Well worth the wait...my 200th Munro summit.

On the 27th of september 2012 I stepped off my 195th Munro, confident in reaching my target of 200 by the end of October, which would have been two months ahead of schedule. Oh how much more wrong could I have been!!! In the months and weeks between 27th September 2012 and 12th April 2013 (197 days to be exact!!) I had managed a meagre 4 new summits...4 Munro's in six and a half months...a collection of laziness, poor excuses about the weather, workload, other commitments, lack of funds...you name it I have used it as a reason not to be on the hills in those long months. Most worryingly this was not like me at all. I live to be on new hills, facing all the various challenges that mother nature can throw at me, testing my abilities in all weathers and conditions. Had I lost the bug?? It happened to a friend of mine a few years ago...it appears to be happening to another friend of mine currently...but surely not to me!! To be fair to myself, the weather has been quite poor on the weekends I find myself not working (not helped by leaving myself no Munro's within a decent drive of Aberdeen, the closest ones to me now are at least four hours away) and the days being so short during the winter months mean that it is a thought to drive there and back all in the one day. It has not always been possible to afford diesel AND accomodation on these long treks to reach remote areas. Thankfully I have an offer of free accomodation anytime I am in the north-west highlands to fall back on now (cheers Jacqui and Gordon) which should alleviate some of the financial pain. The Kintail lodge hotel has a marvellous trekkers lodge (for a mere £15.50 a night) which puts me within striking distance of quite a few more Munro's in the west of the country. I may have less midweek opportunities than in previous years, but I have an understanding girlfriend who sometimes works opposite weekends to me, which should allow me to sneak a few cheeky trips away. Which is what happened this past weekend in question. I had been to the north-west two weeks ago (Fionn Bheinn) and had immediately set about planning for my 200th. I carefully selected a Munro that would be both challenging and achievable no matter what the weather threw at me. I was hopeful that on such a milestone occasion I may well have company, so had to choose somewhere that allowed any of my friends to come join me. So it was now narrowed down to an area that would give me something achievable, something others would feel comfortable on, something memorable enough to bag for my 200th. It was with all this criteria in place that I eventually plumped for Beinn Fhada as my destination...Kintail here I come!!

I chose to reside in the aforementioned Kintail lodge hotel...in the trekkers lodge...on the Friday night preceding the walk. I was joined overnight, eventually, by Angus Macleod who elected to stay in the hotel itself (posh boy). We partook of a cheeky little shandy then decided to have a bottle of wine and meal. We ordered two steak pies and all the trimmings, a fine bottle of white wine, and waited for our order to arrive. Amazingly it arrived around four minutes after ordering it...what service we thought to ourselves as we were led to our waiting table. As we sat down and started to tuck into our meal the table next to us were informed that they would have to wait a little longer for their meal as their steak pies had been delivered to us by mistake...hahaha no wonder the service had been so quick...we had been given someone else's pies!! Clearly we felt guilty as we tucked into the pies, but that died away as quickly as we quaffed the wine down. We followed up with a shared toffee meringue banana sweet thing which barely touched the sides on the way down.

 

 

After finishing off our tea we elected to retire to watch driv on telly and polish off another bottle of wine...and some posh crisps...before heading to our respective accomodations for the night. Angus Beaton was joining us for the walk but as he stays in Skye he elected not to come down until the following morning. I had company in the trekkers lodge for breakfast the next morning, two other walkers that agreed with me that all you need on these trips is a bed and place to make breakfast (which the trekkers lodge at Kintail is perfect for). A healthy start to the day in the form of banana and porridge was all I needed to kick start my metabolism and prepare me for a day on the hills. We were due to meet Angus B at the outdoor centre car park at Morvich, a mere five minutes away, at half past eight. Bills paid and car loaded we set off to our start point and looked on in awe at the prospective hulk of Beinn Fhada that awaited us...

Angus M started up his new GPS device (which I had recommended his wife to get him for his birthday a couple of months ago) and we checked it against the maps I had brought along. A last minute check of our respective packs and off we set...on the path to my 200th Munro. There is a clear path out to the bridge at Innichro, which you have to cross, before following the path straight ahead for a further 300m then turning right. The path then narrows and faint in places as it crosses some rough ground, but is still obvious enough to follow as it heads into the glen ahead. The path follows the route of the Abhainn Chonaig, sometimes closer than others as it meanders uphill.

 All the way up the glen the hulk of Beinn Fhada is apparent ahead, dominating the view and making you wonder where the route up it is. The glen becomes increasingly wild as we head into it and to be honest you couldn't fail to be impressed with the environment surrounding you on either side. Meall a' Bheallaich is the dominant view ahead of us, whose slopes form the shoulder that we will follow the zig zag path up. But before then we have to contend with crossing the Allt a' Choire Chaoil, which can be difficult to cross in spate, though thankfully it was a hop skip and jump on boulders today. We continued on the path towards the Bealach an Sgairne, but cut off to the right at a tiny cairn on the path, heading to the huge corrie of Meall an Fhuarain Mhoir instead. Now the views ahead surpassed anything we had seen so far today...

The green slopes of the glen were now giving way to the cold whiteness that makes any hill more of a challenge. The path followed a meandering route in zig zags up the slopes and disappeared through the snow for a short spell, re-emerging higher up as the snow became more compact and wind blasted. We reached the broad top of Sgurr an Doire Leathain and the ridge broadens even further into a sweeping plateau.

Further up the snow thickened and the temperature surprisingly seemed to rise, certainly the chill that had been affecting my fingers was disipating now. Loads of snow invariably leads to loads of cornices on the edges of corries (not that I ever get too close to the edge of them). Cornices make for some dramatic shots...and some more posing shots from you know who...

 

Once Gus M had finished posing for various shots we made our way to the summit cairn...and found a snow man atop the summit trig point!! Jelly McBaby shared a pic with the snow man and then joined in posing with the rest of the team. Beinn Fhada summit lies on the edge of it's northern corrie at 1032m and provides awesome shots into Affric, along the various ridge walks of Kintail, out to Torridon, across to Knoydart and on a clearer day than today Skye.

 

 

The summit of A' Ghlas Beinn looked enticingly close but the weather looked like it was running to plan (the forecast had said increasing clouds and winds and rain as the day progressed) so we elected against doing her today. The good thing about that is it gives us another excuse to return to this area once more during the summer and enjoy such beautiful surroundings.

We would have stayed on the summit for hours taking pics and videos, were it not for the increasingly biting cold that was nipping at any exposed flesh. The lack of a signal on the summit also meant that I couldn't post any of my summit pics to FB or Instagram until I got lower down. So we headed off the summit and elected to simply follow our route of ascent back down, the pinnacled route off sounded rather dodgy in the wet and the forecast was for rain. We made our way back to the bealach and started off down the various sets of zig zags that we had followed on the way up. At least, that was, until Angus M had a wonderfully inspired idea about taking a short-cut down the slopes!! So we cut down a particularly steep section like alpine skiers, ploughing through the snow on our feet...until Angus B slipped and landed on his bum...and off he shot like a bullet down hill quickly running out of snow. Thankfully when he left the snow it was into gorse and stones, rather than any sharp rocks, but he still managed to burst his jacket and bruise certain parts that shall remain secret!

I must confess to a slight chuckle, not at Angus B's misfortune, but at Angus M's reaction...not that karma believed that, because before I knew it I too was on my bum and hurtling towards the same fate as Angus B!!! I thought thrusting my ungloved hands into the snow would have stopped my momentum, but I was wrong, all it did was serve to freeze my fingers for the next half an hour!!! Thankfully I survived this slip without damage to equipment or self...just a little bruised ego and regret at not having my ice axe handy to arrest my fall.

The remainder of the walk out was uneventful, and five and a half hours after departing the cars we found ourselves back at the bridge.

We agreed to meet up again as soon as shifts and time off would allow...there were still another 82 Munro's to be bagged after all. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the occasion of my 200th Munro, I would have preferred if some more of my friends had been able to join me to celebrate reaching this milestone, but hopefully they will be able to join me if I ever get the other 82 done.

I would like to take a moment to remember some of the good folk that I have had the pleasure of accompanying on the first 200 Munro's in my adventures: Asima Akhtar...Louise Miller...Mike Charlton...Spot...Michael Irvine...Frank and Ruby...Paddy...Derek...Barnett and Baino...Angus M and Angus B...and not forgetting Jelly McBaby. (apologies if I have forgotten anyone)

 

Let the adventure continue...

 

 



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