Ben Starav 2...nah let's make it 3

[nzt2011]

Unfortunately one of the guys couldn't make it for this looooooong walk, so myself and my friend set off at 0830 with smiles on our faces, not knowing the bog that lay round the corner! A short while later and after dropping two of my bottles in the river (skillfully retrieved and just as well!) we hit the shoulder of Ben Starav and here comes the pain.....
Not had the pleasure of a 3 hour battering to the top of the first summit before, however after some fun scrambling in the clag (beginning to think my friend is cursed...) we finally made it to the top. Some excellent ridge walking and scrambling saw us drop a few hundred metres to the bealach. Decided to take on Beinn nan Aighenan on the same day as we were in the vicinity, and after the even glad i did...but it looked extremely daunting standing at the base! 45 mins suprisingly saw us to the top, and not hanging about too long, set off for some shelter and lunch break number 6!!! The third and last hill of the day Glas Bheinn Mhor was not too bad ,although by this time we were crawling at snail's pace. At last we "bagged" number 3 and getting quite late in the afternoon made our decent, via an alternative route to cut off some time. Probably took a good couple of hours to get back to the car once in the coire, wet socks flung off in favour of big thick fluffy ones, wet trousers off in favour of some comfy jogging bottoms, and a fresh clean, dry tshirt! Looking back from the car I realised why I do this....."I just climbed that monster today!"

at the start from the car

bridge at the start

crossing the river

crossing the river again to get the water bottles I dropped in!

forestry circles....whooooooo! spooky

why am i here?!?!?

no live frog was used in this broadcast

made it!

some good ridge walking

clag man strikes again

the foot of Beinn nan Aighenan

Half way up and the views we'd been waiting for

munro number 20 in the bag!

more like it!

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ridge along to Glas Bheinn Mhor

#21 down...just my age