Over The Hill

If you search this website for two mountains, Maoile Lunndaidh and Beinn an Oir you will find the reports for when Alan completed his full round of Munros and when Trish completed her full round of Corbetts, that is in addition to Alan having completed his Corbetts and Trish her round of Munros, so essentially, I could have just said, Alan and Trish are two extremely experienced and competent hill walkers who just love being out in the hills. However, not satisfied with achieving their own goals, they are both keen to share their love of the hills and encourage and lead others on the same path (no pun intended) as themselves. And today we were about to celebrate the fact that in jointly leading todays walk on Beinn Ghlas, this would be the 100th walk Alan has lead, and Trish’s 90th for our group, quite an achievement.

Eighteen of us gathered at the NTS car park on the Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve and set off on the well defined path enroute to the summit of Beinn Ghlas. Cool at the start, the sun soon broke through the thin and dispersing cloud layer to brighten the day, a fine hill walking day, a day just to take things at one’s own pace, stopping and re-grouping whenever a pause was needed on the steady uphill climb. The path up the broad south ridge of Beinn Ghlas alternates between narrow rocky areas of part maintained stepped sections or just bare rock, steep in places, to areas where the gradient eases and the path is of a broader nature as it heads to yet another steep rocky section, all of which provides an interesting and varied climb, with the summit ridge ever present, and tantalizingly close.

We greeted Trish and Alan on the summit with handshakes and congratulations before Trish produced a fine iced cake, which she had miraculously carried in her rucksack without even cracking the icing, and which was adorned with a photo of her and Alan, to cut and share among the group. The cake may have survived the climb, but it did not survive long on the summit as it was eagerly devoured by not only our group, but by some hungry young lads who gladly accepted the offer of a sugar boost.

A leisurely break in glorious sunshine ensued as we sat around the summit taking in the fine views. As had been discussed earlier in the day, having climbed Beinn Ghlas, Ben Lawers is an obvious option, and, as our group consisted of a few who had yet to climb Ben Lawers and some who were happy to complete both Munros, we split into three groups, the largest group of thirteen who would continue onto Ben Lawers, two of us who were just going to head off and complete the circuit via the 880m bealach and the fine path down the Burn of Edramucky, and Alan, Trish and Lindsay who were going to soak up some more sun on the summit before also returning via the 880m bealach and the Burn of Edramucky.

A fantastic day to celebrate a fine achievement by two stalwarts of our walking group, thank you Alan and Trish for today and every day you have lead us into the mountains.