Return to the Cairngorms

After my last trip which was a bit of a disaster I'd been looking forward to going back. The weather at the start of the week had been brilliant but by the time I was set to go the forecast was looking less promising with low cloud and high winds and an area of low pressure settling over the UK. My gear was sorted and remained pretty much as it was in my Sorted post with one or two additions/omissions.

The drive up to Braemar was blessed with pleasant weather even if it was a little hot in the car. Things started to fall apart as soon as I arrived in Braemar, I tried to phone home only to discover that my phone battery was almost dead. I quick run around the shops ended at the filling station and one car charger added and £8 lighter the phone problem was sorted. I had to hang around until 4.00pm before I managed to make contact and then set off towards Derry Lodge.







The weather was really nice, blue skies, sunshine and just a slight breeze. I wanted to get up to Loch Etchachan so decided to head up to the Hutchison hut and pitch up. It started to get a bit colder as I came up to the fork in the path and was definitely getting chilly at the hut, by this stage it was 7.30 - 8.00pm. I spotted out a couple of likely pitches but the bothy was empty and as I'd never stayed in a bothy before the temptation was too much. I didn't unpack too much at first, half expecting a group of TGO'ers to arrive in which case I'd have moved out and let them have the extra space. I made something to eat and by 9.00pm decided to settle in for the night. A weird thing happened though, I kept thinking I heard voices, not close by but as if they were being carried on the wind from some distance, as it turned out it was the soles of my boots on the wooden floor boards (I think).







I decided that if the weather forecast was correct, rather than sticking to my plan of going straight up to Loch Etchachan next morning with the intention of making Beinn Mheadhoin and Derry Cairngorm before aiming to pitch up again at Lochan Uaine I'd go back down to Glen Derry and head up the Larig an Laoigh to the Fords of Avon and then up Loch Avon to the Shelter Stone before going up to the saddle to Loch Etchachan. I figured that if the cloud base was low and the weather turned nasty I could drop back to the Hutchinson hut but if the weather was reasonable I could still make Bein Mheadhoin/Derry Cairngorm and ultimately Lochan Uaine. Fed watered and with plans laid I settled down for what turned out to be a comfortable night.



I awoke at about 7.00am on Friday morning but was lazy and stayed put for another hour or so. At that stage the conditions weren't too bad with a bit of sunshine coming through the bothy window. I leisurely breakfast and a bit of footering around saw me ready to leave at 10.00am but by now the conditions were definitely looking less promising.



There was a stiff breeze with just light showers on the way back down to the Larig an Laoigh but by the time I reached the high point and could see Dubh Lochan the rain was pretty persistent.





I was a stones throw from the Fords of Avon refuge when a walker dashed out to collect water, crossing over with care I discovered 3 (AFAIK) TGO'ers sheltering in the refuge for a cuppa, sheltering is a fairly loose description as the rain was blowing straight in the refuge door. I stopped briefly, wished them well and turned for Loch Avon.





The 1st part was a bit nasty, the path as far as I could tell alternated between grass, boulders and peaty bogs but I was soon at the high point looking up Loch Avon towards Coire Dhomain and Feith Buidhe. The walk up the shores of Loch Avon was pleasant enough, wind and rain weren't a problem as they were coming from behind so I kept my jacket open. I'd stopped about halfway along the Loch when a really big gust hit and lifted a plume of spray which was carried almost the length of the Loch, of course it didn't happen again after I got the camera out. I soon arrived at the end of the loch and figured it was about time to get a hot drink.







I initially stopped right on the Loch shore but decided to over the high ground and look for shelter on the other side. It looks like a great place to camp in better weather but at the time every potential pitch looked like it could easily end up under a couple of inches of water. I tried looking for the Shelter Stone but ended up settling for a shelter stone which offered complete protection from wind and rain. I soon had the meths burner fired up and a cuppa-soup followed by biscuits and coffee hit the spot.

Of course the problem with finding such a pleasant spot is that the prospect of having to leave and head up into less visibility, higher winds and more rain isn't too encouraging. I always find it takes a good 10 minutes to loosen up after a stop but it didn't take (too) long to reach the saddle.



The visibility was down to 10m at times and never improved much above 15m so after passing the small un-named lochan north of Loch Etchachan I switched on the GPS, checked my position and typed in the coordinates for the Loch Etchachan outflow. There were a few places where there was no wind whatsoever and yet I recorded 25mph+ winds only a few yards away. When I reached the outflow the wind was really blasting up between Creagan a Choire Etchachan and Stob Coire Etchachan, hitting over 35mph and with visibility down to 10m or less. I crossed the outflow to take the track down the south side of the burn and in a brief clearing saw the Hutchison hut.

At this stage I hadn't really decided what my next move was going to be, clearly the weather was deteriorating quicker than the forecast had predicted (The most up to date forecast I had was from Wednesday at 16.00) so I decided to stop at the bothy and sort myself out.





I was pretty surprised to find there was already an occupant but we started talking and both decided that we might as well stay in the bothy. Louis had come in from Coylumbridge via the Larig Ghru, Lurcher's and the plateau leading to Ben MacDui but had descended and found the Hutchison hut. Friday night was a wild one, what had looked like potential pitches outside the bothy earlier had turned into feeders for the burn. Louis was intending walking out to Braemar the next morning to meet relatives who were on the TGO and as I hadn't been able to contact anyone at home I decided to walk out with him although at this stage I didn't really know what my next move would be. It was a wild night with the wind hitting the bothy side on and sounding like it might blow the windows in but I fell asleep around 10.00pm wakening once around 4.00 and eventually surfacing at about 7.30 as we'd planned to leave at around 8.30.



We eventually set off at 9.00 and with Louis setting the pace made a quick dash to Derry Lodge. I had toyed with the idea of stopping off at Derry Lodge to asses the situation and even considered going over to the west coast to either Fort William or Glencoe but by the time we reached Derry Lodge and with little sign of an improvement in the weather I decided to walk out with Louis to the Linn of Dee. Louis was intending to walk into Braemar to get the bus home and declined my offer of a lift. I drove out to Braemar phoned home and pretty much decided to bug out and try for an earlier sailing back home. As it turned out all the sailings from Troon had been cancelled so I had to transfer to Cairnryan and drive down for check-in before the 8.00pm sailing.

I find that once I've made a decision to bug out then it has to be ASAP, of course an hour after arriving home I'm thinking I should have stayed. Part of the problem this time was that I hadn't been able to contact those at home, the low cloud meant I couldn't or wouldn't attempt to get high enough to get reception (previously I'd only managed from Carn a Mhaim) and attempting to do so meant walking out to the Linn of Dee at which point I wasn't enthusiastic about walking back back in to Derry Lodge. I didn't even get to use the tent this time which is pretty annoying so it looks like I'll have to go back again, 3rd time lucky hopefully.

I had some new gear to try this time and before setting off I'd formed a few opinions on what would work for me and what wouldn't, as it turned out there were a few surprises but I'll deal with that later.

All thing considered it wasn't too bad, with the benefit of hindsight I should have stuck it out even if it meant sitting around at Derry Lodge for a day. The lack of a reliable form of communication is an issue for me and I'm thinking that maybe a Spot Tracker would help, something to look into anyway.

How Tough is a PET Bottle?

Tough Enough!!

The Evolution of Light

Up until recently my choice of tent light was a 'Luxeon' Camping lantern bought from Lidl, I've seen these available with a variety of brand names including Silverpoint (The logo on mine is the same as on a Silverpoint) Now while the light was fine for family camping in a 3 man tent I found a couple of problems when I used it in a solo tent, first the led is pretty bright and as it's hung from the inner tent it's quite close to eye level and is a bit like being flashed by a camera, the other problem is that as it's a lantern style it creates it's own shadow, an eclipse effect which reduced the amount of light in the very place where I needed light, at floor level. In addition it's pretty heavy at 205g and unlike my headtorch which uses AAA batteries the lantern used AA's.




My next tent light was found by accident in Dunelm Mill fabric shop, an Osram Dot-it 3 Led light. These can be found in a variety of places i more than one version. Mine is the Osram Dot-it Dimmer which unlike the standard model can be used with 1,2 or 3 LED's switched on. After a bit of messing around I ended up drilling 2 holes on the edge and threading a piece of 1.5mm guyline through it to allow me to hang it from a loop on the inner tent. This little lamp works really well, the LED's are barely visible as they're almost recessed and as they point straight down there's no shadow. It cost about £5 and weighs 56g with 3 x AAA lithium batteries. The only problem, and it's a minor one is that as you simply press the 'glass' to switch it on you need to reverse one of the batteries before packing it to avoid it being switched on accidently.



Finally I was pointed in the direction of the Silverpoint Mini Lantern which I bought from Original Outdoors Gear , £4.99 and free postage if you opt for 2nd Class. I ordered it on Sunday night and it arrived on Tuesday. The Mini Lantern uses 2 x CR2032 button cells and provides light for up to 25hrs. According to the information on the packaging it switches off automatically afer 2 hours. It's really small and only weighs 32g but unfortunately it suffers from the same problems as the Luxeon (Silverpoint) Lantern in that it's blinding to look at and it creates a shadow, much worse than the bigger model in fact. The problem with the lantern style is that light can't be directed downwards through the base so what I came up with was to cut off the top of the lantern at the hanging loop (junior hacksaw), remove the top ribbed reflector and hang the lamp upside down allowing the light to be directed downwards. This solved the shadow problem and by wrapping a piece of masking tape around the 'globe' avoided the problem of being blinded by the LED. I needed a method of suspending the light so I drilled 2 holes through the battery compartment screw cap and threaded a piece of 1.5mm guyline throught the holes, as there wasn't enough room for knots on the guyline I simply melted the ends of the guyline and flattened them into nail head shapes to prevent the cord pulling through. The Lantern now works much better, directing the light where I need it, the LED no longer blinds me and to top it all it now only weighs 20g. I could reduce this by shortening the 'globe' to half its current length.



So how bright is it? well it concentrates the light better than the much larger 3 x AA lantern which is probably better in a solo tent, is 185g lighter and about £20 cheaper, no contest in my opinion.

Phreeranger pt2

I picked up another Phreeranger a few days ago, cheap and a newer model than my other one as this one has a taped fly and the inner has a full mesh door in addition to the plain door. I was pretty sure my original EB model had a full mesh door and this confirms it. Unfortunately the fly sheet on this one has seen better days as the tape is coming off in places, it also looks as though someone has attempted to re-seal the seams with silicone. That aside I now have a nicer inner tent but the groundsheet doesn't seem any better than the other one. I might be tempted to ask Scottish Mountain gear about replacing the ground sheet, that would cost around £50 going by the prices on the website, alternatively I'll just use a footprint.

I'm not sure what to do about the fly taping, I left it pitched up over night in the rain and the inner was still dry in the morning but it would be better sorted. I tried sticking it back using an iron but it looks like the tape has come away with the pu coating attached. The fly has lost any water repellancy that it had but I'd simply treat it with Grangers Fabsil. I'm not sure what to do about the seam tape, I could leave it as it is, try to replace it completely, seal over it with silicone sealant, something like McNett Sil-Nett or simply remove it and seal the seams with silicone. I assume any work on the seams needs to be attempted before treating the fly with Fabsil. One other option is to do nothing at this stage and use the other un-taped fly for the time being.





I'm seriously considering updating the Phreeranger and using it rather than the Laser. Some things I'd considered were;

1. Replacing all the guys with 1.5mm Dyneema
2. Making up a new peg set split 50/50 between Camcleat Y and the heavier of the ti skewers from Terra Nova (Voyager type)
3. Replacing the poles with DAC poles, (not sure if this is even possible let alone practical)

It might seem crazy to spend so much on what is basically a 20+ y/o tent with an unknown history of use/abuse but the reality is that I've been through an F10 (Vango) Nitro 100, TN Voyager standard (returned) and now the Laser and I still much prefer the Phreeranger. Ultimately I'd like to try to make a new fly but there's a world of difference between sewing up a few stuff sacks or replacing a rucksack strap and sewing up a fly. That said my wife's a qualified seamstress (not in tentmaking I'll grant you) so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility. Maybe a winter project? you never know.

Sorted?

This time next week I should be at the Linn of Dee. After the last trip and suffering with a too heavy pack I've been working away at getting it down from 19-20kg to something a bit more manageable. I'm pleased with how it's worked out, weighed my pack this morning at the local Post Office and it's just a shade under 12kg including 4 days food and camera gear. To be honest I'd never have got close to 12kg if I hadn't bought a new pack, sleeping bag and sleeping mat, well thats not strictly true, I could have used my summer weight bag and Alpkit Wee Airic and the weight would be about the same as it is now, the difference is that the bag and mat I'm using should be much warmer. I saved about 2.5kg over the gear from last time through replacing my old pack/bag/mat, the rest of the weight saving came from;

a. cutting down on gear (still got enough to be comfortable though)

b. Getting my camera gear weight down thanks to MSO.

I'd been using a DSLR and we had an old Olympus C5050z that we shared, that has now been replaced with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150 which is strictly speaking my wifes but I get to use it 1st as she doesn't go away until July. I tried to convince her that what she really needed was a Panasonic DMC-LX3 but unfortunately she can read me like a book. The FX150 weighs in at 190g including card & battery, the E-3 with lens/card/battery weighed 1420g, adding spare cards/batteries/pouch etc took that up to 1894g.

Last trip was my 1st time out with the TN Laser, this may be it's last. I was pretty close to taking the old Phreeranger as the lack of grief compared to the Laser is well worth the extra 200g but I need to give the Laser another chance. I still might change my mind though.

This time it's a 1st real run out for the Gregory Z55, PHD Minim 500, POE Ether Thermo 6 and a Montane Venture so I'll see how it goes. Hydration wise I'm using the the new Eliminator which I know will work, my cooking set up is the same as before so no problems there. One other thing that'll be new to me, Trekmates Bamboo Base Layer. I'm always intrigued by alternatives, I've tried synthetic (who hasn't?) and Merino (worked really well) but you have to keep looking at what else is out there.



Wet Gear, 998g





Laser, 1710g



Food Pack, 1 day, 500g approx





Cooking System, 546g. Fuel 350ml 324g





1st Aid and Misc, 270g