d never visited.’ But that was ignoring the Corbett Tops, Grahams and Graham Tops, and even now I’ve still got a few of these sitting unclimbed under my nose. Not that you could miss Sgorr a’ Choise as a regular visitor to Ballachulish Primary School (where it dominates the view from the classroom windows) or descending north-eastwards from Fraochaidh (from which aspect I’d mentally filed it as a pretty little peak years ago), let alone be unaware of the broader dome of Meall Mor as a regular runner from NTS Glen Coe to the mast on Am Meall. But yet I’d still have been prioritising beefy Ardgour Corbett rounds over truly local Grahams had yesterday been a more attractive day… except that it wasn’t, and I only managed to kick myself out at about 3pm thinking I’d better get back to running (rather than walking) the hills with proper rain forecast for 6pm… except that it was raining when I started (so no photos) and dry thereafter…

So what did I make of this little round and what exactly is a ‘summit of stature’? To answer the first question, what joy to be running on the hills again (despite my initial logic there being pushed for time to walk), and pretty runnable hills at that, though I really must stop running hills in Hokas (my constant, comfy, ‘go to’ running companions since May’s ankle injury) because constant slowing up and/or side-stepping to limit shoe-skiing descending steep, wet grass is, well, cramping my style (sure, you could choose worse than clapped-out Hokas for said terrain, but not much!). As for ‘summits of stature’, perhaps beauty’s in the eye of the beholder or perhaps we’re all blind when it seems de rigueur to chase the biggest first with Munros, Corbetts then Grahams being the apparent pecking order even for non-baggers. But does size matter when there’s so much more (and arguably better) to do in Asia than ‘eight-thousanders’, the Alps than ‘four-thousanders’ or Scotland than Munros? How can you compare the Sgurr of Eigg, Heaval on Barra or Hecla on South Uist (all of which I’ve done and enjoyed) to Ben Nevis? Or Streap? Or Sgorr a’ Choise? Do you even have to when you like hills and they’re all hills? What I can say about yesterday’s round is that it’s a delightful run over hills of the right size and shape (not too big/wee/tame/exciting) for the right day, and one I’ve no doubt I’ll be repeating on another ‘right’ day. And, while Sgurr a’ Choise is clearly the more shapely peak, the craggy ‘wall’ (also visible, as I realised today, through the Ballachulish classroom windows) supporting Meall Mor’s broader ridge surely saves it from ‘pudding’ status, with the view from this latter summit (’twas an anticlockwise round) up Glen Coe well worth the effort regardless! :-)