A very warm Fannichs trip

So a plan was hatched to collect the 9 Fannich munros for a friend, after searching for ideas to try and collect them all in one triple  happened on Nick Bramhalls route and decided to retrace it 



I met Lee at Penrith,on the Thursday morning and after a breakfast at the Red Rooster we were heading north by 8 am.With Oscar on board we made a few stops as we crunched the long miles north 







We made good time and we shouldered our packs at 3-30 pm on the Thursday,with 4 days food for me and the dogs food/gear my pack came in at 37 lb !   but i expect my pack for my Sweden trip to be around that weight when i have 9 days food on board,so training weight i guess 😥


It was great to back among bigger hills, but the 27c heat made it warm work, the river lead us on and upwards to our first target the col at 174706








Luckily there was lots of ice cold water to be had, we drank moved on then drank again





It was great to drop the packs and set up camp in lovely warm weather, we camped at the col Cadha na Guide at 800m between two of the munros


Once pitched and ate tea sitting outside, just enjoying the view.Later we wondered up to bag the first Munro of the trip...it was a wonderful evening to be up high, made more pleasant as the heat of the day slowly dropped away 









The views were superb and far in all directions 












Day 2 started warm and wind shirts were only on for the first 20 mins then stashed away again 









The walk up Sgurr nan Clach Geal was superb, last time i came down this way, but walking up it allowed me to view the lovely cliffs that dropped into Coire Mor


 The route was followed but a signal dragged in threatened 60 mm of rain with thunder and lightening,we agreed to carry on then see if we could get another signal before we committed to heading further out.The path along the shore of Loch Fannich would be a very wet place to be if the weather forecast was true 


The heat was a constant drain and i worked hard to keep water near for Oscar and made sure got him into any standing water whenever i could find some 








Lee on the far left as we left the summit of Sgurr Mor


Woof was feeling the heat as much as we stared out at the distant An Teallach


Just south of Sgurr Mor was an old snow bank and a nice running stream so we had an hour cooling down.We left the packs and had a  nice stroll out to Being Laith Mhor Fannich and back again, while on its summit we pulled in another weather report, it was the same with local road flooding for Garve and meant to hit by 3.00 pm 


As we had already crossed Sgorr Mor it was a steep crossing along the 950m contour on its west side to find a camp spot ....as always camping high is always the way to go,so we camped a minute or so from the summit of Carn na Criche 


It was a stunning place to camp and just stare at the huge mountain that is Sgurr nan Clach Geala,while eating our teas 

















 With views out to the North as far as our eyes could stretch it was hard to believe the forecast 













Our last morning started the same as the last two, warm and dry, we were sat out eating breakfast at 5-30 am in shirt sleeves it was 18c already



Camera didn't really catch how nice the early rays of morning light were 











As we dropped height we passed a lovely stream so stopped for a wash, not long after setting off i remembered that id read that the bothy at the end of Loch a Bhraoin.... Lochivaraon bothy had been done up.So we decided to see if we could get there before the storm hit, then hide there for the night and at least catch two more of the Fannich Munros 


The weather was still very warm but you could see the change in weather coming, big darker clouds were building up, we shared the track down with a lady taking cattle down to graze at the far end of the valley.
    She told us how her father used to bring a 100 sheep down to graze at the end of the Loch,but he took them down at the end of winter, walking them ontop of the the frozen loch !


Dog cool down swims were the order of the day, with a constant eye to the dark building skies above and around us 


We had a surprise fly over as we neared the end of the loch 


The truck was the farmers wife husband driving down to collect her, sadly we had another not so nice surprise when we reached the bothy, a large group had taken over the bothy taking all the space, with enough food inside to see out a week or more ...
















After swearing and grumbling for a while we had a snack then turned round and headed back along to the car arriving just before the rain.
After a bit of faffing and ringing round we managed to find a B & B at Garve.Much to our annoyance the weather storm never arrived, it just rained, so we made a quick plan to do a short trip into the Cairngorms to break up the drive home, ill do another short vid on that later ....



                                 Heres a video of the trip 



                     ............................  Safe travel Peter




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