It's Worth Not Giving Up

A few weeks ago I wrote about climbing Tinto, one of the highest peaks in the Southern Uplands. For the full blog click here , but here are the basics ... My sister's house is at the bottom of Tinto. I like to climb it whenever I stay.

So ... just like everywhere else in the UK, it's been snowing around Tinto, quite heavily. The other day the snow stopped and the sun came out, so I layered up and headed for the hill.

Usually I give myself three goals ...
[1] get to the top
[2] do it without stopping
[3] beat my fastest time.

Fastest time so far is 44 minutes to the top. Now my sister reckons that's pretty good. However, every November some super fit freaks from Area 51 take human form and make us all feel inadequate by running up AND down - the race record is about 30minutes! Up and down in the thick snow took me THREE HOURS! It was so worth it.

I was expecting to be the only one adventurous enough to be on the hill, and wondered if this was odd behaviour, but then I had a mini Captain Scott moment when I spied a couple of dark shapes making their way down. Damn, I wasn't the only one on the hill. Now these two guys were together, but one was on foot, the other had skiis?! It was like bumping into some kind of ski lord and his trusty manservant. I decided not to feel odd. And good news, they'd only gone half way up, leaving the rest of the hill to me.

Much of the usual path up Tinto looks like a stream once flowed down it, although I suspect this erosion is more likely caused by squillions of footsteps. Whatever is responsible, a lot of the path is cut into the hillside, and was filled in with snow, so to avoid ending up ear deep in the stuff I had to walk where I could see the heather peaking through. I regularly came across parts that were just drifts though, and had to develop a technique of pushing down slowly a few inches to compact the snow then put my weight on it to push forward. At times I had to do a kind of on all fours Gollum-like shuffle [the easyJet flight path between Edinburgh & Gatwick is directly above, so maybe I amused a few passengers waiting for their overpriced Pringles]. It was tough going, but the reward more than made up for it.

At the top, simply amazing. My side of the hill had been in shade, so as I got close to the cairn, suddenly there was the other side of the hill flooded by sunshine. I actually said “wow” out loud. Then at the cairn the 360 degree view was spectacular, so different with everything white. The sky had streaks of blue but the clouds made the view. Because of the light, they looked different as I panned around. With the sun behind them the clouds glowed a spooky, ghostly white. I turned a little, and giant blobs of cotton wool embraced the hills. I looked round another bit, and it was impossible to tell where cloud and hill started and finished.

The way the snow had been blown around the cairn was really interesting too. What I guess happended was that the snow had fallen and settled on the large cairn stones [sizes between small and large mellons], then the wind had picked up and blown in one direction. This caused “fingers” of hard snow to form, all pointing horizontally in the same direction. The “fingers” formed in clusters on the individual stones, and because of the size of the stones, it looked like hundreds of white hands reaching out from the cairn. Beautiful turned into creepy.

Going up I'd been Shackleton, at the top I'd appreciated nature's beauty, coming down I decided to have some fun, so I did some snow angels. Also tried a bit of arse tobogganing, and then just rolled down a bit of hill [not as much fun as I hoped, and it made me dizzy]. About half way down, I met another bloke on skiis heading for the top. He’d been planning to head north for “proper” skiing, but traffic conditions made him settle for a half day on Tinto. I couldn’t help wonder what this seasoned skier would make of my trail of snow angels on otherwise virgin slopes.

Further down I saw someone else walking up. As this newcomer got closer I could see that they obviously hadn’t shopped at Millets. Their outfit included a white Patagonia wooly hat and light blue jeans tucked into what looked like beige cowboy boots. I thought I was walking towards Gok Wan. It wasn’t, but the bloke was cheery and friendly. I don't know if he tried to get to the top, but if he did I'm sure the helicopter crew appreciated his pluck [if not his heels]. Closer to the bottom I spoke to a Grandad with grandson in tow, and passed on my walk on the heather advice, but didn’t bother telling them not to eat the yellow snow.