MIKE WOOD - 488361

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Awards Completed

ML
Member Of

Walking Record

Details

Date : 14/11/2022

Duration : 3-5 hours

Style : Leader / Supervisor

Type : Quality Mountain Day (QMD)

Weather : Partially Cloudy

Wind : Strong Wind

Camping Type : N/A

Nights Camping : 0

Mountains : A'Chailleach

Flagged :

Description

ROUTE: As SMC Guidebook "The Munros"
MEMBERS OF PARTY: With my wife Marion plus 3 other friends from Edinburgh, all inexperienced hill walkers
CONDITIONS: Cloudy. Strong wind on summit and upper slopes, feeling cold. Hill fog from around 750m. Wet to saturated underfoot.
DURATION: 11km, 738m ascent. Four hours car to car.
SKILLS PRACTISED: Group leadership. Planning route. Navigation with map and compass, distance measurement primarily by timing (approx. Naismith's Rule). We had originally intended just to have a stroll up Glen Banchor but when I floated the option for another Munro at the car park enthusiasm levels were high and all were happy to go for it.
MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT: The blanket bog from around the "Red Bothy" upwards was particularly saturated today, and the damage caused by ATV wheels all too obvious, disappointing in an area which lies entirely within the Cairngorms National Park. The transition to a dwarf shrub heath dominated by Crowberry and Cladonia lichen is noticeably well-defined, and the summit Racomitrium heath, in contrast to the wetter slopes below, shows very little trampling damage and only a very faint path is evident.
KEY LEARNING POINTS/CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIENCE: The day gave a good opportunity to demonstrate map and compass work. With the cloud level around 750m, A'Chailleach's broad sweeping moorland slopes appeared almost featureless, and two fairly precise legs of navigation were required leaving the summit before I picked up the meandering and boggy ATV track which led back to the Red Bothy and the Allt a Chaorainn.

Area : Monadhliath Mountains (Carn Dearg)

Monadhliath Mountains means "grey mountains". Running in a northeast to southwest direction, the mountains lie on the western side of Strathspey, to the west of the Cairngorms and to the south east of Loch Ness. The mountains are within the Highland council area, and the south and east fringes are within the Cairngorms National Park. The high point of the range is Càrn Dearg, at 945 m/3100ft, located 24 km south of Inverness.

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