Munro with cancer #1

4th July 2014, Carn Dearg (M232), 3087ft, 941m

I did not take a photo of myself at the top of this mountain. I did not think to do so because I was not yet bagging Munros nor demanding of myself validation of this.

I took several from its slopes though. Among which the above long distance shot of the Fort William train clattering up the hill to Corrour Station past the lower slopes of Leum Uillem, near where Irvine Welsh took the characters of his Trainspotting, thereby germinating the epic rant from which the title of this blog is a quotation.

It is of course pure coincidence that this was the first Munro I climbed with cancer, for the idea for and title of the blog were yet to present themselves to me.

The previous day I parked at Rannoch Station and walked through wet summer rain over the path to Old Corrour Lodge, now a ruin, but once a substantial arrangement of buildings with a very fine prospect over the northern reaches of Rannoch Moor towards Nevis ranges and Mamores.

Here I pitched my tent and fell asleep, to be awakened by brilliant sunlight and clouds of midges. It felt good then to be back in the mountains after so many years away, under such challenging mental circumstances.

 

Comments

5 responses to “Munro with cancer #1”

  1. […] first mountain I climbed with cancer is called Carn Dearg (Red Crag) and is situated at the north east edge of Rannoch […]

  2. […] a Chaorainns, both Carn Liaths, both Meall Garbhs, two of the three Ben Mores, two of the three Carn Deargs, all three Carn nan Gabhar/Gobhars, three of the four Geal Charns and now all three An […]

  3. […] this blog appears is filmed at a very familiar spot for mountain people, just to the north west of Corrour Station on the path to Leum Uillem – a hill which fails only by a few feet to rise to the magic 3000 […]

  4. […] me unfamiliar. Since I returned from The Netherlands in 2013 and my first sojourn into the hills in July 2014, I have been looking at peaks I could now see in the north and east, only from the north and east. […]

  5. […] reached the summit of Carn Dearg in just over two and a half hours, compleating thus all three Carn Deargs. The cornices on the east of the ridge are sagging and collapsing impressively, but beyond […]

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