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Happy Schiehallion !

Happy Schiehallion !


Postby tomyboy73 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:26 pm

Route description: Schiehallion

Munros included on this walk: Schiehallion

Date walked: 01/01/2013

Time taken: 4.5 hours

Distance: 10.1 km

Ascent: 731m

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Happy New Year readers :D
Schiehallion was our chosen Munro for our walk. We got to the Braes of Foss car park and it was absolutely mobbed. We wanted something fairly easy to bring in the new bagging year. We were hoping for a clear day. We checked the weather and we had an 85 per cent chance of a clear top. Now of course that 85% is broken into about 7.5 hours of daylight, we set off about half 10, so that left us with about 5 hours daylight left. So if you divide that by 85% by blah blah blah you end up with....................................... us on top of the ridge covered in clag ! :( I`m sure the views are wonderous from the summit but all we saw was white. But the way up and the way down weren`t without their moments and it was a fine walk at the end of the day.
DSCF2005.JPG
looking good as we set off

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hitting the snow

We made our way up through the snow and the wind was picking up a fair bit, how could we not miss that ? :roll:
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stuck in ahole

We stopped about 3000ft were there is some kinda cairn which had a big build up of snow on one side of it and as the wind was blowing into the back of it we decided to stop here for a brew and something to eat. We dug out some snow so that we could shelter behind it and got the kettle on.
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Shelter

We were soon to be joined by a creature of the snow.

Imagine my horror, sitting in the snow, when a huge big husky appears and starts bounding towards us, there`s nowhere to go, we`re in it`s territory , my only hope is Jim, who, if you`ve read some of my past reports, seems to bring out the worst in dogs on mountains. It goes for him first, phew, and begins to lick him to death :lol:
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Snow dog

He was soon joined by his friend, a lovely rhodesian ridgeback, and their masters. After a chat they were on their way and we were left with the serious business of making hot chocolate. I did say to Jim as we sat there that if the clouds were the other way round it would be perfect conditions for a broken spectre, something he`d never seen yet. More people stopped and went as we sat there. Then all of a sudden it happened , "Jim, Jim, Jim get up , broken spectre, broken spectre" The clouds had indeed changed. The sun popped out behind us and a fine mist passed in front of us. he got his camera out and snapped away like a madman. By the time i joined him it was gone, but i was just happy that he got one to himself. :D
It was very faint but at least he caught it.
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Jim`s broken spectre

As Jim warmed up his frozen camera hand I packed up our stuff and we headed for the summit.It was a bit hard going as we walked into the wind and the snow being whipped up by it.Our clothes were covered in frost when we reached the summit and we got a couple of pictures in and then headed back down.
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summit pose

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summit ridge

I couldn`t wait to head back down, i even put on my super slidy waterproof trousers.
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big bum slide down the slope

We even bumped into a couple of ptarmigan.
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ptarmiagn

I love how these birds just walk behind a rock and think you can`t see them :lol:
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first decent view

We were soon down off the hill and back at the car to look back up and see....
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clear again !
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tomyboy73
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 1080
Munros:185   Corbetts:40
Fionas:9   Donalds:3
Sub 2000:6   Hewitts:6
Wainwrights:3   Islands:5
Joined: Jan 21, 2010
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Re: Happy Schiehallion !

Postby wilkiemurray » Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:43 pm

Nice report- looked like u would get a cloud free summit from your first picture! Could see Schiehallion from where I was yesterday and there seemed to be cloud floating about the summit:(
Great pictures too:)
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wilkiemurray
 
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Location: Perthshire

Re: Happy Schiehallion !

Postby jogilv16 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:58 pm

great report tommy,,dogs are my new best pals now,,,the word is out in the dog world.
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jogilv16
 
Posts: 93
Munros:203   Corbetts:24
Fionas:4   
Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:1
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Joined: Jun 17, 2010

Re: Happy Schiehallion !

Postby gammy leg walker » Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:56 am

Jealous,not me.

Nice one again Tommy.

Need to arrange a walk soon.
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gammy leg walker
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Posts: 3462
Munros:282   Corbetts:7
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Re: Happy Schiehallion !

Postby jonny616 » Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:58 pm

looks like a grand day. Shame about your summit timing. :clap: :clap:
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jonny616
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 1621
Munros:282   Corbetts:14
Fionas:2   Donalds:1
Sub 2000:1   Hewitts:17
Wainwrights:8   Islands:8
Joined: Aug 19, 2009

Re: Happy Schiehallion !

Postby tomyboy73 » Sat Jan 05, 2013 3:12 pm

wilkiemurray wrote:Nice report- looked like u would get a cloud free summit from your first picture! Could see Schiehallion from where I was yesterday and there seemed to be cloud floating about the summit:(
Great pictures too:)


jonny616 wrote:looks like a grand day. Shame about your summit timing. :clap: :clap:


yeah, i know just goes to show you can never be sure whats gonna happen with the bloody weather :lol:
cheers

gammy leg walker wrote:Jealous,not me.

Nice one again Tommy.

Need to arrange a walk soon.


yeah, we`ll need to , soon as your fit :D

jogilv16 wrote:great report tommy,,dogs are my new best pals now,,,the word is out in the dog world.


ha ha , don`t even think about gettin one though !
User avatar
tomyboy73
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 1080
Munros:185   Corbetts:40
Fionas:9   Donalds:3
Sub 2000:6   Hewitts:6
Wainwrights:3   Islands:5
Joined: Jan 21, 2010
Walk wish-list

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