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.