The Lochnagar circuit had been on my wish-list since the previous winter when I’d seen some beautiful snowy photos of it, on the “I am bagging the Munros” Facebook page. But I knew it was a long route, with a long walk out at the end, so had been putting it off until I felt fit enough for the challenge. The recent Glenshee 6 day had boosted my confidence in my fitness, so it was just a case of picking a good day for it.

With the forecast looking good for the Saturday, this involved another Friday night drive up to the Bridge of Cally Hotel, getting up early on Saturday morning to drive the remaining distance to the car park at Glen Muick.

It’s a very large car park and I was there fairly early so had no trouble parking – it was just after 8am when I started walking.

Midges were out in full force and I soon had to stop to slather Skin So Soft on my bare arms and face. The wind picked up significantly as I got further up though, which thankfully kept the pesky blighters at bay for much of the day.

A young man caught up to me about midway up, and I expected him to overtake me, but he fell into step alongside me and ended up staying with me for the rest of the day, clearly preferring my company to his own. He was clearly much fitter than me as he’d caught up to me from a fair way back, but he seemed happy to walk at my pace, even commenting that I was keeping a good pace, which boosted my ego no end!

The final pull to the summit of Lochnagar was exceptionally windy, and I found myself knocked off balance a few times, but thankfully managed to stay on my feet. The photo Scott took of me on the summit bears testimony to just how windy it was – I had my arm stretched across the top of the trig to keep myself upright, and the state of my hair says it all!

The wind thankfully abated a little once on the main ridge, and even died down completely on a couple of occasions. Scott proved good company and we found plenty to chat about – much though I do enjoy hiking alone, it was good to have someone to chat to on such a long hike, particularly on the endless slog back to the car park from Broad Cairn!

Thankfully I didn’t have far to drive at the end of the day, having booked a night at the youth hostel at Ballater. I was very impressed with the hostel which was very clean, friendly and spacious with shower and toilet facilities inside the dorm room, and a wonderfully large lounge and kitchen area for hanging out in. I rounded off the day with a delicious pub dinner before falling, exhausted, into bed. Picked up coffee and breakfast from the local Co-op in the morning before driving all the way home.