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Recently, I've been snared on Meall Mor, chased down the Cateran Trail (after Crock) by a very angry pheasent and climbed Turin Hill in the mist to avoid angry farmers so today I planned a nice easy climb up Badandun Hill in wonderful weather - what could possibly go wrong????????
The road up Glen Isla had a covering of snow (in places) and some patches of ice with some of the recent snow melt freezing up so the journey took a few minutes longer than normal but I was ready to start for around 10AM.
- The Start near Little Forter
- Mount Blair from starting point
The first part of the walk is along the Cateran Trail and heading directly towards Badandun Hill.
- Spoiling the Sheep Breakfast
In the early stages the track had a few inches of snow which was hard packed and frozen so most of the time the surface would take my weight with only the occasional slip as the snow gave way underneath me.
- Looking up Glen Isla
- Mount Blair & Meikle Forter
Ignoring the track that heads off to the right to Auchintaple Loch the Cateran Trail continues upwards towards Badandun Hill passing a small plantation of trees on the left.
- Keeping straight on ignoring track to the right
The track continues it's gradual climb as Badandun Hill gets closer.
- Badandun Hill
- Looking back towards Mount Blair
Time to leave the Cateran Trail and follow the feint track which heads round the west side of Badandun and then meanders up towards the mid point with Craig Lair.
- Leaving the Cateran Trail behind
About half a mile after leaving the Cateran the track starts to disappear but no problem as I can see the point between Craig Lair and Badendun that I want to aim for.
- Herd of a couple of hundred red deer in the distance
- Red deer disappearing over the hill
As I continue the climb I'm probably spending more time off the track than on it as it becomes harder and harder to follow as the snow deepens. At this point there is probably about six inches of snow with pockets of drifted snow up to about 3 feet deep.
- Nearly lost my boots down there!!
Having given up on the track suddenly I found it again
My time on the track was short lived and it was back in to the drifts as I now had my target point on the hill in sight which was basically where the red deer were now watching me. As I continued my slow climb suddenly I went in to a drift but this time there was a difference as I kept dropping. I heard ice breaking then felt cold water on my legs. My feet hit solid ground when I was in over two feet of water with a further three feet of snow on top - someone could of got a good head and shoulders shot as that was all that was above the snow line!! It wasn't easy to get out of the hole I had created but after a couple of attempts I was out but I was soaked up to a few inches above my knees and boy was it cold
I still had a bit of a climb left but now that I was soaked I did something quite unusual and applied common sense to turn round and head back down as I was going to get cold quickly.
On the way back down I met a chap from Blairgowrie who said he was following my footsteps so I warned him not to follow them too closely.
I wasn't hanging about on the way down so just stopped for one final photograph.
- Last look up Glen Isla
A frustrating end to a really nice walk but I suppose I have a good excuse to go back soon and make it to the top next time.
Back at home looking at the map I can see that there is a burn coming off Craig Lair so it was probably that burn I dropped down in to.