I left Glasgow at 06:30 and was ready and walking by 08:30. Having been the only car there the last time I was here I was surprised to see 3 cars already parked and more where arriving as I set off.
A nice gentle warm up along the road to the farm with day getting brighter by the minute, it was looking as though the day was going to be a good one.
I made good progress along the route that has been well described by Pollyh33 and Redrock on other posts. As I was nearing Meall a' Churain the clouds were building and the wind chill was increasing.
Visibilty was poor going across the tops but I was at the summit in about 2.5 hours. After a summit shot and no view to admire I headed off after a quick chat with a couple of walkers just arriving.
The initial steep section of grass was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and quick time was made down into Lairig a' Churain and out of the cloud. I decided to have a stop here and refuel ready for the next ascent and shelter form the wind.The clouds were showing no signs off moving and were dropping further down if anything.
I had picked out a way up towards the ridge of Beinn Cheathaich on the descent ans as I angled across the slope I caught up with the walkers I met on the previous summit. I decided to follow them up. Eventually we were confronted by a ramp of snow and with the condition of it being very hard we donned crampons and deployed the ice axes.
The slope went up for about 50 metres and the exit got progressively steeper until I was burying the pick into the snow for better stability and re-assurance. It was quite a feeling not being able to see the extent of the snow in any direction and thinking about what a slip may bring. After a final steepening and a step over the residue of a cornice the ridge was made, 20 metres later we were at the trig point.
Bearings were taken and we set off across to the summit of Meall Glas. The way was a bit confusing in the cloud as the ups and downs seemed more pronounced than I felt they actually were. We bumped into a couple of groups of people who had come up from Glen Dochart.
A final snow slope lead up to cairn and number 100 was in the bag.
I had already decided on the NW ridge as a means of decent as I figured that a short distance to a good track and a bridge across the river was preferable to re-negotiating the route back and wet feet. Alistair and Mary, the couple of walkers I had met up with had had the same idea so we set off on the easy walk down and a few bum slides down some snow slopes until we gained the ravine of the Allt Coire Cheathaich. This being the safest route away from the crags at the end of the ridge.
The bridge could be seen below and seemed to take ages to arrive at. A bite to eat once across and a gentle walk back along the track with me feeling well happy.
Thanks to Alistair and Mary for the company on the second hill, I don't think I would have completed the snow slope onto the ridge solo, I would have dropped down and attempted another way.
