Alternative Walk

Ralph was not able to make the club walk on Saturday, 29 Nov., so we decided to do Beinn Sgulaird, one of our local hills, instead. As it happens, the weather on Saturday was pretty terrible, but on Sunday it was good. As Ralph had not done this hill before, we decided to do it by the usual route, from Druimavuic. Starting up the first ridge, we met a guy coming down, who told us he had been up to see the sunrise! Unfortunately, there was a bit of cloud around and it was not as good as he would have liked.
There was still cloud up ahead on the tops, but we were hopeful. On the way up we were lucky enough to see a small flock of fieldfares (identified by Ralph). However, when we arrived at Meall Garbh, we missed the cairn because of the mist. A few minutes later, we were joined by another guy who had missed the small cairn to turn off the track at the start of the walk. He had carried on to the col at the head of Coire Buidhe, and then climbed up to join the path where he met us.
On one of the rockier bits, there was the burping sound of Ptarmigan, and then we saw them. They were nearly in their full winter coats, and were wonderfully camoflaged. The three of us carried on to the summit with the cloud coming and going. When it cleared, there were wonderful views in all directions, with the lochs like mirrors, and the sound of the rutting stags echoing up from the glens below. As usual, Ralph reached the summit before me and was lucky enough to see a Brocken Spectre, but by the time I got there, the mist had cleared. I missed the Brocken Spectre, but got the views.
We met various people who had different ideas to complete their walks, but given the short day, some were a little ambitious.
We returned the same way, with all its ups and downs, (this hill may be only 936 m high, but with the lumps and bumps, the climb is about 1500m) . On the descent, we saw two more ptarmigan that just carried on feeding, although we were only a few metres from them. All in all, this was a very successful walk.
John