Lamont Mountain Adventures

Summer has started a little wet so far but on Monday we managed to get out on some dry rock on the Buachaille Etive Mòr.
We chose to climb Shackle Route followed by Hangman's Crack. The guidebook describes Hangman's Crack as "tough for the grade" which I'd certainly agree with. To think it was first climbed in 1941 without modern gear......were climbers built of different stuff back then!?

It's been a busy old weekend with plenty of mountain adventures taking place.

On Friday and Saturday Dave had returning client Sarah out on Skye ticking off a few munros in some very Wintery conditions. The lambing snow has arrived!

On Sunday James was out 'Dad Squads running an Introduction to Mountain Navigation course. Again, all the seasons in one day!

A day out on the Corbetts An Dun and A'Chaoirnich today from Dalnacardoch.
These are 2 exceptionally steep hills, a good test for the quads! An Dun translates as "The Fort" and it certainly felt like I was climbing up the battlements with the ascent.
The second hill though, A'Chaoirnich is the one steeped in history. The pass between the 2 hills is part of the old Comyns Road, a 13th century pass linking Atholl to Badenoch.
Flowing down the side of A'Chaoirnich is a burn, the Allt a'Chaoirnich, which is said to have had a well known section where people would leap over the burn. Walter Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, had travelled to the area in 1258 to find a route through to Atholl. The story goes that his horse lept over the burn but knocked Comyn from the saddle, his foot getting caught in the stirrup. The horse fled back to Badenoch, by the time it arrived only Comyn's foot was left in the stirrup. His body was later found being eaten by eagles.
To the north of the mountain is the location of the Loss of Gaick memorial, a plaque commemorating an avalanche which struck a hunting lodge and killed 4 people in 1800, one of them said to have had a pact with the devil.
Needless to say no devil worshipping or burn jumping were on the cards today.

Congratulations to Catherine and dog Sybil on the completion of their first munro.

We had the pleasure of guiding them up Schiehallion on what was probably the best weather day of the year so far. The weather is obviously always sunny with no wind on the munros 🤫

A bit of shameless plugging for the Tayside MRT 50th anniversary fundraising walk. Sign up today folks!

Winter keeps on coming.
Climbing The Seam IV 5 *** in Sneachda. Still lots of snow and a considerable avalanche forecast meant it was a day for solid decision making. Ewan, George and I headed along the Fiacaill Ridge and then abseiled into The Seam.
The snow started as we climbed back out and by the time we had got back down onto the path to walk out we were in full Cairngorm blizzard mode.
It might be 17 degrees south of the border but it is still very much Winter in the Scottish mountains.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that these photographs were from January, especially when April 26 has more snow than all of last Winter.
But no, these photos are from Coire an t-Sneachda yesterday whilst climbing Hidden Chimney. Always a good day out with just the right level of interest to keep you [literally] on your toes

A run yesterday up into Glen Girnaig near Pitlochry out to the old settlement at Lycondlich.

Lycondlich is marked on the old Parish maps as 'Conlach'. In the 1820 census it shows as being farmed by 2 families, Peter Lamont with his wife and 7 children, and Alexander Forbes and his family.

The Lamonts of Conlach were part of a large contingent of Lamonts living around the Blair Atholl area in the late 1700's and early 1800's. They had taken up tenancies in Glen Tilt, Glen Fender, Trinafour and as far away as Rannoch. Most were farm hands or cattle dealers although Peter's grandson, also Peter, worked as an under-butler at Blair Castle.

The croft at Conlach continued to be inhabited by the Lamont family until the early 1900's at which point migration and emmigration had taken its toll.

Peter Lamont and many of his sons and daughters are buried in the kirkyard at Struan.

Out on Ben Nevis yesterday climbing the classic Comb Gully. High up on the Ben it was where we felt we were guaranteed decent ice and we were treated to solid conditions.

At a reasonable pace with no faff it still took us just under 3 hours to top out...... a far cry from the 7 minutes it took John Barry, former director at Plas Y Brenin, to climb it in his youth!

Plan A had been for an ascent of Number 2 Gully on Ben Nevis today but a change of plan had us ascend the west face of Càrn Mor Dearg.
I'm not sure I'll be rushing back in a hurry to do it again; 450m (1500ft) of steep snow and ice with no protection other than ledges being cut every 100ft made for some forearm burn!

A quick tag of the summit cairn and then the long descent back to the NF car park