MOUNT KEEN
Mount Keen summit looking across the moor that Rob had to cross. Photo tms.nickbramhall.com
10.6 miles 820 metres
Start Monday 12.49
Mount Keen 14.25
Finish 15.30
Squares: blue - start & finish. Circles summits - green this leg. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 2.30 Actual 2.41
Rob writes:
Rumours about miles of bog were confirmed by the map which I didn't like the look of. Just getting into position was a problem as Diana and Ian hadn't returned with the car. Pippa took me round as I left the others discussing whether to ring the police as they were so long overdue. Had they had an accident? (they turned up later unaware they were overdue – once again we'd moved faster than expected and avoided a logistical mess narrowly. Had Ian returned I could have reclaimed my walsh which he had decided to take on a trip across Braeriach.
I headed up the straightest of tracks through the forest – onto a vehicle track and up past numerous shooting bunkers to a ridge. Then across a steep-sided valley across some burnt heather that was much easier than the living stuff and the ups and downs across peat hags that I now faced. All very much the Dark Peak. Thank God it was so dry – it would have been a nightmare otherwise. Even so it was hard going.
Ahead lay the cone of Mount Keen – it looked and was very un-Scottish. A very unusual Munro indeed. Symmetrical, no big ascent or crags, isolated and surrounded by peat hags. The wind almost blew me up the hill and I could hardly stand on the top.
Again I knew I'd struggle to make my target time, a distressingly common occurance. So it proved despite a flying descent down the tracks after escaping the dry bogs.
As I raced towards the car I expected the engine to start up but nothing happened. John and Ed were fast asleep – the days of racing changeovers are gone. Ed drove sleepily down the road and since he looked so awful elicited considerable sympathy when rattling the collecting tin in the car park.
Peaks done 201 time taken 9 days 12 hours peaks to go 76
I was in a deep sleep when Rob knocked on the car. I think I drove quite fast up Glen Muick and I hope I was safe, but I was certainly barely awake. John jumped out and set off immediately which so obviously amazed the large number of people there that Rob and I got out and did the rounds with a collecting tin.
We then drove up to the mothership at the Glenshee ski area for supper. It was obvious parked there that John would be having a tough time as the wind was trying to blow the vehicles onto the hill even though the showers seemed to have died down.
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