Stob Dearg

For many years Joachim, Markus, Stefan, Thomas and I have been spending a long weekend together once a year for hiking. After having been rather “flat” so far, we chose Scotland for 2008. For quite some time I wanted to introduce the boys to the beauty of the Highlands and above all to my passion for the Munros. But it was also clear to me that, in contrast to the previous hikes, I should and had to explicitly point out seriousness, weather conditions and conditional conditions. Which, of course, should prove to be the case. And since we still had a bed available and in my opinion Cord would also fit well with the boys, we granted him asylum for the 4 days in Scotland.

After we had flown from Cologne to Edinburgh at the lecture, Cord arrived in Cologne coming from Berlin, followed first the trip to Kinlochleven. In Callander we bought food and drinks and then drove through Rannoch Mor with obligatory photo break. The weather was fresh but pleasant. As we approached Glen Coe, majestically guarded by the big shepherd, my hint “we’ll go up there tomorrow” caused a rather disbelieving shake of the head. In the Glen Coe itself we took another photo break. After that we went straight to Kinlochleven to move to the beautifully situated Garbh Bhein Cottage, which offers great views of the Mamores. Beer, fire and dinner were the successful conclusion to the arrival day.

The next morning it showed up that my reference to the Scottish weather conditions and the insistent requests to take rainproof clothes had not been in vain. It was raining heavily, visibility was severely restricted and motivation had dropped considerably. Here it showed up that it is of advantage to have motivation artists and rainignoranten thereby. At 10 o’clock we stood – still a bit insecure, but at least fully dressed and equipped – on the parking lot near Altnafeadh and started, defying the rain!

The steep ascent through the Coire na Tulaich took up all our concentration, as we … [Read More]

2022-01-17T07:34:22+01:00October 15th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Strath Orchy to Loch Leven|

Binnein Mor

Day 2 of our 2008 Scotland walking weekend. Thomas had cooked us a lot of good food and we let the evening end with beer and fire! We had earned that. After we had hiked the big shepherd the day before, we turned to our local mountains on 05.10 so to speak. The Mamores were right in front of our front door and we had a direct view to Na Gearanach, which means “The Girls”. Also this day should remain memorable in many ways.

We saved some altitude meters and drove with the cars to Mamore Lodge, where we could park for an acceptable final fee. Especially Thomas suffered from knees and muscles and every saved meter came in handy. In a good mood and much more important – in the best weather – we marched off. Only Thomas didn’t, he shot off and soon had a few hundred meters between him and us. Something he had probably had breakfast, which we didn’t have. Nevertheless we took the opportunity to explore and look at the area around Kinlochlewen from a different perspective. The view of Loch Leven was as impressive as the appearance of the Blackwater Reservoir. But now it was time to catch the nags again and to point out to Thomas in time that the path would not continue to meander idyllically towards Loch Eilde Mór, but that also today 2 Munros were waiting for the ambitious climber. And that meant – right – ascent.

We then crossed the terrain towards Sgor Eilde Beag on an excellent Stalkers Path, which opened up the steepest parts in serpentines. Here it turned out that Thomas was really suffering and had to grit his teeth to survive here. A condition that unfortunately should not change throughout the day. Nevertheless, after almost 1.5 h we reached the first summit of the day, the 956 m high Sgor Eilde Beag. The first Munro should be climbed another 1.5 h later. From here we hiked on the beautiful ridge to the 1062m high Triangle-Top, which led … [Read More]

2021-07-05T21:55:59+02:00October 5th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Loch Linnhe to Loch Ericht|

Na Gruagaichean

Day 2 of our 2008 Scotland Hiking Weekend. Thomas had cooked us well in the evening and we let the evening end comfortably with beer and fire! We deserved that.

After we have hiked the day before the big shepherd we turned on 05.10 so to speak to our house mountains. The Mamores were right in front of our front door and we had a direct view of Na Gearanach, which means “the girls”. Also this day should remain memorable in several respects.

We saved some altitude meters and drove with the cars to the Mamore Lodge, where we could park against an acceptable final charge. Especially Thomas suffered from knees and muscles and every metre saved was just fine.

In a good mood and much more important – in the best weather – we marched off. Only Thomas didn’t, he shot off and soon had brought some hundred meters between himself and us. Something he had probably had a special breakfast, which we did not have. Nevertheless, we took the opportunity to explore the area around Kinlochlewen from a different perspective. The view of Loch Leven was as impressive as the appearance of the Blackwater Reservoir. But now we had to catch the horse again and point out to Thomas in time that the way would not continue to meander so idyllically towards Loch Eilde Mór, but that also today 2 Munros waited for the ambitious climber. And that meant, right, ascent.

We then crossed the terrain towards Sgor Eilde Beag on an excellent Stalkers Path, which opened up the steepest sections in serpentines. Here it showed that Thomas really suffered and had to bite his teeth together to survive here. A condition that unfortunately should not change during the whole day. Nevertheless we reached the first summit of the day, the 956 m high Sgor Eilde Beag, after about 1.5 hours. The first Munro was to be climbed about 1.5 h later. From here we hiked on the beautiful Ridge to the 1062m high Triangle-Top which led direktissma to Binnein Beag. Thomas … [Read More]

2019-03-04T10:41:08+01:00October 5th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Loch Linnhe to Loch Ericht|

Cairn Bannoch

Apart from being a very economical way of adding almost two percent of the totally of 284 Munros to our tick list this tour is also an interesting and entertaining long plateau walk. Since we wanted to do them all in one go we started our tour at the Spittal of Glen Muick. As described in my tour of spring 2001 we climbed the landrover track beside the Allt-na-giubhsaich in fine weather.

At the col above Glen Gelder we took the well engineered path which within maybe half an hour brought us to the col between the Ladder and Meikle Pap. There Frank and I sat on some rocks and looked at the cliffs of Lochnagar. As said before by many people: Great cliffs and a beautiful Loch. Then we and quite a few other people climbed the boulders of the Ladder, crossed some flatter terrain, climbed the final steepening and reached the wide summit plateau. At the summit tor we took a break and checked the indicator.

After having bagged this first Munro we turned south west, descended form the summit and headed for the rounded lump of the White Mounth aka Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach whose summit is marked by a small cairn. Easy walking but nothing exciting. From the top of this second Munro we descended more steeply to regain the path leading over from the Stuic. It skirts Carn an t-Sagairt Beag and in due time lead us to the path that climbs Carn an t-Sagairt Mor our third Munro. At the cairn we sat in the sunshine and in strong wind and took another well-deserved break.

Soon the wind chill drove us on and we retraced our steps heading south east over the grass and moss to Cairn Bannoch. This summit is not much more than some fairly big rocks in a sea of grass. With another Munro ticked our last top of the day was Braod Cairn visible a few kilometres away. With a little descending and re-ascending this hill was finally reached. Five in … [Read More]

2022-01-09T03:20:15+01:00May 9th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Glen Shee to Mount Keen|

Broad Cairn

Apart from being a very economical way of adding almost two percent of the total tally of 284 Munros to our tick list this tour is also an interesting and entertaining long plateau walk. Since we wanted to do them all in one go we started our tour at the Spittal of Glen Muick. As described in my tour of spring 2001 we climbed the landrover track beside the Allt-na-giubhsaich in fine weather.

At the col above Glen Gelder we took the well engineered path which within maybe half an hour brought us to the col between the Ladder and Meikle Pap. There Frank and I sat on some rocks and looked at the cliffs of Lochnagar. As said before by many people: Great cliffs and a beautiful Loch. Then we and quite a few other people climbed the boulders of the Ladder, crossed some flatter terrain, climbed the final steepening and reached the wide summit plateau. At the summit tor we took a break and checked the indicator.

After having bagged this first Munro we turned south west, descended form the summit and headed for the rounded lump of the White Mounth aka Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach whose summit is marked by a small cairn. Easy walking but nothing exciting. From the top of this second Munro we descended more steeply to regain the path leading over from the Stuic. It skirts Carn an t-Sagairt Beag and in due time lead us to the path that climbs Carn an t-Sagairt Mor our third Munro. At the cairn we sat in the sunshine and in strong wind and took another well-deserved break.

Soon the wind chill drove us on and we retraced our steps heading south east over the grass and moss to Cairn Bannoch. This summit is not much more than some fairly big rocks in a sea of grass. With another Munro ticked our last top of the day was Braod Cairn visible a few kilometres away. With a little descending and re-ascending this hill was finally reached. Five … [Read More]

2021-12-15T02:46:34+01:00May 9th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Glen Shee to Mount Keen|

Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach

Apart from being a very economical way of adding almost two percent of the total tally of 284 Munros to our tick list this tour is also an interesting and entertaining long plateau walk. Since we wanted to do them all in one go we started our tour at the Spittal of Glen Muick. As described in my tour of spring 2001 we climbed the landrover track beside the Allt-na-giubhsaich in fine weather.

At the col above Glen Gelder we took the well engineered path which within maybe half an hour brought us to the col between the Ladder and Meikle Pap. There Frank and I sat on some rocks and looked at the cliffs of Lochnagar. As said before by many people: Great cliffs and a beautiful Loch. Then we and quite a few other people climbed the boulders of the Ladder, crossed some flatter terrain, climbed the final steepening and reached the wide summit plateau. At the summit tor we took a break and checked the indicator.

After having bagged this first Munro we turned south west, descended form the summit and headed for the rounded lump of the White Mounth aka Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach whose summit is marked by a small cairn. Easy walking but nothing exciting. From the top of this second Munro we descended more steeply to regain the path leading over from the Stuic. It skirts Carn an t-Sagairt Beag and in due time lead us to the path that climbs Carn an t-Sagairt Mor our third Munro. At the cairn we sat in the sunshine and in strong wind and took another well-deserved break.

Soon the wind chill drove us on and we retraced our steps heading south east over the grass and moss to Cairn Bannoch. This summit is not much more than some fairly big rocks in a sea of grass. With another Munro ticked our last top of the day was Braod Cairn visible a few kilometres away. With a little descending and re-ascending this hill was finally reached. Five … [Read More]

2017-09-19T14:17:07+02:00May 9th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Glen Shee to Mount Keen|

Carn an t-Sagairt Mor

Apart from being a very economical way of adding almost two percent of the total tally of 284 Munros to our tick list this tour is also an interesting and entertaining long plateau walk. Since we wanted to do them all in one go we started our tour at the Spittal of Glen Muick. As described in my tour of spring 2001 we climbed the landrover track beside the Allt-na-giubhsaich in fine weather.

At the col above Glen Gelder we took the well engineered path which within maybe half an hour brought us to the col between the Ladder and Meikle Pap. There Frank and I sat on some rocks and looked at the cliffs of Lochnagar. As said before by many people: Great cliffs and a beautiful Loch. Then we and quite a few other people climbed the boulders of the Ladder, crossed some flatter terrain, climbed the final steepening and reached the wide summit plateau. At the summit tor we took a break and checked the indicator.

After having bagged this first Munro we turned south west, descended form the summit and headed for the rounded lump of the White Mounth aka Carn a’Choire Bhoidheach whose summit is marked by a small cairn. Easy walking but nothing exciting. From the top of this second Munro we descended more steeply to regain the path leading over from the Stuic. It skirts Carn an t-Sagairt Beag and in due time lead us to the path that climbs Carn an t-Sagairt Mor our third Munro. At the cairn we sat in the sunshine and in strong wind and took another well-deserved break.

Soon the wind chill drove us on and we retraced our steps heading south east over the grass and moss to Cairn Bannoch. This summit is not much more than some fairly big rocks in a sea of grass. With another Munro ticked our last top of the day was Braod Cairn visible a few kilometres away. With a little descending and re-ascending this hill was finally reached. Five … [Read More]

2017-09-19T14:17:07+02:00May 9th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, Glen Shee to Mount Keen|

Beinn a’Bhuird

2008 in Braemar was a very entertaining hiking holiday. We enjoyed a lot of sunshine, rode our bicycles and ticked quite few of the great Cainrgom hills. Among them these two remote and very handsome, big hills. Form Invercauld Estate where we had parked our car we rode our bicycles up Gleann an t-Slugain almost to the ruins of Slugain Lodge. This ride was quite exhausting. The ruins are set in a curious hollow between two slopes which also contains a little lochain.

Once in Glen Quoich we followed a very well-engineered path high above the Quoich water, passed the western slopes of Carn Eag Dhubh and Carn Eas and after the path got steeper passed the boulder called Clach a’Cléirich. In the upper reaches of the corrie there were still many snow fields which also covered the track so that we had the unexpected joy of tip-toeing over snow bridges and crossing large mushy stretches of snow. Then the col between the two Munros was reached and we turned east (right) to climb Ben Avon first. After another one hundred metres of climbing the plateau of this giant hill opened up before us. Vast is a good word to describe the views. After fifteen minutes of walking we climbed the granite tor of Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe from its north side. This was fun and a pleasant change in the days menu of endless steps on grassy plateau. We paused close to the summit of the tor in the broad sunshine. Frank and I had some tea and chatted a bit. Then it became a little cold in the wind so we packed up and headed back to the col between the two hills.

Then on the final fifty metres before reaching the next plateau we had to negotiate a tricky small snowfield requiring maybe a hundred steps on untrustworthy steepish slush lying on grass. But fortunately nothing happened. Then it was another nice plateau walk to the un-inspiring summit of Beinn a’ Bhuird. However, the eastern corries of … [Read More]

2017-09-19T14:17:47+02:00May 8th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, The Cairngorms|

Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe

2008 in Braemar was a very entertaining hiking holiday. We enjoyed a lot of sunshine, rode our bicycles and ticked quite few of the great Cainrgom hills. Among them these two remote and very handsome, big hills. Form Invercauld Estate where we had parked our car we rode our bicycles up Gleann an t-Slugain almost to the ruins of Slugain Lodge. This ride was quite exhausting. The ruins are set in a curious hollow between two slopes which also contains a little lochain.

Once in Glen Quoich we followed a very well-engineered path high above the Quoich water, passed the western slopes of Carn Eag Dhubh and Carn Eas and after the path got steeper passed the boulder called Clach a’Cléirich. In the upper reaches of the corrie there were still many snow fields which also covered the track so that we had the unexpected joy of tip-toeing over snow bridges and crossing large mushy stretches of snow. Then the col between the two Munros was reached and we turned east (right) to climb Ben Avon first. After another one hundred metres of climbing the plateau of this giant hill opened up before us. Vast is a good word to describe the views. After fifteen minutes of walking we climbed the granite tor of Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe from its north side. This was fun and a pleasant change in the days menu of endless steps on grassy plateau. We paused close to the summit of the tor in the broad sunshine. Frank and I had some tea and chatted a bit. Then it became a little cold in the wind so we packed up and headed back to the col between the two hills.

Then on the final fifty metres before reaching the next plateau we had to negotiate a tricky small snowfield requiring maybe a hundred steps on untrustworthy steepish slush lying on grass. But fortunately nothing happened. Then it was another nice plateau walk to the un-inspiring summit of Beinn a’ Bhuird. However, the eastern corries of … [Read More]

2017-09-19T14:17:48+02:00May 8th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, The Cairngorms|

Carn a’Mhaim

How to find better ways to a summit or This time from south. Mike and I had climbed Ben Macdui via Cairn Gorm in September 2002 on a very hot day in late summer. The approach over the plateau by way of Corrie Cas, Ptarmigain Restaurant and Stob Coire an Lochain had been a mixed bag of not so scenic tourist installations and of beautiful landscape before we reached the summit. In 2008, the approach from Deeside proved to be much more satisfying.

Starting at the Linn of Dee we cycled up the easy landrover track by the Lui Water to Derry Lodge where we left the bycicles. We crossed the Derry Burn and walked into the old forrest in Glen Derry with its enchanting atmopshere. The path was well engineered so we slowly but steadily gained some height. Near the northern end of the forrest we saw a big capercaille in a tree. As soon as the animal spotted us it flew down the glen. Great bird and a big one at that!

We recrossed the Derry Burn, continued up the wide and flat glen, took in the views of Derry Cairngom to the left and finally reached the fork in the path where we turned left and headed up Corrie Etchachan. A few minutes before reaching the Hutchinson Memorial Hut we took a break and basked in some sunshine while resting on a rock. Then the hut came into view. This bothy is very nicely situated in the corrie bowl. The corrie has a rather alpine feel about it with a lot of loose scree, rocky walls and only little vegetation. A very quiet and contemplative place and a great location to build a hut.

The next 250 metres in height were quite steep but that was just as good as very soon we reached Loch Etchachan, which was frozen over, of course, as described in many a book. It is difficult to do the beauty of the place justice using words so I … [Read More]

2017-09-19T14:17:48+02:00May 7th, 2008|2008, 2009 - 2000, The Cairngorms|
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