Carn a’Bhodaich
Quick summit from Inverness
We were up in Inverness for a swimming competition and I wondered if there were any summits I could manage. Luckily this one is only about 15 minutes from the pool and a fairly short walk up to the top. I dropped off for warm up and then headed up the hill. I’d read it was a bit of a soggy climb, and after the storm the past few days, there was a lot of water around. The path was more like a stream and in places there was deep standing water. It really only got better when climbing to the final top.
The final section of the walk doesn’t really have a path up to the summit, the track just continues around the hill and away, so it was a case of scrambling up the heather and trying to avoid the streams coming down. It was cold but still on the way up, but as soon as I was on the summit the wind was strong. I found a low spot with a post and some shelter and setup on 20m there. As I wanted to be quick, I was going for the 5.5m vertical with counterpoises.
Not too busy on 20m, but enough in the log with 9 QSOs. I packed up and headed down the way I came and back to Inverness.
Some good views of the hills from the summit and from the parking area. I’ll come back next time I’m in the area, particularly if it’s during winter bonus!
