Hurricane Challum
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:46 pmNote to self: If MWIS says 80mph winds take heed!!
Myself and gman27 decided to tackle Ben Challum on Saturday morning as a warm up for Beinn Bhuidhe on the Sunday. We were parked up in the layby past Crianlarich by 8:15 and on our way over the river and up towards the farm. After crossing the West highland way and 2 burial grounds you pass over the railway at a level crossing. The sign read "authorised users only" at the crossing so I assume that was us. After crossing the railway line a diagonal line is taken North East until the fence is reached. You can then follow the fence as it weaves in and out with the odd turn all the way to the South Summit.
From early on we were feeling the effects of the wind and at times it was hard to keep balance with it. What was it going to be like at the summit we thought, well it didnt take long for us to find out! When the South summit cairn came into view (barely through the cloud and mist!) the wind (think hurricane) was in full effect. Seriously hard to stand up. We fought our way across, past the cain and into the dip before the ridge to the true sumit. This at least offered us some protection from the wind and gave us a chance of getting the crampons on as the snow was getting pretty thick in places. We battled our way onwards and before long we were on the plateu leading to the north summit cairn. The safety goggles I had "borrowed" from the work for the 2 of us were coming into their own now and protecting our eyes from the snow that was being whipped up (even if we did look like a couple of numptys
) Thankfully the cairn is huge so we managed to get some wind protection behind it and a chance to take a quick photo.
We decided it was too windy at the top to eat even with the protection of the cairn so we descended back onto the dip between the two summits and ate our sandwiches. Going back down was alot easier than it had been going up and it wasnt long before we had descended enough that the wind was now a gentle breeze. We both found this a nice wee hill even though the weather was a bit extreme at times.
Sorry but no pics apart from summit shots taken on my phone as my camera got waterdamaged on Beinn Bhuidhe 2 weeks ago.
Myself and gman27 decided to tackle Ben Challum on Saturday morning as a warm up for Beinn Bhuidhe on the Sunday. We were parked up in the layby past Crianlarich by 8:15 and on our way over the river and up towards the farm. After crossing the West highland way and 2 burial grounds you pass over the railway at a level crossing. The sign read "authorised users only" at the crossing so I assume that was us. After crossing the railway line a diagonal line is taken North East until the fence is reached. You can then follow the fence as it weaves in and out with the odd turn all the way to the South Summit.
From early on we were feeling the effects of the wind and at times it was hard to keep balance with it. What was it going to be like at the summit we thought, well it didnt take long for us to find out! When the South summit cairn came into view (barely through the cloud and mist!) the wind (think hurricane) was in full effect. Seriously hard to stand up. We fought our way across, past the cain and into the dip before the ridge to the true sumit. This at least offered us some protection from the wind and gave us a chance of getting the crampons on as the snow was getting pretty thick in places. We battled our way onwards and before long we were on the plateu leading to the north summit cairn. The safety goggles I had "borrowed" from the work for the 2 of us were coming into their own now and protecting our eyes from the snow that was being whipped up (even if we did look like a couple of numptys
) Thankfully the cairn is huge so we managed to get some wind protection behind it and a chance to take a quick photo. We decided it was too windy at the top to eat even with the protection of the cairn so we descended back onto the dip between the two summits and ate our sandwiches. Going back down was alot easier than it had been going up and it wasnt long before we had descended enough that the wind was now a gentle breeze. We both found this a nice wee hill even though the weather was a bit extreme at times.
Sorry but no pics apart from summit shots taken on my phone as my camera got waterdamaged on Beinn Bhuidhe 2 weeks ago.
- Me
- Gregor (gman27)
