When 4 becomes 1
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:46 pm
Ah the joys of winter walking!Big plan was to complete the drumochter hills today,get up there and walking for 8 0 clock and back to the cars in plenty time before dark o clock.First set back -,hit a blizzard on the A9 about gleneagles slowing us down to 25mph ,man i hate driving in the snow .So thus we were late meeting Ian and then hit another blizzard at the drumochter pass ,this caused all sorts of confusion trying to find the right lay-bye,couldn't make out the numbers on the posts for the snow and ended starting at lay-bye 78 instead of 79
.This threw us off a bit and after a few dubious fence ,river and railway crossings we were on our way for Sgairneach Mhor. The snow was pretty deep,up to our plums in many places and we soon knew there was no way we were gonna do the four hills today,it had now become the drumochter 2. Another blizzard came and went but by the time we got close to the 758m point the sun came out and the views were brilliant.We were a bit off course at this point and the deep snow was taking it's toll ,especially on Watty and Kev who were on their first hill walk for months and months and months and months ,this was becoming the drumochter 1 for the drumochter 5.For the last hundred and odd metres the going improved as the snow was much firmer making for good walking but it was blowing a stiff wind when we got to a wee cairn at about 900m, here another blizzard came in so we waited for the stragglers and eventually made the trig point of Sgairneach Mhor way behind schedule. It had taken just short of 3 hours to here and looking at the map it was still a fair tab to Beinn Udlamain,so better safe than sorry we decided to call it a day and began heading down this time managing to find the way down to the bridge and onto the landrover track.Met a couple on their way up who were going to try and nab the 2 hills and another 3 people just behind them ,hope they got on ok . Stopped for our soup on the bridge then back to the cars with no drama's ,then into Blair Atholl for the customary ale.DRUMOCHTER WE SHALL RETURN!The Drumochter 5 were Pigeon ,Ian ,Charlie, Watty and Kev (and Jake obviously)