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Pretty new to the hillwalking chat, although been a walker for a while, and having used this website for ages thought I'd submit my first report in celebration of finally getting my ass up a munro! My other half (the lovely Mike) has been at it a while, and so for my birthday we headed up to Killin for a few days.
We didn't have a car until very recently so have spent the last year backpacking and public transporting about Scotland and the trip to Killin was no exception...always makes it seem more of an adventure! After arriving in Killin via 4 different buses and a gorgeous drive up from Callander the forecast, athough still crap, looked best for the next day so we decided to head for Ben Lawers then. In the meantime had a great time wandering up Sron a'Chlachain and Creag Buidhe and out to Loch Tay in the rain
The next day managed to hitch out to the main road down from the Ben Lawers area ( massive cheers to the lovely Jenna who kindly picked us up!) so didnt get the nice 400m start from the car park but had to walk up to there to start...nice wee warm up!
- hiking up to the car park afterhitching in from Killin
- gorgeous old stone bridge
Headed up through the nature reserve in dry and still conditions, with the middle to upper part of Beinn Ghlas sadly covered in cloud, but we got some fab moody views over to the Tarmachan Ridge. We lost the view from about half way up the zig zags.
- Final view before entering the clouds
- no much to see on the path nearing Beinn Ghlas summit
Made the summit of my first munro, Beinn Ghlas in good time, and after a quick celeration of a drink of tea and some jumping up and down, headed off along the ridge towards Ben Lawers in the cloud and drizzle with a giant grin never leaving my face!
- Woo, made my first Munro, the rather underwhelming summit of Beinn Glas...onwards and upwards to Lawers...
The climb to Ben Lawers was steep in bits and rocky but fairly straightforward and great fun, but as soon as we hit the summit the wind was suddenly really strong ( my first experience of having bodily fluids blown from my nose and eyes...lovely!) and we thought it would be wise to head right back down. Gutted I never got a summit pic
- Looking back up to the top of Ben Lawers after getting off there quick sharp due to atrocious winds, 2nd Munro completed...I'm on a roll now :)
We descended by the same route we had come, and seen the first souls of the day, 3 guys heading up,also soaked But grinning like us! After a quick warning aout the sneaky summit wind we were off again, and made it back to the car park pretty quickly but with aching knees, then down to the road and managed a lift back to Killin, a roaring fire and an ale.
Such a fantastic day of bagging 2 munros, despite getting no views from the tops! Definately will be back soon, hopefully with clearer weather...got my eye on that Tarmachan Ridge...think I've got this hillwalking bug