29/02/16 - Beinn Chabhair (attempt) (me, Steve)

We set off fairly early for our last day knowing that we had a long drive at the end of the day. The weather had taken a definite change for the worse and as we drove south there was much banter about whether either of us wanted to bail and just carry on home. I was up for the walk, but wouldn't have taken much convincing not to bother.

We struggled to find the path which led up the left of the stream (as the route suggested), so carried on up the right - it was steep and slippery. Hard going, especially in the rain.

We came to the top of the first section and managed to get across the stream to the proper path. There was a path, but it was very boggy. We knew we need to bear left up the hill at some point, but struggled to find the correction point, so we just bore left and up and aimed for one point at a time.

The snow was now getting pretty deep, but wasn't right for crampons. The wind was also strong, as was the rain/sleet/snow. During yesterday, it felt like mountaineering was the best hobby in the world, today the argument was less convincing.

We clambered precariously to the top of one outcrop only to need to descend before the next one. Steve's phone was giving disappointing gps locations (in terms of height and distance from the summit). We came to an opening before a gorge which could make a suitable ascent to the crest of mountain, but visibility rapidly deteriorated. We checked on Steve's phone, but it died on us. Now, I had my phone and a back-up gps, but it was clear that neither of us had our heart in carrying on. So we "called it" and made a speedy retreat.

We spotted a couple of walkers in the distance and later bumped into another couple who were with them. They'd take a more direct route that us which would undoubtedly be better during poor visibility. What's more visibility had returned as soon as we got out of that specific location. So it did urk a bit that we'd not made it to the top. Still it felt good that we'd now have time for a quick pint in the Drovers Inn...

The descent took longer than expected as always (despite Steve pretty much running down), the last section was particularly steep. My knees started to twinge a bit, but overall I still felt pretty good. My shoes hadn't ached much and most importantly, no shin splints!

We settled on having a full meal in the Drovers Inn.

The journey home was quiet and uneventful - other than the news of an accident on the M74 southbound from Glasgow which had closed the motorway. We were ahead of it by then, but had we finished the walk we undoubtedly would have been stuck in traffic for a fair while.

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28/02/16 - Beinn a Chaorainn (via East ridge) and Beinn Teallach (me, Steve)

Today was our second and last day with our guide Andy. Steve had a cooked breakfast, but at the hostel this time and even made his own packed lunch - so he seemed to be getting into the swing of hostel life. And we'd agreed that we'd take a Grade 1 route today, with less exposure and obvious height to it. It was also in a part of Scotland that I'd not been too before. To top it off, it looked like another cracking day weather wise. So we met up with Andy in good spirits.

We dropped off a car at the finishing position of the walk and set off in one car to the beginning. The walk started along a forest path, alongside some stunning waterfalls, which were partly iced over. Andy pointed out a perfect circle of ice, formed by spinning in the currents of the water - if he hadn't pointed it out I would have thought it was a bin lid!

We soon came to a forest track, which was covered with deep snow, but also run through with a line of well trodden steps. This was heavy and long going though - with heads down treading carefully into each well trodden step, so as to avoid the effort of creating new ones. The sun was blazing, and with the build up of heat from walking, I kept feeling like I was in Corsica or Sardinia.

Eventually, we came to the end of the track and got a view of the ridge wed be ascending. It looked pretty steep and rugged, despite being a Grade 1. We proceeded up, gaining significant height, and covering some reasonably exposed and technical sections before donning crampons, axe, harness and helmet. The route up was certainly less overtly exposed than yesterday, but in parts was possibly more technical and more akin to my experience last year in terms of having to utilise exposed rock and heather. Steve certainly found it less scary than the previous day, but there was still a need to mange balance onto the mountain side carefully, so to me it was pretty much as scary as the previous day. But fun too.

The first summit did not disappoint. We were treated to the same 360 degree vista, including some very impressive cornices.

We continued over the hump of the mountain and down to a baelach which led to the next summit. The snow sparkled, but cut by just the occasional line of foot steps, human and non-human. We saw ptarmigan prints, which led to a couple of ptarmigans in the distance. The next mountain faced us, looking a bit like a large dollop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sprinkles on top.

Before long we were taking our crampons and helmets off and starting our next ascent. We were in close, single file so as to reuse treads in the snow and made a consistent and speedy pace. But it took a surprisingly long time to get to the top. Having said that, I realised that I'd had a smile on my face for about the last 2 hours.

The summit finally fell beneath our feet, we paused to finish our coffee off and chatted for a while to a couple of slightly older walkers, one of whom carried an axe with a old wooden handle. We started our second descent. The sun was setting now and the original summit to our left looked like it had been covered in a layer of thick smooth clay, which had cracked (creating small gorges on it's surface).

We looked for some snow holes which Andy had pointed out previously, but they were largely filled in with snow (shame, I wanted to step inside and see what it would have been like to sleep in one).

The descent was long, but gradual and easy and the lowering sun provided a spectacular view over the mountain and brought lovely shadows, silhouettes (particularly of the 2 walkers in front of us), and colours (particularly of the forest trees in front of us).

We crossed our final mountain stream (we'd crossed a few over the past couple of days and it was surprising that we'd not slipped in to any), and re-entered the forest through an almost fairy tale path.

It had been a fantastic day, but also quite tiring, so I was quite pleased to return to the car.

After saying goodbye, we went to mozzers for more steak and wine.

Munro - Beinn a Chaorainn, Beinn Teallach

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27/02/16 - Stob coire Sgreamhach via Sron na Lairig (me, Steve)

Today was our first day with our guide (Andy from West Coast Mountain Guides). I started the day with a breakfast which I made in the hostel and ate while prepping lunch. Steve went to Morrisons to get a cooked breakfast and buy sandwiches...

Unfortunately, Steve had a prang in his car in Morrisons car park so he was a bit phased as we met up with Andy and started our walk up the path to Buachaille Etive Beag (4th time for me on this path). The weather was stunning - clear blue skies and a blazing sun. Luckily, Andy had some sun glasses he could lend me.

I was particularly pleased that we were doing this route as it enabled me to "bag"  Stob coire Sgreamhach, which I'd missed (due to perceived lack of time), when I did Bidean nam Bian.

We got reasonably high before donning crampons, but before long we were roped up and on our way. I offered some self mocking to Andy as we geared up that I'd managed to lose a crampon last year, he confirmed that he'd not heard of that before and Steve took the opportunity to join in the tease.

Steve and I were attached to the same rope, me about 10 feet further up than Steve, which required more consideration than when it had just been me last year.

Steve, made a comment early on re "this is the life". I'd been a little worried as to how he would cope with some of the exposure, because at the climbing wall he'd open about struggling with the height of some of the walls, so I was pleased that he was enjoying it, but I was also aware that we also hadn't really started yet....

The going was very different to last year - there was probably more exposure, but the route felt less technical, because the snow was more even and settled, so the foot holds were more certain. That's not to say that my nerves weren't fraying though... As were Steve's - he made a comment about not looking down, and then shortly after I could hear his breathing quicken.

We then came to a top which involved significant exposure on both side and a very thin ridge walk to progress. It became clear that Steve was having a panic attack. I was pretty pleased that I could walk across the thin ridge section with reasonable confidence, but Steve wanted to crawl across - which would have been suicidal. I still don't know how he actually got across, because I couldn't look - I left it to Andy to deal with so that I could concentrate on managing my own nerves. One thing was clear though - it was not an option for Steve to stay still or retreat, he had to deal with his nerves and carry on.

To make matters worse, Andy also spotted at this time that Steve had lost a crampon..... Not good.

We had another very exposed section, which Steve had to do an "old school" donkey ride traverse over - i.e. sticking one leg either side and shifting along on his arse. But he got there. He also did a grand job of completing the rest of the climb with only one crampon - I did not envy him that experience...!

The views on the way up had been truly stunning,but it was only when we got to the very top that the views really opened up. The view down Glen Etive was beautiful, but it was the 360 degree view of Scotlands mountains which really amazed - the air was so clear that the only thing limiting our view was the curvature of the earth. Luckily Andy was able to expertly point out what all the mountains were - over to the Cairngorms, Knoydart, Ben Lawers, Ben More, but most impressively, in a perfect placed gap in the mountains, a distant view of the Cuillin Ridge.

Some impress cornices also garnered the summit - made all the more interesting by the single hare track which ran up to the very edge and then back again - what had that hare been looking at?

We started our descent down the third Sister of Glencoe. Steve's nerves were returning, but I found this bit quite unnerving. I wasn't on a rope, and the steps were down into deep snow. A slip probably would just have meant a stumble into snow, but might also have resulted in rolling over the edge. One crampon Steve was kept on a leash by Andy.

After a bit of descent Andy determined a speedy and relatively safe descent down the side of the mountain. This involved what turned out to be a very enjoyably romp down the side, followed by a seated glissade (bum slide). Type 1 fun!

Steve was pretty quiet for the remainder of the walk. He was reasonably settled that he wasn't going to come out with us the following day, but I suggested that we do a Grade 1 route instead, with less ridge type exposure and Andy came up with a few options for this.

The final part of the descent was enriched with continue good views and treats such as looking at hare tracks and the fox tracks pursuing them.

We stopped at Cotswolds for Steve to get some (G14 !!!) crampons. And then stopped at Morrisons for wine, pasta and steaks.

Munro - Stob coire Sgreamhach

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26/02/16 - Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh - (me, Steve)

Today was the first day of a long weekend of Scottish Winter Mountaineering with Steve. We'd driven up the night before after work and stayed in the Abbotsford Hotel outsideof Glasgow. i wanted to do this route because Beinn Dorain had always looked so menacing and inspiring when I'd driven past it on the way to Glencoe. The weather looked set to be good for the next few days and so we set off on our first route in good spirits.

It was a long, steady, but reasonably demanding incline to a bealach from which a left would take you up Beinn an Dothaidh and a right would take you up Beinn Dorain. We paused for a while to watch some climbers going up an impressive frozen waterfall onthe edge of Beinn an Dothaidh and then with crampons attached and axe in hand proceeded up Beinn an Dothaidh - on the basis that it would  possibly be less interesting than Beinn Dorain, so best leave Beinn Dorain for number 2.

The going was surprisingly hard and I started to wonder about my fitness and my appetite for the next 4 days of walking... The snow was deep and at times, each step was hard.

Eventually, we got to the first summit. Steve pondered if we should add in a further summit - I'm still not sure if he was being serious or not, but I said "no" without hesitation (it would have been a difficult addition anyway).

We returned to the bealach and proceeded to Beinn Dorain. The weather was holding, but visibility was mixed, distant mountains were phasing in and out, but looking spectacular as they came into view.

I was pleased that I'd read that it was easy to mistake an upcoming cairn as the summit, because it very much was! Luckily, we knew to carry on to the second cairn. I was a little disappointed that the ridge wasn't more pronounced, but mainly I continued to be concerned at how physically drained I was.

Once we started our return, Steve offered me a "hit" from his hip flask - it was the best whisky I've ever had! Context is everything....

We stopped for a beer at the Bridge of Orchy pub when we got back down and then I had a sleep in the car on the way to the Glen Nevis Hostel.

Fort William was starting to become quite familiar to me- particularly the Morrisons. But Steve didn't seem blown away at the idea of cooking for ourselves in the hostel, so we went out for a curry instead (!?!).

Munro - Beinn Dorain, Beinn an Dothaidh

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07/02/16 - Snowdon - Rhyd-ddu (me)

I knew I wanted to venture more into Snowdonia in 2016, but the weather looked a bit dodgy and I wasn't really sure about doing a completely unknown route in winter, so I played it safe and opted for Snowdon. I chose a route which looked interesting - a little more exposed than Ranger Path.

I arrived at the car park in good time. The weather looked OK, visibility wasn't great, but as I looked up the mountain I couldn't see any snow at all. I took my crampons and axe just in case.

I set off up the path. It was pleasant, but unspectacular. When I eventually got a view of the summit, I could see that it was slightly whitened (salt and pepper), but a couple of walker that I passed on the way down said that it was just icy rather than snow.

The last section was reasonably exposed, with some simple scrambling on the ridge, I also took a more technical final ascent - which was actually quite slippery.

The steps at the end were very slippery, but crampons may not have helped much. I scrambled up the cairn (avoiding the steps, which would have been dangerous), with a very strong wind behind me. 2 guys were sat on top and joking that it was going to be difficult to get down - and they were right,the wind was so strong that it was difficult to twist round to face the cairn to descend back down!

I returned via a slightly different route and considered an additional hill ridge, which looked pretty interesting, but laziness dominated and I returned to the car instead so that I could get some wine and a steak at home....