Ben Cruachan

It simply HAS to be viewed large on Black (otherwise it just looks dull!)

We were determined on this visit to Scotland to get me up my first Munro. We woke to clear skies, we could see the summit from our room, and the forecast looked good. An early start at the road at the side of Loch Awe, we walked (climbed) up a really steep, muddy path to the dam by the Cruachan Reservoir (extras 2 & 3). The climb from there to the summit of Ben Cruachan was steep, very boggy in places and very hard. The main blip was taken from just below the Summit, (the ridge to the left of the pic in the background is our route - right up to the drifty cloud in the distance). The pic of Deb (extra 1) was taken from the top. You'll see the clouds rolling in from the left of the picture. From there we managed Drochaid Ghlas (a Munro top), Stob Diamh (another Munro) and Stob Garbh (another Munro top). All in zero visibility along some ridges that made sharp edge look easy! We had compasses, GPS, maps and electronic mapping, which all seemed to get confused. At one point Debs was saying North was in one direction whilst mine said it was in a completely different direction! It was very scary on a couple of occassions as we found ourselves almost going into the wrong valleys!

Ben Cruachan: 3,700 feet
Stob Daimh: 3,278 feet

Eventually, after 14 miles and 4,150 feet of climbing - we did get safely back to the car, and had a wonderful steak dinner in a restaurant to celebrate.