A spate of over excited, but increasingly realistic emails between myself and Alex, saw this climb gradually downgraded from the Lochnagar Five, via the Blair Atholl Three, to the Forfar two...

So it was that a rather muggy windless August morning saw us (Katie, Frank, Stan, Kit and I) meet Alex at the top of lovely Glen Clova. Here, Alex assured us that the voracious midges in the car park would soon disappear.

We got rather lost on the forestry tracks of Glendoll and had to double back at one point.

I was very excited to see a tree harvester in action. It can fell, strip, chop and stack a mature pine in under 20 seconds. Now that's progress...


Soon we emerged into the wonderful natural amphitheatre of the Corrie of Fee. Alex assured us that the midges would soon leave us.





And we set off along the burn.

At the far West, the Corrie rises steeply up and you pass some impressive falls.



Having climbed beyond the Corrie, you reach an undulating high plateau. Here we found a group of path layers. A helicopter had dropped off sacks of rock, which they were busily cutting into the peat. We jealously noted their anti-midge protective veils. Alex's midge science had led us badly astray.



Fortunately two large bearded climbers shared their highly toxic Deet spray with us and things improved.

Soon we had reached the cloudy view-less summit.



Ironically, the forlorn summit of Mayar provided Kit with the signal he needed to get his AS results... A somewhat subduing moment...



However, we were soon on our way East and up to the equally cloudy summit of Driesh.



We set off back down to the long straight path on the elbow between Mayar and Driesh, but looking at the map now, I don't know why we didn't simply press on North Eastwards and down the Main Buttress which looks a quicker and more dramatic return.

Fortunately, Alex's life tales provided us with many a craggy triumph and terrifying descent. I rewarded him with a rambling rumination on the causes of Athenian democracy...

Here he is explaining that his surname is derived from the Norse for rocky wasteland:



Soon we were back in the woods



And, after a quick pint in the Glen Clova hotel, it was all over. An easy bag! Next time, we agreed to hit the Blair Atholl hills...