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Showing posts from July, 2009

Muddy Hell

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Attempted to walk up Beinn Dubhcraig and Ben Oss during a mixed day weather wise. I hadn't figured for the yomp through a boggy forest and after a couple of hours I was back at the start of the track from where I had started. I bit of a waste of time,but some nice pictures of a wee waterfall.

The Drumtochter Hills

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I had headed up to Drumtochter, just south of Dalwhinnie in the hope of getting some decent weather to attempt some Munros (Scottish mountains over 300ft). By chance the weather was sunny, for a change and so I had parked the car just by the Balsporren cottages. The Munros that I would be attempting were Gael-charn (917m), A’Mharconaich (975m), Beinn Udlamain (1011m) and Sgairneach Mhor (991m), a walking distance of approximately 15 miles. The ascent to Gael-charn is easy as the Munro basically faces you as you leave the car park to cross the railway line. Once at the summit of Gael-charn I descended down the loose rock side of the mountain to the col between it and A’Mharconaich. The path to the summit of the second Munro is boggy to begin with but dries out once you reach the broad shoulder of the Munro and the summit should take about an hour to walk to. From A’Mharconaich descend to the col to the start of Beinn Udlamain which ascends steeply to begin with before easing off. Naviga

Wet day out

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I decided to head back up to the Glenshee area again, although to attempt a few Munros a little further down from the ski centre. I parked at the next car park down from the ski centre where there are a group of four Munros within easy reach of the A93. These are Carn an Turic (1019m), Cairn of Claise (1064m), Tolmout (958m) and Tom Buidhe (957m). From where I was parked I had to skirt around the base of Carn na Greine before I got my first view of Carn an Turic. This didn’t take long and neither did the ascent to the summit. The top of the Munro is scattered by some large boulders which you need to be careful with near the top of Carn an Turic. There were some good views of Cairn of Claise and also of Glas Maol. From Carn an Turic to Cairn of Claise is pretty straightforward even if visibility is poor. The large shoulder of Cairn of Claise can be found easily and this leads you up to stone wall which will lead you to the cairn. It took just over half an hour from one summit to the oth

Mountains of the mist

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Today’s little jaunt was near Blair Atholl and 3 Munros near Glen Fender. The Munros in question are Carn Liath (975m), Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain (1070m) and Carn nan Gabhar (1129m) with the total time taken to complete the route at 5 hours and 45mins. In good Weather these Munros are easy to complete with regards to navigation from one Munro to the next. Carn Liath is straightforward, from Loch Moraig head up the farm track ‘till you get to two we huts then follow the obvious scar heading up the Munro. To say that it isn’t easy to miss is an understatement. Overall this Munro took 1 hour 45 to get to the top, even at my leisurely pace! From there it’s easy to follow the path down to the col between Carn Liath and Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain, with the col being at 760m in height giving a 300m ascent to the second Munro. This sounds worse than it looks and the path up to the summit of Braigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain isn’t that steep and took just over an hour to complete. Again yo

The Glenshee Three

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I decided to spend the first weekend of my holidays with a wee trip up to Glenshee to have a look at the Cairnwell . The actual start of my holiday was Thursday and I had headed up to Killin to do some hill walking, however I was met by terribly wet weather condition and so I had to abandon those plans, typical! So Glenshee it was with the intention of doing The Cairnwell , Carn Asoda and Carn a'Gheoidh , in that order. Starting at the Ski car park I was tempted by the cable car which took you to within 20m of the summit of The Cairnwell . Having resisted that temptation I decided to change track, literally and tackle Carn Asoda first. I made my way up the obvious bulldozed tracks and following the ski lift equipment I got to the rocky summit in 45 minutes. This is a record for me and gave me the false sense of thinking I was fitter and I thought i was (I'm not). From there I followed the obvious track down to the col between Carn Aosda and The Carinwell . Instead of