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Finished an overnight on-call Glencoe shift, but weather poor in the morning with low cloud and drizzle. Ruled out any high hills, but read a walk report saying there was a track from the Glencoe Visitors Centre which went half way up a graham, Meall Mor, so thought I could do that at least. Glad I had my NTS card with me for the car park then
Turned out to be a good walk, longer and with more ascent than I'd thought likely given the weather at the start ... though I hadn't expected to do Sgorr a'Choise as well and so it was far from the optimal route; instead of heading directly to it from Meall Mor, I'd started heading back the way I'd come, only changing my mind when cloud lifted and I saw what an impressive hill Sgorr a'Chaise was. I then ended up going round the side of the hill I was on and crossing a couple of slightly awkward small gorges to get to the bealach between the 2 grahams before being back on a logical route up (i.e ignore my route map, just go direct from Meall Mor to the bealach!). Took a bit of a gamble heading back down Sgorr a'Choise, aiming for a fire break in the forestry and hoping I'd be able to get over the fence and alongside the main stream to the bridge I could see where I'd rejoin the forestry track (not shown on this map yet), but it was fine. From the bridge, it was easy walk back on the main forestry vehicle track to the car park. (As the map doesn't show the track and bridge I'm not sure I've drawn the route correctly, but it's obvious when you're there!)
- Leaving the track at its high point to head up the slopes of Meall Mor
- View NW to Ballachulish and Loch Leven
- Continued up to where the gradient eased, then headed round to the left. Not the toughest terrain I've ever faced on a hill!
- Approaching the little rocky ridge of Meall Mor's summit area
- Not the best views from the summit today, just a glimpse of Ballachulish and Loch Leven again here
- Pretty much nothing to see west, where Sgorr a'Choise and Beinn a' Bheithir were in clag
- Nice mini rainbow appeared below me as I headed back down towards the gate in the fence I'd come though on the way up
- ...but as I was heading down, the weather suddenly started to improve and I got a view of Sgorr a'Choise (plus Beinn a' Bheithir to the right)
- I aborted my descent and decided to head for Sgorr a'Choise. I couldn't be this close to a nice pointy mountain and not go up it!
- A steep but not technically difficult ascent got me to the summit
- View of Beinn a' Bheithir from Sgorr a'Choise summit ...
- ...and back over to Meall Mor. I'd gone across the facing slope above the forestry when I changed my mind and decided to do the second graham, so could now see the main small gorge running down it, which I'd found a bit tricky until I found a place deer used to cross. Not that this should be relevant to anyone else doing the 2 hills, it's not the logical or shortest way to get between the 2 summits, so no reason for anyone to take that line!
- Finally got a view down Glencoe as I was going back down the forestry track to the car park