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We had not planned to walk any Munros until March when the snow diminished, but my girlfriend's friend's boyfriend (who I think is xpfloyd on here) did this route earlier last week therefore we thought we would have a go. When my girlfriend and I go walking my day starts an hour before hers and I commence my first challenge of awaking her and gently easing her into the day. This process I began at 6am. It was foggy in Glasgow, but on the drive to Succouth (which began at around 8 after visiting the supermarket to buy some pies) I could see a blue haze above through the mist and was hopeful that as we gained altitude we might get above the cloud. We left the car park at 9am and fairly shortly along the frosty forest track we did indeed break through the mist and the initail pessimism at the day was similarly left at the bottom of the hill. The views were wonderful
- a wonderful view
- a wonderful view in a different direction
It was cold and frosty and we were sharing these wonderful views with a surprising number of people, who worryingly had ice axes (technically what was worrying was that I didn't have one), but we kept going. This part of the walk towards The Cobbler and Bein Ime is not my favourite at all there are lots of zig zags and it all feels a bit relentless.
The section of the walk where the track travels between the Cobbler and Nanairn is much better. The Cobbler despite being huge seems to loom from nowhere, its dark rocky claws sharply defined against the crisp winter blue sky.
- The Cobbler looming
Along this path the sounds echo off the rocks and cliffs of the two mountains, the burn, voices and the disturbance of rocks making the whole affair a clattering exciting sounding event. Along the way we met a man who asked us which way we going and advised us the stairs up the Cobbler were extremely slippery with ice, but then Bein Ime was ok. He also adivsed us to stay to the left of something, but I didn't quite catch what. However, I resolved myself to stay to the left of anything that seemed to present both the possibility of going left around. I concede this is not a usual approach to navigation. At the end of the track we could see Ime and it is fair to say it looked a lot snowier than we expected
- Bein Ime
If the first part of the journey is clattery and cacophonous the second part is a much quieter, melanchonic and contemplative. The grassy slopes absorb any sound that does not escape across the corries and the ground is hollow and thuds underfoot. We crossed the style and began the ascent up an indistinct path, which we lost several times, but meandered to our goal. Handily a fellow walker overtook us just before reaching the snow enabling us to follow in his footsteps. This made walking in the snow much easier, because that is hard isn't it. Despite the difficulty walking in the snow was a lot of fun and the views were incredible. At the top of the slope there was a sort of first top to the hill and after looking at the possibility of trying to go over it I decided this was probably where we supposed to go left so we did and this was sensible. There were quite a few people between the two tops and some people at the summit who we chatted with (I like these little chats with people on the hills even though I think I say the same thing to everyone). The view from the summit was in keeping with the rest of the journey up and being among the snow makes it feel like an adventure.
- a view from the top
We had a peppermint tea and headed back. The journey back was a lot like the journey to the top in reverse although getting down the slope to the bealach was by a different route as picking the path up after the snow was quite difficult. However, much as a love hill walking I think I prefer hill sliding more. Just after the summit there were two rocky outcrops with an S shape between them. Here we sledged down and on our butts and this was without doubt my highlight of walking Munros ever. The views on the way down were also amazing and I took my favourite photgraph from a mountain
- my favourite picture from a hill
We were back at the car park in 5hrs, which is not very fast I guess but then spending more time on the hill on that day was warranted. My girlfriend says this was her favourite hill walk we have done so far and I am inclined to agree (though I think I say this after every trip). Next winter I think we need to get proper training and equipment and get out a lot more. Thank you for reading, if you still are. Matt