Whitsun in Scotland....Driesh...(finally)

Driesh was a bit of bone of contention in our household. Claire and I had climbed it's near neighbour and fellow Munro on New Years Day a couple of years ago, and we had got to about 100m (if that) from the summit of Driesh before strengthening winds led Claire to deploy her winter veto (for the only time it should be said to be fair!!). Given my winter experience, I said to Claire that she could have a veto on mountaineering trips in winter (there is no such thing as Scottish Winter Walking in my opinion).

That being said, the wind was not that bad (we've successfully ascended peaks in far worse!) and it did leave Driesh outstanding as a walk to do...

Only 2 years too late! Claire nears the summit!

The Whitsun trip was drawing to an end - the pattern of miserable weather out west (which we still have 3 months later) was settled and so we'd dodged around the outlying ranges near the Cairngorms - with quite a lot of success. Some lovely walks on Mullach Choire a Blair (Glen Feshie) and An Socach had seen us contemplate heading home early....the only hope seemed to be go further East. So, we decided to splurge on the Glenn Clova Hotel (where we'd had a lovely meal and pint before our Mayar walk) and then go on ascend Driesh before the weather arrived [it was due about lunchtime]. Having secured a room and had a lovely supper and breakfast we rocked up at GlenDoll car-park and set off up Driesh. The ascent route (the way we'd come down a couple of years ago) is actually pretty good. It climbs through the forest and emerges onto a very good stalkers path that gains height steadily but without silly amounts of steepness. In pretty good time, we emerged on the col between Driesh and Mayar and began the final ascent. Now, it was not exactly t-shirt and shorts weather and we met a strong cross-wind on the col, pushing us towards the edge. There are several paths up the final ascent and we reached the summit of Driesh; took in the (very good) view and munched a roll with some hot ribena. The rapid disappearance of Mayar into a bank of cloud did suggest it was time to depart - not a minute too soon as we met a driving bank of hail/snow into our faces. Heads down and hoods up we had to use the compass to get us back safely down to the col. Once there we were sheltered by the hill and enjoyed an increasingly warm and sunny descent back to the car-park, for a second lunch. At last - Driesh was done!