Mountains • Walking • Camping • Adventure www.tgomagazine.co.uk
£4.50 | OCTOBER 2017
S C O T L A N D’S M U N R O S The best for wild camps, views, bothies, beginners & more
PLUS: CONFESSIONS OF A BAGGER
THREE PEAKS
Backpacking between Ben Nevis, Snowdon & Scafell Pike PA G E S 4 4 - 4 9
SCRAMBLING
10 easy ways to improve your confidence PA G E S 6 4 - 6 9
PENNINES
Storm chasing on Cross Fell PA G E S 5 0 - 5 2
CHALLENGE IN PICTURES Coast to coast across Scotland PA G E S 7 1 - 7 7
“A helluva ways from nowhere” Backcountry adventures in Texas
BOOTS 18 PAIRS OF MEN’S AND WOMEN’S G U I D E
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WELCOME
Photo Dougie Cunningham
One of Scotland’s most photographed sights, Buachaille Etive Mor
The most beautiful country in the world AS THIS ISSUE of The Great Outdoors goes to print, it has just been announced that Scotland has been voted “the most beautiful country in the world” by readers of Rough Guides – beating New Zealand, Canada, Italy and South Africa to the top spot. Scotland does seem to be having a bit of a moment, with starring appearances in popular TV shows and clever PR campaigns attracting increasing numbers of visitors to its glorious landscapes. “We are delighted that Scotland has received this remarkable accolade,” said Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland. “But of course it will not be a surprise to anyone who has encountered our wonderful country.” As someone who lives in Scotland, my first impression on hearing the news was a combination of pride and mild anxiety. I hope you understand what I mean – it’s that classic hillwalker’s dilemma: you would love to share your favourite beauty spots with
others, but ideally not too many of them at once! “Of course, with great beauty comes great responsibility,” said Malcolm Roughead. “We urge both visitors and residents alike to respect Scotland’s natural assets to protect and preserve them for many generations to come.” Indeed. If you’re looking to experience the best that Scotland has to offer, we’ve got two excellent ideas for you this month. You might have guessed the first one from a quick glance at the front cover of the magazine: taking up the Munro-bagging habit is the perfect excuse to get out into Scotland’s biggest, wildest and remotest mountains, and our feature on page 26 highlights some of the best. Secondly, and this is one for the backpackers – take up the Challenge! The Great Outdoors Challenge is utterly unique, utterly wonderful and the perfect way of immersing yourself in the Scottish hills. Entries are now open for the 2018 event. Turn to page 71 to find out more. Emily Rodway, Editor @EmilyOutdoors
Get in touch:
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@TGOMagazine
/TGOMagazine
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CONTENTS October 2017
26
Escape Inspiration to get away 8 Glen Feshie
Munros
Almanac
A celebration of the art of Munro-bagging, plus recommendations of the best
In the outdoors this month 12 In the frame 13 Stories Evan Roberts 14 Walkers’ Guide 16 In Numbers & News 17 Q&A Interview 18 Events Calendar 20 Book Reviews 21 Roger Smith 22 Letters 114 Readers’ pictures
I realised I could probably finish my Munros the year I’d turn 40. It seemed a good target.
24
Mountain Portrait Jim Perrin pays tribute to Sgurr nan Gillean, the finest peak on Skye’s incredible Cuillin Ridge
40
Robert Wight, p31
Carneddau
A superb day’s walking and scrambling in Snowdonia
On the cover On Bla Bheinn, Skye by Dougie Cunningham
34
Trails in the Dales
Four days connecting classic long-distance routes in Yorkshire
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You get what you pay for in boots, and lightweights are no exception Judy Armstrong, page 86
64 H i l l S k i l l s Get into scrambling 10-step guide to take you from aspiring scrambler up through the grades
Gear The latest news, reviews and product comparisons 78 New gear 80 Men’s boots 86 Women’s boots 90 The Classics
44
Wild Peaks Walk Backpacking the Three Peaks of England, Scotland and Wales
SUBSCRIBE TO TGO Turn to page 62 for details
Wild Walks
And also... 50 Helm Wind Storm chasing on Cross Fell 54 West Texas Ian R. Mitchell heads into cowboy country for winter sunshine hiking
Walking routes across England, Scotland and Wales 93 Carn an Tionail & Beinn Direach, North-west Highlands 95 Glen Fincastle, Eastern Highlands 97 Lowther Hill & Steygail, Southern Uplands 99 Fairfield and the Priest’s Hole, Lake District 101 The Allendale Flues, Northumberland 103 Gordale Scar & Attermire Scar, Yorkshire Dales 104 Moel Hebog, Moel yr Ogof & Meol Lefn, Snowdonia 107 Long Mynd, Shropshire 109 Cwm Oergwm circuit, Brecon Beacons 111 Bolt Tail & Bolt Head, Devon
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C O N T R I B U T O R S & C O N TA C T S Chris Townsend
Vivienne Crow
Gear Editor Chris Townsend has spent the summer dodging the rain and midges in the Cairngorms, not always successfully! On one trip, waterproofs and insect repellent were both needed every hour. There has been good weather too, though, and Chris had a memorable camp in perfect sunny weather on the flanks of Braeriach with a night ascent of the peak. There were also midge-free coastal walks at beautiful Findhorn watching the waves, the seals and the birds. Now Chris is looking forward to autumn and crisp frosty nights.
Working on a new walking guide to Northumberland has given regular contributor Vivienne Crow a good excuse to get to know the Cheviot Hills a lot better. She made several trips to the area this summer, enjoying the chance to wander for days in unfamiliar hills. Among the many highlights was a long, quiet day on the Border Ridge in the company of families of feral goats, including some inquisitive kids. She tackled The Cheviot during the dry season before the summer monsoon returned it to its normal quagmire state.
www.tgomagazine.co.uk THE GREAT OUTDOORS is published by Kelsey Media, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berrys Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG EDITORIAL Editor: Emily Rodway emily.rodway@kelseymedia.co.uk Equipment Editor: Chris Townsend christownsendoutdoors@gmail.com Online Editor: Alex Roddie Sub Editors: Roger Smith & Amber Evans Art Editor: Helen Blunt ADVERTISEMENT SALES Advertising & Creative Sales Manager: Amy Reeves-Clews Email: amy.reeves@talkmediasales.co.uk Tel: 01732 445 055 Classified Sales: Matt Ryan Email: matt.ryan@talkmediasales.co.uk Tel: 01732 446 755 PRODUCTION Production Supervisor: Dionne Fisher 01733 363485 Email: kelseylifestyle@atgraphicsuk.com Production Manager: Team Leader Melanie Cooper 01733 362701 Publishing Operations Manager: Charlotte Whittaker MANAGEMENT Managing Director: Phil Weeden Chief Executive: Steve Wright Chairman: Steve Annetts Finance Director: Joyce Parker-Sarioglu Publishing and Commercial Director: David Townsend Retail Distribution Manager: Eleanor Brown Audience Development Manager: Andy Cotton Brand Marketing Manager: Kate Chamberlain Events Manager: Kat Chappell
David Lintern
Ian R. Mitchell
A new baby on the scene has kept David Lintern closer to home over the last few months, but home has also moved... to the Cairngorms. It’s now possible to cycle to Glen Feshie (see page 8 for a recent photograph) and do a proper fell run from the front door, so recent adventures may have been short, but they have definitely been sweet! David’s latest trips have been as much about the forests as the mountains, but highlights include his final two 4,000-foot Munros and exploring the quieter parts of Inshriach and Glen Tromie.
After taking his usual sunshine cure in West Texas in deep midwinter (see page 54) Ian has doggedly carried on the fight to complete his third round of Munros in the face of one of the wettest summers he can remember. Declaring a truce, he departed for Sicily in a ‘Desperately Seeking Sunshine’ move in September. Ian has also been busy helping edit the memoirs of Ashie Brebner, Scottish ski pioneer and the last man remaining who built the fabled Slugain Howff on Beinn a’ Bhuird in the Cairgorms. Beyond the Secret Howff will be out later this year.
SUBSCRIPTIONS 13 issues of The Great Outdoors are published per annum UK annual subscription price: £58.50 Europe annual subscription price: £ 71.49 USA annual subscription price: £71.49 Rest of World annual subscription price: £78.99 Contact us UK subscription and back issue orderline: 01959 543 747 Overseas subscription orderline: 0044 (0) 1959 543 747 Toll free USA subscription orderline: 1-888-777-0275 UK customer service team: 01959 543 747 Customer service email address: subs@kelsey.co.uk Customer service and subscription postal address: The Great Outdoors Customer Service Team, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG United Kingdom Website The Great Outdoors online tgomagazine.co.uk Find current subscription offers at shop.kelsey.co.uk/tgo Buy back issues at shop.kelsey.co.uk/tgoback View our specialist books at shop.kelsey.co.uk/tgobook Already a subscriber? Manage your subscription online at shop.kelsey.co.uk/myaccount DISTRIBUTION Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PT Tel: 020 7429 4000; www.seymour.co.uk PRINTING William Gibbons & Sons Ltd Kelsey Media 2017 © all rights reserved. Kelsey Media is a trading name of Kelsey Publishing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with permission in writing from the publishers. Note to contributors: articles submitted for consideration by the editor must be the original work of the author and not previously published. Where photographs are included, which are not the property of the contributor, permission to reproduce them must have been obtained from the owner of the copyright. The editor cannot guarantee a personal response to all letters and emails received. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor or the Publisher. Kelsey Publishing Ltd accepts no liability for products and services offered by third parties.
Complaints – Who to contact The Great Outdoors adheres to the Editors’ Code of Practice (which you can find at www.pcc. org.uk/cop/practice.html). We are regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation. Complaints about stories should be referred firstly to the Editor by email at: complaints@tgomagazine.co.uk or by post at The Great Outdoors Magazine, Kelsey Publishing, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent, TN16 3AG. It is essential that your email or letter is headed “Complaint” in the subject line and contains the following information: • Your name, email address, postal address and daytime telephone number. • The magazine title or website, preferably a copy of the story or at least the date, page number or website address of the article and any headline. • A full explanation of your complaint by reference to the Editors’ Code. If you do not provide any of the information above this may delay or prevent us dealing with your complaint. Your personal details will only be used for administration purposes. If we cannot reach a resolution between us then you can contact IPSO by email at complaints@ ipso.co.uk or by post at IPSO, c/o Halton House, 20-23 Holborn, London EC1N 2JD. If complaining about third party comments on our website articles, you should use the “report this post” function online next to the comment.
Kelsey Publishing Ltd uses a multi-layered privacy notice, giving you brief details about how we would like to use your personal information. For full details, visit www.kelsey.co.uk , or call 01959 543524. If you have any questions, please ask as submitting your details indicates your consent, until you choose otherwise, that we and our partners may contact you about products and services that will be of relevance to you via direct mail, phone, email or SMS. You can opt out at ANY time via email: data.controller@kelsey.co.uk or 01959 543524. The Great Outdoors is available for licensing worldwide. For more information, contact bruce@bruceawfordlicensing.com
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NATURAL STRIDE SYSTEM
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Escape
Weather breaks over Glen Feshie “This was taken from a fairly well known spot in the lower glen, looking north-east over the river Feshie, with the western edge of the Cairngorm plateau on the right. By the time we reached higher ground, the clouds of midges had given way to steady drizzle. I’d timed this part of the walk to coincide with the weather breaking, and thought I’d got it wrong, but the shower did pass as forecast, and I knew we were in for a (brief) treat. These conditions lasted far less than a minute. You can see the water vapour burning off the trees and the river in the photo. And with that, the moment was gone, and the midges returned in force!” Photo by David Lintern www.davidlintern.com/tuition
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ALMANAC
OCTOBER
in the hills
13
STORIES OF THE HILLS
IN THE FRAME
Cairngorm Glen Matthew King Watercolour
14
WALKERS GUIDE
16
17
IN NUMBERS Q&A & ARCHIVE PROFILE
18
EVENTS CALENDAR
20
BOOK REVIEWS
21
COMMENT COLUMN
22
READER LETTERS
IN MAY THIS YEAR, artist and backpacker Matthew King participated in The Great Outdoors Challenge, the annual Scottish coast-to-coast walking event sponsored by this magazine (see page 71) . ‘Cairngorm Glen’, the abstract watercolour reproduced here, is inspired by Matthew’s experience on the Challenge, specifically his walk out from the Lairig Ghru via Glen Dee and Glen Lui. “I wanted to create an image that evoked both the tranquility and the wildness of a remote glen, without being too specific about the precise location,” says Matthew. “Intense liquid watercolour paint was allowed to run over the wet paper, the colours blending and being gently guided by tilting the surface and spraying with yet more water. A little ink was added to suggest the shapes of the surrounding hillsides. “Like the method used, I guess this picture reflects the nature of the Challenge – you can put all the right ingredients in place, but ultimately what happens is not fully within your control.” Matthew has been painting since 2009, when a love of spending time in the mountains and wild places inspired him to find a meaningful way of capturing his experiences. Read his blog at backpackartist.com and check out the showcase of his work at matthewkingarts.com.
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tock tterauw/Shutters Photo: Matthijs We
Hillwalking history
STORIES OF THE HILLS
EVAN ROBERTS A WET SPRING SATURDAY over 50 years ago, in the days before indoor walls. I was a young instructor at Plas y Brenin. The director saw me peering at the rain, and with a quick phone call arranged for me to spend the day in Cwm Idwal with Evan Roberts – to “have me educated”. I was ushered out of the door with directions for how to find Evan’s home behind Capel Curig post office. Sometimes youth doesn’t appreciate the chance gifts that come its way. Evan Roberts was one of the great characters of the Snowdonia community, as well as a leading field botanist of his day and the pre-eminent expert on the relict arctic-alpine flora which are one of the joys of our native hills. Yet he became such almost by accident. He was born into a poor Capel Curig family in 1906; was blind in one eye; in his youth used to earn a few pence by cycling to Gorffwysfa with telegrams for Mr. Winthrop Young or Mr. Mallory – round trips of 15 or 20 miles. I wonder if these English mountaineering luminaries ever suspected that the diffident Welsh boy on the bike would end up making a contribution to the culture and knowledge of these hills that far exceeded their own? Evan left school at 14 and took his first job in Rhos quarry. He was married young to his wife Mabel, and used to tell with amusement of how he was scolded out of the house one bright May Saturday afternoon, made his way past Rhos farm into the cwm below Moel Siabod, and on the rocks behind Llyn y Foel came across a gleaming clump of purple flowers – purple saxifrage, though he didn’t know this at the time. From that visionary
moment onwards, he set himself to find out, and tapped into the extant reservoir of local knowledge and native lore passed down through the oral tradition. The serious business of his life began when Rhos Quarry closed down in 1953. A godsend for his health, it also coincided with the Nature Conservancy Council’s looking for a warden for the new Cwm Idwal National Nature Reserve. To be shown round this magnificent place by the old quarryman-botanist, with his strong hands and gently expressive Welsh voice, was a memorable experience. Saxifrage, roseroot, Lloydia – he showed me that long-gone wet Saturday where they all grew, and gave me an introduction to a world that has illuminated my life too. Evan lived on until his mid-eighties: instructing the foremost botanical authorities; exploring in minutest detail the hills of Eryri; talking amiably to all he met; tearing off to Killarney on the back of his son's motorbike when he was 75 to find a rare native fern reputedly lost from its single known site in Snowdonia; driving to Switzerland with John Ellis Roberts, Head Warden of the National Park, to photograph Eritrichium nanum, the “king of the alps”. Stone-blind in his later years, he could still identify plants by feel, still talk in closest detail of habitat and significance, and those who knew the worth of this fine old man still constantly found their way to his front door and were welcomed there. When he died, a month before his 85th birthday in 1991, the local paper carried this headline: Mae Taid wedi mynd! – Grandfather’s gone! Jim Perrin
SIGHTS
& SOUNDS
Common Sundew Sundews are small, carnivorous plants, usually found in wet and boggy habitats. Acidic conditions limit the nutrition they can extract from the soil, so sundews supplement their diets with insects. The Common Sundew attracts its prey with its bright crimson tendrils and sweet, sticky secretions. When the tendrils detect that prey has landed on the sticky dew, the plant curls inwards, trapping the insect, which is eventually digested.
Catstycam High Crag Gavel Pike Helvellyn Hart Crag Dollywagon Nethermost Pike Dove Crag Swirral St Sunday Crag Pike Edge Fairfield Striding Edge Hartsop Seat Sandal above How
Glenamara Park
White side
Raise
Grisedale Glenridding Dodd
Photo: Stewart Smith
Patterdale
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THE
Glenridding
View FROM HERE Ullswater from Place Fell
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ALMANAC
STAY
HATHERSAGE THE LARGEST VILLAGE IN THE HOPE VALLEY IS AN EXCELLENT BASE FOR WALKERS AND CLIMBERS, WITH FASCINATING LITERARY CONNECTIONS UNDER FICKLE DERBYSHIRE SKIES, the ever-changing hues colouring the jutting escarpments and river-cut valleys of the Peak District are as dramatic as the literary masterpieces inspired by this landscape. In 1845, Charlotte Brontë visited Hathersage, and its influence can be felt throughout her classic novel, Jane Eyre, with its endless moors, secluded villages and characteristic gritstone houses. Hathersage is the largest village in the Hope Valley, which carves through the heart of the Peak District, linking classic walking destinations via its eponymous railway line. Within a short walking distance of Hathersage is Stanage Edge, a gritstone escarpment known to every climber in the UK. For walkers, the village is the perfect location for walks through the Derwent Valley, along the Peak District Edges and on to Hallam and Burbage Moors. An attractive village, Hathersage is also home to a variety of accommodation, outdoor shops and some good pubs and cafés.
Budget: YHA Hathersage Located centrally in Hathersage, this small hostel is a great option, particularly for groups and families. yha.org.uk Mid-range: Scotsman’s Pack A traditional pub with five pleasant bedrooms. The pub serves good food. scotsmanspackcountryinn.co.uk Splurge: The George Hotel An atmospheric three-star hotel in Hathersage in a 500-year-old building. george-hotel.net
Photo: Shutterstock
WALKERS' GUIDE
DRINK The Plough Inn Excellent food available at this privatelyowned 16th Century inn. theploughinn-hathersage.co.uk Scotsman’s Pack Good pub grub and a decent range of beers. scotsmanspackcountryinn.co.uk
WALK HERE
EAT
1. STANAGE EDGE Climb up to Stanage Edge and follow the escarpment north before heading west into the Derwent Valley to circuit Ladybower and Derwent Reservoirs. 2. WIN HILL & LOSE HILL Follow the River Derwent N to Thornhill to climb Win Hill. From there head up Lose Hill, continue W to Hollins Cross and descend to Edale, where a train can be taken back to Hathersage.
SHOP
Coleman’s Deli Great coffee, cakes and huge tasty salads. colemansdeli.com Outside One of the best independent outdoor shops in the Peak District. Will have everything you’ve forgotten! There’s also a good cafe and book shop.
TRAVEL Hathersage is very well connected thanks to the Hope Valley line that runs between Manchester and Sheffield.
DID YOU KNOW? In the churchyard of St Michael’s Church is a grave marked as Little John of Robin Hood’s Merry Men.
MAPS OS Landranger 119, Explorer OL1 Harvey Superwalker, Peak District Central
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NEWS
NO SNOW ON THE BEN Ben Nevis is entirely snow-free for the first time since 2006 No snow, here...
SUMMER SNOW EXPERT Iain Cameron has confirmed that the last patch of white stuff on Ben Nevis has melted. Every year, Iain conducts a survey to gauge the extent of summer snow patch survivals in the UK. Results have varied widely over the last few years, with record numbers of snow patches surviving in 2014 after heavy winter accumulations – but 2017 looks set to be the first entirely snow-free year for some time. At the time of going to press, small patches remained on Aonach Beag and Braeriach, but the last snow on Ben Nevis had vanished. “It probably melted on the 16th or 17th of August,” Iain told The Great Outdoors. “I’ve been up Ben Nevis and its surrounding hills about half a dozen times this year, checking on the size of the usual patches and how they shape up against previous years.” Summer snow often resembles glacial ice: hard
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and granular, covered with debris such as grass and rock particles. Dramatic tunnels and caverns often form beneath the larger snow patches due to the action of melting water. Snow patches can be extremely deep – up to 10m (30ft) in a good year. But not this year. “It is highly likely that all snow will vanish in Scotland this year by the middle of September, which would be only the sixth time this has happened since at least the 1700s,” said Iain. Comedian and The Great Outdoors writer Ed Byrne recently took a trip up Braeriach with Iain to see what might be the last snow patch of the year. Check out next month’s magazine to read all about it. Sadly, the snow patch might be gone by then – although as this issue went to press, Iain was hopeful that the first snow of the new season was on its way, with a snowfall forecast for 9 September.
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06/09/2017 08:46
ALMANAC MOUNTAIN
Culture FILM
Photo: xxxx
premiere 9 & 11 October London NEWS
The Great Outdoors Awards Still time to get involved! WE’RE STILL ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS for
the reader categories of this year’s Great Outdoors Awards. Anyone can nominate but you’ve only got until 25 September to put forward your favourite pub, café, campaign, book, retailer, or outdoor personality. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing the entries in the new Extra Mile category, which celebrates those who go beyond the call of duty to make a difference to other people and to the mountain environment. Visit www.tgomagazine.co.uk/ awards to make your nominations. If you miss the deadline, don’t worry – you can still have your say in who wins. On 28 September we will announce our shortlists and then public voting will begin.
ELTERWATER
HOSTEL Nick Owen, the leader of Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, is celebrating a quarter of a century managing the independent Elterwater Hostel
www.tgomagazine.co.uk/awards
“Walkers in the mountains could emulate Marilyn Monroe by shaving down the sole of one of their boots, thus rendering rambling much sexier”
MIKE HARDING
Last Word, The Great Outdoors, August 2008
1939 Year the hostel opened Nick has headed up the Mountain Rescue Team for a decade
ONE HUNDRED AND THREE The Wainwrights bagged by Nick before he decided bagging wasn’t for him and that he was happy to explore the hills on his doorstep!
years
25
Duration of Nick Owen’s tenure as manager of Elterwater Hostel
38 BEDS
IN NUMBERS
You’ll have until 9 November to vote for your favourites. The deadline has now passed for entry into the gear categories, which are run separately and entered directly by the brands and their representatives. Our judges have started drawing up shortlists, which will be announced on our website shortly. We received a total of 157 entries from the trade, across six categories, so we’ve got quite the task on our hands! The overall winners in both the reader categories and the gear awards will be announced at the start of the Kendal Mountain Festival in November. Good luck, everybody!
ARCHIVE
10 YEARS
The documentary Mountain: A Cinematic and Musical Odyssey will have its UK premiere on 9 and 11 October at the London Film Festival. Described by the Hollywood Reporter as a “ravishing feat of vertiginous filmmaking” and “one of the most visceral essay films ever made”, Mountain is directed by Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa), and examines the powerful allure of mountains to seekers of adventure. It combines archive footage of early mountaineers with majestic contemporary filming from 15 countries. The film is narrated by Willem Dafoe, reading a script by author Robert Macfarlane, accompanied by a dramatic score performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Tickets go on sale on 14 September at 10am. bfi.org.uk/lff
In the hostel’s dormitories
1692
Year the original barn was thought to have been built
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Kerran (left) and Graham
Q&A
Swimming across Scotland INTERVIEW: HANNAH LINDON If your heart is set on The Great Outdoors Challenge next year then spare a thought for Kerran Traynor and Graham Donald. These two hardcore adventurers are gearing up for a coast-to-coast journey across Scotland with a twist – they’ll be swimming instead of walking. Where did the idea of swimming across Scotland come from? Graham: I’m from a family of swimmers, and one of my brother’s university friends was David O’Brien who swam in the 2004 Olympics. I remember my brother telling me when I was 15 or so that he’d thought this idea up with David, but they gave up on it for various reasons. Ten years down the line I mentioned it to Kez in passing over a pint in the canteen and we started looking at maps. There’s a line – from Loch Linnhe to Inverness – that looks like it’s just meant to be swum. Are the two of you professional adventurers? Kerran: Not at all, we both have day jobs – Graham’s an engineer and I’m an architect. We don’t completely dedicate our lives to this, we’re just two regular guys who like to stay quite active, and we’d love to inspire other people to realise that this sort of opportunity is open to everyone. Have either of you done anything like this before? G: As you finish uni and get a proper job, you start feeling that you should get on with life and settle down. But every year I try to set myself a challenge and this is one of the bigger ones. K: I feel much the same, but every time I do an event I feel that the next one has to be escalated. I started by doing a marathon, then an ultra-marathon and then this. It’s going to end badly for me, isn’t it? How have you trained? G: We’re both based in Bristol and there’s a
lake that we do three or four joint training sessions in every week. Sometimes we manage to get away at the weekends as well, so we’ve already done a couple of recce trips to Scotland. K: I try to do morning sessions in a pool as well, which is the only way I can logistically fit in the training. What kind of conditions will you be facing? G: The average temperature forecast for the North Sea and the Atlantic is between 12 and 13˚C, which is actually quite warm for this time of year. Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to the lochs. The life guard at Loch Ness says it can get down to 5˚, although other people we’ve talked to say it’s more like 8-12˚. K: We’ll be wearing wetsuits, but we’ve really been trying to add weight as extra insulation. I’ve been having two dinners and an avocado every day. Coconut is my new best friend! I’ve been taking a cold shower every morning to acclimatise as well. Are you going to enjoy yourselves, or is it all about the challenge? K: It’s easy to get caught up in the challenge, but it’s very important that we both get our heads up, appreciate the environment we’re in and really enjoy the adventure. We’re going to experience all of what the Highlands are offering, but from a unique perspective. Not many people will have that opportunity. Find out more about Kerran and Graham’s Scottish swimming challenge and donate to their cause at www.acrossscotlandswim.com.
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IN A NUTSHELL
The Challenge
WHAT? Swimming coast-to-coast across mainland Scotland is a feat that Kerran and Graham believe has never been accomplished before. They will travel from west to east on natural waterways to link the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea. WHEN? The pair aim to start on 13 September and swim for 10 days. If all goes to plan, they'll cover 120 kilometres of open water, doing the equivalent of an Olympic marathon swim or three Iron Man swims every day. WHERE? Starting at Loch Linnhe, the plan is to swim north-east via Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch
Ness to finish near Kessock Bridge over Beauly Firth. WHAT’S IT ALL FOR? Graham and Kerran want to inspire others to get outdoors. Kerran is passionate about the environment, and feels that getting people out there enjoying it might encourage them to look after it better. They are also raising funds for two charities: Marie Curie and Bansang Hospital Appeal. HOW MUCH HAVE THEY RAISED? Around £1,600 at the time of our interview, triple what they expected, but they hope to up this even further by the end of the challenge.
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ALMANAC EVENTS
CALENDAR
September – November 2017 Alpkit Big Shakeout
9-24 SEPTEMBER South Pennines Walk and Ride Festival
YORKS/LANCS Over 130 events for walkers, cyclists and horse riders of all ages and abilities. walkandridefestival.co.uk
15-17 SEPTEMBER Blairgowrie & East Perthshire Walking Festival
PERTHSHIRE All walks are linear with minibus transport. Routes include Lairig Ghru and parts of Cateran Trail. walkingfestival.org
15-24 SEPTEMBER Silk River walks
LONDON, KENT, ESSEX Ten walks through Thames communities celebrating the 70th anniversary of Indian independence. silkriver.co.uk
16-24 SEPTEMBER Isle of Purbeck Walking Festival DORSET From a stroll along the beach in Victorian Swanage to longer hikes along the Jurassic Coast. walkpurbeck.com
20 SEPTEMBER MountainFilm on Tour
LONDON Selection of inspiring documentaries from America’s most prestigious mountain film festival at Royal Geographical Society. Fundraising for Community Action Nepal and dZi Foundation. canepal.org.uk
22-24 SEPTEMBER Alpkit Big Shakeout
PEAK DISTRICT Entertainment and adventurous activities. All profits to charity. alpkit.com/bigshakeout
Sir Chris Bonington will be at Kendal
24 SEPTEMBER Surrey Hills Challenge SURREY Series of walking and running challenges along the Greensand Way. surreyhillschallenge.com
6-15 OCTOBER CowalFest
COWAL PENINSULA Includes walks on recently refurbished Cowal Way, natural history events and evening entertainment. cowalfest.org
1-31 OCTOBER Norfolk Walking and Cycling Festival
NORFOLK Includes walks around the Broads and along the Norfolk Coast Path. www.norfolk.gov.uk
7 OCTOBER Wainwright Memorial Lecture
RHEGED, LAKE DISTRICT Clive Hutchby, author of the Wainwright Companion, will be speaking at Rheged. wainwright.org.uk
7-14 OCTOBER Crieff & Strathearn Drovers’ Tryst
PERTHSHIRE Programme of guided walks in the stunning scenery and autumn colours of Strathearn and surrounding areas. Plus Hairy Coo mountain bike races. droverstryst.com
7-15 OCTOBER Haltwhistle Walking Festival
NORTHUMBERLAND 30th annual walking festival, opened by polar explorers Conrad and Hilary Dickinson. haltwhistlewalkingfestival.org
8 OCTOBER-16 NOVEMBER Ray Mears, Born to Go Wild
VARIOUS VENUES, UK WIDE New tour by the survivalist and bushcraft expert on the theme of wild places. raymears.com
11 OCTOBER Buxton Adventure Festival
PEAK DISTRICT Boardman Tasker Awards Evening celebrating the lives of pioneering British mountaineers. buxtonadventurefestival.co.uk
23 OCTOBER Mountains in Mind
EDINBURGH Photography Exhibition by Edinburgh Young Walkers, raising awareness of benefits of walking for mental health and wellbeing. facebook.com/ events/850530948460118/?ti=icl
16-24 OCTOBER Bathscape Walking Festival
BATH & AROUND Inaugural event to celebrate Bath
South Pennines Walk & Ride and its surrounding landscape. Walks include 20-mile Julian House Circuit of Bath Walk. bathscapewalkingfestival.co.uk
16-19 NOVEMBER Kendal Mountain Festival
KENDAL Global adventure gathering, including the first ever Kendal Mountain Literature Festival. Mountainfest.co.uk
21 NOVEMBER - 13 DECEMBER Winter Safety Lecture Tour
SCOTLAND Mountain Safety Advisor Heather Morning tours Tiso and Cotswold stores importing vital safety information via entertaining talks. mountaineering.scot/safetyand-skills/courses-and-events/ winter-safety-lectures
ONGOING Life of a Mountain: Blencathra, the exhibition
KESWICK Exhibition at Keswick Museum, based around Terry Abraham’s film, with unseen footage and wide range of other exhibits. keswickmuseum.org.uk
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NEW
Book REVIEWS
Oak and Ash and Thorn by Peter Fiennes Oneworld Publishing, £16.99
OUR LIVES have been inextricably connected to trees and woods since the dawn of civilisation. Trees have provided material for houses, furniture, fuel, ships and much else. Trees are celebrated in prose and poem and millions of us enjoy a regular woodland walk. Woods are places of sanctuary and inspiration, but in our febrile imagination, can also generate darker feelings. Think of all the stories connected to woods and forests which end badly – from Hansel and Gretel right up to the Blair Witch Project. All of this is explored in depth in Peter Fiennes’ new book. He looks at every aspect of our relationship with trees, and is particularly concerned with the plight of those vulnerable fragments classed as Ancient Woodland which he feels should get much more protection than they currently do. His own feelings are often laid bare – he is found hugging an ancient oak and imagining it ‘speaking’ to him, but also at one point rushes out of a wood, convinced
The Last Hillwalker: A sideways look at forty years in Britain’s mountains By John D Burns Published by John D Burns
he is being followed. I expect we all recognise that feeling! Peter Fiennes shares my view of politicians – our current bunch are rightly condemned as ‘part of a continuum of ecologically destructive governments’ and he notes almost with despair the pathetic efforts to check the spread of ash dieback. Climate change deniers get similarly short shrift: "a bunch of over-indulged charlatans with a childish resentment of being told what to do". The vital role of trees in balancing the planet’s ecosystem is firmly underlined. This is a joy of a book and a delight to read. My one disappointment was that Peter barely mentions the Gaelic tree alphabet – trees are a vital part of Gaelic culture and this strand could have been greater explored. The book ends with a heartfelt plea for action to dramatically increase our tree cover and save our remaining Ancient Woodlands, regardless of the cost. Read this book. It may lead you to re-evaluate your own feelings about trees. Sometimes a book comes along that captures the essence of what it means to love mountains and to love being in mountains. This is such a book. The author describes his journey from bumbling would-be hillwalker and long-distance walker through rock climbing, alpine mountaineering, winter climbing and Mountain Rescue Team membership to disillusion with the hills and finally a rekindling of the spirit with bothy hunting. Throughout, a love of nature and wild places shines through. A mordant humour and a cast of friends, acquaintances and chance meetings enliven the stories, whether it’s as a novice on the Pennine Way or ice climbing in Glencoe. The author laughs at himself and his misadventures and pokes gentle fun at friends – there’s nothing malicious here. The disillusion is with climbing rather than with the hills. ‘I no longer believe’ writes Burns. Instead he turns to the stage, first as a stand-up comedian then as a playwright and actor with his own one-man show about occultist and mountaineer Aleister Crowley. (Later he writes and performs another one-man play, Mallory: Beyond Everest, which I’ve seen twice – it’s excellent). Looking for another writing project he decides on a book about his outdoor life, "a farewell to the hills". But that’s not what this
Perhaps the tide is turning. On the day I wrote this review, a planned housing scheme near Dunblane in Scotland which would have destroyed the ancient and wonderfully named Wanderwrang Wood was turned down. One small victory for the trees. Roger Smith
book is, as his hill life is restored with a love of bothies and then a decision to walk the Pennine Way again, 40 years later. The book ends there, tantalisingly, but on a positive note. There is more joy in the hills to come, more adventures, more stories. You can read, listen and even watch some of them on Burns' website at www.johndburns.com. The Last Hillwalker is well-written and entertaining. Beneath the humour and the excitement there are passionate feelings and self-analysis. The author is a man who has thought carefully and deeply about the hills and his place in them. Having raced through the book once, carried away by the adventures and the desire to know what happens next, I’ve read it again, this time noting what the author is going through, what lies behind the tales. I’m sure I’ll read it again. It’s one of the best hill books I’ve read in many years. The title? It puzzled me and isn’t explained until the end when the author meets a young man called Alec and tells him he thinks hillwalking is dying out and the hills will soon be empty. Alec doesn’t agree. After he’s gone, Burns thinks "maybe I just met the last hillwalker". Happily I think he’s wrong but that’s no reason not to read this wonderful book.
Chris Townsend
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ALMANAC
Failing the Wilds
Roger Smith finds supposedly protective legislation isn’t doing its job COMMENT
by Roger Smith
Photo: Andrew Rowland/Shutterstock
LAST MONTH I VOICED my reservations about the award of World Heritage Site status to the Lake District. It seems I was right. No sooner had the award been announced than Friends of the Lake District were expressing concern over a proposal to put two long zipwire slides right across Thirlmere, in the heart of the National Park. The proposal, by Cumbrian company Tree Top Treks, is part of a ‘Thirlmere Hub’ leisure development. This is not the first zipwire proposal in the Lakes. There are zipwires in place in Grizedale Forest, and the Park Authority has twice rejected proposals for a mile-long zipwire on Fleetwith Pike above Honister, where developments already include a 'via ferrata’ walkwire and a walkway high above the valley called the Infinity Bridge. These things are for thrillseekers and to my mind have no place in a National Park – and I hope the Thirlmere proposals, should they proceed to a formal planning application, will be rejected out of hand. There should be no compromise in a World Heritage Site. This is just one of a number of proposals nibbling away at the quality of the Lake District, but there is even worse news further north. A judicial review has failed to stop plans for a 22-turbine wind farm at Creag Riabhach on a site that is partly in designated Wild Land Area 37. This is the first time permission has been given for a large-scale development in a designated WLA. The judicial review was brought by Wildland Ltd, a company set up by Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen, who owns the Ben Loyal, Kinloch and Hope and Melness Estates. He claimed the development would be seen from many parts of his land, and would be highly damaging visually in a previously unspoiled area. Creag Riabhach is on the Altnaharra Estate, on the west side of Strath Vagastie (OS Landranger sheet 15). Site access would be from the A836 at about NC533272. The turbines would cover an area of 6 sq km, actually mostly on Beinn na Glas-choille rather than Creag Riabhach. In presenting their visual impact study the developers, Creag Riabhach Wind Farm Ltd, concentrated on the impact from low ground – roads and settlements. Little account was taken of the likely impact from high ground and a key part of the
Thirlmere
opposition case was that the turbines, each of them over 80m high, could be visible from iconic peaks such as Ben Hope, Ben Loyal and Ben Klibreck. The review was sought on the basis that the Scottish Government’s decision to approve Creag Riabhach contravened its own planning policy in designating Wild Land Areas. However, the review judge, Lord Boyd, said that he could only comment on the validity of the approval. He said that such applications had to be judged on their own merits and that while he understood that the designation of wild land areas was intended to provide greater protection, "it is not an absolute protection against any development". This is a devastating blow to supporters of wild land and blows a massive hole in the whole spectrum of supposedly protective designations, opening the door for further applications in Wild Land Areas, National Parks, National Nature Reserves and the rest. Creag Riabhach is a disaster for wild land but it is only one of a whole raft of disturbing developments in recent times. The An Camas Mor ‘new village’ in the Cairngorms National Park; zipwires and giant pylon lines in the Lake District; the bitter ongoing feud over vehicular use of byways and green lanes in the Peak; a serious weakening of protective powers in the Welsh national parks; fracking on the
South Downs; insidious threats to areas of ancient woodland. The basic problem is that none of our politicians (nor the judiciary, by the look of it) have any understanding of the immense value of wild land. Decisions are taken on a seriously flawed basis. The appeal system is an open door through which developers gleefully walk, with central government overturning democratic local decisions time after time. It is not as if those in power are not warned. Conservation and recreation bodies tell them the true story repeatedly but they just don’t listen. Even an extremely rich man like Anders Povlsen, whose conservation work in Glen Feshie has been widely praised, cannot stop the rampant march of development. Moreover, the system works against us. Our financial resources are limited in comparison with big business, but when the John Muir Trust lost their appeal against the Stronelairg wind farm in the Monadhliath, they were ordered to pay legal costs of £125,000. Despite this, we must never give up the fight. A wise man once said to me: "There are no victories in conservation, only the avoidance of defeat". I think most of us would have been very happy to have avoided defeat at Creag Riabhach. As it is, another precious piece of wild land is lost for ever. I hope those responsible can sleep easy. October 2017 The Great Outdoors 21
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ALMANAC LETTERS
Readers’ page Share your views, your experiences and your favourite photos tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent, TN16 3AG Please include a phone number and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity or to fit the space available.
Meal reviews
I thought the review of trail food (August issue) was the most useful I have seen in a long time. We all have our chosen jackets, boots, backpacks, tents and stoves from which we expect several years of service without the need to constantly replace. However, food is something we need to invest in for every trip. In my experience, freeze dried packet food can be summed up as meagre, tasteless, unappetising and outrageously overpriced, making you wish you had left more space in your pack for something far more tasty and substantial like a Pot Noodle! Your review lifts the (pot) lid on what’s available in the trail meal market, proving that even the most ridiculously, eyewateringly high-priced offering is not guaranteed when it comes to being edible or appealing. Generally I’ve been left pretty disappointed with the price, quality, size, taste (or absence of it) and lack of appeal of freeze dried trail food. So much so, that for a few years now I’ve been using the wet food, foil pouches. Despite their extra weight they are easier to prepare being boil in the bag, comparably priced and actually taste quite nice too. However, after your review, I’m willing to give some of the products featured another try. Tim Mellor
Trekking the Pyrenees
Having hiked the GR11 in 2015 I was interested to read Alex Roddie’s feature in the August issue about his Pyrenees trip. There are a few points on which
I'd like to comment. 1) Alex stated that he found it impossible to keep food fresh in the hot weather. In July-August 2015 I experienced extended hot weather and succeeded in keeping food fresh by the simple expedient of carrying food beside my 3L hydration system – a mobile fridge! 2) Alex makes no mention of sourcing drinking water; in the relatively dry 2015 conditions I had no trouble with finding water except in the east of Catalonia. In the high mountains the streams were free-running and I took water from these, and from lakes. I had decided to leave my water purification kit at home (to save weight and space) and two years later am still healthy so figured it was an acceptable risk. An American hiker I spoke to on the trail (who was a wilderness ranger back in the US) thought this a risky choice (if you get sick on a US trail you could be in big trouble....) He was using a UV pen, which though running off a battery looked to be a very flexible (and lightweight) way to guarantee safe water and I was sold on this system. This Ranger told me of some interesting research that suggested that the safest water in remote areas is the top two inches of lake water: this is irradiated by normal sunlight’s UV and if carefully extracted would be safe. He hadn’t tested this empirically! 3) And to close, the trusty Berghaus Trailhead 65 rucksack that I used was reviewed in the same edition. It looks
Graffiti on the Seven Sisters
unchanged from the 2015 version, suggesting that it’s a very sound design. I found it to be supremely easy to tweak and adjust throughout my six-week trek, coping with everything well. On some of the remote sections of the high mountains (where I had to carry three to four days’ food) the rucksack was ok with 20+ kg load. Paul Spence
Long leg dilemmas
I recently read the snippet in the readers’ page by Nik Harris about finding kit for pregnant women with an inside leg of 34/35”. I’m a 21 year old female and tall with a 34” inside leg but am quite skinny and share the frustration in trying to find trousers that fit. To get walking trousers to fit round the middle they are nearly always 3” too short and I’m not one for tucking trousers into socks to keep my legs warm as the trousers seem to escape from their sock confinement at every possible opportunity. The only way round this I have found is spending large amounts of money on trousers with raw seams, the Fjallraven Abisko trousers being the best I have ever had. If one company can leave their trousers with raw hems so people can get their trousers to fit perfectly then surely other less expensive companies can too. We should be celebrating our individuality with a wider variety of sizes at a range of affordable prices rather than this one leg length/one shape fits all. Sophie Diver
What price beauty?
As Roger Smith rightly says, mass tourism is a doubleedged sword (Comment, Sept 2017). Here in the south-east of England over the past few years, the iconic Seven Sisters chalk cliffs have suffered from excessive visitor numbers, notably from the Far East (Tourism South East report a 45% increase in visitors from the region in the last five years). South Koreans seem to be the most numerous, and, when asked, they will tell you the Seven Sisters are ‘top of their bucket list’. I understand the cliffs have appeared in a pop star’s video, and perhaps Microsoft may also have played a part in their promotion, having included them as one of the default landscape wallpapers with Windows 7. But what price beauty? Apart from the increase in litter, as the above photo shows, more longlasting damage is also being done: what is best described as graffiti, created with pieces of chalk and flint, a good deal of it dug out of the ground, eroding the slopes to leave bare white scars. It is a shocking sight to those of us who love and care for the incomparable Seven Sisters, desecrating this beautiful coastal downland. Since this first started occurring a few years ago I, personally, have cleared the stones as often as I can and, as a one-woman campaign, put pressure on the authorities to deal with the problem. I would urge others who come across it to do likewise. Fiona Barltrop
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Beautiful, exhilarating, inspiring, essential
Wild places are special. That’s why the John Muir Trust is dedicated to protecting and improving the breath-taking mountains and coastline, dramatic gorges, native woodlands and beautiful meadow in our care. Over 11,000 members support our work to care for wild places now and for future generations. Become a member.
johnmuirtrust.org/lovewildplaces The John Muir Trust is a Scottish charitable company limited by guarantee, Charity No. SC002061, Company No. SC081620, registered office: Tower House, Station Road, Pitlochry PH16 5AN
Cared for by the John Muir Trust: Sandwood Bay in stormy winter light by Peter Cairns/ scotlandbigpicture.com
MOUNTAIN PORTRAIT
SGURR NAN GILLEAN There may be finer mountains in Britain than Sgurr nan Gillean, but Jim Perrin would struggle to argue their case Beyond the lochs of the blood of the children of men, beyond the frailty of the plain and the labour of the mountain, beyond poverty, consumption, fever, agony, beyond hardship, wrong, tyranny, distress, beyond misery, despair, hatred, treachery, beyond guilt and defilement; watchful, heroic, the Cuillin is seen rising on the other side of sorrow. Sorley MacLean, 1939 IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR fighter pilot Richard Hillary’s posthumously published memoir, The Last Enemy, there’s a glimpse of J. Norman Collie, the distinguished chemist and great pioneer of climbing on Skye, sitting in extreme old age at his solitary dining table in the Sligachan Hotel, gazing out wistfully across the moor to the northern gable peak of the Cuillin Ridge: Sgurr nan Gillean, “the peak of the young men”. Hillary comments on Collie’s benign and silent acknowledgement of him and his companion – two young men briefly at liberty before returning to military service and death. “We thought him rather fine,” Hillary remembers. The description’s equally applicable to the object of Collie’s study. There may be finer peaks in the British Isles than Sgurr nan Gillean, but I’d not be confident in arguing their comparative merits. I first saw this marvellous hill from that same Sligachan dining room one June midday long gone. With an Irish friend, in dank weather so typical of Skye summers, late on a wet morning we were sitting perhaps at the same table Collie had occupied not many decades before. Rain had been trickling down the window when we arrived. The Cuillin was veiled in cloud. Yet as we watched, the vapours thinned, their filmy insubstantiality scoured away to reveal the pyramidal elegance of the hidden peak. Without need for discussion we gulped down our coffee, filled our pockets with rolls from the breakfast bar, paid the bill and ran out to collect rucksacks and rope from the car. Within minutes we were racing along beside a flooding Allt Dearg Beag towards the mountain. It’s worth noting that Sgurr nan Gillean is a complex, rocky and quite forbidding peak. There is a laborious ascent to it by way of Coire Riabhach that’s known as the Tourist Path. Even that, which was the route taken on the mountain’s first recorded ascent as late as 1836, involves serious scrambling as well as a deal of loose scree on the coire headwall to reach the narrow
south-east ridge that leads to a slabby summit platform. It’s not the way we took on first acquaintance. Being fit, young and confident, we made straight for the toe of the Pinnacle Ridge. I’m glad we chose that for our introduction to what remains one of my favourite hills. The Pinnacle Ridge is classified as a rock-climb. So it is if you wish to toil over each of its impressive pinnacles. But there are plenty of avoidant traversing options to bypass these. The really fine thing about this approach is the heartland Cuillin terrain into which it leads you. This is a majestic world of architectonic rock peaks and arêtes, giddily beautiful, so enticing to fingertip exploration. Beyond the last pinnacle the flank of the west ridge of the mountain confronts you. A squirm up steep and polished Nicholson’s Chimney takes you to the knife-edge crest, an airy traverse of which gains the summit. On this first acquaintance we lounged on drying rock and watched one bank of cloud disappear away to the north-east, obscuring the mainland hills as it went. Another was building slowly beyond The Minch and behind the Outer Isles. That lulled us into our second madcap impulse of the day: to carry on regardless into unknown and complex ground; to see how far we could get! Parts of the next few hours were a kind of ecstasy: padding up the gabbro of Bidein Druim nan Ramh; careering along over Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh and Sgurr na Banachdich until the lash of incoming rain met us by An Stac. In storm and mist and gathering dark we picked our way down from Sgurr Dearg to Glen Brittle and a damp night under improvised shelter on the beach before catching the post-bus back to Sligachan next morning. Youth’s the time for taking chances and storing up the gifts they bring. This frustrated experience didn’t put me off returning. The reward next time was the most magical mountain dawn I’ve ever witnessed. From a misty bivouac on the Bealach a’ Bhasteir below the west ridge, I watched as the summit tower massed into solid form against the brightening eastern sky. I slipped out of my sleeping bag and hurried back along the ridge to the summit. From there a sea of cloud obscured Raasay and the sound, and stretched right across to the mainland, where the peaks of the North-west Highlands stood clear and islanded. The mist churned and frothed, turned incandescent as the sun’s orange orb rose through it to climb into a sky of robin’s-egg blue above. That day kept its promise of perfect weather all the way along the ridge that’s the finest mountain feature of these islands. Thank you, Sgurr nan Gillean! Sgurr nan Gillean, Skye; 964m; OS Explorer 411 BOOKS: MY FAVOURITE IS BEN HUMBLE’S 1952 CLASSIC, THE CUILLIN OF SKYE – A TRADITIONAL AND QUIRKY ANECDOTAL TREAT OF A GUIDE.
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Photo: Steve Hargreaves / Alamy
Reflections of Sgurr nan Gillean, taken from Sligachan
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MUNROS
Clearing conditions on the Aonach Eagach ridge, Glen Coe
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BAGGER’S
delight
Taking up Munro-bagging
is the perfect way to expand your hillwalking horizons. And, as Robert Wight discovered, there’s no bigger buzz than climbing the last one on your list
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MUNROS
IT’S JUST ANOTHER HILL – the thought flashed briefly in my mind as I reached out to touch the top of the cairn. I didn’t have time to think about things too deeply as a burst of applause and cheers rang out. It made what was already an unusual day in the hills seem really quite surreal. It was the summit of Beinn na Lap, near Corrour Station, earlier this summer. It was also my 282nd Munro. I’d done it – I’d climbed the lot of them. I was a ‘compleater’, as tradition has it. What followed was a few glasses of Champagne and one or two generous drams. I’ll admit I felt pretty refreshed as we descended to the bar at the Station House to continue celebrations. I’m not one to condone boozing on the hills but, well, it was an unusual day – it’s not often you finish the Munros. Beinn na Lap is one of the few Munros inaccessible by road. The usual way in is by train, one of the reasons I’d saved this hill until last. The romance of the West Highland Line adds to the novelty of the occasion. About 20 friends and I caught the 10.47 from Bridge of Orchy, but my real journey had started many years before (terribly naff but I couldn’t resist it). It’s been an incredible adventure that has seen me stay in tents, bothies, hostels
and campervans all over the country. I’ve reached summits by hiking, rock climbing, scrambling, winter gullies and mixed routes and even using snowshoes. I’ve enjoyed perfectly still winter days of cloudless blue skies, bright sun and crisp snow underfoot, and beautiful summer days, when you can doze on sun-warmed summit slabs as fat bees buzz by. But there have also been plenty of days of thick clag, clinging drizzle, torrential rain, howling gales and whiteout snowstorms.
THE MUNRO HABIT
It was five and a bit years ago that I decided to ‘tick’ the Munros, Scotland’s hills of 3,000ft and higher, first compiled into a list in 1891 by Sir Hugh Munro. I’d been hillwalking for years before I became a Munro-bagger. Previously, I hadn’t given it much thought – I just enjoyed the outdoors. The idea of a list seemed unnecessary and there’s still much about it that I don’t quite get. The 3,000ft mark seems kind of arbitrary. It bugs me slightly that many regard hills below this magic number as somehow lesser. Indeed, I know people who won’t – or will perhaps only reluctantly – climb non-Munros. Go and
Photo: Stewart smith
[above] Robert celebrates his 200th Munro, Mam Sodhail [right] The incredible view from the north-west ridge of A' Mhaighdean [below right] Looking back from just beneath the summit of Sgurr Dubh Mor
climb Garbh Bheinn of Ardgour or Ben Loyal, both Corbetts, or even the Graham Ben Venue, and tell me they’re not more than a match for many a Munro, like some of the Drumochter hills, or those around Glenshee. I’d know where I’d rather hike. Then there’s the argument about what constitutes a Munro. The problem lies in the fact that Sir Hugh – apart from the 3,000ft requirement – was a bit vague about other stipulations. He mentioned stuff about ‘the character of a mountain’, whereas other classifications – like the Corbetts and Grahams – state
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CHOOSE YOUR MUNRO
There are Munros to suit every taste and interest. Here are Robert’s recommendations… BEST FOR BEGINNERS BEN LOMOND The perfect introduction. Easy access from Central Belt, no big walk in, clear tourist path all the way, not too steep, roughly five hours in total for the reasonably fit and the best view of Scotland’s longest Loch. Make it more interesting by descending Ptarmigan Ridge, northwest from the summit. As with any Munro, this is not a hill to be underestimated. Proper gear, map, and compass should always be carried.
Ben Lomond View from Fionn Bheinn
Stob Dearg
MOST STUNNING VIEW A’ MHAIGHDEAN Considered the most remote Munro, this is the highlight of the classic Fisherfield Six round of five Munros and a Corbett. Bidein a' Choire The cairn is perched above Sheasgaich a sheer drop that falls away to the atmospheric Dubh Loch. The winding valley before you is hemmed by impressive crags and the sea beyond. On clear days the Summer Isles and Outer Isles are visible. Beautiful. MOST SURPRISING VIEW FIONN BHEINN A dull slog up uninspiring grassy slopes north of Achnasheen gets you to the summit within two hours, when suddenly you’re confronted by one of the best views in the west Highlands. Beinn Eighe, Loch Maree, Slioch, Fisherfield, the Fannichs, all lie before you in a stunning panorama. One to keep for a clear, sunny spring day. MOST VERSATILE STOB DEARG (BUACHAILLE ETIVE MOR) You can walk, scramble or climb the Buachaille. Most popular is the walk up a well-built path into Coire na Tulaich. Curved Ridge, however, offers possibly the best scrambling outside Skye. A Grade III (or Moderate rock climb) so many use a rope. The famed Rannoch Wall, meanwhile, gives amazing mid-range rock climbing – the sensationally exposed Agag’s Groove is potentially the best V Diff in the UK. Whatever your route, the airy summit towers over Rannoch Moor for thrilling views.
BEST FOR PUSHING YOUR ABILITY BIDEIN A’ CHOIRE SHEASGAICH Not just a test of pronunciation (many opt for ‘the Cheesecake’), this remote hill near Glen Carron gives a thorough examination of your stamina and route planning. No easy way in here – all are about 35km round trips. My route from Achnashellach took me over the Corbetts Sgurr na Feartaig and Beinn Tharsuinn. The reward: an excellent scramble up a knife blade peak that few ever visit.
BEST HIGH-LEVEL CAMP DEVIL’S POINT This Cairngorm hill’s a long way in. Many overnight at Corrour Bothy, which can be very busy. Instead, if the weather’s decent, push on for another half hour up into the Coire Odhar and on to the plateau. A flat grassy platform next to a gushing spring awaits. A perfect campsite just 15 minutes from the Devil’s Point summit, with impressive views of Ben Macdui across the Lairig Ghru. BEST FOR A BOTHY STAY SEANA BHRAIGH Officially the third-most remote Munro. It looks a rounded lump from the standard route from Inverlael. Instead, head in from Oykel Bridge in the east, on a drivable track as far as Corriemulzie Lodge. A gate is locked in winter about 0.5km before the Old Schoolhouse – a cosy, clean, recently refurbished bothy. The best I’ve stayed in! From there, it’s about 8km to the foot of the mountain, a perfect pyramid from this side. FOR GOING WITH FRIENDS AM FAOCHAGACH One of the Beinn Dearg group, near Ullapool. Unless you want a massive detour, it involves a serious river crossing at the start. Impassable in full flow – and can vary from knee to waist deep at other times. It’s unwise to cross rivers alone. Besides, getting a soaking doesn’t seem as bad when it’s shared. Beyond the river, the hill is a bit of a featureless slog, so banter always helps.
that an individual peak must have a 150m prominence. It leads to confusing situations, like how can the South Glen Shiel Ridge have seven Munros when stunning Sgurr na Lapaich, in Glen Affric, is a mere ‘top’ of the Munro Mam Sodhail and not a separate mountain? Considering my reservations, when I actually decided to work my way through the list, I surprised myself with how determined I became to tick them all – it became almost an obsession. Some people decide to finish their Munros on realising – after a lifetime of hillwalking – that they’ve just a handful of peaks to go, and might as well climb them. My reason for bagging them was simply that I was a lazy hillwalker. I tended to hit the hills closest to home – the Trossachs, the Arrochar Alps, the Orchy hills, Glencoe and I probably couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve climbed the Dalmally hills. Doing the Munros would, I figure, force me to broaden my hill horizons. I’d climbed plenty of them before, starting with Ben Lomond when I was a teenager, but I’d never kept any records. Some I was certain I’d climbed. Others I thought I had climbed, and others still I’d
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MUNROS
[above] Sunrise, Mam Sodhail
probably climbed. It was all a bit hazy. So it made sense to start from scratch. My first ‘new’ Munros were in March 2012; Ben Vorlich and its pal Stuc a’ Chroin, which are just up the road from me near Loch Earn – why break the habit of a lifetime?
282 BEFORE 40
I’m in the hills most weekends and I racked up some big numbers in the first couple of years. I realised, if I pushed myself, I could probably finish my round in 2017, the year I’d turn 40. It seemed a good target. In hindsight, setting such a target was, at least for me, both a good and bad thing. I learned a lot about Scotland and its landscape by bagging the Munros. I also learned a bit about myself. If I were to put a positive spin on it, I’d say I am 'highly driven' or 'focused'. 'Obsessed' and 'fixated' could also apply. If I wasn’t on the hill, I was planning to be. And it had to be a Munro. I was becoming one of those hillwalkers at whom I used to shake my head in dismay. Thankfully, I got a grip. It was when friends invited me to the Lakes for a weekend. Initially, I viewed that as a wasted weekend – I could be off somewhere up north, bagging Munros. But I saw sense
and went – and had a great time, so much so, I’ve been back to the Lake District at least once a year since. I chilled out a bit. Tried to relax and enjoy my hills. But with that 2017 deadline looming I couldn’t be too complacent. The good thing about the target was that it forced me out all-year-round in all weathers. It’s one thing enjoying a mountain stroll on a hazy summer’s day, with a cloudless sky that lets you see your whole route laid out before you (ok, that’s rare in Scotland), but, boy, do you learn about mountain craft when the bad weather hits. In winter, especially, it’s a different game. It’s when hillwalking becomes mountaineering. Your navigation needs to be spot on. You need to know yourself, to trust your decisions – to make the right decisions. And you need to be fit and fast with the limited daylight. If winter hills are something new to you – or something you’re considering – then I can’t recommend highly enough a winter skills course run by places like Glenmore Lodge. It’s money well spent. Plenty of times in bad summer weather I’ve battled on to the summit. In winter, I
learned it’s fine to turn back. I remember in particular climbing in pretty miserable conditions one February to the top of Sgurr Eilde Beag, a Munro Top in the Mamores. The plan was to go over this top to reach the Munro of Binnein Mor, then doubleback to pick up a second Munro, Na Gruagaichean. The walk in was clear, if a bit wet. We zig-zagged up an excellent stalkers’ path and it wasn’t long before we hit the snowline, then the clag. What had been a bit of a breeze below was a buffeting wind up high. In crampons and hunched over axes, we battled up frozen slopes. The vicious wind whipped falling snow and spindrift into blinding clouds. With the thick clag it meant visibility was zero. A grid reference told us the top’s summit was near. Tentatively we followed a bearing, carefully pacing the distance. The map showed cliffs lay immediately to the north and east sides of the summit. Big cliffs. For a brief moment – a few seconds – there was a lull in the wind and the clag thinned. It was just enough to see a definite horizontal white line about 30 feet ahead – the lip of the cornice to the summit’s north. Disconcertingly, it was The Great Outdoors October 2017 31
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closer than expected and just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. It was impossible to differentiate what was ground, sky or cornice. Everything was blinding whiteness. We took to throwing snowballs ahead of us, to see if they’d strike land or disappear over cliffs into the void. As a plan there was a certain logic to it, but it’s fair to say it’s not a sensible means of progression. As I said, it’s fine to turn back. The mountain will always be there.
BIG DAYS IN THE HILLS
The other good thing about setting a target for finishing is that I began doing some big days, which became massive days as my fitness improved. They’re what I enjoy most about the hills, and I’ve more planned. Stand-out memories include a traverse of the Cuillin. We did all the Munros of the main ridge over two days – leaving the outlier Sgurr Dubh Mor for another day (it was to be my second-last Munro, via the fantastic Dubh Slabs). Rather than hike in from Glen Brittle, we took the fast rib from Elgol. As the pilot nudged the boat up onto the rocks below Gars-bheinn, we pulled on our packs and leapt from its nose. It felt like a proper mission. I can still remember
that wee pang of nervousness as the rib roared off into the distance. We spent that night grabbing a few hours’ sleep in a shallow cave below the summit of Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh, savouring a dram as the sun went down. The only thing that tasted sweeter was the pint we enjoyed the next afternoon after staggering into the Sligachan Hotel. Mission accomplished. Other big days include the classic Fisherfield Six; the four Munros in Glen Dessary; and the Ring of Tarf, a Munro and Corbett round of about 60km over two days. And although I’d already done eight of them, last year a friend and I climbed all 10 Mamores Munros in a 12-hour epic. In my search for bigger days, my usual hill buddy Alex and I took part in the Original Mountain Marathon last year. We’ve entered again this year. The Munros have also got me into rock climbing and winter climbing. I’m set for my first season in the Alps in September. Deciding to tick a list has changed my whole outlook on the outdoors. So perhaps Beinn na Lap isn’t just another hill – instead it’s part of a fabulous outdoor adventure. One that’s set to continue – after all I’ve only bagged 57 Corbetts…
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Photo: Alan Rowan
MUNROS
[above] Robert at the summit of his final Munro, Beinn na Lap [left] Descending Bynack More towards Loch Avon in the Cairngorms [below, left] Eastern Mamores
THE MUNROS
The Munros list dates from 1891 and was the idea of Sir Hugh Munro, who surveyed and listed all the mountains in Scotland over 3,000ft (914.4m) in Munro’s Tables, published in the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) Journal. As well as Munros, Sir Hugh also categorised a similar number of peaks as Munro Tops which, although over 3,000ft, he didn’t class as ‘separate mountains’. There have been a number of revisions to the Munros list over the years, with some peaks promoted or demoted after resurveying. The last revision by the SMC, who maintain the list, was in 2012. The SMC (smc.org.uk) also keep a list of all ‘compleaters’ who have bagged the full list of Munros.
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LONG-DISTANCE TRAILS
IN THE YORK S Britain has a fantastic wealth of established trails for walkers to play with. Vivienne Crow recently combined five of Northern England's finest into a four-day circuit, starting and finishing in Kirkby Stephen
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YORKSHIRE DALES TRAILS
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YORKSHIRE DALES TRAILS HAVE YOU NOTICED how long-distance paths have multiplied in recent years? Our landscape is criss-crossed by trails. Some, like the Brontë Way, are dedicated to writers; others are based on an area’s heritage, such as Cornwall’s Copper Trail. Something like the 50km Aylesbury Ring is geographically confined while others, such as the 1,014km South West Coast Path, have a much broader remit. The Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) lists more than 1,100 paths on its website – more than enough to fill a lifetime of wandering. Put two trails close together and they seem to breed. This stared me in the face when I picked up the latest version of one of my favourite Ordnance Survey Explorer maps – OL19 for the Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley – and looked at the map summary on the back cover. Two of England’s best-known long-distance paths – the Pennine Way and Wainwright’s Coast to Coast – cross at Keld on the eastern edge of this map. Although the OS doesn’t recognise the Coast to Coast, the map panel shows five additional National Trails and ‘recreational paths’ nearby. Go to the LDWA site and it lists at least another eight routes that cross this single sheet of mapping. An idea was forming in my head. I’d been looking for a route that would immerse me in the Yorkshire Dales. With only four days to spare, I didn’t want to spend half a day at either end messing around on public transport. A circular route starting and finishing in Kirkby Stephen, served by the Settle to Carlisle Railway, started to take shape. An easy first day crossing Nine Standards Rigg on the Coast to Coast would take me east to Keld where I could pick up the Pennine Way south over Great Shunner Fell to Hawes. From there, the lesser-known Lady Anne’s Way leads west, allowing me to link up with Wainwright’s Pennine Journey to reach Cautley at the base of the Howgills. I’d then meet up with the Dales High Way near The Calf and pursue this north to reunite with my old friend, the Coast to Coast, and follow it back into Kirkby Stephen. I had a plan!
DAY 1: KIRKBY STEPHEN TO KELD COAST TO COAST PATH “Doing the Coast to Coast?” a walker asks, nodding towards the packs that my partner and I are carrying. He’s carrying camping gear and I suddenly feel like a fraud. I flounder. “Sort of. Well, no, not really. Just for the day. Well, obviously we’re not doing the Coast to Coast in a day; we’re just doing a day on the Coast to Coast. Then we’re...” Realising this could turn into a long story, I abridge. “...we’re doing our own thing for a few days.”
[previous page] Looking down Bowerdale in the northern Howgills [above] Leaving the Kisdon Gorge, the River Swale flows through typical Dales scenery [below] The Nine Standards above Kirkby Stephen
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Map: David Langworth
TRIP SUMMARY
He nods understandingly and then asks if we know anything about the cairns we’re standing beside. “Sort of. Well, no, not really,” I continue in that out-to-lunch manner in which I started our conversation. In fact, mystery surrounds the origin of the ‘stone men’ that stand tall on Nine Standards Rigg. Some claim they were constructed by the Romans to look like troops from a distance, scaring off would-be attackers; others say they were boundary markers. There’ll be other theories no doubt, and at some point folklore and fact coincide, but no one knows for sure. Despite major repairs to some of the cairns in 2005, we don’t even know how old they are. The cairns stand pretty much on the watershed: the place where the becks and rivers that feed west into the Irish Sea meet those that feed east into the North Sea, an obviously significant point on the Coast to Coast. The visibility today is superb. Individual Lake District fells stand out on the western horizon, while, to the east, I’m sure I can make out the industrial skyline of Stockton-on-Tees. The backpacker has disappeared, and we have the open moorland to ourselves. The high-pitched but doleful call of an unseen golden plover reaches us from the tussocks, while skylarks twitter and display above our heads. The moors seem benign and welcoming today. Even the path has improved since I was last here, Pennine Way-like flagstones having been laid across the peaty morass on Cumbria’s border with North Yorkshire. Thanks to a fundraising campaign backed by the likes of celebrity outdoor enthusiast Julia Bradbury, Mountain Rescue volunteers should no longer have to come out to extricate walkers from the bog.
DAY 1: Kirkby Stephen to Keld (18km; 640m ascent) Climb Nine Standards Rigg via Faraday Gill; drop S to shooters’ track and enter Ney Gill, which is followed to Ravenseat in Whitsundale; head downstream with Whitsundale Beck to reach Swaledale and Keld.
to base of Cotter Riggs; follow limestone edge and then drop to River Ure. Head W into Grisedale and pass between Baugh and Swarth Fell. Leaving Pennine Journey, cross to S bank of Rawtheyand traverse Bluecaster’s flanks to Cautley.
DAY 2: Keld to Hawes (20km; 670m ascent) Follow River Swale downstream and cut across Kisdon’s southern flank to Thwaite; rough track leads on to moors and the climb to the summit of Great Shunner Fell; ridge path drops S and SE to reach Hardraw, from where field paths and roads lead into Hawes. DAY 3: Hawes to Cautley (22.8km; 675m ascent) Meadows, woods and roadside walking lead NW
DAY 4: Cautley to Kirkby Stephen (23.6km; 900m ascent) Head to base of Cautley Spout, climb towards Bowderdale and then swing SW on to high ground; walk north along Dales High Way over Hazelgill Knott and West Fell; follow quiet lanes as far as Brownber; leave Dales High Way and head E along farm tracks to join Coast to Coast at Smardale Bridge; cross Smardale Fell and descend through fields to Kirkby Stephen.
DAY 2: KELD TO HAWES THE PENNINE WAY One of the great joys of doing a long-distance trail is the camaraderie that develops between walkers; relationships, sometimes lasting friendships, gradually develop as you bump into the same people every few hours or few days, walking with them, sharing stories. Backpacking the Southern Upland Way, my partner and I frequently shared camping spots with a DutchScottish family. It got to the point where, when they reached a The Great Outdoors October 2017 37
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LINKING LONG DISTANCE ROUTES
There’s endless scope for joining up British trails to make new backpacking journeys. Try these...
1 A SOUTH-WEST EPIC The Two Moors Way, the Devon Coast to Coast, passes through two beautiful National Parks, but it has a shortcoming... at just 188km, including the Erme Plym Trail link, it’s too short! Start in Wembury on the sparkling south Devon coast and cross moody Dartmoor and Exmoor to reach the north coast at Lynmouth. Now, the larger-than-life South West Coast Path is your oyster. Head west and see how far you get. 2 NORTHUMBERLAND COAST & HILLS Northumberland may not have as many longdistance paths as some counties further south, but what it lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. Explore England’s least densely-populated county by linking sections of the Hadrian’s Wall Path, the Pennine Way, St Cuthbert’s Way and St Oswald’s Way. A total of 287km of lonely forests, remote hill country and seemingly endless beaches. 3 WALES (ALL OF IT) If you’ve got at least a couple of months to spare, why not go the whole hog and do a full circuit of Wales? After following Offa’s Dyke Path for 285km from Chepstow in the south to Prestatyn in the north, roughly hugging the English-Welsh border all the way, join the Wales Coast Path to hike 1400km in the company of some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the UK.
site first – as they often did – we’d find a brew waiting for us when we arrived. That was 20 years ago and we remain friends today. Having enjoyed a few drinks with Coast to Coasters in the bar at Keld Lodge has made me realise, as we part company with them beside the River Swale, that I’ll miss that esprit de corps on this little trip. As the Pennine Way hugs the steep slopes rising to the south of the river, we watch the previous night’s drinking companions slowly disappear beyond Crackpot Hall and head into the steep-sided ravine of Swinner Gill on the north side. Following a balcony path around Kisdon, we pick our way along a tropical seabed, through the shells and skeletal remains of Carboniferous creatures. Far below, the eastbound River Swale performs a massive bend to flow south through the tremendous Kisdon Gorge. Broadening out as it swings wildly again, it enters quintessential Yorkshire Dales scenery. With verdant meadows separated by ancient walls and dotted with stone barns, this is Swaledale proper – the Swaledale that tourists flock to see, that photographers love to capture. And, with the sun shining on it this morning, it’s about as idyllic as the National Park gets. But all that’s about to change as we head on to Great Shunner Fell. Departing from Thwaite, the weather begins to change: clouds smother the sun and introduce a mournful atmosphere to our surroundings. Peat hags hang from the tops of the hills, oozing blackness. Under a heavy sky, the colours are muted, the grasses and sedges yellow. And through it all, a thin grey line runs: the flagstones that have become synonymous with the Pennine Way. It’s empty, it’s bleak and, apart from the occasional cackle of a grouse, it’s silent. W H Auden, who had an enduring love of the Pennines, conceded that these hills were “not an area for those
who like their landscape cosy” or who “crave the romantically wild, jagged precipices”. The appeal of what J B Priestley described as these “great bare heights” is a lot more subtle.
DAY 3: HAWES TO CAUTLEY LADY ANNE’S WAY & PENNINE JOURNEY We’ve joined Lady Anne’s Way, a 100-mile walk inspired by the routes taken by Lady Anne Clifford from her castle in Skipton to visit the Westmorland estates she fought for in the 17th Century. She was the sole heir of the third earl of Cumberland, but her dead father’s estate passed to her uncle and then her cousin. She fought hard to regain what was hers and even made a direct, although unsuccessful, appeal to the king. Eventually, her cousin died without a male heir, and Lady Anne won back her estates. We follow in her formidable footsteps up on to Cotter Riggs and along the top of limestone cliffs, bouncing along on springy turf. It’s about as simple and as joyful as walking gets. Although a dirty south-easterly has brought in a lot of haze, the views ahead are still reasonable and a succession of swallow holes and cave entrances provide interesting distractions. Joining Wainwright’s Pennine Journey where it briefly coincides with the Pennine Bridleway, we drop to the banks of the peat-laden River Ure and then prepare for the unknown: the Pennine Journey is a 393km route devised a few years ago to celebrate a walking holiday that Wainwright undertook in 1938. It crosses from upper Wensleydale to the Howgill Fells via a gap between Swarth Fell and the soggy lump that is Baugh Fell, probably one of the least visited 2,000-footers in Cumbria. This turns out to be as forsaken a place as it looks on the map, although nowhere near as boggy as I was
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YORKSHIRE DALES TRAILS
[left] On the Pennine Way in Swaledale [above] Looking towards Swinner Gill from the slopes of Kisdon [below] In the Howgills, on Hazelgill Knott
fearing. It’s an austere, almost sombre place, and yet its sense of solitude is magical. A single, narrow line of trampled vegetation leads on through the largely featureless gap, and with each step taken I’m lulled into forgetting that there’s a world beyond the hills. Step... after step... after step... And then, in a split second, the spell is broken. “Hello! Is that you, Ray?” I can’t remember when we last saw any walkers and yet here, in one of Cumbria’s loneliest places, is someone I know appearing from behind a wall. (I can’t even remember when we last saw a wall.) Another figure materialises. “And Chris too!” They’re not even local friends; Ray and Chris live in the Midlands. They’ve appeared out of nowhere, coming down the pathless slopes of Swarth Fell, hidden from view until the last moment by the wall. Matching the change in atmosphere created by this unlikely meeting, the sky begins to clear, a few rays of sun break through, and the sobriety of the gap is forgotten. It’s time to catch up, swap ‘small-world’ stories and speculate what delights the Howgills, now filling the view ahead, have in store.
DAY FOUR: CAUTLEY TO KIRKBY STEPHEN THE DALES HIGH WAY AND COAST TO COAST “Pressure’s dropping,” says the landlady of the Cross Keys Temperance Inn, tapping the barometer on the wall as we prepare to set off on the final leg of our journey. “But you might just get away with it today.” She’s right; the weather is definitely changing. The valley that is home to Cautley Spout feels oppressive: there’s something sinister about the Iron Age remains scattered about and the mile-long cliff of Cautley Crag seems dark and ominous. I half expect a taloned, Jurassic beast to swoop down and make off with...
well, my most treasured possession right now is the tray-bake in the side pocket of my rucksack. Ahead, Cautley Spout plummets for almost 200m from the high plateau above. Depending on how you measure your waterfalls, it’s the longest drop of any in England. The lower falls, a single ribbon of white, are visible from the valley path, but it’s only as we start climbing that the upper falls appear and we get any sense of the scale of these impressive cascades. Above the confines of the dale, on the exposed summits, unpredictable gusts leave us reeling. This is another world again. We join the Dales High Way just north-east of The Calf, the Howgills’ highest point, and stride out along the invigorating crest of Hazelgill Knott and West Fell. The broad ridge is simply attired, wearing little but grasses and soft mosses, allowing us to cover ground rapidly – too rapidly. All too soon, we’re dropping from the four-mile-long ridge. The fun bits of our journey, the hills, are behind us now and, in our hearts, our little expedition is over. But Kirkby Stephen is still nearly eight miles away. They turn out to be eight tiring miles – stony tracks, roads, farmland – all walked under an increasingly threatening sky. This is not the way to end four superb days in the hills. We both feel weary – even as we rejoin the Coast to Coast and cross the open limestone grasslands of Smardale Fell. Behind us, the Howgills are covered in a grey shroud; ahead, the North Pennines too are lost in the murk. Finally, as we drop towards Kirkby Stephen, a solitary ray of sun tears a gash in the gloom. While all else remains colourless and barely discernible, the fields below turn a radiant green and the limestone walls shine like silver. One patch of brilliance in the fading light. At last, a fitting finale. The Great Outdoors October 2017 39
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Crossing
CAIRNS
David Lintern traverses the Carneddau by way of two scrambles
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Carneddau THE DAY DAWNED cold and breezy in the cwm under Tryfan where I’d pitched for the night. It was a beautiful place to be, that hanging rock garden by the ice blue Llyn Bochlwyd, but I’d arrived late and slept intermittently, so it took two cups of coffee to get the blood moving. My journey today would take me to Capel Curig via the largest contiguous chunk of mountain ground over 3,000ft outside Scotland. The Carneddau once had a reputation for being the quieter side of the Ogwen valley, and while this has become a bit of a cliché trotted out for magazine articles (!) there’s still some truth to it. What is less often mentioned is that it features two of the best walker-friendly scrambles in a National Park chock full of great scrambling routes. One can be used to access the ridge, and the other used to exit. It makes for a big day out,
exciting but quite doable for walkers developing more of a head for heights. I passed the Youth Hostel, a shiny new building with its car park full of equally shiny and expensive-looking vehicles, crossed the bridge and hopped over the stile commemorating one of the Ramblers’ finest, Alf Embleton. I paused to gaze up into bright sunshine at the broken southwesterly rib of Pen Y Ole Wen. It looked… tall. This route has a reputation for being a bit of a slog, but personally I think it’s a wonderful way up the hill. Then again, any way up Pen Y Ole Wen is a good way. The Head of the White Light is as magical a place as that translation from the Welsh suggests. Nearby Tryfan steals much attention and with good reason but, for me, Pen Y Ole Wen is the anchor around which the valley revolves and resolves.
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The path cuts back and forth, north and south of the nose, requiring handholds in a few places. There’s some loose ground as it becomes increasingly steep and exposed, with big views back across the valley to Snowdon. And at around 780m, there’s a very steep, rocky gully (not loose), which is the crux and makes this a scrambling route. I found it useful to stow my poles and camera for this small section. It’s not exposed at the sides, but you wouldn’t want to fall – perhaps a low Grade 2. Topping out, things become more straightforward, but there are several false summits before the terrain levels off and the blocky ground gives way to grass and the actual top. It was hot and dry with a brisk wind – not great for photos but a lovely day for a long walk. I’d not been there for many years, but the route ahead was obvious. With most of the hard work done, all that was required was to keep to the ridgeline and try not to trip on all that talus. The day was still young and the air fresh and clear, and the views across the valley to Tryfan, the Glyerdau and Snowdon beyond were sharp and defined. The path is rough but straightforward and passes a number of smashed rocky piles – the cairns that give the ridge its name – before rising gently for the second summit proper and one I share a name with: Carnedd Dafydd. At over 1,000m, even in Scottish terms this is a big rock. It’s named after the last Prince of Wales, executed by Edward I in 1283, thereby ending Wales’s independence from England and a line of Celtic kings traceable to the Gododdin tribe in southern Scotland several centuries earlier. The next-door neighbour, Carnedd Llewellyn, takes his grandfather’s name. Dafydd was apparently the first person of note to be hung, drawn and quartered for his leadership of the ‘turbulent nation’. He won’t be doing that again. I stopped for a drink and to put on a layer. There’s no water on the ridge at all, and the cold, dry breeze was desiccating. After a rocky descent, the ridge sweeps around in a grand, broad grassy arc before thinning to a more exposed crescent. It was easy to let the ground slip by under my feet, daydreaming and looking out to sea. As the route thinned again and I focused on the ground ahead, I met a runner and chatted about the routes we were taking. [above right] Not quite summit selfie, looking west-ish from Pen yr Ole Wen [below] The second scramble of the day, just before Pen yr Helgi Du
“I’m done today, really” he said “some days you’re fresh, some days you’re not. I use to race, but not anymore. I just like being up in the mountains these days.” I remembered the climb to Llewellyn as exhausting, but for now I was enjoying the rise and fall of the high ground, the endless views and the fine weather. The company, too – the Carneddau were hardly crowded, but word is plainly out about its ‘less frequented’ status. Llewellyn is now a popular out-and-back from the campsites in the Ogwen valley and I met several others on both flank and summit. I don’t mind as long as I’m not queueing – it’s great to see people out enjoying our collective heritage. The wild ponies were up there too – I’ve since read that a recent DNA study has proclaimed them a unique breed. It was tempting to peel off north from the summit and maintain some of that hard won height, but the line off to Capel requires a steeper but eye-boggling descent above the lovely Ffynnon Llugwy, towards the second instalment of scrambling. The wonderfully named Pen yr Helgi Du (Head of the Black Hound) is next, but before that there’s a sharp drop off and down climb, which can be quite tricky in the wet. Even in glorious sunshine, it gave me pause for thought. Another borderline grade, one or two, I’d guess, and another place where it can be useful to stash poles and camera if you use them. I favour a line on the right, but there are a few options. Then, an airy but un-technical bwlch to cross with fantastic views to the remote Cwm Eigiau, where industrial heritage – a slate quarry, a tramway and a dammed lake – slowly falls back into the ground from which it was hewn. I remembered it from previous visits as a magical place – the quieter side of the quieter side, perhaps? Easier
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Carneddau
TURN TO PAGE 64 FOR OUR 10-STAGE SCRAMBLING GUIDE
Tryfan steals much attention and with good reason, but for me, Pen Y Ole Wen is the anchor around which the valley revolves and resolves scrambling over loose mud and broken rocks took me to the top of that black dog’s head, where I was surprised by a delightful little path alongside a summit pool, before descending towards the open ground leading to the final summit of the day. By now the wind had gone, along with nine tenths of my water, and it was plain hot n’ sticky bogtrotting to the hill with by far the best name of the day. Pen Llithrig y Wrach translates as Slippery Peak of the Witch, which sounds more like a cocktail than what it actually is – a slightly exasperating, grassy mound. The vast, hazy bulk of Siabod stretched out in front of me, along with a long and hot descent to the moors below. I was lost in a bit of a haze myself. The Slippery Peak was the last of 47 hills I’d walked that week. Additionally, it was the last hill in a three-year effort to walk the UK’s ‘Big Three’ rounds – the Bob Graham, the Charlie Ramsay and now the Welsh Classic, the Paddy Buckley Round. I felt pleased... and relieved! And until I stood there at the end of one mountain journey, I hadn’t quite realised that it also marked another. The Ogwen Valley is where I learned to be in the mountains, and Llyn Cowlyd is the place I first took a pencil and notebook and (for richer and poorer!) turned my walks into words. The writer Alastair Humphreys talks
about the hills as places where we check in with ourselves to see how we change over time, and so it was for me as I passed the head of the Llyn and dropped into Capel for my ice cream reward. Of course, our mountain milestones don’t matter at all in the scheme of things, but it matters that they matter to us.
WHO WAS ALF EMBLETON? Alf Ambleton was a key player in the National Council of Ramblers Federations, which predated the National Association, for whom he later became Honorary Treasurer until 1961. He was also co-founder of the Ramblers Worldwide Holidays (the commercial wing of the Ramblers Association) in 1946. Early on, Alf was a member of the Liverpool Ramblers Federation, and was active in the movement to improve access and activity for all in the outdoors. In his book ‘Forbidden Land: the struggle for access to mountain and moorland’, Tom Stephenson recalls how Embleton advocated strongly for open air meetings at holiday resorts like Blackpool and Southport, in order to maximise engagement on the matter of whether the federations should come together as a national body.
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PHOTO ESSAY | Three Peaks
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WILD PEAKS WALK
W H Y D R I V E T H E T H R E E P E A K S W H E N YO U C A N WA L K A M O N G T H E M ? P H O T O G R A P H E R D R E W C O L L I N S T O O K 2 4 D AY S T O B A C K PA C K B E T W E E N B R I TA I N ’ S H I G H E S T M O U N TA I N S
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THE CLASSIC THREE PEAKS Challenge sees
thousands of people every year make the journey between Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in a window of 24 hours. The short time frame can make the experience a tortuous one, where as much of the challenge is in the driving as in the walking. So, when Drew Collins found himself with a few weeks on his hands, he decided to take an alternative approach – instead of 24 hours, he would bag the Three Peaks in 24 days, backpacking between them. Drew’s only previous long-distance walking experience was the West Highland Way, which he would revisit on this trip, albeit in the opposite direction. His route south on what he dubbed the ‘Wild Peaks Walk’ then took him via the Clyde Walkway and the Annandale Way to the Lake District, where he stayed a night at Skiddaw House before taking the Cumbria Way through the Lakes, to climb Scafell Pike from Seathwaite. “The Cumbria Way is a trail I’ll return to soon,” says Drew. “Although I walked much
of the path, I’d love to walk it from start to finish and to experience those superb Lake District peaks again.” Looking back, Drew admits his walk had been more challenging than he expected in its early stages – with squally weather on the Ben and the start of the West Highland Way – but he felt recharged after Scafell Pike, “like a sudden surge of energy through my body and mind that told me I had to make it to the finish line in Wales.” First, though, he had to make his way south to Wales. A favourite part of this section was the Lancaster Canal. “It’s the most scenic way to get from Kendal to Preston,” says Drew. “I can’t recommend it enough!” Then down through Liverpool and around the Welsh coast. He had hoped to approach Snowdon via the Carneddau and Glyderau but bad weather forced him onto the roads. However, it was all worth it when Drew met his wife and family on top of Snowdon, followed by “the most glorious night’s sleep I’ve experienced in my life!”
Map: Allyson Shields
PHOTO ESSAY | Three Peaks
Drew’s Wild Peaks route
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ABOVE
Loch Leven reflections “Early morning on the edge of Kinlochleven. I went for a short wander around town before packing up and leaving, and enjoyed these reflections in the loch.”
LEFT
West Highland Way “Walking from Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum, the sun came out for the first time, displaying the landscape to its best advantage and really lifting my spirits.”
ABOVE
Great Lingy Hut “After my climb over High Pike, I stopped here and brewed a tea.”
OPENING SPREAD
Nearly at the finish line “Standing above Llanberis Pass the final afternoon before summiting Snowdon the next day.”
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PHOTO ESSAY | Three Peaks
ABOVE
Approaching Scafell Pike “Stopping at Sprinkling Tarn in the late afternoon sun after the slog up from Seathwaite in high heat.”
LEFT
Tryfan “Taken from the edge of Llyn Ogwen. I love how the layers in this photograph build from the rocks through to the sky.”
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“I’LL MISS BEING WOKEN BY BIRDS AT DAWN AND THE SIMPLE COMFORT OF A WARM SLEEPING BAG” BELOW
Dinner on the trail “Dehydrated food never tasted so good.”
BOTTOM
Snowdonian Sunset “As I sat in the hostel with some newfound friends, we noticed the sunset outside, and I headed back out to capture this image.”
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Hunting the H E L In this exclusive extract from Nick Hunt’s new book, Where the Wild Winds Are, the author describes a day and night on the barren landscape of Cross Fell, waiting for the arrival of Britain’s only named wind IF THE PENNINES are the ‘backbone of England’, running for almost 300 miles from Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders, the Helm Wind blows over just a couple of its gritstone vertebrae. It forms when wind from the north-east pours at a right angle over Cross Fell – the highest point of the range, and the highest in England outside the mountains of the Lake District – and rushes down the steep western slope with enough force to uproot trees and tear the roofs off houses. It is a truly local phenomenon, affecting about a dozen villages in the Eden Valley below, and my first wind-walk reflected that – from Long Marton, where I planned to spend the night, I would walk to the village of Dufton to follow the Pennine Way to Cross Fell, a journey of only 11 miles – but I aimed to sleep several nights up there, waiting for the right conditions to form. Knock Old Man was a currick – a tall cairn, intricately constructed, resembling a beehive made of stone – below which sat a real old man, brewing tea on a Primus stove. He turned out to be a Mancunian window cleaner called Jim, and actually he wasn’t that old, but decades of tramping the fells had given him a suitably weathered appearance and the garrulousness peculiar to people used to spending long days alone; his only companion was a tiger-striped bull terrier named Boston. This pair, it turned out, were making for the same shelter as me: the bothy underneath Cross Fell, where I planned on setting up my base camp for the Helm. He offered me some of his brew, but neither of us suggested joining forces; there was an implicit understanding that we’d both come to be alone. I let him and his dog walk on until they were moving specks in the land, and then followed in the same direction, by a slightly different route. By mid-afternoon I had reached Great Dun Fell, the second highest point in the Pennines, home to an important radar and meteorological station. In Pennine Way Companion the gloriously subjective Wainwright heaps invective on this peak – ‘so defaced, so debased’ – in language that wouldn’t be out of
M
place in Dunbar’s Monition of Cursing. “A monstrous miscellany of paraphernalia, most conspicuous being four tall masts, disgraces it. Additionally there are wind and sunshine recorders, other grotesque contraptions, and several squat buildings of no charm whatsoever... quite the ugliest of all summits.” Personally I rather liked it: bristling with instruments, dominated by the white segmented orb of a bulging radome, accompanied by mushroom-shaped towers and sentinel antennae, it looked like a futuristic mosque, almost deliberately channelling the architecture of a place of worship. From the bottom of my rucksack I dug out my ‘god-meter’, the anemometer I had brought to gauge the speed of the wind, and held it up. Numbers flickered on the digital display as the vane purred in the breeze. The results were disappointing. The wind was wafting tepidly at four or five miles per hour, scarcely more than walking pace; worse, as I established with my compass, it was blowing from the south, where the lowlands languished in a smear of greens and greys. The frigid easterly I needed seemed to have vanished. I looked towards the sky for help, but there was only haze. Turning my back on the gleaming radome, busy with its sensors and antennae, I found a comfortable seat on the grass and assembled my camping stove. It took some minutes for the water to boil, and then with a mug of coffee cupped in my hands I picked up reception on my smartphone and checked the latest forecasts. Numbers tracked, isobars whorled, but it all felt very abstract. Tired, I closed my eyes for a while. I felt the currents of the air playing on my face and hands, the back of my neck, my lower arms. My right cheek was getting cold. After several minutes my ear was numb. It took me a moment to understand: the wind was shifting to blow from the east. For the next couple of hours I traversed the boggy saddle between Great Dun Fell, Little Dun Fell and the rising hump of Cross Fell to the north. The Pennine Way was paved in some sections with enormous granite slabs leading through swathes of sucking black peat, blanket bog and cotton grass sporting wispy white tufts like spurts of pale flame. My destination took shape as a great horseshoe-shaped ridge, vaster and bleaker than it had looked from below, a crest of variegated brown worn threadbare at its western seam to expose raw grey rock, dropping steeply like a wave. The wind lifted as I climbed, skipping from five miles per hour to 10 – finally moving faster than me – 15, sometimes touching on 20, swinging between the east and north-east, occasionally the north. The clouds
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Cross Fell
Photo: Andy Beck
W
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Greg's Hut
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Cross Fell A tall cairn on the eastern side of Cross Fell, with the radar station on Great Dun Fell seen in the distance
thickened from a vaporous mash into two distinct bands, forming a fluffy white wall above the fells. There was a new chill in the air. Ascending, my hopes grew. Perhaps because my attention was focused as much on the sky as the earth, the climb was imperceptible, and I found myself on the summit without realising how it had happened. Cross Fell, while technically a mountain, is peculiarly hard to comprehend, being at once too huge to take in – eight bleak miles from end to end – and almost entirely devoid of features. There is no top, no resolution, only a vaguely sloping expanse of heather, curdled black peat and pale rocks lying here and there resembling butchered chunks of meat, strangely notched and pitted. At 2,930 feet it felt more like being on a headland high above a desolate coast, the Eden Valley dim below, like a beach at its lowest tide. I turned a slow circle: there was nothing but unchanging brown moorland stretching on every side, majestic in its way, but far from pretty. I was starting to see the Northern Pennines as the ugly, unromanticised cousin of the Lake District 20 miles to the west, the peaks of which I could distantly glimpse beyond the intervening haze. In the middle of this emptiness I caught up with Jim, halfway through another brew. He and Boston were hunkered below a strange piece of architecture: a solid igloo made of stone, with four long radial arms ending in right-angled crosspieces, which had the appearance, from above, of a Celtic cross. It was a shelter built to break the wind from every angle, and as the frigid gusts picked up, blasting the easterly side of my face, I was grateful for its protection. The experience of being cold had a transformative effect on my thoughts, and suddenly the wind felt more like something to hide from than actively seek. The daylight was beginning to die; there was still no sign of the Helm. We drank the tea, shared a biscuit or two, and then walked on together. Our refuge was Greg’s Hut on the far side of the fell, situated snugly in the lee of a spoil heap left behind by a long-vanished mining operation. It wasn’t a hut, as the name suggested, but a slate-roofed cottage with strong stone walls containing two
The wind was wafting tepidly, at scarcely more than walking p a c e . . .
rooms, with a sleeping platform and a blackened iron stove. We arrived to find it occupied by a young man called Callum, who had hiked up from Garrigill earlier that day; a cheerful loner who, like Jim, spent his weekends wandering the moors. The first time he’d come to Greg’s Hut he’d been lost in the dark, had waded knee-deep through bogs, frozen to the bone. “And then I stumbled on this place and there were still hot embers in the fire, wet bootprints leading out the door. They’d left food and everything. It was like a fairy tale.” As night closed in the three of us pressed close around the stove, feeding in split pine logs, drawn together in its warmth. A sweet, slightly awkward companionship developed, the conversation revolving almost exclusively around the weather, whose turn it was to prepare the next brew, and the status of the fire, the health of which obsessed us all, our happiness directly dependent on the brightness of its flames and the ferocity of its roaring in the flue. By 10 o’clock it was time for bed. My tent seemed a cosier option than the bare stone room, for the fire wouldn’t last the night, so I struggled with pegs and poles by torchlight in the buffeting wind. Throughout the night the wind coursed in black jets, shaking and tugging the walls of the tent, twanging the ropes and sometimes partially lifting the groundsheet on which I lay. I drifted to sleep with tentative hopes for meeting the Helm at dawn.
Nick Hunt’s Where the Wild Winds Are describes his walks across Europe, tracing the journeys of four infamous winds. It is published in hardback by John Murray Press on 7 September 2017, priced £16.99
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The
COUNTRY FO R I a n
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West Texas
O R COLD MEN d
l i t t l e
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West Texas I SAT ON THE SUMMIT of Emory Peak, at 7,825ft the highest point in the Big Bend National Park. Looking out over the vast emptiness towards the Mexican border, an emptiness ending in the giant cliffs rising like a giant wall beyond the Rio Grande, I felt, as I never had before, as if I were looking towards the End of the World. Beyond here lies nothin’… the lines from a recent Dylan song came into my head and I found myself humming the words. Texas is seen as a flat desolation of a quarter of a million square miles (bigger than Portugal and Spain combined) full of cows and oil derricks, populated by redneck reactionaries and psychopaths as portrayed in Texas-located films such as No Country for Old Men. The reality is at variance with the image. Far West Texas, that portion between the River Pecos and the Rio Grande, is mostly mountainous, rising to almost 9,000ft in Texas’ highest point, Guadalupe Peak. This is a seriously wild and empty country, the location of some of the most rugged and remote corners of the mainland USA. There are two marvellous National Parks and
two fine State parks, which get few visitors due to their backof-beyond location, and which provide hikes from moderate day walks to serious high mountain walking and multi-day backcountry adventures. Winter is almost unknown here, and down at Big Bend they get snow on the highest mountains for at most a couple of days. January midday temperatures are around 15-20C. If British winters get you down, this is definitely The Country for Cold Men. But more than the climate, it is the mountains that draw me back.
El Paso to Big Bend
“No one comes to El Paso on vacation,” said the suspicious immigration official on my landing. The Rio Grande separates El Paso from Mexico and the problems of people and drug smuggling are notorious. I managed to convince my interrogator that I was not one of the criminal persuasion, explaining that my destination was Big Bend National Park – and he seemed mollified, after a thorough search of my rucksack for contraband.
[previous spread] Casa Grande, Chisos Mountains [below] On the Emory Peak Trail
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Summit view from Emory Peak
El Paso is the place to start any trip to Far West Texas. A fine range, the Franklins, girdles the northern side of the city. This is a state park rising to over 7,000ft in North Mount Franklin, an energetic nine-mile hike with about 3,000ft of height gain from the trailhead. After a long flight you might want to stay a couple of days in El Paso and hike the Franklins. But much greater delights lie ahead. From El Paso it is a long way – 350 miles – to Big Bend, on empty and straight roads. The counties of far West Texas are amongst the least densely populated areas of the USA. These are places you do not want to run out of petrol – or of water – far from habitation and with few passing vehicles. There is a lodge up in the park at Big Bend where you can stay, but the fun place to spend a few nights is the town of Terlingua, which lies just outside the park, and which, if you have seen the film Paris, Texas, features in the movie. Terlingua is one of the few places I have been in the US southwest where a genuine counter-cultural ambiance still survives,
EMORY PEAK Distance: 8 miles Ascent: about 2,500ft Time: 5-6 hours
Start at the Visitor Centre in the Chisos basin, and head southwards on the South Rim Trail; throughout this is excellently maintained and well-signposted. After a steep rise for a mile or so you come to a longish, flat alp-like stretch below the towering pinnacles of Casa Grande. The route then zig-zags steeply up switchbacks through delightful mixed forest to the col between Toll Mountain and Emory Peak (which is still not visible).
The path forks here; the South Rim Trail heads on south, and Emory peak is signposted to the right. For another mile or so the trail gradually contours in a rising line, until you see the summit ahead, and look down into the depths of the Chisos Basin below. The last 100ft or so involve some Moderate scrambling to the summit; watch your way up, and don’t take the wrong and quick way back down! The peak was named after the US government surveyor who first explored and mapped this region. Ian at the summit of Guadalupe Peak
GUADALUPE PEAK Distance: 9 miles Ascent: about 3,000ft Time: 5-6 hours
Though Hunter Peak is probably a more attractive one visually, Guadelupe is the highest point in Texas at 8,749ft, and the one those pressed for time will want to do. Like most hikes in US National Parks, it starts from the car park at the visitor centre, and is well signposted. After about a mile of gut-busting, steep ascent the path is joined by the longer horse-trail up to Guadalupe Peak, which merges with the hikers’ path, and then assumes a more gradual gradient, contouring round the mountain and giving
fine views of Hunter Peak across Pine Spring Canyon. Once again the path is excellent, allowing you to take your eyes off your feet and soak up the scenery. You pass a high campsite just off the path, and soon a wooden bridge over a ravine is crossed and then the steepening ascent to the summit begins. Hitching posts indicate where the horses get left, and then you clamber easily over sloping rocks to the summit, with an amazing sweep of emptiness below you, 50 miles in every direction over salt flats and desert. There is also a triangular memorial put there by American Airlines.
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West Texas
[above] No gas – be prepared! [right] Mule ears Trail, Big Bend, Texas [below left] Ascending Guadalupe Peak [below right] El Capitan, Guadalupe Mountains
not yet contaminated by commercialism. The Starlight Theatre has music every night. You actually can, if you want, lay your blanket on the ground or sleep in abandoned miners’ shacks, derelict school-buses, and even caves, as many do in the benign climate. And you can camp just about anywhere around here. Camping is widely available in the Park as well, on designated campsites spread throughout the mountains, and these usually come with toilets and barbecue sites! But carry water, don’t drink from streams and springs – and take bear precautions! The jewel in the crown of Big Bend is Emory Peak and it is approached by a splendid walk on a fine path up through woodland to a high ridge and then ending with a testing scramble to the summit. There are shorter but very rewarding walks such as that to the Lost Mine Trail, the Mule Ears Trail and
longer ones like the South Rim Trail, which most folk take two days to do but which can be done on a very long one of an almost 20-mile round trip, and where one has a good chance of seeing bears or cougars. Big Bend is a US offshoot of the vast Mexican Chihuahuan Desert and the ecology is unique, for example some birds such as the Mexican jay are only found in this corner of the US, as is the javelina, the native Mexican wild pig. The park also offers rafting, biking and off-road driving for those seeking a variant of the enormous walking possibilities.
Davis and Guadalupe mountains
It is rugged, desertified mountain country at Big Bend, but after driving away north-eastwards you come to a landscape that reaches the same height in the rolling grasslands of the Davis Mountains State Park. This is an area which achieved a certain notoriety some years back when various heavily-armed right58 The Great Outdoors October 2017
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wing supporters of Texan independence holed up and defied the government. After a shoot-out in which their leader was killed, the area is now pacified. Camping is possible here, but a stay in the unique experience of Mount Davis Indian Lodge should not be missed This was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the depression years of the 1930s in a modern adobe-pueblo style and is a great base for hiking in the surrounding countryside, with circular walks through the landscape staring at the door of the Lodge itself. The highest peak in the area is Mount Livermore, but you need to apply in advance for a permit to climb it as it lies in a sensitive nature management area. North of the Davis Mountains you enter flatter country, where open range cattle share the emptiness with automatic oil-wells and fracking towers, pumping night and day. This is No Country for Agoraphobes, as one drives sometimes for 100 miles without seeing a house, still less a town. But soon the outline of a further range of mountains is discerned, far north on the horizon. The Guadalupe Mountains are remote and, camping aside, there is no
accommodation in or near the eponymous National Park. And no shop and no gas for 50 miles. As the park ranger put it: “This place is a helluva ways from nowhere.” You won’t have seen crowds in Big Bend, but in Guadalupe Park, once past the car park and its shorter associated trails, you will be lucky to see anyone. This is the least visited national park in mainland USA. Nights are chilly in winter, though days are warm. Unlike at Big Bend, it is wise to carry four-season clothing in the Guadalupes. There is also a greater likelihood of lying snow, but this is usually soft dry snow and ice axe and crampons are of little use. For the odd chance of ice, Yaktrax would do. There are tent sites beside the Visitor Centre and others dotted around the interior of the park itself, but if camping does not appeal, then you can stay at Van Horn or Carlsbad, both towns over 50 miles from the mountains. If you like the kind of run down clapboard cheap and nasty town where they might set a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Van Horn is for you; affluent anodyne Carlsbad has a not inexpensive boutique hotel and gastropub, the
Summit view from Guadalupe Peak
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West Texas
Guadalupe Peak
There several are other peaks here, just short of the height of Guadalupe Peak, which are as fine and as well-served by paths, such as the shapely Hunter Peak at over 8,400ft. Possibilities exist for the intrepid of multi-day hikes through the backcountry of the park, again by excellent trails. And there are easier options such as the splendid, but easy, hike to the foot of El Capitan, a cliff-face
not as well-known as its Yosemite namesake, but just as visually stunning. However, here in the Guadalupes there is a higher likelihood of rain, snowfall – and on occasion, high winds than at Big Bend. For the lone winter traveller, day hikes are probably the best option. Again there are bears and cougars here, but the likelihood of seeing, still less of having an unwanted encounter with one, is very remote, especially in winter. Or even with another human being, if not on Guadelupe Peak itself. For its variety of mountain scenery, range of hiking and backpacking opportunities, and guaranteed fine winter climate, the remote and little visited mountain ranges between the Pecos and Rio Grande rivers are hard to beat. And Far West Texans (they are keen to emphasise their distinction from Texans Proper) are also the friendliest folk I have met in my travels in the USA. They say “Howdy, Y’awl, How Ya Doin?” – and they actually mean it. Ian R. Mitchell is the author of Encounters in the American Mountain West (Inn Pinn, 2012)
Map: Shutterstock
Trinity Hotel. It must be the best place to eat and sleep for about 2,500 square miles around. Most people come here to climb Guadalupe Peak, Texas’s highest point, which, as is almost always the case in US National Parks, is approached by an excellent and well-marked trail, rising through pinewoods to the summit ridge where a vista over the salt flats of the Texas desert to the south is a thing of wonder. If the summit view from Emory Peak makes you think that the world ends somewhere to the south, that from Guadelupe could produce the opposite impression; that the world is actually endless.
TEXAS
Essential information
There are no direct flights to El Paso from the UK. Manchester to Atlanta and then on to El Paso is the best route I have found. You will need a car, it is impossible to get around other than by driving. Most US national parks give you excellent brochure handouts to the parks and their trails, which in turn are always well-maintained and well-signposted. The majority of US hikers do not even bother with guidebooks and maps. However, Guadalupe Mountains; National Geographic Topographic Map No. 203, 1:35,000, and Big Bend National Park, No 225 in the same series will serve your needs. As will the books in the Falcon Guides series: Hiking Texas by Laurence Parent, Hiking Big Bend National Park by Laurence Parent and Hiking Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe Mountains National Parks by Bill Schneider. Though I admit to increasingly using the website summitpost.org for my mountain research before going anywhere. Saves time, saves money, saves carrying the guide books. On books, as preparation be sure to read, or watch the films of, No Country for Old Men, The Last Picture Show, Paris, Texas, Giant – and all the other works set in this little-known corner of the US South-West.
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10-Step Guide To Getting Into
SCRAMBLING
Carl McKeating is an experienced scrambler who, with Rachel Crolla, recently updated Cicerone’s classic Snowdonia scrambles guide. We invited him to share his top tips for beginners and those looking to develop their skills About 10 years ago, a neighbour called round for a cup of tea shortly after I returned from a climbing trip to Scotland. He had recently enjoyed a hike up Helvellyn with his girlfriend in exceedingly strong winds, and was keen to tell me about his ascent, which was one of his first mountain adventures. “We had to cling to the ground at some points,” he confessed. They had gone up a hiking path from Thirlmere and had avoided both Striding Edge and Swirrel Edge. “A good move,” I suggested, hearing about how strong the winds had been. He looked around at the debris field of technical climbing gear that I had just unloaded from the car and that now littered my dining room. “How do you get into all this mountain climbing malarkey?” he asked. Before I had a chance to answer, he continued: “Would I need to go on a course? There seems to be a lot of equipment you need; I bet it’s not cheap. Are there any particular books I should buy? To be honest, since going up Helvellyn, I’ve been taken with the idea of doing the Snowdon Horseshoe – I’ve heard that’s really good. Do you think we would need a rope for it?” The answer to this last question was of course ‘no’ – he did not need a rope, but what he was talking about here was making the transition from hillwalking to scrambling. This conversation highlighted to me the divide that exists for many people. Misconceptions abound. There is no set method or system of progressing – perhaps a better word might be ‘digressing’ – from walker to scrambler. Experiences, fitness, mindset, physical and mental resilience, mountain and navigational instincts vary from one person to the next. Nonetheless, I thought about what advice I should give my neighbour and here it is, in 10 steps.
Establishing a secure potiion on the Pinnacle Ridge of Braich ty Du Face Route on Pen yr Ole Wen
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HILL SKILLS
SOME MISCONCEPTIONS ANSWERED Do I need strong arms? No. Scrambling, even up to the hardest grades, will not require you to have particularly strong arms. Scrambling is an enjoyable pastime for people of various shapes and sizes, ages and fitness levels. Do I need a rope and special equipment? Not at first – see page 69. Do I need special clothing? No. You can happily wear your normal hillwalking clothes to get started on grade 1 scrambles . Do I need to enrol on a course? Not when getting started. But later on, if you are aiming to tackle some of the harder scrambles, especially those given grade 3, then knowing how to use a rope and other equipment properly is essential.
Have you got a head for heights? Steep terrain on the Nantlle Ridge
1. GETTING STARTED
Entry level scrambling is within the capabilities of most people; those who have done a bit of adventurous hillwalking should be ready to get out on Grade 1 routes. It is helpful to make an assessment of what you have done already to ensure you are well-prepared. Obviously, if you get vertigo or altitude sickness going up the stairs to bed at night, then it might be worth asking yourself if scrambling is really for you! Conversely, if you spent your childhood climbing trees, jumping off rocks into deep rivers and cycling down steep steps, then there is a good chance
you will cope just fine with the exposure of scrambling. The biggest challenge in this case might well be stopping yourself from rushing head-first into something that you are not yet ready for. Mountains do not suffer fools lightly. It might be obvious, but it cannot be stated enough: build up gradually. There will always be those – myself included – who have just gone out in their youth, been immersed in a relatively serious mountain challenge and have lived to tell the tale. For obvious reasons, such an approach is not ideal. It is very easy to bite off more than you can chew and come unstuck.
2. BUILD UP YOUR EXPERIENCE Photos: Rachel Crolla and Carl McKeating
Before doing any scrambling, it is a good idea to have some long adventurous hikes in mountain environments under your belt to ensure you have developed a basic skill set and mountain instinct Up your mileage gradually: plan walks that you can lengthen or shorten. But do test your head for heights and choose some routes that offer a sense of exposure. Test your weather resilience, too. Mountain weather is changeable, and knowing how to cope on a scramble if conditions deteriorate is an essential skill. The experience of doing the Snowdon Horseshoe on a still and sunny day is incomparable to doing it on a wet and windy one.
ROUTES TO TRY BEFORE YOU GET INTO SCRAMBLING If you’ve not done much adventurous walking before, two examples of of long hikes that give a degree of exposure are detailed here. You’ll find plenty more if you regularly read this magazine!
SNOWDONIA Ascend Snowdon from Nantgwynant via Clogwyn Du and Bwlch Main, returning via the Watkin Path (you’ll get good exposure on Bwlch Main).
LAKE DISTRICT Scafell Pike from Seathwaite via Styhead Tarn and the Corridor Route, returning via Broad Crag and Esk Hause (short scrambling step on the Corridor Route).
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Tandem scrambling: it’s always a good idea to go out in company, but don’t blindly follow others
3. MASTER NAVIGATION Make sure you have properly tested yourself so that you are confident in using a compass and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map to navigate. It’s no use relying on other people to do all the navigation – especially if they are not going scrambling with you! There are numerous books and online tutorials that can prove useful, but these are no substitute for putting your skills to the test in the field. You do not need to be in a mountain environment to give yourself your first navigation challenges. Areas with lots of field boundaries, footpaths and stiles can offer very tricky navigation tests. It is also important to do mountain walks on lesser known peaks where there are fewer people about; it is not easy to test your navigation skills while following the crowds up Ben Nevis on a summer Saturday!
4. LEARN TO TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS Having a good mountain instinct is something that comes with time and experience. However, there is one key rule to follow: if it does not seem right – it probably isn’t. ROUTE FINDING Do not get tunnel vision. There is a limit to how much a flat map at any scale can help you, especially on steep terrain. Understanding these limitations is important. If a path starts to peter out or you are doing a scramble and you appear to have moved from well-travelled terrain to mossy overgrown rock, then something probably is not right. Likewise, if you are heading down a scree chute that, although it has footprints in it, appears to be leading hazardously over a cliff edge – stop and have a rethink. There is no shame in admitting to yourself and others in your party that you might have gone wrong.=Retracing your
steps or down climbing is preferable to getting into trouble. Remember, when it comes to scrambling and rock climbing, if it feels too hard for the grade then it probably is too hard for the grade and you have gone wrong. OTHER PEOPLE You are not a sheep. Never follow other parties blindly – no matter how experienced they might appear on the surface. I did this once years ago as a teenager. I followed a team that were training for an Antarctic expedition; I foolishly ended up in an avalanche-prone gully and was lucky to live to tell the tale. The same can be said for the off-the-cuff advice people sometimes offer on mountains. Some people overegg dangers, while others underplay them. You just have to trust your instincts and do what is right for you and your party.
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HILL SKILLS
5. TACKLE YOUR FIRST SCRAMBLE For the latest edition of Scrambles in Snowdonia we have added + and – symbols to the grading system in order to better clarify the breadth of difficulty within the standard scrambling grades. This system is most useful for Grade 1 scrambles where the range of difficulty from the easiest to the hardest routes within the grade is relatively broad. It is a good idea to start off with a Grade 1- scramble especially if you are in any way unsure if scrambling is going to be for you. The Southern Ridge Circuit in the Carneddau or Nantlle Ridge are both Graded 1- and are classic three-star routes. In essence, both are long adventurous hikes with only short passages of scrambling and therefore ideal to test the waters. Alternatively, the Moel Siabod Ridge Circuit (including Daear Ddu Ridge) is likewise a classic three-star route; it has more scrambling, but it is relatively tame and any difficulties can be avoided if necessary. Another great beginners’ option is to do a link up of Senior’s Gully and Senior’s Ridge on Glyder Fawr.
<<
6. BUILD UP SLOWLY
With one or two 1- routes under the belt, most people will now be excited to experience one or both of the two finest scrambling days out in the UK. The Cwm Bochlwyd Horseshoe and the Snowdon Horseshoe both join together a series of scrambles. It is hard to say which one is most enjoyable. The Cwm Bochlwyd is less exposed and, though popular, usually less busy. Because the North Ridge of Tryfan precedes Bristly Ridge – which is marginally harder – the Bochlwyd also has a natural sense of progression. The Crib Goch Traverse on the Snowdon Horseshoe has a tremendous sense of exposure. If you are just getting your mountain legs, it might be wise to test yourself on the Cwm Bochlwyd first. A Brcocken spectre between Crib y Ddysgl and Crib Goch on the Snowdon Horseshoe
Buy next month’s magazine for a full feature on the Cwm Bochlwyd Horseshoe
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7. LEARN SOME BASIC SCRAMBLING TECHNIQUES Bridging Few scramblers do this instinctively, but it is a technique that pays a huge dividend. When heading up a groove, chimney or in some instances a face, look to spread your legs wide so that they form an upside-down V shape and therefore a bridge against opposing holds or jutting walls. The wide base is likely to feel far more stable than having your legs in a more parallel position. The opposing forces of your legs in a bridging position will work to take the strain off of your arms and will allow you easy rests. Bridging cannot always be applied – but doing it well can, on a route such as Bryant’s Gully for example, enable you to bridge up a waterfall without getting wet. Better sideways movement I have seen parties looking incredibly insecure crawling forwards along the crest
8. TACKLE A GRADE 2 ROUTE
of the Crib Goch traverse. Dropping down so that the body is perpendicular to the line of a traverse, and using the positive edge of the crest as a handrail as you crab sideways along, is a very secure and generally fast means of progress. Chimneying (or back-and-footing) This is my favourite technique. When faced with a natural rock chimney, you press your back and the palms of your hands against one side of the chimney and then oppose this with your feet on the other side. Using this technique I once ascended a 45m vertical chimney in America that had no protection; despite the perils of a fall, the technique was so secure I could happily take my hands away and rest securely as if sitting on an invisible chair. In Snowdonia it can come in useful on routes such as Jammed Boulder Gully or the Chasm Face.
Hand-jamming If faced with a smooth vertical crack that has no horizontal holds, or an outer face that offers no horizontal holds, then a hand-jam can offer an exceptional hold. There are a number of ways to wedge your hand in a crack securely, but the basic approach is to tuck your thumb into your palm, keep your fingers straight, but bend your hand at the second set of knuckles and jam your hand in the crack. A hand jam can be rough on the skin, but done effectively can be secure enough to support your entire bodyweight from a rock ceiling. It is a useful technique generally, though I found it especially helpful on East Gully Arête and Craig Lloer Spur. (The same principles apply to using a fist jam or a foot jam – although in these instances it is necessary to twist the foot or the fist into a constriction for security.)
Conditions make a world of difference – clean dry rock on the superb Notch Arete on Tryfan
By progressing through the grades gradually, building experience and instinct, scramblers will likely enough find themselves on Grade 2 routes. Things are steeper, more exposed and much more technical now. The East Ridge of Y Garn is perhaps Snowdonia’s most well-known – and accessible – Grade 2 route. Because it is never too committing, it proves a very good place to begin. While few people employ a rope on Grade 1 routes, they are not uncommon on Grade 2 routes – especially 2+ routes. The key here is to only undertake ascents of Grade 2 routes in a way you feel comfortable. Packing a rope and knowing how to use it is a sensible idea now. In wet or damp conditions, Grade 2 route done without a rope will almost certainly be more dangerous than a Grade 3 route done with a rope. Knowing when and how to retreat is always an important skill, but this is especially so once you reach Grade 2. Practise descending Grade 1 and especially Grade 1+ routes such as Nor Nor Groove before venturing onto Grade 2s. Likewise, while climbing up Grade 2 routes, think about how you would reverse moves on the more difficult sections and perhaps even practise doing so.
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HILL SKILLS
9. INVEST IN TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT
Stepping off the Table of the Cyfrwy Arête on Cadair Idris - a classic hard mountaineering scramble
When it comes to the more technical routes (Grade 2 upwards), good kit goes a long way. Footwear is the most important thing to get right. I would recommend getting a pair of specialist scrambling or climbing ‘approach shoes’ made by a reputable brand. Whether to wear a helmet is a matter of personal choice. On Grade 2 and 3 scrambles, climbing helmets are increasingly valuable. But it is important not to consider a helmet as a psychological crutch that allows you to take greater risks than you would otherwise. I would always recommend wearing a helmet if you are ascending a route that requires rope protection, because ropes can dislodge material in unpredictable ways – and certainly on any route that describes loose or friable rock.
<<
10. GRADE 3 SCRAMBLING Rock climbing experience is needed for Grade 3 routes. Indeed, the difference between a Grade 3 scramble and a full-blown rock climb is often negligible. Soloing Grade 3 routes should therefore be left to those with ample rock climbing experience who understand the risks involved. At Grade 3 it is time to have a rope, harness, a climbing buddy and fully understand how to set up and belay safely. All this is not as difficult as you might think, but you cannot afford to get it wrong. A friend who is an experienced rock climber might be willing to teach you the necessary skills. Alternatively, various affordable courses and tutorials are available. While online videos and guidebook instructions can be useful for refreshing knowledge, there is no short cut to in-the-field instruction by someone who truly knows what they are doing. A particularly good Grade 3 to start out on with a rope is the classic Cneifion Arête – which has an excellent mountaineering feel, straightforward gear placements and belay stances and good positive holds. Once roped Grade 3 scrambling is mastered, you have essentially become a rock climber and a mountaineer… the world is now your oyster.
The scrambling routes mentioned in this article can be found, with additional advice, in Scrambles in Snowdonia by Steve Ashton, updated by Carl McKeating and Rachel Crolla, published by Cicerone. www.cicerone.co.uk
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IN THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF
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Come join the adventure!
Entry is now open for The Great Outdoors Challenge, Scotland’s annual coast-to-coast backpacking event
Photo: Ali Ogden
THE 39TH GREAT OUTDOORS CHALLENGE: 11-25 MAY 2018
THE GREAT OUTDOORS CHALLENGE is a unique and wonderful backpacking institution. The creation of writer and walker Hamish Brown, it has been running since 1980 and has been sponsored by this magazine since the outset. Every May, around 330 passionate long-distance walkers take up the Challenge and travel to the west coast of Scotland to start their journey to the east. Some walk on their own, others as part of a group and many in the company of other Challengers they’ve met along the way. The Challenge is non-competitive. Each Challenger or group of Challengers follows their own route, choosing from a selection of start points between Ardrishaig in the south and Torridon in the north. Experienced vetters give feedback on proposed routes in the months before the event.
Most Challengers take advantage of Scotland’s open access legislation and enjoy some glorious wild camping spots on their journey to the east coast. There are many reasons why the Challenge is so special: Scotland’s incredible landscape, the hostels, B&Bs and inns that offer a warm welcome to Challengers, the great band of people that take part, and especially the volunteers that enable the event to run so smoothly. Many Challengers return time and time again. Take a look through the next five pages for a selection of inspiring photographs from this year’s Challenge (you'll find more at www.tgochallenge.co.uk). Then, if you'd like to join us next year, turn to page 77 for details of how to sign up. The deadline for entry is 28 October. Good luck! October 2017 The Great Outdoors 71
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2017 Challenge in pictures
COLIN JONES
The view looking back across Loch Quoich, towards Gairich and Gairich Beag
IAN DAVIS
Misty morning overlooking Aviemore
JOHN JACKLIN
The beach at St Cyrus
JULIE MUNKEBY
Cocktails and camaraderie below Sgurr a' Chaorachain
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GERARD BAKKER
A beautiful rainbow greets Natascha Hoiting on the route between Kintail and Cannich, near Alltbeithe Hostel
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2017 Challenge in pictures
MELISSA MULLAN
Challenger walking the Larig Ghru in the Cairngorms.
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JOHN ST LAURENT
Fellow Challengers crossing Loch Ness
GUS MCKINNON
Looking forward to tackling Loch Beoraid
PETER JORDAN
A brew stop with the lads by Coignafearn Lodge
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RICH JONES
Chalybeate Springs, Monadhliath
PETER ATKINSON
From the summit of Ben Alder after a wild camp along the Uisge Labhair
TIM SWIFT
Tim with his folks, finishing at Montrose beach
JOHN ARLINGTON
Dawn at Bob Scott's Bothy, looking towards the Lairig Ghru
Visit www.tgochallenge.co.uk for more Challenge stories and photographs 76 The Great Outdoors October 2017
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Photo: Ali Ogden
HOW TO ENTER
To find out everything you need to know before entering The Great Outdoors Challenge.
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CLICK ON "ABOUT"
CLICK "2018 EVENT"
* If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have access to the internet, please contact the Challenge Coordinators at: Newtonmore Hostel, Main Street, Newtonmore, Scotland PH20 1DA or call 01540 673360/673583 They can send you paper copies of all the relevant forms.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Photo: Ian Cotterill
To read the Entry Notes and to complete your Entry Form.
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VISIT THE WEBSITE www.tgochallenge.co.uk*
If the Challenge is oversubscribed, there will be a draw and you will be informed by mid-November whether you have gained a place. Anyone with sufficient experience who fails to gain a place in the draw will be guaranteed one the next time they apply. Payment of ÂŁ55 per person will be requested once places have been confirmed. Further details of the Challenge, including advice on route planning, will be sent to successful participants in November. The deadline for route submission from groups including a Challenger who has completed five or more crossings is 20 January. Newer Challengers have until 24 February.
Photo: Ian Cotterill
The closing date for receipt of entries is 28 October.
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GEAR Gear news & reviews Chris Townsend
Men’s boots Chris Townsend
Women’s boots Judy Armstrong
The Classics Polartec Fleece
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Power 10, Power 5, Solar Panel Portable power is essential for today’s electronics and WakaWaka has several new products of interest. There are two power banks, the 10,000mAh Power 10 (£59.99) and 5000mAh Power 5 (£39.99), plus a Solar Panel (£79.99). The power banks are quite light at 283g and 200g respectively. The solar panel weighs 698g. The Power 10 is said to convert solar energy into battery power faster than any other power bank.
New gear Adidas
Terrex Agravic Alpha Hooded Shield Jacket Adidas’s Agravic Alpha is a hybrid jacket with Polartec Alpha insulation on the front but no insulation elsewhere. The shell is Pertex Quantum so the whole garment is windproof and resistant to light rain. There’s an adjustable hood and two zipped pockets. At 180g for the men’s and 151g for the women’s it’s very light. The cost is £109.95.
waka-waka.com
adidas.co.uk
Buff
Beta LT Arc’teryx has redesigned the Beta LT jacket (£400) with refinements in fit, aesthetics and features. The jacket is still made from lightweight Gore-Tex Pro and has an adjustable helmet compatible hood, chest pockets and an internal pocket. The weight is 335g for the men’s and 315g for the women’s.
ThermoNet collection Buff’s latest range showcases the brand’s new technical fabric ThermoNet, which uses Primaloft technology to deliver a winning combination of warmth and breathability. Proven during research to be four times warmer than regular microfibre, the fabric relies on fast-drying fibres to draw moisture away from the body. It’s eco-friendly as well – 70% of the fibres are made from recycled PET bottles. ThermoNet features in a new lightweight range of Buffs, hats and balaclavas with prices starting at £18.50.
arcteryx.com
buffwear.co.uk
Arc’teryx
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First Look
Outdoor Research
Ascendant Collection Ready for the coming winter, Outdoor Research has a collection of clothing made from Polartec Alpha Direct insulation and stretchy Pertex Microlight. These materials mean the garments have a high warmth to weight ratio. The collection includes jackets, vests, trousers and balaclavas. The highlight is the Ascendant Hoody jacket with adjustable hood. The cost is £195. outdoorresearch.com
Garmin
Vivoactive 3 Garmin has three new wrist-worn products vivosport, a smart activity tracker; vivomove HR, a hybrid smartwatch with activity tracker and heart rate monitor; and vivoactive 3, a GPS smartwatch with heart rate monitor and various sports apps. It even supports credit cards so you can your buy energy bars with it. Depending on the colour the vivoactive 3 will cost from £279.99 to £299.99. garmin.com/vivo
Primus PrimeTech Stove Set 1.3L £115 883g primus.eu
Primus’s remote-cartridge heat exchanger stove sets have been around for many years now and I’ve used them regularly for winter camping. They’re especially good for snow melting. For the PrimeTech, Primus completely redesigned the system to make it lighter, more compact and easier to use whilst still retaining the low fuel consumption and high power output. The key change Primus has made is to integrate the burner with the windscreen so it can be set up very quickly and is lighter, neater and lower profile than the old version. Two 1.3 litre pots come with the set, one with a heat exchanger on the base and a ceramic non-stick coating, and one hard anodised aluminium. There’s a transparent strainer lid, a locking pot grip, a Piezo lighter, and an insulated storage bag that doubles as a pot cosy. The PrimeTech set can be ready to use in seconds. Just attach the hose to the cartridge and light. As is always the case for me, the Piezo lighter didn’t always work. I’d never rely on one. A fire steel is far more reliable as are most butane lighters. Otherwise the unit worked faultlessly. One pleasant surprise is that the burner is quiet even on full power. It can be turned down for simmering too. The burner spreads the flame well across the base of the pot and stability is excellent. Boil times are very fast – around two minutes for half a litre – and the stove burns consistently until the cartridge is almost empty. I haven’t used it in sub-zero temperatures yet, but there is a preheat tube so the cartridge can be inverted and becomes a liquid feed stove. It would be nice to see some legs to support the cartridge when this is done and a control lever that was easier to use in that position. Gas usage is around 6g per 500ml of water boiled, which is about average for a heat exchanger unit and lower than standard stoves which tend to run at 8-10g per 500ml. This only matters on long trips of course. The quality of the PrimeTech is excellent and it should last well. For two-three people I think it’s an ideal set-up. Chris Townsend
TGO’s gear reviewers Chris Townsend
Judy Armstrong
Alex Roddie
Height 5’8” Boot size 9 Clothing size Medium (short legs!)
Height 5’2” Boot size 3.5/4 Clothing size 12/Women’s medium
Height 5’ 7” Boot size 10.5 Clothing size Large
Chris Townsend has written 20 books on the outdoors, including the award-winning The Backpacker’s Handbook. Among his walking achievements, he was the first person to complete a continuous round of all the Munros and Tops and the first to walk the 1600-mile length of the Canadian Rockies. Chris has been reviewing gear for The Great Outdoors since 1991.
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Judy Armstrong has been testing gear for The Great Outdoors since 2005 but has been hillwalking and mountaineering for 30 years. Originally THE UK’S from New Zealand, MOST Judy lives in the North EXPERIENCED GEAR York Moors National TESTING Park and has a base TEAM in the French Alps.
Alex Roddie is The Great Outdoors magazine’s Online Editor and a regular feature writer. A reformed climber with a background in Scottish winter and alpinism, he loves nothing better than long-distance lightweight backpacking in wild mountain landscapes, particularly the Scottish Highlands and Swiss Alps. Read his reviews online at tgomagazine.co.uk.
06/09/2017 07:46
Gear comparative review
Men’s 3-season b Chris Townsend tests 12 pairs, including updates on old favourites and new models
T
‘Three-season’ is a catch-all description for boots suitable for all conditions bar steep snow and ice when crampons are need to be worn for long periods. Footwear in this category ranges from lightweight, flexible boots to fairly stiff, heavy ones. The assumed three seasons are spring, summer and autumn. Speaking personally though, I would be comfortable using all the boots tested for year-round walking, including on snow and ice (with flexible walking crampons) as long as the terrain was quite gentle. Other people may want the security of a stiffer, warmer boot in winter. For most walking, I believe the lightest, most flexible boots are best – as these allow you to walk naturally and are the least tiring to wear. As you lift and swing each boot with every step, the weight is significant – especially on long days – while boots that flex with your feet mean you’re not straining against them when you walk. However, if you’ll be walking on rough, steep terrain, torsional stiffness will give you more support when traversing. It’s also good for scrambling and kicking boot edges into snow. Boots with rigid soles are only needed if you’ll be climbing steep snow and ice with crampons.
Fit & reviews Because fit is crucial, reviewing boots is always difficult. I have wedge-shaped feet – wide at the forefoot, narrow at the heel – and so obviously prefer boots with a similar shape. In the review I’ve described the shape of the boots and how well or not they fit my feet. A poor fit on me doesn’t mean the boots aren’t any good – they will almost certainly fit someone else really well. Taking the time to have boots fitted correctly by an experienced boot fitter is always worthwhile. As well as having your feet measured, you should be able to try the boots on an incline board to see how they feel on a slope and on a rock board to see what they feel like on stony ground. Fit can be modified a little by ditching the footbeds that come with the boots – often flimsy and pretty useless – and replacing them with more supportive or thicker or thinner ones.
Features 1. Fit If boots don’t fit properly it doesn’t matter how well-designed or well-made they are, they will hurt your feet. Take time fitting boots, preferably in a shop with a trained fitter who can measure your feet with a Brannock Device and have you try them on an incline board.
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4
2. Weight Lighter boots are less tiring to wear. They do give a little less protection to your feet and ankles, but unless you’re particularly clumsy this shouldn’t be a problem.
3. Materials Leather lasts longest – especially if there are few seams – and is more water-resistant than fabric. Boots made from fabric, or a combination, are often lighter though. Keeping boots clean will prolongtheir life.
4. Waterproof membranes While waterproof/breathable membranes do make boots waterproof, they also increase the warmth and reduce breathability, which can make boots hot and sweaty in warm weather. When wet, boots with membranes dry slower than ones without membranes. And membranes often start to leak long before the rest of the boots wears out.
5. Cushioning All boots have cushioning material in the sole. This makes walking more comfortable, especially on rocky terrain and hard surfaces. The thicker the cushioning the more protection for your feet but also the less ‘feel’ you’ll have for the terrain.
6. Toe protection Hard toe caps or bumpers protect your toes against rocks. All boots should have these.
7. Heel counter To hold your feet in place boots need firm heel counters, usually rigid material hidden inside the heel but sometimes visible on the outside.
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8. Sole The deeper the tread on the sole, the longer it will last. Very shallow treads may not grip well. The pattern is less important, as long as it’s a mixture of shapes.
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9. Sole stiffness Sole flexibility is a compromise between comfort and support. Very flexible soles, especially at the forefoot, are the most comfortable and less tiring to walk in but may feel unsupportive on steep rough terrain. A good compromise is a boot with a flexible forefoot but stiffness side to side.
10. Flexibility I’ve graded the boots as Very Flexible, Flexible, Semi-stiff and Stiff. This is based on how easy or not it is to bend the boots by hand at the forefoot. Very flexible means there’s little resistance to bending, flexible means moderate resistance, semi-stiff means a lot of pressure is needed to bend the boot, stiff means the boots hardly bend at all. Boots usually become more flexible with use.
Notes: All the boots are torsionally stiff and have waterproof/breathable membranes so I’ve not commented on these individually. When new, all the boots are waterproof – and too hot for summer walking for me!
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comparative review Gear
n boots
Aku Alterra GTX £195
1456g
stretch fabric, deep tread, footbeds stiffness Uppers: suede & stretch fabric Lining: Gore-Tex Performance Comfort Midsole: double density PU Outsole: Vibram Octopus Flexibility: stiff Sizes: men 3-13, women 3-8 Country of Origin: Romania aku.it
Keen Targhee II Mid £115
1032g
cost, weight, grip, footbed nothing Uppers: Nubuck leather & synthetic Lining: Keen-Dry Midsole: dual density compression moulded EVA Outsole: non-marking rubber Flexibility: very flexible Sizes: men 6.5-16, women 3.5-7.5 Country of Origin: Thailand global.keenfootwear.com/en-gb
The Targhee Mids have been a favourite of mine for many years for cold weather walking. The latest version is much the same as previous models, albeit with a proprietary Keen-Dry membrane rather than eVent and more supportive footbeds. The boots have Keen’s distinctive chunky look with a big solid toe bumper and wide sole. The fit is roomy at the forefoot but quite narrow round the heel, which is just right for me. Those with narrow forefeet will probably find the fit a bit loose. The ankles are wellpadded for comfort and there’s a hard heel counter. Cushioning is fine. The tread is quite deep, and grips well on all types of terrain. Whilst the Targhees flex easily at the forefoot they are quite stiff torsionally and so supportive when traversing steep rough terrain. Walking crampons fit well – I once wore a pair all day in the Cairngorms with the previous Targhees. The Targhee II Mids are the lightest and the least expensive boots tested. I think they’re excellent value – if they fit of course. Previous versions have proved durable and I can see no reason why these won’t be the same.
The new Alterra is a medium-weight boot designed, says Aku, for ‘medium difficulty and duration trekking over mixed terrain. For me the stiff sole means it’s a winter boot that I’d only choose to wear when expecting to use crampons for long periods. The sole is a rocker, one that helps with foot roll and somewhat mitigates the stiffness. Aku says the asymmetric shape of the sole also helps with this. I’ve certainly found these more comfortable than most boots with such a stiff sole but I wouldn’t want to wear them for long-distance walking. An unusual feature of the Alterra is the stretch material used for the tongue and collar, which means that the former is sewn-in right to the top and that the boot fits snugly round the ankle without being restrictive. Overall the fit is just wide enough for me though I can’t spread my toes fully. The Alterra has a solid toe bumper protected by a thick rand and a hard heel counter. Cushioning is good and the sole has a deep tread giving excellent grip on wet and muddy terrain. It should last too. The footbed is more supportive than those found in most boots. If you like stiff boots, the Alterra is worth considering, though it is quite expensive for a suede boot with many seams.
Mammut Trovat High Advanced GTX £200
1682g
deep tread stiffness, weight Uppers: Nubuk leather & textile Lining: Gore-Tex Performance Comfort Midsole: PU Outsole: Vibram MT-Traction Flexibility: stiff Sizes: men 7-12, women 4-8.5 Country of Origin: Romania mammut.com
The heaviest boots reviewed and the equal stiffest, the Trovats are another pair I’d use for winter hillwalking with crampons rather than general hillwalking. Like the other stiff boots they have a rocker sole though it’s less pronounced and so they don’t roll you forward quite as much. The fit is slightly too narrow at the forefoot for me, squeezing my toes. The ankle fit is fine, helped by the stretchy tongue and memory-foam at the top. The boots are made from one-piece leather though this doesn’t come as high up as on some other boots so there are more seams. There are protective rubber rands at toe and heel and both these are really hard. Cushioning seems okay and the tread is deep, giving good grip. While the weight and cost are high, the quality is good and for winter hillwalking these should be fine if they fit.
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Gear comparative review Berghaus RECOMMENDED
Supalite II GTX Tech £155
1092g
lightweight, leather lining narrower than previous version Uppers: Pittards leather Lining: leather/Gore-Tex Performance Comfort Midsole: EVA Outsole: Vibram Supalite Flexibility: flexible Sizes: men 7-12, women 4-8 Country of Origin: Vietnam berghaus.com
The original Brasher Supalite was a well-proven lightweight boot. This
Salewa Mountain Trainer Mid GTX £190
1586g
deep tread, lacing stiffness Uppers: 1.6mm suede & fabric Lining: Gore-Tex Extended Comfort Midsole: PU Outsole: Vibram WTC Flexibility: semi-stiff Sizes: men 6-13, women 3-9 Country of Origin: Romania salewa.com
Despite the word ‘trainer’ in the name these are quite stiff, quite heavy boots suitable for year-round walking on the roughest terrain.
RECOMMENDED
The stiff sole means I’d only consider them when I expected to wear crampons for long periods on steep slopes. The sole is a rocker shape which does ease walking though I still find them tiring and restrictive compared to flexible boots. The fit is quite roomy – I can almost spread my toes – and two-part footbeds are provided so the volume can be varied. The two parts fit together with Velcro. Unfortunately, like the floppy footbeds found in most boots, they don’t provide any support. The lacing comes down almost to the toe of the boot for a more precise fit and there’s a flexible ankle collar that allows your ankle to move naturally while still providing support. The toe and heel are rock hard and there’s a wide rand running
Altberg Kisdon £215
1596g
one-piece leather, deep tread cost, weight Uppers: 2.4-2.6 Nubuk leather Lining: Sympatex Midsole: Tri-Flex Outsole: Vibram Masai & Micro midlayer Flexibility: stiff Sizes: 4-13.5 Country of Origin: England altberg.co.uk
If you have wide, high volume feet and like stiff boots then the Kisdons
latest version, now branded Berghaus, is essentially the same except for the fit. I compared them with an old pair – putting the soles together, the narrower width of the new boot is clearly visible. Wearing one of each made it very noticeable. The Supalites are made from top quality leather and have a leather lining, which gives more protection to the Gore-Tex membrane than a synthetic one. The uppers have few seams. The toe and heel are hardened. There’s a small protective extension of the sole at the toe but no rand. The boots are quite stiff torsionally though they do twist a little. Cushioning is fine. The outsole is now branded Vibram not Brasher, but the pattern and depth are the same. I’ve always liked Supalites. If they fit you, these are a good choice for walks of any length.
right round the boot to protect the upper. The sole cushions well and the tread is deep and very grippy on all surfaces. The boots are quite expensive and not that light but they are well-made and comfortable for such stiff boots.
might be for you. Altberg says the volume and width is much higher than average, especially around the forefoot. This means they fit me! At the same time, the heel isn’t that wide so the fit here is snug. The boots are made from thick one-piece leather and so should last well. The toe and heel are hardened and there’s a wide rubber rand to protect the uppers from abrasion. Cushioning is fine and the outsole grips well. The stiff sole is a rocker one and this does make walking easier, but even so, I wouldn’t want to walk long distances in such stiff boots and I think they’re most suited to days when crampons will be worn. The quality is superb. The cost is high but they should last well and are one of the best of the stiffer boots tested.
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comparative review Gear
These are quite typical-looking fabric and suede boots, with the emphasis on
the former. There’s a wide toe bumper and rand. The latter doesn’t go right round the boot but there are synthetic reinforcements below the suede around the forefoot. These are hard to see as they’re the same colour as the suede – unusual subtlety from Salomon! The well-established Contragrip sole has good grip and cushioning is okay. The heel is well-reinforced externally and internally, and the former protection runs across the ankle to the midfoot. The fit is medium – a little too tight for me at the forefoot but fine at the heel. Torsionally the boots are very stiff. They do flex at the forefoot but not as much as most fabric boots. The Quest Primes are quite light and the cost is reasonable.
quite stiff and quite heavy – the second heaviest in the review. I’ve reviewed the Vioz before but I’ve not actually worn them with crampons or indeed for much walking as they are too narrow for me at the forefoot, squeezing my toes. The quality is excellent. The boots are one-piece leather and should last well. The toe and heel are solid. The former only has a small external toe cap though. The sole grips and cushions well. It’s built on a rocker and so rolls with your foot when you walk, somewhat countering the stiffness. Over short distances when worn with thin socks I found the Vioz reasonably
comfortable. At the ankle the fit was fine with no heel lift. However my toes quickly became sore as they were just too cramped.
RECOMMENDED Salomon
Quest Prime GTX £150
1188g
quite light, cost nothing Uppers: split-suede & fabric Lining: Gore-Tex Extended Comfort Midsole: EVA Outsole: High Traction Contragrip Flexibility: flexible Sizes: men 6-5-11.5, women 4-8 Country of Origin: Vietnam salomon.com
Zamberlan Vioz GTX £200
1640g
one-piece leather stiffness, quite heavy, quite expensive Uppers: 2.6/2.8mm Hydrobloc full grain leather Lining: Gore-Tex Midsole: PU/shank Outsole: Vibram 3D Flexibility: stiff Sizes: men 38-49, women 36-43 Country of Origin: Italy zamberlan.com
The Vioz is another boot I’d say was best for winter walking with crampons as it’s
RECOMMENDED
Hanwag Anisak GTX £175
1284g
one-piece leather, quite light nothing Uppers: Nubuck leather & Cordura Lining: Gore-Tex More Season Sierra Midsole: synthetic cushioning Outsole: Hanwag Trek Flexibility: flexible Sizes: men 7-12, women 3.5-9 Country of Origin: Hungary hanwag.com
Made on a wider last, the Anisak boots are designed for feet like mine and
they fit me well. There’s room for my toes to spread but the ankle isn’t too loose. Unsurprisingly I like them. The boots are made from one-piece of leather so should last well as there are few seams. There are rubber rands at toe and heel and both of these are hardened. The rands don’t run right round the boots though. The sole grips well. Hanwag says it has a honeycomb structure to cut the weight. Whether this will affect the durability I can’t yet say. The cushioning is okay though a little less under the forefoot than with some boots. The soles are stiff torsionally but flex at the forefoot. I’ve found the Anisaks very comfortable and will be wearing them a fair bit more when the weather’s colder to see how well they last. The Great Outdoors October 2017 83
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Gear comparative review
RECOMMENDED
Lowa Renegade GTX Mid W £150
1310g
three widths, cost, quite light nothing Uppers: nubuck & suede Lining: Gore-Tex Midsole: PU Outsole: Vibram Evo Flexibility: flexible Sizes: men 6.5-14, women 3.5-10 Country of Origin: Slovakia lowa.co.uk
Danner Explorer 650 £155.90
1042g
two widths, weight, cost nothing Uppers leather & nylon Lining Danner Dry Midsole SPE Outsole Vibram Flexibility very flexible Sizes men 7-14, women 5-11 Country of Origin Vietnam danner.com
Danner has been a leading walking boot company in the USA for many years. Way back in 1979 they were the first to make footwear with a Gore-Tex
weight, cost
Teva Arrowood Utility Mid £150
liner. Now Danner is available in the UK and I’ve been trying the Explorer 650, which is the successor to the 1979 Danner Light. There’s no longer a Gore-Tex liner though. Instead there’s a proprietary one, the Danner Dry. The Explorer boots are lightweight and flexible. I find them very comfortable. They’re available in two widths and the Wide fits me. The cushioning is excellent and the sole grips well, though the tread isn’t as deep as some. The forefoot is very flexible and torsionally there is some give, though not so much that I noticed it when walking. There’s a small toe bumper and the toe is hardened behind it. The heel is quite stiff too. With five sets of eyelets for the lower lacing the Explorers have a somewhat old-fashioned look. The plain leather sides and toe and the large nylon panels add to this. There’s none of
1064g (size 10)
forefoot cushioning Upper: leather/Neoprene Lining: T.I.D.E. Seal Midsole: PU Outsole: Vibram Flexibility: very flexible Sizes: men 6-13 Country of Origin: Vietnam teva.co.uk
Lightweight and low-cut, the Arrowood Utility is described as ‘a rugged outdoor boot with street-approved style’. I doubt the white cushioning midsole is going to stay that way for long if the boots are worn in boggy terrain! The test boots are a size bigger than
The Lowa Renegade is one of the few boots that comes in three widths, which is really excellent. I tried the wide fit and they fit me well, with enough room for my toes to spread while being snug enough round the ankle to stop any heel lift. There are standard and narrow width models as well. The boots are fine for year-round walking. The suede uppers are protected by an extension of the sole unit that wraps round the boot. This also forms the toe bumper. At the heel there’s an internal hard counter. Cushioning is good and the sole grips well. Forefoot flex is a bit stiffer than on some boots but I didn’t notice this when walking. Torsionally the boots are stiff. The weight and cost are both reasonable.
the fussiness and mass of seams found on many leather and fabric boots. The cost is reasonable and two widths means these should fit more people than most boots.
RECOMMENDED
I normally wear and whilst this wasn’t noticeable in use regarding the length, I suspect it was necessary for the width as they were only just wide enough. The correct size would probably be too tight. As it is I found the uppers quite comfortable. Cushioning under the heel was fine too. However on stony ground I could feel the terrain under my forefoot more than with the other boots tested. The tread is fine though not as deep as on most of the other boots. The soles are very flexible at the forefoot and the most flexible torsionally of the boots tested. For most path and gentle terrain walking these boots are fine. If you like light, flexible footwear they’ll be okay on more rugged terrain too. However many boot wearers may prefer something a little more substantial.
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Gear comparative review
Women’s 3- sea s Judy Armstrong is impressed with the current crop of light-on-the-feet footwear
L
LAST TIME I tested this category of boots, more than two years ago, weights ranged from 730g to 995g, with only one pair (Keen) over 900g. This time, there is only one pair under 900g, with one (Keen again) over 1kg. Possibly brands are building in durability – lighter boots have a shorter life if used regularly, usually with the sole unit, being glued or bonded rather than stitched, parting company with the upper. In any case, they’re all a bit heavier, but they’ve all been in the testing cycle for at least nine months and none are showing any terminal signs of wear, which is excellent news. And I’d still categorise them as lightweight, since they feel light on the feet. This is partly to do with construction: weight is saved through slimmer, less insulated sole units, fabric and suede rather than heavyduty leather for uppers, and less complex/ lighterweight midsoles. The result is softer flex, which is less tiring on soles and tendons. The trade-off is less lateral rigidity (so it’s harder to support yourself on the edge of the boot) and less
density underfoot (not so warm, less shock absorption on consistently difficult or sharp-rock terrain). Some brands consider lightweight boots to be entry level, so use less sophisticated construction or materials. This is a mistake, in my opinion: a really good three-season boot, such as my Best Buy, La Sportiva’s Trango Trek, has all the trimmings of a winter-weight boot – great sole unit, reinforced heel and toe boxes, quality metal eyelets for laces, sturdy yet supple uppers - but with more finesse. You get what you pay for in boots, and lightweights are no exception. While we’ve applied a three-season label, I use this category of boot all-year-round unless I am ice climbing, or mountaineering on snow and ice. The best of these test boots have proven ideal for scrambling, multi-day trekking, hillwalking and summer mountaineering. The energy saved through lifting less weight every time I take a step, and the comfort of forward flex, make walking more enjoyable – and isn’t that why we do it?
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La Sportiva Trango Trek GTX £185
964g
cushioning, protection, dexterity, fit, flex, support nothing Uppers: nylon with TPU covering, Gore-Tex lining Mid/outsole: MEMLex dual-density EVA, Vibram with toe ‘climbing zone’ Weight: 964g (size 4) Sizes: 36-42 (men 41-47) lasportiva.com
La Sportiva have a technical appearance: they look like climbers’ boots but wear like your favourite footwear. They differ on many levels to the others in this test. For a start, the outer is abrasion-resistant textile with a shiny overlay that means minimal seaming. The tongue is flush to the upper from toe to cuff, so no overlap over the foot, therefore no chance of pressure points. The sock-like tongue means you slide your foot into the boot rather than step in, but the lacing system – roomy fabric eyelets running to three ankle hooks – is very positive in adjustment. The perfectlycontoured cuff sits just above the ankle. A rubber toe rand and partial heel rand cover all but the instep zone of the side wall. The Vibram sole unit has softer rubber at the toe (marked Climbing Zone); this is brilliant for scrambling. The boots have perfect flex: soft enough for walking on any type of terrain, rounded rather than pointspecific – yet I’ve used them in strap-on crampons and felt totally secure. Honestly, they look like stiff, technical, winter boots but they are among the most comfortable I’ve ever worn. The boot feels like an extension of my foot: heel, forefoot, sidewalls – the best in the test, and important on steep, technical terrain – all support and protect. Despite feeling lightweight they do make my feet overheat in hot weather, but then so does any boot with a membrane lining. I think these are brilliant, for any season – and (I can’t believe I’m writing this) they look trick, too.
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comparative review Gear
a son boots Features 1. Fit This as important in a lightweight boot as in a heavier version. The critical points are to have a secure (not pinched, but not loose) heel, a secure forefoot that does not compress your toes, and security (not compression) along the sides.
2. Flex Lightweight boots are flexible front to back, and laterally; they are inherently more comfortable than stiffer boots which make the soles of your feet and your Achilles tendons tire more rapidly. Uppers with suede/leather lacing platforms will often flex where the fabrics join (not necessarily where you want it). Check the flex point by trying to bend the boot in half (toe toward cuff): see if it bends with a rounded flex or sharply to a specific point. If that specific point matches where your foot flexes (just back from your toes) it’ll be comfortable, if not go with a rounded flex.
3. Support The soft cuffs on lightweight boots usually skim the ankle; the height is for comfort and security rather than support. Underfoot support is more important; good boots will have a shaped, supportive footbed; flat footbeds should be replaced with good removable insoles (I use Orthosole). Sidewall support / torsional stability is very important on steeper, technical terrain.
4. Lacing Laces should run smoothly for accurate adjustment, comfort and fit. Metal eyelets and hooks offer fluid lace movement, fabric loops are cheaper but generally make laces harder to adjust as they can stick rather than slide.
5. Sole unit A narrow tread pattern is more likely to get choked with mud and debris; a wider pattern will self-clean more readily. A sole with a squared-off heel front edge will offer better purchase on descents. Very hard rubber will grip less on wet rock, but last longer on rugged terrain. Rounded lugs grip on dry ground only.
Notes: Weight: for a pair, size as specified, from my digital scales.
Haglöfs Roc Icon Mid GTX £155
845g
RECOMMENDED
lightweight, support, grip lacing, sole unit Uppers: 1.6-1.8mm leather, textile, Gore-Tex lining Mid/outsole: Dual density EVA, Vibram XS Trex Weight: 845g (size 4) Sizes: 3.5-8 (men 6.5-12) haglofs.com
There is a lot going for this boot. It is by far the lightest in the test and feels dexterous and intuitive. It borrows from rock climbing shoes for its aesthetics, with lacing running in a deep curve from big toe to ankle. The lacing runs through nine holes each side, then three inset eyelets at the ankle. This makes them fiddly to adjust. The leather and textile upper is durable with the cuff sitting comfortably on the ankle. A rubber rand runs around the toe and down to the front flex point, again tilting at rock climbers. The sole unit is unusual: a smooth zone around the toe and down the outside edge to the instep, and around the heel, as if for rock climbing or scrambling, with small, rounded lugs. Lugs and instep clog quickly with mud which makes the heel section, sloping rather than a more aggressive step, less effective. So they look to be aimed at scramblers – except the torsional stiffness is negligible, on a par with Keen, and you need a degree of stiffness to stand on the edge of a boot on rock. Although they are super-comfortable to walk in, they’re a fiddle to get on and off and less trustworthy for grip on wet or muddy slopes. It’s a tricky one: they’re beautifully light on the feet, wonderful in drier conditions, but maybe not ideal for wetter, wilder whereabouts. The Great Outdoors October 2017 87
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Gear comparative review
Scarpa Peak GTX £160
978g
Oboz RECOMMENDED
Women’s Sawtooth Mid BDry £125
910g
construction, grip, comfort
fit, construction, weight, flex, support
footbed, specific flex point
nothing
RECOMMENDED
Uppers: suede, Cordura, Gore-Tex lining Mid/outsole: Vibram Biometric Trek Weight: 978g (size 37) Sizes: 37-42 (men 41-50)
Uppers: Nubuck leather, textile, Oboz BDry lining Mid/outsole: dual-density EVA, nylon shank, Sawtooth rubber Weight: 910g (size 4) Sizes: 3.5-8.5 (men 6-13)
scarpa.co.uk
obozfootwear.com
Scarpa makes boots built to last. I’ve never managed to wear a pair to extinction and I get the feeling Peak will join the ranks of Scarpa forever footwear. The suede and Cordura upper has a rubber toe bumper and reinforced heelbox. Lacing eyelets and hooks are set into suede while Cordura provides flexibility at ankle, cuff and tongue. The tongue is sewn in, thinner in the overlap than in the central section; the thicker top section needs careful tucking-in when lacing. The lacing irritated me initially. The first hooks (nearest the eyelets) were too tight and awkward to use until I opened them out with pliers. Cuff height is spot-on for all-terrain hiking: high enough for confidence in mud without being intrusive against the shin. The footbed in this boot should be thrown away and replaced. I use off-the-peg Orthosole (with the pink/Medium instep) which give customised underfoot support. Peak felt great with my footbeds, and flat underfoot with Scarpa’s version. The sole unit, with its deep lugs and chunky heel, is awesome, especially on mud: I was solid as a rock while all around me were slipping. The boot feels lighter on the feet than in the hand, dexterous and protective although torsionally softer than I expected. The forefoot is slightly narrow relative to the side and heel, so unlikely to suit a wide foot. Plus, the flex point is specific: if the boot fits perfectly, you’re laughing, if it’s slightly off it may nip. A decent footbed will make a big difference to fit so it’s worth trying them on with the footbed you intend to use.
American brand Oboz is a recent entrant to the UK footwear scene. The website makes interesting reading; apart from the usual product bumpf, it explains its partnership with Trees for the Future: for every pair of boots sold, a tree is planted; its headquarters is entirely wind powered, and any unsaleable boots go to charities. Feel-good factor apart I enjoyed testing Sawtooth; as a low ‘mid’ it felt lightweight and intuitive. It combines support, protection, cushioning and flex; despite being low cut, it has more sidewall support than all the bigger boots except La Sportiva. The front flex is rounded so is versatile for foot size and shape. Even with these bonuses, it mostly felt more like an approach shoe than a boot. The O-Fit insole contributes to this, and (apart from La Sportiva) was the only footbed I didn’t need to replace. The boot looks and feels built to last, with Nubuck leather with textile flex points, plus a discrete toe and heel rand. Lacing is simple due to the low cut, with fabric eyelets and a metal eyelet then hook at the ankle. It adjusts neatly and needs minimal ongoing adjustment. I found the fit ideal: the boot supported all the way around my foot including the heel, with room to move my toes and torsional stability for confidence on steep terrain. Grip is excellent, with a mixed lug pattern that hasn’t clogged or slipped. This rapidly became my ‘everyday’ summer boot: tactile enough to drive in, solid enough to walk in, comfortable enough to live in. They’re a little low for deep mud but for fair weather walking they’re fabulous.
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comparative review Gear
Keen
Hanwag Banks II GTX £160
997g
RECOMMENDED
fit range, lightweight, lacing, flex, grip height, minimal sidewall support Uppers: Nubuck leather, Cordura, Gore-Tex lining Mid/outsole: Vibram Endurance Weight: 997g (size 4) Sizes: 3.5-9 (men 6-13) hanwag.com
This long-standing model has been updated for 2017. It has a soft forefoot flex, little torsional stability and by far the highest cuff. The cuff is softly padded so doesn’t add support, more a sensation of the boot being fixed around the lower leg. Although the boot feels lightweight I find the height reduces the feeling of dexterity and adds to the sensation of heat build-up. A small rubber toe rand adds to a seamed leather rand-strip around the boot and heel box. The upper combines leather and textile, with the flex point near a rand-strip seam on the outside of each boot. I’m keeping an eye on this as a stress point since it is a specific point rather than a rounded flex and after six months has a visible crease (although no indication of failure). Lacing is positive, through raised metal eyelets all the way – I find this the easiest for lace adjustment. There’s a deep-set heel hook, then two ankle hooks. The tongue is anchored as far as the last ankle hook, ending quite far up the leg (almost 3cm higher than Scarpa Peak, for example). The sole unit grips well, with a good ledge for downhill hiking. If you like a higher boot, this could be a good choice: it’s a sock-saver in deep mud and clag, and offers protection on a wide variety of terrain types. I find the sidewalls too soft for steep, technical going, but for general hiking and daily use, these boots are user-friendly and available in normal, wide and narrow fit.
Galleo Mid WP £140
RECOMMENDED
1045g
construction, quality, comfort, lacing weight, minimal sidewall support Uppers: Nubuck leather, Keen.Dry lining Mid/outsole: direct injection PU midsole, full-length shank, PU heel insert, dual-compound rubber outsole (4mm lugs) Weight: 1045g (size 4) Sizes: 3-8 inc half sizes (men 7-12 inc half sizes,13) keenfootwear.com
Introduced to Keen’s extensive range in Spring 2017, Galleo follow the brand’s style of chunky boots with rubber toe bumpers. They are the heaviest boots in the test – the only pair to top 1kg – and that weight is noticeable on the feet. There is a reason for the extra grams though: these boots are built to be durable, with masses of underfoot cushioning, a hefty sole unit, Keen’s trademark toe bumper and high-quality leather uppers. There’s also what amounts to a low rand; unlike some lightweight boots I’ve worn, I can’t see this sole parting company from the boot in a hurry. Laces run through raised metal eyelets, with a wider locking point for the heel followed by another set back from the ankle, topped by two more up the cuff. All this means the laces run smoothly to adjust, then anchor positively, so you’ve a top chance of optimal fit and comfort. Underfoot, a full-length shank gives all-day cushioning and stability – you won’t feel rocks under that amount of PU, EVA and rubber. The sole pattern is effective on rock, grass and mud. The fit is fairly standard: not generous but not tight at forefoot, sidewall and heel. Lateral stability is minimal but the foot is well supported. Keen fans will love them, others might find them a tad heavy. Personally, I find them a bit chunky, in that I’m aware of the extra weight when I lift my feet (especially compared with the intuitive feeling of, say, La Sportiva’s Trango Trek) but, as I say, longevity might balance that out. The Great Outdoors October 2017 89
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The Classics Chris Townsend introduces groundbreaking kit from across the decades
08 POLARTEC FLEECE
FLEECE IS THE STAPLE of most outdoor wardrobes. Since its introduction in the 1980s it has spread from the hills to the high street and is now worn by many people who’ve never set foot on a mountain or a trail. That’s because it works so well, being warm, breathable, soft, comfortable, fast drying, lightweight and durable. Before fleece there was wool, which was relatively heavy, moistureabsorbing, slow-drying and not very durable, and then fibre-pile, which had most of the properties of fleece but which pilled badly and so looked scruffy, and which wasn’t as soft. Pile was never going to become a mainstream fabric. The transformation of pile into fleece was due to a partnership between clothing company, Patagonia, and Malden Mills, a fabric manufacturer founded in 1906. Patagonia was making pile clothing from Malden Mills fabrics but wanted a softer material that pilled less. The two companies came up with a soft double-faced polyester fabric that didn’t pill and which didn’t have the shaggy look of pile. Patagonia called this Synchilla and launched the first garments in 1981. Malden Mills called it Polarfleece and other companies soon 90 The Great Outdoors October 2017
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[above] An advertisment for Polarfleece [left] A Polarfleece ad from 1984 [below] The Patagonia Synchilla Snap-T today
Opposite page [left] The Malden Mills Polartec fleece [below left] A Polartec ad from 1995
[below] A 1981 Malden Mills catalogue
began using it. By the end of the 1980s fleece, as it was soon known, had become the main material for outdoor warmwear. Another breakthrough from Patagonia and Malden Mills came in 1993 when the first fleece made from recycled plastic bottles appeared. The Polartec name arrived in 1991, and in 2007 became the name of a new company that replaced Malden Mills. The way Polartec transformed the outdoor clothing market is hard to imagine now, when fleece is so ubiquitous. It was so significant though that Time magazine choose Polartec as one of the 100 Great Things of the 20th Century. The myriad fleece garments available shows that the material has lost none of its appeal. If you want the original, Patagonia Synchilla garments are still available, some unchanged from the 1980s, including their first ever design, the Snap-T, which Patagonia describes as ‘the pullover that made fleece famous’. It really did, too. I have a Snap-T dating from that decade that refuses to wear out and which looks just like the Snap-Ts of today. On cold winter days it’s as snug as ever. Over the years Polartec has expanded its range though, and there are now a wide range of fleece fabrics available in different weights, one of which is used by Patagonia to make a Lightweight version of the Snap-T. Fleece revolutionised outdoor clothing. Warmwear could now be light and soft and hardwearing. It could also be breathable and very fast-drying, something that has been a boon in wet climates like Britain’s. Fleece is still the best warm fabric to wear under waterproof clothing. Every time you pull on a fleece garment, give thanks to Patagonia and Malden Mills and their work 36 years ago. The Great Outdoors October 2017 91
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06/09/2017 07:52
Wild WALKS 10 varied walks in Scotland, England and Wales Gordale Scar and Attermire Scar
CONTRIBUTORS
Photo: Roger Butler
Alan Rowan
James Carron
Ronald Turnbull
Dan Aspel
Our walks this month 1 North-west Highlands Carn an Tionail &
Vivienne Crow
1
Beinn Direach Roger Butler
2 Eastern Highlands Glen Fincastle
2
3 Southern Uplands Lowther Hill & Steygail 4 Lake District Fairfield and the Priestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hole
3 5
5 Northumberland The Allendale Flues
4
6 Yorkshire Dales Gordale Scar & Attermire Scar 7 Snowdonia Moel Hebog, Moel yr Ogof & Moel Lefn
6
7
8 Shropshire Long Mynd 9 Brecon Beacons Cwm Oergwm circuit
Steve Eddy
8
Fiona Barltrop
9
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10
Tim Gent
06/09/2017 09:26
1
15km/9miles/4-6 hours Ascent 850m/2360ft
Carn an Tionail & Beinn Direach North-west Highlands SCOTLAND
4 Descend NE at first then curve SE to the rugged Bealach nan Rath then continue easily uphill to Beinn Direach.
4
3 Cross to open slopes and head steadily NW up the long ridge of A’Ghlaise, the southern top of Carn an Tionail and then continue 1km along the ridge line to the main summit.
3
5
5
Leave this summit and head S, picking up an ATV track which avoids the worst of the peat hags and drops over the side of Meall a’ Chleirich.
2 Shortly after passing the Allt Coir’ a Chruiteir path coming in from the right, cut off the main track and head NW down to a bridge.
6
6 1
Join the track coming down Bealach nam Meirleach (The Robbers Pass), and follow it all the way back to West Merkland.
2
Start/Finish West Merkland GR: NC385330
Start at West Merkland near northern end of Loch Merkland (park W of bridge) and take track NE by Allt nan Albannach.
1
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Alan Rowan soaks up the sun in the far north-west IT WAS A DAY of low expectation. A circuit of two rounded hills of modest height, an approach along a bulldozed track and the cloud sheet hanging oppressively low over the loch. In the end, it proved to be a day of pleasant surprises. I had left blue skies and sunshine a few miles down the road and descended into a landscape of dimmed russet and grey. The
Corbett Ben Hee was buried somewhere off to my right as I passed the cut-off path into its heart and instead dropped down to the handy bridge across the Allt nan Albannach. The initial ascent on grassy slops was uninspiring, the oppressive conditions seeming to add weight to my footfall. But as I rose, so did the cloud base and the
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walking became lighter. By the time the terrain provided the first signs of rock, there was blue sky on the horizon. The long ridge rises at a gentle angle and the first summit, A’Ghlaise, suddenly loomed into view, its double chin thrusting out from the face. Now the views opened out; the elegant curve to Carn an Tionail dead ahead, The Great Outdoors October 2017 93
06/09/2017 11:58
Looking into heart of Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhugaill from summit of Carn an Tionail Looking up the ridge to A’ Ghlaise
Ben Hee from summit cairn of Beinn Direach
View from the corrie to hazy Ben Hope
Beinn Direach across a corrie filled with sparkling rock and a silver snaking sliver of a river, while Ben Hee was starting to wake, a bubbling, towering tsunami of white cloud, lit from below, cascading over its twin tops.
Further information Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 16 (Lairg & Loch Shin) Transport: Buses from Lairg to Durness travelinescotland.com/pdfs/timetables
i
Information: www.welcometoscotland. com/regions/north-highland
The summit of Carn an Tionail provides a fascinating glimpse into the heart of the complex topography of Meallan Liath Mhic Dhughaill, a beautifully sculptured series of ridges and corries. Ben Hope and Ben Loyal were also prominent, if a little hazy, but the highlight was still to come. The drop down to the Bealach nan Rath is fast and straightforward but there the haste receded. This is a place you want to linger. A mix of stepped pavements, erratic boulders and pools of water, both in windscoured slabs and free-standing, brought to mind the corries of Skye. With the sun now beating down, it was the perfect place to stretch out for lunch and a bit of sun-worshipping with spectacular scenery north and south of this gap. This is truly a hidden gem, and I had it all to myself.
All good things must come to an end, however, and a short push brought me to the flat stony top of Beinn Direach and the final unveiling of Ben Hee, which had finally shrugged off its cap of cloud. From here, the descent is simple. If you fancy another summit, there’s always the continuation over Meall a’ Chleirich, but by the time you reach the col you will probably be tempted by the ATV track that meanders effortlessly through the worst of the bog bringing you out to the track from Bealach nam Meirleach, The Robbers Pass, an old drovers’ route which connects with the incoming track. Five minutes from the finish, I was almost disappointed to meet a couple walking in – I was selfishly jealous of my new discovery.
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06/09/2017 09:31
2
18.4km/11.5 miles/5-6 hours Ascent 540m/1780ft
Glen Fincastle Eastern Highlands SCOTLAND 1
10
Start/Finish
Pass through metal gate, cross stream and go L for Blair Atholl.
9
Blair Atholl Information Centre, Main Road, Blair Atholl GR: NN 875654.
Turn R and walk E on track.
Walk W on B8079 to Atholl Arms Hotel. Turn L on Ford Road, crossing railway, and, at street end, continue ahead on path to cross River Garry.
1 9
2 10
8 Descend moorland path NE to Balnansteuartach.
2 Signed for Glen Fincastle, ascend path to A9. Cross road and stile and ascend path through birch. Continue on moorland path, passing through gate in wall, then over pasture to Tomanraid.
3
7
8
Go R, passing round metal gate, and descend to junction with arrow post. Turn L to gate on edge of forest.
5
7
6
3
4
6
5
Detour R through gate to stone circle then continue W on track.
Go L over stile, descend below power line to gate/stile and continue S on track, following Glen Fincastle signs.
4
Branch L and ascend grassy track to enter forest at gate. Walk W on track.
Descend 400m on road then go R on track to Edintian.
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James Carron takes an unfamiliar route out of Blair Atholl FROM THE VILLAGE of Blair Atholl I normally head north, into the mountains of Highland Perthshire. A clutch of Munros, including the Beinn a’ Ghlo range, are within striking distance, while famous glens like Tilt and Bruar offer stravaigs long and short into remote corners. This time my wanderings took me south, over the River Garry, into less
familiar territory. My map, however, promised much – woodland, moor, farmland and forestry, a stone circle and a tree-lined lochan. With all this on offer there was a price to pay – a tough climb out of Blair Atholl. Thereafter, while there were some ups and downs to contend with, none seemed quite so taxing.
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The steep northern flank of Tulach Hill beckoned as I set off and, after crossing the river and A9, I prepared to do battle with the slope, the path looping up below tall, slender birch, glistening spiders’ webs strung out across dewy grass. Occasional marker posts featuring a bird of prey logo kept me on course and, as the tree-cover thinned, the gradient The Great Outdoors October 2017 95
06/09/2017 12:00
The ancient stone circle A view of Tulach Hill from Blair Atholl
eased and I emerged on to the moor. To my right the summit of Tulach Hill stood proud while, to the left, across the valley, the scree-covered flanks of Carn Liath and Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain rose into cloudless blue sky. At the next junction, I left the waymarked path, a sign pointing the way ahead to Glen Fincastle. The purple heather, dotted with handsome Scots Pines, ended abruptly at a wall, the path pushing on across grazing land dotted with gorse to a lonely but rather
Further information Maps: OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 43 (Braemar & Blair Atholl); OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL49 (Pitlochry & Loch Tummel) Transport: Scottish Citylink (M91) and Megabus (M90) services stop in Blair Atholl and there is a railway station served by ScotRail and Virgin Trains
i
Information: Pitlochry TIC, 01796 472215
Looking over reedy Loch Bhac
lovely little cottage at Tomanraid. From here, the route into the glen is sign-posted and I enjoyed a pleasant saunter to Fincastle House. After a brief stint on the road, I joined the Glen Fincastle track, hiking up past a cottage and then steadings at Drumnagowan and Edintian before entering Allean Forest. Within the vast Forestry Commission plantation, the track climbs steadily through a pleasant valley before skirting along the edge of conifers to Lochan na Leathain. Just before the reedy little loch is reached, a rough track branching right through a wooden gate offers a short diversion to an ancient stone circle, a great viewpoint across felled slopes to distant peaks. The forest road continues west from the lochan, descending in due course to a junction above Loch Bhac. The shimmering oval of water lies just off route
and a bench by the little hut above the anglers’ pier offered the perfect excuse to stop for lunch. Sandwiches consumed, I headed north out of the forest, the moorland track beyond dropping into Glen Garry. Once used by farmers to access summer shielings near the loch, this old byway has a military background – it forming part of the route travelled by government soldiers between Inversnaid Barracks and Ruthven Barracks, near Kingussie. Marching down to the mouthful that is Balnansteuartach, in the base of the valley, I swung east and followed the rough track running above the A9. Roaming over pasture and through birchwoods on the lower slopes of Tulach Hill back to Blair Atholl, I was glad I had opted for some welcome southern exposure rather than falling back on welltrod trails north.
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06/09/2017 09:32
3
16 km/10 miles/6-7 hours Ascent 900m/2900ft
Lowther Hill and Steygail, Southern Uplands SCOTLAND 7
7
6 Down NE, to cross col. Stay beside fence on right to enclosure at summit Lowther Hill.
Go round enclosure clockwise, and down fence S, crossing it at Southern Upland Way stile
8
8
6
5
Fence bends L but keep S down ridge, into steep-sided col.
Head uphill, N, on faint quad bike track and follow broad ridge to viewpoint cairn on East Mount Lowther.
9
4
9
Track downhill to cross stream (footbridge alongside). Up next rise.
Up steep Steygail. (If intimidated, escape down R to Enterkin Burn).
10
3 Faint path slants down L, to contour to gate in wall. Keep ahead to join track.
5
10
4
Leave summit SE, to find ridgeline bending S then W to high point of track.
11
2 Follow ridgeline N, keeping L of fence over a hump down to col.
3
11 Cross track and follow ridgeline fence, to rejoin outward route.
1 Start/Finish
2
Parking place 200m up northward track from road end near Inglestone farm GR: NS874046
1
Follow track N for 1km, onto open grassland.
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Ronald Turnbull tramps the grassy tops and stream-carved hollows of Enterkin THE ENTERKIN PASS, a hidden hollow of the Lowther Hills a bit west of the M74, is where a gang of Covenanters (militant Protestants) ambushed some redcoat soldiers. And these steep sided, elegantly curved hillsides, with their little alder tree gorge at the bottom – they could take you by surprise as well. I came into the pass the longer way, by
the old track from the south. This despite a late start – for the deep valley of the lower burn would be looking particularly lovely under the lowering sun at day’s end. The plan was a horseshoe around the pass, over pleasingly steep-sided hills. A quad-bike path makes easy walking onto East Mount Lowther, with views that get wider and wider until the topograph on
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top boasts about Paps of Jura and far Ben Lawers. I have seen the Paps from here, twin humps through a hundred miles of chilled winter air above the closer spine of Arran. But in the green haze of summer, I have to content myself with the windings of Nithsdale down to the Solway Firth, and a blue smudge that’s actually Lakeland. The Great Outdoors October 2017 97
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Lowther Hills from Crairiepark Hill Enterkin Pass with East Mount Lowther and Lowther Hill, seen from the south
Filena file typ Descri Lowth south Filena file typ Descri Pass Filena file typ Descri East M Filena file typ Descri Filena file typ Descri Nick, w Filena file typ Descri Nick, w Filena file typ Descri from S Filena file typ Descri hill
Lowther Hill roadway Heading north into Enterkin Pass
East Mount Lowther is an oddity – it’s the westernmost of the range. But it’s not half so odd as Lowther itself, with a white radar sphere like a mushroom waiting to pop, and the actual summit consisting of a road junction. The col between the two hills is where the pony path reaches the ridgeline. In the 1680s it was the natural way through to Edinburgh, and the place to lurk with a musket and rescue your mates being led away to death or slavery in the plantations. The hollow at its foot is Keltie’s Linn, named for the redcoat soldier who got shot. Sixty years later, Bonnie Prince Charlie
Further information Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 78 (Nithsdale) Transport: Bus 101/102 Dumfries to Edinburgh passes Dalveen Farm track end, which is an alternative start point (GR: NS886065) Information: Dumfries TIC 01387 253862, www.visitsouthwestscotland.com
Descending towards Square Nick, with Steygail ahead
marched over on his way back from England. Today, it’s a green terrace down the steep headwall, where you won’t meet any soldier, no Presbyterian extremist, or anybody else for that matter – just supposing you choose its sheltered, quick, and pretty short-cut out of this circuit. I head straight across the ancient pathway for Lowther Hill – there’s a cluster of radio masts and the top station of the ever-hopeful Wanlockhead ski resort as well as that radar dome. I turn right at the road junction summit. And now it’s altogether off-path for the homeward leg of the walk. Grass and brown sedge, close cropped by a convenient sheep. “Pit a stoot hert to a stey brae,” says somebody in one of the John Buchan books. For those not brought up, as Buchan was, in the Southern
Uplands, a ‘stoot hert’ is a stout heart. And Steygail is indeed awfie stey (remarkably steep-sided).There are few spots in Scotland (Dumgoyne of the Campsie Fells is another) where you get such a sense of exposure on steep grass. Fortunately, the sheep have made little level terraces all the way up. And for the descent beyond it has one unsteep corner, where a ridge bends like an arm around Glenvalentine and hands you down gently to the foot of the Enterkin Pass again. The old track back above the burn probably would have looked gey braw (quite attractive) at sunset. But “ne’er tak your mark frae the midden while there’s a star in the lift,” as another old Scots saying tells us. In the dark it’s just a torchbeam following a fence.
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06/09/2017 09:34
4
14km/8.7 miles/6-7 hours Ascent 1000m/3280ft
Fairfield and the Priest’s Hole Lake District ENGLAND 5 1
Continue up the track before cutting east towards the road. A short section of road-side walking is then rewarded by a pleasant stroll through Low Wood back to the start.
4 From the summit continue north-east to the col between the Crag and Birks before cutting east-south-east and following the intermittent paths (or not) down to the track at Wall End.
Start/Finish
Car park at GR: NY402134 From the pay car park near Brothers Water head south alongside Low Wood before curving west to climb the clear paths up scenic Dovedale.
5 4
1
3
3
2
It may be broad, but Fairfield’s summit is surrounded by exciting mountain architecture. From here follow the slender path atop Cofa Pike, down to the broad col of Deepdale Hause and then up the steep and splendidly airy south-western ridge of St Sunday Crag.
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Priest’s Hole is generously marked on OS Explorer maps, making it easier to locate. It still requires a basic scramble, however. Once cutting in southwards from the path explorers should exercise caution here as the land directly east of the cave’s mouth is sheer and treacherous. Once curiosity is satisfied (or the night has passed), continue south-west then north on the clear paths to Hart Crag and Fairfield summit.
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Dan Aspel explores the Fairfield fells via the iconic bivvy spot of the Priest’s Hole AS A DAY WALK, this route has a huge amount to recommend it: the charms of Brothers Water and the Dovedale valley, the mountainous summit of Fairfield and then a spectacular finale climbing the spine of St Sunday Crag. But it’s when you factor in the bivvy spot of Priest’s Hole that it becomes a truly exceptional experience.
I have personal reasons for believing this. That’s because, being based a fair drive from the Lake District, I’m always looking for ways to maximise my time spent in the hills and to reduce the driving/walking ratio to a level that seems even moderately sane. Consequently, if I can arrive of an evening after work and get straight into the
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hills with a tent or bivvy then I can sleep even more deeply that night knowing that I’ve made intelligent use of my time. So, although starting this walk at 8 or 9am would still make for a grand day out, it’s when you start it at 8 or 9pm in the lighter months that it truly becomes one to savour. Not least because there’s a The Great Outdoors October 2017 99
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Looking towards Fairfield summit from near Hart Crag
Priest’s Hole seen from within – the overall space is seldom much deeper than in this picture
tremendous sense of excitement (mingled with a fair amount of smugness, obviously) at being the person walking into the hills as the rest of the world is walking out. With woodland on your right and the water on your left, in the right weather this can seem a tremendous place to be even this early on in the walk. But it’s as you turn west into Dovedale and begin climbing up by the sides of its eponymous Beck that the real action begins. After perhaps only an hour of walking, and by this point nicely warmed up, you’ll reach the rocky base of Dove Crag. Here, whether it’s night or day,
Further information Maps: OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 90 (Penrith & Keswick);1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL5; Harvey’s British Mountain Map, the Lake District Transport: Bus 508 from Penrith to Kendal stops at Brothers Water, www.traveline.info
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Information: Ullswater Information Centre, 017684 82414
The slender path that runs atop Cofa Pike
you’ll want to take the time to explore the tiny wonder that is Priest’s Hole. Slightly trickier to find than you might expect of your average Lake District feature, it’s still possible to sensibly follow the most worn and bedded down rocks at the base of the crag, semi-scrambling your way up until you reach the broad mouth of this famous cave. As I reached it for the first time I was struck by two things: one, there is very little space in front of the cave’s mouth and when the small amount of ground ends it drops away down a crag face steep and tall enough to be of consequence; and two, the cave itself may be broad and welcoming, but inside it’s mostly not quite tall enough to stand and only deep and flat enough to hold four or five prone campers unless they were the most intimate of friends.
Fortunately for me on this particular trip, I was alone and could enjoy my evening meal with broad views eastwards and no company but the warm stillness of the darkening evening. Until around midnight, that is, when a headtorch in the face and the (not unwelcome) offer of a drink alerted me to another pair of bivvyers who’d just themselves managed to find this extremely un-secret of spots. A little different to the average night under the stars then. The next day (or the rest of this same one) is a blur of superb Lake District landscapes. Fairfield is every bit the meaty, sharp-edged fell it appears to be from OS maps, whilst St Sunday Crag is a magnificent piece of mountain architecture. Whichever way you tackle it, you’re in for a treat.
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19km/12 miles/5-6 hours Ascent 515m/1690ft
The Allendale Flues Northumberland ENGLAND 8 Take farm track to minor road and turn R.
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Immediately after Monk Farm, leave track to follow RoW NE across farmland to Harlow Bower.
Cross river and go through gate on R to join riverside trail. Turn L at road to return to village.
At Thornley Gate, turn left towards Hexham.
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Follow track through Monk Wood.
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Start/Finish Main square in Allendale Town GR: NY837558
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Turn L at road for 450m and then through small gate on R. Follow ‘Isaac’s Tea Trail’ N and then NW to track near Gate House. Turn R and then through gate on L. Descend parallel with wall on L. Climb bracken-covered slope to wall and follow this NNE to gate.
Take second turn on L. Track passes Fell House and chimneys on open moor.
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Take road heading downhill beside Allendale Forge Studio. After crossing River East Allen, turn L and bear R at fork. L at T-junction and take next road on R.
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Beyond a walled section, keep R along higher track.
Turn R at road for 530m and go through gate on R. Marker posts indicate route NW across Dryburn Moor.
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Vivienne Crow finds signs of industry on the Northumberland moors WALKING IN ALLENDALE inevitably involves encounters with the area’s lead mining past. It might be in the form of one of the old routes used to haul this valuable commodity across the North Pennine moors or it might simply be an entrance to one of the long-abandoned levels. On a walk on Dryburn Moor above Allendale Town, I came across the very
tangible remains of the smelting process. Two long flues from the valley furnaces, where lead was extracted from its ore, became visible as soon as we left the lane near Frolar Meadows – two grassed-over, linear mounds; one leading up to a tall chimney on the moorland skyline. As we left the enclosures behind, the crumbling stonework of the flues became more
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apparent. In places the arched walls had collapsed, allowing tentative glimpses into the long tunnel formed by the western flue. During the 19th Century, when Allendale was one of the most productive lead mining sites in the North Pennines, these flues played an important role in the smelting process. The furnaces were located beside the River East Allen; the The Great Outdoors October 2017 101
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Far-reaching views across Northumberland from the Allendale moors
The remains of the flue that once served the lead smelting mill in Allendale
flues condensed their poisonous fumes, carrying them for 4km up on to the open moorland, releasing what was left via vertical chimneys. As we followed the line of the western flue up on to the moorland, we bumped into a local dog walker. He was keen to share his knowledge of the industry. “Every
Further information Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL43 (Hadrian’s Wall) Transport: Bus 688, Traveline, 0871 200 2233)
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Information: Hexham Tourist Information Centre, 01434 652220
Looking across West Allendale from Dryburn Moor
now and then, the smelters would stand idle while they sent boys into the flues to scrape metal off the inside walls. Can you believe it? Those lads didn’t stand a chance – the flues were so toxic. But it wasn’t just lead deposits that the mining companies were after; they’d find silver in the flues too.” On a sunny September day in the 21st Century, it was hard to visualise the scale of the industry or imagine the noxious environment in which local people lived and worked. The only sound was of sheep bleating; the early autumn air was crystal clear, the views north-east encompassing the Simonside Hills 50km away. Beyond the two chimneys on the highest part of the moor we began dropping into West Allendale, picking up the route of Isaac’s Tea Trail. This 58km
circular walk celebrates the life of a former lead miner called Isaac Holden. Inspired by his conversion to Methodism in the 1830s, he became an itinerant tea-seller to help raise money for the poor and needy of the Pennines. Another reminder that these now tranquil dales, with their sturdy cottages and neat lanes, weren’t always such idyllic places in which to live. Crossing into East Allendale again, we had been hoping to follow the river back upstream to Allendale Town, but floods had destroyed part of the path, so we had to resort to road walking. On the way, we passed the bottom end of one of the flues we’d seen earlier, now an interesting feature in someone’s garden, as well as the site of the smelting mill, now a commercial complex. As ever, life was moving on...
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24.5km/15 miles/8-9 hours
Ascent 755m/2480ft
Gordale Scar & Attermire Scar Yorkshire Dales ENGLAND
2 If conditions permit, scramble up the side of falls, otherwise backtrack 100m, cross Gordale Beck and climb steep slopes to New Close Knotts. Join path leading N, pass stone stile in wall and continue ahead to meet path from top of Gordale Scar. Keep ahead over areas of limestone pavement and trend NW to gate by lane. Keep N to junction of tracks and carry on for 700m to next gate by trees. Climb over Great Close Hill (Open Access) and drop W to track by tarn. Turn R, passing Field Study Centre and continue to junction by Home Farm.
3 4 Take narrow path on L up to cave entrance, then continue S down valley for 800m. Veer L as crags turn E and follow rough track below escarpment. Pass through three gates to reach minor lane and turn L.
Fork L on walled track for 500m, turn L at next lane. Fork L on lane after 200m and walk S to minor crossroads. Take gate onto bridleway and follow track W, through gates and over open moor, for 4.25km. Track swings S, through gate, into valley below Victoria Cave and Attermire Scar.
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Pass Stockdale Farm and go through gate to join track climbing E for 1.5km over flanks of Kirkby Fell. Keep ahead through gates at top of pass and veer L at junction by wall. Walk NE, with more gates, and turn R on track after 1.2km.
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Cross lane and descend into valley below Ing Scar Crag. Cross stiles and walk S to dramatic edge of Malham Cove. Turn R and descend flight of steps to beck. Join good path across fields to lane. Turn L and walk through village to return to start.
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Parking at National Park Centre in Malham GR: SD900626 Turn L out of car park and cross footbridge on R after 120m. Turn R on wellsurfaced path following signs to Janet’s Foss waterfall. Fork sharp L after 380m (Pennine Way continues south) and follow good path for 1.5km to waterfall. Continue to road and turn R for 150m. Go L through gate on wide path to Gordale Scar and explore gorge and falls.
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Roger Butler enjoys the sparkle of limestone GORDALE SCAR always takes your breath away. The towering limestone canyon and its crashing waterfalls make you feel like one of those wealthy Victorians in search of the secret and the sublime. But today something else made me gasp. I had reluctantly decided that, with heavy drizzle in the air, the scramble up the falls was just too slippery and alternatively hauled
myself up the steep slopes below New Close Knotts. Once I had stopped panting and gratefully wrapped arms around a perilously leaning tree I realised this wasn’t perhaps the best way to start the day. And then there was the real shock. Firstly, a couple of bottles and a pile of plastic bags, but around the next rock lay an array of litter that would do justice to a
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municipal dump: burnt out barbecues, a dozen bread rolls, greasy piles of marinated chicken, enough burgers to feed a scout troop, plates, cutlery and even two plastic washing up bowls. Who would go to the effort of carting this lot more than a mile over the hills above Malham? And then decide it was all too much bother? Perhaps the Countryside Code should become a The Great Outdoors October 2017 103
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Warrendale Knotts and the southern cliffs of Attermire Scar (right) seen looking west from the track below Settle Scar The path into Gordale Scar leads up to the foot of the waterfalls and the scramble up the gorge
The view looking south from the top of Malham Cove
fixture on the school curriculum. Low cloud shrouded views across Malham Tarn and I clambered over muffin-shaped Great Close Hill in a dank mist. Its crags resembled a ring of decorative icing. The track then swung along the north shore, past distinct ash dieback, and I detoured out on duckboards to inspect the swampy moss where reedy pools meet open water. The boggy trail over the back of Black
Further information Maps: OS Explorer, 1:25,000, Sheet OL2: Yorkshire Dales – Southern & Western areas Transport: Best station Skipton, with regular bus connections to Malham, dalesbus.org
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Information: Malham National Park Centre, 01729 8332200
Hill became a stony surface through a landscape which seemed a long way from the pubs and cafés back in Malham. Two walkers, striding out of the gloom, provided a moment of pure Stanley and Livingstone before, just as surprisingly, sunshine swept over the hills to the east of Stainforth. The dark spell of purple moor grass was broken by another sparkle of limestone as the track dropped into a hidden grassy valley. Knobbly outcrops looked like protective beacons and a narrow path ramped up to the Victoria Cave which, rediscovered in Victorian times, has helped build a picture of early life in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s difficult to stand here and imagine the hippos and elephants which once waddled across the nearby hills, but 12,000 years ago hyenas were busy making a living out of the bones of such mammals. West-facing Attermire Scar, pitted with limestone caves and crags, stretched for more than half a mile. There are probably
more discoveries to be made up there and Warrendale Knotts, overlooking Settle and the River Ribble, might also hold skeletons in its cupboards. In times gone by, in times of crisis, a look-out on the cliffs would have sent families scurrying away to their dark hideaways. In my case, lazy Highland cattle determinedly blocked the way below Little Banks, but I’ve a feeling their feet were simply stuck in the mud. The high bridleway over Kirkby Fell had the feel of a mountain pass, memorably guarded by Crutching Close in the west and Twin Bottom to the east. The tarn came back into view as I dropped towards Ing Scar Crag. Here, below the cliffs, the power of glacial meltwater was plain to see and I felt I was being inexorably swept towards the top of the famous cove. Slimy clints and grykes looked like they had been newly varnished but, as ever up here, it was the view ahead that caught the eye. Malham Cove has that extra special wow factor.
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13km/8 miles/7-8 hours Ascent 1000m/3280ft
Moel Hebog, Moel yr Ogof and Moel Lefn Snowdonia WALES 5
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Turn R just before railway and take track through forestry. Fork R after 320m and continue uphill to another junction. Go L, cross stream on new footbridge and keep ahead to gate in wall. Good path continues, with wall on R, to farm. Go through last gate, turn L and return to Beddgelert.
Cross stile and take path downhill with conifers on R. At foot of slope, take stile on edge of trees and follow path down to forestry track. Go L for 30m and fork R over duckboard to follow narrow path through conifers. Take L fork after 200m and go down to wall junction. Meet track, turn R to pass lake and take track on R at crossroads. Walk downhill through deciduous woodland to next junction, go straight over and continue for 650m to black and yellow barrier. Turn R on track/bridleway and fork R after 550m on bridge over Afon Meillionen. Broad path continues downhill.
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From bridge in centre of Beddgelert follow A4085 for 600m. Turn L up private road, cross bridge over waterfalls and pass under railway. Follow footpath sign for Rhyd Dhu and continue up lane, over two level crossings. Turn R through gate at next farm and take surfaced path for 100m.
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3 Head NW from top, with wall on L, and descend steeply to Bwlch Meillionen. Cross old wall and continue ahead through a prominent gully. At top, path crosses footbridge over pool and continues NW to clamber through rocks to top of Moel yr Ogof. Descend N to cross ladder stile and keep N on broad ridge to Moel Lefn. Follow path, eroded in places, down to Bwlch Sais. Path continues E of Craig Cwmtrwsgl and drops to wall above forestry plantation by the former Princess Quarry.
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Fork L on stone flagged path to cross small footbridge, continue over ladder stile and head WSW uphill to pass through two small gates. Drop SW into Cwm Bleiddiaid (no path) to continue past old walls, below crags, to Bwlch y Ci and ridge rising S to Moel Hebog. Turn L and continue over rocks (with indistinct path) to sloping grassy plateau leading to summit.
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Roger Butler traverses the bare hill of the hawk A NUTHATCH HAMMERED overhead and swiftly darted away with a caterpillar in its beak. Stereophonic cuckoos called from either side of the valley and the fresh leaves on the oak trees by the river shone as brightly as marsh marigolds. A blaze of blue beckoned ahead: the combination of a dazzling early morning sky and the carpets of bluebells which swept over the
lower slopes of Moel Hebog. This puddingshaped peak translates as ‘the bare hill of the hawk’ and rises immediately west from the narrow streets in Beddgelert. The Snowdon massif has a tendency to occupy hill walker’s minds in this part of Wales and it can be relatively easy to turn your back on Moel Hebog and the bumpy ridge which runs north from its battered
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old trig point. These tops form part of the classic Cwm Pennant horseshoe but they make a fine outing in their own right. And, if further encouragement is needed, by the end of the day you’ll be able to boast a total ascent of exactly 1,000 metres! Cwm Bleiddiaid was bathed in an intense Pyrenean light and the combination of a warm breeze, some The Great Outdoors October 2017 105
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View east from the slopes above Beddgelert looking towards the woods around Nantgwynant with Moel Siabod in the far distance
View north-east to Snowdon from the ridge between Cwm Llwy and Cwm Bleiddiaid
big boulders and the odd pine tree really did remind me of times in the mountains of Spain. A couple of old hut circles were just visible in the valley below Bwlch y Ci. These once offered a grand view of Snowdon and, many centuries ago, generations of hardy folk will have gazed towards the misty summit before retiring under a dripping roof of moss and twigs. By the time I reached the top of Moel Hebog, the blue sky was slowly disappearing under a pale grey wash as streaks of cloud stretched across the
Further information Maps: OS Explorer 1:25,000, Sheet OL17: Snowdon; Harveys British Mountain Map, Snowdonia North Transport: Nearest stations Porthmadog (9 miles) and Bangor (25 miles) with bus links to Beddgelert, traveline.cymru. The Snowdon Sherpa buses also provide options, visitsnowdonia.info
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Information: Beddgelert information Centre, 01766 890615
The descent from Moel Lefn drops north towards the edge of Beddgelert Forest, with Snowdon in the distance
estuary at Porthmadog like the strokes from an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brush. I made the most of lunch on the soft turf before heading down to Bwlch Meillionen. The unmistakeable path which then zig-zagged into a rocky gulch looked like the work of a Roman army as it laid siege to an ancient citadel. The path cut through the ramparts and followed a wall that bobbled up and down in the manner of medieval ridge and furrow. A simple timber deck (or was it a drawbridge?) crossed a dark pool where newts gulped for air and dozens of whirligig beetles somehow managed to avoid bumping into each other. The twin tops of Moel yr Ogof and Moel Lefn came next, linked by a broad ridge and a single ladder stile. Owain Glyndwr is said to have hidden in a hidey-hole below the jagged boulders of Moel yr Ogof and, looking south from here, the western
flanks of Moel Hebog seemed to roll all the way to the coast at Criccieth. Out at sea, the sky was now a watery pink sherbet and the slender obelisk on top of Mynydd Tal-ymignedd was increasingly camouflaged against darkening banks of cloud. An eroded path twisted down to Bwlch Sais, where vibrant new growth on bilberry resembled a glossy tea plantation. I stopped on a little perch above a flooded adit and watched a last beam of sunlight catch the saw-toothed crags above Craig Pennant. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long before a splattering of rain bounced off the forestry tracks by the damp margins of Llyn Llywelyn, from where excellent bridleways wound south to Beddgelert. Moel Hebog still stood proud and, when seen through the breaks in the trees, it now looked as sharp and pointy as its better-known cousins on the other side of the valley.
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Long Mynd Shropshire ENGLAND 1 2
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At three-way junction, follow made-up path signed ‘Shooting Box’ on post, to tumulus. Cross lane and continue uphill on Shropshire Way to Pole Bank (highest point). From trig point, head downhill to join road for short distance. Turn L on grassy FP opposite entrance to small car park by Pole Cottage.
National Trust car park, Carding Mill GR: SO445943 From first car park, go past visitor centre, over stream into 2nd car park. Follow path NW. Take L fork to Lightspout. Clamber up to R of waterfall and continue, forking L at wooden post FP sign. Continue to join Shropshire Way track at SO424956. (Map is confusing here, but track is obvious.)
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3 After about 200m join footpath coming from R and continue gently downhill to cross the ‘Cross Dyke’ and veer R on level raised path avoiding Grindle. Continue downhill SE above Small Batch. Path becomes track.
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6 Take steps up to R of pond to gate marked ‘For Doctor Cary Griffiths’. Go R to lane. Cross over, passing unfenced road with NT sign for Long Mynd, and go L on track, which leads to path to Start.
4 Pass gate. Pass house and campsite. Cross bridge over stream by ford and turn R, then immediately L off lane over stile to ascending path, levelling out beside wooded slope. Follow to stile, then footpath sign in field at The Owlets. Follow path through wood, over another stile, to Ludlow Rd and immediately go back into wood on track (Cunnery Rd).
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5 Follow track onto lane, and cross small car park for ‘Rectory Wood and Field’. Go through gate into field and cross diagonally to R, taking L fork to small gate into wood. Follow path past huge sweet chestnut tree and beech tree, to small pond with ruin.
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Steve Eddy enjoys wide views from the Long Mynd THE NAME of this Precambrian upland points to its position near the Welsh border – ‘Mynd’ coming from the Welsh Mynydd, meaning mountain. It is a landscape of swelling hillsides, deep narrow valleys (‘batches’), and occasional rocky outcrops. The walk begins and ends in Carding Mill Valley, named after a wool-processing mill built in 1812.
From the National Trust car park just outside Church Stretton (‘God’s Waiting Room’, apparently), I set off towards the hills – twice, having forgotten the map the first time. I resisted the pull of ice cream at the visitor centre, and even of Bodbury Ring Iron Age hill fort to the right – which would have been a there-and-back-again diversion from my planned circular route.
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Walking briskly on to leave school holiday families behind, I reached the Lightspout waterfall, not quite a Niagara, but still a miniature delight, and the only waterfall on the Mynd. Beyond this point, other walkers were few and far between. In fact they were outnumbered by ponies. As I climbed the occasionally rugged but mostly gentle path, green bracken The Great Outdoors October 2017 107
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Linley Hill from just below Pole Bank Calf Ridge from Mott’s Road
On path going round Grindle
Nills and Caer Caradoc from Little Stretton path
gave way to heather, and the views expanded dramatically, especially to the west, where Caer Caradoc and The Lawley stood out in the sunshine. The top of the Long Mynd, ‘Wild Moor’, is fairly flat (and not all that Wild on this fairweather day in a light breeze), but by the time I reached the small tumulus I was rewarded with views to the east as well,
Further information Maps: OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet 217 (The Long Mynd & Wenlock Edge) Transport: Church Stretton railway station is 1km from the start of the walk
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Information: NT Carding Mill visitor centre, 01694 722631
towards Stiperstones and Norbury Hill. At the highest point, Pole Bank, the views got even better. In the clear air I could pick out most of the landmarks indicated on the circular metal plaque near the trig point, including Arenig Fawr, the Berwyns and Cader Idris in Snowdonia, and the Malverns in almost the opposite direction. Having only climbed Cader in rain and low cloud (twice), this was probably the clearest view of it I’d ever had! But for me the best part of the walk was from this point on, heading gently downhill, not a soul in sight (unless sheep have souls), and with arresting views to the east. The ‘Cross Dyke’, probably a Bronze age territorial boundary marker rather than a defensive earthwork, added historical interest. The straight path
heading down alongside Small Batch would be thrilling for mountain bikers, but I was glad to have it to myself. Off the mountain and into the woods and fields, I had to check the map once or twice, especially at the ‘Rectory Wood and Field’, which a sign declares is ‘A landscape inspired by Capability Brown’. Does this mean that nature imitated art, or that the great man himself actually designed it? Certainly the dark little pond and ruin in Rectory Wood have the feel of ornamental parkland, as do a huge sweet chestnut tree and an equally impressive beech. Passing through a gate commemorating a Church Stretton GP, I joined the moorland again, and was soon heading down the path along the edge of Carding Mill Valley, back to my car.
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22km/14 miles/7-8 hours Ascent 804m/2638ft
Cwm Oergwm circuit Brecon Beacons WALES
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Turn L along B4558 re-crossing the Usk. Soon fork R along lane back to Llanfrynach.
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Roadside parking, Llanfrynach village GR: SO 075257 With church on your R, head along road past toilets and bus stop and turn L just after village hall. Follow this lane for a short distance, then turn L onto bridleway (Three Rivers Ride) initially alongside Nant Menasgin. Cross lane and maintain direction, then L up road past Rhiwiau to its end.
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Continue along enclosed stony track uphill to gate and access land. Carry on up grassy ridge of Cefn Cyff to Fan y Big.
5 Follow canal towpath westwards for 4km/2.5 miles to B4558 and Brynich lock just beyond aqueduct over River Usk.
3 Keep ahead along edge of northern escarpment around the rims of Cwm Oergwm and Cwm Cwareli.
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At junction maintain direction (L fork) to carry on down Gist Wen ridge. Further down bear L where path forks to take lower path along western flank of Bryn. For the most direct route back to Llanfrynach, take the L of the two access land exit points (very close to one another). Otherwise, take the R hand one, and continue NE down fields to lane. Bear L downhill, and R at T-junction to Pencelli.
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Fiona Barltrop gets off the beaten Beacons tracks UNLIKE, SAY, THE LAKE DISTRICT which has some well defined and recognised horseshoe routes (Fairfield, Kentmere etc), there’s no one such route in the Brecon Beacons – by which I refer to the central Beacons, though it applies to the National Park as a whole – for the very good reason that, as a glance at the map will show, a host of horseshoes can
be devised. The approaches from the north offer the best choice of circuits, with grassy ridges leading to the main peaks along the northern escarpment. Pen y Fan, the park’s highest peak at 886m (closely followed by its near neighbour Corn Du, 873m) is, by far and away, the most popular peak, with hordes traipsing up and down the most direct routes from the A470.
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But head further east and the crowds are left well behind. Based at Wern-y-Marchog Farm at the foot of Cefn Cyff, the grassy ridge that leads up to the fine peak of Fan y Big, very roughly mid way along the northern escarpment, I couldn’t have found a better location. Over the course of my stay, I ascended or descended The Great Outdoors October 2017 109
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Cribyn flanked by Fan y Big on the right and Pen y Fan and Corn Du on the left The Brecon Canal from Storehouse Bridge
Escarpment above Cwm Oergwm
Cefn Cyff a number of times, but never once encountered another person. It was the last day of my visit, and having tried a variety of routes, the question of which one to finish with wasn’t difficult: a circuit of Cwm Oergwm, via the ridges on either side of it, Cefn Cyff and Gist Wen, and along the edge of the dramatic escarpment at the head of the valley. You could call it the Llanfrynach
Further information Maps: OS Explorer OL12 (Brecon Beacons – Western area); Landranger 160 Transport: Stagecoach bus 43/X43 from Brecon to Abergavenny via Llanfrynach, stagecoachbus.com Information: Brecon TIC, 01874 622485, www.wern-y-marchog.co.uk; www.breconbeacons.org
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Horseshoe, since the attractive village is the obvious starting point, with a very pleasant riverside walk to begin with – or finish with, in my case. There is an annual fell race called the Fan y Big Horseshoe, which follows the same route, but since you can easily combine Fan y Big with Cribyn and/or Pen y Fan to create alternative horseshoes, this isn’t the best name. (It would be worth checking the July race date: the one day to avoid I’d suggest, if you don’t like crowds!) I’d tried the route on my first day, but cloud had descended spoiling the views, so I was keen to have another go. Once again I had Cefn Cyff to myself, and, too, Fan y Big (Beak Beacon or Hill of the Beak), not a peak as such, but a rocky platform at the end of the ridge, and a fine viewpoint, too, overlooking Cwm Oergwm to the east and Cwm Cynwyn to the west with Cribyn, Pen y Fan and Corn Du beyond. Even if the cloud does come
down, route finding isn’t difficult as you simply follow the well-worn stony path along the edge of the escarpment. Having descended the Gist Wen ridge and made good time, rather than take the most direct route to Llanfrynach, I decided to head to Pencelli and follow the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal towpath for a couple of miles: a lovely contrast to the highlevel hill walk, and a pleasing way to end the day. It’s said to be one of the most scenic canals in the country, which it may well be, though even beneath a sunny blue sky the water remains a rather unappealing muddy brown! But the colourful boats provide photogenic subjects, with cheery greetings regularly exchanged with holiday-makers on their barges. If you’re finishing at Llanfrynach a good pub awaits, but I had a hot shower and meal back at welcoming Wern-y-Marchog to look forward to after an excellent day’s walk.
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18.5km/11.5 miles/5-6 hours Ascent 530m/1725ft
Bolt Tail & Bolt Head South Devon ENGLAND
4 Soon after entering the village, turn left into Shute Hill, then left at the T-junction, taking the right fork just beyond the church.
3 As the road turns sharp right, take a signed Public Footpath on the left through a field and along a track to Malborough.
2 Turn right on meeting Combe Road, then right at Combe Cross.
5 6
4
1 Start/Finish
North Sands car park GR: SX730382
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3
After a little under 1km, follow the Public Footpath signs, to cross fields above North Bolberry, descending steps alongside St Clement’s Church.
1 2
Take the road right from the car park, turning right at the fork at the top of the rise, before following Moult Road.
6 Turn left to follow the Coast Path SE along the cliffs, and back to North Sands.
Gradient profile Metres above sea level 100 50 0
0 km
5
10
15
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Tim Gent digs into history at a far southern corner of the country YES, A TRANSATLANTIC cable came ashore at North Sands in the 1870s, right at the start of the walk, and 20 years later Tennyson is believed to have written his last poem, Crossing the Bar, in a nearby summerhouse, but this is a Devon coastal walk and convention dictates I focus on shipwrecks. Them be the rules. So, after a shaded woodland wander
up the Combe Valley to Malborough, we strolled out across red earth fields above Broadmoor. The views north along the coast were already impressive, taking in Burgh island, where Agatha Christie once... but that would be an unacceptable non-shipwreck digression. Dropping past the diminutive St Clement’s Church, eyes averted, trying
Always take a map and compass with you. ©Crown copyright 2017 Ordnance Survey. Media 058/17
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hard to also ignore an ornate Victorian lifeboat house, we gazed out across Hope Cove. Safe ground for coastal walk route writers, if not for the San Pedro el Mayor. It had been quite a battle… literally. Having survived the initial scrap off Plymouth, this Armada hospital ship had worked her way up the Channel, picking up survivors from constant running The Great Outdoors October 2017 111
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Bolt Tail
Cliffs above Graystone Ledge
attacks. Eventually, she made it all the way around Scotland. Hit again by storms, her luck finally failed pretty much back where she started, with 140 men making it ashore in this Devon cove. Execution was avoided only when the Duke of Palma paid a ransom of £10 a head for their safe return to Spain.
Further information Maps: OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL20 (South Devon) Transport: Buses only to Salcombe
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Information: Salcombe TIC, 01548 843927
The footpath across fields above Broadmoor
After studiously ignoring an Iron Age promontory fort above the cove, we soon overlooked Ramillies, an inlet named after a 90-gun warship, lost with almost 700 crew in 1760. A little further along the cliffs, below a distracting stand of parasol mushrooms, Graystone Ledge marks the site of what’s believed to be the world’s first oil disaster, caused when the Russian tanker Blesk struck in 1896. Thankfully, the tale of the steamer Jane Row is less grim, and when she hit rocks below Bolberry Down in 1914 there was no nasty cargo spill, and everyone, including a dog and two ship’s cats, were saved. (Nearly there. Just don’t mention the war, or ravens, or green crickets.)
Nor, hurrah, did anyone drown when the German-built Herzogin Cecilie, a stunning four-masted barque, met her end. Like the San Pedro she’d survived her own conflict, impounded in Chile during WWI. Finally sold to the Finns, she experienced an illustrious career shipping grain from Australia to England, before a sequence of calamities in 1936, some seemingly quite avoidable, saw her break her back in Starehole Bay. Finishing with the accepted route description closing phrase: it’s said her wreck can still be seen through the clear water at low tide. (Sotto voce: Keep my name out of it, but there’s other much cheerier stuff out there too.)
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READERS’ PHOTOS
‘Companions’
Five-year-old Alex on his first mountain day – Moel Siabod via the Daear Ddu ridge – surely the first of many days out with his dad Photo: Finn Curry
Andrea Sky & Lee Fearnley, Bla Bheinn Photo: Andrea Sky
Descending Y Garn Photo: Richard Perry
Family climb on Stac Pollaidh Photo: Petr Kolegar
Elisabeth and Annabel Pilkington Photo: Glen Pilkington
In our readers’ photography series, we invite you to send in your best pictures on a specific theme. Next is ‘Distance’ by 22 September and then ‘Breeze’ by 20 October.
Next month: ‘Distance’
“Got my shadow back” Photo: George Dignam
Send your pics to tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk or The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent, TN16 3AG Tag your Instagram shots with #TGO #TheGreatOutdoors and we’ll share them!
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