The Lairig Ghru

A bad start to the day. I couldn’t find Vera’s hat. My Great Aunt Vera knitted me a woolly hat 30 years ago and I wear it most days in winter. Have done for years. I wore it when I fell down the cliffs and it padded my head so that I only had a terribly, serious head injury. Silly old get.

I’ve lost it several times and it causes me to panic. A condition with which I am sadly familiar and which is largely controlled by citalopram and occasionally temazepam.

I didn’t feel comfortable about starting the Lairig Ghru today either. It had been a cold night and tonight was forecast to be minus 8C on Cairngorm. Any snow would be icy. Nevertheless I shouldered my rucksack and took off.

The first stage was walking through the Rothiemurchus forest for 8 or 9 miles to the start of the pass. A lovely starter.

It was cold up this Glen despite the sunny periods, and I came across a couple of local hikers. They expressed concern about the snow in the Lairig Ghru and that at nearly 3,000 feet the summit of the pass is likely to be frozen snow on the boulder fields. My enthusiasm for three days of snow trudging with a heavy rucksack subsided.

I got a clear view of the mountains and the snow was at a lower level than I remembered. Let’s give it a go anyway. I’d rather not slip on ice in a boulder field with a heavy rucksack on my back. Or freeze to peckin death in a tent. But it is a great route.

After a mile I moved aside for three middle aged mountain bike riders who stopped and expressed interest in where an older bloke with a big pack might be headed. They felt that the pass would be difficult with the recent snowfall and suggested that it might be better to live to fight another day. This sounded like genuine concern for someone who would be committing himself to 40 miles of climb and fall and climb and fall. And surprisingly I was very happy to accept their advice and return to Aviemore. What has felt right for several weeks, and seemed very right yesterday, didn’t seem right today.

I returned to the Coylumbridge hotel via a roundabout route through the forest.

One advantage is that I can rest my shoulders now. And Vera’s hat had been handed in to the hotel. Thank God.

It didn’t feel right to carry on. Too many old buggers think it’s easy because they’ve got experience and it won’t happen to them. But it happened to me where there was lots of help and immediate medical attention. If it happened in these conditions eyed beef act. It’s no country for old men.

I’ve done a good run up the full 82 mile length of the East Highland Way and that was great. I’ve climbed up 4,000 feet to the summit of Cairngorm in fairly deep snow and looked over the Cairngorm range from the top. And I’ve reacquainted myself with a childhood favourite location. The Lairig Ghru remains on my to do list. A blessing not a setback. God bless Scotland.

Night night.