4A - LADHAR BHEINN

Ladhar Bheinn. Mark dropped off somewhere down to the left instead of coming past where this photo is taken from. Photo adventurernic.com

Ladhar Bheinn. Mark dropped off somewhere down to the left instead of coming past where this photo is taken from. Photo adventurernic.com

        12.8 miles       1500 metres

Start                           Monday       06.30
Ladhar Bheinn                                09.00
Finish                                               11.01

Squares: green - start, yellow - changeover. Circles summits: green this leg, purple - to do. Map Colin Matheson

Squares: green - start, yellow - changeover. Circles summits: green this leg, purple - to do. Map Colin Matheson

Time:     Estimated   2.59      Actual   4.31

Mark writes:

One of the hills I wanted but not the weather – I soon heat up on the shoreline path to Barrisdale. By wading up to my bo____ks in water I manage to save a few hundred yards on the saltings and am soon happily stomping the stalkers' path munching flapjack. A herd of deer over the brow present a pleasant surprise – several are in velvet. With a good push over boggy ground and up the steep final section I reach the ridge but the weather is pretty closed in and raining hard. Not often that I end up running in a heavy goretex cag.

Along the ridge I find the humps and bumps quite confusing but eventually reach the final ground to the top. 6 mins down - back to the col which I recognised and it should have been 1/2km of uphill to the end of the ridge and drop off steadily east.

What actually happened can only be described as a nightmare – the compass had been behaving strangely and now seemed equally bizarre. A terribly steep descent which took me loads of time brought me below the clouds and after 15 mins of checking, disbelief, re-checking etc. I realised that the real disaster had happened and I was in the wrong valley.

To cut a long story short, I reclimbed to the ridge – went again for the correct descent. Falling, slipping I made my way as quickly as I could to flatter ground and flew round to a very patient Ifor who was just beginning to contemplate the rescue.

BOLLOCKS!!

Peaks done   26     Hours elapsed   28     Peaks to do   251


Steve writes:

Long wait for Mark who'd made a mistake on his descent; returned at approx 2.30pm + promptly spilled his lunch (Pasta Choice) all over the car park – I later managed to tread in it despite Mark's warning! Drove around to Glenfinnan + spent pleasant afternoon there waiting for Eddie's return.

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