free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
I remember climbing these four munros four years ago, and all I can remember about them was the climb up to the first munro was fairly quick and thinking the walk back to the car was helluva long from the last munro. So when completing these munros again I thought whilst we had the bikes for the Nethybridge weekend, we would use them for the cycle at the end of the walk back to the car.
- The Bikes !
Dropped the bikes and padlocked them at the end of the walk.
Parked at the parking spot just before Balsporran Cottages and started the walk at 930am.
- Balsporran Cottage
Crossed the bridge over towards the Cottages, over the railway and onto the good track up towards the north east ridge of Geal Charn.
- track towards Geal Charn
Stopped at the small cairn for a few minutes and then headed west to the summit of Geal Charn.
- Small Cairns
Reached the summit in 1 hour 15mins.
- Geal Charn
- Geal Charn
No views at all at the summit.
Quick summit pic and then headed south down the broad ridge and back onto the main path and then followed a path north east towards the summit of A ‘ Mharconaich.
- towards Ben Alder Cottage
- reaching the plateau A'Mharconaich
Again no views at what we thought was the summit.
- Summit . Eh ? No
Stopped for a summit pic at a cairn and then the cloud lifted slightly and we could see the true summit behind us. Took us an hour and 15 mins from Geal Charn
- Summit number 2
Rather than retrace our steps and back to the path, which WH recommends, we headed south west down the ridge towards Glas choire and then south up to the summit of Beinn Udlamain and reached the summit in 45 minutes from summit 2. Here the clag lifted and the sun came out. We sat for some lunch for a while.
- Summit number 3. Beinn Udlamain
Once we left the 3rd summit Stevie put his head into his hands and informed me that he had left the keys to the padlock for the bikes back at the van. What a dumpling
Id never do anything like that
We continued on and headed south towards Carn ‘ Ic Loumhaidh over some rocky ground and then headed east over grassy ground which seemed to take forever and ever up to the trig point of Sgairneach Mhor.
- Summit 4
- Summit 4
We followed the north east ridge down to the wee top at 758
Here Stevie decided to run up the Sow of Atholl and headed up the south ridge of it.
- Stevie heading for the Sow
- The Sow
I decided to give it a miss as id climbed it earlier this year. I headed north from the wee top and followed a goodstalkers path, although really boggy in parts and down hill and crossed the bridge to pick up the path.
Once on the path I could see Stevie running down the north ridge of the Sow. Thinking to himself that i didnt see him
I couldn’t let him beat me so I made a major bee line and ran along the path to get towards the end of the walk before him. Just as he appeared and crossed the Allt Coire Dhomhain i performed a wee leisurely stroll as though i had done so all along.
- Hurry up Dumpling
Reached the bikes after 5 hours 30 mins of walking and cycled back to the start... No we didnt ! Nae keys so Stevie jogged along to the van and was back within 20minutes. And headed to Nethybridge for the WH meet
