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Kevin and myself arrived at the car park at Glen Turret reservoir at 8:00, it seemed strange with only the two of us there, Pigeon was working away from home (for the second weekend in a row, he will be going mad with not getting on the hills) and the decision to go was too late in the day to get a message to Ian & Jake.
It did not look like a good start to the day, just as we had pulled into the car park the heavens opened up, but we decided to put our faith in the weather forecast and sit tight for 10 minutes, as the forecast had predicted showers for the day, amazing as it may seem, but they were right and by 8:15 we were booted and suited and on our way down the track
We had decided (well Kevin had decided) to do the walk from this side of the hill as we would get better shelter from the very high winds forecast the closer we got to the base of the hill and we would be exposed to it for less time on the higher ground.
We were certain getting a feel for how heavy the wind was going to be as walked headlong into it on the long walk in, with the water being whipped up on the loch, but we could feel it ease the nearer we got.
Although it looked like a step climb up, it was surprisingly good, the only problem with the boulder field being the lite covering of snow, it made for a possible leg breaker ascent and even more so on the decent. We made good steady progress and we were well sheltered from the wind which was nice.
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- No idea what Kevin is upto, a dance, walking a tight rope, who knows!!!
We headed for the fence line as there had been some heavy showers on the way in and the wind was now howling, turning the showers into a snow whiteout, the fence posts gave as a good guide to make sure we did not go off track.
The snow under foot was now solid ice and I was getting constant wind speeds of 35mph with gusts of 40 – 50 mph, this was on the head so it made for slow progress, we had also been a bit slow in reacting to the conditions under foot, we had not deployed our spikes, a silly move.
We were now on what should have been a nice steady walk to the summit, but having no cover from the wind we were taking a beating, the wind was a constant 60mph and the gusts were hitting 70mph, it was now that we decided to put the spikes on, lucky it was not too little too late as the firm footing we now had gave us a new lease of life, even if we could not see 20ft in front of us.
I had stopped to take a photo (mad I know, fingers were numb in about 10 seconds with the extreme wind chill, but it seemed as if it was starting to clear a little)
and this gave Kev a chance to catch and as I turned to continue on my way the white out suddenly cleared and much to my joy the cairn was in view for the first time, about 50ft away from me.
I managed once nice photo of Kevin at the cairn, but my hands were way too cold to take more, so the camera was put away and the gloves were back on.
We thought the decent would be not too bad as the wind was now on our back, this proved not to be the case, as we had to lean really hard into it to stop ourselves being blown over, this brought its own problems as we could further into our walk out.
What a relief it was once we got into the shelter of the hill, we picked our way carefully down the boulders and we found a nice we spot to shelter from the snow to have a bite to eat, it was at this time that Kevin produced some of Senga’s home made lentil soup, it was braw and really hit the spot.
The wind was change a little and we were starting to get hit by it again, but nothing compared to the top and we were soon on the landrover track out. It was here the I found out the true cost having to have leaned so heavy into the wind earlier, my left knee was totally shot out and the long walk out which I had so much enjoyed on the way was agony.
We got back to the car exactly six hours after starting. Kev and me both agreed it had been a cracking day, with a little bit of everything, a nice easy walk, with a bit of excitement at the top and in between the heavy showers, clear skies with some truly stunning views.
What would be classed but some as an easy boring walk has just made it into my top 10 of walks so far
