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after aborting the mission yesterday due to over consumption of fire water on friday night, i felt id let myself down. so i stayed in the saturday night in order to be fresh for sunday. it wasnt too hard staying in as id still felt violated by sat evening and couldn't even look at a pint without getting shivers.
i arrived at Groddie at around 8;30am, i was the only car at the parking area and it was an eery white with frost and freezing fog lingering above the ground. as always, i followed the route taken from walkhighlands and headed up towards the abandoned farmhouse. the path was like glass in some parts, solid thick ice ,pretty lethal stuff, so i walked alongside the path in parts where there was no grip. the weather was perfect, clear skies, no wind whatsoever until i reached higher ground, even then it wasnt much of a hindrance. the route was a bigger slug than i thought and i had built up a fair sweat, if i had done this yesterday i would probably have got tipsy again on the fumes coming from me. by the time i had reached little cairn, i was, to use the proverbial, breathing out my rear. but the views were amazing. with views of bennachie, the buck, tap o the noth, mount keen and lochnagar, lochnagar definitely being a breathe taker. i continued onto the summit where i had something to eat, took a few photos and wrote in the summit book. i headed back down the exact way i came, by this time more people were appearing. by the time i got back to the car park, there were now 10 cars. a perfect day up a brilliant hill.
- farm hoose
- lochnagar
- mount keen
- towards the summit
- mount keen
- trig point
- summit cairn