I am rarely too organised with my hill walking and, usually , what I do is dictated by the weather. But as chance would have it, I spent both the longest and the shortest days of 2019 with my walking friend Rob.
Mid-summer walking
In June, we were delighted – although rather surprised – when calm and sunny weather arrived in perfect timing for the mid-summer weekend. Rob and I had long planned a packrafting and wild camping trip to Suilven, in Sutherland, and we could hardly believe the fortuitous spell of good weather.
On the longest day of 2019, we walked the Corbett, Cul Beag. Over the mid-summer weekend, we completed a glorious outing on the iconic Assynt mountian of Suilven.
Corbett bagging on the shortest day
It therefore felt serendipitous to walk another mountain with Rob on the shortest day of the year. We chose a summit closer to home because, of course, daylight was in short supply.
I had forgotten that I had walked Beinn Each sometime in the last year with Hubby G and two other friends but one mountain never looks the same on each hike so it really didn’t matter.
Beinn Each, from Loch Lubnaig, is a steep ascent and when the clouds finally drifted apart, the views over Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park were beautiful.
The snow from the previous weeks had all but disappeared although there were some fun patches for walk-sliding up and down the 813m tall Corbett.
Rob and I enjoyed a catch up as we walked – and we have made plans for a few new adventures in 2020.
I have enjoyed the start of my Corbett bagging list and I hope to do more next year. I also plan to tick off some of my final Munros. Perhaps I will finally finish my first Munros round…