Traverse of Ben Lawers ridge, 2nd May 2013

Weather looking good so very last minute decision to head to the hills with Andrew and Lizzie. We parked in the high car park at the SE end of the Lawers ridge (just N of Loch Tay) and headed up towards Bheinn Ghlas, the first of 5 tops on the main ridge, with no fixed plan with regard to how far we'd go.  The weather was as good as the forecast suggested so we committed ourselves to the whole ridge with a long walk or hopefully hitch hike back to the car from it's north west end. The walking was excellent; with a couple of minor scrambles the ridge and Ben Lawers itself are much more interesting that they appear from Loch Tay. As luck would have it we had a very fortuitous and 'small world' encounter with some old friends from Shropshire who we spotted hang-gliding in the valley below us. Knowing that the UK hang-gliding community is pretty small I gave Myles K a ring to see if it was him and it was. So we met the Kynaston crowd in the 'up a Munro, down a pint' pub next to Loch Tay and borrowed their car to retrieve ours. All in all a grand day out.

Ben Lawers

Banana time

 

Blaven, Skye. 17th March 2013

Blaven from Loch Slapin

Whilst visiting our friends John and Ian on Raasay we decided to try and get up Blaven on Skye (Skye's only Munro that is not part of the Cuillin ridge). The weather was looking best on Sunday but the only ferry off Raasay was at 10 am and the last one back was at 4 giving us 6 hours to get up and down! Mission on... We had a big party consisting of Ash, John, Jen (virgin Munroist) Ian and Ian's mate as well as Maddy and I. From the starting point at sea level on loch Slapin, Blaven looks formidable especially in winter! Doubting if we would get to the top we set off all the same. The climb up was sustained and spectacular without ever feeling too exposed or steep. Many a snowball were thrown, many a chocolate brownie were consumed. To our surprise we made it to the summit no probs and then had a spectacular view of the Cuillin ridge which only reveals itself in the last 5 steps to the top - amazing. Unfortunately forgot the camera but Maddy snapped a couple of pics on i-phone and we even made it back in time for a pint in Broadford before the ferry.   

Jen

John

Ash

Clearly a very experienced bunch of mountaineers taking thing very seriously.

Small Isles in background

On top looking towards Cuillin Ridge

Buachaille Etive Beag, 27th Feb 2013

Beautifully clear winter day, no wind, no rain, no clouds. Camped at Kings House in minus 14 temperature. Easy walk upto the saddle between the two peak of Buachaille Etive Beg then on to the Northern peak. Slightly more interesting very snowy ridge to gain the Souther top of Stob Dubh. Fell asleep for a while on second top. Stunning views.

A very cold night at the Kings House

Just reaching the coll

Northern summit - Stob Corie Raineach

Ben Nevis

Stob Dubh and loch Etive

Buchaille Etive Mor

Ridge to Stob Dubh

Maddy with Bidean (central peak) in background - see later post...

Ben Vorlich & Stuc a Chroin, 15th Feb 2013

Quite wintery, especially on climb up to 2nd peak - Stuc a Chroin. Massive Gilkes hydro project at bottom of walk. Cloudy at times but clear on tops - got decent view of Tramachan and Lawers ridges (unlike when we were on them last walk..!)

Vorlich from S side of Loch Earn

Looking N, loch Earn, Lawers in back

Stuc a Chroin

Top of B Vorlich

looking back to B Vorlich from Stuc a Chroin

Maddy pointing to location of our last Munro - Meall Nan Tarmachan

  

Meall nan Tarmachan, Loch Tay 10/01/13

Hello! Welcome to Maddy and my blog documenting, largely in pictures, our attempt to climb Scotland's Munros. We hope that we make it up all of them one day but have no particular time scale or grand plan, our only intention is to always enjoy them.

Ptarmigan? No Grouse

Maddy having only been up one of them before (unfortunately not one I've done!), we're pretty much at the beginning, so on about the only day in Jan that it wasn't blowing a force 8 gale we headed to the Tarmachan Ridge, just north of Loch Tay.  

Maddy on top in the fog

  





Despite the promised clear(ish) skys the top was shrouded in cloud and a vicious wind was blowing. So, happy that we had conquered the one Munro on the ridge we headed home without completing the circuit.