In fact by Guido (who was having trouble adding this from his pc)
Dave, Peri & I travel to Scotland although the weather forecast is atrocious the car is stacked with climbing gear (optimistic fools). Arriving at the hut 10ish we find 5 early birds already there & news that the weather had been ok.
Thursday
Three of us play the who’s done what munro game & decide on a trip to the Mamores, the guide tells us it’s a big day 3 munro's, so its early to bed for an early start.
Mamores Friday 20th Feb
Pre dawn sees Dave & I get up very quietly, 5 minutes later Peri’s alarm goes off & all hell lets loose. We start walking as dawn is breaking, its grey warm & moist, we make several minor errors not helped by the selective nature of the guide but make good time to our first objective an iced covered lochan below Scurr Eilde Mor 1010m we approach by a NE ridge which is covered in verglass coated boulders, treacherous.
Eventually we top out & find the summit cairn just peeping out of a snow cone, its blowing a hoully so we set of down the W ridge which is in the same treacherous condition as the ascent, needless to say it took us some time to get down this safely, at this time the chances of us doing 3 munro's looked slim.
Binnien Beig 943m
We have a break & decide to press onto the second Munro Binnien Beig 943m this goes very well & we are now back on shcedule to attempt the third hill.
However on the descent to the adjoining col the wind picks up a notch & the weather deteriated so we decide to return by the lower path, arriving back at 16.45.
A quick pint in the Clachaig & get Peri the cooky back to prepare the evening meal.
Glen Etive Saturday 21st Feb
A more leisurely start today, 7 of the group have decided to go to the Ice Factor in Kinlochleaven so they chuff off about 07.30 leaving 5 of us sat around the hut.
Dave comes to the rescue & suggests a plod up Sgor na h-Ulaidh 994m, another Dave (Dickinson) decides to join us & we have a three. The weather is foul raining constantly & with high winds forecast we set off apprehensively. We approach via Gleann Charnan a wet boggy glen our route follows the main stream very steeply to a landmark lochan. Failing to find the landmark lochan in the mist & snow & we decide to ascend the west face where we estimate the summit should be.
The map shows no crags but we have to weave our way through outcrops until we find a steep snow slope, luckily it has good steps in it, out with the axe’s & it’s a grand way up to a fine summit.
We retrace our route back & get back to the hut early to bags prime drying places for our gear above the Stove.
Bridge of Orchy Sunday 22nd Feb
The weather forecast is the same old crap suggesting better conditions further south so after another leisurely start Dave, Peri & I we set off homeward, deciding the final walking venue en route.
After the whose done what game we plump for an obscure hill off the A82 Beinn Mhanach 953m.
This involves a long approach up Auch Gleann the highlight of this is several river crossings.
Summit of Beinn Mhanach 953m
Once again Dave made a good suggestion with a circuit of the hill making use of the estate roads to gain height.
The summit was brill & the first clear summit of the weekend, this lead to an excellent descent down grassy spurs.
We got back to the car 16.45 & set of home, A great meet well attended with 15 people around over the weekend all making the most of the conditions.
I'v taken the liberty of adding guidos blog of what we did, coz for some reason guido was having problems adding it from his computer.
The blogs weren't working yesterday afternoon for some reason, although the rest of the site was.