Geal Charn 3, Geal Charn 4
.......(kickstarting the Project ?)
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, 10-11 December 2011
The deer were everywhere. Several herds of them sprinkled across the lower moors, driven down from the Munros by snowstorms and midweek winds up to 100mph [with even a gust of 165 recorded on Cairn Gorm]. Great hares in their winter white, darted across our path. And ahead, a large fox slinked along, looked back, and sauntered into the snowdrifted heather.
After the week's weather, it was obvious we'd need to avoid the lee slopes where all the snow would be blown. And so it was, that Paul selected a Munro with a north and westerly approach, from the Laggan road down to Geal Charn at 1046 metres. Even this involved 3 hours of breaking trail through the fresh snow up to knee deep.
Fortunately we had a calm weather window between bouts of storms, so sunshine and blue skies egged us on. It's very apt that Geal Charn means "White Hill', because it certainly was. At the trig point (my third time of visiting this summit) I thought I'd better add a Santa hat in deference to the YMC Santa night which we were missing. (But in a good cause !).
Back at the bar at Grandtully, (recommended) we swapped the craic with Robbie, a fisherman and passionate about the countryside as we all ought to be. The scandal of Scottish farmed salmon, mismanagement of the rivers. Also as Robbie put it, how many partridge and pheasant do you see ? Plenty of roadkill even. But why are there hardly any raptors, despite such a good food supply? Robbie says poisoning by gamekeepers is widespread slaughter.
For Sunday, the forecast was somewhat mixed. Paul said he hadn't done the northernmost of the Drumochter Munros, which is easy of access in poor conditions. Coincidentally, upon checking the map, its name was also once again ........Geal Charn !! .... just 917 metres this one.
Off we set, with the summits visible but the sky threatening. From 700 metres the mist closed in and it began to snow a bit on a freshening wind. Beyond the cairn around 800 metres, visiblity was greatly reduced, and definiton faded away as the white ground met the white sky. We located the summit cairn, (the fourth time for me at this one....... small wonder I've got a Corbetts book !!!) and set the bearing back to Balsporran in the valley..
The world was reduced to a white balloon, inside which we kept our eyes steadily on the compass and marched east.
Eventually, the ground began to go downwards, and after almost half an hour on the bearing, (about 1.4 km) a grey land appeared like a telly on the blink, and hey, there's Balsporran below, dead on line !!.
As we were still up at about 670 metres, luncheon in a grouse butt was followed by a traversing line across a deep-cut stream and up onto the spur of Creagan Mor at 772 metres.
This lower spur has impressive views over Loch Ericht, north across Badenoch, and south into the jaws of Drumochter, well worth a look. Second Lunch in a rocky outcrop to take it all in.
Two white hills, both of which are called "White Hill" [Geal Charn], so 2 more Munros for Paul, and my 3rd and 4th ascents of them. So maybe the time has come for the "Project". Beginning as a joke 10 years ago in Meall Garbh bothy, its an idea to catalogue every hill called Geal Charn in the Scottish Highlands, about which nothing has been done 10 years after. But there are 4 Munros called Geal Charn, and a quick shuftie across OS 42 revealed Geal Charn 772 metres south of Kinloch Rannoch, which must have interesting views as it's 3km west of Shiehallion and 4km north of Carn Mairg. So watch this space........ [but not too intently]......
