5 folk gathered in a gloomy Bonaly car park just before 7pm for the first “mass” start of this years AltC5. No one seemed particularly clear on the route, although some had had the foresight to print out or at least bring a map, Michael even had on his headtorch, which I thought might have been a bit overkill. On the stroke of 7 Michael suggested we should probably move closer to the start and without a great deal of fanfare we were off.
The first hesitation happened about 50m from the start where the leaders performed the jig of the uncertain as they debated whether to take the left fork or straight on for the first climb. The merry dance wasn’t helped by my overexcited border collie and the shouts of it’s hapless owner.
As expected there were 5 routes taken across the “Bondoo Bash” to reach the gate at Maiden’s Cleugh and apart from Rob taking a slight detour through the darkening woods and my collie mistaking a Border Terrier for a mountain hare instigating a brief full-speed chase, four of us arrived back at the gate just as the gloaming was turning to full-on night. Following lamentations over the rate at which darkness fell and curses aimed at the sadist route planner that believes it sensible to set a course over a literal tussock hell, Rob, Alistair and Pippa all headed off for the comfort of their homes and I, growing increasingly worried for the safety of Michael, began a weary reverse of the last part of the route. I was rather relieved to see a solitary headtorch halfway down Scaletrix and even more pleased to find Michael underneath it. He’d gone astray through the pathless terrain meaning he has now reccied both the “Bondoo Bash” and the path options for next week and when he tripped over a stone a while later I think he knew luck wasn’t with him. With a fortnight to do all the routes though there is plenty of time to try again, but maybe we’ll set off half an hour earlier…
Alex Mcvey