The day my kids took me munroing in kintail

[Duncandsooz]

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while, and was hoping for good weather and boy it didn't disappoint. The plan was to walk the south glen shiel ridge on Saturday and do something else on the Sunday.
Along on the trip were Sooz and our 3 children A L and J and Ailsa the dog

getting ready

on the way

We arrived at the Cluanie inn and set off at 8.40 it was already hot. We headed along the old road to Tomdoun until the good stalkers path appeared leading up Creag a Mhain the walk in to this point took approx 1hr 15 mins and the views even at this point were stunning

looking down loch cluanie

nearing the turn up the stalkers path

. We reached the summit of Creag a Mhaim in approx 2hr 15 mins the were sunning views to Gleouraich and Spidean Mailach to the south and Sgurr nan Conbhairean to the north.

creag a mhaim munro 1 11.25

sgurr nan conbhairean

We set off along the ridge and the next summit Druim Shionnach

druim shionnach munro 2 11.56

looking back along the ridge from druim shionnach

came along quickly and I then thought this would be a breeze the sun was beating down but the was a bit of wind though even this was warm. However as we passed over Aonch air Chirith

top aonach air chrith munro 3 with gleouraich and spidean mailach behind at 13 00

, where we have a bite to eat, to Maol Chinn-dearg it was becoming clear that pace forced by a daughter L was going to become hard to keep up with, as we passed people on the busy ridge. Water was also becoming a issue for me if not the children we all had 2 litres but I was using more . There were plenty little pools for ailsa so she had no problems.

ailsa having a splash

almost the top of maol chinn-dreag munro 4 13.42

At this point the views to Loch Quoich and over to Gulvain, Sgurr Mor and Sgurr na Ciche were great.

across loch quoich

We continued along the ridge with now the children motoring on ahead on the very clear path and waiting at the summit with mum close behind and dad trailing further back we left the ridge to the peak of Sgurr an Doire Leathain and the next summit, Sgurr na Lochain from here looked very impressive and we were there in in 40 mins or so at this point L and J ( the youngest at 8 ) were almost racing up.... i wasn't.

top of sgurr an doire leathain munro 5 14.30

top sgurr an lochain munro 6 15.10

looking on to creag nan damh from sgurr an lochain

and back to sgurr an doire leathain

The final summit of the day Creag nan Damh seemed a long way off, but the bypass path was used to avoid the small top prior to the final munro and after a bit of effort we were all there.

top or creag nan damh munro 7 16.10

looking the the 5 sisters on way down

After a bit of a rest we set off continuing along the ridge for approx 1 km to reach the path down marked by a cairn.
this path crosses a stream were we could all take on some much needed water. We following the path to the road where I was to call my dad who was staying in the Cluanie Inn with us for the weekend to pick us up however there was no signal on Vodafone at this point, however a couple we met on the ridge squeezed me into there packed car and dropped me off at the Cluanie Inn (thanks again Andy) where I was tempted to go straight to the bar but thought I had better retrieve everyone else.

This is a great walk one my kids easily coped with but the heat I found was the biggest challenge.

[andrewdoggett]

Tremendous effort from the kids... Love seeing young kids in the hills enjoying the great outdoors...

Well done - gorgeous day for it...

[skuk007]

That's a fair old hike on those little legs, in that heat, well done to all, especially the bag carriers.

[Tomsie]

Done this and wouldnt say it was easy in that heat, well done to the kids but kids are kids nothing fears them, only thing I didnt like was the walk down after final munro.

[RussellR]

Well done to all of you! We completed the same walk on the same day, I think we were one munro behind you, we could see the kids and we were surprised that we were never catching you up! It was a fantastic day! http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/posting.php?mode=smilies&f=9#

[Graeme D]

Kudos to the kids. That's a long old walk by any standards regardless of age or weather!

[Johnny Corbett]

Great effort by you all and the summit pose on Munro 2?