free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
My inadequate navigation and Winter skills don't yet allow me to pick and choose my Winter days on the hills but the local outdoors base is a fantastic means therefore, to develop the appropriate skills and experience.
We headed off from the central belt not long after 7am and, with due regard for the low temperatures and possibility of ice on the roads closer to our destination, opted for a route in off the A9 via Aberfeldy and Kenmore through the Sma' Glen, over the alternatives of Lairige or Lochay.
We encountered significantly hard-packed ice on the road on the way into Giorra Dam and opted to park-up at the metal gate and walk the rest of the way to the dam. Suited and booted (there was already a stiff and very cold wind blowing), we were on our way along the fairly treacherous road surface by 9.45am. I spotted a large head of deer on the ridge between Carn Lairig Meachdainn and Creagan nan Gobhar, these would be down by the roadside when we returned and included a number of well-endowed (antler-wise) stags!
Kit included helmet, crampons and ice axe, with time on the hill allowed for practising winter skills. At the dam wall, the wind really began to bite and there was a fair chop on the water.
Despite the promise of sunny, yet windy, conditions the skies loomed grey up the glen and there were a few spots of rain at this point, forcing a massed donning of waterproofs (I was glad of the extra wind-proofing this brought more than anything else)
We set out on the hill and, as it often is, it's a fairly steep old slog to begin with (some traversing in damp, muddy conditions thrown in for good measure) although, this is evened-out by the relatively high start-point and good steps. We had a short way to go to the top of the corrie when, unfortunately, one of our party felt unwell and had to descend, accompanied by one of our "guides".
We plodded on up and over the top of the corrie and passed over the cairns on the way up. Some of the more sheltered, lower reaches of the hill and in sections of the plateau, held fairly deep accumulations of snow though, the deepest were reserved for the final push towards the summit, by which time ice axes were in hand (crampons and helmets remained in the bag for the remainder of the ascent and also the descent as, the winter skills were eschewed in favour of a swifter return to the van in the interests of our co-walker).
Beneath the summit, which had been visible until this point, the clag moved in and we resigned oursleves to no views from the top however, by the time we'd made the final push it had lifted and moved on opening up decent views in every direction. Sadly, my preparations had not extended to fully charging my camera or my mobile so I managed only one more picture, of Stuch'd an Lochain from my phone once descended, and my mate just e-mailed me a summit pic (with the clag disappearing down Glen Lyon)
I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it that the views down over Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin and up to glens Coe and Nevis, etc., were breathtaking in the now bright, sunny conditions (although the wind was still blasting icily over the summit).
We descended via the same route, albeit with a very slight detour to top-out Sron Chona Choirein, passing parties of three and two on their way up.
A good day out in the snow again and we were back at the van before 4pm, where the other two had managed to chip away at the ice on the road in and get the van a bit closer to the dam...happy days!
Oh yeah, the name of the dam reminded me of this wee number...
...hence the dodgy thread title
STOP PRESS
Some more pics, courtesy of mate with camera (of, I think, hills above Loch Lyon and back-end of Orchy hills)
And a few more, just in, still awating the ones with the best of the views though...
