18 to 20 October 2013 – The Annual TGO Challengers’ Reunion Weekend in Crianlarich

Les and Izzy chose a different weekend and a different venue for their second year of organising this event, and enjoyed the company of more than fifty past, present and future Challengers at the Crianlarich Hotel, whose hosting of the event was admirable apart from the crucial matter of Saturday evening’s meal.

Sue and I travelled up to Crianlarich on Thursday, giving Graham Brookes a lift and enjoying a leisurely evening with good food at the hotel.  A few other Challengers lurked nearby.

Friday 18 October – Sgiath Chuil and Meall Glas

Whilst Graham was dropped off near Bridge of Orchy to climb a couple of lesser hills, Beinn Udlaidh and Beinn Bhreac-liath, Sue had unfinished business on Sgiath Chuil, having climbed its neighbour earlier this year.

We parked beside the A85 and wandered down to the River Dochart.

The private road to Auchessan Farm welcomes hill walkers but not their vehicles.  The weather was surprisingly warm. 

Above Auchessan, the path passes some old pig sties before heading towards Allt Riobain and ascending below a low cloud base.

The extensive blanket of cloud at about 600 metres soon had our fleeces dripping, so a tea break was enforced and the rest of the day was spent in waterproofs.

The walk was dominated not only by low cloud and steady rain, but by the seemingly constant roar of rutting stags, sometimes silhouetted against a misty horizon. Now and then ribbons of hinds trotted meaningfully past us. A hare with white paws dashed away from the first summit, on which Sue is pictured below (Sgiath Chuil – 921 metres), and a flock of six ptarmigan, already in more or less full winter plumage, monitored our progress between that summit and Meall Glas – 959 metres, which we felt obliged to visit due to the benign conditions and despite Ralph Storer’s character Baffies’ inclination towards Killin’s tea rooms in preference to walking up this ‘Well-matched but ill-starred couple (of hills) that will never feature highly in Magnificent Mountains of the Highlands, however many volumes that series runs to’.

Gloves needed to be wrung out every now and then; warm water lubricated the wrinkled contents of our winter boots.

The cloud wasn't thick, but on descent it clung stubbornly to the hill, releasing us to a duller view than those on ascent, at only about 400 metres. On the way we passed some pretty waterfalls.

18 km with 1200 metres ascent, in 7 hours.

Having encountered nobody on the hill, it was good to spend the evening with an assortment of TGO Challengers, some of whom had braved the weather to backpack to Crianlarich from a variety of starting points.

I’m not sure whether our ‘Pyrenean Adventure’ slideshow went down well or not, but we certainly enjoyed some ‘after dinner’ Challenge pictures from David Towers and Peter and Barbara. 

Saturday 19 October – Beinn Ime and Beinn Luibhean

It was raining again, but no sooner had we installed ourselves in the car than we jumped out again to witness the spectacle of Stanier Black Five number 44871 steaming majestically out of Crianlarich station.

The engine appears to be on holiday from the East Lancashire Railway, so we probably pass it frequently on our journey from South Manchester to Bacup.

A longish drive saw Graham, Sue and me wrestling our way through Loch Lomond’s dreaded twists and turns, roadworks and traffic jams, to pass through Tarbet and Arrochar before heading over the Rest and be Thankful pass to reach Butterbridge in Glen Kinglas.

From the car park, our route up to Bealach a’ Mhargaidh looked choked with cloud, but we set off regardless.

The valley view was sombre as we looked down to the single arched Butterbridge, over which the eighteenth century military road crossed Kinglas Water.

As we climbed, the vague shadow of Beinn Ime leered at us through the cloud.

Shortly before the final ascent to the bealach, the cloud lifted to reveal a steep thrutch thereto.

After the faint path had deposited us on the broad bealach, or small plateau, that separates Beinn Ime (1011 metres) from Beinn Luibhean (857 metres), we uneventfully scaled both summits on a 'there and back' basis. 

Here, Sue and I have proof of our visit to Beinn Ime’s summit, which I clearly recall ascending in sunshine and midges, some time ago on 16 September 1968.

Lunch intervened, then Graham and Sue shot off ahead to reach Beinn Luibhean.  I’d been keeping them waiting all day due to my current lack of fitness, but on this occasion I somehow reached the summit before them due to their somewhat scenic alternative route.

We saw no deer today, despite stalking taking place in Glen Kinglas, nor ptarmigan or hares, just a lone golden plover at the summit of Beinn Luibhean , and a snipe near the bealach, below which we could just about make out the route of our descent.

It even stopped raining for the last half hour, enabling clothes damp with condensation to air a little. 

According to Ralph Storer’s resident photographic expert, ‘F-stop’, we shouldn’t leave the car park before ‘taking time to view Beinn Ime at its best, rising photogenically behind the bridge in evening light’.  Sue did try with this image.

As on the previous day, heavy rain lashed the screen as we drove back from our parking spot, where an ambulance and two police cars had noisily arrived to deal with a stalking incident. The Crianlarich Hotel then formed the venue for a sociable evening with about 55 TGO Challengers. 

10 km with 1000 metres ascent,  in 5.5 hours, and no idea as to whether the incident at involved a stalker, a deer, firearms or a sudden illness. There was no headline involving the heroic rescue of an elderly stag with dementia, for example.

Sunday 20 October – Beinn Chuirn

I didn’t go up this hill.  The start across the River didn't appeal to me, and I didn’t feel like having to go faster than comfortable in a vain effort to keep up. So I left G and S to wander in more rain up the hill whilst I stayed in the dry comfort of the car. 

They soon managed to wrestle their way across the river and through the forestry, to gain the foreground ramp, where they are just visible to the bottom right of the picture below.

With the cloud base below 600 metres they again failed to get views from the summit. Down in the valley the rain came and went, as did my view towards the hill. I'd missed out on a hill I'd not been up before, but at least G and S could go at their own speed (it took them three hours) without constantly having to wait for me as they had done the previous day, and hopefully I'll enjoy better weather when I finally get around to climbing it.

After that we went home. 

Last year’s report is here; the year before here.  Moving the event from Fort William to Crianlarich hasn’t brought an improvement in the weather!

Wednesday 16 October 2013 - A Disley Dawdle

Graham, Sue and I chanced upon a break in the showery weather for this moonlit stroll from Disley, over Marple Ridge and past The Romper, before dropping down to the Peak Forest Canal for the return to Disley, where, as can be seen, not all is well in the world of the Dandy Cock.

This was a fairly easy 6 km evening route in moonlight, once we had navigated our way through the golf course and a few patches of bog en route to Turf Lea Farm.

A lovely evening, with rain immediately after we'd finished. We eschewed the Ram’s Head, from which I recall starting the occasional night hike in my student days, and adjourned to The Grapes with SWOG.

Here’s the route – it took about an hour and a half:

Monday 14 October 2013 - The Roaches Revisited

The thin mizzle that had accompanied me on the slow journey from Timperley gently subsided as Don’s headlamps blinked at me from the direction of Upper Hulme. I’d been waiting for the weather to ease, and Don and Neil’s confusion with the intricate road system of Upper Hulme had given it the chance to do just that.

This was the long postponed re-run of a Plodders’ walk I’d organised on 31 October 2012, when Don was out of action with a broken ankle. I’m always happy to repeat it, but I won’t today be reiterating the copious information provided in that earlier report.

The wind was light, so despite a few showers we could enjoy a sociable stroll around the 17 km circuit, starting on this occasion from the lay-by below the Don Whillans Memorial Hut, which nestles into the south eastern corner of the jagged rocky ridge.

It can be a busy spot, but today we had the whole area very much to ourselves, meeting just one couple twice, the second time at Hanging Stone, where we discussed the chances of encountering wild wallabies. The wartime zoo escapees have probably now died out, but if they are to be seen, it could be on this sort of day.

The sky cleared briefly as we descended into Lud’s Church, enhancing that slightly muddy experience, and we enjoyed our lunches in dry weather on some flat rocks just beyond the rare breeds sheep farm that enjoys a fine position by the River Dane in the distant shadow of Shutlingsloe.

All in all, a very pleasant five hour ‘plod’, in good company with beautiful scenery, despite the autumnal weather.

The images and text from the following links may provide a contrast with today’s visit, some of the images from which are shown below the links.

4 March 2011             9 December 2007              5 December 2007

There’s a slideshow (24 images) here.

Enjoy!…

The Lake District revisited – 4 and 5 May 2013

Since this May weekend in the Lakes, our summer programme and subsequent indexing of 3000 Pyrenean photos has meant that the images from this Lakeland trip remained untouched until this weekend.

My brief reports, using the then brand new Samsung S3 ‘phone (which I still haven’t learnt how to use to its full advantage) are here and here.

They were indeed very brief reports. Feel free to add your comments. For the record, the five Birketts climbed on 5 May were Mellbreak (North and South tops), Scale Knott, Hen Comb and Little Dodd.

A slideshow (70 images) has now been uploaded here (click on ‘slideshow’ – top left), with a taster below.

Sunday 6 October 2013 – A Buxton Bimble

Sue kindly organised this walk. She managed to attract a good turnout of 16 random bimblers on this sunny, summery day, despite a few dropouts.

The Trading Post café in Buxton proved a good place to assemble for a leisurely start well after 10.30am. Colin and Paul had walked to the start, and between them exercised the necessary local knowledge to extricate us from the pleasant town and into the countryside along ‘Green Lane’ towards Tunstead Limestone Works.

We soon paused for tea and cake – the latter being in limited supply as we had only expected ten people.

A nearby blast shelter would hardly have fitted all of us – just as well blasting doesn’t take place at weekends!

The Works were bisected by our path, which led down into Great Rocks Dale and across a long bridge.

The ascent towards Tunstead meandered pleasantly out of the dale and up a zigzag path.

From Tunstead, a high path took us past summery Peak District scenes like this one.

We passed farmers chatting in the sunshine outside Hassop Farm, before being drawn through Chee Dale Nature Reserve.

 

The path led down to a bridge across the River Wye, where Paul sighed with relief when he realised that his recommended lunch spot was indeed the idyllic location that he had predicted.

We lingered whilst a skinny mallard bravely sneaked what scraps she could scavenge. A couple of noisy young goosanders then joined the party, and a dipper busily scouted the river. Several buzzards watched attentively from high above.

A steep path then led south towards Priestcliffe, and on across the main A6 road. Local knowledge rumoured that the footpath through Fivewells Farm may be something of a mud-fest, so we by-passed that, and the Waterloo Hotel, and took the Senners Lane/Pillwell Lane route to join the Midshires Way for our journey back to Buxton in the continuing glorious weather.

Colin paused to re-fill his flask with Illy-Willy Water, reasoning “I fancy a day off sick tomorrow”.

Several of the party walked past the Church Inn in Chelmorton before returning to it whilst the rest of us finished off the refreshments we’d been lugging round all day.  Meanwhile, Sue was composing artwork with her camera:

We then set off at intervals, several of us chatting sufficient to miss the Midshires Way path and inadvertently head along Caxterway Lane to what appeared to be a dead end.  The hillside did however provide some reassurance as to our location!

So by the time we reached Deep Dale, we were a bit spread out, with one group leaving the western lip of the cleft as the backmarkers were reaching the eastern lip.  You can just see them in the distance. (If you know where to look.)

We didn’t go into the small cave to the left of the path in the bottom of the dale today, but I understand there is a much bigger cave, worthy of exploration, with a large chamber, just off the path to the south. I think this is Thirst House Cave, an obvious entrance on the east side of Deep Dale that after about 20 metres drops to a second chamber that allows those with head torches to explore the cave up to a length of nearly 60 metres underground. Worth remembering for next time.

We bimbled on, soon reaching King Sterndale’s reverberating chapel.

Amongst the worshippers’ cars, Sue spotted a nodding sunflower in a campervan.

This was the highlight of her day. Some folk are easily pleased!

A field of cows and an unhelpful farmer confirmed that we had entered Cowdale, heralding the outskirts of Buxton. “We can make a living without having to put up with bimbling ramblers meandering across our fields” he muttered under his breath.

Soon Buxton’s railway viaduct lured us through one of its arches,

and onto the A515 road for an increasingly urban stroll back to the fleshpots of the resort, where the café had shut about five hours earlier.

So we went home, having enjoyed perhaps our last ‘summery’ walk of the year.

Here’s our route – about 22km (14 miles) with 600 metres ascent, taking us about 6.5 hours including breaks.

And finally:

Whilst composing this ‘trip report’ I received a request from the marketing agent who has in the past provided me (and hence some of you) with Berghaus kit for review, to “publish an infographic that Berghaus have produced about 'The Ultimate Trail' which one of their athletes (Philippe Gatta) is in the process of completing”.

I’ve not come across either ‘The Ultimate Trail’ or the term ‘infographic’ before, and I suspect Philippe Gatta would feel as out of place on one of our bimbles as most of us would do on one of his days out.  But it may be of interest, and whilst basically being an advert for Berghaus, there are links to other similar ‘high energy’ escapades which may be of interest.  Click here for the link to the ‘infographic’, and here to ‘follow the trail’.  …Enjoy!?

Here are the links (click on the underlined text) referred to in the comment attributed to Paul F:

"Infographics" - this Wikipedia article explains in the overview.

This recent cartoon (from the popular xkcd blog) satirises the trend nicely.