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After fantastic weather while walking yesterday , woke up to find the Cluanie Inn surrounded by mist.
Not being sure how long this would last i thought i would drive up/down the valley to see if there were any breaks.
Only went 1 mile before i could see A'Chralaig sticking up though the mist so parked just west of the Alt a Chaorainn Mhoir.
Almost made a disastrous start as visibility was only about 20 yards and i could not see a path . However i soon crossed the path which i noted at the end of the walk ,starts off on the right side of the land rover track immediately after it starts.
Luckily i found it as the going was so steep and grassy it would probably have added at least 30min to walk time.
After about 30minutes i broke through the mist to get great views.
- looking south west
I thought i was in for another great day though i could see some cloud building up further south-east.
The stepped grassy path nears a stream and follows this all the way to the ridge with only two boggy areas to cross near the top.
I then could see the rest of A'Chralaig.
- A'Chralaig
The walk to the top was easy but i could see the cloud getting steadily nearer and realised i wasnt going to miss it.
- looking north to Mullach fraoch-choire
Shortly after this photo the cloud arrived but the visibility wasnt too bad initially.
Certainly no problem finding the massive cairn on A'Chralaig.
Afterwards the ridge narrows and despite the cloud pleasant walking along a very easy to follow path.
At the start of Mullach Fraoch-choire's sothern ridge there are small rock outcrops that get steadily bigger further up the ridge.
The small rock in above photo reminded me of the Sydney Opera House - or maybe i was getting a bit hypo!
The increasingly large towers were good scrambling and there was always a well worn path bypassing them.
However i felt every one was likely to be the summit , only to climb it to see a bigger one ahead in the cloud.
The summit is actually a slight anti-climax after scrambling over the towers.
Could only see about 10yards so had lunch in a very protected stone shelter.
- summit cairn
Then retraced my steps to the col again where a foot high cairn [handy in the clouds] indicates the start of the path into Coire Odhar.
Other walk reports indicate this can be very slippy , but it must have been dry for a few days as i found it ok.
However i tended to avoid the muddy path and bounce down the large mounds of purple mossy stuff that are great shock absorbers for tired knees.
Turning left at the valley floor , the boggier foot path then land rover track are a bit like the "electric brae" south of Dunure in Ayrshire. You know you must be going slightly downhill following the stream but your brain tells you otherwise.