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Myself and Rottiewalker still had these three to bag, while our other walking pal Quoman had already claimed their scalps, so when Quoman had to work, but me and Rottie were free it was a chance to bag them.
Having read previous walk reports I knew it was a relatively easy day out on the hills and that they were perhaps not the finest hills in region. However, I take my hills as I find them and I was open minded about the day out to come as we left a damp, but mild Stenhousemuir behind at 6am.
Rottie pulled the car into the parking space directly in front of the ski centre at about 8:15am and we were walking by half past. Twenty-seven minutes later we were at the top of Carn Aosda. The hardest part was finding exactly which road to follow through the maze of skiing installations and machinery left half abandonned around the ski centre itself. Once the right track is found, it's a short sharp, steeper than expected burst to the the top of Carn Aosda, following a rickety wooden fence, before finally rounding the fence just yards from the top. This is an AoSDA Price, cheap as chips, munro. The start is so high, Aosda doesn't look or feel high enough to be a munro and the rocky road going up the side of it takes any real diffculty out of it.
I kept thinking that Ben Vane is shorter, but that wee beasty makes you work hard over a boggy bit and up steep slopes and more false summits than you can shake a big stick at...... not so with Aosda.
The clag even chose that moment to close in on the broad summit so all we could see was the overly grand summit cairn on the diminutive hill.
With barely half an hour walked, we set off for the next munro, the Hill Of The Geese, Carn a'Gheoidh. I like the Gaelic pronounciation of the hill and I randomly practiced it as we began the gentle descent down another broad rocky road.
Very soon Loch Vrotachan appeared out of the gloom and I remembered my Auld Man talking about coming up here to go fishing years ago. Soon after the loch was passed a wee muddy path cuts the corner onto the main path heading west to Carn a'Gheoidh, we took this and were soon heading round Creag a'Choire Dhirich and bypassing the summit of Carn nan Sac.
As we crossed The Coolah, the path forked. A lower path near the two wee lochans looks more direct, but we found ourselves avoiding more muck on the higher, drier and rockier route, which gently climbs and curves round to a final, fairly steep little pull up to the summit of Carn a'Gheoidh. Ninety minutes after starting, munro number 2 had been bagged.
We settled down for a wee bite to eat in the summit shelter, clearing some litter and waste food out of it to make room for us.
As we ate the views started clearing and I believe it was Glen Ey we had decent views of from the top. The rest remained hidden behind a wall of mist.
As we made our way back east, along the broad grassy ridge, we took the lower path by the lochans this time and I found myself snapping away with my iPhone camera. The scenery wasn't breathtaking, but at least we had a view now. Glen Ey, An Socath, Sgor Mor, Carn Aosda, Loch Vrotachan and then eventually The Cairnwell all became visible as the cloud lifted. I found myself clicking away desperately, trying to grab a nice photo, over scenery that was a tad run of the mill. Around this point we saw the first people we had seen all day, making their way out to Carn a'Gheoidh.
Back behind us Carn a'Gheoidh was now clear of the clag!... Typical!
As we rounded the corner and climbed over the wee peak at 873m, just before The Cairnwell, Glas Maol and his 3 brothers became visible and showed off the first of their winter coats.
After the broad grassy paths out and back to Carn a'Gheoidh and it was something of a surprise to find the broad rocky road so close to the summit of the 873m peak. So we made our way up The Cairnwell from here in next to no time.
Strangely, although the summit of The Cairnwell is ruined by the buildings and pylons, there are good views from here if you keep the buildings to your back. Especially to the west and south down Gleann Beag.
From here we made for the big yellow chairlift at the base of the main peak of The Cairnwell and just headed straight down hill. It's very steep, but there is a rudimentary path just to the left of chairlift. In only 20 minutes we were back at the ski centre and claiming the essential photographs with Alfred Wainwright and Misses.
All in all a less than inspiring day on the hills, but it did get better as the day progressed and three more chalked off with the minimum of effort and we were back in the Central Belt before the fitba' kicked aff!
