Glenshee 9
Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:33 pm
On Sunday myself and gman27/Gregor decided to tackle the Glenshee 9. We had been discussing various big walk options for a while and thought we would give this one a try. The idea was to do the first 6 then we would have the option to call it a day if we had to when we crossed back over the A93 or continue on if time/body permitted.
We set off from Clydebank at 5am and were parked up in the lay-by and ready to go for about 715. From the car park the surrounding mountains didn’t look that steep and since we were already at about 500m we set off rather naively towards Creag Leacach on a route that took us around the flanks of Meall Garm.
Very quickly we realised that the hill was going to be a bit tougher than it had initially looked as I was sweating like a mad man quite early on! Only a short way up and we were already getting cracking views in every direction. It was looking like MWIS had got it spot on and we were in for a cracker.
A bit more sweating and a bit more Kendal mint cake and we were at the top of our first munro of the day. On a side note this was my first time trying Kendal mint cake and I’ve got to say the stuff is rocket fuel. I ended up doing the first 6 munros without eating anything else fuelled only by Kendal cake!
We didn’t hang about and started our way out towards Glas Maol. This bit is straightforward enough and there is a wall and fence that can be followed to the second top.
From here it was out towards Cairn of Claise. Again a decent length walk but easy underfoot. In this section you can see why there is a trail running race here.
From Cairn of Claise we headed out towards Tom Buidhe. As we began the walk out we were trying to determine what top was Tom Buidhe as they all looked too far away but as we got closer it became apparent and what had initially looked like a small hump in the landscape started to get a bit larger.
From here it was a quick drop down into the valley and back up to Tolmount on the other side.
It was now time to head back across towards Carn an Turc. From Tolmount this seemed a ridiculous distance away. This bit of the walk although not that steep seemed to take forever. It was around this point the Kendal cake began wearing off and we decided we would have a bite to eat at the top when we got there. As we approached the top it started getting busy with lots of other walkers all of which were coming up the hill to Carn an Turc and doing a circuit in the opposite direction. After a few photos of the top the summit shelter became empty and we sat down for lunch.
Refreshed and re-energised from lunch we now made the descent back to the A93 down a rather steep boggy scree covered slope. I am definitely glad we didn’t come up this way as it would have been a real PITA.
Initially on the way down the slope Carn Aosda didn’t look like it would be too much trouble but as we reached the road it was really quite daunting. Both of us at this point would probably have called it a day if the other had suggested it but we decided to keep going and start the climb before we had a chance to think about it. This next stage was by far the hardest thing I have done in a while. The climb up Carn Aosda from this point is steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!! Not much was said to each other for this bit. I just zoned out and kept plodding along trying not to think about it too much. Eventually we got to the summit beside all the cable car runs and the views of the Cairnwell and beyond opened up again.
From here it was downhill, past the start of the cairnwell and onwards for what seemed like an eternity. By this point my body was completely done in. Carn a'Gheoidh was in our view as we were walking out but it looked that far away that we thought the closer cairns that we could see out to the left on Carn nan sac was where we were heading. To our dismay a quick re-check of the map gave us the realisation of how far we still had to go. After a bit more of a slog we were finally there, our 8th munro of the day. Now it was just a case of getting back to the Cairnwell and dropping off the opposite side and back to the car, but not before more food!
We started back out towards the cairnwell with a new spring in our step. Once Loch Vrotachan is reached its not long before you are on the well made path that takes you all the way to the summit. Cairnwell summit cairn and the whole summit itself is probably the strangest one I’ve been on to date with all the pylons and the like, but we had made it and it felt good.
Our descent to the car was basically straight off the other side of the Cairnwell than we had came up and a steep down climb through the heather to the road in the shortest way possible. It was at this point when we both realised how burnt our heads had got. 2 gingers (albeit balding) walinmg about in the sun for 9 hours and not a drop of sun tan lotion applied . School boy error! My napper is still throbbing as I sit and write this! Another war wound from the walk is my feet. I wore the boots I have wore for most of my munros but for some reason today they decided to remove the skin from a few locations on my feet, not good!
All in all a great day on the hills with better views than we could have hoped for. The first part of the walk was fairly easy going but the second part pushed me to my endurance limit and it became a bit of mind over matter to keep going. The things we do for fun eh!