Meall Buidhe

[Peter Raisen]

Written by the wife.
Yesterday we did a lovely walk up Meall Buidhe. It took us all day - your timings are for young, fit and fast people, not old, out-of-condition, people who have a few medical conditions including painfully arthritic knees - but we knew that and expected to take ages. I liked your description of the path disappearing as we hacked our way through peaty bogs on the way up. One steep bit of the path looks like it is a grassy slope, but you realise it is also a very wet and boggy flow; it was easier using the heathery bit at the side. The top was fortunately snow free as I didn't bring my crampons and have very bad balance these days. There were still pretty cornices of snow overhanging the amazing corrie below - lovely to look at but you can see how easy it is to die on a snow cornice. The view from the top is to die for. The weather was kind. I loved it. Going down is much harder than going up for me. It's the extra pressure on the knees. I did all right till we got to the really boggy areas. I learned as a child that bright green sphagnum moss is the deep stuff to be avoided, but forgot I can't do big steps now as I tried to step across one bit, put one boot into the moss, and found myself stuck ankle deep. Luckily I got my other foot on a dry bit and although I fell over, I did manage to get up relatively easily. It was a bit further on when I got stuck thigh deep in another boggy bit. Readers may want to know that when this happens the way to get out is to lie face down, especially if you can reach out to a grassy bit with your hands, and wiggle your leg as you pull with your hands. It took several minutes, but I did get out. with hubby's help. He didn't even take a photo of my plight - what a gentleman! A thoroughly enjoyable day.