It has been quite an adventure since my last Munro in September 2014. My wife and I became three with the birth of our daughter, Martha, and it's been a blur of nappies, giggles, tears and Aptamil. So, coming down to 4 days in my day-job and having taken my wife out for lunch the previous day, I had a pass for a hill, with a Munro being approved. I was off at 0500 and parked near Fersit for 0730 in the R time machine. Whoaf! It was going to be a glorious day and i wanted to have done the hard work before it got too warm. I needn't have worried as I re-traced my steps over Stob Coire Mheadhoin from over 10 years ago (an admittedly tough Winter's day which resulted in retreat) and was up overlooking the huge cornices within 2.5 hours. Three deer ran off and up the hill and I snatched a moment where they raced across a snowfield. Views to Stob Ban cast memories from the Grey Corries wild camp, which was fabulous. This really is a special area. From here, the view over to Stob Coire Easain was sensational and I made my way down to the bealach, which still had large amounts of snow over the lip of the coire - problematic later on.
I had some refreshment, took off the fleece which had been required with the chilly wind up above 700m and dumped the rucksack before starting up the steep plod on to Easain. The views back down to Glencoe and the Buachaille were exhilarating and I felt very blessed. Perhaps it's been so long since my last one and because of what has happened since Martha was born, this truly felt like a day which would live long in the memory i.e. I dedicate this hill to my beautiful daughter. All that remained was the descent to get my rucksack and the no easy task of getting into the coire. There was no way I could break through the cornices as the descent was too steep so I walked back along to a small crag, being ultra-careful with my feet placing and very much using hands. Once on to a large enough piece of snowfield, I bum slid the best part of 200m, which was molto funno. The walk back along the glen was very relaxing and I got back to the car at 1230. Fab day out.
