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My apologies to alan s,jb,stretch,& alastair s need to be made at the start of this report I hope the foul mood I was in for almost all of this walk did not spoil your day out,AND IF IT DID THEN I AM SO VERY SORRY.
As you can see from my opening paragraph and WR headline this weekend did not go as I/we had planned.The plan was that stretch and me would climb The South Glen Shiel Ridge and at last put to rest the failed attempt I had nearly 2 years earlier, alan s,jb and alastair s would do The Saddle,viaThe Forcan Ridge and Sgurr na Sgine.
After setting a date and weeks of planning,me,alan s,and jb were on our way to meet stretch at the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge on route to Glen Shiel,spirits at this point were high in the camp,with all of us looking forward to our respective routes planned.The weather had been pretty foul all the way up,and the forcast for the next day did not make for very pleasant reading either,strong winds,low cloud,heavy showers,and falling as snow over 1000 meters.Arriving in Glen Shiel or first stop was at The Cluanie in for a small lemonade,and some food for the hungry American,not much time wasted here as we still had to drive along to Shiel Bridge campsite and set up camp for the weekend ahead.Got to the site,and none of us were to happy about the state of any pitches,lots of puddles,soggy ground no matter where you looked,and worst of all the rain and wind if anything getting worse by the minute,a quick show of hands and we all made our way back to the Cluanie to see if there was any chance of a bed for the night,but not holding out much hope.
At this point it looked like our luck may be changing,one room left with 4 single beds,and even better the owners remembered myself,Alan and James from our last visit,so instead of £60 per head, they gave us the room for £30 per head,and if we wanted to stay a 2nd night the price would be the same for 2nd night,as you can imagine it did not take too long for us all to agree.
Many walks ago my American friend had introduced me to the delights of "beefy jerky",it was now our turn to introduce stretch to one of our most respected,and fine wines this country has to offer,a wine that has a rich and steep history,dating back more years than I care to remember,a vintage wine,a wine known throught this great country of Scotland,a wine with magical powers,a wine that will make any man take on the world,ladies and gentlemen I give you
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- BUCKFAST
The next few hours were now spent trying to explain to Andy that he needs to go out and buy himself a tracksuit which he must never wash,but still wear most day"s,or a hoodie,a pair of white trainers,a baseball cap,white sock"s that must be worn over the top of his tracksuit,with the bottoms tucked in,all in all a great night was had(may I say at this point I did not partake of any "buckie")
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- alan,james,andy,and some wine
The next morning arrived and a quick look out the window made short work of my high spirt from the night before,low cloud,heavy rain,windy,not what I wanted for my attack on the ridge,this now meant a rethink and a change of plan,the most logical was for us all to go as one party and climb The Saddle & Sgurr na Sgine,this is not what I had come here for,but I was left with no choice,apart from not walking at all which was an even worse thought.So here I was,defeated again and the day had not even started,never have I felt as low as we made our way to the layby at the start of this walk.
Once all the pleasantries of meeting Alastair s had been dealt with we all set of across the road and up the first pull of the day.At this point I let everybody get infront on the climb,while I held back in my own world,thoughts running through my head,do I just stop now,do I carry on,I did not want to be here,I wanted to be on that ridge,this is not what I had come for,this is not what had driven me on for the last 2 years.Man that next 8 hours felt more like double that,there was no way I could motivate myself,or bring myself out my foul mood which sorry to say carried on for the rest of the day.
I"m sorry this report is so negative,but this is how I felt,and I can"t change that.Here are some pictures from the day
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- gearing up
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- dull and grey
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- jb and alan s heading for Forcan Ridge
May I at this point say a very well done to Alan and James for having the b...s to even attempt the forcan ridge in that weather,nice one,and as it may turn out now getting to the summit,where myself,stretch and alastair s may not have reached the summit,as we only went to the trig point.The confusion seams to be is the trig point the true summit,or the cairn further along the summit,both are given as the same height,but it seams the cairn is a few centimeters higher than the trig point.As far as I am concerned I got to the summit,but may well in the future go back but only because I would like to go over the Forcan Ridge and not because I did not reach the summit
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- glw and stretch at summit
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- a view of sorts
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- 2nd summit
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- the way home
The descent over and down Faochag is very steep and just to make my day did my gammy knee no good.
Anyway less of the negative report,once back at the Cluanie we happened to meet the outlaw formerly known as mountain coward and the her friend Richard,a great night was had by all in the Cluanie.Maybe next time I will manage to get this ridge done.
