Climbing Braeriach I June 19th 2018 (16) 25 1 31
As in 2017 with A-E my wife we climbed 3 of Scotland's 3000 ft, 914,4
metre hills together during our 2 week stay leaving me to climb some of the
bigger or more remote hills alone because she is no longer so good at ascending
steep inclines as some years before owing to a little trouble with her heart.
So for me the transition is a big one: from one day on the hill with my wife for company and then the next I am getting up and out of the accommodation earlier in order to tackle some as yet unclimbed hill to tick off my list of 282 now thanks to our joint efforts standing at only 26 remaining.
The first I tackled was Braeriach in the Cairngorms, Scotland's 3rd highest peak and one I had last attempted in the autumn of 2017 when a later start and driving rain caused me to abandon the attempt which meant I was happy to come back to, in the most glorious summer weather in years.
On the ascent there were lots of other people and before long I was engaging in first one conversation and then another such was the occasion: people were on the whole light hearted and much of the time ready to engage in conversation.
This in sharp contrast to my everyday life in our small town when the only conversations one is apt to have is with a friend or acquaintance but never with a stranger unless they are seeking help with directions or some such reason.
Meeting Ms E was something that happened on her ascent but only to say hello when off she went steaming past with a great turn of knots almost as if she were taking part in a race..?
Next I met a very engaging young lady from Edinburgh University who came against me when I remarked "You must have got up early..?" when she offered "Yeah, around 6 o'clock..." a good 2 hours before I set off, first driving maybe 45 minutes from my hostel in Newtonmore. It transpired she was from Edinburgh because that was where she was studying Environment subjects and was passionate about the need to do something to protect the environment, how industry per se was not for her after a short time spent there, when I told her how I had worked all my industrial life in the wood pulp paper and allied industries, also in the sciences, and how I finished up in the meat casing business for a company which produced fibrous sausage casings. She approved of this because of the renewable aspect of cellulose in sharp contrast to the world's current over-use of plastics. She was a most engaging person whom I had difficulties tearing myself away from, and after some minutes she pointed to a friend she called him, who was further down their hill taking pics but apparently in no hurry to disengage...
When at last I came upon the summit plateau I couldn't take in the fact of the most perfect weather imaginable and surrounding my climb such exceptionally clear conditions with peaks all around: most of which I had climbed in weather which was just the opposite. Like Ben Macdui to the east across the Lairig Ghru pass, Scotland's second highest mountain, which I had climbed twice and each time in heavy mists, but with hardly a cloud in the sky, and then beyond Braeriach the ridge comprising also the Angels Peak, Cairn Toul and the Devil's Point I had climbed from the south in September 2013 now for the first time seen totally free of cloud.
Just before the summit I was able to engage 3 young people 2 boys and a
girl from a small town near La Baule in Brittany France who were interested to
talk to someone as familiar as I was with the Scottish terrain: we had followed
the same route for a wee while and but for the slower progress of the girl they
would have left me behind but since she was evidently not as fit as they we
kept over-taking one another until at last they engaged me in conversation… Of
course I told how exceptional the weather was and how very fortunate they were
to have such good luck to experience it on this their first visit.
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