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A slightly gloomy Saturday where I wasn't up to much, Malky suggested Meall an Tarsaid, a small Marilyn near Whitebridge. Malky's previous report for this hill stated
"the hillside was very steep. I got up most of it by hauling myself up on armfuls of heather" and other reports didn't seem to fare much better...
A look at the map suggested that a track from the north-west would get us the closest to hill and the gradient didn't look too bad (on paper
)
We found a place to get the car off the road just near the start of the track which gave us a good view of what we'd let ourselves in for (above) and also Beinn a' Bhacaidh (previous heathery mess - below)
The track led easily across a field before climbing more steeply up the hillside. Beinn Sgurrach across the glen looked like a much more interesting hill to climb!
I was finding it tough going so we took our time - looking back we could see back towards Inverness
The track led us to a fence which turned out to be a double fence. It looked to be a bit of a pain to climb so I tried to breathe while Malky went for a wee wander to see if there was a gate...
A tree house!
Trying to scope out a route - it looked like the first section would be ok but the steep heather after looked horrible
Malky couldn't find a gate so we had to climb - for once it turned out that being smaller was actually an advantage on the flimsier of the fences - Malky definitely had a harder time of it
Safely across the fence, we slowly plodded our way up the section of flattened bracken which was steep but not too bad underfoot. After that, it got bad... Beinn a' Bhacaidh and Burach with some sun
Beinn Sgurrach and Loch Garth
The steep heather was torture - if the ground is good I can sort of very slowly plod up steep slopes, but this was impossible and we made slow progress. Finally on the summit plateau we found somewhere out of the wind to sit and have some tea and snacks. The summit was a short distance over more heather but I wasn't that fussed by then
Looking up the River Fechlin towards Loch Killin
After a decent break we did manage to walk the short distance to the summit (it would have been annoying having got so close). We could see some weather coming up the Great Glen...
The edge of the Monadhliath plateau was starting to get clouded over too
Summit of Meall an Tarsaid
51064220302_b0ea31143a_o It was a nice wee spot but not really the weather for hanging around - it was windy and the threat of showers was becoming more real by the second.... We avoided reascending the other bit of summit and headed back down. Although it was in now way enjoyable, the steep heather was significantly easier on the way down and before long we were down the worst of it and plodding down the track.
We took a short drive up the glen to Loch Killin - the rain had started by the time we arrived there but it was a lovely spot and somewhere to explore another time.
