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An Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman set off from Glasgow in the dark...2minutes into the M8 and we were passing the scene of a car crash- a sombering sight and a warning to take it easy. Twenty minutes before sunrise and the windscreen washers were needed but the nozzles were frozen- our Irish companion knew instantly what to do- use some of his masses of brown gold(tea!) to melt the offending ice
! Doubtless it worked but the problem returned when we hit about 15mph! After the second attempt it was deemed futile so we drove on to see the sun rise over Stirling which was almost worth getting up this early for on its own!
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- Tea beats ice!!
Drama over we arrived at our parking place in the slushy layby on the A9 where we got kitted out and set off along the snowy track by the aquaduct/canal thing!
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- The exact layby mentioned in the Meall Chuaich page and (white) hill in (white) background!
Along the path we met a couple of guys on quadbikes carrying dead deer on the back- probably their blood that was spilt on a patch of snow further on.
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- The Englishman attacks the Irishman!!
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- James and the giant pipe!!
To our right hand side we could see a big herd of deer that were still alive and roaming on a smaller hill. Every so often the sun also poked itself out from the clouds warming us up and reminding us that there wasn't just cloud above us!
As we approached the locked wooden bothy we stumbled across a popular resting place for other walkers and grouse. I tried to sneak up on them to get a closer photo but they weren't having any of it- the grouse that is!! Besides this we also ran into the start of the deeper snow which slowed us considerably.
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- Nice picnic spot
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- Stream and locked bothy
The snow deepened further and the incline steepened for the first time- it was a shock a relatively flat walk in. We did have some footsteps which made the going slightly easier until we passed people slowly lugging snowboards and skis up the mountain then we had to break the soft snow ourselves. The wind picked up dramatically as we reached the crest of the hill and passed the frozen fenceposts, we now walked in a silent line as our conversation was blown away by the biting wind. We touched the top and instantly marched back to get out of the worst of the wind, after 5minutes we stopped and put up our group shelter to have a bite to eat and a chat/moan about the wind!!
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- Arctic banana- a rare treat!
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- Retreat!
After debating the pros and cons of slowly creeping down inside our shelter we decided we just had to brave the wind so we put on our goggles and marched down the hill to reverse our ascent route through knee deep snow though at least the wind was 'helping' us down now! We also saw the snowsport enthusiasts weaving gracefully down the hill and suddenly i became very jealous and all their efforts seemed worth it for the few minutes of speedy descent- next time thatll be me!!
We did get some views of the snow covered landscape on our descent and a deep blue sky appeared over the summit though too late for us to really appreciate it- just our luck!! Straight back to glasgow for a well earned drink followed by a contented nap!
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- The view!
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- Loch Chuaich
This is a hill thats probably not up to much in the summer but covered in snow it provides a great days entertainment- a good one for some free snowsports too!!
