Exactly a month after blitzing the hills west of Glen Shee with Marie Meldrum, Sunday saw me back alone to mop up the ‘rest of Glen Shee’. And, having already described the previous batch as ‘easy-going Eastern puddings, not numbered among the country’s greatest peaks’, there’s little faint-praise-wriggle-room left for the frankly-not-very-exciting Glen Shee hills proper (no doubt somebody’s favourites!), with neither the obvious brutally-developed eyesores of the Cairnwell (which I’m afraid I’d previously done in passing many, many years ago) and Carn Aosda (which I hadn’t) nor the likes of the not-significantly-more-awesome Glas Maol comparing even to the Glen Ey round. But they had to be done and, being pretty runnable, were dispatched in decent time after the unwanted detour to Braemar and wait for the filling station to open (nominally 10:00am on Sundays, though I got through a few minutes earlier) without which I might not have got home again. So (to keep the day’s work to a single paragraph) decent running hills but glad I don’t have to do them all again soon, stunning views to the North Sea, Lomonds and beyond, thanks to the friendly walker (not Prince Charles, who was apparently out on the noble peak of Glas Maol!) I met on Carn a’ Gheoidh for replenishing one of my bottles, and dare I start talking ‘endgame’ with just 28 Munros, 18 Tops and 9 Deletions still to do of the 600-odd summits that have ever been listed in Munro’s Tables?
Now, having just admitted yet again to the daftest quest to collect complete (properly complete!) lists of hills irrespective of ‘quality’, perhaps it’s not the most sensible time to tell you how much higher I’d rate the ‘Loch Leven’ Garbh Bheinn (which I can see from my window) than any of the sub-puddings I just drove three hours each way to do. But, having just traversed it yet again the previous afternoon with Matt Watts, it was very much on my mind with no escaping the obvious truth that this Corbett (a damn fine hill though not even the finest ‘Corbett’ Garbh Bheinn) is quite simply more shapely, more interesting and (dare I say it?) just ‘better’! ;-)
