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Glas Maol
– a personal account
It was
five past seven on a Sunday morning and nineteen stockets were camped on
the pavement outside Mile End
School, while a
twentieth scrabbled through his mobile phone address book in quest of a
number to find out why the seven o'clock
bus was not here at seven o’clock.
I suddenly realised that this was my third attempt to
climb Glas Maol. The first was two years ago when, with one very brave
soul, I arrived at the Cairnwell carpark to find a thick mist descending
the hillside. We climbed for about half an hour and came to the first
navigational challenge. I tried to send us off in the wrong direction and,
as visibility was now down to about twenty feet, my colleague decided it
might be better to take me for a hot chocolate at Aboyne instead.
The second was with the Stockets last year when we
headed off and found the snow gates closed – so we went ‘cairn hugging’ in
the forests above Balmoral.
That brings us to ten past seven , with me thinking
Glas Maol was jinxed, nineteen others contemplating taking the number 22
bus to Mastrick and walking from there (they heard a bus, got excited then
saw it was a number 22) when the red Gordons bus swung round the corner.
Having been relieved of my £12,
I settled down to catch up on some sleep while
the others caught up on news, gossip, jokes and plans for the walk.
It really was a nice day and the initial hours walk
was fairly flat and straight, easing our muscles into walk mode and giving
lots of opportunity for sleepyheads to catch up on news, gossip, jokes and
plans for the walk.
An hour in and we had to make a decision – choose
between the long walk and the not so long walk.
Nine went on the not so long walk led by Liz – heading
straight up Caenlochan Glen for Glas Maol and the rest of us going up the
steep nose of Caderg led by Derek.
 Off
we went, continuing along the flat straight path, chatting and gossiping,
enjoying the scenery, leaving Derek to lead from behind, until we reached
the ruin at the base of Caderg where a decision had to be reached on how
to proceed, so we took a brunch break and let Derek catch up.
Fortified by at least half the contents of their lunch
boxes, Derek and Lois set a cracking pace up the ‘nose’. The views were
very good looking into the glens. I took several stops to admire them
while I allowed my heart
rate to return below danger level and regained control
of my breathing.
Further up we encountered the snow level on what were
still very steep slopes of Druim Mor.
Lois was in the lead and kicked ‘steps’ in the snow for
the rest of us to follow – that will slow her down a bit I thought...
We continued on, catching glimpses of the ‘ not so
long walkers’ as they ascended towards Glas Maol – the visibility was
extremely good and views just amazing.
The wind was just enough to allow a breeze to cool the
brow, until we got to the top, it seems we had climbed on the sunny lee
side of the hill and the wind was a bit stronger now.
It was still very pleasant though as we walked
along and up the wide ridge towards the summit, occasionally walking
through coarse grass
and sometimes crunching through snow, always with Lois somewhere on the
horizon except when she scampered back to Derek to discuss the ‘official’
route forward.
By the time we got to the summit of Glas Maol I was
last in line and the group moved off just as I got there.
I paused to take a photograph of Hx on the Trig
point and had to mess about with batteries before the camera would
function.
As I started off after the others I met Derek coming
back- he had done a quick head count, I
realised he was short of a sheep and come back in
case said sheep was wandering off the summit in
the wrong direction. As he said it was better to take two minutes to
check now than twenty minutes to wait to see if the straggler appeared
then go look for them.
Lois had waited at the summit but was soon well ahead
of us again, the group was fairly well spread out but visibility really
was good. Perhaps we were walking single file and spaced out because of
the danger of being downwind of walkers with runny noses?
Were it not for the wind it would have been one of the
most pleasant walks with the Stockets so far.
The walk to Creag Leacach was uneventful , no
really steep bits, wonderful views (my camera batteries had given up by
now ) but still a chore crunching through the snowy bits which had a nasty
habit of pretending to hold your weight until you pushed forward then
dropping your foot a couple of inches – very frustrating, and tiring. Good
visibility, nice and sunny, but the wind was enough to cause everyone to
wrap up.
 We
followed the dyke up to the summit of Creag Leacach which was marked
very unglamorously by a flat pile of stones which looked as if the
drystane dyke had collapsed and more stone had been thrown onto it instead
of being rebuilt.
The walk down was a series of little hills, each
smaller than the last with good views and mostly firm footing so progress
was good for all except Lois – she may be a pretty thing to follow but
there are limits – we let her run on at her own pace and enjoyed the walk
down in a civilized, Sunday afternoon sightseeing walk manner.
When we stopped scampering over the hillside and found
the track to Tomb we stopped to regroup. I was surprised to find that we
were all at the path within a minute or two of each other, except Lois of
course , and Derek.
After a couple of minutes someone spotted him. Halfway down the last slope
he had stopped, sitting on a rock like a little lepricon eating a hot
cross bun – it was Easter Sunday after all.
The
walk out to the pub at Spittal of Glenshee was very pleasant and a lot
shorter than I had thought. The ‘not so long walkers’ were well ensconced
having reached the bus some forty minutes before, beaten back only by Lois
who had caught up with them on the walk in but made a point of touching
the bus first.
Overall I think it was one of the best walks since I
joined the Stockets , good visibility , lots of wildlife – hares, grouse,
rabbits, pheasants, eagle ( it soured therefore it was an eagle) I believe
the other group even saw deer.
Pity about the wind at the top but at least Derek got a
chance to try out his new (I got a bargain) digital camera – lets hope we
see some of his portfolio on the website.
I was very pleased to see several people that I did not
recognise , it is good to know that the club is not stagnating.
I would like to thank those who keep the club
functioning – namely Peter , Graeme, Steve, Elaine, Derek, Tony, Beverly
and definitely not least- Sylvie.
If you are not sure what they do then check the
website.
Michael Moir
P.S.
Derek tried in vain to get anyone (including me) to
volunteer to write a summary of the walk. I obviously had second thoughts.
I would urge you all to take a turn in doing a ‘write up’ of a walk. We
can all do better than ‘ Saw the hill, climbed it, had a pint in the pub!’
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This site was last
updated by Sylvie on
26/01/2008
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