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So this weekend, with the weather looking favourable on the more optimistic weather sites, it was time to get out for the first hills of 2013
Dougie was working on Saturday and wouldn’t be coming along until the Afternoon, so I thought I would go for a wander up Ben Chonzie by myself. It is not the kind of hill you want o do over and over, so he wasn’t missing out on much
So as usual, I left straight after work on Friday, driving up to the top of Glen Lednock for about 7PM. I was tired, so decided to have a snooze in the car before I set off to make camp.. I didn’t wake up until 9! It was a calm warm night, but very dark, as I set off up the track. Unfortunately in the darkness the way was not obvious, and I ended up in a farmyard, not knowing which direction to go
So I walked back to the car, along the road, and spotted the ideal pitch after just a hundred yards, right next to a bridge
I got going early in the morning, packed up at first light noticing that I had acquired the heady aroma of sheep somehow. There was a wooden box just a couple of feet from the tent, had a look inside, to find a trap with a decaying rat in it.. Yuk
So back at the car for a faff, other walkers started arriving. I spoke to a couple of them before heading up the track, the way past the houses now obvious in the light of day. Up the track I went, past the hydro stuff, wondering where they sent the water from all the collecting.
The weather was warm and claggy which led to much sweating, so when I started to see snow patches ahead I stopped for a break before the inevitable drop in temperature.
Pretty soon I was negotiating snow patches, and then I saw the baggers cairn, and a path heading off in the right direction. I noticed though that the snow patches on the path had no footprints..
I knew I wasn’t the first one up as a couple of guys had passed while I was stopped, so I kept close tabs on where I was, and sure enough the path seemed to skirt the hill instead of climbing it
so I left the path, and took a direct route up to the ridge, on a maze of tiny wee paths that criss crossed the hillside. The clag was getting really thick, and I could hardly see 5 yards. Some fence posts loomed out of the mists and I followed them to the summit.
On the return, I knew there must have been a more direct route down to the track. I followed the path in the hope of finding it, but ended up back in the maze, and back on the wrong path
so I followed a burn down to cut out some of the loop. About 10 yards from the track I hit the main baggers path.. It was huge and was marked with big cairns at the track. How did I manage to miss that?
Oh well..
A quick trot back down the track later, I was at the car by 11.30, less than a 3 hour walk including breaks? Must be one of the easiest Munro’s I’ve ever done
So that left me with a long wait for Dougie who wasn’t going to be coming until 3..
I drove down to south Loch Earn where we were meeting, and decided just to head up the glen and get the tent set up for his arrival. The ground was really waterlogged up in the fields
but I found a site down in the gorge. Quite a lot of dead leaves, but well drained, out of the strengthening wind, and out of site of the estate manny’s who seemed to be going about in high numbers
I went back down to the car park in time for Dougie’s arrival. The rain started just as he arrived, so a quick march back to the shelter of the tent!
We awoke on Sunday morning to silence – no rain.. We managed out for 9 which is pretty early for Dougie
The tops were clear, and the wind had dropped. Seemed like a good day for my 200th
So up the steep track we went
which turned into a well built path further up. We had a wee stop to view Lawers & co in beautiful light
before we tackled the ascent up to the ridge.
It was a relentless slog, but the folk behind us were getting further and further behind, so that always makes you feel like you are doing well! Then the clag rolled in and there were no more views..
Quicker than expected though, the trig came into view. My 200th munro in the bag. Been trying to get to 200 for way too long, what with all the fails we have had in the last 6 weeks, so it was good to finally do it.
We followed the path onward along the ridge, bonny rock formations appearing and disappearing in the clag.
Across a boggy bealach, over a lip, and after a quick chocolate break, we were on to the ascent of Stuc a Chroin.
It was hard to locate the path up the steep section due to some large snowy patches, but after a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, we found it and made our way up. The higher we got, the more paths seemed to zigzag up the hillside, and that’s when the rain started
The first path we chose led to a rather steep gully filled with snow..
A bit steep to attempt without an axe, so we retraced our steps and took a different route, sticking to the rocks, scrambling higher and higher on rather slimy boulders which made us muddy, wet and cold. Dougie cracked his head on an overhang, I could tell he wasn’t amused by the bad weather, or the tough going
We made it up to the ridge eventually, and to a cairn with a memorial beside it.. neither of us were convinced it was the summit – Dougie had done this hill before, and it was nothing like he remembered, so we carried on along the ridge to find the true, double cairned summit a bit further on. It was still raining, and it was blowing a stiff gale, so we must of paused for all of 10 seconds before we were heading back the way we came, looking for the bypass path
Now the bypass path was pretty good and easy to follow. The descent off the ridge was over a huge unstable cornice though, so we had to go round it and carefully pick our way down a steep spur, back to the path. There were a few boggy bits after that, but that was only to be expected, especially with things being so waterlogged just now. Dougie hated it though, and I kept on hearing disgruntled noises from behind me
His boots I think are past their best and he kept on slipping on the wet grass.. At least the rain was off, but some of the windy gusts had me grabbing at the hillside for balance
We made it back to the main path eventually, ankles done in from all the contouring round. It was just a short trot in steaming waterproofs back to the tent to pack up
So mixed reviews of the day, I love any day where I am outside for the majority of it and it feels good to reach another benchmark
Dougie I think enjoyed it less. I’ll admit that the snow was an annoying consistency – hold your weight for a few seconds before you fall through, the top of Stuc was pretty grim weather-wise, and there was a bit of displeasing bogginess on the way back, but then it is January, so nae bad for the time of year