Over The Hill

February's meet for the Carn Dearg MC was at Forest Lodge, Victoria Bridge, so I thought, "I'll have some of that, sounds a nice palatial establishment". Things got off to a cracking start with a fine Venison Steak with a Whiskey Jus in the Bridge of Orchy Hotel on the Friday evening before driving along the winding track to Forest Lodge on the shores of Loch Tulla. Sadly Forest Lodge did not live up to its name, it was damp, dark, and with a water system that was unreliable at its best - thankfully most of us had taken bottled water along, so we at least had drinking water, as for anything else, well the term "dirty weekend" was muted, albeit, in the nicest possible taste; after all, it is the walking we came for, creature comforts can take second place.

Saturday morning was a miserable wet, grey morning and the weather forecast did not look good for the higher tops, and so we five settled on a "wee hill" that Alan thought would provide a reasonable days walking, given the poor weather. And so we set off along the good track from Forest Lodge, passed the Clashgour Hut and on, up through the forest to Clashgour Farm before swinging south down through the forest to ford the Allt Ghabhar just before it merged with the Abhainn Shira. Although the OS shows a footbridge at this point, this bridge has long since disappeared and the crossing requires some nifty footwork to try and stay dry while in water that is well above boot level.

Another short stretch of forest and we were back on the banks of the Abhainn Shira and this time we had the luxury of a fine suspension bridge which spans the river and leaves you at the base of the lower hills of our objective for the day, Beinn Suidhe. From the footbridge we climbed generally south west over open hillside aiming for the obvious minor top at 386m, which we accessed via an easy grassy gully, meeting the lower levels of the snow line as we reached the 386m top.

Directly ahead of us loomed the steep, rocky and snow covered 636m north east summit of Beinn Suidhe. We could clearly see a good route that we could manage in 3 stages; firstly, we would ascend a narrow snow covered gully rising from the base towards a rocky area about half way up; secondly, we would need to angle off and scramble up and across a rocky area to reach another, broader snow covered gully, and thirdly, ascend this gully to the summit ridge.

Executing the first stage was quite easy, the snow was about 30cm deep, and soft to walk in and so did not present much of a problem, However, the rocky scramble was quite challenging, with a steep ascent over slippery rocks before we finally emerged on a more manageable slope in the second snow gully, albeit, that the snow in this gully was considerably deeper than that in the lower gully.

Once onto the plateau, it just a short step towards the small cairn which marks the 636m top. The weather up to this point had been a mixture of rain and sleet, however, now that we were on the tops, we could feel the force of the wind which was buffeting us from the east as we made our way across the broad plateau toward the main summit, a kilometer away.

Departing the summit generally west we made a gentle descent over a broad shoulder before swinging slightly north west to descend gentler slopes to intersect and join the low level track winding its way from Loch Etive to Loch Tulla; turning east along the track towards Loch Dochard where the old "Stables" offered us some shelter from the rain which was now heavy and unrelenting.

Alan's "wee hill" proved to be a great choice for a day of foul weather when to venture onto the higher tops was not an option.

Great day - thanks all.

Back at Forest Lodge there was a slight improvement as Dave, Kenny and Katie had worked very hard on the water system and we now had a flow of water for cooking. Just as well, as Sandra and Neil had a bucket full of tatties and neeps to prepare for our planned Burn Supper.

And so, later in the evening, after we concluded the AGM, 20 of us squeezed in around a make-shift banqueting table as Angus recited the opening "Address to a Haggis" before we all tucked in to our tatties, neeps and haggis supper. Angus was again on his feet for a quite brilliant rendition of "Tam o'Shanter" with Tony and Katie adding a musical interlude to conclude the evening. What a great way to conduct an AGM - Thanks All