by beeperman » Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:56 pm
Date walked: 08/11/2010
Time taken: 6 hours
Distance: 14 km
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.....and a peaked cap, and some decent gaiters. I had these but not the axe, doh! (oh and a camera as well to provide photos for this report, sorry)
Sunday 7th November, the forecast was for a brilliant start to the day and it was right. About 6 cars plus a mini-bus in the carpark but apart from one other solo walker who started with me I didn't see another soul until reaching the car again six hours later. Unfortunately starting at 9.30 meant staring straight into the rising sun as it cleared the profile of Sron Gharbh. Even with the peaked cap this hampered initial route finding all the way up to the start of the path on the top as I couldn't see much of anything more than a few feet in front of me. The early light was stunning on the views back though which made up for it. Once on the path the going was straighforward and I had no difficulty with route finding on the rest of the round. I passed the other solo guy somewhere on the way up Sron Gharbh and didn't see him again either, so a day of unusual solitude unfolded which always makes for a different atmosphere I find.
One of the big decisions for me on any hill day is when to put on the heavy jacket. I steam up pretty quickly and prefer to wear less and keep moving. Today I got that decision wrong, there was a very cold SW breeze and I was just the wrong side of comfortable all the way to the summit of An Caisteal. My excuse was the distracting views which were great on all sides, the interesting twists and turns of this section of the route, and the lack of a sheltered spot to do the change. Anyway on with jacket and overtrousers just before the summit and the descent to the bealach, no more problems with the temperature which was well below zero. Started to come across increasing patches of clear, hard water ice on the path on the way down, never enough to make it too awkward but a foretaste of problems to come.
The path up to Beinn a'Chroin from the bealach winds through some quite steep and rocky terrain and about two thirds of the way up there is a rocky corner that needs a couple of scrambly moves on good holds. Unfortunately though all the footholds were well covered in water ice and I suddenly felt the exposure at my back. It took a good few minutes of chipping with the tip of my walking pole to get a couple of footholds that gave me enough confidence to complete the move up and I was immediately thankful that I hadn't decided to do the route in reverse, this would have been really tricky in descent. By this time the weather had started clagging in as well and romping around trying to find an alternative wouldn't have been a lot of fun. Anyway obstacle overcome and on with the walk. Except that there was another iced up section of path a bit later on descending a short steep section with a drop to the right. Not a huge drop by any means but enough to make me think. Managed to get down this very cautiously and no further problems were encountered if you discount the quagmire which is the walk out. This was pretty horrible and looked and felt a lot longer than circa 2K which is what it looks like on the map. Glad I had the winter boots on with my old yeti gaiters, just about hanging on there.
So why didn't I take the axe? It would have made short work of the iced up steps on Beinn a'Chroin. But there was no snow lying and everyone knows that ice axes are for arrests on snow slopes. Or at least that was my mindset up until now - needless to say that will change in the future, so if you see some nutter carrying an axe on a sweltering (well OK, warmish in the valley) day next September, say hello.
