Ben Avon Day walk

Saturday 1st May

9 of us met up in the Corgarff Castle car park to climb Ben Avon, namely Chris, Graham N, Bob, Jane, Tim, Gordon and new members Ken Craig and Steve & Margaret Helmore. Several of us hadn’t climbed this mountain via the NE ridge before so were looking forward to the challenge. The 9 km bike ride in was mostly on a reasonable track but was muddy in places and was generally undulating. We cycled through some snow showers on the way.

We left the bikes about 1 km south of the very impressive Inchrory lodge and started the ascent on the stalkers path.

The views just got better and better the higher we climbed and the snow patches turned in continuous snow cover which was fortunately quite soft.

First coffee stop

Up on the plateau the conditions felt very alpine indeed with some welcome warmth from the sun when the clouds had cleared.

After passing by the many tors we all finally reached the summit tor of Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuide at 1171m and several scrambled to the top on the bare rock.

For the descent the weather turned a bit worse and the hail and snow showers came and went but we felt lucky to have had clear conditions on the summit.

The return cycle proved challenging after the long day and the tracks seemed to have got much wetter, muddier and steeper on the way back.

This was an excellent way to climb this magnificent mountain that can be seen from afar from so many different vantage points.

Chris