Bynack More

Bynack More (1090m/3576ft) NJ042063

Summitted: Tuesday 2nd September 2008

OS Landranger Sheet 36: Grantown & Aviemore

This is a retrospective post, covering one of the Munros I have climbed in the past, during a solo trek around the Cairngorms.

In the end of August and beginning of September 2008 I was in the Cairngorms for a 10-day stroll to check out the high plateau, having never been up to this area before. I planned a route from bothy to bothy taking in Scheicheachan, the Minigaig, Glen Feshie, Corrour, The Lairig Rhu, Ryvoan, Faindouran Lodge, The Lairig an Laoigh, Bob Scott's and the Tarf Hotel. I wasn't there to do any peaks, but at Ryvoan, a DoE guide suggested that as I was going to Faindouran next stop, it would be just as easy to go over the top of Bynack More. With a heavy rucksack it wasn't easy getting up, but worth the view. The suggested route down the other side turned out to be a heather-clad cliff, which was almost the end of me when one trekking pole collapsed on itself.

The Summit Cairn of Bynack More

The top of Bynack More was clear, but between there and the summit of A' Choinneach (not a Munro, but still an impressive 1017m) the weather closed in quickly and I found the top only by facing myself uphill until I ran out of uphill to face. On the top there are two small cairns, a hundred or so yards apart. From one the other seems to look higher, and vice versa when it is reached. The thick cloud didn't help, so a compass was required to point myself in the direction of the Fords of Avon Refuge.

Looking North from the Summit

Looking South to A' Choinneach and beyond

The decision is made

I have finally decided to make a concerted effort to climb all of Scotland's 283 3000+ft Munros. I have got myself a large Munro and Corbett wall chart to aid planning.

First thing to do is find the summit photos for the Munros I have bagged and check them off the list. I have climbed quite a few Munros over the years, but I only have summit photos for Bynack More (northern Cairngorms) and the peaks of the Beinn a' Ghlo ridge (Carn Liath, Braigh Coire Chruinn-Bhalgain, Carn nan Gabhar). My only criteria for completion is a summit photo - either including myself, or taken by myself and including my rucksack (when walking solo, setting up a shot of yourself on a wind-swept, rain-soaked summit isn't easy). So I'm considering 4 of the 283 completed. I recall being up Ben Lomond at least twice, Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn), Ben Lawers, Ben Lui, Schiehallion and a few others I was too young to remember (or pronounce).

So why have I decided to do this? I have spent the last year desk-bound for too many hours, and my fitness has been neglected. I need a target to focus myself for getting back into proper shape. So what better way.

Being vehicle-less, getting to some of the more remote hills will be difficult. As such, having the capacity to bag as many peaks as possible in a short period of time is a must. The running shoes went on again last night, for the first time in too many months. 4.2 miles (RunningMap is great for quick route measurements) in the cold air and without much of a warmup. Now feeling a little bit sore around the top of my hip but nothing that will stop be going out again tonight. Not a bad run considering how long it has been (and how much weight I've put on).

This weekend brings a casual hillwalk/social outing with Moray and Andy down to the Southern Upland Way between St Mary's Loch and Over Phawhope. We've been slowly filling in sections of the SUW, and have now done the stretch between Wanlockhead and Over Phawhope. Some time I want to do the full 212 miles straight across.