187, 188. Stob a'Choire Odhair (226), Stob Ghabhar (55). 28/04/2018.

Having not climbed many hills for a while, I was keen for some summits in this slightly adventurous long weekend in Scotland, whatever the weather. We were considering camping, but having kept a close eye on the forecast, the first night was set for heavy rain, so we booked a B&B and picked a medium-length walk on our way up from Edinburgh to Fort William.

These two hills lie up a narrow road to the west of Bridge of Orchy and with showers due to come in during the afternoon, we wanted to get walking as soon as possible. So we rented a car and with a pit stop at the Green Welly, we were climbing before midday.

One thing I noticed straight away was the joy of having a very light pack. Of course I love carrying my children up mountains, but it's nice to have a rest every now and again. We also had great visibility and the views from the top of Stob a'Choire Odhair over Rannoch Moor were superb.

The climb was straightforward along a track to start with, before a path up the nose of Stob a'Choire Odhair. Between the two summits there was a fair amount of reascent and a snow slope to contend with on the north side of Stob Ghabhar's eastern shoulder, but the walker before us had kicked nice steps which made this a good bit easier. Plenty of snow at the top, but no difficulties and we had managed to dodge the showers until we were hit by one hail shower on the descent. Initially we were quite content to weather this in our T-shirts, but as the hail got to the size of paintballs, we found ourselves emitting small yelps and armoured jackets were suitably donned.

The hail stopped after not too long and there was a nice waterfall beside our line of descent. Back to the car after 5h45 and a great first day.

 SG from S a'CO

 Just before the hail shower

 Rannoch Moor

A nice waterfall