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wasn't sure how this trip would turn out, weather forecast was a bit of hit or miss for the day.
set of for Calendar, meeting up with the rest of the troops for 10:00 at the car park.
weather at callandar was surprisingly good as we got ready for the off, so wind proof & water proof jackets in the bag in case we needed them (and boy, did we need them later on).
so up into the forest section, heavy breathing and sweating like a pig and i'm thinking, don't worry, clear this section and it should be easy. how wrong was I.
so we cleared the forest, onto the next section, knew there was a couple of steps to go up, my god that bit nearly killed me, but onwards and upwards was the call from the front, it flattened out for a wee bit then over the burn and the climb starts again.
- having a 5 min breather
it was starting to cloud over and was getting 'A Tad Breezy' as wee sometimes say in Scotland, so wind proof and heading along to the southern tip of the summit before we start going up the false summits.
- view from the southern tip before starting ascent to the summit
so the ascent to the first of the false summits start, by this time, the wind had really picked up and we all being blown about big time, sticks being used to stop getting blown over.
- view upto 1st false summit
a few Fell runners out today also, and these guys go up & down at some speed(big respect out to them), as we approached the top of the false summit, we all took a breather, huddled down and were discussing do we want to continue as it's only going to get worse. well i haven't came this far and i can still see people going up, so we decided to continue.
- view down from 1st false summit
we continued to be battered by the wind and everybody was finding it hard going, but we would now see the summit and were not for stopping.
- looking up towards the summit
as we got onto the last climb towards the summit, the wind just disappeared and made the last few hundred meters quite enjoyable.
all up no injuries, time for the hip flask and some whisky aswell as lunch.
- getting ready to head back down with Trig point in background
we are debating do we go down via Stank Glen or back the way we came, mother nature made the decision for us, it started pouring down, rain & sleet. go back the way we came up, back into the wind with rain this time and it did not let up one bit all the way down, water proof did not do a good job, but it was a great walk and i would love to do it again in better weather as the views at the top were limited, you could just make out Ben Lomond & Dumgoyne but that was about it.
- job done, although rather wet