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It's getting to be that you need an honours degree in geography to work out the weather for the hills these days. There were grim warnings for Storm Eunice following on from Storm Dudley. As the week progressed I was thinking that we might not be able to go away at all, or not til maybe Saturday morning. But when I checked the various forecasts on Thursday morning it looked like the west of Fort William would escape most of the bad weather. It made sense to leave after Allison finished work on Thursday, rather than brave the heavy snow forecast for the central belt early on Friday morning. So that's what we did - headed up to Loch Eil and wild camped at Callops where we surprised the inhabitants of a parked camper van by arriving and getting out to pitch our tent. The night was quite calm, rainy at times, but no snow at round level on Friday morning.
Todays' plan was to do the couple of Grahams to the east of the Callops Corbetts; Meall nan Damh and Glas Bheinn. We'd done them from this direction before, but I'd looked over Black Panther's report and decided not to take the suggested route up onto the shoulder of Meall nan Damh, but instead to continue further up the Cona Glen. The hills looked very white as we set out - well what we could see of them at any rate as the cloud was down low. It made sense to head up the flank of Meall nan Damh, a steady ascent without any crags where we chose. The snow was largely scoured by the wind, although there were some deeper drifts. The main problem was spindrift in the increasing wind as we neared the summit plateau - the wind was coming from the south west, so we'd been sheltered from it on much of the ascent. Time to fit the goggles on...
B104BBA4-0733-4E40-90AF-0C9550282091_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
We paused for lunch trying to keep the spindrift out of nooks and crannies to little avail. Onwards to the summit, where the wind was stronger, but bearable. The summit ridge is quite long, visibility was good now and we could see our way ahead to Glas Bheinn. The re-ascent is about as small as it can be on the second hill - 151m 😅. From here we cut down tussocky slopes north west, making for a track we could see skirting the forestry. There's a gap in the deer fence near the footbridge and a rather soggy track which goes through the trees and ultimately joins with the outward track. It felt that we'd done a decent day's work in the conditions and I thought it would be prudent, given the uncertainty about the weather, to head to Loch Linnhe campsite for the next couple of days.
895EB5F3-6076-42EB-90AF-8F2EB2138983_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
A07E52C8-B8A2-424A-B04D-D6B43EBA9F42 by
Al, on Flickr
We used to stay here quite often, but haven't been up since the pandemic. Prices have risen a little (£20/night) but otherwise much the same. Showers were set to "scald" which was a bit scary. We had real out-of-a-packet food rather than Huel, which made a change😏.
The forecast for Saturday seemed to go through various changes, but in the end it turned out to be a glorious day, sunshine and very little wind until mid-afternoon. I had planned to do Sgurr an Utha and its friendly Graham, Glas Charn today, but did swisher about doing something more dramatic given the unexpectedly good conditions. However, we were aware that there had been a lot of snowfall overnight and reckoned that avalanche risk wouldn't be inconsiderable - the "pizza of death" said red in Glencoe. So we stuck to plan A.
Intended
Actual
Or sort of stuck to it. We drove along and parked at the mouth of the track opposite the track to Utha, noting there was another car already there. I had intended to head up the usual descent route, returning the same way, which would save time and distance if we were doing the two hills. However, we could see that someone was already up before us, and had broken a trail, is we thought it sensible to just follow him round the usual circuit rather than have to break our own trail in who knows how deep snow. We never did catch sight of our mystery guide, but than you for the effort!
5C128ACD-1B77-4344-9FA5-033AE8959DC2_1_201_a by
Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
Third time up this hill, third time in snow, although today's conditions were the best. Great views over to The Ben and the hills of Ardgour. We took our time, enjoyed the scenery. I'd forgotten just how rugged this wee hill is, and it was taking longer than I'd thought. By the time we got to the summit, it was after 1pm and I realised there wasn't going to be enough time to get the Graham done as well, where we'd have no trail to follow...my legs were already a bit tired after yesterday's exertions in the wind and snow. So we continued along the circuit, descending heavily loaded slopes until we reached the Allt an Utha then rejoined the track.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
It was quite early to head back to the tent, so we drove into Corpach, bought an apple pie from the CoOp and wandered down to the canal, which offered good views across to The Ben. Never been down here before. I liked the cottages named after the Islay whiskies. Back to the campsite, another shower and tea before the rain started.
The rain continued for most of the night and it was significantly warmer, so it was no surprise to see that much of the snow had been washed away when we looked at the hills. Today's forecast was for heavy rain and high winds - we'd planned to do Beinn Na Gucaig down at Inchree, on the way down the road - a straightforward walk up the spine of the hill. Last time we'd done it from Lundavra in the east, along with Meall Doire, a Sub. Today's route is much easier, although one doesn't have the option of adding on the Sub. We parked in the forestry Commission car park, which was quite busy for a wild morning, and set off up a marked track, then onto gravel road, before taking a cairn marked ATV track left up the hillside.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
This track goes to a mast at about 425m, then a less clear path continues up to the 575m top. From here you're on your own - it's boggy at the bealach. We'd seen footprints in the slush and reckoned someone was ahead of us - as we reached the 575m spot we saw a couple of walkers returning from the summit of Gucaig. We went over to speak, and got an excited response - Hi Alistair, Hi Allison, it's Sunny...this was a fellow Hill-Bagger I'd been in correspondence with over the Irish Furths, but I'd never seen a picture of them, so my surprise was warranted. We talked hills for a bit, then went off our separate ways.
872EEEF2-50E7-480C-9840-F0A134CDC4F7 by
Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
The wind was strong and chill at the summit and we struggled to find any shelter for lunch. After a brief clear spell, when we got good views over to Ardgour, the rain/sleet came on heavily, but only for a fairly short spell, thankfully. Descent was unremarkable and we endured quite bad weather driving down the road.
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Al, on Flickr
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Al, on Flickr
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