Mount Keen

I wasn’t working at this stage and so had been keeping an eye on the weather, and when I spotted what looked like a decent weather window for the eastern side of Scotland, booked a couple of nights at a b&b in Kirriemuir and drove straight up on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning, after breakfast I headed to the Glen Esk car park to climb Mount Keen.

It was a lovely sunny morning which prompted loads of faffing with layers as sun on my back and a cold headwind made for a choice between a sweaty back vs cold front. I really enjoyed the walk up the Glen to the Queen’s Well; I had read that people often choose to cycle it but found it to be a pleasant walk.

There were a couple of beck crossings to negotiate – I chose to remove my boots and socks and wade the first, as I didn’t trust myself not to fall in over the various rock-hopping options I could see. Thankfully the metal grate / bridge over the second crossing point proved more stable than it looked and I was able to get across that without needing to remove my boots or get my feet wet.

The wind mostly didn’t impede walking until about 5 metres from the top when it almost knocked me over, so I chose to remove my pack and launch an all-fours assault over the final few boulders to the trig. Took a few very quick photos – it was freezing stood next to the trig – then a brief lunch stop in the truly excellent shelter just below, before heading back down. I had spikes in my bag but the snow was soft and fresh enough not to need them. Overall a fabulous day.

Mayar and Driesh

Set off after breakfast again, this time heading to Glen Doll to climb Mayar and Driesh.

The start of the walk through the forest to Corrie Fee, was enjoyable and the view when it opened up was magnificent.

The route up Mayar was reasonably obvious despite the path being covered in snow; I imagine in summer it would be very easy to follow. Near the top it became very indistinct as I found myself trudging up a gentle snow-covered slope with no clear footsteps to follow, but despite the low cloud and light snowfall, visibility was just good enough to be able to make out the summit ridge ahead so I just kept aiming that way.

Sadly there were no views from the top as it was in cloud, but I got good views on the walk over to Driesh and for the rest of the day. I arrived at the summit of Driesh at the same time as another walker who kindly took my picture for me. I also spent some time watching a large bird, possibly an eagle, circling a short distance away from the summit.

Glen Lyon 4

From Glen Doll I’d driven to Aberfeldy where I had booked a further two nights at the Schiehallion hotel. My friend Phil had driven up in his camper van and joined me on Saturday morning – after a truly excellent hotel breakfast – to bag the 4 Munros at Glen Lyon. He had done them all before many years ago but was happy to do them again.

We set off in sunshine from the car park and had lovely views on the way up Carn Gorm, as well as from the summit. The remaining summits were in cloud but we got good views whenever we dropped down between summits. And we even saw a Brocken spectre on the 4th summit!

There had been a fairly heavy recent snowfall so snow on the top sections was fresh and often quite deep – heading up Carn Gorm we were grateful for a young lad having gone up shortly before us, breaking trail which enabled us to follow literally in his footsteps.

This was one round where I wished I’d taken proper crampons though. I had my trusty spikes which were fine for descending Carn Gorm, and not needed at all for ascending any slopes, but the first section of the descent from Carn Mairg, the third Munro, was steep and a bit scary as the spikes were not long enough to cut through the layer of soft snow into the icy layer below, and we both felt ourselves in danger of sliding. Thankfully it was only a short section before the slope flattened out somewhat and the snow texture changed enabling our boots to grip more firmly, but it was briefly nerve-wracking!

Schiehallion

This was a quick out and back route, second only to Ben Chonzie in terms of simplicity. I was amused to find the “boulders” that many people had talked about in the “I am bagging the Munros” Facebook group, are not boulders at all, but just lots of rocks that can be stepped over and around with relative ease.

It was a lovely calm day, with a mixture of firm and soft snow between the rocks; I used my trusty spikes for extra traction and to enable me to move more quickly without having to be quite so careful about foot placement, but plenty of people were managing without.

Sadly a thin layer of cloud over the top partially obscured the views but it was a good half day hike.

Some crazy bloke in Lycra was running laps up and down – having set off from the bottom just ahead of Phil and me, he passed us on his way back down as we were partway up, and summited for a second time just as we reached the top for the first!