by spiderwebb » Thu May 19, 2011 10:34 am
Date walked: 12/03/2011
Time taken: 14 hours
Distance: 20 km
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Forecast for the day was overcast, no wind with a weather front moving in at around 1800 hrs. I followed the river from the met station just east of Loch Droma. A fair bit of snow but a good path along the river, and then the clmb up Beinn Liath Mhor picking a route towards the crest.
By the time I reached the summit cloud had dropped to hide the views. I dropped a little too far on the descent and as a result had a bit more to climb to reach Sgurr Mor, by which time it was blowing a gale and more or less white out.
From here on I followed GPS waypoints which I'd pre-loaded along to Meall Gorm, meeting the only other person along this ridge, complete with his snow goggles. I went out next day and bought a pair !
When I reached the Bealch nan Ban I decided to cut short and descend and this is where the fun started.
I slipped twice on decsent not least as I couldn't see the ground but arrested the slips with my axe. I can't recall when I last used it but clearly its like riding a bike and you don't forget. Lost my GPS on the first slip but as I came to a halt it slid down and hit me on the head !
Continued down to Loch Gorm and as the guide states this is routh going underfoot ! Fell into waist deep snow several times but was encouraged by the progress to each waypoint I'd marked making each leg about half a mile, by now in the dark using headtorch.
Finally reached the river and return by the path to the car.
I was overdue and could not get any signal to alert the wife, who by now had called the police who had apparently been to check the car was still there.
When I reached the car it had taken 5 hrs to cover the 5 miles from the bealach and then my mobile burst into life. I called home and the wife said she had called police so she would contact them back, but as the call finished the police called me. All was well, although they had the MRT looking at options ! They did ask if I had seen their lights when they came to the car, but I explained that since about 1230 hrs I'd seen nothing but my GPS and snow !
By now the snow was also heavy on the road so a slow journey back to Muir Of Ord to end the day.
Clearly the weather front was somewhat early forcing a shortening of the day but not sufficient to make up time. I'd also forgotten the wife was working that night which didn't help ! Cost me a night out to compensate !
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