Freedom: the beginnings of an epic plan
After these past few months of coursework, deadlines and exams, I am looking forward to some adventures in the mountains next month. Since I currently have no set plans for late June it seems logical to stay behind in Glencoe after Fell Club departs, and have some fun there.
Originally I thought I could do a 2-3 day bivvying trip around the valley, but I was left with two problems:
1. What to do with my climbing gear? I would have to leave it behind in my tent and pay for a pitch. Booo.
2. I would have to get a bus back from Glencoe to Glasgow in order to catch my train. Boring.
In order to solve these problems, an obvious solution presented itself: ask Fell to take my kit back with them to Norwich, and then walk to Glasgow myself.
A quick look at the map confirms that the shortest route by road is 86 miles. Away from the roads, the landscape is a virtual wilderness, interrupted by only the occasional track and isolated croft. There are also lots and lots of huge mountains, many over 3,000 feet, including several distinct mountain ranges. And I intend to stick to the high ground.
I have not managed to get all the OS maps I will need for this journey yet, but a rough estimate puts the total distance at over 100 miles and crossing maybe 15 Munros, including some right out in the wild where only Munro-baggers ever go. Such a journey would take several days and would require real commitment of a kind I have rarely experienced in the mountains before. I would be penetrating deep into regions more remote than I have ever visited ... and that includes our visit to the Alps.
Despite the obvious logistical challenges, the idea is inspiring in a way that only a bivvying trip can be. I am almost tempted to leave my watch behind to gain freedom from the tyranny of time. There is an attraction in descending to the valley after days in the mountains, not even knowing what day of the week it is.
Bivvying represents freedom, and the bivvying trips I have conducted in the past have been the most memorable I have ever spent in the mountains. The nights are either wondrous, comfortable experiences under a blaze of stars, or shivering misery as the rain pelts down on the thin layer of Goretex between you and the sky, slowly trickling through the entrance and saturating everything you own. The mornings are cold and the days are exceptionally long and arduous. Sometimes the food runs out and you know it's two days until the next farmhouse; who knows how far until the next shop.
But it is true freedom of a kind we rarely experience in our lives today where so much risk and uncertainty has been taken away from us. To put back some risk and uncertainty, to be free from the pressures of our lives and be entirely unfettered by any constraints save the ones imposed by nature, is I feel one of the most worthwhile things one can do in life.
This will take some planning, but I do not want to plan it too much. Far better to give myself a week and a few maps, and to find my own way to Glasgow.
At the moment it looks like I will be starting at Lagangarbh in Glencoe, climbing Buachaille Etive Mor, then some of the remote mountains of the Blackmount before crossing Ben Starav, the mountains around the Bridge of Orchy and Crianlarich, and finally finishing over the Ben Lomond range before dropping down to Glasgow and catching the bus through the suburbs to the train station. There are a few places where I can re-stock on food along the way.
Hey, it'll get me fit for the Alps! ;-)


