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I spoke with Matt_18 during the week and after due consideration regarding the weather forecast decided on a smallish route that appeared in general, quite straightforward, Schiehallion fitted the bill nicely.
I arrived at the car park just after 7.30 a.m closely followed by Matt and his brother Rich. We set off bang on 8 a.m after a quick cup of tea and ours were the only cars there when we left.
The sun was starting to rise as we progressed along the path to the start of the ascent, although we were still unable to see the the summit due to cloud.
As usuall Matt lead the way at quite a pace and before long I was lagging behind with Rich in the middle.
Not wanting to admit I was struggling already I stopped to take a few photos as we hit the snowline although the path was still very clear at this point as it only had a covering of snow.
- The sunrise
- Towards the summit
After my short photo stop we headed on up the good path and the wind started picking up considerably although it did little to disperse the cloud towards the summit and the views were getting limited as snow showers passed by on either side of us, the cloud very occasionally breaking up but barely long enough for a photo.
- Last photo before tthe summit
I think we must have been about half way up when our luck ran out and we were walking head on into a snow storm however it was a fine excuse to catch my breath again as we turned our backs to it and waited the five minutes or so to let it pass.
The snow was getting deeper all the time although I did seem to have my second wind now and found progress much easier.I think we lost the path along the way and ended up just heading in the general direction of the top which was totally obscured now. A quick check on our position via the iphone assured us we still had a bit of climbing to do so we got the heads down and before long we made it to the first, large cairn. The going got a bit tougher now across the snow covered rocks and a bit of care was required from here to the top, we finally made it at about 10.15 a.m although our views were very much limited.
- Rich approaching the summit
- Our view west
We only stopped for maybe 10-15 mins at the summit as the views were not great and showed little sign of improving and the wind chill made it bitter. About 20 mins into the descent we met 3 people heading up who thanked us for our path in the snow which they had followed. I noticed one of them carrying what looked like a WH route description. After talking for a few minutes we went our seperate ways.It started to brighten up a bit on the way down so I managed to get a few more photos.
Matt was leading the way and we came across a few steep parts which he decided to run down, the snow was about knee deep so it was probably easier than walking although in doing so we lost the path again so we kept heading down in hope of finding it but instead found more steep sections which we started running down, much against Richs' better judgement I think. I think we must have descened over 100m in a matter of minutes maybe less. Once the snow thinned out a bit we managed to pick up the path again passing quite a few people on their way up and were back at the car park which was almost full by 12 midday.
I think we will return here when the weather is better to hopefully get some better views but if nothing else it kept the fitness up.