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Sneaking in a couple of Munros before the Autumn Storms hit

Sneaking in a couple of Munros before the Autumn Storms hit


Postby railton22 » Sun Sep 29, 2013 10:13 am

Route description: Tolmount and Tom Buidhe via Loch Callater

Munros included on this walk: Tolmount, Tom Buidhe

Date walked: 14/09/2013

Time taken: 7 hours

Distance: 28 km

Ascent: 853m

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The last good day of what has been a brilliant summer before the first of the Autumn storms were forecast to roll in on Sunday and a great excuse for a long walk with a couple of Munros thrown in for good measure. This meant that there were 100s of people doing exactly the same as us and making the most of the Last Day of Summer.

Started out easy peasy on the track and marched purposefully along the gently rising clear track. Got to the bothy lickety split and here's where we got super cocky. Noted that the gate was padlocked and saw the path off to the left and clever people that we are we took that.

We were so clever that we realised after 1/4 mile that we'd ballsed up and were in fact marching on to Lochnagar and completely off at a tangent. Oh dear. Epic fail.

If we were smart enough to READ the WH info we would have known about the padlocked gate..........

We scooted back down to the bothy and not wanting the to do the Walk of Shame past all the people we'd jauntily breezed past earlier on we opted to do the circular bit of the route (the lollipop head as I technically put it) in an anticlockwise direction.

It turned out to be a good decision as we met no-one walking our way (we really do march to our own beat) and came across a fair few folks headed back down towards the bothy.

We also did the tricky navigation bit sooner as we reached the endless bealach earlier on in the walk than planned and here the GPS (which had been so -correctly- adamant that we were wrong back near the bothy) came into its own and we blundered along quite happily sticking to our blue line.
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Lunch break and an excuse to sit and work out which hill was actually Tom Buidhe

Good job really because Munro no 1, Tom Buidhe was pretty unspectacular to say the least. It looked relatively tiny compared the the other hills around it.
We were tempted to doubt the GPS but soon spotted hordes of people walking up and down the slopes of the unlikely Munro and figured that that must indeed be Tom Buidhe.

We managed to get the summit all to ourselves as we were going against the grain and posed for a few photos at the rather bland summit before trotting back down and heading off in the direction of near neighour,Tolmont with its rocky summit.
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Channelling "Brokeback Mountain" here with my new jaunty hat. Tom Buidhe summit

Again we had this Munro all to ourselves too and did a couple of summit poses before heading down the steep and craggy path in the direction of Jock's road.
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Tolmont summit

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Daft pose on Tolmont summit

The views here were really something and Tolmont did look very Munro-like at the head of the glen as we turned around to take in the views. Really impressive views of Coire Kander too.
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After a tricky bit of descent down the side of Tolmont , the ground levelled out somewhat and we had this gorgeous view to enjoy on our return

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Taking a break. Tolmont looking rather impressive at the head of the glen.

Thoroughly enjoyed walking along Jock's road and more than once we mused at how grateful we were to him for his access fight. Came across a monument near the bothy and I ran (well walked quicker than usual) up the little mound to see the monument close up. Was expecting it to be a dedication to the feisty Jock but it was for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (I guess that the crown-thing on top gave it away). Still we felt that Jock had the better deal with the impressive road winding through the stunning Callater Glen named after him.

A quick shower a mile out from the car and unfortunately we couldn't go any faster as David's plantar fascitis was giving him evils after 17miles or so.

Dodgy heels aside it was a good day and a top way to finish off the summer.

Walked by Sarah (47,48) and david (47, 48)
User avatar
railton22
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 266
Munros:186   Corbetts:12
Fionas:3   
Sub 2000:4   Hewitts:13
Wainwrights:10   
Joined: Aug 10, 2009

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