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I was always told never volunteer for anything, but being a bit daft I decided to volunteer to accompany David (kaiserstein) with his plans for his compleation. David has planned everything down to the finest detail, but as usual the good old Scottish weather has other ideas. We had originally planned to knock off the 2 western Fannich munro's on Saturday, but after checking every available weather forecast, things were looking good for starting the plan a day early. After numerous texts & PM's David decided to start his holidays early & went on bended knees to his boss. So we would head up and do the walk on Friday, which meant me changing my plans as I was planning to stop off at Achnasheen & stroll up Fionn Bheinn. So I was going to do that on Saturday instead. Great plan
So picked David up from Inverkeithing Railway Station at 7.30am & we then headed north arriving at the parking spot just before 10.30am. All was looking good, a bit blowy & cloud was hiding the summits, but we were still optomistic that the breeze would soon blow away the cloud
- A few other cars, but we only saw two other dafties braving the elements
So off we set along what looks like a recently laid path, just a shame the path didn't last for very long
Once over the bridge, the path then became a tad damp underfoot and there was no option of avoiding the dampness
- One of the few photo's taken before we hit the low cloud
- There is a summit up there somewhere
- David smiling, didn't last very long
- The way up
On the way up the ridge, extra layers were put on, taken off and finally put back on. A good excuse to stop and take a breather, not only from the climb but also from the conditions underfoot. As we reached about 1500' the weather took a turn for the worst, low cloud, visibility 50m at best and rain - YUK
David had come up with a cunning plan in an effort to make things easier, the plan was to walk as the per Walk Highlands route to the summit of Tomain Coinich, then head west to the summit of A'Chailleach in an effort to avoid the wind. The walk west seemed to be never ending, there appeared to be numerous false summits in the clag when one lifted one's head up. The wind and rain were relentless, we reached the summit and didn't hang around. After about 5 minutes on the descent we met another fellow sufferer who was approaching his second summit.
So it was down and then up back to Tomain Coinich, at times it really was a struggle, walking into the wind was like walking in slow motion. I could feel my feet starting to get wet, probably a mixture of the climb & water creeping down inside my gaiters. This was the first time I had experienced wet feet for quite a few years and it is not to be recommended
- David taking shelter from the brutal wind
- Conditions not pleasant
The summit of Sgurr Breac was reached after a non stop monumental effort, David had to confirm we had reached the summit on his phone. As summits go it certainly wasn't anything special and didn't like it was worth all the effort
Once again, no hanging around, it was a straight turn around and head back towards Tomain Coinich.
The descent down the ridge from Tomain Coinich seemed never ending & we eventually dipped below the cloud, the descent at the end of the ridge came as quite a shock
When I looked down I commented to David as to how steep it was and I was almost certain we didn't come up anything that steep. It was only the underfoot conditions that confirmed it. We both managed to lose our footing on numerous occasions, but managed to use our poles to stop us getting a dirty rear end. That was until near the bottom of the descent when the conditions got the better of David & he ended up on his rear
The descent for me was pure torture, my feet were sloshing around in my boots and I was looking forward to taking off my boots & 2 pairs of socks.
We finally got back to the car after 6 hours, we discussed if we had experienced worse conditions and that walk was certainly up there with one of the worst days in the hills
The bog factor in my opinion is by far and away the worst I have endured, I even mentioned that we would have been better wearing wellies
Good luck to David, hope your plans get back on track after the weekend
Sorry for the lack of photo's
- Ullapool fish supper, recommended by Rod, 2nd one in a couple of weeks for me!!