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(Alternate title:
Lochnagar 5 seasons in one day. And no food.)
With Paul. Met in Perth at 07:30, set off walking from Loch Muick car park, 9:15.
Lochnagar, 13:15 (i.e., 4 hours); other summits, not sure, forgot to do time checks. I think we hit #3 (Carn an t-Sagairt Mor) at around 15:00, and #5 (Broad Cairn) around 16:00? Back to the car at 19:10, just a few minutes shy of 10 hours.
For most of the morning, we saw hee haw. (Hmmm; not as much fun to type that as it is to say it.) It rained. It hailed. The wind blew. It SNOWED. The sun shone. There were rainbows. It was cold! I didn’t regret wearing a thermal layer, or having my winter jacket.
“We” made a small navigational error after leaving the Lochnagar summit, and had dropped down several hundred feet before we realised we were descending far too much and quickly, and in the wrong direction. Thus, I bumped up the ascent stat here slightly from the official WH value. Not long after correcting this wee oopsie, we debated whether to complete the entire round, as the weather was really pants, and didn’t show any inclination toward improvement. We decided to head toward summits #2 (Carn a’ Choire Bhoidheach – a big lump with virtually no distinguishing features) and #3 (Carn an t-Sagairt Mor) and to keep evaluating the situation. By the time we reached Carn an t-Sagairt Mor, the weather had improved somewhat; the relentless rain and wind had settled into a pattern of showers and gusts. Acknowledging that we were more than halfway ‘round – certainly psychologically, if perhaps not quite geographically – we carried on. Although the top of Broad Cairn was very blowy, it was clear, and we finally got some cracking views. From there, it was a long walk back to the car park, with a continuing theme of sunshine and showers, but the Minister’s Cat kept us company. We were also treated to some nice evening light and a bit of sunshine, some lovely views back to where we’d been, over Loch Muick, and up into the impressive deep glen connecting Lochs Dubh and Muick, which was flowing with water from multiple directions.
We ended the day hungry, tired, and anxious to sit down to a nice meal, but it wasn’t to be. At least it wasn’t to be in Ballater (no booking), Braemar (stopped serving at 8pm), Bridge of Cally (previous bad experience), or Blairgowrie (stopped serving at 9pm); not for lack of trying – cue revival of the “Does Scotland let itself down?” discussion thread. Finally, nearing 10pm, we found a nice little bistro in Perth that was open late, and Paul graciously treated me to a slap-up meal in return for driving.
It wasn't a day without challenges, specifically with regards to the weather, and to the hunt for food afterwards, but overall, and at the end of the day, SO worthwhile and enjoyable.
first -- and only -- view of the Lochnagar and (sort of) the corrie
hee haw at the "viewpoint" on Lochnagar
looking down onto Loch nan Eun from The Stuic
summit #5, sunshine at last!
lovely Loch Muick
impressive glen
nice evening photo / light -- shame about the raindrops on the lens, but that was rather the order of the day
