The first trip out of the year was really me taking advantage of an offer of a spare bed for a night in Coylumbridge. I had friends staying in their holiday cottage and I figured if the weather was half-decent, I'd be able to squeeze in a more northerly Munro, and then get down to Aviemore for the Saturday night. I managed to park a few other things, and had planned enough in advance that I could squeeze a few extra hours in at work through the week to shuffle off early on the Friday afternoon. The days are still short, and driving hours at night is not something I particularly enjoy, so as I left on a reasonably bright Friday afternoon bang on 1500, I was glad I would have at least a couple of hours of driving in daylight.
I stopped at Aviemore on the way up for chips and then headed north again in the van, over the Kessock Bridge and up the road to Garve. I pulled into the Silver Bridge car park about 1915, parked the van up and checked in at home to let Isa know I'd made it safely.
There were a couple of other vans about and when I stuck my head outside I could see that the sky was bright with stars. I had plenty time and I'd brought the SLR so I went to investigate the Silver Bridge. No one was around and the road was really quiet, the only sound the river rushing away beneath the bridge. I set the tripod up and spend a fair while getting some shots of the stars. No Northern Lights this time! It was a beautiful night and I could pick out Orion, Jupiter, the Pleiades and Castor and Pollux (not in the pic!)
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| Silver Bridge Night Sky |
It started getting quite cold, and there was a lot of moisture starting to form in my torch beam when I realised that the cloud was rolling up the valley and pretty soon the stars were all gone again.
I retired to the van for refreshments and headed for an early night. I had to pop the gas heater on a wee bit but that thing terrifies me for several reasons, so maybe it's time to look at a wee diesel heater for Gunter, who has been with me for 2 years this weekend.
I set my alarm for 0630 and burrowed into my sleeping bag and duvet. When morning came, it was bitterly cold. I got the bed away, kettle and breakfast sorted and then sorted out my gear for the day. It wasn't a long drive up to the Torran Dubh car park, but it was stunning - the sun just coming up, a big stag in golden light by the roadside, just smashing.
I arrived at the car park at 0820 and chatted to a couple of runners who were heading for a round of four Munros in the Fannichs. I headed for the big bog slog at 0840 in quite lovely golden light.
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| View back to the road and Loch Glascarnoch |
It was quite well-frozen, so the ground wasn't actually too bad and I made it to the Abhainn a' Gharbhrain in fairly short order. I knew there was a river crossing, but the alternative of an extra 4km in total to go round the boggy lochside wasn't very appealing. I did a lot of these on my ML Assessment so I knew was I was in for but it doesn't make it any nicer, especially at the beginning of the day.
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| The river to be crossed |
I took my boots and socks off and emptied and rang them out, then put all back on again, and it was fine. A little moist for the rest of the day, but not that uncomfortable.
From there, I headed NE up Coir' Allt na h-Uidhe, and then into some snow on the long slog up to the bealach of Drochaid a' Ghlas Tuill. Snow was soft, but as I got up to 700m it was thickening up a little. None of it was frozen though and a rise in temperature will see that go.
With the bulk of the climbing complete, I headed to the 844m point, and the views were starting to reveal themselves.
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| An Teallach looking menacing |
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| Nice sky to the south |
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| Benn Dearg (L), Cona' Mheall (R) and Loch a' Choire Ghranda (middle) |
It was pretty easy going to the big rounded summit from there. The winds that had been forecast had started to pick up a bit, but it had been completely still in the morning.
I was on the summit for 1130 and had great views all around, picking out peaks of Torridon and something far north which I think might have been Ben More Assynt, but not sure!
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| Inevitable Summit Selfie |
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| Torridon peaks |
The descent was by the same route, and I took my time, had some food once I was out of the wind, and just generally enjoyed being out on the hill. I waved at a couple of other walkers, and I spoke to one guy sweating it out on the climb up, but it was a pretty quiet hill.
I had to make the river crossing again, and seem to have picked a worse place, where it was knee-deep this time!
I was back at the van just before 1400. I chatted to someone else who had seen the two runners from earlier whose car was away. They had done the first Munro and realised they didn't have the right kit for ice and snow so bailed. Good move!
I got changed out of wet gear and headed down to Aviemore where I picked up my friends from the pub and we headed to their cottage for dinner and drams. Turns out my other friend had been training with Arrochar MRT in the Northern Corries so he popped by to say hello - Cairngorms were clearly the place to be!
On Sunday morning, I headed out early doors and parked up for a few kms run around Loch Morlich and had breakfast in the van, then headed off back to Glasgow for a big Scout awards ceremony. What a weekend!
Hike Distance: 15.31km
Hike Time: 5h 5m
Ascent: 801m
Munros Completed: 216
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