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With the Christmas festivities in full swing, I hadn't made it out onto the hills since early December but the weekend before Hogmanay seemed the perfect chance to rectify this. The Glas Maol circuit is often tackled in the shoulder seasons either side of winter when there is less snow and longer daylight hours but for me these are winter hills so I decided to break the circuit into two shorter sections starting with Carn an Tuirc and Cairn of Claise, following a circular route and descending off the plateau before Glas Maol and heading over Sron na Gaoithe back to the start
Arriving at the car parking spot 2km north of the Ski school, I was off up the path by 9am. Shortly after beginning the walk there is a slight fork in the path, the right fork takes a meandering route alongside the Alt a' Gharbh-Choire, whilst carrying straight on takes a more direct but pretty boggy path. I was in the mood for a bit of scenery before the slog along the snowy plateau so I chose to follow alongside the raging waterfalls.
- View from car park down the Cairnwell Pass
- Carn Aosda and The Cairnwell
- View of Carn an Tuirc
- The Alt a' Gharbh-Choire
The path reaches a point where you have to cross the alt but it wasn't easy to pick a good point to cross as it was in spate and flowing hard and fast. After several aborted attempts I eventually found a way across which involved a very wobbly crossing and one wet foot
As I set off towards the hill I suddenly realised I only had one glove on! I definitely started with two and it dawned on me that I had stopped to check the map and had likely taken my glove off and dropped it. With a cuss to make a sailor blush I realised I'd have to recross the alt, find the glove and recross again.
Despite trying to encourage the dog to stay he insisted in following me and got a drenching - the price for loyalty
Several plunges later I had found the glove and crossed again - 20 minutes wasted, I'd now need to get a move on.
As I hit the first large patches of snow the walk became more difficult as the snow here has still not compacted and every other step was shin deep. There were some decent views though that made up for the tiring crossing.
Finally, I reached the steep pull up from the flattish ground below up towards the summit. In this cleft the snow had compacted so it was on with the crampons and out with the axe, kicking steps to the top. As the ground flattened out again at the top, there was barely any snow and the ground was very rocky so the crampons were packed up again for the final walk to the summit cairn.
At this point I could see a weather front moving in fast. The cloud was dropping so I didn't hang about and began the walk over to Cairn of Claise. Here, above the Garbh-coire, the snow was nice and firm so crampons were back on. I was beginning to get concerned about my route as it began to disappear and I had intermittent white-outs. I kept well left, away from the edge of the coire and I climbed towards the top of the second munro. I kept getting occasional glimpses of the summit before I was finally in a permanent white out. The dog is a right feartie and went on strike and had to be cajoled to get to the top
- View to Cairn of Claise
- Front moves in over Glas Maol
- White out
- Harvey downs tools :)
- Fleeting glimpse of summit
Finally I found the fenceposts and reached the top. The camera by this point had enough and refused to turn on with the plummeting temperature., though I had managed to keep it warmer than usual by storing it in my coat pocket. Now it was decision time, I knew I could follow the fenceposts and this would eventually turn into a wall but there was still no sign of the white out ending and I was aware I would have to leave the wall and walk above the coire on the other side in zero visibility. My objectives for the day had been reached and now it was just about getting off the mountain as quickly and safely as possible. I decided to play it safe and return the way I came knowing the bealach's terrain and that there was a couple of large boulders to aid navigation. I took a bearing with the compass and checked the GPS but daftly whilst putting it back in my pocket I somehow managed to bury my ice axe into the primaloft jacket
A nice gaping hole would need restitching when I got home. The reascent up Carn an Tuirc was the toughest moment of the day as I couldn't see the top and the wind was howling a gale impeding my progress. I was so relieved to reach the top and eventually found the steep descent that I had climbed up earlier. It was right on the edge of the cloud base and I could now see the bottom and the route back to the car. Time to have a bit of fun - good winter skills need practice and what better time to for a bit of axe arresting. After having a check that there were no obvious avalache signs I threw myself onto my front and pushed off, feet in the air and shot off down the slope at some speed with the dog barking and chasing me down
I braked with the axe applying different pressures until I came to a stop and then pushed off again, picking up a serious turn of speed before breaking hard at the bottom with a huge smile on my face, a great bit of entertainment, all in the name of safety
Crampons off and it was onto the walk out, a nice picturesque ramble back along the alt with a wee look back at a great winter days out. I hope to do the second half of this round in January, but a great end to 2012 - here's to next year. Stay safe and have a great 2013