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I love my job. Apart from teaching its the only thing I've ever wanted to do. It doesn't involve flip charts, blue sky thinking, management speak, thinking 'out of the box', office politics, basically anything that would truly kill me. However because of unprecedented sickness levels I have been putting in a lot of overtime and feel like I am never out of the place and even when I am, I'm thinking about staffing for the next day
Therefore I have felt somewhat enslaved by it all. To be fair the wages are excellent and the whippings are surprisingly not all that bad
but it was a fab feeling to be given the all clear to take the manacles off and have Friday to myself
Rocket Ron and I had been trying hard to get a date sorted to hit the hills but with the weather being a pain and me having limited free time, it was a relief that at last we would get out and about. RR decided that Buachaille Etive Beag would be our target. Equal drive times for us and a short day in what could be unpleasant conditions.
We met at the carpark at 8.50 and were off on our way by 9.00. There was a group of three walkers just ahead of us- smashing they would be providing us with a safe path once we hit the snow
And so we started our walk on an excellent path, no bogginess, no scree and even better no ice. You are climbing quite steadily and looking behind you realise you've gained a fair amount height. The views over to A/E ridge were pretty good and Ron pointed out that we would need to get up there soon!!! Soon? are you kidding me??? Surely it would be an idea to wait until maybe there was some scaffolding put up, I mean how much would it cost??? Lomondwalkers and I had a discussion about this and he had an even better idea, use Lego to fill in all the scary bits
The boy's a genius
Snow began to appear on the path about 500m but didn't cause too many delays in the good progress we were making. So there I was plodding on and I heard the words every female walker wants to hear from a male 15 years younger- 'Can you stop for a minute so that I can catch a breath'!!
I savoured this moment because I knew it would be the one and only time I would take the lead in this walk!
Can't remember how long it took us, maybe 45 minutes (?) and we were at the col.
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- Ron and Charlie the faithful dog.
Now which way to go? We honestly both said at the same time ' Stob Dubh, while we have the best weather'. Great! No hanging about. The group in front of us had opted for Stob Coire Raineach first, so we would have to find the best way up ourselves
We were both coping fine just using our poles but as things got a wee bit steeper and slidier Ron suggested I use my microspikes. Yippee! I got to take my Kahtoolas (thanks Rockhopper) out of the box and they were fab, really made me feel a lot more secure. Once the initial ascent was out of the way, we could relax a wee bit and enjoy the walk along the ridge.
There are a couple of cairns along the summit. Ron checked on his GPS and we had actually passed the highest one.
There was a fair amount of snow cornicing (?sp) and as we made our way back to take some photos I had a wee scary slip. Stopped myself right away but a heart-pounder nonetheless.
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- RR in blue Haglofs (SD summit)
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- Me in red Haglofs (SD summit)
Without much ado, we headed back along the ridge and started our descent. We met a single walker and the group of three blokes on the way down and had a quick chat.When it was safe Ron was having fun with some amazing bum slides. I awarded myself a gold star for descending in the step down procedure using my ice axe (at last!) and had no unscheduled slips
I wasn't being a completely boring old fart and did have fun with some very controlled wee bum slides. Once back at the col, it was time for food. It was 11.40, so we were quite happy with our pace.
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- Charlie trying to decide who has the best food!
Refreshments out of the way we headed for Stob Coire Raineach (SCR). We had heard quite a lot of noise earlier on but couldn't see who could be making it. This was soon solved when we met a large group of walkers who were on a mountain safety course. They were just coming off SCR and were going to use the rest of their day to have a go at arrests etc. The way up to the summit was pretty easy because of all the earlier traffic
Unlike SD, there's no prelude to it. You climb to the top and its there! Happy days
I should have mentioned that the conditions were deteriorating and therefore any chance of taking decent photos was gubbed- apologies!
Once again Ron led the way safely off the summit. He went on ahead to find the best way and I was thinking how lucky I was to get out with someone who put up with me but then something happened that made me think he'd had enough. Ron stopped to talk to the lone walker we had met earlier. They both looked up at me and Ron made a gesture with his hand indicating that he wanted me to twirl around, and so I did. Why though? They were both shaking their heads! Crikey what was going on? As I neared I saw that the guy was taking a set of poles off his rucsac and then it dawned on me...Ron was trying to get rid!!!
Lone walker---' Crikey, she doesn't look too great'
Ron-----'Aye I know she's old but she does have her own teeth'
Lone walker----' Okay, I give you a set of poles but I'm not throwing in a buff as well'
Me.....'Hi, what's up?'
Ron----'You left your poles at the col and this kind guy has brought them up for you!!!'
Oooooops
As we reached the col we could see the master class in self arrests taking place.
Ron was still having fun with endless bum slides and I decided to have one more before we rejoined the path- big mistake!!! One minute I'm having a great time the next I'm hurtling towards my companion at what seemed like 60mph! Despite Ron's efforts to slow me down I kept going! Even Casey Jones couldn't stop this Cannonball Express!!! And why was I not stopping? I was using the pick side of my axe head rather than the adze-eejit. Needless to say, I did stop but that's only because I had decided to polish a rather large number of stones with my rear end.
While it was a wee bit sore, it wasn't as bad as the look of horror on Ron's face. I assured him I was a tough old burd and that having four layers covering my lower half meant that no injury had occured
The rest of the descent was pretty uneventful apart from me exercising my ability to find really deep snow holes
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- Looking back.
Once we were back at the car, time was noted and it took us 4 hours 30 minutes approx
Fabbie!!
And so it was off to the Kingshouse for a well deserved drink in front of the lovely warm fire
Brilliant day out with an excellent chappie
Time to head home with my present from Ron, he knows I like Swedish stuff.
Next time I'll treat him to something Swedish
