Petestack Blog

Another great training run for the Highlander with Jon yesterday, although we nearly canned our plans (to go ‘almost regardless of conditions’) for a two-Munro, three-Corbett circuit of Loch an Daimh after a night of wild weather and the MWIS forecast from hell. But a good thing we didn’t because, despite a fair breeze and a few showers, we were never fighting the grim battle implied by the forecast and conditions were both surprisingly benign and pretty enjoyable for most of the day.

Now, this circuit (cooked up mainly to let me ‘clean up’ Section 2 of Munro’s Tables with bonus Corbetts) proved to be a true runners’ round on rolling hills with well-spaced contours, straightforward climbs, largely carefree descents (periodically enhanced by lingering snow patches!) on gentle gradients, almost no ‘dancing’ through rocks or scree and only really a few awkward peat hags on some of the bealachs to impede progress at all. Should be pretty obvious from the maps where we went (NB the first shows the route I’d planned in blue and the second our actual track in red), but probably worth highlighting a couple of points in 1. our little triangular tour of the Corbett Meall Buidhe’s summit (where we changed direction to head for the cairn I spied as we arrived, then discovered another two with each one looking higher from the others!) and 2. our run southwards down the open scoop from the final Corbett of Cam Chreag (not what I’d drawn but a prettier shape on the map, right?). 21.9 miles and 6,900 ft of ascent all in, definitely a recommended running route and I still managed to hit 5:08 mile pace on a final ‘sprint’ down the last short section of track! :-)

Might just add that this was the first outing for my new OMM Cypher smock, which finally got christened on Cam Chreag after spending most of the day in my sack and looks like a great lightweight shell top (post edited 1 June 2011 by quoting email below!). Quite snug (but not tight) in a ‘large’ size (specified for height 5’10” to 6’2″ and chest up to 43″ when I’m 5’11” and would normally buy 42″ for 40″ chest), with a nice ‘drop tail’ and truly excellent hood which somehow manages to provide good protection while overcoming my normal dislike of hoods as making me feel ‘blinkered’. So perhaps I’m still not wholly convinced by the cuff/thumb loop arrangement, but can see a trivial modification to improve that later if I’m not getting on with it exactly as supplied. Didn’t take the Kamleika pants (ordered simultaneously), however, which just aren’t cut for me at all and will be getting changed for some other waterproofs that fit.

Peter Duggan wrote (2011-05-22 19:40):
> Just discovered today that the front panel of my Cypher Smock has
> started delaminating badly after being worn just a handful of times, so
> afraid I’m looking for a refund (might have got a rogue sample, but
> couldn’t trust the eVent fabric in any like-for-like replacement) and
> think you might also want to pass this on to OMM.
>
> So how do I go about returning it to you and securing a refund?

(Note: tried plotting both tracks on a single map, but didn’t like the look of that!)