This was my third Munro trip of the year and also the third to feature Gunter, the Munro Baggin' Wagon! I left the house at about 1645 on Friday and headed off with my sunnies on to pick up Steg in Hillington. We hadn't seen each other since Christmas and we had a lot to catch up on. It was also his first time seeing the van, so even more to fill the time on the long drive up to Glen Affric.
We stopped once again at Pitlochry for chips and it was a beautiful night, so without further ado, we pushed on up the A9 and headed into towards Cannich via Drumnadrochit. We had the sight of a beautiful sliver of moon dipping towards the horizon, followed closely by Venus as we headed up the wee roads towards the car park at Affric Lodge.
We arrived at 2230 or so and climbed into the back for a wee social and an hour or so later, we just hit the hay.
I was awake before the alarm went off at 0700 and so we got ourselves ready, got breakfast made and washed up, squeezed around each other in the van and generally faffed for a bit before we headed off along towards Affric Lodge and Loch Affric at 0830, closely followed by a couple who were walking the route around Loch Affric.
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| Glen Affric looking moody |
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| Steg, at it! |
We broke off about 0935 following the Allt Coire Leachavie up into the glen and the going was good, though the wind was cold and it was very cloudy down in Glen Affric. We stopped for a snack at the wee hydro station and then it was a long push up the glen and onto the flat part in the corrie south of Màm Sodhail.
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| Old snow in the corrie |
We lost the path a wee bit, but found it again and eventually it disappeared into a huge patch of snow. We'd made the decision to leave crampons, but take axes and it was a good choice. The snow was soft enough to kick toe or side steps right into and use the axe for stability. It was an easy crossing, with low risk even if we did slip, so we felt confident.
We made it up onto the ridge path and then came across the remains of the old bothy, which was filled with snow at one end.
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| Old Bothy |
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| Filled with snow |
It's an odd thing to find at 1100m above sea level, but it was interesting nonetheless.
We pressed onto the huge summit cairn of Màm Sodhail and walked around looking for an entrance - surely it's not solid stone? Eventually I climbed up over the top and found it was hollow. So we climbed in and sheltered a wee bit from the increasing wind. We were on the top at 1228.
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| Inside the summit cairn of Màm Sodhail |
I checked the map on my phone and the big cairn is not actually on the spot height marked on the map, so we wandered over and found a pile of 5 stones that might actually be the true summit, if you ignored the cairn.
With the first Munro down, it was time to head over to Càrn Eighe, but we were hit with absolutely brutal easterly winds blowing up the corrie. We dipped out of the wind briefly and kitted up - my buffalo hood and face baffle were put to use for only the second time as well as my existing hat, and added waterproofs to provide a bit of extra protection. Tough going!
We made the summit of Càrn Eighe at 1323 - the wind affecting our going quite considerably.
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| Buffalo hood and face baffle! |
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| Squashed roll on Càrn Eighe |
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| Trig point |
It was still blowy but as we descended towards Bealach Beag at 832m, things were starting to change - the cloud started to lift a wee bit, but the wind persisted. As the clouds cleared, we stopped to enjoy the changing light.
From the bealach, we could finally start to see the hill that would be my 200th Munro - Beinn Fhionnlaidh. We started our ascent and the sun even appeared a wee bit.
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| On the ascent of Beinn Fhionnlaidh |
I stopped to attempt to charge my watch a bit, but that seems to have stopped it recording GPS signal which was quite annoying.
We made the summit of Beinn Fhionnlaidh at 1455 and the wind had completely died off - such a change from earlier in the day.
It was time to celebrate! 200 Munros down - a long way since Ben Lomond in 1999. I had kept the driver's drams from Isa and my visit to the Tomatin distillery, so we had two samples of Cù Bòcan which was a fine way to mark the occasion.
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| Cù Bòcan |
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| Before |
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| After |
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| Celebrating with Steg |
We hung about, enjoying the fact that the wind was gone, and ate some food, before heading back down.
Rather than reascending the first two Munros again, we contoured round both to regain the path at the top of the corrie wall. We met one group of three walkers, but that was the extent of our social contact for the whole day.
By this point, the views were starting to open up:
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| Out to Skye |
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| Sgurr Nan Ceathramhnan (I think!) |
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| Back to Beinn Fhionnlaidh |
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| Cliffs and snow on Càrn Eighe |
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| Màm Sodhail's huge cairn |
I noticed my watch had stopped recording distance after the hasty charging, so I had to stop and start again, then combine the output files when I got home.
We headed back down the snow slope, with axes again, following our steps from before, then it was the long long descent back into Glen Affric.
The road back along also felt a lot longer, but with tired legs that can happen. We did get some nice light though:
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| Glen Affric in beautiful light |
We arrived back at the van at 2000, got changed, dinner sorted and had a nice night of beating Steg at dominos!
No relive map because I broke the GPS file a bit!
Hike Distance: 28.38km (likely more than this)
Hike Ascent: 1296m (also, likely more than this)
Hike Time: 11h 32m
Munros Completed: 200
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