Beinn an Dothaidh

After much work persuading Ann to go hillwalking with me, she finally relented and we decided to go somewhere this weekend! Beinn an Dothaidh seemed a good choice as the walk isn't too long, not to steep and not too technical, so we went for it. The sun was out in force and it was pretty hot, but surprisingly there were still a few patches of snow on northwards-facing slopes! And I even found a waterfall where I could cool down and clean up, by standing in it!

Drumochter Hills (West of A9)

At my previous munro completion rate, it would have taken me another 103 years to finish all of them. This is not good. I think the problem stems from doing only one munro at a time, so the obvious solution is to do more munros in one go! Looking at the munro map, various groups of munros became apparent, one of them being the Drumochter Hills west of the A9. Al and I did A'Mharconaich a few months ago, but we only did the one. I thought I'd head back up and give the others in the group a shot - Geal Charn, Beinn Udlamain and Sgairneach Mhor. Got some great weather, cool with grey clouds (but not too grey, at least until later in the afternoon), which I think is much better than warm sunny days when you sweat heavily and the flies keep attacking you. There's still a bit of snow on these hills - more than on Cruach Ardain last week - but only in depressions in the ground where it forms what looks like snow rivers, or in sheltered valleys, or on north-facing coires. Still, at least I got to do a (very small) amount of winter-ish snow walking, in mid-May!

Cruach Ardrain

Headed here with Matt, who was up for the weekend from London. Quite a hot, humid day on the hills, and the first day this year that I've needed to use the insect repellent! We walked along the valley, following the course of the River Falloch, took a left just after Meall Dhamh, then headed straight up to the top of Cruach Ardrain. The final climb was a bit of a slog but we eventually made it up and once up top there was a bit of wind to cool us down.