free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Wednesday seemed like the best day of the week weather-wise, and with no snow on the tops yet I headed for Sgor Gaoith. I found it a really nice and short hill walk, which I would love to do again, hopefully with better visibility on the top!
I was first into the car park by about 10 seconds (a win is a win!) though my competitor spent much less time faffing and was off on foot before me by a few minutes. I set off just before 09:00. The first part of the walk meanders through some lovely old pine woods; not particularly grand pines, but sitting well within the landscape. As the woods began to recede the view of the hills opened up and it was clear that the tops were not enjoying the same sunshine as the woods, and that at some point I was going to need to put more layers on.
The path is well maintained and easy to follow, climbing and traversing gradually and crossing a couple of small burns on the way. I stopped for a rest and to layer up upon crossing Allt a'chrom-alltain, though would soon have to add yet more layers as the wind really picked up before getting into the low cloud.
Visibility was poor in the cloud and I must have missed my exit though the path was still easily discernible - I was aware that I hadn't heard any "pings" from my old Garmin and when I checked to see if I was still on track I found I was almost 1km South of where I should have been, heading more for Carn Ban Mor than Sgor Gaoith.
I navigated back North with my trusty compass to get back on track and was at the ridge in short order. I was hoping to enjoy the views of Loch Eanaich and Braeriach but there wasn't much visibility at the top, though the wind had died down nicely. I was enjoying the ridge walk and decided to make the small jaunt along to Sgoran dubh mor as well, before starting back down the hill (or so I thought).
As I was trying to descend I kept finding myself off-track until i realised that the track I had loaded in actually took in another couple of summits before making the descent (I really should have looked in more detail at the route rather than just load it into the GPS and jump in the car!). So I headed for Meall Buidhe and onto Geal-Charn and as the cloud started to clear I was blessed with some lovely views back down into Glen Feshie.
There was no path down from Geal-Charn and I made good use of my walking poles to control a reasonably steep and slippery descent through heather and moss.This would be punishing on the knees if attempted without poles so be warned!
On re-joining the path at Allt Coire na Cloiche it was then a short and easy-going stroll back through the woods to the car park.