Twas the Meet before Christmas

[tomyboy73]

Twas the meet before christmas and the snow lay on the ground,500 metres above sea level that is.
The walkers were gathering at the hostel of The Great Glen with dreams of peaks and climbs,and alcohol induced hangovers.
Maps and books shared space on the tables with drams and wine and bottles of low cost aldi ale.
Routes were planned and groups were formed.
It was only Friday night and the bottles were chinking and the bins overflowing.

It was an early start for most and we all went our separate ways.

Six of us, myself, our two hosts for the weekend, Jim & Michelle, Sharon, Ross & Steve all headed to Kintail to do the three Munros Carn Ghluasaid ,Sgurr nan Conbhairean and Sail Chaorainn.

The drive up was great as we approached Glen Shiel up onto the high roads picking out the white tops and looking down onto the lochs below.

We parked at the Lundie car park and got wrapped up as it was already cold and drizzly,crossed
the road and joined onto the old military road and before we hit the mast where the path turns uphill we hit our first snowy blast.
Some wanted to carry on without waterproofs to see how it would go but once one stopped to don them, we all did. Good group mentality.
The route description describes this path as "This old stalkers path used for the ascent is a real delight, being well-graded and mostly dry underfoot." Well not today it wasn`t, as a mini stream ran down it and was a bit squelchy on the sides. But as mountain paths go , it was pretty good and would lead us all the way to the plateau before the first Munro Carn Ghluasaid.
In between times we would face two minute storms of horizontal snow and typhoon like spin drifts but we just turned our backs to them until they passed.
But these times were fleeting moments as in between we were getting decent views around us as we climbed higher up past An Cruachan and by Coire nan Clach.
Being out in the snow and experiencing these conditions and views prompted happy chappy Steve to remind us that we shouldn`t take days like these for granted. We had only just started but the feeling was that we wre going to have a great day !

We decided that we would assess the weather situation at the first peak as we could see that Sgurr nan Conbhairean was covered in cloud and the conditions would inevitably get worse as we went further into the hills.
But as we crossed the plateau we could see the weather changing in the distance and the wind was blowing it fast so it looked like for the most part we would be ok.
Once we got to the summit of Carn Ghluasaid it was almost a summer`s day

Carn Ghluasaid summit pic

We took in the sights and took our photos and were all happy to continue to carry on to Munro no. 2.
We could also see Munro no.3 from here, aye this will be a doddle.
After a short dip from here it was then a good walk towards the climb up Conbhairean with the occasional snow shower on the way.
It is a magnificent looking peak in the snow.
As we gained height the snow was getting deeper, sometimes knee deep and you had to be wary of walking too close to the edge.
I was at the back of the group, stopping to take photos every couple of minutes and I followed in their footprints and eventually watched them all disappear onto the summit. It was a good feeling watching your compadres reach the top.
Once again the weather would be kind to us , giving us 360 degree views all around and a calm wind.

Sgurr nan Conbhairean summit pic

So this could have been an opportunity to turn back but we were all happy to carry on as Sail Chaorainn looked within touching distance.
However this part of the walk was to be the toughest section of the day. Both ways !
As we crossed the ridge the wind seemed to increase ten fold and the conditions underfoot were turning icy as the gales lifted the top snow and polished the icy floor beneath.
Again we had to keep away from the ridge side and tried to pick our route by keeping to the protruding rocks below to give us some grip.(Crampons would have been handy but not altogether essential, only slipped and fell a couple of times) It seemed like a long slog out and there was one drop of about 100 metres and then a climb back up another 100 metres which wasn`t too pleasant with the wind against us.
However ...once we reached the 3rd Munro the wind dropped again giving us time to enjoy our lunch on our last Munro of the day.
We took the opportunity to have lunch and huddle into nice snow beds.
It was alright here and we all had our own wee area to crash out and enjoy some hot soup Jim carried up for us in his massive flask.
Once we all had a good munch it was time to go again