Meall Gaordaidh as seen from the east,
photo provided by Richard Webb, who was
also on this summit on the very same day I was.

It had been ages since I was last with the club up to Scotland, I was making a better effort to mix in compared with previous trips and actually got quite a few foreign people interested in walks I was to do. The day proved to be a relaxing outing with a brief shower on the top of Ben Vorlich.

The glens here were filled with intimidating signs like ‘no dogs’ and ‘no path’, ‘stalking season July to February stick to these routes DO NOT venture off these routes’. Estates which impose access restrictions for half the year are both unreasonable and do a lot of harm in relations between walker and landowner. These restrictions tend to be ignored, but better well managed estates go stalking for typically a six week period starting in September when the school holidays are over. Requests from these estates are more reasonable and are generally heeded by more walkers. Glen Ample (where the signs were) apparently has a reputation for being unfriendly.

Most people in the group were quite quick though some were having an ‘off day’. Still, good progress was being made and the views out to the west and east were nice with lower knobbly hills interspersed with high moorland. The next summit apparently required a scramble up a steep buttress. We approached it and it looked more and more intimidating as we got closer. Sarah decided to go down the glen not liking the look of the scramble, Chris decided to go and look after her while we would meet them down in the glen. We seeked a route to the left of the buttress and ended up going up a wide and steep grassy gully which involved no scrambling at all. Apparently a good route in one of my guidebooks takes a path to the right of the buttress. The conditions remained summery underfoot with a hint of snow and frost on the final summit. A nice day overall.

I decided to try and get the entire group of eight to hitch hike back to Killin from Lochearnhead as we were one and a half hours early before the minibus was due to pick us up. The group was split into three groups, two groups of two and a group of four who were cynical about hitchiking. Only one group successfully hitched back, the rest of us took a bus service back at 5.15pm. I worried that Mike the minibus driver would be on his way to collect us as we were on our way back. He was, the time delay characteristics of hiking club rendezvous times I estimated didn’t happen this time round. I awaited my execution at the hostel but it never happened, Mike is a reasonable and understanding chap and relations were soon healed when I bought Mike and his bus companion Stu an expensive Whiskey each.

Patrick and Me on the slopes of Meall Gaordaidh

Me, Julien and Patrick doing a summit pose on Meall Gaordaidh

It was an excellent day for hiking with new snow above 800m and clear blue skies and pink fluffy clouds. I chose another relaxing day which two others decided to accompany me with. The ascent was a grind up gentle convex heather lower slopes and only the final ascent proved to have any rockiness.

The view from the summit of Meall Gaordaidh looking west through to the north

Once on the summit the wind was biting cold but the views all round were excellent where we seemed to be getting a better deal out of the weather than surrounding mountain groups. To add a bit of length to the day a small minor summit was climbed to the west before heading back down via a small rest by a stream. I decided not to hitch back this time just in case Steve was making his way up early!