Ben Klibreck
This was a novelty: Climbing two Munros in one day but using a car to travel from the first to the second hill. We climbed Ben Hope from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Ben Klibreck from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Frank and I parked the car in a layby on the A836 a kilometre north of Vagastie. From there we crossed the River Vagastie by a footbridge and followed the sometimes dry but mostly squishy path through high grass to Loch Bad an Loch. The surroundings of the Loch were very wet. From the flat land by the Loch we climbed to 150 metres to reach the south end of Loch nan Uan which nestles between Meall nan Uan and A’Chioch. Once at Loch an Uan we checked out the way ahead but could not make out any path from the loch leading up to A’Chioch. So we finally decided to climb the steep (!) grassy and heathery western slope of A’Chioch to reach the ridge at point 688m. This was a real slog! But we made it and stood on the defined ridge which we followed in a northerly direction. The wind had picked up quite considerably and was coming from a west-north-westerly direction. We were glad to walk in the lee of the crest of A’Chioch’s ridge! Soon we got to the flat area dotted with outcrops of rock, where the path veers east and the final 200m climb to the summit of Ben Klibreck begins.
The strong wind virtually blew us up the hill, bombarding Frank and me with a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. We stumbled on pushed and tossed around by the force of the wind. Then, after a seemingly endless climb the small summit plateau view its trig point and stone shelter came into view. The wind was so strong that we feared it might take us with it down the eastern slopes of Ben Klibreck. In fact it was quite tricky even to get into the circular stone shelter by the … [Read More]