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Back in Scotland !
After our short family holiday in North Wales, where we enjoyed the great weather, relax
and some of the best Snowdonia mountains ( Tryfan, Glyders, Snowdon Horseshoe via Crib Goch ), 7 wonderful Hewits in two days...we got back home and back to normal life. Then three busy days at work and finally weekend - fortunately and rarely off work
Reports from the Snowdonia mountains here:Tryfan & Glyders - scrambling paradise:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=63269Crib Goch ( the scary-airy ridge ) & The Snowdon Horseshoe:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=63276 Because I'm mostly working on weekends, for this free weekend I planned a mountain trip together with Mark long time before as he is often free on weekends. Mark got extra night shift for friday - finish on saturday morning which meant that sunday was the one and only day for long trip.
The forecast looked more than promising, especially for the North so I wanted to use the opportunity to get some great views from Assynt
Despite the limitation that we both must be back home at the same day I prepared a plan - a CRAZY PLAN
how to do the two Munros - far North in one day and get back home early evening
Mark agreed, so we prepared all our mountains stuff during the saturday...then was hard to get sleep early because of the daylight, noise from the outside, hot temperature...but I managed to get to bed after 19:30
...struggling to get sleep...alarm set for 22:00
...meeting with Mark at 23:15
I am mad enough with my very early starts, but all my trips started always at least after midnight...often between 01:00 - 03:00
...so this start moved even my borders
I know, we could do something closer and "normal", but it was really great and maybe very rare opportunity to have a successful trip to The North because of the weather forecast, many dry days before, long daylight for very early start of walk. Time is going quickly - how many free weekends I will have until short daylight come again and how many of them will offer the good weather and visibility
Well, decision made, determined and looking forward we both started our adventure at 23:30 ! Driving in the night via Stirling, Perth, Inverness and Ullapool and after several stops for some photo shots and breakfast we arrived in the Inchnadamph car park around 04:40 in the morning and then started our walk
Nobody else in the mountains yet
- Quinag from the road early morning
Despite the warm temperature, there was a cold air and wind in the morning
Usually it's opposite, but the day was cold in the bottom and then very warm, without any wind from the higher level, on the top and both summits
Once we got to the beallach, warm air, sunshine and great inversion views opened for us
we saw far away all directions, happy for the inversion bonus...Ben Hope also visible in the distance
- The great early morning inversion views...
- Selfie on the Conival summit ( Mark's photo )
- Ben More Assynt ahead over the ridge
- Mark enjoying the inversion ( Mark's photo )
We had a great time there, enjoyed all the views
On the return way back the inversion disappeared and all the glens around opened clear views. We met some walkers on the way back, most of them on the last descent and in the bottom. I am sure they got the great views too, but they missed the special morning's inversion...
- Self - timer on Ben More Assynt summit
- Ben More Assynt summit
- Quinag from the top
- Inchnadamph - a wee Zoom from the mountains
It was really very unusual when we experienced the change again when descending...much colder air and some wind while very hot temperature without a wind still on the top
It was a great trip...great day in the mountains, happiness and satisfaction
The effort and sacrificing rewarded !!!
- Suilven from the road...
We got back home shortly after 18:00...not so late for the long - one day trip...but need wake up at 03:00 another day for work
Trip movie: sunrise, inversion, sunshine...photos and videos - wide views from both summits:Some inversion shots:
- The inversion disappearing...
More photos in the Album from the trip:https://flic.kr/s/aHskxQVSnuIt was a very productive...and enjoyable month - 17 mountains done in the last 30 days, 9 Munros & 1 Corbett in Scotland...and 7 great Hewits in North Wales 