all hail liathach

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

With the temperature hitting 22deg at 8am on Saturday morning, we decided to fulfill Dawn’s ambition of climbing Liathach and the famous Am Fasarinen pinnacles. Friday had been a real scorcher blue sky(e) day with not a cloud to be seen anywhere and crystal clear visibility but Saturday had hazed over a bit and the wind had picked up to gusting 50mph, although it was set to calm down later in the morning. Always a good sign for a ridge walk. 1.5 hours later we were taking the superb path up from Glen Cottage, straight up the south face of what’s possibly the best mountain in Britain. The mighty Liathach. The Grey One. It’s an unrelenting grind the entire way from sea level to summit and 5 mins into it I was spraying water from every pore, giving a good impression of a Spitting Image puppet. Obviously 2 weeks in Mallorcan heat hadn’t done me much good. It was over 30 degs there, with a hut to hut pack but I’m still no good in heat. Scottish stock. Built for the cold! The Mallorcan 1000m peaks are stunning creations of natural architecture (more anon btw) but there’s just something about the far north of Scotland. All that rock and water. That’s the difference you see. Water. Amidst such craggy grandeur, there is still some of the life giving liquid.

Liathach on eBothy Blog

all hail liathach