Walking: Driesh and Mayar
The first meet of the year took us to Glen Clova, and what brilliant weather we had! Hot and sunny, but it was fairly windy on top of the hills, which helped to combat the heat.
A large group of us decided to walk up Driesh (3106 ft.) and then Mayar (3044 ft.), a fairly simple route as there was a good path for much of the way, walking back to the car park through the Glen Doll forest so we could view the beautiful waterfall situated in the corrie there.
We started off at roughly quarter past nine, and had a good gentle stroll up through the trees, before having a steeper ascent out in the open - where we all were suffering from the roasting sun!
We reached the summit of Driesh at about 11am, where thankfully it was much cooler, due to the rather blustery wind, so jackets and fleeces were back on while we ate our lunches and had a wee rest.
We then set off again, over to Mayar, where we all took a good long rest and ate a second lunch, whilst admiring the gorgeous views.
It was then onto our descent, over some rather boggy ground, but eventually we reached a nice path to take us down through the corrie and past the waterfall.
Ana, Brett and Ali discovered an excellent rock that looked exactly like Pride Rock from The Lion King, so they took some time out to unleash their "inner Simba" in a rather stunning photo-shoot.
We all took a break just before re-entering the forest, and had a relaxed ramble through the woods to reach the car park in plenty of time! It was only half past two in the afternoon when we finished, so we rested (and paddled!) in the river by the car park while we waited for the other walkers to return from their day's fun, before all piling into the minibus to get to the pub for a well-deserved tea and pint (or hot chocolate), and a few games of pool.
All in all it was a fantastic day, and a great way to start off the year! Hopefully all the new members enjoyed their day and will be back for more fun in the coming weekends.
Time taken: 5 hours
| Written by: | Ali Stangoe |
| Photos: | James Simpkins, Anastasia Adashkevich |
Climbing: Red Craigs
Whilst the walkers headed off to destroy any others' hopes for empty hills a smaller group of us headed straight for the sun-soaked Red Craigs (so much sun there was even some sunburn). We quickly split into two groups, one being graciously led by Ruaridh while attempting yet again to find the "correct" line up 20 Minute Route (probably unsuccessfully) while the others headed for the harder routes.
Guy then took the lead up Three J's Chimney as a chance to test some extremely rusty gear placement and belay setup skills while Calum appeared to be gratefully hugging a tree halfway up Cauldron Crack to our left!
After this Ruaridh, Guy and Lauren headed down to the disused quarry to practice some more gear placement and rope work before watching Ruaridh set up a rope purely to ascend then abseil it!
Trip stats
| Attendees: | 42 |
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