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Well this day had been planned for a few months with a stay in Cannich B&B for 4 of us, Ali, John, Kev and myself. Fife Flyer had been injured for a bit and was not doing his usual weekly walks but decided to do a walk this weekend and when I jogged his memory we were doing the Mullardoch 4, he thought what a great get back in walk, what
, hey you work it out!!
Maybe if Parminder came too there would be enough folks to carry him out.
Obviously that was not the case as Martin knows my other walking group and it would be a "left to die" (Falkirk Mountaineering Group moto, so I am told by a former member) with maybe a phone call for him.
Anyhow the 3 young ones and myself set off on Friday to Cannich and got something to eat at Drumnadrochet as we know all about the hospitality in a pub in Cannich, where incidentally we had taken the risk of booking a meal for 8:30pm, Saturday with meal choices already selected or we wouldnt get anything. The big question, would we be off the hills by then!
The plan was Martin and Parminder would drive up Saturday morning and meet us at the Dam at 9am for a 9am boat with Angus. So the meeting with the 3 Pensioners and 3 young ones happened as planned and we were on the boat to start our day. A bracing 10 min journey to the other end of the loch and we were off up towards An Socach, what a humph that was, but I knew the day had plenty more of it so just kept going.
Some pics here now of the day with narratives attached for added flavour...
Digs for the weekend, recommended
Last of the summer wine?
The 9am boat ride, it was cold glad we were not on the 8am
Angus are you sure you dont want to come with us! ?? ok, I will see you in the pub tonight which he replied "I hope so"
!!
Parminder making his way up the first ascent to the ridge with the drop off point below us, it must have been cold, he has a jacket on.
Nice view westward to the end of Mullardoch and hopefully some of the weather we were going to get
Socach summit poking its head over the ridge
Starting to cloud over
View of An Socach now that we are on the start of the ridge up.
Summit of An Socach and fairly in the snow and clag now
The way ahead to An Riabhachan
Parminder on the first cairn on An Riabhachan, which came pretty quickly from Socach, but then this is a big long hill with the summit at the other end at 1129m
Martin taking the picture in this one
John taking this picture with his GPS
Another one from the GPS by John.
Loch Monar and the Achnasheen munros making an appearance
Laipach starting show itself which we knew was going to be the leg killer of the day with losing a good 350m ascent.
A ridge off that I had not researched enough but was ok.
A couple of careful manoeuvres
The pensioners got to the top before the young ones, haha,
John just arriving and looking for the revolver again!
The next puzzle was to get off Laipach through the massive boulders with snow in between them and clag, so poor vis!!
Carn nan Gobhar now showing the last target of the day, should be easy after what we have achieved.
At the bealach looking back at Laipach, not showing itself well in the clag, but it was not great to get off of, hence not many pics.
The second cairn on Gobhar which is a couple of meters lower than the true top at 992m
The route down and the hydro track was on the left of the picture
Relaxing after a shift with some midget gems.
A good but tough day with very mixed weather, sun hail etc. The Pensioners did well with Martin only requiring drugs. The young ones needed cramp treatment for Kev, some old war wounds for Ali and John, well the revolver was mentioned about 12 times. Great company and as usual many laughs.
I could write another story on the Slaters Arms but we got fed and watered before 8:30, just and we met Angus again too, he was relieved to see us. Never really thought about it before but he doesn't see many of his clients again
That was a comment from our Landlord too, he doesn't often speak to folks after they have done the hills, so he enjoyed the chat as we did on his bus-man's holiday working with timber
Next at the end of the month is the Glen Affric ones from Strawberry Cottage, cannae wait.
