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After a smashing sleep at the weirdly wonderful Achilty Hotel it was an early start for ML.
Route finding was easy as I had been along most of the route before with big Gazpops.
I ignored the standard WH route and stayed on the track to the lodge and followed Beaner's footsteps and pawprints to the summit. Sloggy in places but also a bit of a path near the waterfall.
First summit cairn was easy enough to find but I had been warned by Gammy and Campbell that there was a new, fangled upgraded cairn that was now recognised as the true summit- I blame those Brexit gits! A bit of a wander in the clag and I came across a teeny pile of stones, this must be it- looked a lot lower than the first one.
Just about to photograph it and then a stiff breeze blew away the cloud to reveal what I should be standing on about 5 minutes walk away- eejit
I'm glad this wee mix up did happen because it meant I got tremendous views down Loch Monar and also over to Carn nam Fiaclan. The downside of this meant that instead of heading back the way I came I descended the Fuar-tholl Beag route- what a mistake! It took me ages and ages and ages ! I honestly thought I was getting at least one broken ankle out of this. At least the viz was good, despite some heavy showers, and I just went directly to the lodge again. None of this persisting with the WH route staying on the boggy, lumpy peat hags for another 1.5 kms. Why this is a suggested route I don't know!!
I saw two other groups of people ascending ML as I got back to the track and then met an old gent who was heading the refuge to meet some of his pals who were out and about.
One other mishap was walking along happy to have a babybel in one hand and a tangerine in the other and not realising that I was missing my poles. Had to run back for about a km to retrieve them from the spot that I had stopped to change my socks- erse!
