We set of early morning to walk the ring of steal but at the last minute changed mind and decided to tackle " the ben" , i had been up in 1986 and christine about 8 years ago, Mr skins , never.
The walk to the 1/2 way loch was very hard, 80 degree heat and blazing sun. Mr skins threw a few WWF moves on the way up, always a crowd pleaser. 6 litres of water and 3 hours later we reached the snow at the summit, what a view. Lunch looking over the north face watching climbers on tower ridge then back down. Shortcut 1 was fine but stupidly we went for shortcut 2 , far from being a shortcut , it was bloody dangerous.
A lot of skidding , scrapes, cursing and moaning later it was back onto the footpath. Temperature still in the 80s and me and Mr skins slowly burning, ( sun cream in the rucksacks but it was not touched).
As we neared achintee pub the sound of the pipes grew stronger, surely we are not being piped home. Sadly no ,it was bruce and the 3 peaks crew getting piped off. Back to ground level, burnt to hell, sore feet , but well worth it. What a day.
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