We woke to a Dundee covered in snow and anticipated being at least ankle deep in powdery snow up in the mountains of Glen Lyon. Four of us had decided to attempt a few of the four Munros to the east of the glen, leaving the rest of the group to go and do Stuchd an Lochain.
After negotiating a very icy path we eventually began to ascend, however we found we were slipping all over the place on the icy compacted snow, so on went the crampons. The conditions made it easy walking and soon enough we were at the top of a very windy Carn Gorm.
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A celebratory cup of tea was had and we set off again heading to Meall Garbh and to seek refuge from the wind. About halfway between the two Munros we stopped for a quick lunch in the group shelter then carried on. We walked past the anti–climatic summit of Meall Garbh thinking it was just a pile of metal poles placed there to be taken away. So it wasn't until looking at the map a short time later that we realised.
Between Meall Garbh and the next Munro, Carn Mairg, we decided to split up with two heading to do the third Munro and the two of us heading back to the bottom.
We came across big accumulations of snow that had turned icy so we had a bit of a muck around pretending to climb the small ice walls. We got back to the road about half an hour earlier than the agreed time to be picked up, but thanks to an underestimation and a mix up with crampons we ended up walking for an hour down the road until we gave up and waited in a passing place in the group shelter to get picked up.
With everyone reunited and rather cold, we stopped off at the Fortingall Hotel for some hot chocolates and a look at the Yew Tree, before heading back home.
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Trip photos for Carn Gorm, Meall Garbh and Stuchd an Lochain
Click here to open the album for this trip. If your device supports it, you will also see a slideshow below.
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