Walkhighlands

Started out a 7.50 am to a partially clear sky but mist in the distance. First Munro (Geal-Charn) was done in quick time with the help of a very wide and easy going path for most of the way. Clouds were rolling in and saw an inversion about three quarters of the way up. My second munro bagged by 9.30. The walk between Geal-Charn and A'Mharconaich saw the weather start to take a turn but still it was relatively easy going with no major problems on the route. Nothing too difficult in way of climbing but enough to keep the heart rate steady
The second munro of the day (No. 3 in total for me) - A'Mharconaich - was bagged by 11. It all goes downhill form here! Crap weather, howling wind, driving rain, a little bit of hail. Not the most pleasant conditions. A bit of a steep ascent up to Beinn Udlamain but think we veered off our planned route and took a slightly more steep ascent up, weather got fairly bad here and navigation harder - especially with very little in way of features to keep us right. Not that I was much use navigation wise! Ended up skirting round the summit and having to backtrack a little but all good in the end. Was a steep a slippy descent on pretty slidey scree and hard on the knees. Managed to stop for some grubb in the bealach between Beinn Udlamain and Sgairnech Mhor. Weather really crap now. Only high point here was a herd of dear appear on the hills, though could barely see them in the mist and fog! Did get a couple of very brief breaks in the cloud and saw some lovely views over to Ben Alder and Loch Etricht.
We were planning to take in the Sow of Atholl but by this point we were pretty knackered and the weather was fairly atrocious so headed back down. Finished the walk with a rather amusing river crosing - which I got a piggy back across - I'm a HappyHiker indeed!

Thank goodness it was summer time you did this otherwise the weather might have been bad.

How far is it to do all 4?

I missed Geal Charn (went back and did A' Mharconaich again with Geal Charn as the former is soooo nice! ) and didn't find the walk hard or long at all - a lot of it is very good striding-out country. I did it in around May when there was still quite a bit of snow in the corries. Would be a nice winter walk. Udlamain isn't great for navigating on though - the others would be okay.

Did these 4 on Wednesday last week. Also took around 9 hours, with quite a leisurely pace, so I think definitely worth doing all 4. Left the car at Balsporran Cottages and walked down A9 to do them clockwise, i.e. Sgairneach Mhor first. Weather almost perfect, dry with dramatic clouds and sunshine, a bit windy on Sgairneach Mhor. Impressive views to Loch Ericht and Ben Alder & co. And saw our first golden eagle ever! Almost got a heart attack as it suddenly rose from the other side of the Geal-chard ridge...

sloosh wrote:Thank goodness it was summer time you did this otherwise the weather might have been bad.
LOL - indeed!
How far is it to do all 4?

think it was about 16km - a decent day out!

Really? Is that all? I thought it would be further. Thanks for that. Must go plot it out.