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Setting out, the forecast was to be good. On arrival, the mist was very low, but it was clammy morning, so hopefully it would burn off.
Within 10minutes I was burning off, and unzipping the detachable bottom halves of my mountain breeks. I noticed that there was an L and an R tag to inform when reconnecting the trousers together, I had never noticed that before and realised not noticing had cost me much time in wrongly attempting the big re- zipping. I reckon maybe as much as three Munro ascents worth of zany zip zapping.
There was a large group of men behind me , I could not see them, but heard them, less and less as I marched ahead into the gloop. The sun so wanted to take its hat off, but kept putting back on its sewester.
It eventually lifted whilst I corn-beefed it on a flat rock on the wide open Col. The mens group came into sight and they stopped a quarter mile back and going by their accent they would probably be biled egging and tomatoing it.
I moved on , looking back to see the returning mist engulfing the troops like a dust cloud from a terrorist attack! Maybe not. Like the devils cold breath condensating around them. Maybe not. Like what mist does when it engulfs folk.
I stopped to take some photographs of wild goats and exchange greetings. Apparently, the goats had walked An Teallach hunners of times, and didn't make a big deal out of it. Fair comment.
It was soon pea soup vision again and I stopped at one point to listen and heard voices close by. They were second guessing too, but heading down, they were following some sort of path, when it was quiet again I headed towards that point .
As I ascended, an Eagle flew above me to my left and only yards from me. A friend, Gordon Frew, had only just related a story, the previous evening of how he and his brother, Ian, had been on the hill some years ago and a similar event took place. In the thick mist it was eerie, but somehow reassuring, as the bird of affirmation came down to me twice more.
I reached a top and to my left the mist lifted , for a minute at least, and my predatory friend, again, soared up from its rocky cluster once more. The mist encapsulated, but I saw the true path in that clear glimpse.
At the summit, the views were nil, and I waited a while to see if it would lift, it didn't, I wanted so much to traverse the ridge, but my instincts advised otherwise.
I descended, and halfway back, I emerged to blue skies and sunshine beating down. I looked back to the top.
Another day, I shall hold you sweet An Teallach, another day.
