Beinn Chabhair from Balquhidder Glen - hot stuff!

The grey days are here, and so are the Christmas holidays, which for me means it must be time to revisit some of our summer days.

Now, I will try to not to make this sound like a running health bulletin, but before I start, I have to explain that at the end of April my wife Caroline had a hip relacement. She set herself serious targets after the op, and seven weeks later she climbed Snowdon. First target met. That, though, was only a warm-up. We wanted to get going again on our Round By Silly Routes, and so a month later that we were at Inverlochlarig, packs on, and ready to resume operations.

Do we all remember where we were on Thursday 24 July 2014? No? Let me help fix it for you… it was the back end of the HOT spell. First full day of the Commonwealth Games, if that's any use - triathletes wilting in Strathclyde Country Park. We'd driven up during the day, but come seven in the evening it was still oven-hot as we set off. Not that I'm complaining…

At the head of the glen we took a trackless line up towards the south-west shoulder of Beinn Chabhair. Even in the shade it was sweltering. A short while after I took this photo I doused myself in a stream and, at gone 9pm, walked on up to the ridge in just shorts. Not every day…

As you can see from that photo, it was a race to get to the ridge before the sun went down. Well, we got there, but only just…

Tarpy up, and time to enjoy the view out towards Ben Lui…

Look closely and you can see a snow patch up on Ben Lui, shrinking by the moment…

Going, going…

…gone. One of the warmer nights I've had at 3000ft. Caroline had really bad cramp in her recovering leg, and I had my doubts whether we'd be able to do anything but retreat in the morning. But the lady wasn't for turning, as they say.* I must admit, it would have been galling to head straight back down on a morning like this.

* I feel slightly queasy that I compared my wife to the Iron Lady there, especially as she's now partly constructed of titanium.

So up we went, slowly slowly, to the summit of Beinn Chabhair, which we had to ourselves.

Are you getting any sense of the heat here? Sorry, I must find some other words for heat…let's have a look in that there thesaurus. Ah yes, are you getting any sense of the febrile calescence here?

Slowly does it…

…eventually up to An Casteall. Conditions still thermogenically incandescent.

At the bealach between An Casteall and Beinn a Chroin we headed down into the oven of Coire a'Chuilinn…

…until we came to the Allt a'Chuilinn, and the cool pool to end all cool pools. The three of us took the ice-bath option. Bliss!

Sorry, that photo is all very nice, but it doesn't convey the human element adequately. Let's see… Here is an artist's impression of how the scene must have actually appeared…

Forget your thermogenic calescence - there's only one word for that (as Sid Waddell would say)… hot stuff! Sadie, incidentally, would like to point out that even if there had been a dog in Baywatch, she wouldn't demean herself in this way.

And so down to the glen, and a blistering walk out down the track.

A great trip, and a route highly recommended to those who prefer solitude to the drone of the A82.

Happy Christmas!