Snow in Glencoe, then no.

[weaselmaster]

Oh this weather! Another weekend struggling to make plans, first with snow then high winds (again). As a result we elected not to get away til Friday morning - heavy rain and snow not the most alluring conditions to set off at night into. It had occurred to me a few weeks ago that we could do the Munros on the Aonach Eagach without actually doing the scrambly bit in between. Now I obviously knew this, but all the same I'd been thinking we'd sill have to do the ridge. But how liberating to be able to choose not to - we've done it twice and for me, that's enough, although Allison will disagree.

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So with a good forecast for Friday morning, the combination of The Pap of Glencoe and Sgor nam Fiannaidh seemed a good one. We set off before 7 and remarked, as we passed by the car park for the Aonach how busy it looked. We continued on, parked in Glencoe village and ambled along the road towards the track for the Pap. We'd packed proper crampons today, rather than the walking ones that have been used of late, and we were glad of the extra bite as it turned out.

P2250051 by Al, on Flickr

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We turned up the hillside at the farm gates, disappointed by how little snow there was on this aspect of the hill; not that we were keen on wading through the stuff. What snow there was was all graupel - like tiny polystyrene balls, or - as Allison commented - like someone had spent a lot of money coating the landscape in fake snow. As we walked up, streams came tumbling down on the path, so it felt as though we were walking along a stream bed.

P2250054 by Al, on Flickr

P2250056 by Al, on Flickr

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We decided to do the Munro first, which was sensible given the forecast of weather coming in by the afternoon. The path splits and we continued up to the right. There was more snow on the western aspect of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh and above 800m the surface was increasingly icy. Time for the jaggy friends to go on. We picked a way up on the frozen snow that avoided most of the boulders. Creasting the shoulder I was suprised to see people - a lot of people. In fact a dozen people had, or were in the process of coming over the ridge in pairs. They seemed to h=be enjoying themselves. We wandered up to the summit and pulled out our lunch. A trio of young English guys were buzzing and discussing the way down - the "ordinary route" involved too much tarmac so they were going "straight down" The other folk we spoke to were more reasonable.

P2250059 by Al, on Flickr

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I'll admit there was a slight temptation to go along some of the ridge - never done it from this way round, and one of the people we were speaking to said some bits were easier in the snow than without it. But sanity prevailed and we packed up, turning back down to Cnap Glas for our visit to the Pap. We picked up footprints in the snow at the bealach and followed these up to the summit - more snow, unfrozen, on the NE aspect, glad we didn't have more than 742m to ascend to. The cloud had come down, reducing the vista to monochrome, but it was still a good day out. We follow our own steps back down and headed along to the car.

P2250071 by Al, on Flickr

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Where to now? We were unsure what we could manage on Saturday given the forecast of winds >50mph. It would have been good to do Meall Dearg, but we thought probably better not. Maybe Meall Mór +/- Meall Lighiche. We looked about for a place to camp and ended up on the shores of Loch Leven. A wet and windy night followed.

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We vacillated for some time about what route to take for Meall Mór on Saturday morning. We could go up Gleann Leac nam Muidhe but this would involve a river crossing which might be problematic today with all the snow melt. Or we could go up from Glencoe Visitor Centre, descend to the bealach with Lighiche and evaluate the river-problem. Or we could just do Meall Mór. We went along to the visitor centre, a new place for me, parked up (£4) and set off through the forest.

You remain on forest track for a while, zigzagging through the trees. Because the wind was from the south, we were entirely sheltered as we ascended, we were most definitely lulled into a false sense of security. We reached the bealach with the transmitter mast hill and followed a soggy ATV track up towards our hill. As we climbed we came more and more into the wind - by the time we had reached the start of the summit plateau we were getting no shelter at all. We had a kilometre to walk each way to the summit and back and it was just about as windy as we could manage. Absolutely battered us, it did. I had a bit of anxiety that we wouldn't be able to stand on the summit rise, but it turned out ok. On the way back, we linked arms to give us more gravity. At one point, because the wind was blowing my waterproof trousers down, we let go of each other for a moment and were both promptly blown over

P2260078 by Al, on Flickr

Yesterday's hills stripped of snow
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We had abandoned any thought of continuing on to Meall Lighiche and simply retraced our outward path, breathing a sigh of relief when we moved out of the wind again. I felt completely exhausted. We got back to the car, checked the forecast which suggested we were in for a very windy night (we were) and that wind speeds on teh Munros tomorrow would be in the order of 45mph plus. So Meall Dearg didn't seem a likely option. We headed south and camped at the back of the Kingshouse. We were blasted for much of the night - I'd robbed someone's "magic circle" for large stones to weigh the guys down nd just as well that I did.

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By morning the wind had died somewhat - at least at our level - and sunshine was now being forecast. But still strong winds up high. OK - Fiarach was a standby for today. I still felt really tired, otherwise I might have added Beinn Na Sroine, but one hill was going to be enough for me today. We parked at Dalrigh and headed out along the track, across the river and over the railway line, along Gleann Auchreoch. It's always good to see the Caledonian pine trees on the west side of the river. We came to the gate by the forestry and headed uphill, following an ATV track, having stopped for a bag of crisps to try and top up my flagging energy.

P2270091 by Al, on Flickr

P2270092 by Al, on Flickr

Steep at first, then a more gentle incline towards the summit cairn, a chill wind, much less strong than yesterday reached us once we were out of the shelter of the trees. Good views over to Ben Challum and Beinn Churn. Lunch at the summit, in the sun but out of the wind. Down following a different fence line, watched by sheep. Bak on the track and an early finish for the weekend

P2270094 by Al, on Flickr

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[Anne C]

Wow...you are a tough pair with your camping at this time of year plus getting up next morning for more hills!
Some lovely photos there too - I love that view from the Pap in particular with the loch below.