free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
This was the main day of a weekend away near the Bridge of Orchy. We had 5 groups who were doing different things:
1. A low level walk by the ladies, so they could finish early & then start drinking
2. Backpacker doing his usual solo Corbett bashing
3. 3 guys tackling the 'other' Aonach Eagach from Victoria Bridge
4. Me, George & Heather heading for the Pap of Glencoe & then onto Sgòrr nam Fiannaid
5. The rest of the group about 10 of them heading for the dreaded Aonach Eagach
So Heather, George & myself left our luxurious accommodation about 7.30 and we were in the large car park before 8.30 and almost had the pick of the spaces. As soon as the car doors were open we were greeted by our little friendly insects, luckily not too many of them. I quickly put my midgey net on, unfortunately both Heather & George had forgotten theirs.
One thing midges do is make you get moving quickly, the whole idea is to try & get away from them as they struggle to keep up and then give up and look for someone/something else to annoy.
Large car park
Making sure we go the right way
Nice easy bit before we turn left and start going up
Heading up that way
Nice motorway to break us in gently
Fancy new house
Bluebells and lots of them, before the bracken takes over
Close up
Low level arty shot of Loch Leven, plenty more to come - not arty shots
West
A bit of blockage, a few nice words and they gave way
Heading into the bracken
Still watching us
Another low level shot
Starting to climb now
Plenty of wispy cloud all day
Looking back downhill, path very obvious
Bit of cloud trying to obscure the view
Balachullish Bridge - zoomed
Another arty shot
The real ascent of the Pap is about to begin
The other end of Loch Leven
A couple of happy campers, a new hill for all 3 of us
Loch Leven for a change
The hills to the west
We even had a flypast
Descending off the Pap
Nearly off the Pap
Looking back
Now the plan was to get across to Sgòrr nam Fiannaidh without losing too much height. We scanned the ground and it looked very lumpy and bumpy, so we just picked our way across avoiding crags and the like.
Spotted these little beauties, any suggestions?
Looking back as we ascend up to the western end of the AE
We managed to hook up with the down path off the AE
Loch Leven still there and dominating the view
The Pap getting smaller as we gain height
Bidean and neighbours now visible
A couple of fellow walkers on the summit of Sgòrr nam Fiannaidh
Summit photo
We headed down towards the ridge to see if we could see our colleagues anywhere in the distance
It looks rather awesome from the west
The ridge on the left with Glencoe down on the right
Pinnacles zoomed
Normal shot
One for the trig lovers, I knew Parminder would be along at some point so after taking the photo I covered the trig number with a stone and he never even noticed - very disappointed. He must have been so relieved to make it across the ridge safely
Looking straight down
Glencoe main road
Look carefully I managed to spot a couple of figures
Zoomed even more
It does look impressive, but am still not tempted to revisit
Time to descend now as it was getting cold, no sign of our colleagues
Three walkers on the summit of the Pap
As usual I don't take many photo's on the descent, had to take one of this bush in bloom
A cracking day and the weather gods smiled upon us, the rain literally started just as we climbed into the car. Well done to Heather who has now completed the Aonach Eagach without any of the scary scrambly stuff on the ridge, having climbed Meall Dearg on a previous visit.
Our plan for the Sunday was to pick off the Marilyn to the west of Strathyre on the way home, but the weather forecast and the actual weather made us bin that idea.
A special mention to a couple of fellow walkers who have had a bit of bad luck recently and had to be assisted by our fantastic emergency services - David Main, who had a medical episode and is now on the road to full recovery & Garry Collins who had an incident in Affric & is also recovering at home, hope to see you soon guys.
