Over The Hill

Wot! No pictures? - Sorry, but the camera stayed firmly in my pocket, (a) because the rain, mist and cloud obscured everything anyway, and (b) there was no way I was taking my waterproof gloves off and then battling to get them back on with wet hands. That said, this walk turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable, despite the efforts of the weather to ruin our plans altogether.

It was full waterproofs on right from the start as we headed along the hydro track below the towering walls of the Giorra Dam holding back the risings waters of Loch an Daimh and up onto the steep rocky path winding up the slopes of Coire Ban to the grassy ridge above Creagan nam Meann. Above the ridgeline, there was still enough snow around to make for a slippery ascent of the steeper sections on the approach to the un-named 888m top at the western end of the ridge.

The rain had been incessant from the moment we left the car park, and now that we were on the ridge and well above the cloud base we were shrouded in a greyness which obscured everything and reduced visibility to a mere hundred metres or so; and, the strong wind which accompanied the rain did nothing more than swirl the cloud around us, conditions were not at all pleasant.

Nevertheless, we continued around the sweeping edge of Coire an Lochain high above the unseen Lochan nan Cat and over the rocky ground, now devoid of snow towards the final steep climb to the summit of Stuchd an Lochain, where once again we encountered quite an amount of snow lying on the steeper slopes, and along the coire rim which we gave a wide berth just to be safe as with the poor visibility we were uncertain as to the presence of any cornices that may still be hanging around the northern slopes above the lochan.

It was a very brief summit stop, just long enough for me to don an extra layer of warmth and we were off again, retracing our steps back along the coire rim, the wind even stronger now, and still the incessant rain. Ian had intended for us to drop off the rim and head down to Lochan nan Cat and thence back along the shoreline of Loch an Daimh, but given that we had no means of judging the snow conditions on the northern slopes we decided that the wise option was to simply retrace our outbound route for the return to our start point, and that is exactly what we did.

This was a walk with great potential undertaken with some reluctance in miserable weather conditions, and yet, as Mike commented as we returned to the cars, it was, oddly enough, a very satisfying and enjoyable walk. Maybe because we had anticipated torrential rain, and it was just incessant, maybe because the forecast was for winds gusting to 55mph, and they never quite reached their full potential, or maybe it was just that, it was a great hill in great company, whatever, it was a great day.

Thanks Ian.

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