Four from Balsporran

[iainR]

A month after our last visit to the Drumochter area where we bagged a pair of Munros further up the road in a mixture of rain and clag, Big Jie and i decided to tackle the four summits on the other side of the A9.
The weather was a definite improvement this time round and as we parked up at Balsporran and set off past the cottages i was a little concerned about the rising temperatures as it was only 9:30am and it was already getting very warm but i needn't have worried as a cool northerly wind kicked in when we approached the summit of our first Munro of the day,Geal-charn. From this summit we could see most of our planned route as well as the expanse of Loch Ericht and the Ben Alder range.

Balsporran and the starting point

Summit of Geal-charn

Loch Ericht

The remainder of our walk was very straightforward as we could easily identify our target hills and actually see the
paths leading up most of them which was in stark contrast to our last clag filled epic.
Our second Munro of the day was A'Mharconaich and it was here that the wind really picked up on the long summit ridge where we had to descend a bit off the summit area and find shelter to enjoy our first pit stop of the day.
The walk to our third Munro, Beinn Udlamain, took us just over an hour as the wind was at our backs and the short
cropped grass under our feet made for fast walking. The cairn on Udlamain was big and gave good shelter from the wind as i consulted my OS map to check we were on course as the path to our final Munro wasn't immediately obvious but a couple of other parties headed straight past us without stopping on Udlamain's summit and a short time later we followed the direction they had taken where we quickly found a path running down through areas of scree to the burn at the bottom of Sgairneach Mhor, our fourth and final Munro of the day.

A'Mharconaic summit area

Towards Beinn Udlamain

Beinn Udlamain summit cairn

The ascent of our last hill was similar to the others with fairly easy walking on gradual grassy slopes. The summit gave
great views all round including the drop into Coire Dhomhain and the estate track down there which was our path back out of the hills.

Coire Dhomhain

Summit of Sgairneach Mhor

The descent of Sgairneach Mhor seemed to take forever and with the loss of height the wind ceased and the heat came back even warmer than before. The walk back along the cycle path beside the busy A9 wasn't the best way to end the day but the previous few hours had more than made up for it with four very easy Munros in the bag and some fantastic views of Loch Ericht and Ben Alder.