Petestack Blog

Into the lonely country between Loch Arkaig and Loch Quoich today for Munro Sgurr Mor and its Corbett partner Sgurr an Fhuarain, with waterproofs worn all day and the camera never leaving its drybag. So perhaps I misjudged the weather (‘cloudy’ forecast but sunny when I left home) and certainly regretted wearing specs instead of contacts, but just had to get on with it (quite enjoyed it really) when there’s no way I was returning empty-handed from driving the queasy Loch Arkaig single-track rollercoaster! Saw neither peaks (which never cleared despite the brightening afternoon) nor other walkers, though I did pass a bike stashed just above the road on my return. So overall a good (wet) day even if the van reeked of (dogless) ‘wet dog’ on the way home!

So they keep telling us on the radio what lovely weather it is, but who’d say that while not just caught somewhere between frying and boiling on the hills but fighting off wave after wave of cleg attack?

Arriving at Inchnadamph at c.1:45pm (?) on Wednesday, I sweated my way up Conival, Ben More Assynt and the latter’s south top before retracing my steps over Ben More and contouring Conival (probably no quicker than reascending, but divertingly different!) to run back the same way.

On Thursday I almost got a head start on the sun by starting up Ben Hope not long after 7:00am (?), but was still cooking soon enough. And, while the ‘narrow northern ridge’ recommended by Irvine Butterfield as ‘by far the best way up’ might initially have seemed underwhelmingly broad and unexciting, there was no mistaking the ’30ft section of steep rock [which] gives spectacular scrambling’ when it finally arrived. For sure it’s avoidable by a gully (just left of centre in the ‘hope2’ photo) for those phased by the prospect of (allegedly) V Diff above a huge drop, but you simply can’t have your cake and eat it by dodging the exposure on the actual step. So the path peters out rightwards above the void (bigger/steeper than anything you can see in the ‘hope4’ photo taken from just above the nose) and a fall from the starting moves would surely kill you, but working back up and slightly leftwards from that dizzy stance (where the ‘direct’ route referenced elsewhere might or might not take the hideous right wall?) quickly brings a series of smaller steps and ledges at maybe (don’t take my word for it!) Mod or Diff…

So that was Ben Hope and, having descended past an increasing stream of walkers missing its (to me, unexpected) grandeur by toiling up the normal ‘tourist’ route, the obvious analogy that springs to mind is Ben Nevis north face vs. pony track. But, with the sun up and Ben Klibreck still in my sights for the same day, I was quickly heading back up the road to collect my van and move on.

Not really got much to say about Ben Klibreck except to endorse Butterfield’s assessment as ‘a bland hill’, though one redeemed (as so often with otherwise duller hills) by much runnable terrain and, being as isolated as any northern peak, another splendid viewpoint. And I met just two others (one of whom took my trig-point photo) on this madly hot afternoon (NB long trousers and sleeves for insect/sun protection, though I did take off the hat to run down!).

And so to Am Faochagach yesterday morning, which was now (spot the theme to this trip/blog post?) my last unclimbed Munro/Top north of the Ullapool road… and thank goodness I’ll never have to do Am Faochagach again! Dull as ditchwater and a long way from the Glascarnoch Dam (which route still looked a better ‘run’ than the shorter, potentially more awkward alternative from the west end of the loch), though perhaps partially redeemed by splendid views of the ‘Deargs’, Seana Bhraigh, Ben Wyvis, Fannichs and An Teallach, it’s surely never going to be anyone’s favourite and I was surprised to pass one walker on his way up over Tom Ban Mor as I ran down to complete the 14+ mile traipse by c.10:15am. So who wants to climb Am Faochagach at all, let alone on a day like this? Apparently not just me… though at least I got it out of the way quickly (5:50am start) and almost cheated the sun this time!

Quite a tough weekend in Torridon, supporting Robin Deroeck on the closing run of the very tough Celtman! Extreme Scottish Triathlon on Saturday and making a complete traverse of Beinn Eighe yesterday…

With Saturday starting seriously windy even at sea level (causing problems enough for the swimming and cycling legs!) and deteriorating with the arrival of forecast rain to ‘survival’ conditions on the mountain, the race organisers took the sensible decision to close the ‘high level’ course over Beinn Eighe with just 11 of 125 (?) starters through and divert everyone else to the ‘low level’ alternative round the back of Liathach. But this was still ‘character-building’ enough with the heavy rain arriving just as we made the Torridon road after a pleasant run on easy track/trail from Achnashellach via the Coulin Pass and Lochs Coulin and Clair, and Robin did well to hang on through atrocious conditions on quite ‘un-Belgian’ technical trail for an excellent 21st place.

Now, what a difference a day makes… and what better way to follow up a tough trail marathon than the traverse of Beinn Eighe (sole member of the Torridon ‘big three’ I’d never done) in conditions as good as the previous day’s were bad? So, after attending Sunday morning’s prizegiving to see my runner and his support-crew family (father, mother and wife) with whom I’d spent most of Saturday driving round the 202 km cycle route, I left my van near the T2A race checkpoint and made an unrecommendable beeline for the summit of Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe (dodging much of the scree via heather tongues till it became purgatorially continuous towards the top) before heading out over the Black Carls to the deleted Munro Top of Creag Dhubh and back to traverse the ridge all the way to Sail Mhor, back to the reigning peak of Ruadh-stac Mor (also taking the bad step of Ceum Grannda in both directions when it might have been better to reverse the peak order here) and down by the stupendous Coire Mhic Fhearchair, where I could hear but not see climbers somewhere on the Triple Buttresses. And that was that, with tired legs and feet tempting me home for a break from ‘van’ living when my original plan had involved staying for a repeat traverse of Liathach to mop up the tricky and rarely-done Top of Meall Dearg. But not to worry when it’s been there for thousands of years and should still be there for me ‘next time’ with Torridon not really so very far up the road! ;-)

[Sorry no photos from Saturday’s rain!]

Having discovered a couple of weeks ago that there was an apparently unmapped local track I’d never run linking Black Corries Lodge to the Blackwater Reservoir, I’d been itching to give it a whirl and finally took myself round to Kings House to do so today. And it’s a strange track, not bad to run on despite being quite soft and earthy compared to the Black Corries ‘motorway’, having no obvious purpose (though surely there must be one!) and terminating in the middle of nowhere at the Reservoir’s edge. From where I decided to bash on ‘over’ the rough and boggy ground to the Dam (my second visit of the weekend after doing an anticlockwise circuit of the main track and Ciaran Path yesterday) and more of the same through the pass to Altnafeadh to complete a logical, if sometimes barely ‘runnable’, loop (with thanks to Colin Knox for the inadvertent inspiration!).

Today’s run was supposed to be a straightforward circuit of Loch Oich, following the Great Glen Cycle Route (new ground to me despite driving both A82 and A87 countless times) up the north-west side of Loch Oich before returning by the Great Glen Way on its south-east side (which I’ve run once before as an out-and-back from Bridge of Oich). Which might have been fine if I’d known where the (now defunct?) Cycle Route goes, but wasn’t quite so good as a spontaneous (= mapless!), follow-your-nose expedition on the way home from another trip to Lochalsh Pipes. So trusting your nose can be stupid when, after correctly following the waymarkers on a disconcerting 2km west/east diversion to Easter Mandally, it tells you to ignore the sign pointing to the main road north over the river, strike east towards the loch instead and look for a way through the grounds of Glengarry Castle Hotel. Which led via a fairly unmagical mystery tour to an unwanted couple of miles up the main road when I was probably close to getting back on the right track before stubbornly following a vestigial path through the undergrowth to avoid said road after crossing the river by the old (?) bridge. So it might yet be a good route when done as planned (need to try again some day) but wasn’t when done as done! :-O

Not much to say about yesterday’s Ben Nevis Race except that my time on a cold, wet and windy day was 3 mins 19 secs slower than my best and 3 mins 36 quicker than my worst. Think (running without a watch) I was probably on course for a PB at the top but just couldn’t find the pace to see it home over the easier ground and hated road below, so now wondering whether it’s time to call it a day when (with all my times within such a narrow band) I’m realistically never going to break two hours:

2012 2:11:41
2011 2:15:17
2010 -------
2009 -------
2008 2:08:35
2007 2:12:26
2006 2:08:22
2005 2:10:43
2004 2:13:55

With thanks to Noel Williams for the photos, invite to the LMRT barbecue and bed for the night! :-)

While the 2012 Coll Half-Marathon always promised to be special in ‘moving’ from the old village hall to the new centre at An Cridhe, it was doubly so for us with the whole ‘Glover’ family (Duffs, Duggans and McBrydes) having contributed to the fundraising and an inscription in memory of my grandparents within this wonderful building. So it was with extra excitement that Eileen, Donald and I travelled to Coll last weekend, and here’s what we wanted to see most:

Now, I do have to admit to everyone that a requested last-minute change (for which we never saw a proof) to the date format hasn’t been implemented exactly as expected. But, since the inscription’s still complete in both sense and spirit, looks great up there and most folk will never spot the difference between 1953–67 (with en dash) and 1953 – 67 (with hyphen), that’s enough (maybe already too much?) said about that. And what a fantastic building this is, with stunning use of space, orientation and light, and how good it feels to have helped (in however small a way) to make it all possible!

So (with more interior pictures to come below) how did the race go? Well, to cut a long story short, that’s three times now I’ve run Coll, three times (the only three in my half-marathon career) I’ve been over 1:40, and a new 2012 PW of 1:42:43 when (intentionally running without a watch) I was hoping/expecting to be told I’d done about 1:37 or 1:38. Or, to put it another way, I was 29 seconds slower than last year when Donald improved by 26 seconds to record 1:45:58 and should therefore be beating me a couple of years hence! So maybe time to put a more positive spin on things (for me anyway because Donald’s rightfully quite pleased) by noting that we came 25th and 35th respectively from 156, with only four runners sub-1:30…

No time/space here to talk about the ceilidh except to note that Eileen’s injured foot (so did Keith stand on it or not during the Canadian Barn Dance?) prevented her from accompanying Donald and me to Torastan to see Grandpa’s grave on Sunday, so hope she’s OK again now!

And, with the Coll Half-Marathon already a week ago and me also wanting to get in a quick word about this weekend’s Polldubh Club Ballater Meet, I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got to say about Coll right now although I hope the photos of the lovely An Cridhe largely speak for themselves.

Now, the Ballater weather was no match for Coll, but Geoff, Bob M, Mark and myself all enjoyed contrasting hill days yesterday with me taking on the meatiest challenge in running the three Munros, seven Tops and one deleted Top of the White Mounth to ‘mop up’ this mini-range of which I’d only done the Lochnagar summit (Cac Carn Beag) before and that way back in January 1983 (so, yes, it’s time I got back and climbed some routes there!). And here I rather messed up by letting myself get dysfunctionally cold in wind, rain and poor visibility before digging out my jacket, gloves and compass after a second, unintentional visit to Cuidhe Crom on the way back from Meikle Pap (never told the kind people who tried teaching me how to use the map and compass that I’m a Winter ML!) and making a much better job of the rest as I warmed up again. And you can see how much better my track looks after that (pretty clean over the rest of the White Mounth considering the cloud cover and gently rolling terrain) although I did miss the quickest way back to the Glen Muick car park (dashed blue ‘track’) with the map now packed away and the potential extra distance not enough to persuade me to stop and get it out again with my goal in sight.

So the 2012 Devil has come and gone with a personal performance more in line with realistic expectation (7½ to 8 hours given current shape and weight) than aspiration (sub-7 surely being possible on the right day). But how it hurt to find myself struggling desperately over my home patch (the hills either side of Kinlochleven, which I’ve run literally hundreds of times)…

Things started well enough, running as planned without a watch and purely by ‘feel’, with sub-7 still apparently very much on after an opportunistic time check (at 3 hours 20 mins in, my first of the race) from Marco on the way up the Devil’s Staircase. But then the wheels just fell off completely between the twin summit cairns and the top of the Lairig Mor at Tigh-na-sleubhaich as I started to feel quite sick (struggling to drink let alone eat!) with legs tying up badly, giving serious thought to pulling out at Kinlochleven, taking several uncharacteristic sit-down rests and losing (I’d guess) a good 10 places and 30 to 40 minutes over that spell. So thank goodness for that Irn Bru from the Wilderness Response Team at the top of the pass and flat Coke and jelly babies from Claire Rumgay at Lundavra in helping to drag me back to some kind of life, retrieving (I think) three of my lost places, finding the kick down Glen Nevis that’s never failed me yet no matter what my state on passing Dun Dearduil and finally recording 7:41:54 for 18th place.

So why was my race so effectively wrecked by such hell on home ground? For sure, it was hot and I struggle with the heat, but it was hot for everyone. Perhaps I could have been fitter and certainly could have been lighter after struggling to meet my target weight and going into the race a good two or three kilos heavier than I’d wanted (on which note, if only I could have started at the weight I find myself this morning!). Perhaps I set off too quickly when gradually winding up the tempo off a steady start is more my thing, but you’re not going to run a fast Devil by dawdling to Bridge of Orchy and over Rannoch Moor. And perhaps, as much as anything, I was handicapped by dehydration and gross underfuelling, with two gels (three if you count one at the start) and single-figure quantities of jelly beans and babies being literally all I ate between Tyndrum and the Fort. But that’s ultra racing for you (does it ever go entirely to plan?) and my own slight disappointment at ‘underperforming’ is certainly tempered by happiness for the achievements of my many friends on the course including Thomas and Debs (such popular winners of the men’s and women’s races) and a healthy Lochaber AC contingent all (or mostly?) running their first ultra.

Huge thanks also to Eileen for support before, during and (perhaps when needed most of all) after the race! :-)

While I’d quite fancied a trip to the western Cairngorms for the Glen Feshie Munros yesterday, I was late to bed, late to rise and the forecast wasn’t that encouraging, so headed out after lunch to mop up a couple of annoying ‘singletons’ instead. The first being Meall Chuaich above Dalwhinnie, which Irvine Butterfield described as:

A boring hill with an equally drab outlook. Its main merit is that it can be climbed quickly.

To which I can only add that his assessment’s probably about right although, with ‘boring’ (as so often) translating to ‘good for running’ and ‘quickly’ in this case proving to be 10:58 miling from van to van, there simply wasn’t time to get bored!

Now, there are Geal Charns (White Hills) everywhere, they’re typically pretty undistinguished too and the one at the west end of the Monadh Liath is typical, though I might qualify that by noting that it’s both harder work (rougher terrain) than Meall Chuaich and not at all obviously white. Choosing to attack it via Bruach nam Riodag rather than the direct ascent of Beinn Sgiath (which looked all ‘wrong’) suggested by Butterfield, my hopes of getting round at sub-15:00 mile pace were finally dashed by a tortuous clifflet-dodging descent not far south of his line taking me a good couple of minutes-per-mile over that when a little further south again would retrospectively have been far better, but I was still able to hit the remaining track down Glen Markie at a good clip to recover to 15:48 pace for the round.

All in all a good day out with clearer, drier (if also warmer) conditions than expected, and you can see in the final map why I’m glad to get those two done with the triangles, circles and squares being Munros, Tops and Deletions respectively (still stacks of uncoloured stars for Corbetts here, though). Should be my last ‘big’ day before the Devil, but think I’m in reasonable shape for that now if I can just stay sensible over the final week!