Parked at Tullich and headed up the path round the edge of Cambus, for Crannach Hill. The bottom was a stream of meltwater but runnable at least. I turned left off the path just out of the trees to climb onto the ridge and rapidly realised I might be in for more than I had bargained. The snow was deep and crusty but just not quite weight bearing and consequently incredibly tough going. I must have covered about 500m in 20' I reckon, but eventually made the ridge and thankfully some crustier snow. Views were fantastic across to Lochnagar etc. It was better going along the ridge to the top and I managed to sort of run most of it. It felt like a real mountain expedition even if I did only cover 4km with 400m climb in 1 hour! Decided to return by descending direct to the track, which was ok, but the track had only had a couple of skiers on it and was heavy going too. So even the return was tough work and a hard-earned first point.
Gary 20/1/11
Did the same route as Jane but at night. 10km or so (changed batteries on gps quite early on so no accurate figures) and about 1h 25min up and down. Lovely night with the moon out and frozen easy running ground.
