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Another Thursday and another brilliant day to get to the hills.
Since it was so cold, I thought I'd do the other half of the Sgiath Chuil/ Meall Glas duo. The last trip up Sgiath Chuil went really well with nicely frozen ground and just a little snow. but since there's been a lot more snow since then I was pretty sure this was going to be a harder and longer hike and I was right.
The approach from the south in bright sunshine for sure makes for a nice hike and with the really firm condition progress was pretty good. It was easy route finding as well as about 6 people had been up since it last snowed however it was a long way, and it did seem to take a long time with little progress to show for my efforts most of the way up!
Snow really slows things down and I was glad Id left a good buffer of time for this hike. Made it to the bottom of the steep slope below the summit without needing crampons, but decicided to get them on for the summit push and was glad I did. It was really hard work despite the trail having been broken for me. Cannot imagine how much longer this would take creating your own path. It was also pretty darn steep.
Great views all day - Ben Challum looking very impressive.
Maybe 2 hours and 45 mins after the start finally made it to the top - for sure slower than expected and slower than getting up
Sgiath Chuil.
Views from top were excellent with all the snow.
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View back up to Sgiath Chuil on the way down were impressive as well.
Way down was so much quicker and easier despite the snow, about an hour quicker (was helped by sliding down some of the steep bits
)
Was pretty tired arriving back at the car but was very happy with another splendid winter hike. Great view of Ben Lawers on the drive out too.
