When 4 becomes 1

[pigeon]

Ah the joys of winter walking!Big plan was to complete the drumochter hills today,get up there and walking for 8 0 clock and back to the cars in plenty time before dark o clock.First set back -,hit a blizzard on the A9 about gleneagles slowing us down to 25mph ,man i hate driving in the snow .So thus we were late meeting Ian and then hit another blizzard at the drumochter pass ,this caused all sorts of confusion trying to find the right lay-bye,couldn't make out the numbers on the posts for the snow and ended starting at lay-bye 78 instead of 79

78 and not 79

.This threw us off a bit and after a few dubious fence ,river and railway crossings we were on our way for Sgairneach Mhor.

dubious fence crossing

even more dubious river crossing

The snow was pretty deep,up to our plums in many places and we soon knew there was no way we were gonna do the four hills today,it had now become the drumochter 2.

a wee breather for ian and jake

charlie and kev

Another blizzard came and went but by the time we got close to the 758m point the sun came out and the views were brilliant.We were a bit off course at this point and the deep snow was taking it's toll

charlie finding new ways to cross deep snow

charlie showing of his millions of pounds worth of new winter gear

,especially on Watty and Kev who were on their first hill walk for months and months and months and months

watty goes lone wolf

,this was becoming the drumochter 1 for the drumochter 5.For the last hundred and odd metres the going improved as the snow was much firmer making for good walking but it was blowing a stiff wind when we got to a wee cairn at about 900m,

ian at cairn,900metres

last push to sgairneach mhor

here another blizzard came in so we waited for the stragglers and eventually made the trig point of Sgairneach Mhor way behind schedule.

eventually,the top

the dejected troops head back down

It had taken just short of 3 hours to here and looking at the map it was still a fair tab to Beinn Udlamain,so better safe than sorry we decided to call it a day and began heading down this time managing to find the way down to the bridge and onto the landrover track.Met a couple on their way up who were going to try and nab the 2 hills and another 3 people just behind them ,hope they got on ok .

this week's soup,baxter's chicken broth

Stopped for our soup on the bridge then back to the cars with no drama's ,then into Blair Atholl for the customary ale.DRUMOCHTER WE SHALL RETURN!The Drumochter 5 were Pigeon ,Ian ,Charlie, Watty and Kev (and Jake obviously)

ale time in Blair Atholl

the bold jake

[dooterbang]

I'm reported as being bonkers but you wouldn't catch me crossing that river

Well done guys.

[Huck Finn]

Another cracking report Dave
A good time was had by all
I will add some of my pics to your report tomorrow night

[mgmt!]

good effort pidgeon, and correct decision made, your lucky to get 8 hours light to walk in and i dont think a lot of people realise how difficut it is to walk on soft deep snow

[Tomsie]

Bit of a hairy crossing over the river there, good decision to just do the one,.

Hope the folks you met had the same sense when they at the top.

What breed is Jake he looks cross between border collie and GS

[pollyh33]

Oh my oh my Pigeon another beauty!

Would have loved a chance to do that river crossing- looks brill! Well worth it just for the photo alone


Can't believe we were just across the road from you, I thought I could smell some soup

[Mountainlove]

The river crossing made me laugh...I could see me doing something like that lol
Great report and pictures!!

[quoman]

nice one
the photo's look great,wee were across on carn na caim on sunday tae the wind was strong the dug dinny like it
.

[KeithS]

Great report, what a hairy river crossing!

It just goes to show how much the weather affects the difficulty of a Scottish walk.

I did all four one afternoon having walked out from Culra bothy in the morning. The difference was that I had good weather.

I'll bet your one hill in day was much more difficult than my quick four, and more exciting I should think.

Well done

[Mal Grey]

Hi,

Looks like fun!

Had a similar experience with these when we failed even to do 1, and have ended up doing them one at a time.

A'Mharconnaich - windiest I've ever known, crawled to the top (literally, for the last 1/2 mile), getting blown sideways when lying on the snow. Took 20 minutes to re-attach a crampon strap lying down as couldn't keep my leg still enough in the buffeting.

Beinn Udlamain - took 2 attempts, the first failed because of snowdrifts.

Geal-Charn - miserable "winter" day. (Driving rain)

Sgairnach Mor was the only one done in nice conditions. Arguably the nicest of these, with its small craggy corrie.

Not sure where you were crossing the river? We used the bridge!!

[iainwatson]

well done on getting any hills done due to the weather

looks pretty similar to the conditions i had up at The Monadhliath Munros at newtonmore on sat,even though i've walked alot in the winter it really took me by suprise how much more difficult it is when there is deep snow

[smiffysmc]

Startin to like the look of these snow filled walks Top job.

[Ian Bayne]

Bit of a hairy crossing over the river there, good decision to just do the one,.

Hope the folks you met had the same sense when they at the top.

What breed is Jake he looks cross between border collie and GS

Spot on Tomsie Jake is a Collie /Shepard cross 2.5years got him from Dogs trust West Calder when he was 3 months

[Ian Bayne]

Great report Dave WE SHALL RETURN

[pigeon]

I'm reported as being bonkers but you wouldn't catch me crossing that river

Well done guys.

Na,after that lochnagar report Doots i've got you down as officially bonkers

good effort pidgeon, and correct decision made, your lucky to get 8 hours light to walk in and i dont think a lot of people realise how difficut it is to walk on soft deep snow

Cheers mgmt,a couple of the guys hadn't been out since about March so not the best conditions for them ,maybe could have pressed on but think we did the right thing.

Oh my oh my Pigeon another beauty!

Would have loved a chance to do that river crossing- looks brill! Well worth it just for the photo alone


Can't believe we were just across the road from you, I thought I could smell some soup

Ah Polly if only we had known we could have saved you some Thought you were staying in for the winter

Hi,

Looks like fun!

Had a similar experience with these when we failed even to do 1, and have ended up doing them one at a time.

A'Mharconnaich - windiest I've ever known, crawled to the top (literally, for the last 1/2 mile), getting blown sideways when lying on the snow. Took 20 minutes to re-attach a crampon strap lying down as couldn't keep my leg still enough in the buffeting.

Beinn Udlamain - took 2 attempts, the first failed because of snowdrifts.

Geal-Charn - miserable "winter" day. (Driving rain)

Sgairnach Mor was the only one done in nice conditions. Arguably the nicest of these, with its small craggy corrie.

Not sure where you were crossing the river? We used the bridge!!

Blimey Mal here's me thinking we'd just pitch up another time and rattle the other 3 of no probs.We were surprised by the depth of the snow so we will give it time to freeze up a bit before we return

Startin to like the look of these snow filled walks Top job.

Cheers smiffy

Great report Dave WE SHALL RETURN

You better believe we will Ian Can't be leaving any more un-finished business ,it's starting to mount up Cheers also Keith and Mountainlove,we parked at the wrong lay-bye and that,s how we ended up crossing the river at the wrong place.No sure how the lad's ended up on that wobbly fence though,Charlie and i just waded over a shallow bit then had a right laugh watching the other's ,had a wee sweepstake running on who would go in the water first