A panorama from the slopes of An Socath

Up at 4am for a 7am departure, the winds on the east coast were increasing to gales, the forecast said. The winds higher up blew me over, despite the cloudless sky, I wasn’t going to be able to traverse this ridge today. I crawled round to the sheltered side to climb An Socath with less grief. I had to give up with this and in the end I settled for a walk beside the ridge to the north to get to the burn coming out of Loch Mor. The corrie was large with two grand Munros flanking either side. I had an early camp at 1pm and slept through the day and night while the winds accelerated to storm force. I felt dissapointed.

The snow arrived, the winds didn’t ease and no sign of improvement for at least another day. I decided that walking out was my only option, I hoped that hitchhikes were available in Strathfarrar for otherwise I was in for an enormous walk to Cannich. Walking into a gale was exhausting, I walked along the road for 3km before my first hitch arrived (the first car). That took me half way along, my next hitch took me to the end of the glen and a hitch after that got me all the way to Cannich.

I felt relieved at the hitchhiking offered, the independent hostel was a welcome sight! On Saturday I hitched down to Fort Augustus and then Coach to Fort William, it was time for my second trip. The weather forecast for the next few days sounded promising with colder more settled weather forecast.

I stayed overnight at a hostel called The Shelter, up at 7.00am I stomped down to the railway station for the 7.30am train. I forgot one detail though, it was Sunday - next train in the evening! I plodded back to the Shelter and had a lie in, things were going to be taken slowly in the morning now. After a delicious breakfast at Safeway, I got on the coach to Spean Bridge where a prompt hitch took me to Tulloch station.

The brightish weather over Fort William had gone and I was left walking up between the two summits walking into relentless driving rain. The bealach was reached and the rain cleared to give a bleak view into Glen Roy. New snow arrived overnight since yesterdays thaw, I had my axe in my hand for the first time this trip for the ascent of Beinn Teallach. A late start meant that the next summit would have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I walked round the north slopes to reach a camp site where the Munros could be conveniently climbed.

The morning looked dull but on reaching Bealach a’ Bharnish, things were looking up. The eastern cliffs of the first summit had a reasonable amount of snow and looked impressive, I made my way to the central top looking over the cliffs to the impressive drop. A view to the west could be seen though more clouds were on their way. I made my way back to the bealach, and started on Creag Meagaidh, the going was slow and with the mist down, tedious.

The snow cover was more extensive than on the two previous summits and a height increase of 100m makes a lot of difference to snow cover. I arrived at the summit in near white out conditions, only occasional rocks showed through the snow. This was a place to practise my compass skills, I arrived at another cairn (apparently Madman’s Cairn) it wasn’t marked on the map and this confused me for I didn’t know which cairn was the summit now. Progress was deliberately slow now for cliffs were abundant, I followed what I thought was the edge of a cornice and wandering why it was heading east and not north as it should. It turned out to be just a small dip and arriving at the eastern cliffs helped me re-evaluate my position. Being in that white out was scary for me, I stayed on slopes which had a slight hint of rock and grass and thought that if things were really bad then I should stop and put the tent up for safety.

Once down at the window the rest of the walk high up provided no problems. Down at the road I decided to hitch the 5km down Loch Laggan to Moy Lodge. Hitching proved unsuccesful as I waited for half an hour before giving up. Eventually a car stopped soon after I started walking again, the ride I was given saved me half an hour in the end. I was tired and was now heading into the wilds of the Ardverekie Forest. I camped 3km up the track and then rested my head. The avalanche forecast at Aberader warned of significant snowfall tonight.

The snow never arrived and despite lunch time showers, the day stayed reasonable as I pressed on in to deeper wilderness again. My plan was to climb all the Munros here though snow eventually stopped me. This was to be my last day for climbing summits. The first summit had little snow though the next two summits were better in that respect. The ground was carpeted in heather up to 800 – 900m.

Beinn a' Chlachair, the final summit also gave a partial view. I headed back down to An Lairig to the pack and then continued to a suitable spot on large grassy meadows. This spot seemed very remote, the glen was huge though no distinct tracks crossed the glen. The Ben Alder forest could be done quickly from here I thought and rested in the seemingly improving weather. The radio was dead, I accidentally left it switched on since Friday. I cursed myself for doing that.

The next day was heavy rain and sleet, my tent lay just beneath the freezing level during the bad weather and I decided not to do anything until tomorrow. A good dumping of snow proved tiresome on Thursday.

Looking up to the Bealach Dubh
from the West

The ascent to the main ridge to the south was hindered by knee deep (often waist deep) snow. With a pack on my back it took two hours to climb what would otherwise take 1ess than an hour. I was exhausted on the ridge, my left foot still felt cold and I was awake at 4am to be off at 7am. The wind was certainly cold, I got frostnip on my fingers while I took a drink. I decided to give up, I was principally concerned with not feeling my foot but progress was tedious I thought. The foot warmed up on the way down to the next glen and I reached Bealach Dubh just before lunch time.

The mountains today were to be admired and not climbed. The walk out to Loch Ossian Youth Hostel proved very long I didn’t arrive until 4.30pm. From there I decided to go home tonight, it snowed down at Rannoch Moor and I was relieved to be down at Bridge of Orchy. My next task was to secure a place on the coach home to Manchester, I didn’t want to camp tonight and the snow was coming down here as well. All ended well and I arrived back at 4.00am, it seemed a world apart though a ten hour sleep seemed bliss after the last day.

The decision to give up was sensible, even more snow plagued the highlands that week and the avalanche reporters reported difficulty getting to the mountains! A good trip despite the curtailments.