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We gave Monday of the holiday a miss due to the horrible weather we awoke to, this was the complete opposite to what was forecast it rained all day and the mountains were just about invisible.
Tueday was dry although overcast, the clouds were down to about 600 mtrs but un deterred we decided to have a crack at the Aonachs.
I wanted to do these from the Nevis Range car park following close to the cycle routes uphill, we guessed there would be paths alongside these tracks that fans would use to get close to the action when the world mountain biking event takes place, this proved to be a good guess.
The climb up through the trees was steep, we kept on course by keeping the gondola lift in sight.
Work in progress, and pioneering little digger.
As we got higher and emerged from the trees we veered away from the lift and followed a path alongside a cycle track that led to the restaurant, we had to keep our eyes peeled for mountain bikers but as it turned out we only encountered two guys hurtling down the track, they were giving it some stick, how they get the time to suss out the terrain ahead at those speeds I'll never know, it's pretty impressive, I think I'd have fallen off me bike about 10 yards into the route.
We arrived at the restaurant buildings where there were loads of folk already, we started off up behind the buildings following the walkhighlands route for the "Aonachs via the gondola". We followed the fence all the way to the ridge, an easy ascent but steep in parts. The views were pretty good.
On the ridge there's a good path to follow, we were in the clag now but the path is clear and easy to follow, there was a bit of snow about especially in Coire an Lochain, its a shame the cloud was down, I bet the views over to the Ben and the Grey Corries are fantastic.
On the way to the summit we passed the top of the ski lift which was a good navigational aid in the clag, we could hear a helicopter getting closer and closer, louder and louder but we couldn't see it, it became so loud that we thought it was going to appear out of he mist and land on us, we weren't sure if it was a scheduled flight or an active rescue it was a bit un-nerving as it got closer not being able to see it.
We reached the big summit cairn on Aonach Mor and got no views, had some food, took a couple of photies then set off for Aonach Beag.
There's a really good path all the way to the bealach, the lower we got the thinner the cloud became, in the bealach we got some views, ahh, at last.
The climb up Aonach Beag is short but steep getting quite close to the edge, I bet the views are epic.
But this is what we got.
The top 10 or 20 mtrs of Aonach Beag was covered in snow and was hiding the cairn so it was out with the gps to confirm the summit, we were getting near whiteout conditions.
We found the summit, took a few snaps and retreated.
You can just make out the edge here.
When we got off the snow we stopped for a bite to eat.
So, that was two more new munro's for us, we set off back the way we'd come, down to the bealach where we DID get some views.
Mamores.
I think we're looking at Carn Mor Dearg.
Mams again.
The arete, shame it wasn't clear
Over Aonach Mor and back down to the restaurant, we toyed with the idea of catching a gondola for the final bit of descent but decided it was cheating so we continued down by the cycle tracks, through the trees and back to the car park.
This was a good, fairly easy way to do these two mountains, the forecast for the rest of the week was set fair, tomorrow, Wednesday, we'll do the corrour munro's, the weather promises to be superb.
