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Third Time Lucky & Breaking the 100,000Setting off from the Creag Meagaidh car park on the 16th November 2019 had quite the sense of Déjà vu about it. Rightly so, this would be my third time setting off with the Creag Meagaidh summit as part of the day’s agenda.
The first attempt Andrew T, Callum and I set off on the 7th January 2018 in great winter conditions, but easily the coldest day I’ve ever experienced. Callum’s car was registering well below minus 10 when we began walking under headtorch in very early hours. We managed Carn Liath to a beautiful sunrise, and Stob Poite Coire Ardair followed. By the time we reached The Window daylight was fading almost as quickly as our energy – we made the sensible decision to leave Creag Meagaidh for another day.
The second attempt I set off with Andrew T and Andrew M on a Sunday after a winter skills refresher course the day before, some point early in 2019. Our intention was just Creag Meagaidh and everything seemed in our favour, well for the first kilometre. After that the snow quickly became waist deep powder. Every 100m walked felt like 1km, so about 3 kilometres in we again made the tough decision to turn around and head home, again.
The easier option would be to do Creag Meagaidh in the summer months but there is something mesmerising about Lochan a’ Choire in the winter.
Callum and I met at Westhill early doors and the weather on the route there was pretty tragic. Driving through Kingussie I began to get the feeling I may need a fourth attempt – visibility was non-existent.
By the time we were walking at least it was dry, but the cloud cover was barely above 500m. We decided to walk in and see what like.
En route 
With the solid soled winter boots, it was hard going on the feet and walking through the clouds did not provide much to distract from the discomfort. It was beginning to get to the point where I would almost accept defeat. Not that we wouldn’t make the summit, but it would turn into a day of heavy navigation and little to no views.
As we neared Lochan a’ Choire it would occasionally seem brighter, and every so often we would be treated to rare first glimpses north, to the steep south side of Stob Poite Coire Ardair.
Said glimpse 
It may not look like much of a view looking back at the photos but trust me when I say at the time it was genuinely quite exciting.
It was forecast to be patchy and as there was hardly a breath of wind, any cloud patches that were in the wrong place, well for us anyway, were not going to be moving fast. Thankfully, slowly but surely the clouds seemed to move directly west, into the Lochan and over The Window, to great atmospheric effect. It finally looked like it could turn out to be a grand day indeed.
Moving
Looking back at what we came through
One of my favourite photos 
You can see why Creag Meagaidh is so popular for winter climbing
Lochan a’ Choire was glasslike. The remaining cover of cloud made it difficult to capture in any photographs, but it was still very atmospheric. 
Ready to make our way up towards the window
At the time the avalanche risk, in a typically high-risk area, was low so the route up towards The Window was straightforward. The snow wasn’t nearly as deep as when we had come down in January 2018.
Halfway up I noticed on one of my boots one of the metal “lace loops” (not sure the technical name) had snapped clean off – somewhat annoying but didn’t seem to provide any looseness in the laces or pain in the feet. That reminds me I still need to get that sorted!
Entering The Window
Views into the Cairngorms – kind of an inversion. Lovely. 
We stopped just after The Window to take in some lunch and spent some time admiring the views North West. Callum being an avid “armchair bagger” was far more clued up on the geography and what hill may be what.
Lovely
Lunch didn’t last long as even with nearly all layers on it was very quickly becoming uncomfortably cold.
By the time we had finished our sandwiches it was just after 1pm and it already felt like the daylight was beginning to fade. There was roughly 2km of distance remaining so nothing too arduous.
Summit hiding away towards the sun
Cairngorms nicely framed
Heading up was easy enough given the good visibility but in poor winter visibility it is easy to see why it could be a different ball game.
Very vast 
The Cairngorms, an island in the cloud
The final stretch 
If memory serves me right the snow cover was at the stage that would occasionally threaten to take your weight but the vast majority of the time just as you thought it was going to get easy, you’d crunch through to ankle deep.
From my experience that seems to be the most common type of snow on the Scottish hills – or maybe I just always forget the hard-packed easy walking conditions!
3rd Time Lucky – the summit
There was a large group that looked to have come up from Coire nan Camhna approaching the summit, after a quick exchange when they arrived, we set off to retrace our steps.
The return to the window was plain sailing, although even in good visibility and no wind our footsteps had somehow vanished for most of it.
Making new steps
The large group now leaving the summit
Once at The Window and heading down towards the path the remaining low-lying misty cloud had relocated itself. This offered some great views towards the ice forming in Coire Ardair and surrounding hills.
Zoomed ice
Final snap of Lochan a’ Choire
The route back along the path, which I was now somewhat familiar with, seemed shorter than previous trips – maybe that is because I had mentally prepared to accept it is a longer walk than first expected.
It felt like a sense of relief to finally get to the top of Creag Meagaidh, especially given the weather when we started and the two previous attempts.
Given it is so accessible and close to the road I don’t doubt I’ll be up a the top again in the future. I do like the idea of coming up from Creag na Cailliche and getting a bit of a summit camp before heading onwards to Beinn a’ Chaorainn, which interestingly enough is my next well overdue Walk Report to produce!
A final stat, which I was unaware of at the time until updating my tracking spreadsheet… This was my 67th outing (178th Munro) since I started making my way around the Munros on the 2nd August 2015 and I had now finally broken through the 100,000 meters of ascent.
100 kilometres directly upwards! Quite an effort. I had hoped for something relatable, but it turns out the International Space Station is 408km high, so that’s some time away!
So at 100,004 metres that is the equivalent of doing Ben Lomond from Rowardennan 101 times.
Thanks for reading
Andy
