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This is my first walk report so please be gentle on me
My Fiancee and I have recently got back into hill walking after a fairly long hiatus for both of us. My dad used to take me out on the hills when I was younger but then when I discovered booze and boys that kind of stopped, now after a break of 15 years I am back into it. I swear it never leaves you if you have been out as a child.
Anyway. My Fiancee and I decided that we were going to take his friend from Hull out on the hills to show him some of what Scotland has to offer. I had decided that Sgor Gaoith would have some fairly spectacular views to blow his mind and it was not too epic a walk.
We got up for a sparrow fart start on the Saturday morning and made the 2.5 hour drive to the start of the walk at Glen Feshie. A few grumbles were had at the early hour get up but this was soon put behind us as we started the accent through the beautiful forest in the glen. We soon turned left and went up the side of Geal Charn as we decided that we would get the bulk of the accent out of the way at the start of the walk while our legs were still fresh. Geal Charn quickly got renamed "Bastard hill" as it was fairly hard going through the heather and it was steep! Soon the top was reached however and the panorama started to open up below us.
We then headed East along the plateau towards Meall Buidhe where we came across some other walkers which had started off just a little before us from the car park. A couple of gliders added some entertainment they were clearly taking advantage of the mountain thermals as we were walking along, we even got a wave from one of them! We also were lucky enough to see not one but two Ptarmigan.
We then continued on to the main event, deciding against doing the Sgoran Dubh Beag top as we were not sure that we would have time at this time of year with the short days. We reached the summit of Sgor Gaoith at 1300, as we got to the edge of the drop the Yorkshire man may have been heard to say "flipping hell" or similar words to that effect as the chasm down to Loch Eanaich became apparent. We stopped here for some photos and to take in the epic view. Safe to say our primary objective of showing off Scotland was completed.
We had been following a solo hill walker who had set off at the same time as us from the car park, he had managed to take the Sgoran Dubh Mor top and we caught up with him at the summit of Sgor Gaoith. We stopped for a few photos just below the true summit of the mountain. We gained the summit at 1300 took a few more pictures and had a lunch of cheese and mustard sandwiches which were wolfed down as the clag was starting to roll in and we wanted to get off the mountain before it got too bad. The solo hill walker clearly had the same idea as us as he set off at roughly the same time but he being a wily veteran and us having a stumbling Yorkshireman with us he made it down FAR quicker.
The way down was steep and a little slippery, we had to wind our way down somewhat so as to avoid hard packed snow patches that were more treacherous going down that on the way up. This is also where the yorkshireman realised that downhill isn't all that easy
We made it back to the car an hour ahead of schedule, we could have made that other top damn it! Oh well its a good enough excuse to come back some time!
Gliders taking advantage of the mountain thermals.
Panorama from near the top of Sgor Gaoith.
Atmospheric near the top as the clag started to come down.
Looking back the way we had just come.
Some well deserved post munro hot chocolates in Aviemore.
We also took the time to point out to the Yorkshireman that the mountain we had just climbed was over 100m higher than the highest point in his country
All in all a great day on the hill was had by all.
