Meall Chuaich

Feeling like something a little different, we thought we would try running up a munro rather than walking, and to take it easy, we went for Meall Chuaich which starts at 350m - just beyond the summit of the Pass of Drumochter. It was a liberating experience, pairing down my usual hillwalking kit list to fit in my running camelbak, and made me think much more about weight - after the run I changed my 20 year old heavy survival bag for a new, much smaller and lighter version.

We parked in layby 94 on the A9 then headed up the gravel road for a few km to the start of the hill path up Meall Chuaich. From there it was a reasonably uneventful run up and down the hill in fairly decent weather - a bit cool when standing still and necessitating gloves and hat when running, but otherwise dry and overcast on the way up but sunny spells on the way back down.

Running is a great way of doing hills when the weather permits!

A'Bhuidheanach Bheag

After an even longer hiatus than usual, we decided to go for a Christmas holiday hillwalk up A'Bhuidheanach Beag. After parking at the iced over carpark near Balsporran Cottage, we set off up the hill, initially along the transmission tower access road but very quickly leaving this and heading up on fresh powder-snow covered heather. The wind increased as we ascended and within an hour, we were heading into the cloud base with 40mph winds blowing pellets of hard snow into our faces and visibility was dropping rapidly.

We stopped for food before getting on the plateau on the assumption that it would likely be more windy up top, and decided to attempt to build a quick wind shelter. Unfortunately the snow was quite powdery and so was tricky to build with. Our final construction was unfortunately only useful for one person while lying down, which made eating tricky, although I have some ideas for improving this next time.

Shortly after the food stop, and around the time we hit the plateau, visibility dropped to almost zero, in complete whiteout conditions. We could see our feet because there was some contrast between the boots and the snow, but beyond that the cloud and the clean, featureless snow merged into each other and we could make out perhaps a metre or so infront, but often less. At times we would stop and proceed with extreme caution as a slight change of lighting would make it appear as if the ground was dropping away from us when after cautiously proceeding, it would actually be roughly flat. Other times, I would walk along and then be jolted off-balance as I walked into a slight ascent which was unexpected and not at all visible. And as we walked blindly on our compass bearing, the lack of any reference point mean we found a continual pull to one side (perhaps due to a slight camber) and had to continually turn (in our minds) left to stay on track, giving a feeling of walking in one slow left hand turn.

After a lot of time and with a large number of map stops, counting out steps, walking on compass bearings and frequent GPS position checks, we found ourselves almost at the top, but in the whiteout we couldn't quite see the trigpoint. On the verge of giving up, we inspected the immediate ground and looked for the slightest hint of slope. Once found, we headed up the slope and within a few steps, a dark edge of the trig point became faintly visible, no more than 10 meters away.

The original plan had been to do Carn na Caim too but in a complete whiteout, at the pace we were going, this didn't seem sensible. So with some more compass work to get us towards the edge of the plateau, we started heading back down to the car. On the way, the clouds began thinning and the descent down a large, wide ridge was easy. It was perfect for sledging or skiing, but unfortunately we didn't have any suitable equipment for this and so needed to walk. I need to get a compact sledge for this sort of situation.

Finally back at the car, we investigated the ford at the end of a narrow sloping track which crossed the river right next to where the car was parked. The entrance to the water was easy but the exit less so, so we contented ourselves with driving into the river and then driving out backwards up the track. 

Meall Garbh (Loch Tay)

Had a weekday off and was looking for a hillwalk to do, something nearby so I could be back in Edinburgh sharpish. I've done Ben Lawers before but haven't done the whole ridge, and didn't fancy doing the whole ridge - too long if doing a circle, and I'm a bit bored with the route up Ben Lawers, done it too many times. So instead I decided to go up Meall Greigh from the North, starting at Inverar.

Went with someone from Edinburgh Hillwalkers, was a good walk. Almost entirely off-trail and a good opportunity for navigation practice. Going up is easy than going down, it is less ambiguous. We made it back in good time though. It was, I think, the wettest walk I've ever done. A combination of a lot of rain and perhaps also my equiptment getting old? By the end, my boots were soaked through (puddles on the inside) and more concerning, my trousers were completely soaked even though I was in full waterproofs plus gaiters. Don't know what went wrong, will need to investigate my waterproofs in the shower sometime. Gave the boots a snowseal coating when I got back, hopefully that will sort them out.

An Gearanach

A while since the last walk and wanted to do something different from the usual Crianlairich stuff, so we headed up to Glen Nevis on the Friday night, camped in the car (fold flat rear seats + air bed = slightly annoying due to center storage box which doesn't move forward, but still a great alternative to camping - much quicker setup time) and then headed into Glen Nevis to do the first part of the Ring of Steall.

We started walking at about 6am (driving the night is awesome for this) and made our way through the valley and into the Glen itself. At the end of the Glen we could see the Steall waterfall, but first we had to cross the rope bridge. The handholds are just wide enough apart to make it a bit unnerving, and about halfway across it starts wobbling like mad (or was that Me and Matt wobbling like mad?), but made it across. Next we got to the base of the waterfall which, given that it had been raining hard all the previous day and was drizzling today, had quite a volume of water rushing down it. Great to see, not so great to try and cross. We headed downstream and did the boots-off-and-wade through approach. Sensibly, I took my trousers off too but still the water got my boxer shorts wet - it was deep and really cold. I couldn't stop swearing, loudly.

After the river crossing, it was straight up to An Gearanach then back down the way we came. Started raining more heavily on the way down and got fairly wet. Decided I wasn't going to faff around with boots off and just charged straight through the river on the return part, this actually worked fairly well. On the return to the car we passed quite a number of tourists - it seems that the Steall waterfall is part of the tourist circuit for all visiting tourists.

Ben Alder and Beinn Bheoil

Been a while since the last walk (usual stuff, life etc...). Wanted to get back out and managed to get a day free. Headed out with the Edinburgh Hillwalkers group for a bike and hike.

The hills are 12km southwest of Dalwhinnie along a private gravel road, so we parked at Dalwhinnie Station then took bikes the 12km along the road and onto the hill. While the weather on the approach was sunny but cool, the hill itself had good snowcover from about 500m. We dumped the bikes along from the huts at the base of the hill, then worked anticlockwise around the ridge. This meant taking a steep scrambly route up to ridge which would have been fine in summer but turned out to be a little disconcerting in winter conditions in a number of places - proper hand-and-feet climbing in a couple of spots over rock and ice, where you really didn't want to slip.

Once up top it was straight forward, although given the large time period since my last walk, my (lack of) fitness began to show towards the end. And once we got back to the bikes, the 12km ride back to the car was painful - I'd pretty much bonked. We ended up stopping in Pitlochry on the way back to get some dinner (I'm very grateful to the Indian restaurant for putting up with a bunch of sweaty hillwalkers), that made the drive back much more bearable.

Meall Glas

Hillwalks around March often get great weather and this was no exception. And I really like the hills north of Crianlarich, you head North from the main road and quickly get onto the plateau at about 400m and then you loose sight of the road and civilisation and it feels remote. Awesome!

Also, a good amount of snowcover higher up.

Beinn Tulaichean

Done this one before but that was in winter conditions, and hills always feel different when the weather is different. This felt like a different hill to the last walk. Good walk, a little bit of snow up top.