Monadhlaith Munros; and Loch an Eilean and Ord Ban

A’ Chailleach and Carn Sgùlain, Monadhliaths

Emma writes -

“We aren’t really doing this?”, more than one of us asked as rain and wind blustered through the car park. As no-one said “No”, we pulled on waterproofs and the 10 of us headed along soggy path, over footbridge and onwards to the first challenge of the day: a burn in full throttle. We crossed with care, sadly Graham’s brand new Yeti flask had other ideas and plunged in. Graham nearly followed but we managed to dissuade him from an aquatic Yeti hunt, just. On a little further and we swung into the cute tin hut out of the wind – making ourselves comfortable with snacks, chatter and rudimentary DIY. Then it was time to brave the gnarly wind and diagonal snow (it was now high enough) for the push to the summit of A’Chailleach.  The cairn at the top provided excellent shelter. At this point our group split with George and Mark diligently descending back to be on time and dry for work while the rest of us pulled on goggles and trotted in the opposite direction up and down across the bog to the underwhelming summit of Carn Sgùlain. The descent provided more fun with a shimmy across the snow and even some glissading. Then a brief pause for a much-appreciated lunch, a little more bog trotting and we found ourselves back where we started soggy but happy.

Richard writes -

Arthur, Michael, Richard, Martin and Stuart set off for Newtonmore. Given the cold wet windy weather we initially discussed an alternative lower level walk but we decided to crack on with the scheduled Munros. Given the prevarication we were about 30 minutes behind the advance party. We parked at the end of the minor road in Glen Banchor and headed north up the marked track on the west bank of the Allt a Chaorainn. After a couple of kilometres we started heading  uphill and reached the marked stalkers bothy for our approximate elevenses. We found that the others had also stopped there as they had signed the visitors book.We then headed uphill in a northwesterly direction and spotted the others on the skyline well on the way to the summit.

In the meantime Michael had gone off to do his own exploration of the area. After a steep climb we reached the 930m summit cairn of  A’ Chailleach (the Old Woman - why?) whereupon it started to sleet. Given we had started later than the other group we decided that time was not on our side and that we would head back to the bothy for a late lunch. We didn't retrace our steps but walked in the snow about 600m to the south west along the broad ridge towards Geal Carn before descending to the bothy.  We headed back to the car crossing the river by the bridge a kilometre to the south east of the bothy to find Mike patiently waiting. The other party arrived as we were changing into dry clothes. A better than expected day was completed by very welcome coffee and cake at Tisos in Aviemore.

(The SMC Munros Guide describes the bridge as being in a decrepit state.  A new footbridge has been built on top of the decrepit one.)

Taking part: Emma, Mairi, Martyn, Stella, Andrew, May, Stuart K. Arthur, Michael, Martin, Richard and prospective members Graham, George, Mark and Stuart C.

Words: Emma and Richard Photos: Emma, Martyn and Graham