Since first thing on Monday morning I’ve been locked away in a room in Kendal watching films. So far we’ve seen 81 DVD’s. Being a judge at the Kendal Mountain Film Fest does have its compensations but I must admit that if I see another BASE jumping film or downhill ski film I’m going to scream. On the positive side we’ve watched some really marvellous movies and I hope that when we sit down later today to choose the winners we can agree amongst ourselves. There will doubtlessly be some worthy winners.

I believe there are still some tickets available for our AV presentation on The Sutherland Trail on Saturday evening at Kendal Town Hall. Richard Else and I will be there previewing our forthcoming television programme so it would be great to see some of there. The whole Festival looks as though it will be tremendous and I’m certainly looking forward to what is commonly referred to now as the Tribal Gathering of the UK’s outdoor community. See you Saturday!

It hadn’t been the most promising of starts. One of the wheels on my old camper van had chosen an awkward moment to sieze up so plans for a weekend away had to be put on hold. Instead we left home later than we normally would have and arrived in Glen Cannich looking for a short-day option.

The Corbett of Sgorr na Diollaid, straddling the watershed between Glen Cannich and Glen Strathfarrar, looked like a good bet since my wife hadn’t climbed it but a stalking party appeared to be heading in the same direction. I had a chat with the stalker and he confirmed they’d be shooting on the flanks of the hill above Muchrachd. He seemed genuinely sorry but I was happy to back off and go elsewhere – it’s not as if Glen Cannich is short of good walks!

At the head of the glen Loch Mullardoch stretches out west with some fine Munros rising from its north shore. Carn nan Gobhar, 3255 ft, Sgurr na Lapaich, 3773 ft, An Riabhachan, 3704 ft, and An Socach, 3507 ft form a ten mile corrie-bitten and wind-scoured ridge, a remote group of hills that requires a long walk-in along the northern shore of the loch. The ascent of Carn nan Gobhar, high above the source of the Allt Mullardoch, makes a fine circular route of about 8-9 miles from the Mullardoch dam.

I walked this route in the spring of last year when the sun shone on the lower slopes and snow fell on the tops and I recalled views of Glen Strathfarrar in the north and beyond to the big hills of the Monar Forest – Maoile Lunndaidh, Sgurr a’ Chaorachain and Lurg Mhor. I also remembered the close-up views of Sgurr na Lapaich, the most majestic of all the Mullardoch Munros, Robbed of our desired destination for the day we set off for a repeat ascent of Carn nan Gobhar instead.

As we parked the car below the Mullardoch dam and poked our heads outside it became apparent we might not yet get things our own way. It was blowing a gale and the waters of Loch Mullardoch were being whipped up into fiendish squalls. As we left the lochside and followed the course of the in-spate Allt Mullardoch we were mercifully sheltered from the wind but I knew that once we reached the ridge that runs west to Carn nan Gobhar that wind would hit us head-on. A boggy footpath runs up the length of the Allt Mullardoch into Coire an t-Sith, the fairy corrie, so we made the most of it, enjoying the tumultuous swirl and roar of peat-brown waters of the burn before climbing the steeper slopes of Carn nan Gobhar’s eastern top, Creag Dubh.

It had been a pleasant enough climb, despite the boggy underfoot conditions and the showers of monsoon-type rain that broke up the sunny spells. Clad from head to foot in Gore-Tex we were well protected from most of the elements, but even the best of waterproofs wouldn’t stop us being battered and rocked by the wind. On the high ridge that connects Carn nan Gobhar with its outlier, Creag Dubh, 946 metres, the wind was so ferocious it forced us into another unplanned route change. Instead of fighting into the gales we’d go in the opposite direction and allow the wind to blow us along – to the stony summit of Creag Dubh, down easy slopes to a high bealach, then over a couple of un-named subsidiary tops before descending Coire Eoghainn back to the Mullardoch dam and our car.

It was a good plan. The wind didn’t bother us too much now that it was blowing at our backs and we wandered over some un-named tops that were rarely visited, if at all, by the baggers. Once we left the main Carn nan Gobhar ridge there was no sign of man-made paths or tracks, only us and the wind and the occasional roaring of the red deer stags. Below Creag Dubh we took some shelter behind a rather curious 60-metre long dry stone wall and tried hard to figure out what it’s purpose was. Could it be the remnant of some older dividing wall, separating parishes or communities, or could it have been created by trainee drystane-dykers on some high-level training course?

We had no idea, but were grateful enough for the shelter it gave us to enjoy our coffee and piece. Two more cairned summits took us east towards our earlier destination Sgorr na Diollaid and I couldn’t help wonder how the shooters had fared? Like us, they had probably been battered by the wind and rain too. The elements might even have spared the life of some red deer stag.

Easy slopes took us down the russet coloured Coire Eoghainn then, just as I thought we were almost there, steep slopes of old heather and invisible streams offers a purgatorial final half hour. It was a bedraggled pair who reached the road and the short walk back to the car but by this time, with the exercise-induced endorphins flowing, we declared it a memorable walk, if only for the uncertainty of it all.

Map: OS Sheet 25

Distance: About 8 miles

Start/Finish: Mullardoch Dam

Approx Time: 5-6 hours

Route: From the dam at the end of Loch Mullardoch follow the road on the N side for a short distance to a boat hut. Just beyond the hut the road terminates and a rough footpath continues along the N shore of the loch. Follow this path to the bridge over the Allt Mullardoch. Follow the E bank of the stream into Coire an t-Sith. At the end of the path continue N up steeper slopes to the summit of Creag Dubh. Descend SE to a high bealach with a curious wall then continue ESE to a large cairn at spot height 861. Foloow the broad ridge E for a short distance before descending the slopes of Coire Eoghainn back to the start

I hope to perhaps meet some of you at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in a couple of weeks time. I’ll be there all week, from Sunday to Sunday, as one of the judges for the film competition but on Saturday November 22 Richard Else and I will be showing a preview of our Sutherland Trail BBC film at Kendal Town Hall, as part of the Festival.

We’ll be putting together an audio/visual presentation with several video clips from the film. Essentially the route runs from Lochinver to Tongue and in the course of the route we climbed Suilven, Foinaven and Ben Loyal, although there are a number of other hills close by that could be incorporated into the route.

I also spoke to cavers, geologists, crofters, fishermen and all kinds of folk who both live in Sutherland and who visit the area for recreation. As such I sea kayaked out to Handa Island with kayaking guru Brian Wilson, did a bit of caving at Inchnadamph and even rode some of the route by mountain bike.

The television programme will be broadcast round about Boxing Day and it will appear as a DVD shortly after, available from this website. Hope to see some of you at Kendal - always a bloody good festival.

Took a walk around our village this morning in glorious autumn gold and met an old friend. I greeted him with a comment about the lovely weather and he responded by saying what a marvellous morning it was for Barack Obama, the USA and the world?
While I’m inclined to agree, and while I’m delighted that the dark shadow that George Bush has cast across the world will soon be gone I couldn’t help but recall the same feeling of optimism I felt in 1997 when a young, starry-eyed Tony Blair came into power. Let’s hope Obama doesn’t turn out to be as self-serving as Blair was…

I was walking in the Borders and Northumberland all last week and missed all the media hype about the Original Mountain Marathon. I did see one headline that greatly amused me though. 

“Hundreds forced to spend the night on a mountainside,” it said and I couldn’t help but smile. Isn’t that the whole point of a two-day mountain marathon? That report just showed up the lazy journalism and lack of knowledge that produced a grossly sensationalized account of the event. And that, sadly, was the tone of most of the newspapers and radio reports. I was surprised that no-one, (usually a politician), had been wheeled out to say that mountain marathons should be banned!

 I did hear the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 and they might have had a point in the suggestion that the cost of the “perceived” rescue, some £10,000, might have been better spent, but no-one appears to object to the huge amounts of money being spent on those who insist on smoking themselves to death, or drinking themselves to death. Racing Formula One sports cars is inherently much more dangerous than fell running yet this weekend Lewis Hamilton will became a hero if, as expected, he wins the World Championship. More people die in ordinary road-running marathons than in fell races, so why is it that whenever folk choose to enjoy their sport in the mountains the popular press condemns them? If you sail round the world single-handed chances are you will be knighted. Climb a mountain solo and you are accused of being a nutter, risking the lives of mountain rescue personnel.

Or could it be that the 2008 OMM has become a victim of a hard-pressed, under funded and overworked media. When journalists are doing the job of three, which is the current state of play within most of the UK’s newspaper groups, corners will be cut and pressure is always applied to make mundane stories more sensational than they are. The current Jonathon Ross story is a good example of that. Or could it be that the nanny-state in which we live is governed to such a degree that risk-taking, in any form, whether it be in the stock exchange or in the mountains, is condemned by one and all. If that is the case, then God help us all.