Damp at Dalwhinnie

[Fife Flyer]

Firstly big thanks to Andy for offering to put up with me as company for 6 hours and volunteering his services free of charge
The directions on WH as usual were excellent & there is very limited parking, in fact our 2 cars just about filled up the available space, unfortunately because Andy arrived just before me he picked the best parking spot, I had to negotiate a sizeable pudding when I opened the drivers door
The day started with a meeting very close to Dalwhinnie Railway Station about 9.15am, introductions, kitted up and off we set in the dry
However, as I had checked the forecast before leaving Fife I was expecting grottiness & for a change the forecast was correct
The track/path along towards Ben Alder appears to be in excellent condition & I was making mental notes as Ben Alder is on my hit list this summer
The gap in the trees where one leaves the path is quite substantial, however there is no sign of a path & we hardly found a path all day, but more of that later

A stop for one of the few pictures I managed to take, looking back down to Loch Ericht

Loch Ericht & a sign of the grottiness to come

The grassy slopes up to the ridge of The Fara are fairly steep & the midges were out in force trying to feed on me, lost count of how many I murdered. The grass was rather wet & I was quite pleased with myself for giving my boots another spray with water proofing yesterday
For those who are interested in bogginess under foot, I think Andy will back me up, it is almost off the scale

Andy tummy in chest out

As we neared the summit the wind picked up & down came the drizzle, the only good thing about the wind was the midges all ended up in Loch Ericht

The substantial summit cairn

Well wrapped up & the cairn turned out to be an excellent wind shelter

From the summit the plan was to walk the ridge & then descend down back down to the path at Ben Alder Lodge It was a very good plan, however like all good plans, we tweaked it a bit & really paid the price
We were making excellent progress along the ridge until a large lump appeared out of the gloom, we went into a huddle & decided to be clever in an effort to avoid more ascending The idea was a good one, however the decision on which way to go was a tad flawed We reasoned that if we went to the right we would cut the corner & pick up the ridge further on, however after about 30 mins or so, we had another huddle, Andy checked the GPS, I got out my map to see where we thought we were, because as we descended a bit below the cloud we expected to see Loch Ericht, however someone had moved it & all we saw was a stream at the bottom of the glen
Another huddle & Andy consulted his GPS again & off we set hoping to Loch Erecht was we had ascended what we were hoping would be the ridge overlooking the Loch - guess what, no Loch, so another huddle ensued By this time we had waded through umpteen peat bogs, climbed & descended & climbed again
So I suggested putting in a way point for Ben Alder Lodge, which Andy did & off we set on a direct course, nothing was going to get in our way
Anyway we eventually descended & the most welcome sight of the day appeared from below the cloud Loch Erecht So we descended down & clambered over a style, that looked like it hardly been used there was no path or obvious signs that walking boots had been in the vicinity
After descending on a well defined path through the trees which was boggy at the top, we eventually reached the track beside Loch Erecht

Loch Erecht from the track

Andy stripping off for the long walk back to the cars

The walk back to the car took about 90mins & as it only took us 6 hours with all our detours was pretty good
A good day out, shame about the weather
Thanks again Andy, good to meet you & safe journey back down the road

[SAVAGEALICE]

looks like you guys had an adventure ..all part of the fun! ..shame about the clag, but looks like you still enjoyed yourselves

[Ibex]

What happened Andy? I left you at 9am and by 1pm you were lost. Oh dear.

That is a pretty impressive summit cairn. At least that must have been easy ish to see in the clag.
Bit of an adventure is always fun anyway.

Shame I didn't get to meet you fife flier, but I seemed to have done something to one of my knees earlier in the week and it was getting slowly worse. Maybe some other time!

Managed to get home to Oxfordshire in 10.5 hours. Loads of traffic around Birmingham.

[AJNicholls]

Yep, good to meet you Fife Flyer. Thanks for the report - I'm enjoying my beer right now (admittedly not my first )

SavageAlice - yes, had a good day out in some nasty conditions. They did ease up a bit over time though.

Ibex - you'd have hated the slog up the side of the hill. The path on Sow of Atholl was at least 5 times better.

AJ

[AJNicholls]

Erm... that comment to Ibex may have come across as the hill wasn't any good. It actually was, just very steep from the onset. And we didn't make it particularly easy on ourselves.

[rockhopper]

shame about the weather as I gather there are great views form this hill - did think about it when I was up for Ben Alder but didn't manage it - hope to get back some time - cheers