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Cruach Ardrain(1046m)

Sunday 15th April 2018

12.5kms

7hrs 30mins

In the past, we have had a glorious sunny day on Cruach Ardrain with outstanding visibility, a day where we battled against wind, rain and very poor visibility, but today would see us having to abandon our climb because of snow conditions and extremely poor visibility.

All was fine, as we made our way along the banks of the River Falloch and across the old, but still useable, wooden bridge and onto the lower slopes of Grey Height. Ahead, we could see a cloud shrouded Cruach Ardrain, with quite a significant amount of snow still lying on the higher slopes, and by the time we were approaching the 814m summit of Meall Dhamh we were having to negotiate banks of lying snow, a prelude to what lay ahead once we had crossed the bealach between Meall Dhamh and the lower slopes of Cruach Ardrain.

Above the 850m height, the banks of snow were more pronounced and merged into longer stretches of soft slippery snow; this combined with very poor visibility made for slow progress as we had difficulty in determining the safest way forward, or in seeing what lay ahead beyond the mist. We resorted to making a few probing attempts to see exactly what conditions were like ahead of us, only to find the visibility reducing and the snow banks growing larger; and so, at around the 925m height we decided that the sensible option was to turn around and return to the more friendly ground around Meall Dhamh.

Once again this winter, out on the mountain there has been that feeling of disappointment in not reaching our objective, but, once back in the warmth of home, and reviewing the situation, with all things considered, the summit will always be there for another day.

Thanks everyone for your company.

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