It had been 980 days since my last Munro, a fact I am not proud of, but since relocating to Peterhead and suddenly having spare time at weekends due to me finishing University and getting a job I decided that I would start hitting the mountains again.

Prior to today I had only been up two Munros, Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis and felt that I really should bag some more and set myself the target of 10 before the end of the year. To get the ball rolling I picked Mount Keen as it was closest to me.

I reached the Glen Esk car park and eagerly set off determined that I would finally get Munro number 3, however such eagerness led to me immediately taking a wrong turn only 100 yards from the car, finding myself staring at the Invermark Castle with an overwhelming feeling of stupidity. Despite this I recovered well from my mistake and before I knew it I had made my way to the Queen's Well.



The memories of being taken on what seemed like endless walks with my parents as a child were all coming back, except this time I was actually enjoying it! The weather had been great until about half way up when I was engulfed by a cloud and given a healthy dose of hail/snow, just natures way of keeping me cool I suppose. This quickly cleared though and before I knew it I was just about on the home stretch for the top.





The moment I made it to the top my sole focus was to touch the trig point as this to me served as the official 'crossed the line' moment. This moment of happiness was short lived though as I pretty much had to hug the trig point to avoid being toppled over by the strong wind, still I had managed it though, the 980 day wait was over!



A quick lunch was had as I watched my cloud of hail and snow make its way gracefully down through Glen Esk and after taking some photos I began the decent as the cold was beginning to set in. Right on que around halfway back down I was hit with another cloud of snow, again, mother nature just looking out for me and making sure I don't over heat.

4.5 hours after setting off I returned to the car successful and had bagged myself the hat-trick that had taken so long.

Next up Driesh and Mayar in early April!