A Cairngorms crossing at work

Incredible 4am morning skies above the Cairngorms

I love my job as a Mountain Leader, but every now and then you have a week at work that is different (in a good way) from the 'norm'.  Last week was a example of that.  Having worked for Rough Edge Adventure Logistics for a while, we made our staff dreams come true and took a Gold DofE expedition to the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland.  

Walking up the valley from Spittal of Glenshee ahead of the teams

This was going to be an exciting, challenging and fun week of work.  The planned route crossed the entire national park from Bridge of Cally (South of Glenshee) to Aviemore.  With days up to 28km long, in remote country where the only escape is via mountain rescue or a 12km walk in some areas the teams would need to be strong and competent.  On the flip side it would be a truly adventurous and wild journey harking back to the days when fewer people walked in the UK hills.  As one participant described excitedly to her parents on the phone, 'we only saw eight other people excluding our team and instructors'.

First night in the instructor wild camp in the Cairngorms Photo by Dan Lane

As the route was so remote this meant that our team of instructors would be wild camping and crossing the Cairngorms for three days aswell (Day 1 was more easily supervised from walking up from the road).

Walking past the student's wild camp at 5am one morning to begin the day's work

In addition to being physically fit for the route we gave the teams a full day of training before they set off, to refresh their skills and ensure we were happy for them to head off on their qualifying expedition.  (It can sometimes be a long time between training, practice and qualifying trips for students, and in the meantime most of them have been focused on school exams).  For the Scottish environment this also included:

• River crossings
• Ticks - a reminder on what they are, how to avoid them and how to remove them
• Emergency procedures
• Registering on the 999 emergency text service
• Fitness
• Navigation refresher
• Strict kit checks
• And much more...

Checking out (rather dry) river crossings while waiting to meet the groups as they walk down the valley

Remote supervision during this week not only meant checking the groups were doing well, but also meant checking out parts of the route that crossed footbridges and fords just ahead of the teams to ensure they were passable or whether we would need to be present with the groups as they crossed them.  Luckily the weather forecast was reasonable and none of the watercourses were in spate.  After the late winter storms several websites were used to ensure the routes hadn't washed away including the DofE area one (these are quite useful for planning personal trips too).

Can you spot the group in the distance?

Below are some photos of the week, it was a huge success with all three teams completing the entire expedition with nothing more than sore feet and weary muscles.  I hope we at Rough Edge have sown the seed of many future expeditions to come, both for the students and as a company.  Congratulations to the groups and here's to many more adventures in the future.

Butterwort in flower, one of many wild flowers we saw

Munro bagging and checking phone signal in the area

Looking down the Lairig Ghru on the last day

A beautiful morning munro run to fire off a few text messages (4G on the summit!)

Preparing breakfast while waiting for the teams to walk past in the distance

4am at the instructor wild camp - the views were worth unzipping the tent door for

Gareth and Ed striding along the valley on Day 3

Ed and I crossing what was our largest river of the trip (luckily it didn't rain much during the week or this would have been a lot more hands on) Photo by Gareth

The perks of staying near a bothy = a nice fire