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After a brief stay on Skye with my wife Gill we stopped off to spend a few days with a close friend Clive at a cottage he was staying at in Glenmoriston. Clive a seasoned Munro bagger, I think around 150 at present, had been knocking off a number of Munros along the A87.
I joined him in tackling A'Chralaig and Mullach Fraoch-choire on a wet but pretty mild afternoon. These were to be only my 8th & 9th Munros and easily the toughest!
Leaving the car behind it was straight into an unrelenting steep slog up a pretty clearly defined small track up the side of A'Chralaig to 750m. No way could I have done this without the walking poles.
- Up onto the south ridge of A'Chralaig
Although it was a bit easier going following the ridge from here despite us being in clouds and gentle drizzle I was pretty knackered by the time we reached the summit (1120m) in around 2 hours.
- Summit of A'Chralaig looking knackered
The ridge walk from the summit of A'Chralaig to the summit of Mullach Fraoch-choire was along a clear path but very narrow at times with very steep drops either side (fortunately for me the views down were mostly obscured by the cloulds we were in) and required a little scramble in a couple of places.
- Ridge walk to the summit of Mullach Fraoch-choire
There was a sense of relief on my part when we eventually made the summit of Mullach Fraoch-choire.
- Clive & myself on the summit of Mullach Fraoch-choire
From here we retuned part way back down the ridge we had just climbed and proceeded down into Coire Odhar. This was a short steepish decent down some loose gravel before what I can only describe as a seemingly never ending bog fest (2+ hours) during which I fell over twice, bent both my walking poles, and ended up with completely waterlogged boots before reaching the land rover track in the An Caorann Mor and back to the car, all in about 6 hours. To say I was exhausted was an understatement.
Update: I'm back in London and 4 days on my thighs are still aching and the blister on my hand from my pole hasn't yet healed but I still loved it!