September saw me return to Scotland to bag a few more munros before heading off on holiday to Japan. I’d tackled the western three Crianlarich munros earlier in the year on an epic, 10 hour day that ended in darkness and driving rain. This time, my aim was to spend a Friday warming up in Glencoe by climbing Creise and Meall a’Bhuiridh and then on Saturday cover the eastern four Crianlarich munros in one go, to take me to the milestone of 30 munros.
Meall a’Bhuiridh
On Friday, Creise and Meall a’Bhuiridh were dispatched without much difficulty (though insects were certainly a distraction and I had my head net on for much of the day). I climbed in warm sunshine and had the whole route to myself. Meall a’Bhuiridh is sadly scarred by the ski lifts but once the ridge is crossed over to Creise some fine views are a reward. Glencoe never fails to impress and the cloud inversion around Buachaille Etive Mor was stunning.
Glencoe, cloud inversion
On Saturday morning I arrived early at Inverlochlarig and began the long, steep slog up Stob Binnein. At the start of the path were placed two fairly recent memorial stones, a sad and sobering reminder of the dangers of climbing Scottish mountains. These are big hills, rising to over 3,500 ft. They can be dangerous at any time of year but particularly in winter. The north facing corrie of Ben More is a well known avalanche black spot.
On the way up to the first top of Binnein, Stob Coire an Lochain I was caught up by another walker. An English lady from Edinburgh preparing for a Himalayan trek, we ended up walking the whole route together. I was glad of the company. While one of the attractions for me of hill walking is solitude, it’s good to walk with others sometimes as well, particularly on long, physically testing routes. My companion for the day was certainly fitter than me and I was glad of the pace she set. Had I been walking this route alone, I expect it would have taken me at least an hour longer.
For much of the day our conversation focused on the Scottish independence referendum, which was then just days away. I shan’t go into any great detail here but suffice to say I was glad of the result later that week. Before too long we reached the first munro, Stob Binnein. The walk north to Ben More was straightforward but involved a couple of hundred metres of descent and reascent. From the col between Ben More and Stob Binnein we then began an ever greater descent into the valley separating the first pair of munros from Cruach Adrain and Beinn Tulaichean. Blessed with fine weather the navigation across to the next pair of munros was easy enough but the re-ascent was extremely tiring. After gaining the subsidiary top of Stob Garbh I wasn’t sure I’d have the legs to get up Cruach Adrain but I managed it. The fourth munro, Beinn Tulaichean was a much gentler climb and from there it was a fairly quick descent back to the car park.
Cruach Ardrain, 3rd munro of the day
A long and very tiring day with some 2200m of vertical ascent over 18km, I was really pleased with my achievement. Six munros in 2 days and well over 3000m of vertical ascent. Hard weekends like this only serve to increase hill fitness and endurance, while longer routes also provide greater opportunity to test navigation. Later in October in quite different mountain terrain in Japan (the subject of a separate blog post) I could feel real strength in my legs and was able to enjoy a totally different mountain environment from the Highlands without worrying about aches and pains in my legs.
Over the course of 2014 it’s occurred to me that when I first presented at a doctor in 2012 complaining of knee and leg pain when out walking hills, the first thing the doctor should have enquired about was the amount of hill walking I had already done. Questions like, “How many hills have you climbed in the last year?” and “What’s the furthest you’ve walked and greatest elevation gain you’ve done in a single day” would have revealed to the doctor that I was a total novice and that my aches and pains in 2012 and 2013 were simply explained by trying to do too much too soon. But no detailed enquiries were made as to the amount of hill walking I had been doing or was trying to do. Instead, all the enquiries focused around the type of pain I had and what sorts of activities induced it. These led swiftly to MRI scans and probably pointless arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus tear.
My guess is that for many hill walking related aches and pains doctors would do well to enquire in detail about activity levels (distances, height gain etc) and then take a view as to whether the patient was maybe trying to run before they could walk. This year I’ve focused on trying to build up gradually to longer, more demanding routes and to combat the dangers of a sedentary job by increasing the amount of walking I do during the working week. So far, that strategy seems to be paying off. I don’t think my cardio-vascular fitness has changed much, but that’s not my goal. The strength of my legs and my endurance levels are undoubtedly improving with every visit to the mountains. And so, it was with little difficulty at all that I recently ascended the 900m from the beautiful Kamikoche valley in the Japan Alps to the summit of Yake Dake (2455m) an unforgettable experience to which I shall turn in one of my next posts.
incompleatist 