Meall Glas & Sgiath Chuil

This was my first walk since hurting and resting my achilles tendon and was a bit of a test to see how the recovery was doing with a week to go before Mont Blanc, luckily everything seems to be back to normal.

I set off from Auchessan farm in claggy conditions and followed a faint path up past a forest plantation and on up a ridge to a brief clearing of the clag and a faint view over the A85 and Glen Dochart, it was at this point I realised I was on completely the wrong side of the Allt Essan (burn) and my 465m height gain was in vain. Turns out it was Creag Lubhair and a good lesson to me to get the compass out and not blindly follow paths.

So, down the steep slopes over broken ground (ankle feeling fine) due North to head straight for Meall Glas. If you haven't walked in clag before it's really disorientating and on occasions I'd swear i was walking in the wrong direction. But trusting my bearing I plodded on and eventually, counting steps for distance, stumbled upon the summit, which only came into visibility in the last 10m or so, and startled an elderly gentleman enjoying his lunch.

We chatted for a bit and since we were both heading over to Sgiath Chull (the 2nd Munro of the day) we decided to walk together. Turns out he will be 70 next year and is having a big final push this summer to finish off the 20 or so Munro's he's never done. Big respect to these old boys who wander around the mountains on their own at an age when most of his peers, at best, are engaging in more leisurely pursuits.

Sgiath Chull is a steep pull up it's heather flanks with over 300m (1000ft) of climb in less in half a Km.

At the top of Sgiath Chull we had 15 mins or so chatting and having lunch sheltering from the roaring wind, with jackets and hats on, then parted company since the retired ski instructor had approached the mountains from the north side in Glen Lochay. I headed South back to the farm.

As I dropped out of the clag at 400m or so the day was sunny and warm and looking back the summits were beginning to clear. I guess the best part of the day would have been the evening.

Back to the car in 6 hours feeling fine, happy that my ankle felt fine on it's first test drive.

With my extra summit I guess around 1500m of ascent and a 16.5km round trip.

Sorry, not many good pics on this tip.