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This photos in this report are mainly taken from the last 3 times I have climbed this hill, as the conditions were similar on each occasion.
I really needed to get out on the hills, not having been out since boxing day. A mixture of bad conditions on the roads and deep powdery snow on the hills rather limited options. We were initially headed for Beinn Liath Mhor a'Ghiubhais Li on the Ullapool road (as demolished by John Burgess in a recent-ish report!), but an accident on the road to Garve meant this was out of the question. A quick re-think had us on that good old fallback plan - Carn na h-Easgainn. While possessing almost no redeeming features and being scarred by estate tracks (good for mountain biking though!), it does have a number of good points. Proximity to Inverness and ease of ascent are the main ones, but the expansive views of a large portion of the north Highlands are also a good reason to go up. The views of Strathnairn, Glen Affric, Glen Strathfarrar and the Fannaichs are good, also you can see all the way up the NE coast to Helmsdale and down into the Cairngorms.
Late start and changing plans had us at Lynemore at 11am ready to start. The first section to the house of Lynemore was easy, following a ploughed vehicle track. In the summer, this track can be followed all the way to the summit. If you had the keys to the gate, you could drive up this hill.
- Parking at Lynemore (Feb 09)
- Death slide back to the A9 (Feb 09)
Today was not like that though. After the house, no-one had bothered to venture up for ages, so we immediately hit knee-deep soft snow. The bottom section was demoralizing, taking a good 20 minutes to cover the first 500m. Things didn't improve much as the main ascent started, but I was fairly upbeat, as I had done this in similar conditions last Febuary, and the snow had thinned out substantially by the 450m contour. "It'll be fine shortly", I told the guys, but it wasn't to be.
- End of the easy walking (Feb 09)
- Tedious flat bit (Feb 09)
We reached the upper, more windswept part of the hill, and it became apparent that the wind hadn't done much sweeping of late, and the going remained tedious, with parts of the route up to a meter deep in powder. Someone had been up with a Skidoo fairly recently, and had obviously flown over this terrain in minutes.
- Summit and Skidoo tracks (Jan 10)
Finally, after about 2 hours of wading, we reached the summit. It was worth it though. Views to the west weren't up to much due to thick cloud, but the view down to the Moray Firth was spectacular, as there was still mist sitting over the westerly part.
- Cairngorms (Feb 09)
- West to Affric hills (Feb 09)
- Looking to Inverness/Moray Firth (Nov 09)
- Farr wind farm (Nov 09)
- West to Strathnairn and Affric Hills (Nov 09)
- Summit (Jan 10)
- Farr wind farm (Jan 10)
There is a stalkers bothy just under the summit, and we headed over to this for lunch. It was surprisingly tidy inside, although it was rather reminiscent of the sort of garden shed you would buy in B&Q!
- Summit Hilton (Jan 10)
- Inside the summit bothy (Oct 08)
- View from the summit bothy (Oct 08)
- NE coast and toilet block (I think)! (Jan 10)
The descent was less tedious than the ascent, but not much. At the only stream crossing, Marek managed to break through the ice to get a quick soaking - unlucky!
- Descent (Jan 10)
- Wet feet (Jan 10)
- Frozen Loch Moy (Jan 10)
This was a pretty knackering day out considering the length and ascent involved. We were on the top for a fair time, but the actual walking still took nearly 3 hours. Usually I am up and down this in about 50 minutes!