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Finally completed the group of Munros west
of the Drumochter Pass!
There are four Munros in total, two of which I climbed
in June 2009. The other two, Beinn Udlamain and Sgairneach Mhor, were my
priorities today but I also included A' Mharconaich on this trip.
It was my first walk with Pete Swales, who having arrived earlier than
Kevin McKeown and I, started up his Munro Geal Charn early. By the time
I set off from the Balsporran Cottages, he was on the summit of Glen
Charn and instead coming up behind him, we arranged to meet on A'
Mharconaich. The good news was that the plan worked to perfection, the
bad news was that A' Mharconaich's long north ridge isn't one to be
climbed fast when the legs are still getting into the stride.
A' Mharconaich
Kevin McKeown, who's done these hills already made an easy day out of it
and just climbed Sgairneach Mhor with his dog Rupert. He dropped me off
and got on his way, so I was presented with my first task of getting to
the top of A' Mharconaich against the clock. Crossing the river was
hard, and in full flow, there were only a couple of possible passing
places. Moreover, I didn't want wet feet this early. What I didn't seem
to understand was that I could cross at the railway, pain free and easy.
I just had to take the hard route...
And then traces of tracks came and went as I threaded my way around the
hummocks of moraine. They are very evident here and fascinating to see,
even though it makes walking a trickier proposition. The bogs, saturated with melt water, didn't make
life easier. I wasn't in the flow right now but knew I had to push
through it.
When I gained height, I felt better and a
feeling of progress set in. I drew up onto the snaking arm and onto the
final summit ridge. It became a little steeper here, so the ice axe came
out although wasn't needed once. As I pulled up onto the summit of A'
Mharconaich and it's two cairns, I spotted Pete on the snowfields
approaching the summit beyond. We arrived within two minutes of each
other and our plan had become a success.
Beinn Udlamain and Sgairneach Mhor
With the weather generally bright, we headed off towards Beinn Udlamain,
the highest of the group. An easy romp over took us to the summit dome
as Pete and I chatted about everything to do with the mountains. It was
good fun and we arrived at the summit cairn with no problems. The wind
was blowing heavily now and it looked as if showers were approaching
from the west. The summit was engulfed in light fog as we left but
didn't last long.
Next was the descent and reascent across to Sgairneach Mhor - the last
Munro of the day. The drop between these two hills is large for a
typical Grampian mound although this we were faced with no problems.
Best of all, was that the bad weather blew itself over and views
opened up in all directions. This walk came into it's own at this point
and we had a great (if windy) climb up to Sgairneach Mhor. It was a slog
much of the way, but the sunny weather, vast snowfields and good weather
brightened my mood to no end. I was in a natural rhythm and the great
weather was the icing.
When we contacted Kevin McKeown to find out where he was, it was good to
hear he was already at the summit and we watched him standing as we
climbed the final slopes to the summit.
We spent a long time on top. A cold wind blew, but the weather was good
enough to merit a long stay. Views were wide stretching in all
directions and it was possible to see all the way into the Southern
Highlands as well as the main Cairngorms, Monadhliath and flatter lands
down to the south east. The higher Beinn Udlamain and Ben Alder blocked
views to the west, but they were vast in all other directions.
Descent
We left after 25 minutes on the summit of
Sgairneach Mhor. I didn't want to leave just yet - I wanted to do more
hills to make use of the cracking weather, but there wasn't much else to
do. I toyed with the idea of picking off the Sow of Atholl, but the
return to the valley floor soon became a more appealing proposition.
But it was an eventful descent nonetheless,
and great to be out in the sun of spring. Once down into Coire Dhomhain,
we followed the track back to the A9. If it was up to me, and I'd had
the time I'd have stayed up with all the great weather, but a three
Munro day was great for me, two of them new. Sgairneach Mhor brought my
Munro "tally" to a rounded 70.
Awesome.
Summit Panoramas
180° East from A' Mharconaich
360° from Beinn Udlamain
360° from Sgairneach Mhor
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