Stay at home

[baggervance]

After having to abort this trip the previous week due to family health issues, I got the nod from my recovering other half that I could go out and de-stress.

I contacted Beelzebub (Dave) to see if he was still up for it and if he could conjure up some Alpine conditions as we were basking in drizzly 9degC in the lowlands of Lanarkshire.

Set off from base camp (the hoose) at 6.50 and picked up Dave at 7.00 and headed up via Callander. Amazingly as we passed Loch Lubnaig it had almost entirely frozen over with a thin sheet of ice. Slightly thicker ice covered Loch Voil and Doine. We parked up in the usual car park at Inverlochlarig and were the second to arrive. A small camper van had obviously been there overnight and the curtains were still drawn. A few others arrived as we prepared our gear. Before we set off from the hoose I had asked Dave if he was taking the winter hardware which he confirmed, thankfully I followed suit as when we got out the car the temperature was barely above freezing and there was fresh snow on the hill albeit a lightish dusting down to about 2 – 2.5 thousand feet.

We roughly followed the same path as Houdi and passed the Scottish bonsai tree. The temperature and wind chill really started to bite as we neared 3000 feet ~ still no need for full winter gear as the side we were climbing seemed to be devoid of any difficult ice or packed snow. Once we conquered (!!) Beinn T we looked down to the bealach between it and Cruach which was a different story ~ large sheets of thick ice and frozen snow. We decided to drop out of the wind and stop halfway down to bealach for some lunch. Boy was it cold, I took my Sealskins off to change to full winter gloves and my fingers were numb in about 2 minutes. We decided it would be best to put the crampons on just now before attempting the climb to CA. We then had a tough but rewarding climb in what felt like the final push to an Alpine peak rather than a bonnie wee Scottish mountain. It was a great experience. The summit was like something out the ice age but unfortunately the cloud refused to completely clear (glimpses of blue sky through a ceiling of about 3500ft ~ varying) to give good photo opportunities. Dave tried some shamen magic but couldn't pull off the clear skies although he had provided weather for a truly brilliant winter experience. We had kicked steps, used several crampon techniques and got plenty use of the ice axe and I even tried my new double poles on the way up and down when out of the snow line.

We dropped back to the bealach and followed a frozen stream down to the road that lead out to the farm and then back to the car

Another excellent day and only my second doubler

[David.Ferguson]

Hi

The conditions if anything made for a better day,good practice with the winter gear and navigating in very poor
visibility.My 2 x Lucozade sport bottles turning to slush puppies and your aquapac freezing up tell the story of the
windchill.First time i have actually worn my primaloft jacket for a good portion of the walk without totally boiling.
It was pretty chilly.Another great day.

Cheers

David.

I love this shot as we were heading up BT with the crags above and no clue what we were walking into.

[ChrisW]

Great report, picture 2 (as you hit the snowline) is a great shot.....but holy refrigerator batman, it the rest of em made me shiver in the warmth of my living room though I do now have a fancy for a lucozade slush puppie

[kevsbald]

Whoa, that looks like a very cold day. Well done BV, a doubler always leaves a nice sense of satisfaction.

[monty]

Hi Bagger.....
Not exactly the best crags to be on in the ice and clag Good report. Excellent bagging in the conditions

[Bruadair]

As you pointed out BV....what a difference a day makes...pretty dramatic photo's, Scott of the Antarticish, also went down one of the frozen burns between BT & CA and what a difference it made to speed of desent.

Well done..........B