Scotland trip - June 2012

Stac Pollaidh and Suilven - North West Highlands

This week long trip to Scotland can be divided into three main parts:

Part one:  Stac Pollaidh

Part two:  Suilven

Part three:  The Cairngorms

Stac Pollaidh (pronounced Stac Polly) is an iconic looking mountain in the Northwest Highlands which has a very rocky crest running along its skyline with many pinnacles and steep gullies.

We walked up the east side of it and then scrambled as far as we could, most of the way along the top.

What makes this mountain quite special are the views from the top of it looking across to Suilven, Canisp and Cul Mor.  Completely breath-taking, is the only way to describe it.

We then drove on to Lochinver where we wild camped for the night a little further up the coast, waking up to a glorious view of the mountains we had seen from Stac Pollaidh but from an entirely different perspective, which can be seen in the last photo of the initial series below.

Stac Pollaidh from the A835

Stac Pollaidh (612m)

Stac Pollaidh

Suilven from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven (left), Canisp (distance) and Cul Mor (right) from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven from Stac Pollaidh

Ben Mor Coigach from Stac Pollaidh

Suilven (and me) from Stac Pollaidh

Canisp, Suilven, Cul Mor, Cul Beag and Stac Pollaidh, from near Lochinver

Suilven

Suilven is one of the most distinctive mountains in Scotland.  Lying in a remote area in the west of Sutherland, it rises almost vertically from a wilderness landscape of moorland, bogs and lochans.
At 731m, it is not as big as some other mountains, but it is its striking appearance and remoteness that sets it apart.  It dominates the skyline from Lochinver and beckons those that fall under its spell to climb to its summit.  Climbing Suilven was our main reason for this Scottish holiday trip.

But we decided to take this a step further, as we thought it would be quite an interesting idea to wild camp overnight on the summit itself.  That way, not only would we be able to experience the magic of a night on Suilven, but it would also conveniently break the long trek up into two separate days walking instead of having to rush and cram the lengthy 18 mile trek into one day.

This aerial view photo of Suilven was one I found on the web.  I have included it here because it is a particularly nice shot of the mountain showing its iconic shape.

Suilven, not far from the start point, on the approach path from Lochinver.

On the remote, rounded summit of Suilven (731m)

Camping on Suilven summit.

Looking southwards from Suilven summit towards Stac Pollaidh (just right of centre)

Suilven from its summit cairn (facing east)

Suilven from near summit (facing east)

Looking westward along Suilven's ridge, nearly a mile from the summit.

Delightful little lambs seen on the long route back from Suilven

Achmelvich Bay (3 miles NW of Lochinver)

Canisp (left), Suilven (centre: 7 miles away) and Cul Mor (right) from Loch Roe

 Satellite view of our Suilven route (18 miles) facing SW

Satellite view of our Suilven route (18 miles) facing NW

The Cairngorms

After our Suilven adventure in the North West Highlands, we drove 120 miles south east across Scotland to the Cairngorm Mountains, the final stage of our Scotland adventure.

The plan was to do an epically long 15 mile circular route, walking up from the main ski centre car park to the summit of Cairn Gorm (1245m), then following the ridge along to Cairn Lochan (1215m) before traversing the Cairngorm plateau and summiting Ben Macdui (1309m - Scotland's second highest mountain); at this point we would be half way into our trek.
After a brief pause at the Ben Macdui trig point, we would then continue on to Shelter Stone and Loch Avon before an ambitiously steep climb up the Coire Raibeirt and back up to the summit of Cairn Gorm.

We had set off from the ski car park at noon and completed our circuit, getting back to the summit of Cairn Gorm just in time for a beautiful, orange sunset shortly before 10pm.
We then had the final descent of Cairn Gorm to do, and I'll never forget how the last mile of steps, down past the now silent Ptarmigan mountain restaurant to the car park, seemed to go on forever!

Exhausted, we were glad to get back to our wild camp spot at close to 11pm and make a nice hot dinner after one of the most gruelling non-stop hikes we had ever done.
The intention from the start had been to choose a long, tough, challenging route. We had wanted to push ourselves, mentally and physically, walking deep into the barren wilderness of the Cairngorms, always with the intention to be back by nightfall, and carrying everything we needed in the way of navigation equipment, head-torches, reserve food and clothing, to get us off the mountains, no matter what circumstances we might find ourselves in.

Perfect wild camping spot (a few miles SE of Aviemore) with the Cairngorm mountains in background.

Looking northwards from Cairn Gorm (1245m) over Loch Morlich and Glenmore Forrest Park.

In the foreground is the Ptarmigan restaurant.

SE view from near Cairn Gorm

The north end of the Lairig Ghru

Approaching the summit of Cairn Gorm once again, after our epically long 11 hour hike.

Sunset from summit of Cairn Gorm at 9.46pm

 Satellite view of the 15 mile route (facing south)

Satellite view of the 15 mile route (facing NW)

As a poignant historical note to add to this account, it is worth remembering that circumstances were very different back on the 20th November 1971 for the party of Scottish school children and their mountain leader who took the same route as us (as far as Lochan Buidhe on the Cairngorm plateau).

They had also set off from the same car park, at the same time as us, but they had taken the chair lift up to the Ptarmigan restaurant instead of walking up because they were already behind schedule. Their intention had been to reach the Corrour Bothy at the lower end of the Lairig Ghru where they were to bivouac for the night.  They were last seen heading in the direction of Cairn Lochan in deterioting weather, about to walk into one of the worst blizzards in living memory.

What followed next was tragic; the group had to abandon any hope of reaching the Corrour Bothy, and they decided instead to stop overnight at the nearer Curran Bothy near the Lochan Buidhe, but the bothy was actually buried under several feet of snow and, unable to find it, totally disorientated by the blizzard, the party dug into the snow for the night, huddled together in their sleeping bags, singing songs to try and keep their spirits up.

However, the storm did not relent the next day and the group found themselves spending a second night on the Cairngorm plateau in blizzard conditions.  Five girls and a boy died.  They were all aged 14 or 15.

There were only two survivors, one of whom was the female leader of the group who was in the advanced stages of hypothermia with frozen solid, severely frostbitten hands.  Although mentally confused she was just able to tell the mountain rescue helicopter that the rest of the group were buried in the snow near where she had been found.

In the course of our walk, we spent some time walking around the Feith Buidhe area on the plateau, trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been caught up there in a blizzard at night. There were large patches of snow still covering the ground here in June.  In late November the plateau would have been a formidable place to be.  Conditions here can quickly become arctic with winds reaching over 100mph.  One way off the plateau to escape a blizzard would be to descend the steep side of the Lairig Ghru, but that would be no easy task.

Many lessons were learnt following this disaster.  The bothy huts on the plateau were demolished because it was considered that they gave a false sense of security to those walking the mountains.  It also had a major effect on the way the Education system handled school trips thereafter.

It remains to this day, the worst mountaineering disaster in UK history.

Skiing in Les Arcs - Jan 2012

Just come back from a great skiing holiday in Les Arcs, France.  Here's the video...

La Manga, Spain - Tennis holiday - Oct 2011

Flying in the Lake District - Aug / Sep 2010

View from Latrigg looking SW over Keswick and Derwent Water.

Towards the end of August I had this great idea to take my gliders up to the Lake District and fly them on the slopes of some seriously big mountains.

Great Gable (899m) is perhaps the most iconic of all mountains in this National Park; a flight from its summit would be the crowning moment of the week, weather permitting of course!

With such a vast mountainous area over which to fly, I needed to study Ordnance Survey maps for suitable flying sites to accommodate the various wind directions.  A Cumbrian paragliding website listed 39 good flying sites; hills, mountains, with wind directions;  it made sense to mark these sites on my maps with labels and draw up a chart of the sites so I'd have a pre-organised system for slope selection for when up there.

By good fortune, a week of sunshine was forecast for Cumbria, so I packed the camping gear and went.

Camp 1 was at Castlerigg near Keswick with a view over Derwent Water.  The idea was to stay at a different camp site each night.

Great Mell Fell as seen from Latrigg - 7 miles away.

Day 1 started off with a mild northerly wind.  There was an interesting hill nearby called  Great Mell Fell (537m) which looked like it might be fun to fly off, but a curious lack of wind at the top meant I barely stayed an hour up there before heading 7 miles west to Latrigg (368m), a popular hill overlooking Keswick.  The wind was by now blowing gently from the west and I flew the EasyGlider on what turned out to be one of the best flights of the holiday with views that were absolutely splendid!  I must have flown half a mile away towards the Skiddaw massif, at which distance the plane becomes a tiny white dot.  Definitely one of my best flights ever, and all recorded in glorious HD.

View from Latrigg looking west towards Bassenthwaite Lake - the tiny speck in the centre of the sky is my glider.

Camp 2 was at Braithwaite with a wonderful view looking across to Dodd Wood hill and Skiddaw in the background.
Camp 3 was at Buttermere.
Camp 4 was at Seathwaite Farm which would be base-camp for the trek up Great Gable the next day.

The summit of Great Gable poses interesting challenges for the model aviator.  For one thing, there is nowhere to land as the summit is covered in boulders; this means having to catch planes by hand, a tricky challenge at the best of times, only facilitated by light winds.
The basic plan was to take just the EasyGlider up to the summit, but the wind was very light and I didn't want to get all the way up there, launch and then find that there wasn't enough lift to get the plane back.  This meant I'd need to take a powered glider as a reserve plane.
So up I went with a glider in each hand, which turned out to be easier than I thought it would be, especially since the air was so still and there were no crosswinds.  After a 2½ hour climb, I reached the rounded summit.  The wind was so light that I couldn't risk launching the EasyGlider, so it had to remain grounded while I flew the Multiplex EasyStar over the south face for the best part of an hour, complete with on-board camera; most of the time slope soaring but I had the power option for the moments when I needed it.
This was a flight of truly epic proportions! The vastness of the surrounding valleys made it all quite surreal and probably the most memorable flight of all time.  Another 2½ hours later I arrived back down at base-camp as darkness fell, mission successfully accomplished.

View from Great Gable looking NW.

Ennerdale valley and forest in background.

Launching from summit of Great Gable, facing SW towards Wast Water.

Flying over the summit of Great Gable.

Landing approach.

Flying over Derwent Water - looking towards the northern mountains of the Lake District with their highest peak Skiddaw at 931m.

Flying over Derwent Water - Walla Crag (376m) rises to the right.

Camp 5 was at Chapel Stile, 2 miles SW of Grasmere.

Loughrigg Fell (335m) looks over Grasmere Lake, a real beauty spot that Wordsworth, I believe, described as one of the finest views in all of England.  This was a site that beckoned to be flown.  It would have been lovely to have had a NW wind to soar this slope overlooking the lake, but unfortunately the wind had other ideas, so I had to make do with a powered flight.

Grasmere Lake from Loughrigg Fell.

Big Cliff flying on the Isle of Wight

The white cliffs to the west of Freshwater Bay, taken from Compton Down.

This July I decided it would be nice to do a weekend camping trip on the Isle of Wight, and take a few planes to slope soar there at a few interesting sites like Compton Down and The Needles.  My friend Mark was interested in coming along which made it the more fun and he took a some of these shots.

We took the Friday evening car ferry and arrived at Compton Farm camp site, pitched camp and cooked a fine evening meal, with wine, by head-torch before turning in for the night.

The weather was splendid the next morning as we walked up to the top of the bowl on the Down.  A couple of para-gliders had already glided down to the coast from this spot and were soaring along the seafront.  I had a pleasing flight from up here with the Multiplex EasyGlider and the view was as good as it gets.

The Needles and Scratchell's Bay

The next day the weather continued to be wonderful and the wind was blowing smoothly from the SW.  It was a perfect day to launch a glider off the white cliffs further westwards at The Needles.  Although I could have flown the Multiplex glider off these cliffs, it would have meant limiting soaring to above cliff top level and within a secure range to avoid the risk of a sea landing.  For this reason I decided to fly the Parkzone Radian, which has power assistance, to bring it up from sea level if required.

As it turned out, I only used the power option once for about 5 seconds during a whole hour of soaring since the lift was so fantastic.  The lift was also phenomenally smooth, coming off the sea, which made this flight the best flight to date in my flying history.

The Parkzone Radian, prior to launch.

Fitting of on-board HD camera after initial test-flight.

Launch!

The Radian does a fly-past.

After a great time at The Needles, we then worked our way along the south coast to discover other flying sites and found some more cliffs at Blackgang Chine.  Here I let my Multiplex glider spread her wings, flying over dense woodland below.

The Multiplex EasyGlider at Blackgang Chine.

Soaring against a sea mist.

Team photo on Compton Down

Sunset Flight at Butser

I had a really enjoyable evening flight at Butser during the middle of this month.  There was a gentle west wind against a spectacular sunset and the conditions were perfect.

Flying during a spectacular evening sunset on Butser hill.

In April I flew over Gosport Park with the Radian.  This was a still image from the flight video.