I parked up and set off the long forest track to the col between Beinn Narnain and Beinn Ime. Being all tooled up with crampons and ice axe, I thought I'd take a more direct scramble up the side of Beinn Ime, so off I set. It was a pleasurable challenge at first, but soon got a bit more hairy - I started to find news ways of using my ice axe which I wasn't sure were wise, but they were effective and necessary as I found myself somewhere approaching stuck. Once or twice I realised I was stood on top of a peak of snow which had piled up against sheer rock and quickly had to find a retreat.
But before too long I clawed my way to the brow of the hill and sat down to eat and consider my fate. The sun was shining and the views were fantastic, I set off again but after a few steps I realised that the yellow cord attaching my left crampon to my boot was missing, I then realised that my crampon was missing! Thinking that it had come off while I was sitting I turned back to where I ate, but it wasn't there. The increasing wind and snow had done a good job of covering my tracks and even if I had of wanted to retrace my tracks back down the scramble (no thanks!), I wouldn't have been able to see them.
I set off in pretty much a whiteout. Determined to complete Beinn Ime, but now accepting that Beinn Vane would elude me. The mildly undulating plateau was unproblematic except for the lack of any real visibility. The GPS did a grand job of showing me the way - I would literally have been lost without it. I made sure to stay away from the cliff edge in case of cornices. It was now a while since I'd eaten, but I wanted to continue to the summit even though I was starting to tire. I reflected on how I'd heard that whiteout's could make people paranoid - and then I started to feel paranoid. I thought I saw a man in the distance and then a hat on the floor, I laughed "I'm seeing things and my vision is going blurry....", I quickly decided I needed to eat!
Eventually after scrambling to the wrong summit, I found the actual summit and started to descend - this time taking the easier route to the col. The snow was extremely deep in places, especially as I walked over the gully of a stream (!). But eventually I made my way back to the car, 1 crampon lighter than when I set off.
I piled my stuff into the car and set off merrily to Glen Coe, I was intending on going to the climbing talk at the Fort William Festival. After a while I decided that I wanted to listen to some of the music that I'd put on the sd card in my wallet. I then started to wonder where my wallet was... I stopped the car to look for it, but after routing around for quite some time concluded that despite my memory of taking it out of my pocket, I probably hadn't. I felt sick. What would I do for money. I drove glumly to the hostel in Inchree (http://www.inchree.co.uk/). I threw myself at the mercy of the woman who checked me into my room, and fortunately she was incredibly helpful and manged to help me sort my money worries. I was far too late and not really in the mood to go to the festival, so took a trip to get food from Morrisons in Fort William, then beer and dinner in the pub, then bed.
Munro - Beinn Ime
GPX File
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