THE BIVI

Not for us the discomfort of a bivi on the ridge in a bag with minimal supplies. We had decided to camp in Coir' a Ghrunnda overnight and at 4:50pm on Wednesday 12th May 2005 we set off from the Glen Brittle camp site. There was no need to carry water as there are streams along the way and the loch in the corrie. Our rucksacks were however about 15kg as we did have a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mats and all the food we would need for the two days as well as rope, helmets, harnesses, nuts and slings. We had an uneventful walk up to the corrie under a clear blue sky. Without rushing we arrived at around 7:20 just as the sun was disappearing from view. No one else was there so we had the choice of camp sites. We pitched the tent close to the loch, brewed a cup of tea and then set about cooking pasta for our meal, a little of which we shared with a lone sea gull. By the time we had finished, a chill breeze was blowing through the corrie and we retreated quickly into the tent and our sleeping bags. Here we finished our meal with tinned fruit, chocolate and coffee before dozing off at about 9:30pm. We were suddenly awakened half an hour later by a low flying aircraft. It was fortunately a one off and we zipped up the inner tent and slept again. Despite being extremely cold outside, probably well below freezing, we were warm inside the tent.

We slept and woke throughout the night and all too soon it was 5am. We were hungry! We consumed a large bowl of cereal and drunk orange juice, tea and coffee still lying inside the tent and only then did we venture out into the crisp cold morning The mountains looked magnificent. We broke camp and put all of the items we didn’t need e.g tent, sleeping bags etc into large plastic (rubble) bags. We filled our bladders and bottles with a total of 4litres of water each and had a final drink from the loch. Our rucksacks now weighed around 13.5kg but would get lighter throughout the day as we consumed the food and 4kg of water. The plastic bags were stashed away under some rocks for collection the following day. It was 6:20am.