Having made plans to do some walking in March and avoid the Easter rush, arrived in Edinburgh from Dallas on BA on Friday, 19 March. Met my friend, Iain,in Edinburgh, and we made plans to get a walk into Glen Cailleach, past Glen Lyon on Monday, 22 March with a break on Tuesday to the Praying Hands of Mary, and then an attempt to walk Schiehallion on Wednesday. The Monday walk into Glen Cailleach (past the power station) was excellent, breaking into equal parts glorious sunshine and smiles as we found the House of the Cailleach.


House of the Cailleach


Glen Cailleach

The walk back to the power station had the usual... sun, rain, hail, rain, rain, and so on. Wednesday didn't look good with even more rain forecast so we decided to try Schiehallion on Tuesday instead...a bit less energetic after a ceilidh at the Ben Lawers Hotel had us up well past midnight, Monday night. The whisky didn't help energy levels much either!

Met a fellow walker and his partner from Liverpool at breakfast who were also staying at the Ben Lawers Hotel. After discussing morning plans, he asked if he could join us. Why not? Breakfast was a bit later than usual given the late night and we started walking at 1045.


Just starting up - looking down

It was a brisk day with a little drizzle but nothing overly daunting. I had no idea what to expect, but as the pathway gradually took us higher the wind picked up and patches of ice and snow occassionally straddled the path. At the beginning of the ridge snow was visible higher up though the first scrabble / boulder field was bare.


Just a bit higher and a look around


Are we there yet?

The last 50 minutes, however, was all in snow - visibility not great, sometimes 45 feet or much less with the wind whipping around and howling with accompanying lowering clouds to enhance my trepidation. Neither my friend from Edinburgh nor our new mate from Liverpool seemed overly concerned...this wasn't their first munro!


Is that the top?

As we ascended the snowy slopes with visibility greatly reduced, we continued to meet groups of walkers on their way down from Schiehallion. Each assured us it was 'perfectly still' on the mountain top and 'no wind' and 'no view' as well. Each gave us varying times to reach the top...it's only 25 minutes, only 15 minutes to go, etc. etc. Each time I thought we were almost at the top, the top slide further from reach yielding to yet another sloping ascent.

Twenty-five minutes later from the last pair of descending walkers and their encourging 'it's only ten minutes to the top', we arrived, took our 'heroic-intrepid' pictures, rested, had some blueberry biscuits, and then started the descent.


Where's the camera?


Heroic pose #1: Texan & Liverpudlian


Heroic pose #2: Texan & Scotsman

The most worrying part of the walk as it turned out being the crust of snow giving way to hidden craggy depths one to two or more feet below snow level. Tripped up once (boot tip dragging across a boulder) and landed on my backside but no significant injuries other than hurt pride.

It was a great experience with a lot of lessons learned. An honor to make the acquaintance of Shiehallion! Equally great to have had the experience with great companions! Uh, Just one question. When does the snow melt?