The view north west to
Carn A'Gheoidh from The Cairnwell

The weather in Manchester was typical rain, strangely enough though the weather cleared up and became fantastic as we crossed the border into Scotland. The drive up to Torridon was long with the journey taking nine hours despite Andy’s very fast driving. The Youth Hostel was brimming with climbers and hikers, finding space for your own kit proved a challenge in space management. The day tomorrow looked promising and in the end I encouraged people with me onto Beinn Alligin.

The day dawned bright as forecast and while many went on a low level navigation course for the day, five of us went Munro bagging to take advantage of the only good day in Torridon. We started off with the horns of Alligin and worked round from there.

I felt apprehensive about what the horns would be like on the way up. I had a feeling there would be dizzy drops on either side of a super narrow crest. On getting up there to my pleasant surprise, I found the ridge wide enough to have a picnic almost anywhere. The descents and ascents off and on to the horns provided all the scrambling and even those weren’t a problem for me.

The day was relaxed and enjoyable, new views for me extended out over the Flowerdale and Letterewe forests with the view extending far to An Teallach, very photogenic, one could easily spend a roll of film here today. It was the first day to wear crampons for me with the snow being too hard not to use them, they were also brand new and I was willing to use my new spikes. The day finished with an excellent sunset over Skye and I loved being here. The next day was forecast as stormy.

Despite predicted bad weather, I went out to Achnasheen courtesy of Chrissy. Few others were organised enough at 7.30am and I escaped the hostel without being moaned at for going alone. The day started dry and the winds were slack, the going was tough through long grass and peat hags though I maintained a strong pace, the darkening view in the west encouraging me to keep going. I was 200m below the top when the rain arrived though it was light and icy at the time, the winds weren’t too strong either.

Another group were behind me and whistling to me, I thought nothing of it at first, I continued up. I reached the summit before the cloud came down, the snow was wet everywhere and the air was warming up. The winds weren’t too bad though it was increasing speed quickly. I waited for the other group to catch up, it was Ian Grimshaw and company. Chris Ling told me he was blown off by the wind up there. It sounded like I reached the top in the nick of time.

The round trip to/from Achnasheen took three hours and the rest of the day was spent playing Risk in the hostel

The happy group of people
with me on this walk

A big group and I was in charge of them, it rained hard and relentless on the drive up to the start of the walk. Some people had second thoughts, though the rain stopped and we were given a nice spell for the start, everyone started the walk.

At the end of the forest, Amanda Berry lost a contact lens and we spent a good half hour looking for it. It was never found and so Amanda turned round, she didn’t seem to be getting a good deal out of climbing summits this trip which was a shame really. Luke Price was the next and the last one to drop out on the steep ascent to the southern top, his ankles were killing him apparently. To this day Luke is still alive, his ankles never did kill him!

After a brief shower, the walk along the ridge gave good views all round, especially of the monster shower coming our way! We reached the summit just as the shower hit and white out conditions were assumed. This was my first taste of white out navigation and it’s quite difficult to be spot on with navigation, though the lack of cliffs gave a reasonable margin for error on the way back. A good day, the rest of the people did a grade 1 snow climb up a northern gully to the main east ridge of Liathach, they reported reasonable weather as well.

The ridge to Ben Wyvis from the south top

New year’s day was definitely storm bound as a small group of us attempted and failed a traverse of Liathach.

The next day showed better promise with only 70mph gusts forecast instead of 100mph gusts! I made my way up alone to the loch beneath the summit, I was walking into the rain and gale and was on a sheep track, not the main track higher up, the going was slow and I was getting cold through damp on my skin. I contemplated putting on my Montane jacket, but that meant taking off taking my goretex off in the driving sleet.

I waited a while for the supposedly scattered showers to clear, it showed no sign of clearing so I made my way back, the weather cleared up a while but I felt depressed and defeated that the weather would be so cruel. All of a sudden Luke appeared from behind me, he said he already climbed the summit, I wasn’t having any of this! I decided to turn around and climb that summit. I got out my warm clothes in the clear weather slot and stomped up the stalkers track to the bottom of the summit, I was now warm but parched, after some water I plodded up to the summit avoiding bands of rock that got in the way.

The ascent was slow due to dehydration and I regularly stopped for water. I reached the summit eventually in the snow and then made my way down a slightly safer though still steep route, the going was slow with slush covering the rocks and grass. I reached the track exhausted and plodded back to the road arriving late for what I had planned.