Meall Ghaordaidh - Slog Up, Slide Down

[xpfloyd]

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3 Hrs Up
1 Hr Down

After reading 147cjl's report for Meall Ghardaidh yesterday I decided that this would be my first muro of the new year. Ive set myself a target this year of bagging another 52 munros so It was important I got right back into it (No doubt that target will go out the window fairly soon but its good motivation in the mean time).

We set of at 7:30 and were parked up just over the bridge at Duncroisk and on our way by 9am. There were already a couple of other cars in the parking spot with people who had made an earlier start than us. Starting at the sign we crossed the gate and headed through the field. The weather held out for us pretty well at first.

Start point

Morning sun

After passing over the field a dyke is reached with a style which leads on to a decent farmers track. Before long you reach the bend in the path where a left is taken onto the hill. The same North Westerly bearing is pretty much followed from this point to the summit.

Style

Take a left here

Although the route from this point onwards was pretty straight forward the snow got really thick and every other step was into a knee deep bit so it was sapping our energy quickly. Every 15 paces or so we were having to stop for a breather. It was one of the hardest hills I have climbed because of this. The weather was a mixture of sunny spells, rain showers, snow showers and wind but we kept getting glimpses of the other snow capped hills all around us. The views really are great from this hill. Half way up we realised a group of 4 guys were catching us fast, This gave us a bit of extra motivation to try and stay ahead as they seemed ALOT fitter than we were.

The route ahead

The view back down

Eventually we got to within 50m of the summit. The wind was crazy at this point but the summit shelter came into view. We crossed over an icy section around the shelter and climbed in. The shelter was just high enough to allow us to get a bite to eat and a couple of pics out the wind. The calories were badly needed as I was walking on empty at this point.

Davie

Me

Typically as we began heading down the wind died down a bit, the black clouds blew over and the sun came out The views were superb all around.

This is where the fun began. We were running down the snow drifts full pelt, playing a sort of roullette game with the snow as every so often you would step into a deep bit without knowing its there and go flying. Between this and sliding down on our backs I felt like a 10 year old kid again Best bit of snow fun ive had in ages and as such it took us a third of the time to go down as it did to go up.

Beinn Bhuidhe tomorrow for more snow antics

Eddie

[147cjl]

well done, glad to have given a wee bit inspiration. i was wondering if my bum slide marks were still there from thursday

[xpfloyd]

Funny you should say that, we seen slide marks and couldnt work out if it had been a sledge or someone sliding down

[2dalmatians]

Great pic of the "Lion" at the summit! Now even more determinded to get this one under my belt

[Fudgie]

I didn't have enough snow to slide down when I was on it so it was old fashioned walking for me