GLAS TULAICHEAN - BEINN A' GHLO
It's a long way from Carn an Righ to Carn nan Gabhar, the high point back left. Photo tms.nickbramhall.com
16.0 miles 1715 metres
Start Tuesday 05.38
Glas Tulaichean 06.08
Carn an Righ 06.45
Carn nan Gabhar 08.50
Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain 09.30
Carn Liath 10.00
Finish 10.32
Squares: yellow - changeovers. Circles summits: green - this leg. red - done, purple - to do. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 5.30 Actual 4.54
Ian writes:
This was my Valhalla! A hell on earth that had to be faced! Well this was my thought as I wearily crawled up to Glas Tulaichean away from the warmth of my sleeping bag and the contentment of sleep.
The heather tussocks onto Carn an Righ were worse than imagined but the knee jerking and ankle breaking rocky descent to the Fearlar Lodge track, excelled any previous masochistic tendency I had yet devised. On and on and on and on! … the bog and the track merged into a superb punishing slog.
No doubt about it I was enjoying the painful ecstasy of fatigue and a sore heel that was now taking on the proportions of someone hacking away with an axe at the rear end of my foot. Oh what a joy! But the best was yet to come in the gigantic whaleback form of Beinn a' Ghlo where fatigue reached new depths in the knee deep heather ascent.
My frivolous indulgence changed dramatically with a summit view where wave upon wave of mountain shapes ebbed and flowed in a shining sunlit sea. The pain of the heel was thrown aside in the joy of a carefree run over the undulating ridges of this massive mountain giant.
My resolve was temporarily interrupted by a falling of body sugar level but this was soon put right by an overdose of chocolate. Riding high on the free excess of pure unrefined sugar I dropped off the last summit to reap the final rewards of a masochistic extravaganza … a waist deep wade in the icy waters of the Tilt where a bridge was supposed to be.
Peaks done 225 time taken 10 days 7 hours peaks to go 52
I had got up early to eat and be ready for Ian. I had then lain down in the grass and continued my sleep in the morning sun.
Because of Tony's torrid time I had a long but relaxed wait. I saw Ian some way off on the opposite hill.
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