BRAERIACH PLATEAU
View from Braeriach - Carn a' Mhaim centre, Cairn Toul is top of slope to the right. Photo Fran Britain
19.5 miles 2033 metres
Start Sunday 21.46
Beinn Bhrotain 22.50
Monadh Mor Monday 23.25
The Devil's Point 00.25
Cairn Toul 01.15
Braeriach 02.20
Finish 03.40
Squares: yellow - changeovers. Circles summits: green - this leg, purple - to do, blue - now a Munro but not in 1990. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 7.45 Actual 5.54
Ian writes:
This was the one I had so long been successful in avoiding and yet had dreaded as being the inevitable outcome … “THE NIGHT SECTION.” It was indeed the sweet revenge from those I had so gleefully handed the baton over to previously in the failing light of a steady downpour. Now it was my turn and I reluctantly took the baton from John to go hurtling across the moor towards the gloom of Beinn Bhrotain waiting like some dark menacing form from an obscure nightmare.
Once up and into the mist my eyes soon got accustomed to the flickering failings of the light, and I followed my trusted compass over onto the wastes of Monadh Mor. It was here that panic flowed near to the surface of reason as the expected cairn failed to materialise out of the gloom. But reason prevailed as the cairn eventually came and went and I descended down to the lovely lochan waiting below, peaceful and still in the calm of the night. The intensity of silence was broken only by the slinking movement of deer or the haunting cry of ptarmigan taking flight. The intense peace floated over me in waves bringing a previously unknown contentment to both mind and body.
I was floating in an ebony state and yet could see every ground detail beyond the limitations of my mere sight. My whole being was alive to the task ahead of me with the shadowy form of Devil's Point beckoning me towards the heights. There in that lofty mountain spire I could see to the far outposts of civilisation, the twinkling lights of far distant Braemar.
Up over Cairn Toul and around Angels Peak I trod pausing only to check the occasional bearing. Once I became disorientated in the swirling gloom but soon again found the plunging voids of the cliff edge falling to the great saucer corries below.
Slowly and almost imperceptibly the light began to intensify until the full glory of dawn awaited me with fiery profusion when viewed from Braeriach. The cloud swept clear and a symphony of light flared on the distant horizon, a celebration of the end of my night's vigil.
Gleefully I sped down the familiar path into the chasm of the Lairig Ghru only to be slowed by the gruelling ascent of the slope on the other side. Once on top I felt youthful and free sprinting over the mossy undulations towards Cairngorm. A chance to scare Ed out of his wits was lost as I approached the changeover point as Ed was fully aware of the myth of “The Old Man of Macdhui” and lying in his bivvy bag was sensitive to every movement in the intense light of this bright morning.
Peaks done 190 time taken 9 days 1 hour peaks to go 87
Reading Ian's account, I can only assume that he must have been quite as much in his own world as it sounds – Where was this silence? Surely the wind didn't drop especially round him, and surely the cold would have impinged upon anyone not transported into far realms. He had also managed to run in one of Rob's shoes and one of his own, of different sizes, which caused nasty blisters – did he not feel them?
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