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A lovely autumn walk up Lochnagar

A lovely autumn walk up Lochnagar


Postby abfielder » Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:13 am

Route description: Lochnagar circuit, Glen Muick

Munros included on this walk: Lochnagar

Date walked: 21/10/2019

Time taken: 5.5 hours

Distance: 19 km

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I had planned to walk the White Mounth route, however the previous day I'd had quite a tough walk up Mayar and Driesh in very windy conditions, I changed my plans to just do Lochnagar. A sensible decision I felt given this was the first lot of mountain walking I'd done in 2 years.

I pulled up to the car park and was once again one of the first there, I'm starting to think I'm a bit of an early bird. Just a note if you use apple maps that the car park is about 2 miles further on than it has it. Parking was £4 here for the day (compared to £2 for Mayar and Driesh).

Once again the view from the start of the walk was rather pleasent;

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A nice walk across some open views and I could see the odd deer before walking into a brief bit of forest, then back out into open views where I could see a Stag on one of the hills and I was wishing I was carrying a dslr with a good zoom lens as it would have made a fantastic picture. Instead I got one of the stream you have to cross.

I wish I could tell you what the numbers meant but I didn't write them, I didn't even notice them till I was reviewing the photos.

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As you start to wind your way up you start to get some fantastic views and I can see why many people really enjoy the Lochnagar walk

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It wasn't long before Lochnagar came into view, actually my first though was I hope I'm not going up there.... I was.

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Then it was time to hit the ladder, I've had to walk over a boulder field on the way up Ben Macdui before but this made me somewhat nervous being rather new to this. I took my time and slowly made my way up and before I knew it I was done and it started to flatten out a bit.

There was a thin layer of snow and ice near the top of the ladder onwards and a bit more care was required as some of the rocks were rather slippy.

It did however make for nice photo's.

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Just a short while later I could see the summit, my body was extremely grateful that the climbing was done;

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Having only spent seconds on the summit's of Mayar and Driesh thanks to the conditions I was able to enjoy some wonderful views from Lochnagar and have a spot of lunch with a local who was up Lochnagar for his 3rd time this year.

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The obligatory selfie so I can remember myself being there :lol:

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Then I had this view whilst I ate my lunch

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Then I was on my way back down now here I actually got a little disoriented and started heading for the whole white mounth route before realising my error and taking a sharpish detour back down.

Some wonderful views of the Loch

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After a what felt like a very long time I had walked the Loch and was back by the car

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My body thankful that my mountain walking was done for the year and leaving me resolving to do some hill training before trying 3 mountains in 2 days again.

This was my favourite of the 7 munro's I've done so far but I may well be very biased as this was also the first one I've climbed in truly nice conditions.

I can't wait for next year. I'll be coming back to do the White Mounth route!
abfielder
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Oct 20, 2019

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