The Cairnwell Munros

[Dirk Winter]

We climbed these three quickest but maybe ugliest munros on the 15th of July and noticed that it can get quite windy up there. On the last metres of our ascent to Carn Aosda, the first munro on the route, the wind became rather strong (at least for somebody who climbs the Scottish mountains only during his holidays).

The advantage of that: We climbed the three munros much quicker than we expected (only 4 hours and one minute, whereas mostly we take longer than the estimated times given on walkhighlands). One reason for that might be that Nadine didn't want to take her camera out - the views were not stunning enough for her to put up with a defect camera. Another one might be the comparably short period of time we spent on each single top.

The ascent to Carn Aosda was very steep and let the sweat flow. In addition to that the fences and ski lifts made us hurry to reach a more remote area. On the top the sweat was dried quite quickly by the wind and soon our backpacks were released of several pieces of clothing.

On the way to Carn a' Gheoidh we enjoyed some lee areas where the going was comfortable, but during the quite steep ascent to the Cairnwell there was no protection any more and it even started to rain.

Despite of these conditions we were not alone at all. On each top we met somebody else and on the Cairnwell there was a big surprise waiting for us. Whereas during our other walks we had met many people who knew walkhighlands.co.uk (you could recognize the prints easily and soon there was a topic of conversation), on the Cairnwell we met Tessa (I hope I spelt that correctly) who was at that time one of only ten people who had introduced themselves in the "Say hello" section of Walk Talk. What a coincidence!

So I don't vote the walk as uninspiring because you can meet other forum members there. Well, I can't think of many other reasons for that vote...

[goth_angel]

Hi Dirk, yes Tessa is the correct spelling. Was quite a coincidence! Good to meet you and hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip

Other than you, we only met one other person that day on the way to Carn a'Gheoidh then had the hills to ourselves. I enjoyed this walk, once we were looking away from the ski clutter the views were pretty decent and we saw a lot of wildlife (mainly hares and birds) plus 3 in one day wasn't bad for a couple of beginners. I agree it was very windy though!

Bio-man - I guess the interruption of the 'celebration' is an example of s*ds law in action. Would certainly have been too windy on the day we were up there!

[Dirk Winter]

I enjoyed this walk, once we were looking away from the ski clutter the views were pretty decent and we saw a lot of wildlife (mainly hares and birds) plus 3 in one day wasn't bad for a couple of beginners. I agree it was very windy though!

Yes, three munros in one day wasn't too bad for us, too. Maybe the wind lowered the fun factor a bit. We just didn't stay very long on the tops, even on Carn a'Gheoidh.

During the rest of our trip we couldn't add another munro, but at least a short walk up Ben A'n (really great views regarding the small height). And in the two weeks before we had some really excellent walks. I hope I can find the time to post some descriptions soon.

[goth_angel]

Look forward to seeing some more reports! We didn't get any other walks in either, the day after we were too tired and then the weather was rubbish. Oh well, they'll still be there next time. We didn't linger on the summits at all, just too windy and difficult to keep my poles (and self) vertical!

Attempting to post a couple photos here, let's see if it works..