Moidart Meanderings

Moriston River Race 2014

This weekend the 3^rd annual Moriston River Race took place.  106 paddlers descend upon Glen Moriston to battle it out on the 600m, grade 4 course in a stunning setting.

Racers applying their games faces at the top

Everyone gets two runs down and the fastest twenty racers qualify to fight it out in the final.

With such a strong field this year, I was just hoping to make it into the final and anything after that would be a bonus.

What an awesome setting.

The atmosphere was great for the whole event with spectators cheering all the paddlers at the final bend from the rock amphitheatre.

My first two runs went OK with a few mistakes, meaning I qualified as 19^th into the final.  The pressure was then off as things could only get better.

Getting the top drop dialed.

With a more relaxed attitude, I really enjoyed the run, with only one mistake; it was an incredibly exciting and enjoyable final.

Tim Burne storming through sticky hole

It was fantastic watching the final fastest paddlers finish all with supper clean line and driving the boat right to the end.  Massive congratulations to Callum Strong for winning the open event and to Sandra Hyslop for talking the female prize.

Dan enjoying the race with hand paddles amidst all the spectators

The evening entertainment was spot on.  Beers, prize giving, then back to the campsite for a fire.  It was great to catch up with so many paddlers and awesome to meet lots of new ones.  As a nice little surprise, I won the “IR Sportsmanship award” which was the cherry on the top for me.

Massive thanks to James, Giles and team for the planning and race day work and IR for the “Sportsmanship award”

Some very slow moving people the morning after

Huge congratulations to all the winners in a super competitive year.

Open winner - Callum Strong

Fastest female – Sandra Hyslop

Fastest junior – Ben Johnson

Fastest single lap – Ed Smith

Suilven, in a round about way.

The amazing Suilven stands proud amidst its boggy, knock and lochan surroundings.  Voted ‘Scotland’s prettiest mountain’, it is easy see why.  Even shrouded in mist, its wonderful shape and grandeur give the landscape a real focus.   Its cliffs and curves transform as you travel round;    domed from the west, pyramidal from the East and bosom shaped from the.  At 731m, it narrowly misses out on Munroe status, this means people climb it because they want to climb ‘Suilven’, not just as part of a greater goal.  I love that.

Like many, Suilven is the focal point for our trip; however, we decide to explore it in a different way.  We chose to travel round it by canoe.  Easier said than done.

We trundle down the road in high spirit, past cavers and reindeer, surrounded by solitary hills frozen in time. 

Six kilometres pass before we push the front of the boat into Loch Assint.   We launch eagerly.  The first paddle strokes feel effortless, as we glide peacefully across the water.  A tail wind builds with our enjoyment so we erect a sail, pulling us faster across the loch.

In no time, we reach the western shoreline.  The River Inver drains Loch Assint and poses our first real challenge.  The boat weaves between rocks and shingle deposits as river bank becomes cliff.   We enter the first gorge and the gradient steepens, forcing us to maneuver the boat with lines, down the rapids.

"We enjoy using these traditional skills, invented along Canadian fur trade routes in the seventeenth century."

The river steepens further, so we decide to re-join the road, making a speedy decent down into Lochinver.   Exhausted, we pitch our tent beside the football pitch, eat and make a be-line to the pub.  Bliss. Then bed.  Double bliss.

With bleary morning eyes, we swoosh the midges away, excited to get on the mirror like sea that waits.  The canoe cuts through the oceans silence as we round Kirkaig Point.  Turns swoop, shags dive and jelly fish wibble as we approach Inverkirkaig with our eyes on the next leg.  The steep, rocky; River Kirkaig.

This technical river offers another significant barrier to the canoe.  We chose to trolley and carry up the parallel path.  Passing a sign warning of steep drops and difficult walking.  Uh oh!  The path soon becomes too much for the trolley. Huge boulders, steep drops and deep heather mean that we have to start carrying the laden boat.  Four brutish kilometres of sweat and exhaustion later, we reach the Falls of Kirkaig marking the top of the river.

"By now we are both totally crippled.  Soaked to the skin, sapped of all our energy, we slump over our bag felling very sorry for ourselves."  

We know the hard bit is over; however it takes an age to conjure motivation and carry on.  To our dismay, the river above the falls is still un-navigable.  We portage further, questioning our sanity.

For the third time in 2 days, we climb back in the boat and with new found energy, power along beside the incredible lumps of Suilven.  We wave at fisherman, answer the cuckoos and spot leaping trout as we motor along Fion Loch.  The water shallows as we reach the Uidh Fhearna River, deploying our tracking and poling skills to make upstream progress.  We are again reminded about the versatility of the canoe traveling both up and down stream with ease.

It slowly dawns on us that the end is near; however ten kilometres of Loch Vaeyatie and a seven kilometre of uphill trolley soon crush any excitement.  Moral drops once again.  

"I struggle to keep my eyes open in the front seat, my mind drifting far from the canoe but I know I must keep battling."

The end of the loch comes into sight, with another huge waterfall crashing down from above.  Excitement slowly builds as we spot or portage track.  Like a well-oiled machine we; attach the trolley, adjust the balance of kit and begin to tug.  For motivation, we split the final uphill slog into three, two kilometres sections, as our weary bodies trudge on.  

Eventually we reach the highest point of the trip and enjoy the final kilometre back to the car.  A huge feeling of relief sweeps across us as we reach the car, incredibly relieved to have finished but also greatly proud to have survived two arduous days. 

Looking back, it dawned on us pretty soon that the trip wasn’t going to be easy.  Twenty one kilometres of portage with only thirty five kilometres of paddling wasn’t a great ratio.  On a normal river, this would be a pretty bad time; however, somehow, this ratio was forgivable.  Yes the trip was incredibly and possibly unnecessarily tiresome but this kind of adventure is what the canoe is designed for.  Like the ancient Canadian fur traders, we used ropes, poles and sails to travel incredible distances both up and downstream.  This is what the trip was about.  Exploring a new area, in an incredibly cool boat and having a bit of fun even if it was very much of the “retrospective” variety. 

This is certainly not a trip that I would recommend to anybody however, if you fancy a challenge, get stuck in.

Photos - Jonny and Paul

Rest Day?

 After lots of great kayaking and climbing over the past few days it was time for a chilled one.  The only problem was the the weather was great so we had to do something.

Loch Morlich is about a 10 minute walk from the lodge, so is a great place to practice skills and have a quick blast on the water.

We poled, sailed, paddled and lined whilst being constantly buffeted by the wind.  Eventually we found a tiny, sheltered stream to play on.  Paddling and poling over the crystal clear snowmelt water was great.

Paddling in the sun, with the snowy Caingormes as a backdrop takes some beating.

Off to Assint to canoe round Sullivan tomorrow :)

The First Week

After a month of pretty intense training at Glenmore Lodge, we have finally started the routine of 11 days work a month leaving plenty if time for courses and play.

Staff training at Cummingston.

Nightwatch's last day off all together spent enjoy a very sunny River Tay.

My first mountain rescue mission.  Driving this baby up into the hills to pick up an injured walker.

Joe Kirk blasting through Headbanger on the Spean Gorge.

Tom and Rob on the classic Cave Route at Huntley's

The amazing steep arete of Huntey's Jam.  Tom's first E2!

An evening of training for the Moriston River Race with; Joe, Anne and Giles.

The view walking out after a good climbing session at Brinn Rock.

The Old Man

The Old Man of Stoer rises two hundred feet out of the sea off the Sutherland coast.  The impressive stack is formed of Torridonian Sandstone, which was laid down some 1200 million years ago.  Since the first accent by Tom Patey in 1966, climbers have flocked to for a real Scottish climbing classic.  The remote location combined with the necessity to use a tyrolean traverse to gain access, makes it an extremely exciting and adventurous climb.

A wonderful place to wake up. Photo -  Jonny Hawkins

With a couple of days off from the Lodge, Rory, Rachael and my-self decided we would give it a bash.

We awake at Stoer Head in our tent, teetering on the edge of the huge cliffs dropping steeply into the sea.  Built in 1870, the slightly stubby Stoer Head Lighthouse guards the cliffs from stray boats and offers a great focal point for tourists.

Walking in past the Stoer Head Lighthouse. Photo -  Jonny Hawkins

Birds circle overhead as we walk north towards the stack.  Soon enough it appears above the horizon, causing a sweep of excitement and huge grins across the board.  We follow a steep climber’s path down to the ledge and observe for the first time the incredible stack standing proud.

Our first views of the beast. Photo -  Jonny Hawkins

Rory nobly steps up for the swim and soon enough we have a tight rope for Rachael and I to shimmy across.  This is my first tyrolean which bumps up the adventure factor significantly.

Rachael getting her tyrolean on. Photo - Rory Brown

 Once all across, Rory leads off, traversing just above sea level to start the climb.  We choose to climb the “Original Route” which is a stunning, four starred VS that trends up and round the stack offering immaculate climbing and stunning view all the way up. Huge jugs on steep sections, palatial belays and exposure by the bucket load definitely make this a climb one to remember.

Celebrating at the summit.  Photo - Rachael Crewesmith

On on the top, we enjoy a celebratory drop of ‘Dark Island’ soaking up the spectacular views of the rugged coast and across the Minch to the Outer Hebrides.  It is amazing to view the whole coastline, at clifftop level, stuck out above the sea.  Awesome.

An incredible position to abseil from. Photo - Rory Brown

Rachael enjoying the exposure. Photo - Rory Brown

This has been 'on the list' ever since I paddled past it during my round Scotland trip.  It was a pleasure to finally get on it with two great folk.

Thanks Rachael and Rory for an amazing trip.