Ben A'an is not quite in the top drawer of most remote mountains in Britain. But it is still a long way from anywhere. It was one of the last few Munros for Angela. And I wanted a return visit.
In the early evening we walked westwards from Invercauld on estate roads through woodland then rising as a moorland track. After a couple of hours, often steadily uphill, the track enters a narrow valley cut into the moorland skyline. Gleann an t' Slugain, or the Fairy Glen. Here at around 550 metres we found a camping spot just in time to get tents up before dark. Wine and supper.
A 7.30 start saw us shortly out of the top of the valley at 600 metres. From here, one of the easiest tracks in the Highlands crosses the bealach and turns north. Level, smooth and clear it runs for almost 4km along the 600m contour line, following the headwaters of the Quoich Water to a junction of upper valleys. Above, an erratic boulder the size of a bungalow called Clach a Cleirich (the clergyman's stone) points the way up the right-hand valley to the bealach of The Sneck at 975 metres
Having sneaked up to The Sneck, it is important to stop, and not get snarled up in the huge corrie of Slochd Mor to the north. Respectful of the 200-metre drop in front of us we hung a right up the skyline onto the summit plateau.
This great expanse is dotted with various rock tors. And so to the summit at 1171 m, after a total of about 5.5 hours walking from Invercauld.
I had not revisited this spot for 28 years.
In June 1996 it had been the start of my last trip with my late mate. What a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Nay, a veritable tsunami of adventures and events.
On our 1996 trip we went west to Beinn a' Bhuird and much further again to cross the Moine Bealach to Beinn a' Chaorainn and its outlying pimple Munro Beinn Bhreac before sleeping at the Hutchinson Hut.
Now the weather seemed to be closing in, so a march back to Invercauld in search of a shower and a comfy bunk was the order of the day. Views of Lochnagar meant we were getting closer to the car park. And so adieu to Ben Avon, which I do not expect to visit again. ANDREW
