posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 7:42 AM
by
Endie
Another Day, Another (2) Munro(s)
It turns out that I am exploring the Ben Lawers massif. Having climbed all five munros on the main ridge a couple of weeks ago, I was back again yesterday to climb the next two peaks: Meall Corranaich and Meall a Choire Leith.
One advantage of the Lawers range is that you can leave Edinburgh at 8 and be pulling your pack on and setting off by 9.30 or so. Despite such proximity, the weather can be very different: last time it was warm in Edinburgh and snowing on An Stuc. This time it was pouring in Edinburgh and glorious sunshine on Meall Corranaich, albeit with a few snowfields left on the north-eastern slopes.
One advantage of climbing hills in the same range for a while is that you get to look at what you did previously and feel rather impressed at yourself: looking over the Coire Odhar at the vast pyramid of Bheinn Glas, and seeing the rise and fall of the ridge that I had followed made me feel rather smug. Another is that, when stupidity makes you stick your sandwiches into the "afterwards" rucksack in the car boot and not the climbing one, you are not entirely lost despite the fact that you have left behind map, compass and sun block and are instead lugging such essentials as a pair of trainers and a bulky guide to dog-friendly pubs in the UK up a kilometre-high hill.
Judgemental (and sane) Munroists will at this stage be tutting, and citing the changeable and deadly moods of the Scottish hills while stating that the only sensible thing to do at this juncture would be to abandon the route and return while sunny conditions held. And they would be right. But while I would issue the same, stern injunctions in their place, Meall a Choire Leith is a gentle, rounded hill with escape routes on three sides, and I could see that the nearest weather was several hours away to the south-east, while I could see as far as Stob Diamh and Beinn Eunaich to the west, 40 miles away. So I carried on, and beat the rain by ten minutes. In the end, Seleighe and I didn't even get to visit a dog-friendly pub, but were back in Edinburgh by 5pm.
The final peak in the area is Meall nan Tarmachan - the Hill of the Ptarmigan. Hopefully I'll get back to that before the end of the month. I'm hoping to climb the height of Everest this year (I'm currently at about a fifth of that from two trips) so I'll need to get back to it soon, despite a couple of busy weekends coming up.
Pictures to follow.