Marhofn 93.05 - May 2003

Annual reports B-C:

Annual report: Paul Caban

The year was topped and tailed on Speyside. January 1st with Hilary, floundering in deep powder snow on a sparklingly clear day on Creagan a'Chaise; Hogmanay with Alison on a circuit of the three Corbetts at the head of the Feshie / Tromie, making good use of the frozen ground, all available daylight and mini-Petzls.

In between, judicious monitoring of weekend weather forecasts (thanks, Radio Scotland), and good fortune in the choice of a week away to the north-west at Easter, resulted in some truly memorable days. Highlights:

• backpacking on Harris;
• only my second ever otter on Jura, after a fabulous day on the Paps, and the pleasure that west-coast public transport really can work (Edinburgh to Craighouse on two buses, one train, two coaches and two ferries);
• the Loch Maree Corbetts when all around and beneath was a sea of cloud;
• popping out of the clag at the summit of Glas Bheinn (4A) to wonder at the Coe and Mamore inselbergs;
• backpacking from Inverie and eventually dropping off Sgurr nan Eugallt in ferocious weather to spend all of 30 seconds hitching a lift before the first car stopped.

Closer to home, shorter days often spent running around in my orienteering 'pyjamas'; man-eating heather on Benarty Hill; running on Dumyat, two hours after the party (and boy, could I have done with some cake that day); the rocky summits of Dumglow; an owl on Deuchar Law. And all, or indeed any of these, were infinitely more interesting than my new personal high-point of the lump of Quandary Peak, Colorado, though by all accounts July in Alberta and Colorado was preferable to being at home in Edinburgh.