Thurs 22 October - Badandua Hill

Start Point: Slochnacraig in Glen Shee (much closer start points are available - I tagged this onto the end of a route recce on behalf of TGO Challenge East)

Finish Point: Parking area on B951, within 1.5km S of Little Forter (nearer finish points are also available)

Distance and Ascent: 20km, 750m

Weather: dry and bright

 

Having already been up Ben Gulabin in the morning, then walked in to Glen Isla from Glen Shee, via Loch Beanie, by the time I'd explored the signed path around the buildings at Fergus (why do they send you around three sides of a rectangle, rather than just straight up the fourth side, which would avoid two burn crossings? If I hadn't been specifically checking this out for a TGOC E route, I would have taken the obvious, not the signed, route), I was feeling sufficiently tired that I wasn't sure I fancied the extra 5km to go up Badandua Hill, versus just walking out along the river. 

 

With the the weather for the morrow being miserably wet again, I contemplated: 5km now, or 14k in the rain tomorrow? An obvious answer, you'd think, but I still wasn't wild about the extra 5km. Then I found myself semi-thwarted by the second burn crossing in taking the detour around Fergus (it had rained a lot over the previous two days), I looked up the W side of the hill and it looked eminently doable to me and such a direct approach would cut around 4km off the rest of my route.

 

Aside from the obvious steepness, it was a straightforward ascent, with good firm grass next to a trickle of a burn, that cut a line through the heather. Even further up, once I'd reached the end of the grassy break, the heather wasn't too bad. I don't think it was massively faster than going the long way around, but rather than striding along a path fixated on how much further I had to go, the steepness of the slope distracted me nicely from the question of time or distance. 

 

Having been nicely warm most of the day, despite areas of ice on the ground that persisted into the afternoon, and having overheated on the steep ascent, once I got to the top, and into the wind, it was immediately freezing and not a place to linger for long. Getting down was remarkably faster than getting up had been - 4km on good track, followed by 2km on road, with gravity helping me the whole way.  

 

I ended up particularly happy that I'd made the effort to tag this onto the end of my recce, as when the forecast for Friday improved, it freed me up to go and do another recce, albeit at the cost that I didn't have time to nip up Monamenach, which is now a bit of an outlying unbagged hill for me.  

See the obvious green line through the heather? That was my ascent route until it veered off in an unhelpful direction.  

 

Summit selfie. Cold, but what fine weather. 

Looking up upper Glen Isla