Here in Edinburgh, the clouds of exams cast a dark shadow over the land. Fortunately, the weather’s always good in the Highlands for a bit of R&R.
Read on for:
- The report on two special talks presented to the club
- One club member’s report on his recent visit to Glen Affric
- Photos from recent club activities
In the footsteps of Nan Shepherd
Hannah Collier
On the 12th of March, EUHWC hosted a talk by Jennifer McGowan for International Women’s Day. Jennifer is part of a team of women who embarked on a micro-expedition following in the footsteps of the legendary Nan Shepherd. Their hike was based on Nan’s book ‘The Living Mountain’, from which they planned a four-day hike in the Cairngorms. Jennifer’s talk aimed to spread the word about Nan-style walking, a style of hiking that is slower and more ‘mindful.’ The Following Nan expedition group found that this allowed women of all abilities to complete a four-day hike and found that they could appreciate (and better remember) their time out in the hills.
Now, this may be because I like to inhale packets of chocolate digestives, but I like the sound of a slower-paced, conscious style of hiking. Munro-bagging is a brilliant way to explore vast swathes of Scotland and motivates you to push yourself to your limits. But there isn’t just one way to hike. EUHWC already incorporates some Nan-style practices – such as our recent endeavours in skinny-dipping and Donald-bagging. But I strongly believe that hikes can never be too short or too slow, and there is merit in hiking purely to enjoy being out in nature. As a club, practising this style of hiking can also encourage new, inexperienced hikers to ease themselves into Highland walking and make hillwalking more accessible.
Winter 282 with Kevin Woods
Ellie Bestington
After the more relaxed talk the week prior on the ‘Nan-style’ of hiking, it was time to go in the complete opposite direction: Munro-bagging. And not just any kind of Munro-bagging, a Munro round…in winter. Yes, I am speaking of what only 4 people have ever compleated (congrats recent compleatist Anna Wells), a winter Munro round. It is as hard as it sounds.
After far too many emails trying to sort out a venue (thank you Silas) and logistics talk with Kevin, we finally had a time and date to screen the film, with Kevin there himself for a Q&A after. Despite the minor technical difficulties at the beginning regarding sound, we still began on time.
Kevin Woods compleated his winter Munro round during the winter of 2019-2020, arguably one of the wettest winters in recent history, with multiple storms battering the UK. The season was one non-stop procession of Atlantic westerlies with brief lulls between. In Kevin’s words, ‘never a moment for auto-pilot or for complacency.’ The trip takes in around 2,000km of mountain terrain, pairing the demands of walking long distances with wintry weather. He was nearly caught short too, right at the last Munro, as the COVID-19 pandemic caught up with him. He came close to not even finishing it at all.
Now, I am no film critic, so forgive my mediocre attempt to sounds like the editor of the film column of The Times. The film was epic. It perfectly highlighted the highs and lows of such an incredible challenge, from the blue bird days with breathtaking sunsets, to the almost deathly slip on Bruach na Frithe, and even the more emotional aspect of his round at risk of being incomplete due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The evening was finished with a Q&A in which members eagerly asked a variety of questions (which I sadly do not remember). As everyone vacated the venue, we left Chris to swoon chat with Kevin, a fellow summer round compleatist. Overall, it was a fantastic evening, and we hope to work with Kevin again in the future to show his future projects.
“I could tell from the way everyone was nodding when I mentioned a Munro that you guys really love hills.”
— Kevin Woods about the EUHWC
Editor’s note: if you haven’t gotten enough of Kevin Woods recently, check out his interview on WalkHighlands, in which he says, ‘the outdoors world does itself no favours by claiming the mountains as wilderness, for the reality is far more interesting,’ among other soundbitable things.
The Straw(berry) that broke the Saab’s back
Dr George Peat PhD
“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley”
— Robert Burns
The plan:
- Gather twelve keen hillwalking beans for an Easter extravaganza in the charmingly- but confusingly-named Strawberry Cottage.
- Use Farquaad the Fiesta and the Wasey Wagon to negotiate the rough five-mile track into the hut
- Have a glorious time walking in the unspoilt beauty of Glen Affric with a comfortable mountain hut as a base
- Return safely to the other cars
- Return to Edinburgh/Ardnamurchan/Hebden/Glenelg having completed many Munros
Several things transpired to slightly ruin these plans before we arrived, which are detailed below.
- Former EUHWC President, Abbie, developed a case of exploded knee, so despite having booked the hut, she couldn’t actually join.
- Farquaad developed a case of Square Wheel Syndrome a week earlier on the way to Cannich. Parks Ford Inverness were asked to order a new wheel and fit it in time for the next Friday; they said that was fine and proceeded to not order a new wheel. I discovered this on the Friday, when I walked onto the forecourt laden down with walking gear and espied the unmistakable, but sadly familiar, sight of an undriveable vehicle. At the time of writing, negotiations are still ongoing.
- The Wasey Wagon developed a case of front wheels pointing in different directions, so was dumped in Perth on the way up, with Tiernan’s Mini taking up the slack.
Despite being two cars and one President down, we were not to be deterred. Using Tiernan’s Mini and Tom’s 1998 Saab 9-3, we got the first load of walkers to the hut and set about the usual business of making a mountain hut habitable while Tom headed off to pick up Mikey and the large pile of bags Laura had left with him. We discovered that the water was disconnected due to it being winter, the electricity was lacking due to a lack of sunlight for solar panels, and the backup generator was not actually generating any leccy, despite going through a decent amount of petrol.Refusing to let such minor issues defeat us, we dusted off the hut water filter, siphoned some liquid gold from the very full rain butt and broke out head-torches for some lovely atmospheric evening lighting.
Just as we thought we’ve had enough bad luck for the trip, Tom returned, and broke several bits of news which are summarised below.
- Bad news: a rogue rock on the track had come out of nowhere and proven more than a match for twenty-six-year-old Swedish engineering, cracking his oil sump
- Good news: no more oil was coming out of the crack
- Bad news: there is no oil left
- Good news: he has excellent breakdown cover
- Bad news: the breakdown van can only pick the car up from the end of the public road, five miles away
- Good news: with the Saab’s dying breath , it brought a crate of Tennent’s, several bottles of wine and the ingredients for baby Guinness along to the hut
With plans for the rest of the evening sorted we eventually headed to respective beds and drifted off to sleep, looking forward to whatever the rest of the weekend would bring.
Saturday had three separate groups heading out in the morning, Tiernan’s Troupe going up the very remote An Socach and Sgurr nan Ceathreamhnan, my gang tackling the exceedingly lovely Corbett of Carn a’ Choire Ghairbh (I had completed the nearby Munros the previous weekend in a marvel of planning), and Tom and Mikey headed towards signal to brainstorm options for rescuing the Saab and returning to Edi.
Everyone had a grand day, and we retired back to the hut where solutions were suggested for the Saab rescue. Initially the plan was to go to Cannich and find a friendly local with a 4×4, but this was blown out of the water by the suggestion that we use Tiernan’s Mini to tow instead. A decent amount of squinting at the vehicle manual (ignoring the part about never towing a load heavier than the pulling vehicle) and a few testing pushes of Tom’s car led us to think that it was worth a shot, and thus, a team was assembled. With Tiernan behind one wheel, Tom behind another, and Alex, Calum, and myself on pushing duty (fuelled by a healthy amount of vitamin T), we eventually got the twenty-six-year-old Swede all the way back to the public road. While there was initially an audience, everyone else quickly realised that a swim in Loch Affric would be much more enjoyable, so wandered off for a much more pleasant afternoon. The rest of the evening was rounded off nicely with merriment, star-gazing and an ever-dwindling booze supply before once again, sleep claimed all.
Sunday dawned bright and clear with little to no wind: in other words, a perfect day to be up hills. This was not to be the case for us though, as a combination of the hut clean and the walk out to the cars meant that any north-western hills wouldn’t allow a return to Edinburgh at a reasonable hour for work on Monday. Added to this, a few selfless souls took the train back from Inverness due to the lack of vehicle spaces, leaving the Saab rescue crew and Laura in the Cannich Spar. Fortunately, the Spar is also a licensed premises where you can buy a pint and food and consume these in an old bus parked next door.
A few swift halves later, we abandoned Laura and set off south, managing to survive the cramped conditions of five fellas and all our gear in a mini by taking a few cans for the road (delicious local Glen Affric beers then white claws) and by putting P-plates on the car when Tiernan nipped to the loo at a garage. Despite these shenanigans our legs were getting mighty cramped, and so, at about 5.30pm we stopped in Perthshire for a quick walk around and stretch. This took us to the top of the scientifically significant, but otherwise uninspiring, Schiehallion, marking Tiernan’s half-way point on his Munro journey, and the fourth time Calum has ascended that particular peak. A quick jog down and a quick drive later, we were back in Edinburgh. Though our Munro tallies were largely unchanged, we were much richer with memories (but poorer in a real sense due to cars and trains etc).
P.S. Four days later, it transpired that we had accidentally stolen the toilet key and brought it back to Edinburgh with us. Hopefully no-one is planning on being up there for a little while.
tl;dr: Strawberry Cottage is good, but take a car with high ground clearance.
Club photos
That’s it!
Thanks for reading, and until next time, happy hillwalking!
If you’re a club member or alumna/alumnus and have any stories, photos, sketches, poems, songs or interpretive dance routines inspired by your recent hillwalking adventures, we’d love to share them on this blog! Get in touch at edunihillwalkingalumni@gmail.com.