With the forecast far to warm to consider doing any winter climbing, it was back to Munro bagging for the last three days of our Scotland trip.
On the first day we headed up to the Drumochter Pass to climb Beinn Udlamain and Sgairneach Mhor. The weather was beautiful, if not a little windy and throughout the day we were treated to fantastic views in every direction.
On the second day the forecast was particularly uninspiring with extensive hill fog, lots of wind, warm temperatures and some drizzle. Due to this we elected to complete the second munro out of a pair which Becky had climbed one of previously. We made very quick progress up to 900m due to the high snow line, and there being a stalkers track most of the way up. Unfortunately once we left the first col the snow cover made for hard walking and the thick hill fog meant we were walking on a bearing and pacing to navigate. After an age of seeing only the red needle on the compass and trying to work out if I was going up or down we eventually made it to the summit, where the views were unspectacular… The walk back wasn’t much better, but we eventually made it below the cloud line and back to the car before the rain set in.
On the final day we drove around the Cairngorms in the hunt for the better conditions, we headed up Mount Keen which has to be just about the most boring munro that exists. After a 6km walk along a stalkers track up a flat valley, a short but steep stalkers track lead up to the plateau, before a short path led to the summit. After yet more unspectacular views of cloud from the summit, we made a quick descent back to the car and headed back to Bristol.
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