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A Munroist again :)

CatsFive

Well-Known Member
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364
Location
Scotland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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I was talking to my GP in May 2022, and said I hoped I had another Munro in me - it was around 25 years since my previous one.

I achieved that ambition on Tuesday 30th May, managing to get up & down Mayar in Glen Clova. Sadly Driesh would have been a hill too far, so will have to go back some time.

It was a perfect day for hill walking with almost no-one out there - someone passed me going up (I'm very slow!) and I crossed a family party going down. The weather was perfect and apparently the day before (Bank Holiday Monday) had been heaving with walkers & tourists which I would have hated.

So now I'm plotting my next Munro(s), but not in this very hot weather!
 
Done it again today. I started at the Glenshee ski centre which is at 2,000', walked round the three immediately west of there. Not many people out, found I could see some hills in Fife very faintly - they are about 80km (50 miles) away. Saw a Ptarmigan, a Golden Plover, some Red Grouse, a Buzzard, possibly a short-eared owl when driving up. It was a 5am alarm!
 
Ahh, well done, I've walked those hills myself and they are lovely walks. Did the ones by Glenshee in June once and there was a snow storm on top, but beautiful sunshine in the valley when we descended. Great memories. It is a few years since I was fit enough for a Munro, I would like to do another one before I get too old an decrepit.
 

That was my thought as well. It popped out when I was at the GP last May!
 
As well as the 3 on the west of the road there are also quite a few easy Munro's on the other side of the road from Glenshee ski centre.

Other easy ones that aren't too far away are the Drumochter ones off the A9 - they all start from fairly high so not massive amounts of climbing.

I've done 56 of the Munro's so far (plus quite a few repeats) - although it's taken me a while as my first one was in 1989! I might do the Cairnwell group in Glenshee later this month, as a first Munro trip with my rather lively Border Collie/Labrador cross. My other dog (a Labrador) has done a couple of Munro's so far.
 
Yes, great ones to climb, not too hard at all. I am sure your dog will enjoy the Cairnwell group, as will you. I have only done half the Munros you have, but I did have a habit of walking the same ones more than once, just for the pure enjoyment of them.
 
I've done the Cairnwell group once before (in April 1990 according to my notes!) and while the roadside stuff was a bit tedious I enjoyed the walk out the further Munro, especially as there were still patches of snow on the ground. We did get startled at one point when a rescue helicopter landed a short distance in front of us, but fortunately they weren't there for us - just doing a rescue exercise.

When I was younger I was a lot more serious about my Munro-bagging (although my wife is a fair bit ahead of my at 65 currently) but in recent years most of my hill walking has been in the Pentland Hills. My house is on the edge of them so I can climb them straight from my door. I've had a cottage in the Cairngorms for the last couple of years though and pass through Glenshee on the way there most weeks so have been meaning to climb some of the Munro's we pass again. From my notes it looks like my wife has done the 2 roadside Munro's (Cairnwell and Carn Aosda) but not the further one (Carn a'Gheoidh) which would continue a recent theme of us doing ones that I'd done by she hasn't. Most of the ones she's done and I haven't are in the far north (and more difficult!).
 

I did 4 of them many years ago when thankfully the surface was frozen, otherwise it would have been one long bog trot. I've got Glas Maol & Creag Leachach on my 'to do' list. I've done a similar number to you, mostly around Fort William.
 
Glas Maol and Creag Leachach are quite nice especially the ridge along to Creag Leachach, except for the slog back up to the car-park. We did them in April 1992 when it was cold but dry with still some snow at higher levels.

The Carn an Tuirc, Cairn of Claise, Tolmount and Tom Buidhe group we did on a lovely warm day in May 1990. The two further away Munro's just seemed like bumps on the plateau though. I remember seeing a massive herd of deer on the way back from those.
 
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