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After giving up on Beinn Bhuidhe 2 weeks before hand due to poor conditions, myself and gman27 (Gregor) revisited on Sunday and thankfully got it done. A group of 5 of us headed down to Loch Fyne early doors and began the long walk in from the car park to the bottom of the hill. After an hour and a bit we were back at the disused house and back on the track up the burn towards the waterfall. Unfortunately one of the group had to pull out at this point as their legs just werent coping so they set off back to the car to start the long wait on us coming back. There was no way I was giving up this time after having to repeat the long walk in!
The rest of the walk was fairly straight forward up past the waterfall to the point we gave up the last time. The weather was very changeable and I was having trouble getting my layers right but apart from that all was well. We put our crampons on as the snow was starting to get thick and headed up the steep section onto the ridge, myself and Gregor now in unknown territory. We had picked up the footprints of two people ahead of us which helped us find our way in the snow. The walk along the ridge was alot longer and tougher than i had been expecting, and with the mist and the snow it was quite a daunting place. After a bit of a slog I was on the final slope to the summit cairn and realised up ahead that 2 of our group had caught up with smithysmc and his mate. Finally I had met someone else from walkhighlands!
After a few summit photos in the wind we took shelter and prepared for the long walk back. We didnt want to chance finding the alternative route back in the weather we were in so just retraced our steps. We made the most of the snow slopes going back sliding down them all on our backs and practicing ice axe arrests. This was all fun and games until I couldnt stop myself in time and crashed into my mate Jamie who had just stopped on the slope in front of me. In my panic of not wanting to knock him further down the slope I forgot I was wearing crampons and came crashing into him feet first. His hands were still holding his axe following his arrest and my spikes went right into his hand after priercing his glove.
He had 3 or 4 punture holes across 3 of his fingers and couldnt wiggle them. Not good! We quickly bandaged them up and got on our way to get off the hill in case things got worse. Luckily after the pain died down a bit we realised nothing was broken or sliced off and he was going to be ok, panic over.
It rained pretty heavily on the way back and took us 7 hours all in. Apart from the near finger amputation it was a good day and im glad we got it done on the second attempt. Not got any pics though apart from the camera phone ones from the summit as my digicam got water damaged 2 weeks ago on this hill! Its safe to say me and Beinn Bhuidhe are done for good.
![2012-01-22 12.06.12.jpg]()
- Left to right, Me, Jamie, Martin (smithys mate) & Smithysmc
![2012-01-22 12.07.02.jpg]()
- gman27 with the camera starting to steam up!
