We could just lean on the
wind. Crank your
body left at a gravity-defying angle and let go.....the wind would hold
you up,
no problem. Thundering across a white frozen landscape, the constant
wind
battered away at a roaring 60 mph, with frequent strong gusts to about
75. At
these speeds, it becomes difficult to stand or move in the
gusts...........not
helped by the sheet ice on the mountain summit. The first few moves off
were a
bit of a bum shuffle, the pick of the ice axe always at the ready.
We had begun by not quite
driving to the
Visitor Centre above Killin, since the road was blocked by ice. As it
was Matt
Gates' first encounter with Scottish Winter, the next stop was the
usual ice
axe arrest practice on the shoulder of the mountain, and then up snow
slopes
onto the ridge leading to Beinn Ghlas. (1103 mtrs). Once up here, Matt
seemed
to pick up on use of crampons, and clothing & equipment issues,
quite
quickly !!!
Our progress up the ridge was halted at times when we were forced to kneel in the worst gusts, but as the cloudbase was whistling by a few hundred feet overhead, the visibility at least was mostly excellent. However once unsteadily crouched on the narrow icy summit, the extra 400 feet onto Ben Lawers and the ferocious conditions involved, was taken off the agenda.
Instead we cramponed down the northern side, to the col between Beinn Ghlas and the next mountain north, Meall Corranaich. Still pretty high at 860 metres, but 250 metres or so below the summit meant that the ever-present wind slacked off enough to let us grab a snack in the sunshine, in the lee of a boulder.
The homeward route was to
traverse out from
the col onto the opposite ridge, which is called Sron Dha Mhurchaidh.
For added
interest, we found some steepening snow leading up ----not quite steep
enough
to call for a rope (as we hadn't got one anyway) but enough to need
“daggering”
with the ice axes for a couple of hundred feet.
Then it was out onto the ridge line, for another dose of pummelling by the head-pincering, cold, aggressive wind. Having made an early start, there was time to spare on the final slopes down to the Visitor Centre. But away on Beinn Ghlas, we could clearly see a large group struggling high on the ridge, and apparently turning back just before the summit.
With worser weather expected from the west,
we headed east to Glenshee in search of a second day,
and some more visibility below the
cloudbase. Saturday morning found us cramponing up nearly 1000 feet of
snow
onto the easy summit of The Cairnwell (933) and then in bright-ish weather with only a
moderate breeze, we had 3 miles of snowy ridge to stroll along out to
Carn
a'Gheoith (975).
A bit of spindrift gave us a mini-blizzard
for a few minutes, and at the second summit, a gentle temporary
white-out
encouraged us to get a move on back eastwards. Otherwise an
attractive day
with reasonable views and easy going.
There was a lunch stop to listen to the mournful cry of the snow-groomer and other wildlife from the ski area, followed by a walk around the next, quite icy, ridge onto Carn Aosda to end the afternoon.
Then it was all aboard to eat at the truck
stop and listen to a pretty indifferent thriller audion book which I've
already
forgot. But remembering 2 fine days on the hill. Thanks lads
ANDREW
