Macs Mountain

[naturelover]

The map makes it look really easy - just a contourless plateau, then a nice ridge line, a hump, a saddle and then up. Fun. The Abels book mentions a little scrub en passant, but makes no big deal about it. The reality was a lovely plateau walk along the top of Walled Mountain, a ridge line with mighty drops between many boulders so that the less agile members of our party needed time and care and help to negotiate the challenges, then a plunge to the saddle that some found rather nervy. And then the hard bit began - the bashing through VERY thick scrub. The final climb up an almost sheer pile of boulders was a breeze, and the most enjoyable part of all, even though it looked rather daunting from a distance.
For more details and a fuller report (and the good news that the return journey was much easier - slightly different route through the scrub), see my full report plus pictures on natureloverswalks.blogspot.com

[eggs]

Very nice.
But the start paragraph has me confused. You ended up at Elysia, but you mention a lot of scrub cul-de-sacs during that day?
Did you go up via the old track from Pine Valley directly to the Pool of Memories?

[north-north-west]

The map makes it look really easy - just a contourless plateau, then a nice ridge line, a hump, a saddle and then up. Fun. The Abels book mentions a little scrub en passant, but makes no big deal about it. The reality was a lovely plateau walk along the top of Walled Mountain, a ridge line with mighty drops between many boulders so that the less agile members of our party needed time and care and help to negotiate the challenges, then a plunge to the saddle that some found rather nervy. And then the hard bit began - the bashing through VERY thick scrub. The final climb up an almost sheer pile of boulders was a breeze, and the most enjoyable part of all, even though it looked rather daunting from a distance.

Yes. I think the Abels essays were written when the scrub had been recently burnt and was a lot less trouble. And it doesn't even mention that rocky ridgeline - great fun but totally unexpected.
But it is a lovely little mountain, and a very satisfying beast to knock off.

[naturelover]

I agree NNW, and the climb up the rocks was just super fun.
HOWEVER, I feel totally put off Nereus, and I will need to be a pretty desperate woman before I volunteer for that one. I had wanted to save a lovely little Abel for my last one (something like Legges Tor, which I have intentionally omitted) so I could in theory celebrate the end with friends, but now I think I'll save horrid ones for the end, knowing that the chances are I'll never get all the Abels anyway. How sad.