WILD NIGHTS
ALEX RODDIE: Witnessing the Northern Lights
The aurora borealis has always been legendary amongst hillwalkers in Scotland. I’d seen the photos, of course, but I’d never witnessed it myself. Could the real thing ever be as vivid as it seems in pictures?
My route was the Lochaber Traverse, that long ridge-walk over six Munros between the Grey Corries and Ben Nevis, incorporating the Carn Mor Dearg Arête. For ten years I had dreamed of walking it in perfect winter conditions, and the ideal was going to be tough to live up to. My patience paid off, the stars aligned, and on a calm afternoon I found myself stamping out a platform in the snow near the north summit of Stob Choire Claurigh at 1121m, brimming with anticipation.
The forecast had been perfect. I’d brought lightweight gear, including an ultralight poncho tarp. I lay there looking out at the stars shining down on Ben Nevis, listening to the deep and penetrating silence. When I got up to take a few photos, I noticed a dim ribbon of green light glimmering to the north, over Glen Spean; and I watched, mesmerised, as this light flared and blossomed into the full glory of the aurora borealis. A temperature inversion was starting to form beneath it. The lights followed me into my dreams and I slept deeply.
The next morning, I woke to a vivid dawn lighting up the cloud inversion beneath and casting beams of alpenglow on mountains. As the rosy Belt of Venus sank in the western sky beyond Ben Nevis and the sun peeped over the mountain’s shoulder behind me, I packed up my camp, too full of gratitude to make much sense of my overflowing feelings.
Alex is a freelance writer, editor and photographer, and a former TGO staffer
JAMES FORREST: An unexpected moment of magic
I have found that the greater my expectations for a night under the stars, the easier it is to be underwhelmed – with the clag, or drizzle, or tent-flapping ruining the moment. But when I have expected little and the mountain Gods have delivered, the highs have tasted even sweeter.
So it was on my best ever wild camping experience. I was on a peak-bagging expedition
