Part 3 of the Scotland Feb trip..

After breakfast in the hotel Claire and I drove up the Glen and past the Cluanie Inn. We parked at the same place we had parked for the ascent of Carn Ghluasaid - which was our initial objective; followed by some exploring of the hills beyond it.

The walk up the stalkers path was very hot - with next to no wind again - quite devoid of snow until we got to about 2/3 of the way up. The path then went up a steep snowfield in which steps had been made - however the steps were wide apart. Claire found this not to her liking - so we took a detour (which to be honest was not much easier at one point - although I forgot to mention this til later!!). Luckily, others had been this way and we were able to rejoin the main path. As we'd climbed Carn Ghluasaid on the xmas trip - and encountered driving windblasted snow on the way down, we elected to avoid it and head for the belach between it and Creag a' Chaoruinn. This also allowed a nice lunch stop - as the sun came out and had cleared the mist from both hills. This was to be the pattern all day - every hill we arrived at the summit of had the mist cleared by the sun; whilst the previous hill was shrouded in mist. Needless to say - this made the day truly splendid; helped by the grandeur of the hills.

Another benefit of the clear weather was that it allowed us to pick the best line to the summit - and avoid the cornices which were quite large in places..There were several on the way up to Creag a' Chaoruinn; and lots more on the steep climb to Sgurr nan Conbhairean (the daddy of the day at 1100+m). After another stop on the summit to admire the view and have some food/drink we descended a quite narrow and awkward ridge (MUCH harder than what Claire had wobbled down yesterday), with considerable aplomb and made the short ascent to the top of Drochaid an Tuill Easaich. This took the days ascent to over 1000m, which was pretty good going for the two of us who have not done much recently for a whole host of reasons. It also has a south ridge which is a lovely way to complete the horseshoe. The descent was long and quite steep at times, angling SE towards a river crossing that Claire bounded across like a gazelle....We dropped to the road and I hiked the mile back to the car sans anything except the car-keys - and hike I did having failed to get a lift.....

A quite amazing day - not bad for 40% chance of clear munro's -just wish I hadn't forgotten the camera (left it in the hotel room). Claire had her camera - but not her lead to get the photo's off so will have to wait til we get home.

Scotland - part 2

leaving the Victoria Bridge car-park, we had a good run to Fort Bill where we stocked up with some supplies before driving off to the Kintail Lodge Hotel at Shiel Bridge - where we stayed after xmas. Even driving down the Glen in the early evening - it was apparent that the big snowfalls had not hit this part of Scotland - that and the pathetic people in the South East see a snowflake and hit the panic button...It was also apparent that conditions were a LOT better than last time we were here....

And so it proved.....


tbc

Two fabulous days in Scotland..part 1

Claire and I headed back to Scotland on Fri night to celebrate the end of half-term, as well as both of us not  feeling like total death.

An interesting drive saw us just make Tyndrum lodge by the 9pm deadline - so we got supper!! Claire managed to upgrade our room, so we had lots of space and could sleep.

The forecast for Saturday was not great - 10% chance of cloud-free Munro's; however the facts on the ground (as George W. Bush would say - or his speechwriter would write for him), with reasonably visibility and no wind at all. The latter was something that was to stay with us all day..even on top of Stob A' Choire Odhair it was totally still. To get there we drove to Victoria Bridge, parked and set off along a good path for 1 1/2km. At what is apparently the Glasgow M.C Hut (which might hold two anorexic climbers [assuming it didn't fall down]), we turned up the Glen along a path that was apparently prone to being wet. It was not at all bad to be honest - and we kept a nice slow, steady plod up the glen. After a 11's stop for shortbread, we left the path on a stalkers path that the book had told us was there. It made what a was a very steep ascent bearable - once we hit the snowline we could follow the tracks of the fit people in front of us - including the hard-core duo who had biked from Bridge of Orchy to the Hut (on two of the crappest mountain bikes ever seen!!!!) which led us to the summit. To get there only 10 mins out from guidebook time was good - given the SMC guides are clearly written by those who do Iron-Men Triathlons to warm down! - but what was even better was the weather. The light wasn't great - however the clouds were above the summit, so we got a lovely view into the Beinn Dorain range as well as over the Stob Ghabhar. We could also look north to the rest of the Coire Ba range; including the slops of Meall a' Bhuiridh which we had climbed after christmas.

Descent was by the same route - Claire coping pretty well with some steep snow on the way down; and the section on the estate track was a really good way to stretch the legs at the end of the walk.