walkhighlands

Share your personal walking route experiences in Scotland, and comment on other peoples' reports.
Warning Please note that hillwalking when there is snow lying requires an ice-axe, crampons and the knowledge, experience and skill to use them correctly. Summer routes may not be viable or appropriate in winter. See winter information on our skills and safety pages for more information.

Brack From The Brink...

Brack From The Brink...


Postby Craiging619 » Sun Jun 26, 2022 12:51 pm

Route description: The Brack and Cnoc Còinnich , Ardgartan

Corbetts included on this walk: The Brack

Date walked: 13/04/2013

Time taken: 8 hours

Distance: 14.3 km

Ascent: 760m

Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).


our_route.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts



N.B. Please Do NOT Try This At Home. This report is intended as a warning rather than advice; a cathartic exercise rather than an attempt to glorify dangerous stupidity. This report may contain scenes of blood, and some scenes viewers may find offensive.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I had the whole summer to myself because of my wife's sudden visa problems, so I intended to at least try and make a positive out of it by climbing a load of hills. All I needed was some Scottish sunshine... 8) ... After a good practice run at Dumgoyne the previous week with a friend, it was time to properly get going. I booked a return Citylink coach from Glasgow to Ardgartan, with the end goals being The Brack and Cnoc Coinnich. I think Cnoc Coinnich was still officially a Graham, before its promotion to Corbett status, but The Brack was definitely a Corbett. It was mid-April, so I knew there was the potential for some snow patches, but hopefully nothing too bad......

...... *Harry Hill glance to camera*

Image

At Buchanan Bus Station, the clouds were attempting to open for some patches of blue sky. This looked ok: it wasn't going to be a day of classic Spring sunshine but hopefully the conditions would be fine.

Image

Things were looking a bit driech at The Bonnie Bonnie Banks, but again, it could be worse. If the weather took a bad turn on The Brack then obviously I could cut out Cnoc Coinnich and head straight back to Ardgartan.

Image

I arrived at Ardgartan at 9:40am, with The Cobbler covered in cloud and Glen Crow shrouded in mist. As far as I knew there was a decent path up The Brack, so I would head up the forest road to find the path, and see if I could summit that one at least. Croc Coinnich might be too ambitious but I could see what happens.

Image
I've always wondered why they don't just solve the A83 / Rest And Be Thankful landslide issue by just building a new road on the other side of the glen. No need to build three bridges across Bute and Cowal. There's tonnes of space eh. :?

Image
The Forestry Commission had even stuck a signpost there for the start of the proper path. This still all feels fine. :shifty:

Image
At the end of the forest a stile points the way ahead. Again, it's cloudy but as long as there's a path I can live with that...

Image
I see a wee snow patch over there on The Cobber. Haha - I'm Sure That Won't Be An Issue Where I'm Going(!)

Image
Oioi: little bit of ice there (a stalactite - think I've got that right). No major alarm bells ringing...?

Image
And some more snow patches up ahead. None of this should be too bad...it's just...there's a massive layer of cloud there and I can't see what's beyond... :(

Image
Right, now...maybe I forgot to mention: I've got no crampons or ice axe. Like, I don't even own any. I don't climb any hills in winter (with a couple of very rare exceptions, e.g. climbing Ben Ledi with a couple of friends when it was clear the hill was almost completely snow-free), so I've never felt the need to buy any. They sound very expensive, considering that I'd never use them. Even if I owned them, I would chicken out of climbing any serious hills at the first sight of snow.

Image

The problem is that, in a situation like this, I'm already halfway up. And I've got that dangerous hillwalking mindset that says, "I must not turn back, because...I just mustn't..." :roll: So I did what every idiot would do, and I just ploughed on. I'd paid for a bus to get there. If I just got to the summit and back, at least another one would be climbed (it's not even a Munro, but I take the Corbett and Graham lists seriously too).

Image

It was still technically manageable at this point, just going in and out of shallow snow, but it should have been clear that soon the path would disappear completely. This is a North-facing slope and it was still only April. This wasn't getting better anytime soon.

Image
I hadn't climbed many hills at this point, and was used to taking selfies in sunshine, not scarting about steep snowy slopes in grey cloud with no crampons. This was probably the point at which I started to wonder what on Earth I was playing at.

Image
Gulp. Well...at least there are footprints? Although they were probably left by someone with the right equipment.

Image
:crazy: Oh god.

Image
:shock: Oh god oh god no.

Within half an hour I had gone from passing the first little icicle to being surrounded by deep snow. It wasn't falling from the sky so it was already there: I had just voluntarily walked into it. And suddenly, I was being faced with different decisions, of the sort that I'd never wanted to face, e.g. would it even be the safe decision to backtrack? There was a lot of steep snowy ground already covered, and I don't know if I'd feel comfortable descending on that. Maybe it would actually be safer to carry on over the summit, and pick up the Cowal Way down near the forest on the other side?

(In hindsight this was a delusional "take". If it was safer to carry on then ok, but only by heading up to the lochan and going straight over to the Cowal Way. Heading up to the lochan then turning right and climbing even steeper slopes to the summit, in these conditions with no winter equipment, is asking for trouble.)

Image
I should point out the my trousers were actually light grey: I wasn't trawling through waist-deep snow. Not quite, anyway.

Image
There are lots of rocky outcrops on this hill but, frankly, this wasn't the time to be admiring them.

Image
It just went on, and on, and on.

Image
My signal (which always seems to be non-existent in Glen Croe) reappeared near the tiny lochan on the shoulder of the hill. It was a message from my wife, 8,000 miles away. A picture of a plane sat in the sea next to Bali Airport, where we had been on our honeymoon a month ago. Not great, but no-one died, and to be honest they were probably having a better day than me by this point.

I just replied with something like "I'm fine." Like every time. :silent:

Image
Oh, the Sun. I've been expecting you. Although the damage is already done by this point, at least psychologically.

Image
Conditions randomly started to clear a little as I reached what I assumed to be the lochan. I dunno, it was frozen, just like everything else around here.

Image
Long Long was visible to the Southeast, and the forest between The Brack and Cnoc Coinnich. I would definitely be aiming for that, and crossing my fingers that the Southern slopes were slightly less dangerous.

Image

And then, the stupidest move of the lot. I turned right at 650m, and headed up even steeper slopes towards the summit. :roll: By this point I was clinging onto snowy rocks to haul myself up. Still no crampons, still no ice axe. Unbelievable stupidity and pig-headedness.

Image
I mean, come on. :oops: This is making me angry just having to remember this.

(At least those other footprints were still there though.)

Image

And then finally, with my heart in my mouth and my spirit waning, I saw a trig point appear out of the mist. Like the mirage of an oasis in the desert, I had to convince myself it was actually real.

Image
It's real alright. That means it's lunchtime folks! 8)

Image
Wipe that smile off your face and get some damn food down you.

Image

After about 25 minutes of eating (and trying to gather my thoughts a bit), it was time to exit the scene of the crime. No way was I going back that way: that could have been the end of me. It was nearly 130m of descent back to the frozen lochan, and I barely even made it uphill, let alone downhill. No, I would head in the direction of the Cowal Way, which meant going Southwest-ish down a broad ridge. There was a cairn at 480m and, while I didn't like the thought of a c.300m descent in deep snow, I didn't really have any other choice.

Image
I don't even know what that is. Maybe Loch Restil at Rest And Be Thankful? All I could focus on was the steep freezing ground in front of it. :shock:

Image
This was all taking far too long, and I wanted to get out of the snow as soon as possible. So I made my next stupid decision of the day: I decided to slide down. :shock:

Image

There was no logical thought process at this point: it surely wouldn't be any safer to pretend to become a sledger (without a sledge). If I was walking down this slope and slipped then I could hopefully stop myself, but I was already going at more than 10mph on my backside? Ludicrous, in hindsight. But I could see a dip at the bottom of the slope, so in a worst case scenario I figured I would just stop there.

Image

In the end I had at least three or four goes of this. Maybe it was adrenaline, or an attempt at "fun" in a dark situation? It did speed up the descent a bit, so I suppose it achieved the end goal...

Image
I think this was my first proper sight of Cnoc Coinnich all day. It's a no from me. :lol:

Image

And finally - *finally* - the snow started to dissipate a little.

Image
I went down that way?!? :shock:

Image

Less than two and a half hours after entering the snow, I was finally out of it. It felt like two and a half days...

Image
A nice view of the Luss Hills, which hold altogether happier memories for me...

Image
And a view back up towards The Brack. The sun's almost out now. It almost looks idyllic? :?

Image
There was just time for one more stupid mistake though. I was wanting to get onto the Cowal Way as quickly as possible (for obvious reasons, after all of that...), but the map showed a big forest in the way, so I was aiming for the cairn at 480m. But when I came down the ridge, I saw that the forest had been felled, opening up a potential shortcut. And for the umpteenth time today, I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?" :think:

Image
There's the track! and a bridge! Humans built this! I'm nearly back in civilisation. Just one more haul and I'll be there. I sure hope I don't cut my hand on one of these felled branches in nine minutes' time.

(tw: next image contains blood)













Image
Oh for the love of...... :silent:

I don't know how this happened, because from the last photo the Cowal Way looked a lot less than nine minutes away. But then I don't really know how this whole day happened. I did what I could to stem the blood loss with a hanky or something, and just walked on, down through a mess of felled trees and sharp branches.

Image
Humans!!! I'd almost forgotten what they looked like!

Image
I swear to god, if I fall again...

Image
Just after 2pm I made it to the Cowal Way, and almost (almost) said a full prayer to someone. It was less than four and a half hours since I'd hopped off the bus at Ardgartan, but it felt like I'd been in some sort of cross between Indiana Jones and Frozen (well, not Frozen, 'cause that wasn't released until the end of 2013).

Image
What a beautiful, beautiful forest road that is. How I missed you. :clap:

Image
That's shame, I could do with a lift actually.

Image
And for the first time today, there's...The Brack?!? Where's all the snow gone? :o

Image
Arrochar finally reappeared in the distance. I decided to just walk all the way there instead of stopping at Ardgartan. I had a load of spare time after cutting out Cnoc Coinnich, because erm I wanted to live.

Image
The OS map seems to show the Cowal Way heading all the way along the road, but there's a shortcut here to reach Ardgartan.

Image
It looks like one of those big coach-party hotels. They're fine for what they do I suppose: they certainly fill a gap.

Image
Even The Cobbler reappeared out of the cloud. They're all in tonight!

Image
Stopped in the shop for some bread, and I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a slice of bread more.

Image

It took eight hours to to get to Arrochar, but that included more than an hour and a half at Ardgartan.

Image
There it is. Like butter wouldn't melt... :lol:

Image
Honestly, if it turns out that 90% of the snow melted within four hours of me being there...

Image
I don't even want to *imagine* The Cobber in snow...... :shock:

It was nine years ago, and I've only just written the report this morning, partly because of AOB and partly because I didn't know how to write it for the longest time. The whole thing was an act of ridiculous stupidity, and its no exaggeration to say that I could have been a goner. The only possible upside is that it's taught me to be more respectful of the hills, particularly in "spring". I've only ended up in proper snow once since then, and that was on the descent from Ben Lawers in 2016 (I had gone up via Beinn Ghlas and forgotten that there could be deep snow on the North slopes of the hill on the way back...)

The only appropriate course of action if you want to climb a hill with any sort of semi-serious snow cover is to buy crampons and an ice axe. Failing that, leave them till the summer. If there's one thing the pandemic has taught me since then, it's that the hills will always be there...... :wave:
User avatar
Craiging619
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 308
Munros:70   Corbetts:33
Fionas:40   Donalds:39+9
Sub 2000:22   
Islands:21
Joined: Jul 21, 2009
Location: Glasgow
Walk wish-list

Register or Login
free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).



Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to Walk reports - Scotland

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: susanj and 86 guests