
I set off at 9, up the steep path – well not the path exactly because it was completely frozen under a couple of inches of ice, but close by the path on the hard frozen grass





I made the ridge, the path disappearing under the snow, and pretty soon needed to get the crampons out. There were a fair few lumps along the ridge, I kept on thinking ‘this must be the one’ but then it turned out not to be. Should look at a map occasionally I spose..


There were clag patches coming across regularly with brilliant sunshine inbetween, and the ravens circling up above. It was just lovely

I met a chap with a couple of dogs that looked vaguely familiar - a Rottweiler and a similar looking Ginger dog. He seemed to recognise me too, because he knew some surprisingly accurate information about me.. Slightly unsettling! I am surely not that memorable..

Then the clag withdrew enough for me to see Stob Binnein. Looked like quite a climb but it wasn’t really. Unfortunately the summit was in clag when I got there and while I hoped for a stop, it was far too cold, and there were no views to be had

So onward a short distance, then the descent. Oh michty me it was icy, steep and ever so slighty terrifying


I finally got stopped at the bealach for a cuppa and my piece. The clag was now nowhere to be seen, and the sun was out.


I had rather a long stop, and texted Dougie to let him know how I was getting on. It had taken me a bit longer than I had expected to get this far with it being so icy. I had to be a bit more careful than usual.
I picked my way across the bealach, crampons not required here, but I couldn’t be bothered taking them off just to put them on again in 10 minutes

Then it was the steep ascent of Ben More. This side of the hill was facing the sun, so far less ice was encountered, and despite the steep angle I made reasonable progress.

Looking back to Binnien, I could see a paraglider up above the summit. Sounded like he had some kind of engine, but I couldn't be sure



Up near the top there were a couple of steps that required some use of the axe, but before I knew it the trig came into sight, and so did some breathtaking views




Eventually I tore myself away to make my descent. I knew it was going to be a steep knee-killer down the front to Glen Dochart





After driving round to pick up Sunny, we headed up to Killin and round to Glen Lochay. We found a decent camp spot, in a field beside a lovely wee burn. Unfortunately the locals weren’t completely happy with our presence and bleated loudly in protest. Funny looking sheep with impressive looking horns. We were careful to shut the tent up tight before sleeps that night!

The morning came, we slept on, and were up far too late to contemplate the Haesgarnich foray we had talked about.


We were soon on our way up the track which turned out to be fairly steep at points. At least the sheep were a lot friendlier round here..

We soon found the telltale baggers cairn and headed up the path, only to lose it almost straight away.. it didn’t really matter though and we plodded up the featureless hillside - a pretty dull ascent to say the least


Then we got up to the ridge and it started to get snowy underfoot and a lot more fun.

The advantage to arriving late was that the majority of the other walkers were on their way down. We watched a group of guys capering and bumsliding their way down from the summit as we stopped to put our crampons on. From the amount of footprints I could tell it was a very popular hill indeed!


Finally we were on the last steep section that was infinitely more fun due to the snow. The sun was blazing as we hit the summit, but it was a cold breeze and we stopped slightly too long for lunch and got chilled. It was another beautiful vista which was hard to drag yourself away from.




We initially had the summit to ourselves, but then another chap turned up who had full ice climbing gear – a bit extreme for Meall Ghaordaidh! Then another couple, so with things getting busy, we reluctantly headed back the way we had come.


Well what a weekend it was weatherwise.. Anywhere above the snowline would have been amazing this weekend.. Hope you were all out having just as much fun as we did.
