These two summits were left out on my July hike and each summit would be a very strenuous day from the road, however. A weekend camping expedition however was more practical for these summits were a long way from the nearest public road.

The weather forecast for the weekend was for heavy rain and gales on Saturday and showers on Sunday. I dreaded the trip with the forecast in mind, the rain however turned out to be moderate as I left the coach at Calvine. The place was bleak but the wind was on my back which made the going comfortable on the track up to Bruar Lodge. The rain stopped for lunch which was perfect timing as far as I was concerned. The rain the day before had been very mild and this removed the snow cover almost completely in under a day. I found the going up to Beinn Dearg via An Torr to be swift and easy.

This was the ideal weekend to try my new and supposedly waterproof gloves. With the next heavy rain on the way down from the summit the gloves leaked and within half an hour my hands were cold and wet. The gloves were subsequently replaced with the same pair with me believing it was a fault of the batch I had, the second pair leaked as well. From that time I realised it was a design fault for the leather palm reinforcement had no waterproof backing. This was solved by applying nikwax regularly to the leather which works temporarily.

The camp at the high corrie was a damp one and not comfortable on the lumpy ground. The rain continued all night and I wondered if it would ever stop, it did half an hour before breakfast time.

The final day and I was looking forward to some creature comforts at the end of the trip. So far my boots didn’t get wet, this was all to change after my descent from Beinn Mheadhonach. A river called Feith an Lochain proved to be a damp knee deep obstacle with no way around it, the inevitable happened but the feet dried out on the descent from the final summit.

I was now beneath the cloud base and a South Westerly view looked bright with Shiehallion in the distance. A long walk out now ensued to Blair Atholl from where I hitched to Pitlochry. It took well over an hour to successfully obtain a hitch and thus proved to be my worst hitchhiking experience so far. The pub was nice and warm in contrast to the developing frost outside, I good character building weekend overall.