York Alpine Club Blog

This year's Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon took place last weekend in Kintail. Several YAC members were there: Simon (jetlagged as usual) and Debra changed their minds after last year's "never again" and did the D course; Rob and Pete B tried the newly-introduced Score; James (on his first MM) with non-YACcer Chris went for C; while Carmen and I decided to put an end to 3 years of mid-table finishes on the B course, by aiming to finish 2nd-to-last in A.

Long range weather forecasts mid-week were talking about snow and gales by day, ground frosts by night, so it was with some trepidation we made our way north. Fresh snow on the Pennines by the A66 didn't bode well, nor did the torrential rain as we drove through Glencoe. But as we drew near, the clouds cleared, and we arrived in Morvich (near Shiel Bridge) on a fine evening, but cold enough to keep the midges away.

Next morning, expecting the worst, we rejected the planned shorts and T-shirts in favour of long trousers and thermal tops, but as start times approached it was still stubbornly dry. Everyone started from different places – Score from the event centre, C and D from the Cluanie Inn a few miles east, and the A from a minor road to the west.

The Elite and B classes also started to the east, so the A course was the only one to use the north and west of the map on Saturday. This meant that once the initial line of people had been spread out by different route choices and levels of fitness, we saw very few people all day, and most of those we did see were off in the distance. Our course took us over the hill and down to the end of the public road in Glen Elchaig, then a few miles up the glen before striking up the hill to the remote Corbett of Faochaig.

The next leg gave the option of a second Corbett, but we opted for the contouring option instead. The going was grassier and less steep than expected. "I thought we'd have loads of loose crags to negotiate," I said, no prizes for guessing what was round the next corner. We made it to the control fairly directly, a couple of other teams had descended 200m too far and were looking in the wrong place. So, feeling smug as we passed them slogging up the hill as we headed down, we made our way to the next control – down to the valley, over a small col, then an unnecessary wade over the river, crossing back again over a large bridge, working out we were in the wrong place, and getting to the control at the same time as the folk we'd sped past earlier. Oops.

Carmen was having problems at this point and couldn't go very fast. Or so she said, until we got to the last control when she did her normal trick of disappearing into the distance, sprinting to the finish and aiming (successfully) to overtake everyone in sight.

A great day out, mostly sunny with a few light rain showers, which fell as snow on Simon and Debra but not on us :). And a superb campsite at the end, totally midge-free, we even found a flat grassy area to pitch the tent on. All the other YACcers also reached the end several hours before dark, Rob and Pete even embarrassed themselves by lying 17th out of 90 (we were 29/36 in our class).

Reveille the next morning was at 5.15am courtesy of the traditional LAMM bagpiper, but for once it was neither pouring with rain nor alive with midges, so we could take our time over breakfast, sitting outside and enjoying the views.

We set off at 7, and on picking up our control sheet found that today was going to be two thirds the length of Saturday, but with almost as much ascent. The route as far as the 2nd control was fairly straightforward. The next control was on the far side of Sgurr nan Ceathreanhnan, a Munro, and most people followed the ridge up all the way. We took a lower route, following a couple of streams up to a corrie below the ridge, which turned out to be quite a good choice as it followed an old stalker's path for much of the way. At one point I jumped out of my skin as there was a piercing screech from a few feet below me. It was Peri a young fawn, which made itself scarce as fast as it could – I didn't realise they could make that much noise!

The summit of the Munro was in cloud, but we weren't going quite that high – instead we contoured below a subsidiary top, some 50m lower than the main summit – fortunately we'd already bagged it on a previous trip so were spared the choice between Munro-tick and speed!. We now got a good view of the next leg – right down to the valley bottom, then 650m up a ridge on the other side to the summit of Beinn Fhada. It seemed to go on forever, but only actually lasted an hour. A real Munro tick this time, but again, one we'd done already.

The next control was on a col low down on the NE ridge. Everyone else stayed high, following a scrambly ridge, before descending to the checkpoint. But we opted to descend immediately, following the normal walkers' route, and then contour round to the control. Based on other teams, I think our route was slightly quicker, but there wasn't a lot in it. It might have been a different matter if it was raining as the summit ridge of Beinn Fhada is notoriously slippery in the wet, but it was wall-to-wall sunshine for most of the day.

From here it was a quick descent down vertical bracken, then a run for a couple of miles along a track and a road to the finish. Unusually, we did better on the second day than the first, finishing 21st on the day, and 23rd overall so we were rather pleased. The other YACcers all did well too, though Rob and Pete failed in their bid to drop to 50th place.

A fantastic area, with perfect weather, and excellent courses. It was even fun at the time, not just in retrospect as it often is! The only thing wrong with it was the weather forecast, which (luckily) was well wide of the mark – though it was provided by David Braine of the BBC so maybe we shouldn't be too surprised 😉

Event details here, and photos here.