30.07.15 Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan (NN 663 806)
Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan (NN 663 806) |
Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan rises to the east of the A9 as it speeds its way past Dalwhinnie. The hill has recently been surveyed by Alan
Dawson with his Leica RX1250 with the result being that the hill was measured
as 914.56m high, as this height is over 914.4m / 3,000ft the hill is a
candidate for the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) to consider for Munro Top
status.
As the Heighting Project
instigated by Iain Robertson on behalf of The Munro Society (TMS) has now
finished we thought it appropriate to finalise those lose ends of hills that
have not had two hours of data gathered from their high points. Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan is one of these hills,
and our aim was to survey its summit in conjunction with the SMC and TMS.
We met in a large lay-by
beside the A9 close to where a track accesses this hill’s north-western
slopes. By the time we arrived David
Batty was brewing up and passed a hot mug of tea to Alan Brook who was parked
in front of David’s camper van. Soon
afterward Iain Robertson closely followed by Eleanore Hunter, Ian Collie and
John Rogerson arrived. As Bill Wheeler
pulled up I had my boots laced up and was walking toward the gate and the
track. I needed a start on these fitter
and quicker people, as although all are older than me they seem to speed up the
hills. As I walked over the road I
noticed that Rab Anderson was turning into the lay-by, he and Andy Nisbet were
representing the SMC and would liaise with Derek Bearhop who instigates any
reclassification to Munros Tables.
The track made steady
progress up toward the grassed slopes of the hill and wound its way directly up
one of the broad north-westerly whaleback ridges that descend from the hill’s
western slopes. The gradient proved
sufficiently steep not to tax and within 25 minutes of setting off I looked
behind and noticed the first of a number of small figures on the lower part of
the track, I thought I stood a chance of gaining the upper slopes before being
overtaken.
As height was gained the
views opened up and a slight breeze dampened the warmth of the sun, this proved
ideal for the ascent. The track splits
higher up near to a small quarry which is indicated on the map, when I arrived
at this point I could hear John and Rab’s voices approaching and as I swung
left to walk along the track toward the summit of the hill they quickly caught
up with me and we proceeded to the summit together. The others soon appeared with Alan taking
over tripod carrying duties which I was thankful for.
On the upper part of the track |
Once at the summit we
set up the level on the tripod and proceeded to take a number of readings close
to the obvious high point which is positioned just to the left of the track
when approaching the hill’s summit from the south-west. These readings were taken from the north,
west, south and east at increments of 5 metres out to 25 metres from the level,
this gave us the lay of land around the summit.
A near rock proved slightly higher than our favoured natural high point,
but consensus of opinion was that this was put there by man and so it was discounted
from the summit measurement.
Shortly afterward the
Leica GS15 was set up on the tripod and just before starting to gather data we
had enough time to take a number of summit photos with the team of surveyors
and SMC and TMS members gathered round.
When Alan surveyed this
hill he also surveyed its connecting bealach to the adjoining Munro of Carn na
Caim, the drop value from these two surveys came to 30.3m which may form a part
of the deciding factor in the possible reclassification of this hill by the SMC
to Munro Top status, if Alan’s measurements were confirmed with the Leica GS15,
which we were sure that they would.
Therefore after the GS15 started collecting data John, Graham and me
walked down to the hill’s connecting bealach to inspect the lay of its
land. In close pursuit were a number of
people all heading off to bag the summit of the Munro; Carn na Caim, with Iain
along with David volunteering to remain with the equipment at the summit of the
south Top.
When we arrived at the
bealach we were met by an unsavoury expanse of peat laden, mud splattered
bog. This we spent a number of minutes
squashing around in and assessing the land and its direction from a number of positions. The conclusion being that the critical point
of the bealach probably lay in one of a number of peat runnels that crossed the
bealach in a valley to valley direction.
Although I took two data sets with the Trimble, one near to where Alan
had set up his Leica and one a few metres away in one of the peat runnels we
decided that we should level and staff the bog once the two hours of summit
data had been collected.
The first data set with the Trimble at the bealach was very close to where Alan took data from with his Leica RX1250 |
As the Trimble gathered
its second data set John and Graham headed back to the summit and as I followed
them after packing the Trimble away I met Iain as he walked down the path
heading toward the summit of Carn na Caim.
I arrived back at the summit with about 30 minutes remaining of the two
hour vigil and spent much of the time flat out on the ground nestled out of the
breeze munching on a sandwich and chatting with Eleanore and listening to the
varied conversation of the others. All
too soon it was ready to pack the equipment away and head back down to the
connecting bealach. As we did so Andy
and John headed south to bag more hills, whilst David had already descended and
Eleanore, Bill and Ian decided to wait for Iain to come back from the summit of
Carn na Caim before heading down toward the cars. This left John, Graham, me, Alan Brook and
Rab to venture down to the delights of the bog invested bealach.
The second data set with the Trimble at the bealach was where the Leica GS15 would eventually be positioned |
Alan, Graham and John heading from the summit down to the delights of the bealach |
Meeting Iain on his way back from the Munro summit of Carn na Caim, which is in the background |
Over the next hour we
had fun in the bog laying two rows of flags, one from the hill to hill
direction and the other from the valley to valley direction, we then followed
one of the peaty runnels on the valley to valley direction and by doing so we
pinpointed where the critical point of the bealach lay, this was where I had
taken the second data set with the Trimble.
As Graham was the lightest we decided that he should venture out into the bog and operate the staff and lay the lines of flags |
The next hour was spent
in brightening conditions as the Leica GS15 gathered an hours’ worth of data, I
then repeated the previous Trimble survey and gathered another five minutes of
data.
Graham, John, Alan and Rab beside the Leica GS15 at its set-up position at the critical bealach of Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan |
The third data set with the Trimble at the bealach repeated its second data set |
After all the equipment
had been packed away we walked back up to the summit where I gathered another
five minute data set with the Trimble, and proceeded down the track in warming
late afternoon sunshine to the awaiting cars below.
Gathering data with the Trimble from the summit of Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan |
Descending the track after another good day on the hill |
It had been a good three
full days in Scotland with Tuesday’s filming by ARD with TMS members, and the
unexpected bonus of surveying Creag na Caillich on Wednesday and now a two hour
summit and one hour bealach data set from Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan.
The results of these
surveys will be sent to Ordnance Survey for their verification and the results
forwarded to the SMC for their assessment.
Survey Result:
Mullach Coire nan Cisteachan
Summit Height: 914.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
914.6m (converted to OSGM15, Leica RX1250) 914.6m (converted to OSGM15,
Leica GS15) (prospective new Munro Top, now confirmed)
914.6m (converted to OSGM15, Leica RX1250) 914.6m (converted to OSGM15,
Leica GS15) (prospective new Munro Top, now confirmed)
Summit Grid Reference: NN 66386 80690
Bealach Height: 884.3m (converted to OSGM15 and average of two surveys,
Trimble GeoXH 6000) 884.3 (converted to OSGM15, Leica RX1250, with
0.07m height compensation for position) 884.2m (converted to OSGM15, Leica
GS15)
Trimble GeoXH 6000) 884.3 (converted to OSGM15, Leica RX1250, with
0.07m height compensation for position) 884.2m (converted to OSGM15, Leica
GS15)
Bealach Grid Reference: NN 66970 81301
Drop: 30.3m (Trimble GeoXH 6000, using average of two bealach
surveys)
30.3m (Leica RX1250) 30.4m (Leica GS15)
Dominance: 3.32% (based on Leica GS15 result)
30.3m (Leica RX1250) 30.4m (Leica GS15)
Dominance: 3.32% (based on Leica GS15 result)
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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