Over The Hill

This was not a day for taking to the hills; even as we gathered at Luss the rain was torrential and the MWIS warned of "torturous" walking conditions in winds of 60mph. There was, however, a window between mid-morning and early afternoon when there would be a slight calming of conditions, before a return to snow and blizzard conditions by mid-afternoon. The question was "Could we get some sort of walk done within this "window" of slightly better weather?" Well there was only one way to find out - so it was on with the boots and off we set from Glenmollochan.

The short stretch of farm track from the parking area to Edentaggart was literally awash with running water pouring down from the hillsides, fueled by the incessant and very heavy rain. The going got even wetter, if that was possible, as we crossed the stile and waded our way through grasses deep in water and onto the open hillside to ascend the lower slopes of Beinn Eich. I have to say that at this point I did not see us getting very far.

And then, quite suddenly the rain ceased, the wind dropped and we had an almost dead calm. Although the sky stayed very grey with heavy clouds, they were well above the surrounding hill tops, and there was even a few areas where streaks of blue sky shone through. Was this our "window" of opportunity?

Spurred on with this improvement in the weather we were soon well on our way towards the shoulder of Beinn Eich and its covering of wet clinging snow. It was very slippery underfoot, and a few of the peat hags had us ploughing knee deep in snow, but the weather was holding, so on we strode towards the flatter summit ridge.

Once at the small summit cairn we decided to continue towards the bealach between Beinn Eich and Beinn Lochain, at which point we would decide as to whether we continued on to Doune Hill, or make our return, either by dropping south off the ridge to pick up the track in Gleann na Caorrain or simply to reverse our route back to Glenmollochan.

Part way towards the bealach, we found ourselves a nice sheltered spot between some rocks for our lunch. However, the weather was already beginning to change, the sky was getting darker, and since cresting the summit and taking the open ridge, the wind was now picking up again, and, the snow drifts were much deeper this side of the hill, which in itself had significantly more snow underfoot than on the ascent side. Therefore, I suggested that we should make this our turn-around point and return via our ascent route rather than continue any further.

Breaking from our shelter after lunch we were to find out just how strong the wind had become as we battled a few fierce gusts as we climbed back up the slopes towards the summit and thence on down towards Edentaggart. The clouds continued to gather menacingly as we made our descent, but thankfully we were back on the farm track before they decided to unleash their liquid contents in an almighty deluge that soaked us just as we thought we were about to get back to the car wind-blown but dry.

From not a very promising start we were at least able to get a few hours on the hill in really quite reasonable conditions given the forecast.

Thanks all - another good day on the hills.