CREAG MEAGAIDH GROUP
On the Creag Meagaidh plateau with Coire Ardairdown to the left. Photo tms.nickbramhall.com
19.9 miles 1791 metres
Start Saturday 22.44
Beinn Teallach Sunday 00.30
Beinn a' Chaorainn 03.00
Creag Meagaidh 05.00
Stob Poite Coire Ardair 05.50
Carn Liath 06.05
Finish 07.00
Squares: green - start, yellow - changeover, red previous leg finish. Circles summits: green - this leg, red - done. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 7.00 Actual 8.16
Rob writes:
The weather has turned really nasty and Ed is out in some foul conditions which look like persisting. Yet again I am faced with the prospect of setting off into the night but I've been mentally preparing myself all day and taken the chance to sleep a lot too. Gven the conditions Tony suggested perhaps sitting it out for the night and later doing a swap, but my mind is made up and I'm very calm and strangely confident – much more so than before An Teallach. It helps that I went up Beinn Teallach in foul weather just a few weeks ago.
Having learned from my Mamores epic I now carried a hand torch, held low, and moved much better – hitting the first summit without any problem and then making the steep climb to the ridge of Beinn a' Chaorainn.
Topping the ridge the wind blasted me and I put on all I had. The first cairn I came to was exactly as described for the Munro top by Butterfield – but I knew it wasn't right – I had to go to the next top. Now my compass was spinning and at other times erratic so I wasn't sure what to do – I could only go slowly by the map. I was looking for a ramp down between he cliffs to reach a col – but couldn't find it and lost my position totally. The cloud lifted and for 15 minutes I struggled to locate my position – still not trusting my compass. Now it was light and eventually it dawned on me that I was on the col and had descended the ramp without realising it!
The cloud lifted and I took grassy slopes up to C. M.., to the true summit and past the false cairn. One side of the mountain is like the Brecon Beacons and on the other is Coire Ardair – what a contrast. The weather too was a contrast to that of the night. Brilliant low angled sunlight flooded into the coire and I had to stop and admire the view. It was quite unlike the last time I was here when Tony lead me off in a white-out.
I saw my first dotterel too, but after that it was easy going and a beautiful runnable ridge until the descent through birch woods to Garva Bridge.
The morning run was more than worth all the tribulations of the night. Only after I came down did Ian casually remark that B. a' C. had a magnetic cap. It would have helped if he'd remembered earlier!!!
Peaks done 170 time taken 8 days 4 hours peaks to go 107
There is no charge for reading this account but please consider donating to Worldwide Cancer Research, the new name for the charity that we ran for.
Share this page