Five Get Overexcited.

After setting up the personnel and transport the night before, Thursday morning consisted of rounding up kit and provisions. (i.e. a quick swing round Lidl for pasta, sauce, brunch bars etc)

Phase One: To cycle to Stockbridge and abandond bikes / collect a 7 seater Toyota and armed with sufficient supplies of food, Landranger sheet 43 and a plan, we drove to hers and collected her, her daughter and her daughter's friend. 

Phase Two: To negotiate the festival traffic and head for end of the M90 (via one abortive and one successful trip to McDonalds) before trundling up through sunny Angus via Couper Angus and Blairgowrie and onwards up the A92 and eventually at around 4 parking up at Auchcallater.

Phase Three: Don rucksacks and march 3 and a small bit miles into the Callater Stables, a bothy along Jock's Road at the west end of Loch Callater - our base for the night. One hour 25 minutes later we arrived; sun having given way to a passing shower just as we arrived. So far, so good.

Phase Four: set up camp, eat the remainder of lunch before marching them off upwards to see if they could nail their first Munro. The plan was to head off up the stalker's path and hopefully still have enough energy to conquer the final steep drag up to the summit plateau. A glorious evening as we dandered slowly up and across the northern hillside above Loch Callater; the fabulous peaks and cliffs and crags away up at the head of the glen.

Alex set a blistering pace; it was mostly he who had expressed an interest in doing this - for years he's pored over my SMC Munro book and my Ciccerone book too and said he wants to climb a snowy mountain with me. So as a stop gap / stepping stone, we hatched the plan. The rest plodded along, through various phases of enthusiasm and defeat. As we popped up onto the summit ridge, past the twisted wreckage of the aircraft, the rain started. We could see it coming from a way off and although it didn't properly kick off, it added a coolness and a misery more associated with the 'dour glamour' of hill walking to give them a real sense of the true experience.

Alex and G raced each other to the summit, both determined to be the first one to compleat a Munro. (G won by a short head) Then Annie appeared, pale but there. A great effort. Finally Tom huffed to the summit; physically capable but mentally needs to figure out how to deal  with something like this.But credit to them all; a 6 mile plus walk up over 500 metres was a fair effort.

We downed brunch bars and headed off across the glistening summit plateau before they discovered the pain of steep descents is every bit as bad as steep climbs. But back on the path proper, the sense of achievement started to seep through and the fairly raced down the last mile or so.

Changing out of wet clothes and into joggers / warm socks whilst me and her cooked pasta for their dinner. That done they were distraught to realise the Free wifi sign was a cruel hoax.... So half an hour of chat and they were all ready for bed - it was near;y 1100. 

I nabbed a quick nip of whisky and settled down on the sleeping platform (all the others occupied the bunks in the room)and before long was off into a deep sleep...  

Extra #1 is the before shot; extra #2 is her hitting the summit plateau of Carn an t Saigart Mhor