Ulog 9: Serious Bagging, Day One – Creag Meagaidh in threatening weather

With the weather forecast looking very changeable, me and my friend Kathleen decided to tackle the Creag Meagaidh circuit, a walk that takes in three "Munros" (mountains of 3,000 feet or more).

Creag Meagaidh

As I outlined in yesterday's post, I am aiming to "bag" all 282 of Scotland's Munros, and I would like Scotland's highest mountain, Ben Nevis, to be my 100th Munro.

When we set off for Creag Meagaidh, my Munro tally was at 75. This walk would bring it to 78.

A weird lenticular cloud in the sky the day before foretold windy, changeable weather.

It was a beautiful day as we started walking through the Creag Meagaidh Nature Reserve.

Views of Loch Laggan opened up as we climbed higher.

Views also opened up of the cliffs of Creag Meagaidh, which are popular with ice climbers in winter, and the steep bealach (the lowest point between two hills) between the second Munro: Stob Poite Coire Ardair, and the third Munro, Creag Meagaidh.

This bealach is known as The Window. We could also just see the lochan at the foot of Creag Meagaidh, Lochan a'Choire.

As the cairn of the first Munro, Carn Liath, came into view, the wind was so strong we were having trouble staying upright!

But it was still quite warm and sunny. This is me at the summit, getting a battering from the wind.

We saw a ptarmigan, cleverly camouflaged against the rocks. Can you spot her?

As we walked along the ridge, the clouds thickened and began to look more ominous.

An enormous anvil-shaped cloud appeared.

The summit of the second Munro in this round, Stob Poite Coire Ardair, was quite undistinguished. It had a couple of cairns, but we weren't sure which one marked the actual summit.

Stob Poite Coire Ardair is quite a mouthful. It means "Peak of the pit of the high corrie".

From this point there were tremendous views back along the ridge that we'd just traversed.

The skies to the south looked quite dark and threatening!

But where we were, the weather stayed dry and quite warm. We walked down and back up the steep sides of "The Window", and on the approach to the summit of Creag Meagaidh, the third Munro of the day, we passed an enormous cairn.

This is known as "Mad Meg's Cairn", and it marks the grave of a woman who committed suicide in the 18th century. Her body was not allowed burial in the local kirkyard (churchyard), so her family had her interred high on Creag Meagaidh and built a huge cairn to mark the spot.

We met another walker.

The summit cairn was not quite as dramatic as "Mad Meg's Cairn". As the third Munro of the day, it marked Munro Number 78 for me!

The way back down the mountain towards Lochan a'Choire was possibly even more dramatic than the approach. We had to pick our way carefully over the boulders.

The cliffs of Creag Meagaidh towered above us.

This is the view looking back up to "The Window".

The long walk back to the car park through the nature reserve was quite beautiful. We saw a cute baby siskin.

And some very pretty wildflowers.

The weather stayed dry until we were about 15 minutes walk away from the car park, when there was some light rainfall.

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk, which covered about 21km with a total ascent of almost 1100m.

When we returned to the campsite we had a slap-up meal with wine and chocolate cake for dessert.

The storm hits at last!

That night there was a big thunderstorm followed by a lot of rainfall. Our tents were rainproof, so we stayed dry, but the next morning my friend decided she'd had enough and was going back home.

I was scheduled to join a Meetup group that day for an exciting walk up Bidean nam Bian, a mountain in Glencoe that I'd wanted to climb for ages, so there was no way I was going home!

Bidean nam Bian, in wintry conditions. (Photo taken in April 2017.)