Looking South west from
the plateau of the Monadliath

The Monadliath Munros provided the ideal May Bank Holiday weekend being far enough north for a feeling of distance from the main cities. A super huge breakfast was had at Bus’y’Bite in Perth and it kept me going well into the afternoon that day. The day was showery in the morning and the mountains around Dalwhinnie gave a wild impression making me glad to be back in Scotland after three weeks. Residual snow made the mountains nice though caused no problems for me which was a good thing anyway since I omitted bringing an ice axe.

My pack was a lot lighter compared with Easter and I flied up the first summit in one and a half hours. Rain turned to sleet high up though that was the last of precipitation for today. Views cleared and moutains as far away as Ben Wyvis to the north and Glen Affric to the north west showed up. Progress on the plateaux wasn’t too quick but not too slow either with some shallow peat hags causing me to drag my feet.

The plateau would be a very testing place to practice navigation in both summer and winter, the ground is vast and featureless though the lack of crags would give large margin for error in whiteout. My day wasn’t like that though and I felt relieved that the weather was at last kind to me for once. I camped high up close to 900m with two Munros just fifteen minutes away each. The camp certainly ranks highly.

The glen descended into after
my traverse of the Monadliath.

The day dawned cloudy and frosty, the ascent of the first summit soon saw the cloud evaporate quickly and I was left with clear blue sky in all directions. Despite the frost and the early time I was roasting in the sun and wasn’t accustomed to such warm weather for quite a while. I was tracking a band of cloud far away to the north west, cloud was forecast with rain later and I kept up my pace to reach camp before the rain would. The cloud came over about the Great Glen by the time I was descending and I then lost track of the cloud.

On reaching Newtonmore my task mow was to hitchhike over to the Pass of Drumochter otherwise I would have to abandon my trek. A hitch arrived in twenty minutes and I was then walking again once I arrived at the pass. The cloud had caught up and I was now looking for cloud thickening through the day. The eastern summits gave easy walking on short grass and a bulldozed track.

A certain Cameron McNeish was met up there, we chatted for a short time, I didn’t realise it was him at the time though I had my suspicions later. He confirmed meeting me after I asked him at a Wilderness Walks talk he gave in Manchester. It’s not uncommon to meet famous ‘hillwalking’ people up in the highlands, someone from my January ’98 hike said he met me on the ridge between A’Chralaig and the Mullach. It’s quite stunning to meet the same strangers more than once in the vast highlands of Scotland and to be recognised (some people say I’m quite easy to recognise though!). I decided not to climb Meall Cuaich today, I’d already climbed a lot and it was time to rest.

I was eager to get home and subsequently I left Meall Cuaich for another time, the walk along the track beside the aqueduct gave a welcome flat walk back to Dalwhinnie. I later had problems getting a coach back from Glasgow to Manchester. The 3pm coach was full leaving me with the 11pm coach. The idea of waiting in Buchanan St Bus Station for 10 ½ hours didn’t appeal. I decided to grovel to the driver going to Liverpool, he let me on, I was most relieved. I subsequently got back to Manchester via Liverpool for a curry with the rest of the Hiking Club who had all been to Wasdale for some ‘sunburning’.