The Glen Feshie Munros, 28th December 2018
After a long hill hiatus due to a bit of a knee issue, I felt it was time to get out again and take in a couple of Munros. In between Christmas and New Year, Steg and I arranged to get out and take advantage of the warm weather.
I picked him up at 1500 on the 27th and we were on our way - non-stop to Aviemore. We had a rather dubious haddock and chips at one of the bars and then jumped in to get down to the car park at Achlean. The car park was busy, but there was no one around - we wondered where all the people were, but it turns out there is a bothy in Glen Feshie so I guess they all headed there.
We camped near the car park and headed to our beds at 2200..
After a fairly uncomfortable but warm sleep, we were up at 0730 to start our day. It's weird to be camping and getting up in the dark, but I suppose that's one of the pleasures of a midwinter camp.
We got our kit organised and had breakfast, then were on the way after plenty of faffing at 0830. The track south was good going, and the Scots pines smelled amazing as dawn started to light the glen. About 1000, we headed east, up the bulldozed track which takes us up onto the Moine Mhor. The track is fairly dull, but the landscape was lighting up behind us.
After a while, we headed into cloud and from there, it was a short piece of navigation to get to the summit of our first Munro, Mullach Clach a Bhlair. We were on the summit for 1140.
It was quite cold in the mist, but still warmer than expected for December.
From there, it was back to the bulldozed track, and then north to Carn Ban Mor, which seems to have several paths crossing it. From the path breaking-off point, it was a straight compass bearing in the mist to the summit of Sgor Gaoith, which I'm sure on a sunny day would be lovely, but on our walk it was a bit too misty to see anything.
The summit had no cairn, so we weren't sure if we were on it, but walking on proved we were losing height and two GPS readings told us we were heading further north than the summit, so we were happy that the little promontory was the summit.
We were on the summit for 1400, and we were aware that we would be getting short of light from now, so we headed back to the main path, 2km to the south. Unfortunately, we seem to have led ourselves down off the slope by following paths the wrong way, so when we got some visibility, we could see we needed to readjust. We lost about 20 minutes to that short error, but we found it quickly and were able to readjust so not all was lost.
We followed the path, and headed down out of the mist, and finally got some views.
We were back at the car at 1640, and headed home.
Stats: 27km, 1172m ascent, 8hrs
Munros Completed: 150
I picked him up at 1500 on the 27th and we were on our way - non-stop to Aviemore. We had a rather dubious haddock and chips at one of the bars and then jumped in to get down to the car park at Achlean. The car park was busy, but there was no one around - we wondered where all the people were, but it turns out there is a bothy in Glen Feshie so I guess they all headed there.
We camped near the car park and headed to our beds at 2200..
After a fairly uncomfortable but warm sleep, we were up at 0730 to start our day. It's weird to be camping and getting up in the dark, but I suppose that's one of the pleasures of a midwinter camp.
We got our kit organised and had breakfast, then were on the way after plenty of faffing at 0830. The track south was good going, and the Scots pines smelled amazing as dawn started to light the glen. About 1000, we headed east, up the bulldozed track which takes us up onto the Moine Mhor. The track is fairly dull, but the landscape was lighting up behind us.
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| Glen Feshie |
After a while, we headed into cloud and from there, it was a short piece of navigation to get to the summit of our first Munro, Mullach Clach a Bhlair. We were on the summit for 1140.
It was quite cold in the mist, but still warmer than expected for December.
From there, it was back to the bulldozed track, and then north to Carn Ban Mor, which seems to have several paths crossing it. From the path breaking-off point, it was a straight compass bearing in the mist to the summit of Sgor Gaoith, which I'm sure on a sunny day would be lovely, but on our walk it was a bit too misty to see anything.
We were on the summit for 1400, and we were aware that we would be getting short of light from now, so we headed back to the main path, 2km to the south. Unfortunately, we seem to have led ourselves down off the slope by following paths the wrong way, so when we got some visibility, we could see we needed to readjust. We lost about 20 minutes to that short error, but we found it quickly and were able to readjust so not all was lost.
We followed the path, and headed down out of the mist, and finally got some views.
We were back at the car at 1640, and headed home.
Stats: 27km, 1172m ascent, 8hrs
Munros Completed: 150
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