Nine of us made the long journey north to Glen Cannich in mid-March, some of us driving, others choosing to take the sleeper from London. The long journey was well worth it as it turned out as we had some of the very best weather (ever..?) for both days of the weekend.
The original chalets we had booked for the weekend had been flooded the week before when the nearby river broke its banks, so we were moved to the very comfortable Tomich cottages - these were most definitely a step up in luxury.
Tim and Fabian arrived fairly early on the Friday, so got an extra day climbing the quite remote munro of Mam Sodhail in Glen Affric.
We all had different agendas for the Saturday so we split up into three groups of three; one party headed off to Glen Strathfarrar for a round of the four munros on the north side of the valley (Sgurr na Ruaidhe, Carn nan Gobhar, Sgurr a'Choire Ghlais and Sgurr Fhuar-thuill), this involved donning crampons to climb the snow arête of Sgurr a'Choire Ghlais and a devious detour to avoid crossing below some teetering cornices. The second party went up Glen Affric to climb Toll Creagach and Tom a'Choinich, while the third party did the Loch Mullardoch munros of Carn nan Gobhar and Sgurr na Lapaich, the east face of which looked like an unlikely climb on hard névé, and the climb was about to be abandoned when a party was seen descending the steep slope quite easily, which reversed the decision. As usual, we headed to the local pub just a short walk down the drive for our evening meal.
On the Sunday, we all climbed the relatively easy munro of Ben Wyvis. The mountain was devoid of snow on its south and west slopes so the crampons and axes we carried, which had been so essential the day before were a dead weight on our backs. A lovely sunny day though and quite warm out of the wind.
A memorable weekend and thanks to Tim for coordinating.