Beinn Bhrotan & Monadh Mor

An early started at dawn. Water boiled on the gas stove for coffee and cereal before driving onwards to the Linn of Dee. MTB past the White Bridge after which terrain was fairly rough on the bike. Weather in the morning not so great although it improved later.

The route to the first summit was fine but a little dull with no views.

A fairly easy onwards journey to the second summit by which time the sun had broken through.

Gave some thought to extending the journey to Cairn Toul which looked fairly close and probably manageable. Decided to keep things simple and stick to plan as munros are never as easy as they might look. It was a bit of trudge down the hill which was done without much enthusiasm.

This was 10th new munro for 2021 (also did 1 repeat in a hill race). That will probably be all for this year.

Carn an Righ and Glas Tulaichean

After a week at home being on call for Les whilst Cherry was away doing the Fife Coastal Walk it was Colin's opportunity to get away for a few days in the hills and enjoy the last of the good weather.

Up early and away to Spittal of Glenshee. The old inn has been gone for some time unfortunately.

Mountain bike ride up the valley Gleann Taitneach as far as possible. Generally fairly decent trail.

Fairly pleasant walk up towards a wee high level loch above the valley. Great views back down the valley and pleasant to stop for a few moments to enjoy the tranquility of the loch.

Decent paths from here to the summit of Carn an Righ. An unusually pleasant route for a munro climb. Quite a few people out on the hills.

From there it was an easy descent and then choose the direct rougher route up to Glas Tulaichean which wasn't too bad in the dry conditions.

Had the second summit to myself with most groups having tackled this one first. 

OK descent back to the bike and onwards to Spittal of Glenshee. Spent the night sleeping in the back of car with there being no available hotels/B&B in the area that night. Stopped in the minor alternative road into Braemar on a quiet roadside spot. Not a terribly pleasant experience with little sleep but enough to get me through the next day and also support an early start in the morning.

Pentlands Run

I wouldn't normally record a training run but this was a particularly nice afternoon with the sun shining and a lovely route with some climb but for the most part gentle gradients that allow the running to flow. Easy run so no big efforts on the hills but nice steady effort or the levels and descents. Start at Nine Mile Burn and up via Monks Rig to the foot of the Kips and along towards Bavelaw before heading West and then over Bore Stane to North Esk Reservoir and up and over to Spittal farm and back to start.

 

Carn Bhac & Beinn lutharn Mhor

Second day out in the hills was another couple of remote peaks approached by mountain bike. This time drove as close as possible before cycling down Glen Ey and parking the bike just after Altanour Lodge.

The walk to the first summit of Carn Bhac was fairly pleasant with a bit of a track to follow most of the way up.

The next section through to the second hill was pretty rough and unpleasant with no obvious trail to follow. There was then a very steep but relatively short ascent up to the second summit.

Decent from the hill was quite easy following the main ridge line pictured above. A short steep bit and then a rougher boggy bit but back to the bike reasonably quickly. As easy cycle back to the car and finished feeling pretty good. A big difference to the previous set of munros where I must have had some sort of bug to leave me feeling so unwell after the hills.

  

Carn an Fhidleir & An Sgarsoch via Geldie Lodge

Carnethy were aiming to get some-one from the club on top of every Munro on 14 August 2021. To do my part I planned to do the two Geldie munros - a couple of very remote but not particularly challenging hills.

It was an early start from Edinburgh to drive to Braemar where a quick coffee and cake set me up for the day. I chose to park in Braemar to give a slightly longer cycle than necessary for around 14 miles. After some road at the start it was increasingly wild and remote landrover tracks all the way out to Geldie Lodge.

After locking up the bike it was then path for a while before hitting some very rough and boggy terrain on the first ascent to Carn an Fhidleir. It was a pretty quick ascent and starting to feel good. Met three other climbers at the summit who took the photo showing off the Carnethy vest.

Having shown off the running vest it seemed almost obligatory to run off the summit and speed up the next munro of An Sgorsoch. Made very good time on this section reaching the summit at 3 pm.

The descent was quite nice at first then on the lower ground became a bit boggy with no clear path until reaching the track. A lovely downhill bike ride over 14 miles back to Braemar saw me finish in good shape.

Spent the evening at a B&B in Ballater (No 45).

The Carnethy club mission to summit all the munros was a success although it required some visits to the summits in darkness just before midnight to achieve the goal.

Stob Coir' an Albannaich & Meall nan Eun

Took advantage of the good weather to head for the hills and enjoy some time munro bagging. After a 3 hr drive to Glen Etive I was heading up the hill by around 11 am. A fairly tough day and didn't feel on fabulous form with maybe more stops along the way than usual - but the plan today was to take it easy rather than be fast. 

It was a tough descent that took a long time to complete and was feeling a bit miserable by the end. 

The plan had been to wild camp and do three more munros the next day. But I had everything with me save matches and the prospect of cold soup and sardines was not very appealing so didn't hesitate to decide just to head home early. It turned out I wasn't quite right and had a bit of minor shivers and headaches that evening and the next day or two - nothing too serious but certainly not totally well.