Well, it's becoming clear that as I get older I can no longer hope to go from one Challenge to the next without doing any serious mountaineering and hope just to keep going on the basis of inherent fitness. I need to work on that mountain fitness, and THAT means getting out into the mountains from time to time.
So on the weekend of 23 / 24 June I took the camper van North, and set about some serious mountaineering. On Saturday I went to the Ben Lawyers "visitor centre" car park and took myself up Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers. The weather was really truly atrocious. Low cloud, steady rain, and a vicious, bitter wind blowing at the top of Lawers. If you're hoping for some pics ... forget it! There was no way I was getting a camera out in that.
I loved every minute of it!!!
Then on Sunday I went to Spittal of Glenmuick and set out to do Lochnagar. Again the cloud was down low; but as I climbed I met a couple of other walkers and after a brief discussion we decided to do the full Lochnagar round. All five of them. Lochnagar, Carn a Choire Bhoidheach, Carn an t-sagairt Mor, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn. And we did! Once we got up above about 700 metres, visibility was seldom more than 50 metres. But we had a wonderful time. And it kind of made up for missing out so many mountains on my Challenge this year!
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It's "mountaineering" now, is it? Have you joined McNeish's band of "mountaineers" in Scotland now, J?
ReplyDeleteScotland has some fine hills, in whatever weather.
:-)
Hi Alan
DeleteWhat has Mr McNeish been saying now?
Ha ha ... of COURSE it's mountaineering, Mr S. Anything involving mountaincraft is mountaineering. The danglers don't have a monopoly on the word, you know?
Delete