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a friend of mine enlightened me to the mullardoch round, a 53km walk around loch mullardoch taking in 12 munros, a true scottish classic. myself and mountain thyme were joined by dave gordon a fellow member of the lomond mountaineering club. we set of on thursday evening camping by the river just below the dam, after an eternity deciding what to leave out the heavy rucksacs we were of around ten on friday morning. we passed a cairn on the north end of the dam and headed west along a path to bridge over a burn. we had a decission on which way to go and we opted on the steep slopes of mullach na maoille. this was a slog in bright sunshine and heavy packs but in no time we were over this top and up the slightly easier slopes to the 1st munro of the day carn nan gobhar
- lokking across to carn nan gobhar from mullach na maolle
the sun was out and visability exellent as we made our way down to the beallach na cloiche duibhe, the ridge to the next munro looked imposing but the path was good and after a little bit of scrambling we were sat on top of munro number 2 sgurr na lapaich
- the ridge to sgurr na lapaich
the route takes us west again dropping to another bealach before ascending the ridge of creagan toil an lochain, a lovely ridge the views all around were fab as we crossed a little top before the summit of munro number 3 an riabhachan. the wind had started to pick up and was really buffitting us on the high ridges.
- the ridge heading west
from the summit we desended again skirting a little top and down again to the bealach bholla. another rise took us to our last munro of the day an socach. hats and gloves were on as the wind was constant, must have been about 60 or 70 mile gusts and it was very cold.
we were camping at the west end of the loch so from an socach we headed south west to a bealach and south over meall shuas to set up camp at the river side. it was a bit boggy but we found a spot on the south side of the river, the food and wine was a fine reward for our days walk.the wind didnt stop all night and mt and dave were tired at breakfast not looking foward to the day ahead.
- campsite at the west of the loch
day 2 started with a 750 long ascent along the west side of the allt cam, passing a few little waterfalls before gaining the ridge and top of mullach sithdh. its only a small dip and rise to todays 1st munro mullach a dheiragainn.
- the short dip and rise to mullach a dheiragainn
with great visability we set along the ridge south west before climbing the steep ridge of the next murro sgurr nan ceathreamhan, this is as far west we go and even the strong winds cant dampen the pleasure we were having on this expedition.
- dave and mountain thyme ascending sgurr nan ceathreamhan
- the way east to an socach
this walk has a lot of high ridges and we headed east dropping and rising to the next munro an socach. on reading up for this round it was suggested to camp at the next bealach, but we were all in fine form and decided to camp at the bealach beag. this ment we had a long ascent up over the 4th munro of the day mam sodhail, this was tiring with legs weary and heavy rucksacs we passed a little shelter just short of the summit were we sat and soaked up the sun.
- mam sodhail
- shelter on mam sodhail
we headed down northward to a bealach and skirted round the west slopes of carn eige, picking up some water for our camp, to set up the tents on the bealach beag. the wind was fierce, after pitching the tents ( it was 7 10pm )we decided to walk up beinn fhionnlaidh, this was a joy, no rucksacs, it took us 20 minutes to the top
- carn eige from beinn fhionnlaidh, our campsite is almost directly in the centre of the picture
we got back to the tents and made dinner and watched the sun setting over toward torridon and the cullin, bliss.
- sunset
the wind was relentless and as we settled down i was concerned iof the tents could cope. morning came and the tents made it, all be it i lost my tent bag blown away in the night. it was clear skys again so another cracking day ahead as we started of. 45 minutes later and we arrived at our first munro carn eige. this was a special munro for mountain thyme, and as i waited on her at the summit i arranged some rock to celebrate her 200th munro.
- well done mountain thyme
from carn eige its east over a nice rocky ridge, past an lethchreag, steeply down and up again to the next munro tom a choinich
- ridge east from carn eige
the end was in site, down steeply to the bealach toll easa and a long tired slog in the heat up to the summit of toll creagach
- toll creagach
we took the final summit snaps and sat again in sunshine and wind eating what was left of our grub, knowing it was all downhill.
- our final summit pic
we headed down eastward trying to keep high on the east of the coire aiming for the dam. it was a long slog my feet were burning as we hit the tarmac road that took us back to the car.this was a fabulous round, one of my best hillwalking outings, the weather ( apart from the fierce wind ) was fabulous, sunshine all day, mountain thyme and dave were great company and i would recomend this round to any one.
- does this look equal ?
ps, this is mine and mountain thyme,s ruck sacs, can you guess who,s is who ? and do you think they weigh the same ? no prizes on offer but is it just mt who thinks they are the same ?
