It’s been too long since we last donned our hiking boots and headed up into the mountains. The combination of our on-call shifts in work and just general life meant that we’d never been able to find a good opportunity.

Thankfully, we’ve managed to figure out a system that will let us hopefully conquer more mountains in the coming months and we might just well be able to hit our goal of 70 munros bagged this year.

Today’s adventure was us going up Creagan Mor and Geal Chàrn.

Overview

• Geal Chàrn - Munro - the white hill - 917m elevation
• Creagan Mor - Corbett - the big rock - 772m elevation

Route Overview

You start the hike by parking in the carpark just next to Balsporran Bed and Breakfast. There’s a fairly large carpark there and it’s nice and sheltered off the A9.

From there, you head across the bridge and past the hotel and you’ll reach the railway line. Carefully cross this and ensure you take great care and look both ways and give yourself plenty of time to cross.

Once you’re through the gate, carry on following the well-marked path until you come to the first fork in the path. From here, you’ll want to go right which will take you up the path towards the summit of Creagan Mor, the first summit of the day.

Note: if you’re looking to bag Geal Chàrn and A’ Mharconaich, then continue on from the first fork in the road onto the second fork in the road.

The path is well marked the majority of the way, at roughly 700m of elevation, you’ll be presented with an option to turn left, but if you carry on maybe 10m further on the path you’re on, you’ll see a right turn which will take you towards the summit.

The summit itself is fairly feature-less, but provides good views across Loch Ericht to some of the other munros in the area. Much like most Corbetts, there isn’t a cairn to mark it’s peak.

Once you’ve had your fill of the summit, head back on yourself and take the alternative, left-veering path which will take you towards the north face of Geal Chàrn.

We followed a path the majority of the way and then started looping round in a south-westernly direction to try and rejoin the path that heads up to the summit. We faced some pretty tough, snowy conditions which left us fairly exhausted, but eventually managed to top the hill.

From there, you have the option to continue round and tackle the other munro that’s commonly done with Geal Chàrn - A’ Mharconaich - We opted against this as, with our detour over to Creagon Mor, we were concerned about visibility and the sunset creeping up on us.

Have your sandwhiches and bear north-west along the path you’ve just come up on. It’s a fairly gradual descent back down off Geal Chàrn and take in the views of the surrounding mountains as you descend back towards the carpark.

Conclusion

These are fantastic mountains to tackle in wintery conditions. We’ve always been told that the eastern munros can be fairly boring and unassuming in summer and they are best tackled when they’ve got their winter coats on.

Our day, whilst challenging walking through some of the snow drifts, was excellent all-in-all. The soft snow on the way down was exceptionally nice to stomp down off the mountains in.

That being said, the wintery conditions do add extra physical demands, so bear that in mind and consider your own fitness levels when attempting to tackle these.

Other Munros In The area

• Càrn Na Caim and A’Bhuidheanach Bheg - Hike Report