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Friday the 13th Weather

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:07 pm
by Fife Flyer
This little outing was planned months ago in conjunction with the WH meet in Braemar. The original plan was that there would be four of us, but Martin had family commitments and as he was travelling up from York was only able to make Braemar by mid to late afternoon. All the fine details had been arranged via 'messenger' and George being a good egg was relaying any updates to Parminder via text or some other old fashioned way of communication.
We agreed to meet up in the fairly large car park at Inverey with a view to heading off at 8.30. For a change I was early, in fact make that very early, hence the brief stop for a few photos on the Linn of Dee road. George and Parminder arrived in separate cars and we then spent 10 minutes or so getting our bikes ready for action. My bike fits in the rear rather comfortably, unlike Parminder who has a fancy Beemer that has a blanket on the back seat where the majority of the bike resides in transit, didn't see where the front wheel was but I presume it is in the boot.
I won't draw a route map as we tried (as best as we could) to follow the WH route, starting with BLM first.

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One of my photo's taken from the layby on the way to Inverey

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I think from this early on one can see what the conditions are going to be like

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The way ahead

If there is anyone who is contemplating tackling and hills from Inverey, the track that heads south is one of the better ones for cycling on, hardly any ascending which for us non bikers is a real bonus. The track is about 9km long and the usual place to park/abandon ones bike is near Altanour Lodge ruin.

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Any guesses as to who was at the rear of the trio

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All smiles, you can tell we hadn't gone very far

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A slight incline and we dismounted, got to save our legs for worse things to come

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Parminder pleased with himself as George is behind him

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One of my 4 legged friends keeping an eye on us

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Lovely and flat perfect for us non cyclists

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Parminder is in the photo somewhere

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George maybe not wanting his photo taken

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Parminder taking his guardian of the keys role very seriously, bikes all locked together just in case someone was loitering waiting for a bike to pinch

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The way ahead

The underfoot conditions were very damp, no great surprise and George tried to convince us that the weather would improve at 10am as he had been introduced to a new weather App. I will let him explain as I have forgotten what it was called, sadly the App only covered Braemar (which is fairly close in the grand scheme of things) and as you will see later the weather definitely didn't improve.

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The way ahead

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We are now on the steep shoulder of Beinn lutharn Mhor

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Kind of shows the angle of ascent although snow and clag are a very simliar colour

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George leading the way which was much appreciated as it ain't easy

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Parminder loving the great views

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Bit flatter now but still plenty of slushy snow to trudge through

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At the coos tail trudging his way up to the summit

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Summit shot, this is the middle of April not the middle of winter

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Another summit photo

Now for the descent off BLM and the trek across the bog fest to Carn Bhac, navigating was 'interesting' as there is no path and the area is littered with peat hags.

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George enjoying the descent

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Parminder enjoying the lovely white stuff

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Fairly steep descent, but on soft snow was easy

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The descent would be easier if there weren't rocks and boulders

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I think you can guess who this is at the back?

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Another steeper section

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Wild cat print????

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A brief pause before we had "an incident"

On the flattish area of Carn Bhac we were following a faint path and keeping an eye on our phone/GPS as we were aware we were close to the summit. The visibility was less than 30m and one minute Parminder was behind us and then he wasn't, we left the path and headed for the summit which was maybe 40 or 50m away. George and I reached the summit cairn and then realised Parminder had literally disappeared. We shouted for him and no response, the one thing we didn't want was for us all to be scattered all over the hill. I stayed at the summit whilst George headed NE as we summised Parminder would be staying on the path. After a couple of anxious minutes we heard a faint voice shouting George and Parminder was soon reunited with us. Naturally we had a good laugh about it, but it does highlight how dangerous things can get if you relax for a single minute especially in typical Scottish claggy conditions.

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We found him

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Carn Bhac summit

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Heading back to the bikes

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Water feature

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Water feature slightly further down and a nice snow sculpture

We managed to locate our bikes and the key minder produced the key to release the bikes and it was just a matter of cycling the 9km back to the cars. As usual the return journey seemed much quicker and involved plenty of freewheeling which is always welcome. Part of the plan was to let Martin know when we were on our way back to the hostel so he could add his finishing touches to the Michelin Starred meal. Technology or the lack of it prevented us making contact with Martin, no signal in Glen Ey or Inverey, so we would have a short wait after a clean up in the hostel.
Martin had prepared a proper feast for us and it was really welcome, Parminder was on dish washing duty for not eating all his potatoes. One of the main topics of conversation was tomorrow's ambitious plan of the Braeriach traverse and what time we should start, we finally agreed to be leaving the hostel at 7am. Martin has volunteered to compile the walk report so we may get to see it before Christmas.
Many thanks as always to George and Parminder for the company, it certainly wouldn't have been much fun without them, especially in the grotty conditions.
Stay tuned for part 2 as it does get better and much, much tougher.

Re: Friday the 13th Weather

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:03 am
by mgmt!
Now for the descent off BLM and the trek across the bog fest to Carn Bhac, navigating was 'interesting' as there is no path and the area is littered with peat hags.

seems like a testing day ? so how did you " navigate" ?

Re: Friday the 13th Weather

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:01 am
by dibs
Great report Martin, one of the many reasosn I like walking with you, save on the admin stuff that I am rubbish at. :clap:

Re: Friday the 13th Weather

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:05 am
by dibs
mgmt! wrote:Now for the descent off BLM and the trek across the bog fest to Carn Bhac, navigating was 'interesting' as there is no path and the area is littered with peat hags.

seems like a testing day ? so how did you " navigate" ?


Navigation was fully with GPS following a line closely zoomed in, we couldnt see a thing really which is not recommended. We did have map and compass but the map was only good for checking coordinates so really kept that in the bag. Fife Flyer and I had done these hills before but as two separate outings so the traverse was new and not that much fun at the time. As always looking back it was a good day full of experience.

George

Re: Friday the 13th Weather

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:44 am
by mgmt!
dibs wrote:
mgmt! wrote:Now for the descent off BLM and the trek across the bog fest to Carn Bhac, navigating was 'interesting' as there is no path and the area is littered with peat hags.

seems like a testing day ? so how did you " navigate" ?


Navigation was fully with GPS following a line closely zoomed in, we couldnt see a thing really which is not recommended. We did have map and compass but the map was only good for checking coordinates so really kept that in the bag. Fife Flyer and I had done these hills before but as two separate outings so the traverse was new and not that much fun at the time. As always looking back it was a good day full of experience.

George


I was in the same predicament on Friday, couldnt see a thing, made me question myself as to why i went out.