Into the blizzard on Beinn Chabhair

[wilkiemurray]

Vid:

Beinn Chabhair (cant remember exact date walked - also tongue in cheek musical choice;)!!!)

The last time I had visited this hill was away back in the early noughties when myself and my dad went up on a glorious autumnal day. We had started in the cloud but soon emerged out of it and the rest was spent enjoying a fantastic inversion that lasted all day.

This trip was the opposite!! The weather wasn’t looking great but we had packed carefully and headed out. Down at The Drovers Inn and things were pretty benign to start with. We wanted to have a look at the falls (Gerry had climbed these during the freeze of 2010) and they looked pretty spectacular (even when not iced up!!)- well worth the small detour.

We were soon headed on our way- as was the approaching weather front – directly towards us ! The snow soon started to fall and the clag moved in around us. The normally boggy ground was frozen , which was a bonus, however as we got higher the snow was slowing us down – deep wet, unconsolidated stuff- not the stuff you want on any sort of slope!! So we erected the emergency shelter and took stock of our situation over a sandwich!! Time to turn around. We were over 700 meters and with the gale blowing the blizzard into our faces we also didn’t fancy heading round the shoulder and directly into the wind… Right decision and the hill isn’t going anywhere… Back to The Drovers then an interesting, snowy drive home!!

[ancancha]

You folk aren't having a lot of luck with the weather over there ces't la vie, the longer days and better weather are on their way

[Bmg99]

Nice video, gives a better sense of the weather than photos would. Bonus that the boggy ground was frozen. The summit of Chabhair seems to really catch the wind, so you probably did make the right choice in heading down the hill.